Sword Coast Legends - First Impressions

I only had time to play my copy for about an hour last night, but I was surprised to discover that it's rather compelling. For those of you wondering about it, or reading various comments online and trying to discern just what the game is about, here's a relatively neutral take on the initial experience so far, with more depth to come (since it turns out I really enjoyed that first hour):

Is it D&D 5E? Sort of, but not really. It's got the trappings....I'd call it "70% in feel" in that you buy attributes the same way, pick a background, race, one of six classes (cleric, wizard, fighter, rogue, paladin and ranger) and then you pick from a series of progression charts on abilities. The abilities are where it moves away from D&D 5E...they tend to be named after actual 5E abilities but do things geared toward the game environment, rather than a simulation of 5E like Baldur's Gate was for 2E andNeverwinter Nights 1 and 2 were for 3E. Why this approach? It's because....

SCL is an action/RPG/tactical hybrid. The game incorporates a pause button, like the older RPGs it follows, and plays like it has some DIabloesque DNA. Not a huge amount....but somewhere in there. You can create a character and at least at the low level march around smacking stuff on timed attacks almost like you were in any old classic ARPG (action RPG).

What Modes of Play Are there? There's campaign mode, story mode and dungeon crawl mode. I played the main story for a while and was pleased to see it had good voice acting, and a story which compelled me to keep going, although time prevented me from getting very far last night. Likewise, I tried out a bit of the dungeon crawl and was pleased to see it's kind of like a fun mix of random dungeon delving. While playing I had random players join the game. Not sure if there's a way to do dungeon crawls solo, though.

How are the graphics? This is an odd one. The scenery/background graphics are pretty nice, actually. The game's environments look good. The models however....well, the good news is that the models don't need a lot of resolution in an isometric title, but they are pretty ugly. Surprising level of customization, though.....but I didn't bother too much beyond hair style and colors as lipstick on a pig is still a pig. Not atrocious, though; nothing here is as terrifying as the average result of an Elder Scrolls: Oblivion character, for example.

Concerns? My big concern is that it's clear the game is going to hit us up with microtransactions soon, probably for extra races (such as tiefling and dragonborn which are in the game but not playable), new classes beyond the initial six, and if you want to get in to the dungeon mastering side it looks like it can get really expensive. It seems that the developers must have concluded that DMs are the "whales" of the D&D world and therefore are planning to monetize that side of the game heavily. I bought in at a nice discount through Green Man Gaming the basic game only; once I figure out the pricing structure for in-game purchases we'll see if it looks worth the effort. Other reports on the DM element of the package don't make it sound enticing; there's not enough customization to make it a viable utility for tabletop online gaming, for example....and the system's loose interpretation of 5E mechanics into a action/tactical hybrid mean that 5E fans won't get quite the same experience they'd like as playing at the table provides.

I'll play more and provide a progress report as I go along. Right now however if you could find the basic campaign for a nice discount I don't think you'd go wrong......but if it was a toss up between this and Pillars of Eternity I'd still suggest Pillars of Eternity first.

UPDATE: I have some follow-up here. Short version is the interest didn't sustain, largely because the action-rpg feel just got to me too much.

Secrets of Irkalla

Secrets of Irkalla

   The information below is for the GM’s eyes only, and should not be revealed except under most unusual circumstances to players.

All creatures of Irkalla are foreigners

   Even humankind is saved from its own destruction by the spirit-entities they call gods, to preserve mankind from a terrible destruction wrought by the the presence known only as The Force, or the Other. At one point or another, every sentient (and most nonsentient) beings were brought here to be preserved, by the same mysterious gods, it would seem.

There is an ancient enemy that seeks to destroy all of creation

   The exact nature of this force is not known, but the dreams and visions of the faithful often provide visions of such a terrible force that all of the gods and spirits stand in awe and fear of it. The oldest texts from the most ancient of ruins speak of this force as an insidious Destroyer of Worlds, a being or beings so terrifying that they thrive on the spectral energy of spirits and souls, and can only release such energy through total destruction.

   Irkalla is a region of time and space from which few points intersect: those few cosmic travelers who come here assure those learned scholars who study celestial mechanics that Irkalla is very, very difficult to find or get to. They suggest that it is for this reason that so many beings and gods have come to this world, in the wake of the destruction caused by The Other. Indeed, some planar scholars from other realms have made it their lifelong obsession to determine what this malignant force is, which caused the native deities of Irkalla to seek such a remote refuge for they and their followers.

Mankind is ignorant of the cosmic war

   If there are ten million sentient beings who ponder the cosmos when they have time in the world, then there are maybe ten thousand of those beings who even begin to understand the basic physics and laws of the universe, and of those maybe a thousand who go on to try and divine the nature of magic, the spirits and the gods. And of those men, maybe one hundred have discovered that Irkalla is but one of countless universes, and of them, maybe ten have met other beings from these worlds, or even traveled to them. Fewer still have lived to tell the tale…

 The spirit world exists as a gestalt

   The Spirit World and all of its inhabitants are real….but exist as a part of the Weave of the Mind, a unique planar realm which is created by the conscious (and dreaming) state of all living beings. If all creatures died, the Weave of the Mind would die, and so then would the spirits and gods of Irkalla. As such, one could argue that all men can communicate with the gods at any time, are indeed a part of them, but in fact, the two worlds are very different, and can do little to directly influence one another. The distinction of the mortal and spiritual realm is one for the philosophers and theologians, however, for few now understand the true meaning of this concept of a world of the mind, and fewer still can even say what were to happen if a mortal being were to transcend in to the spirit realm.    

   The universe as most scholars understand it (the Planar Realms) consists of Five Tiers: The Underworld, the Mortal Realm, The Spirit World, The Dreamlands, and The Beyond; The Mortal Realm is believed to be infinite. Irkalla itself is such an enormous world that, though it is known to be curved by its own scholars, few think it has an end. Instead, the picture of Irkalla is like that of a sea of rolling hills, and the shallows are filled with water, the oceans, while the continents are like steeply curved hills jutting from the water.

Official D&D conversion document

There's an official D&D conversion document out now for D&D 5E vs. all other editions. Check it out here!

Irkalla: The World

Years ago I created a new setting for some AD&D 2E/C&C gaming I was doing back in 2007-2008. It never really went anywhere beyond the intial very fun campaign, but I still think about revisiting it sometime (despite all the other worlds I've got rolling around). I'll see if I can find the map to scan in.

Irkalla is the name of the Mesopotamian underworld where Ereshkigal and Nergal dwell. The inference in this setting is twofold:  that Irkalla to "us" is actually a mischaracterization of this other world.....or possibly the realm in which the spirits of Earth reincarnate in death.

The World of Irkalla

   Captured within a timeless age, the people of Irkalla exist in a world not unlike our own in the ancient past, but frozen during an age of classical enlightenment and medievalism, intermixed with the magic and creatures of fantasy. No true renaissance has come to Irkalla; its people seem mired in an ancient sense of tradition, brought about perhaps by the looming presence of truly ancient pagan gods. Some scholars claim that Irkalla is a world beyond time, where these ancient gods have come to savor their own existence after being driven from another realm entirely. Much of the modern religion of Irkalla is dominated by the presence of the Narzahm Empire, a powerful rule of man which has spread its ancient faith to many conquered lands.

   Despite the rich religious and cultural heritage of the people of Irkalla, there is little supernaturalism directly evident. Strange creatures, unusual beings and terrible monsters do walk the earth, but magic is a rarity, and sorcerers are looked upon with suspicion and reverence. Divine clerics who can perform miracles are just as rare, and often become the leaders of local cults to the gods they profess to worship. Because of the rarity of magic, some traditional elements common to other worlds are not found here. For example, magical contraptions are almost unheard of. A magical weapon, ring, staff or other such object is always considered a sacred or arcane artifact, usually a relic of the gods, as such devices are usually beyond the ken of most mortal men to make. Although sorcerers and clerics can sometimes make such devices, they are exceedingly rare, and never given away without a significant and often dangerous price.

   Ancient gods often seek to awaken the minds of their followers, to unlock the secret keys of magic within the psyche, to open ancient portals to dark nether regions of the unconscious. Mysterious beings walk the lands, spreading mystical secrets both sacred and profane. Some of the only people of Irkalla to rightfully, perhaps, claim knowledge of the gods and their inner workings are the Zepharim, winged men and women who dwell in their ancient sky aeries, and the Mountainfolk of Azcar, who dwell in the distant western continent of Umbrias, creating and caring for the ancient Sky Lines of the Divine Plains of Azramora, where it is said they commune directly with the ancient gods of the sky.

   The history of Irkalla is mysterious and mostly unwritten. The oldest tales of the longest-lived kingdoms tell of a time when man first arrived, spirited to Irkalla by the old gods, to save man from a great cataclysm which was brought upon himself. These ancient men say that it was but for the grace of the old gods that man survived, and in exchange, they expected his unwavering devotion and worship. Man willingly consented, grateful to have survived, and began to rebuild their ancient kingdoms from scratch. Indeed, the word Irkalla stems from the ancient tongue, and originally referred to the underworld, the land of the dead. In some ways, Irkallans feel that they did indeed descend in to the underworld, to spiritually die and be reborn in to the new world.

   During the earliest period of man’s arrival, he encountered the diversity of races that already existed on Irkalla. The Zepharim were winged men of the skies, and they dwelled in ancient sky-continents and the aeries of distant mountains. Many other beings of a bewildering variety could be found wherever man went, and most all of them were peaceful, or at least prone to regarding their fellow beings with kinship and mutual respect. Unfortunately, with the introduction of militant humanity, all of that changed over time.

   Thousands of years have passed since this ancient era. Mankind has spread to all of the four continents (Erebas, the central continent, Urthas the southern lands, Colebras of the frozen north, and Umbrias of the utter west). In some lands he has come to venerate and respect the gods, spirits and strange beings that dwell in darkness and remote lands. In Umbrias, for example, the men of the Azcar and other lands have learned to commune directly with the gods. In Erebas, however, man has forged a mighty empire and conquers all he can. In the utter north of Colebras, humanity struggles against the mighty elements and the strange and inimical beings which dwell in the frozen wastes. In the south, where the land stretches in to a realm of endless deserts, draughts, and unending heat, mankind barely manages to survive, against those entities well-equipped for such harsh domains.

Key Campaign Themes

Ancient world

Irkalla is an ancient world, and men are fairly young to it. There were numerous much older species before man to inhabit the world, and the ruins of their ancient and mysteriously forgotten legacies still stand in the deep wilderness.

One human pantheon

The men of Irkalla brought with them their gods, who are considered the first gods by most, though the dwarves and other more ancient races know better. This pantheon is effectively the ancient Mesopatamian pantheon of old Sumeria, and the people who have believed in these gods for thousands of years now claim that they were descended from the true faithful of man’s early years. As the story goes, the gods carried their fondest worshippers with them to a new realm, called Irkalla after the afterlife of their beliefs, where they were safe from an ancient terror. That terror is generally believed to have been the destructive rage of Tiamat and her monstrous offspring, though others feel that it was the villainy of Ereshkigal that might have driven the gods to this new world.

The gods are remote and mysterious

Followers of the gods occasionally receive visions and dreams from their deities. Drug induced hallucinations can lead to divine revelations and prophecy as well. The gods, however, never physically manifest upon the mortal plane, unless, on very rare occasion, they channel their presence through a mortal form (possession).

Low magic

   Irkalla is a low-magic world. Few magic items abound, although they do exist and are impressive when discovered. What this means is that while a local town may have a hedge wizard, be wary if there is also an alchemist; you might be drinking real mercury, and not a health potion! Furthermore, it is mortals who are the movers and shakers of Irkalla. Gods have never physically manifested in the land, and chances are if something claims to be a god, it’s probably not. The movers an shakers will be the priests, warriors, and men of politics who have their own ambitions and interests.

Limited access to other dimensions

   Irkalla is distinctly hard to reach through planar travel, and even harder to escape. For practical purposes, there are believed to be only four planes of existence: the mortal world, the afterworld, the dream world, and the prison world of the Monstrous Gods. The Dream world is where the gods are believed to dwell, and can only be reached through meditation, visions, and dreams. The afterworld is best reached through death, though descending deep enough in to the earth can lead to portals, and there Nergal, Ereshkigal and other dark gods dwell. The prison world is believed to be a separate portion of the dream world, a place of nightmares corrupted by Tiamat and her dark spawn. Though Tiamat is believed to be the creator goddess, she is also believed to seek the destruction and rebirth of the world, and so she and her spawn seek forever to send out their dark influences in to the mortal world from this realm, that they might cause its destruction and allow Tiamat to escape once more.

Bronze age technology

   While it is sometimes found as forgotten or lost technology (often found from the ancient ruins of lost cultures) all current technology in the world is comparable to classical iron-age (around 300 A.D. earth time) and more sophisticated devices and discoveries are considered arcane knowledge.

Humanity is the dominant

   While the various intelligent beings of the world all exist in some numbers, humankind’s arrival on Irkalla led to a massive imbalance in the world ecology, and humankind rapidly expanded to fill the gap. As such, with such an expansion happening so far in the ancient past, only the very long-lived species can remember a time when humanity was not dominant.

World steeped in antiquity

   The world of Irkalla has a history that goes back millions of years. Indeed, the best historians have ascertained that the ages of man are the very recent in Irkalla’s history, even though man has been on the planet for ten thousand or more years now. Ruins over one hundred million years old, sometimes containing the mutated descendants of forgotten races and even more ancient, terrible secrets have been unearthed.

A vast and ancient wilderness

   Throughout the world are vast and unplumbed wilderlands, throughout which the diaspora of sentient beings are thinly dispersed. When warfare and conflict erupt between species, it is not for lack of breathing room. The world gives a sense of being ancient, and the great expanse of emptiness that pervades much of the world is evidence of the land’s eagerness to reclaim that which men and their civilization have so rudely impinged upon.

Vast and Unpopulated

   Irkalla is an immense world. It is so large that the need for resources is easily satisfied by moving over the next hill or range to seek them out. The domain of Revarik, once a united kingdom but now fragmented in to a series of city-states spread out over a 900x500 mile region (about 450,000 square miles). There are perhaps no more than 100,000 humans in this region, which works out to about 4.5 people per square mile, though it is much lower than that when you factor in that most of this population dwells in one of five major cities.

The etheric Spirit World is important

   The spirits are the only direct form of phantasmal and otherworldly communion known to the diviners and mages of Irkalla. As such, all divination and secret lore makes its way to and through the spiritual medium of the ether, and mastery of this form of divination becomes a significant factor in magical lore. Wizards can “listen in” on the etheric waves and commune with chatty spirits to discover what their sorcerous neighbors are up to, for example. Long distance communication between two diviners is possible when the right mechanisms for sending and receiving messages are created. Nonetheless, the malign and dangerous spirits of the etheric realm like to make victims out of these mages as often as help them.

Magic is powerful but rare, and accepted by most civilizations

   Magic is a mnemonic force, an energy of unknown nature (probably a form of etheric essence which soaks through in to reality) that can be harnessed by various mechanisms or devices used to channel the energy properly. Runes, spell incantations, pentagrams, and glyphs are common mechanisms. The actual nature of the vessel is not necessarily important, but the means by which the mage focuses to harness the ether is. Rune stones and other sacred or magical objects are exceptions. These are physical objects which act as persistent conduits for etheric energy. Anyone who learns to focus on the energy of such a rune can tap in to it and use it, even unlearned commoners. Still, such stones are rare and prized, for they exist only in nature, the ancient ruins of lost empires, and   occasionally materialize spontaneously. No one can make them.

   Because of this, magic is not feared or even very restricted by most civilizations. It is considered a fact of life, one that is respected by those who can not use it and guarded by those who do wield it. Still, magic is a rarity. The ratio of magic using people to those who are without is roughly equivalent to the ratio of geniuses to common folk, though intelligence is no factor in magical ability.

Exploration is common

   Thanks to the Narzham Empire’s long standing focus on exploration and discovery, the tradition of explorers in the world remains strong. In addition, the legacy of ancient and lost civilizations, as well as the seemingly endless trackless wilderlands, prove to be an irresistable temptation to the inordinately high number of wanderlust-stricken adventurers.

Irkalla’s maps are tabula rasa

   But for the graces of the Royal Cartographer’s Society of Narzham, as well as the salvaged relics of bygone ages, less than ten percent (estimated) of the known world is mapped, and considerably less of it is recent or accurately charted in any meaningful way. The job of working as a Royal Cartographer is a lucrative an dangerous profession. The edict of the emperor under which the RCS operates is sufficiently funded to spur many risky, if potentially profitable ventures in discovering and charting new lands, but the mortality rate is exceedingly high.

There is no absolute moral power

   Irkalla is a world of ethic ambiguity. There is not defining power of good or evil, save as decided upon in the minds of men. No spell can ever speak to the nature of good or evil in a man’s heart, nor is the world a place divided by chaos and law, as with some other fantastical realms. Nonetheless, the presence of the inimical and unknowable Force suggests a strong, destructive embodiment within the universe that some consider a source of evil, though in truth it might merely be the lack of any regard for mortality and the mundane realm that makes this Force so ominous.

   When running adventures in Irkalla, it is extremely important to be reminded that the ethical and moral dilemmas can not, and will not ever be solve through simple use of magic. Like the real world, ethics and morality are relative and culturally derived dilemmas.

The religions of Irkalla are amalgams of ancient earth mythology

   The world of Irkalla is rife with entities which stride forth from the mythology of humankind. Some are similar, some direct, and some not at all familiar to traditional Earth mythology, and there is a certain mystery as to the true relationship of these beings to our Old Earth.

   A modern human visiting Irkalla would notice that the religious beliefs of this world appear to have been frozen at around 3,500 BC in our own time line. The significance of this would seem to be that this is roughly the period in time when humanity reached Irkalla, presumably by planar gate. The greater mystery is: why has religious belief and thought remained the same ever since? The Irkallans believe in the same gods now that they did thousands of years earlier, with almost no change to the core pantheon and man’s perception of it. This is an unusual, almost supernatural dedication to a specific faith.

The strongest movers and shakers of the world are legendary, but not gods.

   The spirits are an ephemeral presence, and those who espouse godhood still must act through mortals. As such, the great figures and heroes of the world, the villains and perpetrators, are mortal men (though some learn the secrets of long life). Epic beings do not exist in Irkalla, as such. Likewise, there are no true demigods or divine beings in physical form walking the realm. Powerful beings that can be mistaken for gods do exist….but even they bleed.

   It is also believed that some gods will manifest through possession, taking over the body of a loyal follower, to speak or act using their corporeal form as a vessel.

Kickstarter Report: The Lost Lands: Borderland Provinces, Tome of Beasts roars along, and Delta Green is confusing?

It looks like Frog God's latest will be a menagerie of books that all tie into the Lost Lands setting. The Kickstarter is out, and it's offering your preferred edition (Pathfinder, D&D 5E or S&W). I'm in at the $95 level, which I think gets me one of each of the books in print.



If you want to see how to make a Kickstarter confusing, check out the Delta Green RPG! Is it just me or is that a serious mess to wade through? I'd like to back it at a level that says "Pay this and we will give you one of each book you need," but it's kind of hard to figure out which tier that is....when you need a matrix to try and assess backer levels and rewards I kind of think maybe you're doing it wrong....

Meanwile, Kobold Press's Tome of Beasts roars along at over X4 its target as of this writing....



Latest Deluxe Tunnels & Trolls update is in as well, and Rick is indicating that all hard covers, including the special editions, are now done and they have 500 to ship out. I may at last see my copy....possibly before I see Primeval Thule, which is itself steamrolling along, and according to the latest update it's about to go to press in time for a post-Thanksgiving release (barring completion of the add-ons). Only downer is the add-ons will ship with the core to those who ordered it all (i.e. me) which suggested that I might not see my book in December if the add-ons aren't complete and printed by then...we shall see.

The World of Enzada: The Netherim (5E/PF)

I've never released any Enzada content on the blog, but I may start making an exception; Enzada is now directly behind Chirak and Lingusia in terms of "most played" of my home settings, and I am hoping to construct some sort of guide or series out of it for a future release. For now....I offer one of the exotic playable race options, a group of spirits from a realm called the In-Between, which take on corporeal forms to contain their spiritual energy:

Netherim

   The elder Netherim  are a race commonly mistaken as Daharesh elves by virtue of their similar appearance. The netherim are actually a race of wisps which learned the secret of alchemical transformation, stolen from a lost Inhuridan king, using this esoteric magic to transform their spirit-forms from the In-Between in to physical bodies. The netherim marveled at the beauty of the ancient Inhuridan people, and modeled their forms after them, though they never lost their connection to the In-Between.

Traits: The chief distinguishing features of the netherim include traits such as pronounced ears and nose, horns, and occasionally exotic feline eyes. Though many have the dusky pale gray skin of the Daharesh elves, many have pale, translucent white skin, and a few are coal black. Daharesh can shape their external appearance over time through will alone, though such efforts take a month and are purely cosmetic changes. Netherim usually glow around the eyes, mouth and sometimes their joins or creases and cracks along their “skin.” This glow can be dimmed sufficiently to allow for safe stealthing when needed, but without taking the time to concentrate it is “always on.” It can be focused on to provide for dim (10 feet) illumination if needed around the netherim.

   When netherim die they usually leave curiously empty husks, as if their true forms, upon the release of death, had cast off an empty skin.

   Netherim are immortal and ageless, though they are “born” into the world and begin life as children like most other beings, at least initially; all Netherim births are miraculous manifestations and no parent is involved. The wisps experience a period of a couple years during which they learn mortal language and ways, after which they act as any adult would.

   Netherim are powerful sorcerers by nature and even if a netherim follows a class that does not practice magic it still retains an innate connection to all things magical (see below).

   Despite all this, Netherim are wisps of the In-Between, and they know little of the world initially, starting with little knowledge of the mortal plane. Older Netherim are wiser and more learned, but the typical young Netherim out on adventures has much to learn about mortals.

Favored Professions: Netherim rarely start with any profession other than scholar, explorer, entertainer, noble or wizard.

Netherim Statistics:  Netherim gain a +1 to Int and +1 CHA.

Innate Magic: All netherim gain the Magic Initiate feat at first level.

Slowshifting: netherim can change their appearance at will, although their appearance will always be obviously alien and exotic (but it may nonetheless confuse non-netherim as to whether or not they are the same being known from an earlier date). Such changes are at will but require a process that takes 1D3 months.

Persistent Luminescence: the netherim exude magical energy in the form of a dull but constant light that emits from cracks, wounds, their eyes and mouths (and sometimes as an ambient glow, fiery hair, or what-not). Netherim can reduce the glow to unobservable levels with a reaction or as part of a move or standard action, but it takes a bonus action to expand the glow to provide dull but clean illumination for 10 feet around the netherim. This is a constant effect and the glow does not alter without effort, nor does it require concentration. If a netherim is trying to avoid notice but fails to dim his or her glow then he gains disadvantage on stealth checks.

Amoral: Netherim have almost no grasp of the concept of good and evil, seeming almost incapable of grasping the nuances of such disparate opposing philosophies. While some netherim do in fact begin to understand the complexities of such ideological philosophies, most remain curiously discreet, leaning toward lawful neutral, true neutral or chaotic neutral in behavior.

Alien Physiology: The alchemical process that creates a Netherim and binds its spirit to flesh is a process mages have used to make simulacra and homunculi; as such, the physiology of netherim is alien, and healing attempts with the Medicine skill are at disadvantage due to this lack of familiar internal organs or even blood (since they effectively bleed "light"). Conversely, many diseases which would affect a normal human will not take with a netherim's odd body. As such, netherim gain permanent advantage to saves vs. poison and disease (CON checks or otherwise). The reason they are even able to suffer any effects is because their “ectoplasmic light” physiology is a useful approximation of human physiology through crude simulation….just not easily identifiable as such by healers.

Immortal: netherim are born fully formed and do not age.  They can be killed by the usual means, but natural death through age does not happen to them. Dead netherim disincorporate and return to the In-Between to await a time when they can reincorporate in a new body; they rarely remember anything of their past life, however.

Levitation: as airy beings of elemental form and substance crafted out of ectoplasmic quintessence by their own will, netherim are surprisingly light and with some concentration can actually resist the pull of gravity. This is a natural spell-like ability that can be performed at will and functions as the levitate spell does, but can only be used on themselves. It takes one action to perform, and one more standard action to turn off. This does mean that if a netherim falls a distance that is great enough to allow him one action’s worth of concentration (probably necessitating a concentration check in the process) he can use levitate to slow his fall (similar to feather fall).

Useful Notes and Ideas:

1. Netherim fill a role in Enzada as the mysterious "other" that elves often fill in typical fantasy settings. In Enzada there are no eladrin, and there is no feywild; only the mysterious In-Between. Elves are reclusive near-immortals who many still regard as the old kings and soldiers of the Inhuridan Empire, to be cast out and despised for all eternity. 

2. Enzada's core premise on the planes is that there is only "one" plane, the In-Between, but if you journey far enough in the In-Between you find either the Celestial Kingdoms or the Outer Darkness. The good and bad spirits erupt from either realm, and they constantly seek a way of entering the mortal realm....but no spirit can survive in the mortal realm without taking on a guise of mortal flesh. This must be done through a willing or unwilling sacrifice, alive or dead. Netherim are the only spirits to discover the secret of spontaneous alchemical construction of a suitable host form.

3. Netherim, because they are spirits in origin, may know dire secrets of the planar realm no one else does. If you play this straight, they will never divulge their beliefs, but netherim also never worship deities....only philosophies; in their eyes there are no gods, only spirits, tricksters and phantoms. Netherim philosophers will concede that they have never met a being portending to godhood who was worthy or even close. If pressed, they would only concede that there is but one being worthy of the title, the enigmatic "Source" which they believe is the creator of the In-Between, and the entity which has spent countless eons harvesting lifeforms on Enzada. They will suggest that this "Source" may have been created by the first Sky Builders (which in Enzada are a race millions of years old by their ancient buried constructs, such as immense pyramids buried beneath the plains of Waladar or vast ruins covered in ancient basalt lava beds in the northern isles).

4. It is of some question as to whether Banishment would affect a Netherim. One could argue that a netherim is by virtue of its form now native to the physical world, but if you cast banishment on one and he or she fails a saving throw, the DM can optionally rule that the netherim's spirit (but not body) is banished, leaving a hollow husk behind for one minute while the spirit is returned to the In-Between. On a critical failure on the save (1) this might be permanent. 

Netherim for Pathfinder: 

Here is my Pathfinder write-up on the Netherim:

Netherim Statistics:  Netherim gain a +2 to Int and Cha and a -2 to Wis.

Innate Magic: All netherim start play with their first class level in a spellcasting class (divine or arcane). Netherim may choose to follow non-spellcasting professions at a later date if they so choose, but their initial foray into the realm of mortals is bereft of practical knowledge, but they are born innately familiar with one or more forms of magic. Sorceror is a good starting class for newborn netherim.

Slowshifting: netherim can change their appearance at will, although their appearance will always be obviously alien and exotic (but it may nonetheless confuse non-netherim as to whether or not they are the same being known from an earlier date). Such changes are at will but require a conscious effort that takes 1D3 months.

Persistent Luminescence: the netherim exude magical energy in the form of a dull but constant light that emits from cracks, wounds, their eyes and mouths (and sometimes as an ambient glow, fiery hair, or what-not). It takes a swift action’s worth of concentration to dim such a glow to nothingness (for stealth, say) and a standard action’s concentration to expand the glow to provide dull but clean illumination for 10 feet around the netherim. This is a constant effect and the glow does not alter without effort. If a netherim is trying to avoid notice but fails to dim his or her glow then a -6 penalty to stealth checks applies (pr +6 to perception checks to notice the netherim, as needed).

Amoral: Netherim have almost no grasp of the concept of good and evil, seeming almost incapable of grasping the nuances of such disparate opposing philosophies. While some netherim do in fact begin to understand the complexities of such ideological philosophies, most remain curiously discreet, leaning toward lawful neutral, true neutral or chaotic neutral in behavior.

Alien Physiology: The alchemical process that creates a Netherim and binds its spirit to flesh is a process mages have usd to make simulacra and homunculi; as such, the physiology of netherim is alien, and healing attempts with the skill are always at a -5 penalty due to this lack of familiar internal organs or even blood (since they effectively bleed "light"). Conversely, many diseases which would affect a normal human will not take with a netherim's odd body. As such, netherim gain a permanent +5 racial modifier to saves vs. poison and disease.

Immortal: netherim are born fully formed and do not age.  They can be killed by the usual means, but natural death through age does not happen to them. Dead netherim disincorporate and return to the In-Between to await a time when they can reincorporate in a new body; they rarely remember anything of their past life, however.

Levitation: as airy beings of elemental form and substance crafted out of ectoplasmic forms by their own will, netherim are surprisingly light and with some concentration can actually resist the pull of gravity. This is a natural spell-like ability that can be performed at will and functions as the levitate spell does, but can only be case on themselves. It takes one standard action of concentration to perform, and one more standard action to turn off. This does mean that if a netherim falls a distance that is great enough to allow him one standard action’s worth of concentration (probably necessitating a concentration check in the process) he can use levitate to slow his fall (similar to feather fall).

D&D 5E: from famine to glut, all thanks to 3PP

I recently was working on consolidating my precious shelf space, moving tomes I rarely need to storage shelves in the back and putting oft-used books up front and center. D&D 5E, of course, is pivotal in my gaming collection these days, next to a smattering of OSR products I use with 5E as well as my enormous collection of Pathfinder hardbacks that I recently had to dust off and return to service. In the course of cataloging I realized that 5E's got a lot of stuff out now, for a game that's about fifteen months old. Aside from the ten official products WotC has produced there are now five hard cover tomes from Frog God Games (my Quests of Doom 2 arrived last week), two soft cover books from Kobold Press, three soft cover modules I picked up on RPGnow.com that looked worth owning in print, five modules from Goodman Games and a mess of Kickstarters on the way, including Primeval Thule which will add at least one hard cover and three soft covers to the mix; then there's Kobold Press's Tome of Beasts Kickstarter for an early 2016 release which adds another hard cover and a companion Lairs book. Of course we have Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide due for imminent release.

Just with what I've purchased alone that's 20 books owned and another 6 on the way. This doesn't even count the PDF sampling, of which I have maybe a dozen more so far.

Just sayin'......WotC maybe ought to have put out an OGL after all, hmmm? Although....I consider it very interesting that there was a quote...which hell if I can find it now, from Wolfgang Baur I believe, that suggested that on a certain level WotC was grateful for the big 3PP stepping in to fill some of the needs of fans out there with these products. I'll keep searching to see if I can find it....on ENWorld iirc.

This calls for a mosaic!

....Yeah it's been a tough year for D&D 5E fans. 

Troll Lord Games tackles 5E

The Troll Lords are hitting 5E with a conversion of their classic Castles & Crusades module A0: The Rising Knight to 5th edition rules. Jason Vey is doing the conversions. A0: The Rising Knight is one of the principle introductory modules for C&C, set in the world of Airdhe.

I had to pick it up....despite owning the original.....and wanted to make  a couple comments on the conversion for those interested:

First, it's using the C&C stat block format, which is a sort of chatty "so and so has the following things" kind of format. I think this works well for the extremely simple C&C NPC statblock style, but I think it fails for D&D 5E. Even a simple as D&D 5E is, it's still got more information in a stat block that's better suited to a user-friendly format that doesn't require the GM to stop and think a bit about what he's looking at. Hopefully this will change for future adaptations.

The conversions do look pretty decent, though, and I get the idea of what they are aiming for....evoking the same feel and style of C&C's modules in 5E. Most of the stat blocks in the module are perfectly easy to use; it's just the more complex NPCs that suffer a bit (such as Gritznak) and would benefit from a cleaner presentation.

In the back is a section on converting C&C monsters to 5E, which reads a bit like an effort to convince everyone to buy more C&C modules, but I suggest holding out for Jason's conversions, as they'll make it easier than it already is. The module is also published under the OGL, so they're going that route.....it's been really interesting buying all these 3PP 5E products, since they are currently all over the place on this, with some being OGL, others being non-OGl but very careful, a few flagrantly violating WotC IP and at least one I know of which publishes modules without even copyrighting them. C&C conversions being OGL will make life easier for those 3PP playing the game safe, though.

Anyway....at $2.99 it's worth checking out.

The Supernatural, Immortal and Invincible Serial Killer in Fantasy

I wrote this a couple years ago when I was running Pathfinder exclusively but never posted it (probably wanted to do a rewrite). Luckily time has a way of dulling the memory of what I didn't like, and I need something to put on the blog this week, so a October/Halloween themed article seems perfect....

The Supernatural, Immortal and Invincible Serial Killer in Fantasy

There’s something to be said for an occasional game in which the horror ticks up to thirteen and the blood starts flowing freely as the hedge trimmer gets a thorough shakedown in Murder 101. What follows is some advice I can offer on how to take a movie like Friday the Thirteenth or Nightmare on Elm Street and turn it into a fantasy horror tale worth remembering…

Start with the Mechanics and Establish the Genre Rules

D&D and Pathfinder are quite fair in their expectation that adventurers tend to face foes of like strength, though it is by no means required and in fact works against the grain of some styles of campaign (sandbox, for ex.) All editions of the game do support mechanical features that allow for some deadly foes if presented against a party of sufficiently lower level with few or no magic items. A ghost or vampire presented to a party of 1^st to 3^rd level in any edition is a sure sign of a looming TPK. Any single demon in the game vs. a party of low level adventurers with no magic is going to be terrifying. That said….it’s rarely enough to just take a stock monster and stick it up against some low level adventurers. For the supernatural killer genre you need something more unique.

One way to thoroughly shake up a party of erstwhile adventurers is to throw something horrifyingly traumatic at them: in D&D and Pathfinder this usually means something which won’t die, and which in turn is uncannily effective at instigating TPKs and which is unrecognizable to anyone in the group. It might look like something they all know….and that only makes it worse! If it looks like a zombie but moves quickly and with intelligence….and gets up again and again….and is immune to daze/stun effects….that’s a pretty terrifying creature.

There’s honestly no easy way to introduce an invulnerable regenerating monster without feeling a bit unfair, so when you plan on integrating a Jason Vorheese-like serial killer zombie in your game you also need to establish a precedent. One way to do it is to have everyone roll up some side characters; traditional D&D these days is all about heroic adventurers who have a chance at life if they play their cards right. An even better way to do this is to have a bunch of disposable pregens ready for the evening’s horror gaming.

There are a couple other styles of gaming in D&D that lend themselves to this mentality as well: the archetypal mentality of the OSR manifesto allows for the possibility of the unkillable and unstoppable monster as a de facto expectation; you’re barely supposed to want to (or be able to) fight something as simple as a swarm of kobolds, on average….so a supernatural monster that suffers no harm from the adventurer’s weapons is actually baked into the rules, really.

The other way is the “implied setting” approach. In 1^st and 2^nd edition we were introduced to Ravenloft, a land where the evil dark lords rule and even set the norms of reality according to their twisted personalities. 3^rd edition introduced Midnight, arguably one of the best of the crapsack worlds (look it up in TV Tropes) in which despair and misery were par for the course. There are many other examples of such worlds out there. Pathfinder has specific regions of Golarion where Bad Guys Rule and horrible things are the norm, as well.

Once you’ve established location/expectation in a way that will at least avoid the sense on the players’ parts that tonight’s game is not about heroes but victims, you can move forward with your diabolical plan to murder them all with an unstoppable zombie menace. So how to go about doing this without making it feel entirely like a crude encounter built around the one-sided premise of “GM wins, everyone dies?”

Just throwing the players into the mix with a supernatural killer isn’t going to cut it, trust me. You need to establish the following ideas for your murderous Halloween plot to make it full of horrific genre fun:

Here are the bullet points for Supernatural Killer Games:

Location – Victims – Personalities – Motive -  Direction - Secrets - Murder! – Achilles’ Heel

Location

Jason and his cronies tend to frequent certain locales. It might be Lake Pleasant, or perhaps it’s the old school house, the abandoned refinery, or something more abstract like dreams. The villain needs a location to which it’s attached somehow, for some reason. The players will need a motive for going there, or being stuck there. In a fantasy setting this is easy: the tomb, castle, haunted mansion….all easy fodder for supernatural killers. If you’re playing Pathfinder take a look at the haunting rules in the Gamemastery Guide; they can come in handy for setting a location with some spooky properties.

Double points if you pick a locale that’s also just plain old dangerous. Often in this genre the area itself lends to the mayhem.

Victims

Victims are what drive the story and get everyone into trouble. Jason doesn’t just kill anyone; he kills teenagers who are overly egotistical and promiscuous. Freddy hunts the children of the parents who burned him to death in their dreams. These killers usually have revenge, or an unresolvable desire for punishment driving them.

If you’re making pregens this part is easy; you can structure the “why” of the murder part into the PC backgrounds. If you let players roll up their own or use pre-existing PCs (with foreknowledge that they are in “evil domain X” or at least aware that the conventional D&D genre is being set aside) then you can always craft some background hooks that relate to their established personalities. “You remember your aunt Tabitha, who was burned as a witch in your youth; she cursed the whole village, but looked you in the eyes and said that the children would pay for what the fathers had done” type stuff.

Ideally, you may want to have 1 or even 2 backups for players, so when their first character dies they can wander in with backup #1. If you don’t do this, then treat the game like a sort of elimination match….last man standing gets the prize!

Personalities

It’s far from a requirement, but the genre of supernatural killer horror is usually punctuated by exaggerated or deserving personalities. From the promiscuous cheerleader to the quiet goth type who hides in her room all day and  broods about death….the victims have lots of personality, sometimes in sync with what the killer hates most.

One way to handle this is to hand out (or randomly roll) on a list of excessive or exaggerated personality traits; if your players are creative just tell them to pick something a bit over the top. If you’re using pre-established characters then maybe they already have some personality quirks that work; if not, suggest that the players play it up a bit.

If you want to make the whole process a bit more spontaneous and organic, just indicate you’ll be passing out kudos or rewards (extra XP if they survive) for the person who hams it up best  or brings the most to the table.

Motive

Motive is two sided: you need the killer’s motive (see victims, above) as to why he does what he does….his back story. Then you need the PC motive about why they are creeping around the abandoned castle or the old sawmill looking for trouble and stirring up the undead. Motives in this genre of fiction can often be very basic: a gang of foppish nobles out for a little fun and hanky panky go to the old sawmill where thirty years ago everyone was slain by the son of the old witch said to have been possessed by a demon….and who of course still lurks there! The possibilities flow easily with a bit of thought. If you choose motives, pick ones that the players are both comfortable with and which are easy for them to respond to without feeling rail-roaded.

Direction

Direction refers to how you pace your plot. The supernatural killer theme lends itself very well to single game sessions, which means you need to keep players on focus, usually by starting them in the place you want them to be with their ducks all in a row already. Alternatively an ambitious GM could run the game open-world style and populate a region with several such supernatural killer events and other horrors (a la Ravenloft).

You want to avoid a railroad event when you set up this sort of game. Sometimes the easiest way to avoid a railroad (or sense of such) is to just start the game where you want it to be. Don’t put everyone in the proverbial tavern and then force them to haul their butts out to the sawmill (unless you want to let them choose more than one path, or have more than one option anyway)….if the destination is the sawmill then start them at the front door with some backstory. Get right to the action, and avoid confusing the issue. It’s not a railroad if they start at the destination, only if you need them to go there and then pretend like they have the option to do otherwise.

If you’ve built a story with a more open scope, then this becomes less of an issue. If (to use the Freddy Kreuger example) the villain strikes in dreams then the scope of your locale is infinite, essentially. If the monster haunts the entire city, then you need not worry about getting them to Lake Pleasant. This style of story works better for multi-session events, especially if the planned scope of the game can expand beyond just the specific horror theme you’ve decided to go with. Here then you could create the sandbox horror setting, with multiple supernatural killers and horror events lurking in the shadows.

Secrets

Every supernatural killer story has some secrets, even if they are simple ones (i.e. finding out Freddy was really a dream-demon back from the dead to gain revenge, or the deadites being kandarian demons summoned by the tape of a scholar who probed too deeply into the unknown…)

Secrets can involve the PCs as well, such as the gang of adults who remember the hobo they murdered a decade ago, the weird hobo with the pentagram on his chest. In fantasy it’s easy enough: perhaps they all belonged to the same mob that murdered the witch woman, or were all descended from families that seven generations earlier had made a pact with Evil and then reneged on their part of the bargain….or agreed to condemn the souls of future generations in exchange for immediate power.

Secrets are something you can find to lend clarity to the murdering going on, something which can serve as a big reveal, an explanation, or an ironic twist…

 Murder!

And then there is the murder. In the supernatural killer genre of horror murder isn’t just a thing that happens, it’s sort of The Thing that Happens….it’s the driving force behind much of the tale. Murder in these stories is never clean and simple….it’s bloody, eviscerating, involves unconventional weapons, and even if the supernatural killer gets it, he’ll come back, moments later, unphased by the holes in his body. Likewise, when the adventurers die, they die grisly, sordid deaths that may or may not have an ironic, camp, and always gory twist to them.

Think of a dozen or two unusual murder instruments and grizzly deaths. Keep those in mind, write them down, and look for ways to execute them during the course of the game. Bonus points for putting the action in an environment that just leds itself naturally to gory deaths. Butcheries, dwarven smelting chambers, a trap-laden mansion of evil…you name it. Remember that if there’s a river it should have zombified piranha in it. If there’s a forge it should be uncomfortably easy to fall into when fully lit. If there’s ornamental weaponry on the wall it should take no more than a shove to become impaled.

Achilles’ Heel

There’s one great and final secret which should become evident over the course of the session, perhaps in sprinkled clues, or as a side effect of dialoguing with various NPCs in the know, or even from the ramblings of the murderer himself: the way to kill the thing…or at least stop it for another year.

When you’ve presented an unstoppable monster with DR 15, SR 33 and Regeneration 5 to a party of level 2 adventurers, it’s hard to dispute that you’ve created an impossible beast for them to overcome. What you need is the thing they must do….be it a ritual, a sequence of events, a discourse, the location of an artifact or the means of revealing the true horror of the creature to itself to at last put the monster to rest.

Perhaps a ritual to close the dark portal from which the creature emerged is buried in the tomes of the old witch who summoned the thing by accident. Maybe the elder of the village remembers that restraining the beast and impaling it on the tree where it was originally hung will force the demon back into the dead wood. Perhaps the only thing that will sate its murderous lust is to find the elder nobleman who escaped its wrath forty years earlier. Hell: maybe it just needs 12 victims for the night and then it’s happy.

The means of defeating the beast should ultimately be part of the plot, and something potentially attainable, even if it requires the adventurers to question their own moral compass at some point.