OK, this is interesting: I just rolled a 9 on 3d6 for the next religion's God View, which means that it's an interactive monotheism. Like Mormonism and some evangelical Christianities (and, I imagine, some Judaisms and Islams, too), this religion says that there is only one God and that that one God is constantly and ongoingly actively involved in the lives of sophonts. This is “God is My Co-Pilot” and “I Have a Testimony” territory. How is this going to interact with the Spirit-Listeners' watchful eagerness to take the path the spirits of the dead have made easy? Will they be great allies on this tech-worshiping world, or will they be at each others' too-similar throats? Let's find out!
Also, the Lost Secrets of the Rose Brothers are monotheistic, meaning that this might be the successor to the previous religion, perhaps a Mormon-like and/or fundamentalist shift in the guild's teachings?
Well, rolling a flat 2d6 gives us a Spiritual Aim of 6. It appears that this is a religion focused on getting into a heavenly paradise after death. That certainly doesn't sound like anything the Rose Brothers would put forth, nixing that idea. So, is that highly-interactive God trying to get you into Heaven, trying to create situations in which you have to make that choice, or trying to prevent you from going to Heaven after you die? Those last two are more interesting to me than the first. On the one had, you have a God actively campaigning against indecisiveness, apathy, and going with the flow and on the other, you have either a malevolent God who wants to hurt everyone (a maltheism) or a benevolent God trying to save sophonts from the numbing euphoria that awaits them.
The 9 we roll on 2d6-1 gives us a point of similarity between this religion and the Lost Secrets of the Rose Brothers: both have meetings only every other month, Isheean religions don't ask for much in the way of formal worship from their members! (So far, anyway.) I get the sense that Isheean culture, whether Fraternal, Oleinikan, Jermainish, or TCI focuses primarily on the ethical and embedded elements of religion, rather than orthodoxy or ritual. Rolling an 8 on 2d6+2 merely provides more evidence, as we learn that this religion has a loose hierarchy that leaves most decisions to the local level. I'm starting to get a sense that this religion might be similar to some Mormonisms, with a strong focus toward receiving testimony from Heavenly Father, Heavenly Mother(s), and/or the angels. In the case of this science-fictive religion, the hierarchy would mostly be chosen on two bases: (1) a higher-than-average rate, comprehensibility, accuracy, and detail in the messages they receive from the divine, and (2) more importantly, their skill and creativity at incorporating the testimonies of their congregants into a guiding plan for the community as a whole. Above the local level, clergy would be receiving more testimonies and, as they rise in rank, more summaries of collections of testimonies and trying to synthesize them into a whole ~ high clergy's role is reactive, rather than proactive.
Maybe their theology is modeled on distributed computing? A syncresis of Mormonism and distributed computing? We are all the sons and daughters of God, which means that we are all components of a massive distributed algorithm designed by that God for some ineffable purpose. But how does Heaven fit into this? Ah! If we take it as a God who is creating situations in which we need to make a choice between Heaven and Hell, then each life could be a bit in the process, bit as in the technical, computer-science meaning of the term.
It seems Isheean culture as a whole sees religion as something more akin to philosophy, as we again roll a 10 for liturgical formality, resulting in those bimonthly meetings being formal study groups discussing and interpreting holy writings. As I develop this idea of a testimonial/oracular distributed theo-computing, I imagine them discussing and interpreting not only the writings of the past that laid out the foundations of their beliefs, but also the testimonies of other worshippers and communities, reflecting on how those visions intertwine with their own.
There are active efforts by this religion to acquire converts across the subsector, if not further (rolled a 4 on 2d6-2). After all, the more sophonts engaged in God's distributed computing efforts, the faster, more powerfully, and more effectively the program can run. However, certain sophont species possess nervous systems so divergent from those that devised this religion that its followers cannot see how their testimonies (if they have testimonies at all) could fit together with those of the church as a whole, and so such sophont species are left alone by the missionaries.
3d6-4 gives us hundreds of thousands of adherents to this religion. Random.org tells us that the precise number is a highly respectable 810,552. That's smaller than the remaining available population of Ishee, so I'll invert my process and roll to see what percentage of those adherents live on Ishee. 53% of them live on this planet we are creating, which comes out to 429,593 Isheeans.
Finally, we roll the dWikipedia for a seed of a name . . . how about the Beaumont Cosmological Computing System? Yeah, let's go with that, with a note that the name doesn't capture the heavy Mormon influence on the origins of the religion ~ I'm seeing it as a techgnostic take on Mormonism.
The religious landscape of Ishee so far:
4,966,607 sophonts (31% of the population) atheist/agnostic/non-religious
7,690,230 sophonts (48%) Liberty Fellowship of Spirit-Listeners (known as Fellows, Associationists, or Listeners)
6 sophonts (essentially 0%) Lost Secrets of the Rose Brothers (generally just called gerontocrats or old fogies)
429,593 sophonts (app. 2.7%) Beaumont Cosmological Computing System (generally called Beaumonters, Algorithmists, or Systemites)
2,934,918 sophonts (app. 18.3%) not yet accounted for
Tuesday, July 31, 2018
Sunday, July 29, 2018
The other half of the equation: Traumas (Design Domingo #6)
In addition, your character has five Traumas, each of which has a Hardened score from 0-10 and a Failed score from 0-5. These measure how close you are to going crazy, freaking out, freezing like a frightened deer, falling on your sword, or running into the night howling like a wolf. These things happen when you start talking with demons, melting your face to win friends, and exorcising the supernatural resonance of a sex crime. It’s tough stuff, and the medieval world offers little to stand between you and going completely gonzo batshit. But why go crazy if you already live there? If you’ve had some heavy trauma in your life (which is depressingly common), you can go ahead and put up to three points, total, into any of your character’s Failed Traumas. For each one you add, you can also put a point in a Hardened Trauma as well. They don’t have to be in the same Traumas ~ if you’re going to be crazy, be your own special kind of crazy. And if you want more than three of each, talk to your GM. Remember to wear clothes.
You’re going to face a lot of threats and do a lot of things out there, and not all of them are physical. You’re going to be exposed to stresses that are beyond the normal, experiences that challenge your mind’s ability to fit them into your view of how the world works. These stresses are measured by the Traumas. As mentioned before, there are five scores that measure how resilient or susceptible you are to different mental stress: Violence, the Unnatural, Helplessness, Isolation, and Self. It’s quite possible to be very casual about, say, Violence, while being a basket case when it comes to the Unnatural.
Each Trauma has two scores. Hardened Traumas represent stresses you’ve endured, and they are scored 1–10. Failed Traumas represent stresses that have broken you even just a little bit, and they are numbered 1–5. It’s common to have nonzero scores in both versions of a single Trauma. Someone who’s deep in both directions on Isolation probably has a highly ambivalent attitude towards being alone, which is perfectly in character for people who have been repeatedly exposed to that mental stress. Someone with the same situation for Violence feels little or nothing when exposed to most forms of bloodshed, but when something is so shocking that it gets through the hardened barrier, the result is devastating.
Remember that the following descriptions include examples of rolls that each Trauma is often used to make, but that these are suggestions and indicators of frequency. Once again, a character’s reasons and emotional realities determine which trait is used for any given roll; talent, ability, training, and more esoteric things in that category are described with skill ranks and feats.
Violence Trauma
You have an instinctive revulsion towards actual violence. It’s stressful to hurt others, to watch others get hurt, and to get hurt. This Trauma also covers the fear of death that everyone suffers from in varying degrees.
Though it is relatively easy to imagine situations for every Trauma to contribute to any given kind of roll, both Hardened and Failed Violence are probably the most common to use when making attack rolls. They are both often used to make Perception and Knowledge (dungeoneering) rolls and also Craft rolls that produce arms, armor, and the like. Like Valorous/Cowardly, both are also often used to make Climb, Swim, and Sense Motive rolls. Failed Violence is involved in calculating your character’s Armor Class (AC) whereas Hardened Violence is involved in calculating hit points. Hardened Violence also adds to damage rolls, like Cruel and Vengeful and is also often used to make Appraise rolls to appraise arms, armor, and the like. It’s sometimes used to make Will, Heal, Survival, and Intimidate rolls.
The Effects of Various Levels of Failed Violence (FV) Trauma on Personality
1 ~ At this level, you’re superficially fine. Perhaps you’re a little edgy whenever a knife in the room happens to be pointing your direction.
2 ~ You are very aware of violence, both as it exists and as it is depicted. It strikes you as somewhat odd that so many people don’t realize that the violence in the stories and songs of troubadours is very different from real violence.
3 ~ You get alert or uneasy every time you see blood, even badly faked blood in a play (or even a puppet show) or when someone cuts a rare steak. Sometimes you have nightmares about violence you’ve witnessed.
4 ~ You instinctively take a defensive posture whenever there’s a loud noise or raised voice nearby. Your nightmares are frequent, and you have a hard time looking at anyone without imagining (if briefly) what you would do at that moment if they attacked you.
The Effects of Various Levels of Hardened Violence (HV) Trauma on Personality
1–3 ~ Superficially, you’re much like everyone else.
4–5 ~ Your attitude towards violence shows on your face when the subject comes up in conversation, unless you work to keep it hidden. It might be intensity, or nervousness, or just a grim silence, depending on how you cope.
6–7 ~ Violence is a common feature of your mental landscape. Unlike less-hardened people, you show little reaction at all when it is discussed or depicted in fiction.
8–9 ~ Your callousness shows in your every word and expression unless you make a continuous effort to suppress it. Again, the exact tone is up to you: it could be bitter and harsh, feverish and vehement, or icy cold.
10 ~ It’s not hard for people to realize that the deepest horrors of torture and brutality have become commonplace to you, unless you work very, very hard to keep it hidden—which means you come off as tense and guarded all the time. The death of others, or yourself, has no intrinsic significance. You might prefer to stay alive, but it’s only a matter of personal taste. Life, in the abstract, doesn’t mean anything.
You’re going to face a lot of threats and do a lot of things out there, and not all of them are physical. You’re going to be exposed to stresses that are beyond the normal, experiences that challenge your mind’s ability to fit them into your view of how the world works. These stresses are measured by the Traumas. As mentioned before, there are five scores that measure how resilient or susceptible you are to different mental stress: Violence, the Unnatural, Helplessness, Isolation, and Self. It’s quite possible to be very casual about, say, Violence, while being a basket case when it comes to the Unnatural.
Each Trauma has two scores. Hardened Traumas represent stresses you’ve endured, and they are scored 1–10. Failed Traumas represent stresses that have broken you even just a little bit, and they are numbered 1–5. It’s common to have nonzero scores in both versions of a single Trauma. Someone who’s deep in both directions on Isolation probably has a highly ambivalent attitude towards being alone, which is perfectly in character for people who have been repeatedly exposed to that mental stress. Someone with the same situation for Violence feels little or nothing when exposed to most forms of bloodshed, but when something is so shocking that it gets through the hardened barrier, the result is devastating.
Remember that the following descriptions include examples of rolls that each Trauma is often used to make, but that these are suggestions and indicators of frequency. Once again, a character’s reasons and emotional realities determine which trait is used for any given roll; talent, ability, training, and more esoteric things in that category are described with skill ranks and feats.
Violence Trauma
You have an instinctive revulsion towards actual violence. It’s stressful to hurt others, to watch others get hurt, and to get hurt. This Trauma also covers the fear of death that everyone suffers from in varying degrees.
Though it is relatively easy to imagine situations for every Trauma to contribute to any given kind of roll, both Hardened and Failed Violence are probably the most common to use when making attack rolls. They are both often used to make Perception and Knowledge (dungeoneering) rolls and also Craft rolls that produce arms, armor, and the like. Like Valorous/Cowardly, both are also often used to make Climb, Swim, and Sense Motive rolls. Failed Violence is involved in calculating your character’s Armor Class (AC) whereas Hardened Violence is involved in calculating hit points. Hardened Violence also adds to damage rolls, like Cruel and Vengeful and is also often used to make Appraise rolls to appraise arms, armor, and the like. It’s sometimes used to make Will, Heal, Survival, and Intimidate rolls.
The Effects of Various Levels of Failed Violence (FV) Trauma on Personality
1 ~ At this level, you’re superficially fine. Perhaps you’re a little edgy whenever a knife in the room happens to be pointing your direction.
2 ~ You are very aware of violence, both as it exists and as it is depicted. It strikes you as somewhat odd that so many people don’t realize that the violence in the stories and songs of troubadours is very different from real violence.
3 ~ You get alert or uneasy every time you see blood, even badly faked blood in a play (or even a puppet show) or when someone cuts a rare steak. Sometimes you have nightmares about violence you’ve witnessed.
4 ~ You instinctively take a defensive posture whenever there’s a loud noise or raised voice nearby. Your nightmares are frequent, and you have a hard time looking at anyone without imagining (if briefly) what you would do at that moment if they attacked you.
The Effects of Various Levels of Hardened Violence (HV) Trauma on Personality
1–3 ~ Superficially, you’re much like everyone else.
4–5 ~ Your attitude towards violence shows on your face when the subject comes up in conversation, unless you work to keep it hidden. It might be intensity, or nervousness, or just a grim silence, depending on how you cope.
6–7 ~ Violence is a common feature of your mental landscape. Unlike less-hardened people, you show little reaction at all when it is discussed or depicted in fiction.
8–9 ~ Your callousness shows in your every word and expression unless you make a continuous effort to suppress it. Again, the exact tone is up to you: it could be bitter and harsh, feverish and vehement, or icy cold.
10 ~ It’s not hard for people to realize that the deepest horrors of torture and brutality have become commonplace to you, unless you work very, very hard to keep it hidden—which means you come off as tense and guarded all the time. The death of others, or yourself, has no intrinsic significance. You might prefer to stay alive, but it’s only a matter of personal taste. Life, in the abstract, doesn’t mean anything.
Saturday, July 28, 2018
Crowdsourced campaign idea (Shadowrun, or rather: Shadowridiculous)
While trying to read up on Los Angeles to prepare for the upcoming Poison Oak Mentoring Month I'm writing up, I found this little bit:
{In Shadowrun, Los Angeles has been beaten by repeated major earthquakes, leaving a good chunk of its megaplex as underwater ruins and most Angelenos homeless refugees}
"Several charity clinics in West Covina serve the refugee camps and are known for being less than picky about IDs, especially if you can actually pay.
. . . .
Pomona and the Covina Floodwall
The gateway to the Inland Empire, the city of Covina became a sort of breakwater for all of the debris carried along by the flood. As a result, the city of West Covina is now a sort of monstrous floodwall keeping the toxic stew of the floodwaters here out of the rest of the IE. On the east side of the floodwall lies Pomona, now populated mostly by the down and out, those too poor to move to higher ground and out of the shadow of the floodwall. Massive refugee camps sprawl out, temporary pre-fab structures rise shakily towards the sky, and bright graffiti stands out against the predominately gray buildings and residents. It is a bitter and hopeless sort of place, as the shadow of the floodwall serves as a constant reminder of LA’s most recent calamity.
The Covina floodwall, practically the size of a small city itself, is a massive construction designed to filter and purify the toxic waters on the other side and pipe them to the Inland Empire. A small army of engineers and drones maintain the equipment and constantly monitor the status of the waters on the other side. The floodwall is a joint PCC and Maersk project, with Maersk providing much of the aquatech needed to run the operation. PCC forces have a strong presence in the area, and security has increased significantly after the recent bomb scare. Despite the increased security, there have been numerous raids on the floodwall in the past months. Mostly small sabotage, although a few key structural points have been targeted.
Pomona and Covina are really hopping with independent assets right now. Pomona has a lot of places to hide, despite the increased security, and enough people who are too busy trying to make it through another miserable day to care about a stranger’s business.
> If you’re looking for work in the area, try Mitzie’s Bar. The crowd is pretty hardcore, and you won’t find any fancy LA drinks, just piss-poor soy-beer. The bartender, Macy, has some good Azzie contacts and will hook you up, for a price.
> Alex Machine"
And I thought: what would Crazy Ex-Girlfriend be like if it was set in the Sixth World? What do y'all think? Any ideas for musically ridiculous nuanced-feminist adventures in the post-Awakening world? What would it be like if Rebecca Bunch hired your shadowrun team for one of her schemes? How does the story change if West Covina is a bunch of buildings sticking out of irradiated salt water like broken teeth and everyone is wearing rags they plucked from underneath the waves? What if Darryl Whitefeather wasn't just a lawyer, but actually working for the beleaguered Pueblo Corporate Council government? Which character is the secret Aztechnology agent (are Greg Serrano or Valencia Maria Perez disaffected Aztechnology employees?)
{In Shadowrun, Los Angeles has been beaten by repeated major earthquakes, leaving a good chunk of its megaplex as underwater ruins and most Angelenos homeless refugees}
"Several charity clinics in West Covina serve the refugee camps and are known for being less than picky about IDs, especially if you can actually pay.
. . . .
Pomona and the Covina Floodwall
The gateway to the Inland Empire, the city of Covina became a sort of breakwater for all of the debris carried along by the flood. As a result, the city of West Covina is now a sort of monstrous floodwall keeping the toxic stew of the floodwaters here out of the rest of the IE. On the east side of the floodwall lies Pomona, now populated mostly by the down and out, those too poor to move to higher ground and out of the shadow of the floodwall. Massive refugee camps sprawl out, temporary pre-fab structures rise shakily towards the sky, and bright graffiti stands out against the predominately gray buildings and residents. It is a bitter and hopeless sort of place, as the shadow of the floodwall serves as a constant reminder of LA’s most recent calamity.
The Covina floodwall, practically the size of a small city itself, is a massive construction designed to filter and purify the toxic waters on the other side and pipe them to the Inland Empire. A small army of engineers and drones maintain the equipment and constantly monitor the status of the waters on the other side. The floodwall is a joint PCC and Maersk project, with Maersk providing much of the aquatech needed to run the operation. PCC forces have a strong presence in the area, and security has increased significantly after the recent bomb scare. Despite the increased security, there have been numerous raids on the floodwall in the past months. Mostly small sabotage, although a few key structural points have been targeted.
Pomona and Covina are really hopping with independent assets right now. Pomona has a lot of places to hide, despite the increased security, and enough people who are too busy trying to make it through another miserable day to care about a stranger’s business.
> If you’re looking for work in the area, try Mitzie’s Bar. The crowd is pretty hardcore, and you won’t find any fancy LA drinks, just piss-poor soy-beer. The bartender, Macy, has some good Azzie contacts and will hook you up, for a price.
> Alex Machine"
And I thought: what would Crazy Ex-Girlfriend be like if it was set in the Sixth World? What do y'all think? Any ideas for musically ridiculous nuanced-feminist adventures in the post-Awakening world? What would it be like if Rebecca Bunch hired your shadowrun team for one of her schemes? How does the story change if West Covina is a bunch of buildings sticking out of irradiated salt water like broken teeth and everyone is wearing rags they plucked from underneath the waves? What if Darryl Whitefeather wasn't just a lawyer, but actually working for the beleaguered Pueblo Corporate Council government? Which character is the secret Aztechnology agent (are Greg Serrano or Valencia Maria Perez disaffected Aztechnology employees?)
Friday, July 27, 2018
Boanerges's character sheet 1/3 (Fantasy Friday #6)
Boanerges, “The Unseen Heart of the Flame”
Cismale CN/CG ifrit vigilante (splintersoul, zealot of Awi) 3
History: The origins of the roving army known as the Sulxonmo (“The Fifty”, in the Dzena-drif language) stretch back a century and more. The Bonfire Queen of the ifrit theocratic kingdom Rashab at the time, Alfonyath of Astwera, claimed her newborn son was the rightful heir of the Presterjho nation of Cusulu. Naturally enough, perhaps, Sehjic (the Bykeg of Cusulu) disputed this claim. A cold war developed; Alfonyath hinted at invading Cusulu to make it a protectorate of Rashab, but delayed while sending a series of adventurers to search for the Great Erolamadu, a magical ivory scimitar and symbol of her office.
Nothing turned up before Bonfire Queen Alsonyath died and was succeeded by her niece Oramir of Astwera. Hoping to establish dominance and end the decades of hostility, Bykeg Sehjic demanded Oramir re-establish an ancient tradition of sending 50 common and 50 noble ifrit virgins to Cusulu in tribute, a tradition Alfonyath had defied from very early on in her reign. As Oramir seemed to consider giving into these demands, Alfonyath’s son Matamor of Astwera grew angrier and angrier, incensed that what he considered his rightful birthright would be frittered away by his peace-loving cousin. He began to gather a horde of disaffected ifrit and form them into an army of preening, vain, daring warriors. Their tactics were founded upon the intimidatory potential of excessive (and loud) shows of skill and confidence; in short, they were swashbucklers with whacking sticks. He named them the Sulxonmo in mockery of the tribute demanded by Cusulu and allowed his rage to pull him into leading them in more and more despicable ways. Such as the forced recruiting (as in, kidnapping) of children to serve as soldiers.
A few years into his agitations, Matamor had a revelation of a dream in which a child rode a white horse under a banner made of a fishing net, wielding the Great Erolamadu. Born to a wealthy fisherman and his dancer wife, Boanerges was a child of but 35 years at the time. In fact, on his 35th birthday, he went fishing with his own cousin, an ifrit by the name of Logadé, in the Negdal Fields of northern Rashab. After being pulled into the water by a large fish, Logadé found an ivory scimitar, beautifully carved. When they returned, Boanerges watched as his cousin played with the other children of the village, miraculously not wounding them when he struck them with the blade. Everyone he struck, however, began to act like the legends of the zombies people talked about existing in far countries.
Several months later, Boanerges was captured by the Fifty in a raid led by Matamor himself, who recognized the child from his dream. A quick and threatening interview later revealed the location of the Great Erolamadu and its bearer Logadé. Once the Sulxonmo tracked down and kidnapped the boy, Matamor told Boanerges that he had to kill his own, beloved cousin in order to be initiated into the horde. When Boanerges refused, he was told that the alternative was death. When he still refused, Matamor sighed a heavy sigh and hit him with the Erolamadu. The domination effect brought the intended effect, and Boanerges became a member of the Sulxonmo covered in the blood of his own kin.
Cismale CN/CG ifrit vigilante (splintersoul, zealot of Awi) 3
History: The origins of the roving army known as the Sulxonmo (“The Fifty”, in the Dzena-drif language) stretch back a century and more. The Bonfire Queen of the ifrit theocratic kingdom Rashab at the time, Alfonyath of Astwera, claimed her newborn son was the rightful heir of the Presterjho nation of Cusulu. Naturally enough, perhaps, Sehjic (the Bykeg of Cusulu) disputed this claim. A cold war developed; Alfonyath hinted at invading Cusulu to make it a protectorate of Rashab, but delayed while sending a series of adventurers to search for the Great Erolamadu, a magical ivory scimitar and symbol of her office.
Nothing turned up before Bonfire Queen Alsonyath died and was succeeded by her niece Oramir of Astwera. Hoping to establish dominance and end the decades of hostility, Bykeg Sehjic demanded Oramir re-establish an ancient tradition of sending 50 common and 50 noble ifrit virgins to Cusulu in tribute, a tradition Alfonyath had defied from very early on in her reign. As Oramir seemed to consider giving into these demands, Alfonyath’s son Matamor of Astwera grew angrier and angrier, incensed that what he considered his rightful birthright would be frittered away by his peace-loving cousin. He began to gather a horde of disaffected ifrit and form them into an army of preening, vain, daring warriors. Their tactics were founded upon the intimidatory potential of excessive (and loud) shows of skill and confidence; in short, they were swashbucklers with whacking sticks. He named them the Sulxonmo in mockery of the tribute demanded by Cusulu and allowed his rage to pull him into leading them in more and more despicable ways. Such as the forced recruiting (as in, kidnapping) of children to serve as soldiers.
A few years into his agitations, Matamor had a revelation of a dream in which a child rode a white horse under a banner made of a fishing net, wielding the Great Erolamadu. Born to a wealthy fisherman and his dancer wife, Boanerges was a child of but 35 years at the time. In fact, on his 35th birthday, he went fishing with his own cousin, an ifrit by the name of Logadé, in the Negdal Fields of northern Rashab. After being pulled into the water by a large fish, Logadé found an ivory scimitar, beautifully carved. When they returned, Boanerges watched as his cousin played with the other children of the village, miraculously not wounding them when he struck them with the blade. Everyone he struck, however, began to act like the legends of the zombies people talked about existing in far countries.
Several months later, Boanerges was captured by the Fifty in a raid led by Matamor himself, who recognized the child from his dream. A quick and threatening interview later revealed the location of the Great Erolamadu and its bearer Logadé. Once the Sulxonmo tracked down and kidnapped the boy, Matamor told Boanerges that he had to kill his own, beloved cousin in order to be initiated into the horde. When Boanerges refused, he was told that the alternative was death. When he still refused, Matamor sighed a heavy sigh and hit him with the Erolamadu. The domination effect brought the intended effect, and Boanerges became a member of the Sulxonmo covered in the blood of his own kin.
Thursday, July 26, 2018
I'll just put this here for later inspiration . . . .
Call of Cthulhu (being aware of and addressing its inherent racism, obviously)
+
Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon
+
"Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley
(+
An optional infusion of Unknown Armies, maybe?)
=
One of the best ideas I've ever had!
And if you're wondering why, just hold this in the cosmic horror part of your brain:
In shoujo magical girl anime, the only thing that can save the world is love.
And then read the lyrics of "Crazy":
I remember when
I remember, I remember when I lost my mind
There was something so pleasant about that place
Even your emotions have an echo in so much space
And when you're out there, without care
Yeah I was out of touch
But it wasn't because I didn't know enough
I just knew too much
Does that make me crazy?
Does that make me crazy?
Does that make me crazy?
Possibly
And now that you are having the time of your life
Well think twice
That's my only advice
Come on now, who do you
Who do you, who do you
Who do you think you are?
Ha ha ha, bless your soul
You really think you're in control?
Well
I think you're crazy
I think you're crazy
I think you're crazy
Just like me
My heroes had the heart
To lose their lives out on a limb
And all I remember, is thinking
I wanna be like them
Mm hmm ever since I was little
Ever since I was little it looked like fun
And it's no coincidence I've come
And I can die when I'm done
Maybe I'm crazy
Maybe you're crazy
Maybe we're crazy
Probably ooh hmm
As for Unknown Armies, I'll just remind you of its old tagline: You Did It.
+
Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon
+
"Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley
(+
An optional infusion of Unknown Armies, maybe?)
=
One of the best ideas I've ever had!
And if you're wondering why, just hold this in the cosmic horror part of your brain:
In shoujo magical girl anime, the only thing that can save the world is love.
And then read the lyrics of "Crazy":
I remember when
I remember, I remember when I lost my mind
There was something so pleasant about that place
Even your emotions have an echo in so much space
And when you're out there, without care
Yeah I was out of touch
But it wasn't because I didn't know enough
I just knew too much
Does that make me crazy?
Does that make me crazy?
Does that make me crazy?
Possibly
And now that you are having the time of your life
Well think twice
That's my only advice
Come on now, who do you
Who do you, who do you
Who do you think you are?
Ha ha ha, bless your soul
You really think you're in control?
Well
I think you're crazy
I think you're crazy
I think you're crazy
Just like me
My heroes had the heart
To lose their lives out on a limb
And all I remember, is thinking
I wanna be like them
Mm hmm ever since I was little
Ever since I was little it looked like fun
And it's no coincidence I've come
And I can die when I'm done
Maybe I'm crazy
Maybe you're crazy
Maybe we're crazy
Probably ooh hmm
As for Unknown Armies, I'll just remind you of its old tagline: You Did It.
Wednesday, July 25, 2018
Leftist Hufflepuffs ~ finally we have an alcove off the Common Room to talk!
I just created a new Facebook group for Hufflepuffs who have some form of Leftist politics, whatever they might be: anarchists and communists and all that. Come let's talk insurrection, badgers, and cooking!
Tuesday, July 24, 2018
Starfinder Actual Play 1.1: Miscreants Meet, Amid an Incident on Absalom Station
I finally have a gaming group again!!
My Owner’s son Dylan paid for me to join him at a Magic: the Gathering Two-Headed Giant tournament a couple of months ago. As the crowd of card-flippers was gathering, I looked around and muttered to Dylan:
“Fuck, am I gonna be the only feminine-presenting person at this thing?”
Dylan responded, quite naturally, “Well, it IS a Magic: the Gathering tournament,” and then another feminine-presenting person entered the room. The timing was so perfect that it proved magick isn’t just a card game!
Turned out that she and the store rep leading the tournament were our third and final opponents. We got to talking afterwards, with me barely keeping up while the two of them talked Magic. I’ven’t played really for a decade or mebbe a dozen years, so I had to keep asking what certain things meant. I did get a chance to introduce Michelle (which is her name) to the old Game of Thrones CCG (I dropped out of card games well before the LCG resurrection), and we got to talking about RPGs. I mentioned that I didn’t have a group, and she offered to run Starfinder.
Then I travelled to Fairyland in Oregon for three weeks >.<
Luckily, Michelle was still into it when I returned, so I sent out a mass message to like 60 of my friends to get a group together, and we ended up with a group of Michelle, her friend Labryssa (one of my new favorite names!), Dylan, me, and my friends Tanuki, Barry, and Nameless.
We’re starting with the first adventure of the Dead Suns Adventure Path, Incident at Absalom Station. Once we finish it, we’ll decide if we want to continue with its storyline or go off to tell our own varied stories. As such, if you care about spoilers, you should know that there’s spoilers in this nebula.
***
Duravar Kreel sat up, finally, the fourth time his personal assistant told him to. His muscles cramped and complained; sitting all day is not good duty for a dwarf! No matter how comfortable the couch at this caffe was.
His ancestors had mined the mountains of lost Golarion, and cousins of his did similar still in the Diaspora, but all he had to show for the surprising strenuous job of sitting he’d done was a folder full of contacts he’d messaged. Many had been easy ~ publicly available email messages, interlocked social networking profiles, and the like ~ while some had required something much more like mining than his parents would ever believe. Sometimes the Starfinder Society had use of folk to whom an easy finding would be a danger, indeed.
Speaking of his parents, he remembered suddenly that he was to bring the beer for his sister’s celebration tonight. Snapping his computer shut, he stiffly grumbled his way to the merchant’s.
*
Waystone0 was out on the frontier of known space when it got its message.
For 27 years it had worked as an engineer in, and later the head engineer of, a fleet (if you could call it that) of space pirates that raided the systems of the Vast from its home in the Shadari Confederacy. Waystone0’s ties with a prospective new "Admiral" had ensnared the android in a surprisingly peaceful transition of power within the fleet.
Pulling its head from a panel in the ship, leftover wire ends with snips on both sides dripping from its ears and nose and the top of its head, Waystone0 scanned the dwarf’s message for a lazy 0.3 second and sighed. It had realized a couple weeks back that its Admiral friend would now be seeking to consolidate their power in the Confederacy and establish their authority and safety in the face of both their inexperience and their status as a mutineer. The days of exploring unknown regions of space for treasure or raiding the ships of the mysteriously hostile Azlanti Star Empire as they had under the old Admiral would be on hold until that process ended. Waystone0 calculated that it would take a minimum of 1.59 years, which was a good 1.427 years longer than its patience for such lack of novelty. It decided to return to the Pact Worlds for the first time in almost half a century for the promise of a free flight there and new, beautiful space to explore.
{{{Dylan is playing Waystone0, neutral agender android spacefarer operative, with an invasive jerkass AI in its head. I’m honestly not sure Waystone0 even knows how the AI got there. The 0 in Waystone0’s and Johnny Coy0te’s names indicate that their bodies are still inhabited by the first soul to ever do so.}}}
*
Usually Bexch Prliz was not one to get distracted while riding the dick of the ringleader of a intergalactic circus, but he’d been the star acrobat of the show for the last year. He’d seduced the ringleader on day one.
At first glance Bexch might have passed for an eccentric human female. He wore his purple hair large so he cold brush his short antennas back into it. Some have said it’s blue and some have said red ~ they were both wrong; it was purple! A swirl like wind under his left cheek and four parallel lines on the entirety of the right side of his face glowed unnaturally bright all the time, the child of his solarian practices resonating with his lashunta heritage. They would have been far too easy to recognize if he had left them uncovered, so he kept them covered in make-up. When he was highly emotional, or in the middle of a fight, or about to cum, they did glow brighter, bringing on oddly muted shine to his face whereupon his makeup seemed to float. They weren’t glowing any brighter than usual when he got the message.
Other than kasatha microcord, Bexch only ever wore skirts that were either mini short or loose and flowy with slits cut all the way up to the hips. Shiny shiny jewelry made up the other half of the lashunta’s wardrobe. Green eyes and pointed nose, Bexch was a beautiful androgynous specimen whose outward glitz was a disguise that only made sense to him, considering how many star systems he was wanted in and how badly the leaders of the lashunta wanted Bexch dead before his great list of crimes becamewider knowledge. Bexch was a blight on the good name lashunta had made for themselves in the galaxy. Maybe some deep loyalty was the reason Bexch was so careful to keep his marks covered? Nah!
Bexch checked the blinking message alert on his phone, which he’d placed on the table at the foot of the bed just for moments of boredom like this one; the nice thing about the reverse cowgirl position was that what’s-his-name couldn’t see Bexch’s yawn or scrolling. It had been some weeks since killing local spectators-turned-tricks had turned him on like it used to. So he read the message, considered what it said for a couple thrusts, snached his blade from where it had sat next to the phone, and in one spinning motion, slit the ringleader’s throat, and cut off his pinky. It would make such a beautiful addition to the bones in Brexch’s hair once it had decomposed enough. His most precious treasures (other than the modified comm with an adorable pink kitty on its case) were the bedazzled pinky bones Bexch had braided into four strands of hair around his face. They helped distract from his antennas.
What’s-his-name should be honored: it was only a precious few who interested Bexch for more than one night and thus got a body part added to his hair. It was time to leave anyway ~ surely the Stewards knew of at least a few of Bexch’s victims by now. This Duravar person says he’ll facilitate Bexch’s initiation into the Starfinders, too. Maybe they’d be able to help with this recurring Steward problem Bexch had? Seriously, they’re worse than head lice!
{{{My friend and ho-bro Nameless is playing Bexch Prliz (pronounced “Bitch Please”), chaotic neutral crossdressing cismale damaya lashunta outlaw solarian, an entirely accidental answer to the question “What if the Talented Mr. Ripley was a telepathic crossdressing Manic Pixie Dream Jedi?” and a true glory of a trashperson.}}}
*
Wakiin shoveled some more fried wasps into his mouth, not giving his right arm a chance to rest. His chef had just broke up with him. Bad. The gourmet-hunter wasn’t sure what use the thrown dishes were intended to have; they hadn’t hurt Wakiin any, and now the chef would just have to buy some more. Obviously, the chef cared about his knives more. Those weren’t thrown so much as brashly gesticulated with, brandished even, near the few spots on a vesk’s body where the scales didn’t quite cover the skin.
Now his money was all gone, sacrificed into a frenzy of eating his feelings. Wakiin has big feelings: he nearly caused infrastructural collapse by eating what a human platoon of infantry might consider a fortnight's worth of luxury rations. A colony on the outer rim of the Vesk system like this one probably didn’t have the economical fortitude to withstand such an assault, so he’d decided he needed a change of scenery. Wakiin had put in some job applications to places that would fly him in for free; the effort had felt uncomfortably like actual self-care, but he really did need to leave, just in case this particular colony should actually collapse. Surely, someone would hold him to account for that kind of thing.
What better place to go than the highly central Absalom Station! Surely it’s hiding some rare Golarian delicacies in its corridors that might soon be lost forever. Also, this Duravar person says the job’ll pay.
{{{Tanuki, whom I’ve known the longest in the group (all the way back to my coffeeshop hipster days at Barefoot Coffee Roasters), is playing Wakiin Leviathanbiter, lawful neutral masculine vesk icon soldier, a gourmet-hunter heavily inspired by the anime Toriko.}}}
*
Recovery meetings are supposed to be anonymous, so Neliblai’s white-clad fingers played with the inverted ankh and black butterfly charm dangling delicately from uir right wrist, while uir lips mumbled half-hearted prayers of gratitude to Nyarlathotep and Black Butterfly. “Thank you,” ui forced uir lips to say, “thank you so much for keeping my vlog obscure so far.”
Uir vlog had followers, certainly, and was syndicated to the infospheres on more than one planet, but it wasn’t yet widely known. And while one is waiting for a chance to give one’s share at a recovery meeting, that feels like a threadbare blessing. Plus, it helped distract Neliblai during the inexorable crawl of a meeting. This wasn't nail-biting entertainment, but it helped. It helped uim to get through the nights when all ui could think of was Jelusrem’s face.
Another threadbare blessing: Neliblai had remembered to put uir comm on silent this time. Finally. Hands switched places and now the circled rat dangling from uir left wrist was being fondled and sneakingly quiet Lao Shu Po was receiving thanks. As lips finally lay still against each other, ui snuck a glance at the comm screen.
The Starfinders. An Acquisitive, no less! The job didn’t sound like it would generate much useful copy, but the investigative reporter who ignores the semi-secret society they joined in order to get leads is an investigative reporter doomed to anonymity for life. A couple fingertips on the comm screen set up a software agent to make arrangements, and Neliblai leaned back against the chair again.
The former addict who lets anything take them out of a recovery meeting will not be former for long.
{{{I’m playing Neliblai, chaotic good uisha maraquoi icon empath mystic (Starfinder data jockey), a hard-boiled reporter in the noir mode with a lot of contacts, a diet composed almost entirely of cigarettes, and too many other people’s secrets. In the absence of Paizo officially declaring pronouns in Maraquoi for each of their seven genders, I am deciding that Neliblai’s pronouns are ui (subjective), uim (objective), uir (possessive), uirs (substantive possessive), and uimself (reflexive).}}}
*
Others received Duravar’s message in their own ways. Many refused, of course, for any number of reasons from the rational to the irrational. Three, however, accepted the job.
{{{Michelle’s friend Labryssa is playing the thief No, chaotic good agender android ace pilot operative. I am super curious how it got its name, I must confess! On the metagame level, she gave it that name because someone asked if she’d come up with a name yet and she said “No”. A similar thing is how Nameless got the name Nameless, actually.}}}
{{{Barry, whom I’ve known almost as long as Tanuki, is playing the superbly cyberpunkly named Johnny Coy0te, neutral androidgynous male bounty hunter operative, without much revealed backstory just yet. Johnny feels a lot like a shadowrunner, actually; that might be part of what gave me the idea to rewrite Starfinder as Shadowrun’s Eighth World, with the Gap being the entirety of the low-mana Seventh World. What happened while magic was gone?}}}
*
The shuttle Okimoro had made the rounds to pick everyone up, even travelling the Drift all the way to the Vesk system. Neliblai, ever the inquisitive, asked about their route and its reasons shortly after ui boarded at the station on Verces, and was impressed. The Starfinders had managed to make such a wide route make just enough sense as to be plausible.
Now the Okimoro was unboarding at Absalom. The few passengers who weren’t answering Duravar’s summons meandered out, eager to get to their family or their tourism attractions or their restaurants or their bathrooms. The four who had heard from Duravar let them go first.
Well, “let” wasn’t always quite the exact right word. Bexch Prliz probably just didn’t hear the docking announcements over the bouncy pop music blaring from his comm, an intoxicating blend of simple rave beats and complicated psychedelic melodies tying knots around them. Once he did notice they arrived, however, he was the first of the not-yet-a-group to leave the shuttle, dancing out of the airlock, each step a sinuous shake of his ass. Waystone0 noted his exit and its style while appearing to read the local holonews now that the infospheres have synced.
Wakiin shook himself awake, or perhaps was shaken awake by Bexch’s loudness passing as he wriggled his rhythmic way off the shuttle. Realizing that the shuttle wasn’t hurtling through the Drift anymore, he walked out with Neliblai close behind. The maraquoi raked everything around uim as ui exits with uir bulging, insectile eyes and uir tail-borne camera comm. Ui paused just before disembarking and lit a cigarette to celebrate uir arrival. Waystone0, in its insulated work gear and backpack, was the last to leave the shuttle. It strolled down the ramp with the indifferent interest of someone who has done this same thing all across the galaxy.
It seemed the divet between the end of the ramp and the space station floor was having none of Waystone0’s affectation of having seen it all. It tripped the android, who would have rolled into a mess of backpack, rifle, and nanites if it wasn’t for Wakiin’s hunt-trained reflexes. The hulking and hungry vesk snapped his hand out and grabbed Waystone0’s rifle. The android hung like floating for a brief moment before being dropped the gentle last half foot or so. Waystone0’s expressionless “Thank you” was mostly matched in its blandness by a reptilian “You’re welcome.”
Dressed for the job it wanted rather than the job it had, the android thief known as No watched the group enter. None of the other passengers looked like they had anything interesting in their pockets, not worth the picking. These last few, undoubtedly the “others” Duravar had alluded to, looked like they had even less ~ their accounts were probably measured in lint, let alone their pockets. The lashunta had a nice booming comm, tho. Specialized comms could earn a centicredit or two.
A tall dwarf (well, tall for a dwarf anyway) with a gray beard almost hiding an unusually thin body in a dockworker’s jumpsuit proudly displaying the Starfinder seal began to walk toward this gaggle of a crowd. The airlock hissed closed behind them. As he did so, six people suddenly stopped milling around and dove behind piles of crates to either side.
Neliblai looked from side to side. “Already?” With a shrug and a smoky inhale, ui began to walk ~ nay, stroll ~ towards the action. Verses from the Prophecies of Kallistrade cascaded through uir mind, tuning it to the minds of those in front of uim. If ui could just find the right frequency . . . . Wakiin fingered his hammer and Waystone0 asked, without inflection, “Are you planning on killing the dwarf?” For some reason, this seemed to convince Wakiin to move his hand to the whip at his waist.
“Does anyone else see this happening?” No asked.
Neliblai replied, “Yes, I’m working on it.”
Meanwhile, the two groups started shooting at each other, with the dwarf in the middle. Their triggers triggered the vesk, who left a thud of a backpack behind him as he sprinted to Duravar, almost impossibly fast. The reptile-colored blur, all green with orange racing stripes, swept Duravar off his feet and onto his shoulder. Stopping well past the line of fire, Wakiin looked down to see an unmoving dwarf. A quick flipover told him why ~ his back was a novella written in laser burns.
Not just Duravar, though. Neliblai took a laser to the shoulder as ui took a deep toke of tobacco, then grunted and coughed the smoke back out in a puff. The reporter creepysmiled.
Waystone0 noted the directness of the hit, the lack of any dodge in the maraquoi’s body, and calmly asked, “Is this within mission parameters?”
“Finding that out still,” Neliblai replied. “Psychic powers take time.”
“All right then.” And with that, Waystone0 sat down on the floor and began assiduously ignoring the battle while No drew and dove behind some nearby crates its own self. Johnny, meanwhile, ran at one of the people on the side that shot Neliblai. His opponent saw Johnny’s fist, and there was a knife in it. Bexch cartwheeled to cover while throwing his starknife to no effect. The spiky blade soon disappeared, showing up again in Bexch’s hand.
Waystone0 told Neliblai to “Tell me if you need medical assistance.”
Uir reply? “If you can do it without throwing off my flow.”
“What are the parameters of your flow?”
Neliblai replied by rattling off the infosphere address of uir blog while Wakiin walked all the way back to the fight, emptyhanded now, and casually hammered one of the shooters. He was paid immediately with a potshot leaving a long burn across his side. Another bolt caught Bexch’s hair, throwing a quick lick of flame into the air for a moment. Neliblai, on the other hand, gets a bit of a break as uir assailant turned his pistol on Johnny. The last of the six shooters was still fighting the original fight but didn’t hit any of them.
Johnny kept stabbing. His opponent fell to the floor. The starknife shot across the battlefield again, a metal meteor unable to land. Its owner cartwheeled toward the other group of three.
Neliblai leaned into uir enemy’s face and blew a steady stream of smoke into as ui did so. Uir spell had told uim three things: one gang was of these triads was a squad of the Downside Kings, the other represented from the Level 21 Gang, and someone was paying them. “Who’s paying you?”
Wakiin dealt more hammer to more faces. Well, the crate next to a face. Neliblai took a whack across the face from the person in front of uim. Wakiin barely noticed as laser bolt and knee made friends.
While No shot Neliblai’s attacker in the back, Johnny stabbed things, and the lashunta blew the fuck up, Waystone0 looked up from its speed-reading. “Your three-part exposé on Brethedan internal politics was quite insightful,” it told the maraquoi. Only its timing ~ ensuring that it could be heard ~ gave any indication that it had noticed the firefight or the solarian explosion in front of it.
“Thanks.”
“Also, if you want medical help, I advise walking away from the people shooting you.”
Hearing this offer, Bexch threw his hair and his face over his shoulder to call out, “I want medical attention!”
“Then I‘d give you the same advice.”
Neliblai bowed uir shoulders and head forward, slid one foot behind uim, and with another creepy smile stepped back. A tooth tucked away in the corner of that smile glinted in the dock’s cheap lights. It grew into a glowing ball that detached itself from maraquoi mouth. The ball, as bright as a flashlight, busied itself floating distractingly around the attacker’s head. Neliblai turned uir back and walked toward Waystone0.
All of the gangers ran, except the one graced by the attention of Neliblai’s wisp ally. That one ran up behind uim and clubbed uim on the head. Johnny prevented another from running by playing gun kata with them, a distraction and entanglement that allowed Bexch to stab him in the back. Licking his knife, the lashunta exclaimed, “First blood.”
“Closer . . . ,” Waystone0 told Neliblai. “Observing your near-fatal injuries, I find that I must ask: is this a combat situation we must attend to?”
An addict’s uncaring shrug accompanied uir reply. “If you want.”
Waystone stared, pulled out its rifle and shot the person pursuing the vlogger. It could see Duravar’s corpse through the hole it had blasted right through the ganger’s back. “Now, would you like me to perform medical assistance on you?”
Johnny quipped, “That’s a horrible pickup line, by the way.” To which, Bexch replied, “Eh. It would’ve gotten me.”
Neliblai walked up to Waystone0, looked at the android with a sibling respect, and said. “Your pickup line did get me.” A blast of stunning lightning flashed behind uim from uir waist, followed shortly by the blue fur of its head. The last of the gangers was out cold at uir pulsecaster’s blast.
Johnny and Waystone0 busied themselves with looting the bodies, finding 3 azimuth laser pistols, 3 clubs, and 3 credsticks with 100 credits each while Neliblai’s drug-ravaged muscles dragged them all into one spot inch by inch. Once ui had finally finished arranging the pile of bodies, Waystone0 began the work of ensuring ui wouldn’t die. Wakiin did much the same as the two androids and the maraquoi while it did so.
“I don’t have my full medkit,” Waystone0 said to Neliblai, whose tail was recording everything on uir comm, “so I wasn’t able to provide full assistance. You will probably need to visit a hospital or wait until I purchase my own medkit on station.”
Wakiin pulled out a comm and a granola bar from one of the dwarf’s pockets. Neliblai nodded at him. “I’ll take that.” The vesk threw the comm to uim and the bar into his mouth while a giggling Bexch snatched a shiny button from the dwarf’s jumpsuit and began wearing it as a monocle.
The dwarf’s recent messages reveal that his last communication had been to someone named Chiskisk saying, “I put out the word. Expecting them today. Be by this afternoon.”
“Chiskisk, Chiskisk,” Neliblai started muttering, “sounds like a shireen name.”
Johnny perked up at the mumbled name: “Chiskisk, I know of them. I never got any jobs directly but I’ve been to the office.”
“They work out of the main office?”
“Yes.”
“Let’s go, then.”
“Are they now the one we will be getting our pay from?” asked Waystone0.
Neliblai shrugged. “Dunno.”
“We should at least report this,” Johnny suggested, “otherwise there’s no chance to get paid.”
The android nodded. “Good enough.”
“How about a snack on the way?” came a reptilian grumble from the vesk.
“Apologies. I didn’t know you could speak the Common language.”
A silence followed Waystone0’s comment.
Johnny broke the discomfort, bending down to reclaim his coffee cup. “The place where I got this has, like, bagels and things.”
“Hey, vesk.” called Neliblai. “Can you carry this ganger with us? He’s not dead, just pulsed.”
Wakiin shrugged. “Sure.” He snapped some restraints had in his backpack onto the human’s wrists before placing the unconscious body in said backpack.
Meanwhile, Johnny called the Starfinder main office to report the situation. Neliblai didn’t give him a chance, talking over him: “Starfinder Neliblai, number 071382, taking local ganger into custody for later questioning.”
“Bring him to the office,” came the tinny reply.
“Already on our way. Tell Chiskisk: medium-priority appointment.”
“Looks like you’re already on schedule.”
*
A walk through the power-clashing market promenades of Drifter’s End and a snack from one of those garish vendor stalls with the menus in 23 languages later, the ragtag group arrived at the Lorespire Complex. “We’ll take that.” A Starfinder was waiting for them in the lobby, and indicated the unconscious body on Wakiin’s back.
“OK,” Neliblai said. “Name and Starfinder number?”
“Look, we’ll just take him and interrogate him for you.”
“Name and Starfinder number?”
“I don’t need to ~ we’re just trying to make it easier for you, y’know!”
“I know. Name and Starfinder number?”
“What’s going on here?” interrupted Waystone0.
Neliblai responded: “Pissing contest.”
“But neither of you have your genitalia out. How will you know who wins?”
The guard throws his hands up in the air and walks out of the room, mumbling insults all the way. Waystone0 gives a smile and a wink, an expression of emotion that lasted a fraction of a second.
“Does this mean we have to feed the ganger?” asked Bexch.
“Only if they answer our questions?” was Neliblai’s reply.
A hologram flickered into existence and led the group to an office, Bexch cartwheeling the whole way down the hall. Waystone0, on the other hand, slammed a door shut as they passed it in the hall. With its face.
It turned out that Chiskisk, as the namesceen on their office told them, was a member of the Forum, which made them a bit of a bigwig in the Society. They also turned out to be a shirren in plain, understated business clothes behind a plain desk, nervously playing with their antennae. A lot of shirren do that when they’re perplexed. “Please, please, sit. Have refreshments. I wish I was welcoming you under better circumstances. Kreel’s death is a tragedy.”
“Are you our new quartermaster?” asked Waystone0.
Chiskisk ignored the interrupting android. “To those of you new here, these violent events are rare. He was a dear friend, and he will be missed.”
Johnny Coy0te this time took on the mantle of interrupting android: “How many stars did he find?”
A deep and frustrated sigh. This meeting was not going the way Chiskisk had expected. “That is not what that means.”
“I always wondered what you did here.” Neliblai restrained uimself from a chuckle and a grin at Johnny's irreverence, but not quite in time.
Chiskisk chose Waystone0 as the less mocking of the two. “I will not be acting as your commander, though I will be asking your aid in a certain matter.”
“And that will be compensated?” Wayfinder0 asked.
“Yes.”
Bexch clarified: “In money?”
“Yes.”
“Thank you for that clarification.”
“The thing is, I don’t really understand the circumstances.”
“I recognize the colors,” Johnny said, “we just got caught in the crossfire.”
“Yes, but the docks are far from their respective territories. I can’t help but feel like they want more.”
“Who doesn’t in this life?” Neliblai retorted.
“I want you to find out if he was a target or just caught in the crossfire. Security will just record it as an accident. Consider this a very impromptu initiation if you will.”
Johnny grinned. “My favorite kind.”
“Do we have permission,” asked Waystone0, ‘to engage in less than legal activities such as investigating the police?”
“Officially, the Starfinder Society doesn’t condone or allow illegal activity. Which is why I won’t be asking about it.”
“So we’re getting paid more?” Bexch sounded excited.
“You will be made a member and get info the public doesn’t know.”
“So this is an internship?”
“You will still be paid for the mission.”
The lashunta wouldn’t drop it. “So is there a number?”
The screen on Chiskisk’s wall shows 200 credits in the process of getting transferred to each of the assembled ne’er-do-wells’ accounts. “Call that advanced pay. It should cover expenses, too.”
Waystone0 cocked an eyebrow. “As that is approximately 200% my total savings, you have effectively purchased my loyalty for the moment.”
“Before we get started,” Wakiin finally spoke, “where is the best place to eat? That snack kicked up an appetite.”
“The Moon of Sleep is a hotel favored by Starfinders. They will give you discount lodging as long as you are with Neliblai.”
“Discount food?” The vesk almost sounded like an eager child.
“I dunno about food . . .”
“C’mon we’re doing a favor for you!”
“I’ll pay for your food if you give me a piggyback ride,” Bexch offered.
“OK”
“And,” added Waystone0, “I’ll pay for 10% of your food expenses for the day as thanks.”
My Owner’s son Dylan paid for me to join him at a Magic: the Gathering Two-Headed Giant tournament a couple of months ago. As the crowd of card-flippers was gathering, I looked around and muttered to Dylan:
“Fuck, am I gonna be the only feminine-presenting person at this thing?”
Dylan responded, quite naturally, “Well, it IS a Magic: the Gathering tournament,” and then another feminine-presenting person entered the room. The timing was so perfect that it proved magick isn’t just a card game!
Turned out that she and the store rep leading the tournament were our third and final opponents. We got to talking afterwards, with me barely keeping up while the two of them talked Magic. I’ven’t played really for a decade or mebbe a dozen years, so I had to keep asking what certain things meant. I did get a chance to introduce Michelle (which is her name) to the old Game of Thrones CCG (I dropped out of card games well before the LCG resurrection), and we got to talking about RPGs. I mentioned that I didn’t have a group, and she offered to run Starfinder.
Then I travelled to Fairyland in Oregon for three weeks >.<
Luckily, Michelle was still into it when I returned, so I sent out a mass message to like 60 of my friends to get a group together, and we ended up with a group of Michelle, her friend Labryssa (one of my new favorite names!), Dylan, me, and my friends Tanuki, Barry, and Nameless.
We’re starting with the first adventure of the Dead Suns Adventure Path, Incident at Absalom Station. Once we finish it, we’ll decide if we want to continue with its storyline or go off to tell our own varied stories. As such, if you care about spoilers, you should know that there’s spoilers in this nebula.
***
Duravar Kreel sat up, finally, the fourth time his personal assistant told him to. His muscles cramped and complained; sitting all day is not good duty for a dwarf! No matter how comfortable the couch at this caffe was.
His ancestors had mined the mountains of lost Golarion, and cousins of his did similar still in the Diaspora, but all he had to show for the surprising strenuous job of sitting he’d done was a folder full of contacts he’d messaged. Many had been easy ~ publicly available email messages, interlocked social networking profiles, and the like ~ while some had required something much more like mining than his parents would ever believe. Sometimes the Starfinder Society had use of folk to whom an easy finding would be a danger, indeed.
Speaking of his parents, he remembered suddenly that he was to bring the beer for his sister’s celebration tonight. Snapping his computer shut, he stiffly grumbled his way to the merchant’s.
*
Waystone0 was out on the frontier of known space when it got its message.
For 27 years it had worked as an engineer in, and later the head engineer of, a fleet (if you could call it that) of space pirates that raided the systems of the Vast from its home in the Shadari Confederacy. Waystone0’s ties with a prospective new "Admiral" had ensnared the android in a surprisingly peaceful transition of power within the fleet.
Pulling its head from a panel in the ship, leftover wire ends with snips on both sides dripping from its ears and nose and the top of its head, Waystone0 scanned the dwarf’s message for a lazy 0.3 second and sighed. It had realized a couple weeks back that its Admiral friend would now be seeking to consolidate their power in the Confederacy and establish their authority and safety in the face of both their inexperience and their status as a mutineer. The days of exploring unknown regions of space for treasure or raiding the ships of the mysteriously hostile Azlanti Star Empire as they had under the old Admiral would be on hold until that process ended. Waystone0 calculated that it would take a minimum of 1.59 years, which was a good 1.427 years longer than its patience for such lack of novelty. It decided to return to the Pact Worlds for the first time in almost half a century for the promise of a free flight there and new, beautiful space to explore.
{{{Dylan is playing Waystone0, neutral agender android spacefarer operative, with an invasive jerkass AI in its head. I’m honestly not sure Waystone0 even knows how the AI got there. The 0 in Waystone0’s and Johnny Coy0te’s names indicate that their bodies are still inhabited by the first soul to ever do so.}}}
*
Usually Bexch Prliz was not one to get distracted while riding the dick of the ringleader of a intergalactic circus, but he’d been the star acrobat of the show for the last year. He’d seduced the ringleader on day one.
At first glance Bexch might have passed for an eccentric human female. He wore his purple hair large so he cold brush his short antennas back into it. Some have said it’s blue and some have said red ~ they were both wrong; it was purple! A swirl like wind under his left cheek and four parallel lines on the entirety of the right side of his face glowed unnaturally bright all the time, the child of his solarian practices resonating with his lashunta heritage. They would have been far too easy to recognize if he had left them uncovered, so he kept them covered in make-up. When he was highly emotional, or in the middle of a fight, or about to cum, they did glow brighter, bringing on oddly muted shine to his face whereupon his makeup seemed to float. They weren’t glowing any brighter than usual when he got the message.
Other than kasatha microcord, Bexch only ever wore skirts that were either mini short or loose and flowy with slits cut all the way up to the hips. Shiny shiny jewelry made up the other half of the lashunta’s wardrobe. Green eyes and pointed nose, Bexch was a beautiful androgynous specimen whose outward glitz was a disguise that only made sense to him, considering how many star systems he was wanted in and how badly the leaders of the lashunta wanted Bexch dead before his great list of crimes becamewider knowledge. Bexch was a blight on the good name lashunta had made for themselves in the galaxy. Maybe some deep loyalty was the reason Bexch was so careful to keep his marks covered? Nah!
Bexch checked the blinking message alert on his phone, which he’d placed on the table at the foot of the bed just for moments of boredom like this one; the nice thing about the reverse cowgirl position was that what’s-his-name couldn’t see Bexch’s yawn or scrolling. It had been some weeks since killing local spectators-turned-tricks had turned him on like it used to. So he read the message, considered what it said for a couple thrusts, snached his blade from where it had sat next to the phone, and in one spinning motion, slit the ringleader’s throat, and cut off his pinky. It would make such a beautiful addition to the bones in Brexch’s hair once it had decomposed enough. His most precious treasures (other than the modified comm with an adorable pink kitty on its case) were the bedazzled pinky bones Bexch had braided into four strands of hair around his face. They helped distract from his antennas.
What’s-his-name should be honored: it was only a precious few who interested Bexch for more than one night and thus got a body part added to his hair. It was time to leave anyway ~ surely the Stewards knew of at least a few of Bexch’s victims by now. This Duravar person says he’ll facilitate Bexch’s initiation into the Starfinders, too. Maybe they’d be able to help with this recurring Steward problem Bexch had? Seriously, they’re worse than head lice!
{{{My friend and ho-bro Nameless is playing Bexch Prliz (pronounced “Bitch Please”), chaotic neutral crossdressing cismale damaya lashunta outlaw solarian, an entirely accidental answer to the question “What if the Talented Mr. Ripley was a telepathic crossdressing Manic Pixie Dream Jedi?” and a true glory of a trashperson.}}}
*
Wakiin shoveled some more fried wasps into his mouth, not giving his right arm a chance to rest. His chef had just broke up with him. Bad. The gourmet-hunter wasn’t sure what use the thrown dishes were intended to have; they hadn’t hurt Wakiin any, and now the chef would just have to buy some more. Obviously, the chef cared about his knives more. Those weren’t thrown so much as brashly gesticulated with, brandished even, near the few spots on a vesk’s body where the scales didn’t quite cover the skin.
Now his money was all gone, sacrificed into a frenzy of eating his feelings. Wakiin has big feelings: he nearly caused infrastructural collapse by eating what a human platoon of infantry might consider a fortnight's worth of luxury rations. A colony on the outer rim of the Vesk system like this one probably didn’t have the economical fortitude to withstand such an assault, so he’d decided he needed a change of scenery. Wakiin had put in some job applications to places that would fly him in for free; the effort had felt uncomfortably like actual self-care, but he really did need to leave, just in case this particular colony should actually collapse. Surely, someone would hold him to account for that kind of thing.
What better place to go than the highly central Absalom Station! Surely it’s hiding some rare Golarian delicacies in its corridors that might soon be lost forever. Also, this Duravar person says the job’ll pay.
{{{Tanuki, whom I’ve known the longest in the group (all the way back to my coffeeshop hipster days at Barefoot Coffee Roasters), is playing Wakiin Leviathanbiter, lawful neutral masculine vesk icon soldier, a gourmet-hunter heavily inspired by the anime Toriko.}}}
*
Recovery meetings are supposed to be anonymous, so Neliblai’s white-clad fingers played with the inverted ankh and black butterfly charm dangling delicately from uir right wrist, while uir lips mumbled half-hearted prayers of gratitude to Nyarlathotep and Black Butterfly. “Thank you,” ui forced uir lips to say, “thank you so much for keeping my vlog obscure so far.”
Uir vlog had followers, certainly, and was syndicated to the infospheres on more than one planet, but it wasn’t yet widely known. And while one is waiting for a chance to give one’s share at a recovery meeting, that feels like a threadbare blessing. Plus, it helped distract Neliblai during the inexorable crawl of a meeting. This wasn't nail-biting entertainment, but it helped. It helped uim to get through the nights when all ui could think of was Jelusrem’s face.
Another threadbare blessing: Neliblai had remembered to put uir comm on silent this time. Finally. Hands switched places and now the circled rat dangling from uir left wrist was being fondled and sneakingly quiet Lao Shu Po was receiving thanks. As lips finally lay still against each other, ui snuck a glance at the comm screen.
The Starfinders. An Acquisitive, no less! The job didn’t sound like it would generate much useful copy, but the investigative reporter who ignores the semi-secret society they joined in order to get leads is an investigative reporter doomed to anonymity for life. A couple fingertips on the comm screen set up a software agent to make arrangements, and Neliblai leaned back against the chair again.
The former addict who lets anything take them out of a recovery meeting will not be former for long.
{{{I’m playing Neliblai, chaotic good uisha maraquoi icon empath mystic (Starfinder data jockey), a hard-boiled reporter in the noir mode with a lot of contacts, a diet composed almost entirely of cigarettes, and too many other people’s secrets. In the absence of Paizo officially declaring pronouns in Maraquoi for each of their seven genders, I am deciding that Neliblai’s pronouns are ui (subjective), uim (objective), uir (possessive), uirs (substantive possessive), and uimself (reflexive).}}}
*
Others received Duravar’s message in their own ways. Many refused, of course, for any number of reasons from the rational to the irrational. Three, however, accepted the job.
{{{Michelle’s friend Labryssa is playing the thief No, chaotic good agender android ace pilot operative. I am super curious how it got its name, I must confess! On the metagame level, she gave it that name because someone asked if she’d come up with a name yet and she said “No”. A similar thing is how Nameless got the name Nameless, actually.}}}
{{{Barry, whom I’ve known almost as long as Tanuki, is playing the superbly cyberpunkly named Johnny Coy0te, neutral androidgynous male bounty hunter operative, without much revealed backstory just yet. Johnny feels a lot like a shadowrunner, actually; that might be part of what gave me the idea to rewrite Starfinder as Shadowrun’s Eighth World, with the Gap being the entirety of the low-mana Seventh World. What happened while magic was gone?}}}
*
The shuttle Okimoro had made the rounds to pick everyone up, even travelling the Drift all the way to the Vesk system. Neliblai, ever the inquisitive, asked about their route and its reasons shortly after ui boarded at the station on Verces, and was impressed. The Starfinders had managed to make such a wide route make just enough sense as to be plausible.
Now the Okimoro was unboarding at Absalom. The few passengers who weren’t answering Duravar’s summons meandered out, eager to get to their family or their tourism attractions or their restaurants or their bathrooms. The four who had heard from Duravar let them go first.
Well, “let” wasn’t always quite the exact right word. Bexch Prliz probably just didn’t hear the docking announcements over the bouncy pop music blaring from his comm, an intoxicating blend of simple rave beats and complicated psychedelic melodies tying knots around them. Once he did notice they arrived, however, he was the first of the not-yet-a-group to leave the shuttle, dancing out of the airlock, each step a sinuous shake of his ass. Waystone0 noted his exit and its style while appearing to read the local holonews now that the infospheres have synced.
Wakiin shook himself awake, or perhaps was shaken awake by Bexch’s loudness passing as he wriggled his rhythmic way off the shuttle. Realizing that the shuttle wasn’t hurtling through the Drift anymore, he walked out with Neliblai close behind. The maraquoi raked everything around uim as ui exits with uir bulging, insectile eyes and uir tail-borne camera comm. Ui paused just before disembarking and lit a cigarette to celebrate uir arrival. Waystone0, in its insulated work gear and backpack, was the last to leave the shuttle. It strolled down the ramp with the indifferent interest of someone who has done this same thing all across the galaxy.
It seemed the divet between the end of the ramp and the space station floor was having none of Waystone0’s affectation of having seen it all. It tripped the android, who would have rolled into a mess of backpack, rifle, and nanites if it wasn’t for Wakiin’s hunt-trained reflexes. The hulking and hungry vesk snapped his hand out and grabbed Waystone0’s rifle. The android hung like floating for a brief moment before being dropped the gentle last half foot or so. Waystone0’s expressionless “Thank you” was mostly matched in its blandness by a reptilian “You’re welcome.”
Dressed for the job it wanted rather than the job it had, the android thief known as No watched the group enter. None of the other passengers looked like they had anything interesting in their pockets, not worth the picking. These last few, undoubtedly the “others” Duravar had alluded to, looked like they had even less ~ their accounts were probably measured in lint, let alone their pockets. The lashunta had a nice booming comm, tho. Specialized comms could earn a centicredit or two.
A tall dwarf (well, tall for a dwarf anyway) with a gray beard almost hiding an unusually thin body in a dockworker’s jumpsuit proudly displaying the Starfinder seal began to walk toward this gaggle of a crowd. The airlock hissed closed behind them. As he did so, six people suddenly stopped milling around and dove behind piles of crates to either side.
Neliblai looked from side to side. “Already?” With a shrug and a smoky inhale, ui began to walk ~ nay, stroll ~ towards the action. Verses from the Prophecies of Kallistrade cascaded through uir mind, tuning it to the minds of those in front of uim. If ui could just find the right frequency . . . . Wakiin fingered his hammer and Waystone0 asked, without inflection, “Are you planning on killing the dwarf?” For some reason, this seemed to convince Wakiin to move his hand to the whip at his waist.
“Does anyone else see this happening?” No asked.
Neliblai replied, “Yes, I’m working on it.”
Meanwhile, the two groups started shooting at each other, with the dwarf in the middle. Their triggers triggered the vesk, who left a thud of a backpack behind him as he sprinted to Duravar, almost impossibly fast. The reptile-colored blur, all green with orange racing stripes, swept Duravar off his feet and onto his shoulder. Stopping well past the line of fire, Wakiin looked down to see an unmoving dwarf. A quick flipover told him why ~ his back was a novella written in laser burns.
Not just Duravar, though. Neliblai took a laser to the shoulder as ui took a deep toke of tobacco, then grunted and coughed the smoke back out in a puff. The reporter creepysmiled.
Waystone0 noted the directness of the hit, the lack of any dodge in the maraquoi’s body, and calmly asked, “Is this within mission parameters?”
“Finding that out still,” Neliblai replied. “Psychic powers take time.”
“All right then.” And with that, Waystone0 sat down on the floor and began assiduously ignoring the battle while No drew and dove behind some nearby crates its own self. Johnny, meanwhile, ran at one of the people on the side that shot Neliblai. His opponent saw Johnny’s fist, and there was a knife in it. Bexch cartwheeled to cover while throwing his starknife to no effect. The spiky blade soon disappeared, showing up again in Bexch’s hand.
Waystone0 told Neliblai to “Tell me if you need medical assistance.”
Uir reply? “If you can do it without throwing off my flow.”
“What are the parameters of your flow?”
Neliblai replied by rattling off the infosphere address of uir blog while Wakiin walked all the way back to the fight, emptyhanded now, and casually hammered one of the shooters. He was paid immediately with a potshot leaving a long burn across his side. Another bolt caught Bexch’s hair, throwing a quick lick of flame into the air for a moment. Neliblai, on the other hand, gets a bit of a break as uir assailant turned his pistol on Johnny. The last of the six shooters was still fighting the original fight but didn’t hit any of them.
Johnny kept stabbing. His opponent fell to the floor. The starknife shot across the battlefield again, a metal meteor unable to land. Its owner cartwheeled toward the other group of three.
Neliblai leaned into uir enemy’s face and blew a steady stream of smoke into as ui did so. Uir spell had told uim three things: one gang was of these triads was a squad of the Downside Kings, the other represented from the Level 21 Gang, and someone was paying them. “Who’s paying you?”
Wakiin dealt more hammer to more faces. Well, the crate next to a face. Neliblai took a whack across the face from the person in front of uim. Wakiin barely noticed as laser bolt and knee made friends.
While No shot Neliblai’s attacker in the back, Johnny stabbed things, and the lashunta blew the fuck up, Waystone0 looked up from its speed-reading. “Your three-part exposé on Brethedan internal politics was quite insightful,” it told the maraquoi. Only its timing ~ ensuring that it could be heard ~ gave any indication that it had noticed the firefight or the solarian explosion in front of it.
“Thanks.”
“Also, if you want medical help, I advise walking away from the people shooting you.”
Hearing this offer, Bexch threw his hair and his face over his shoulder to call out, “I want medical attention!”
“Then I‘d give you the same advice.”
Neliblai bowed uir shoulders and head forward, slid one foot behind uim, and with another creepy smile stepped back. A tooth tucked away in the corner of that smile glinted in the dock’s cheap lights. It grew into a glowing ball that detached itself from maraquoi mouth. The ball, as bright as a flashlight, busied itself floating distractingly around the attacker’s head. Neliblai turned uir back and walked toward Waystone0.
All of the gangers ran, except the one graced by the attention of Neliblai’s wisp ally. That one ran up behind uim and clubbed uim on the head. Johnny prevented another from running by playing gun kata with them, a distraction and entanglement that allowed Bexch to stab him in the back. Licking his knife, the lashunta exclaimed, “First blood.”
“Closer . . . ,” Waystone0 told Neliblai. “Observing your near-fatal injuries, I find that I must ask: is this a combat situation we must attend to?”
An addict’s uncaring shrug accompanied uir reply. “If you want.”
Waystone stared, pulled out its rifle and shot the person pursuing the vlogger. It could see Duravar’s corpse through the hole it had blasted right through the ganger’s back. “Now, would you like me to perform medical assistance on you?”
Johnny quipped, “That’s a horrible pickup line, by the way.” To which, Bexch replied, “Eh. It would’ve gotten me.”
Neliblai walked up to Waystone0, looked at the android with a sibling respect, and said. “Your pickup line did get me.” A blast of stunning lightning flashed behind uim from uir waist, followed shortly by the blue fur of its head. The last of the gangers was out cold at uir pulsecaster’s blast.
Johnny and Waystone0 busied themselves with looting the bodies, finding 3 azimuth laser pistols, 3 clubs, and 3 credsticks with 100 credits each while Neliblai’s drug-ravaged muscles dragged them all into one spot inch by inch. Once ui had finally finished arranging the pile of bodies, Waystone0 began the work of ensuring ui wouldn’t die. Wakiin did much the same as the two androids and the maraquoi while it did so.
“I don’t have my full medkit,” Waystone0 said to Neliblai, whose tail was recording everything on uir comm, “so I wasn’t able to provide full assistance. You will probably need to visit a hospital or wait until I purchase my own medkit on station.”
Wakiin pulled out a comm and a granola bar from one of the dwarf’s pockets. Neliblai nodded at him. “I’ll take that.” The vesk threw the comm to uim and the bar into his mouth while a giggling Bexch snatched a shiny button from the dwarf’s jumpsuit and began wearing it as a monocle.
The dwarf’s recent messages reveal that his last communication had been to someone named Chiskisk saying, “I put out the word. Expecting them today. Be by this afternoon.”
“Chiskisk, Chiskisk,” Neliblai started muttering, “sounds like a shireen name.”
Johnny perked up at the mumbled name: “Chiskisk, I know of them. I never got any jobs directly but I’ve been to the office.”
“They work out of the main office?”
“Yes.”
“Let’s go, then.”
“Are they now the one we will be getting our pay from?” asked Waystone0.
Neliblai shrugged. “Dunno.”
“We should at least report this,” Johnny suggested, “otherwise there’s no chance to get paid.”
The android nodded. “Good enough.”
“How about a snack on the way?” came a reptilian grumble from the vesk.
“Apologies. I didn’t know you could speak the Common language.”
A silence followed Waystone0’s comment.
Johnny broke the discomfort, bending down to reclaim his coffee cup. “The place where I got this has, like, bagels and things.”
“Hey, vesk.” called Neliblai. “Can you carry this ganger with us? He’s not dead, just pulsed.”
Wakiin shrugged. “Sure.” He snapped some restraints had in his backpack onto the human’s wrists before placing the unconscious body in said backpack.
Meanwhile, Johnny called the Starfinder main office to report the situation. Neliblai didn’t give him a chance, talking over him: “Starfinder Neliblai, number 071382, taking local ganger into custody for later questioning.”
“Bring him to the office,” came the tinny reply.
“Already on our way. Tell Chiskisk: medium-priority appointment.”
“Looks like you’re already on schedule.”
*
A walk through the power-clashing market promenades of Drifter’s End and a snack from one of those garish vendor stalls with the menus in 23 languages later, the ragtag group arrived at the Lorespire Complex. “We’ll take that.” A Starfinder was waiting for them in the lobby, and indicated the unconscious body on Wakiin’s back.
“OK,” Neliblai said. “Name and Starfinder number?”
“Look, we’ll just take him and interrogate him for you.”
“Name and Starfinder number?”
“I don’t need to ~ we’re just trying to make it easier for you, y’know!”
“I know. Name and Starfinder number?”
“What’s going on here?” interrupted Waystone0.
Neliblai responded: “Pissing contest.”
“But neither of you have your genitalia out. How will you know who wins?”
The guard throws his hands up in the air and walks out of the room, mumbling insults all the way. Waystone0 gives a smile and a wink, an expression of emotion that lasted a fraction of a second.
“Does this mean we have to feed the ganger?” asked Bexch.
“Only if they answer our questions?” was Neliblai’s reply.
A hologram flickered into existence and led the group to an office, Bexch cartwheeling the whole way down the hall. Waystone0, on the other hand, slammed a door shut as they passed it in the hall. With its face.
It turned out that Chiskisk, as the namesceen on their office told them, was a member of the Forum, which made them a bit of a bigwig in the Society. They also turned out to be a shirren in plain, understated business clothes behind a plain desk, nervously playing with their antennae. A lot of shirren do that when they’re perplexed. “Please, please, sit. Have refreshments. I wish I was welcoming you under better circumstances. Kreel’s death is a tragedy.”
“Are you our new quartermaster?” asked Waystone0.
Chiskisk ignored the interrupting android. “To those of you new here, these violent events are rare. He was a dear friend, and he will be missed.”
Johnny Coy0te this time took on the mantle of interrupting android: “How many stars did he find?”
A deep and frustrated sigh. This meeting was not going the way Chiskisk had expected. “That is not what that means.”
“I always wondered what you did here.” Neliblai restrained uimself from a chuckle and a grin at Johnny's irreverence, but not quite in time.
Chiskisk chose Waystone0 as the less mocking of the two. “I will not be acting as your commander, though I will be asking your aid in a certain matter.”
“And that will be compensated?” Wayfinder0 asked.
“Yes.”
Bexch clarified: “In money?”
“Yes.”
“Thank you for that clarification.”
“The thing is, I don’t really understand the circumstances.”
“I recognize the colors,” Johnny said, “we just got caught in the crossfire.”
“Yes, but the docks are far from their respective territories. I can’t help but feel like they want more.”
“Who doesn’t in this life?” Neliblai retorted.
“I want you to find out if he was a target or just caught in the crossfire. Security will just record it as an accident. Consider this a very impromptu initiation if you will.”
Johnny grinned. “My favorite kind.”
“Do we have permission,” asked Waystone0, ‘to engage in less than legal activities such as investigating the police?”
“Officially, the Starfinder Society doesn’t condone or allow illegal activity. Which is why I won’t be asking about it.”
“So we’re getting paid more?” Bexch sounded excited.
“You will be made a member and get info the public doesn’t know.”
“So this is an internship?”
“You will still be paid for the mission.”
The lashunta wouldn’t drop it. “So is there a number?”
The screen on Chiskisk’s wall shows 200 credits in the process of getting transferred to each of the assembled ne’er-do-wells’ accounts. “Call that advanced pay. It should cover expenses, too.”
Waystone0 cocked an eyebrow. “As that is approximately 200% my total savings, you have effectively purchased my loyalty for the moment.”
“Before we get started,” Wakiin finally spoke, “where is the best place to eat? That snack kicked up an appetite.”
“The Moon of Sleep is a hotel favored by Starfinders. They will give you discount lodging as long as you are with Neliblai.”
“Discount food?” The vesk almost sounded like an eager child.
“I dunno about food . . .”
“C’mon we’re doing a favor for you!”
“I’ll pay for your food if you give me a piggyback ride,” Bexch offered.
“OK”
“And,” added Waystone0, “I’ll pay for 10% of your food expenses for the day as thanks.”
A tiny li'l ol' religion in the Guild-State (Traveller Tuesday #5)
I'm hoping that we roll up a religion that could fit as the Rose Brothers' semi-mystical worship of innovation. Let's find out!
This time we roll 3d6 to determine the religion's God View, and an 11 tells us that this is a crisis monotheism. So, one God who only intervenes at crucial moments in human history. Is it a form of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, or something else? Well, the Spiritual Aim might help us narrow that down, and that's a roll of 2d6-2+(11-3)/3, or 2d6+1. We may indeed have the Rose Brothers' religion! The Spiritual Aim of this group is for believers to expand the frontiers of knowledge through inquiry and speculation.
Rolling a 9 on 2d6+4, we learn that this religion requires only bimonthly devotions. Another 9 (this time on 2d6+2) tells us that the religious hierarchy is a loose one with most decisions left to individual worshippers. Rose Brothers or not, this combination sounds like the clergy and religious hierarchy aren't really what you might think of as such, but are really just recognitions for advancing knowledge or achieving a depth of study ~ more collegial than priestly. We go on to determine that the bimonthly devotions are completely informal, open exchanges of ideas and concepts in a casual setting (14 on 2d6+2).
Now we get to the last test as to whether this can be “the” Rose Brother religion or just merely some spin-off splinter sect. I've got my fingers crossed that these three rolls result in at least a high five-digit number. Our first roll is on 2d6-2; it turns out that the religion has an ordinary Missionary Fervor and will accept any sophont among its ranks (rolled a 6). Though a recruitment drive of sorts exists, mostly by means of talks and panels rather than missions or proselytization, the majority of this religion's adherents are perfectly happy to not try to convert their friends. Sadly, this is a tiny religion, as rolling a 0 on 3d6-6 means that there's only a maximum of 9 members.
Rolling the dWikipedia for a name . . . how about the Lost Secrets of the Rose Brothers? These (actually randomly generating the number) 6 elders, the oldest people in the Guild-State, still follow the religion of the Rose Brothers in its original form: that the omnibenevolent God of Mystery (Hamachis of the Horizon) can only intervene in human affairs when human ingenuity creates an opening for It to do so. Humans create such openings (is it a cosmological opening, the world torn asunder? Or is it psychological, opened by the wonder and panikon of future shock? These six remember fondly and with melancholy the days when that was still an active theological argument, if a bit of a tired one). They can only get together every other month to reminisce about the old days, discuss theology, and try to impress each other with their new ideas and inventions, but they never miss a meeting. And they're perfectly happy to tell others the Lost Secrets, but they recognize that history has passed them and their beliefs by. If they can't create the opening for Harmachis of the Horizon, then mebbe whatever has replaced their ways can.
So far, the religious landscape of Ishee involves:
4,966,607 sophonts (31% of the population) atheist/agnostic/non-religious
7,690,230 sophonts (48%) Liberty Fellowship of Spirit-Listeners
6 sophonts (essentially 0%) Lost Secrets of the Rose Brothers
3,364,470 sophonts (21%) not yet accounted for
This time we roll 3d6 to determine the religion's God View, and an 11 tells us that this is a crisis monotheism. So, one God who only intervenes at crucial moments in human history. Is it a form of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, or something else? Well, the Spiritual Aim might help us narrow that down, and that's a roll of 2d6-2+(11-3)/3, or 2d6+1. We may indeed have the Rose Brothers' religion! The Spiritual Aim of this group is for believers to expand the frontiers of knowledge through inquiry and speculation.
Rolling a 9 on 2d6+4, we learn that this religion requires only bimonthly devotions. Another 9 (this time on 2d6+2) tells us that the religious hierarchy is a loose one with most decisions left to individual worshippers. Rose Brothers or not, this combination sounds like the clergy and religious hierarchy aren't really what you might think of as such, but are really just recognitions for advancing knowledge or achieving a depth of study ~ more collegial than priestly. We go on to determine that the bimonthly devotions are completely informal, open exchanges of ideas and concepts in a casual setting (14 on 2d6+2).
Now we get to the last test as to whether this can be “the” Rose Brother religion or just merely some spin-off splinter sect. I've got my fingers crossed that these three rolls result in at least a high five-digit number. Our first roll is on 2d6-2; it turns out that the religion has an ordinary Missionary Fervor and will accept any sophont among its ranks (rolled a 6). Though a recruitment drive of sorts exists, mostly by means of talks and panels rather than missions or proselytization, the majority of this religion's adherents are perfectly happy to not try to convert their friends. Sadly, this is a tiny religion, as rolling a 0 on 3d6-6 means that there's only a maximum of 9 members.
Rolling the dWikipedia for a name . . . how about the Lost Secrets of the Rose Brothers? These (actually randomly generating the number) 6 elders, the oldest people in the Guild-State, still follow the religion of the Rose Brothers in its original form: that the omnibenevolent God of Mystery (Hamachis of the Horizon) can only intervene in human affairs when human ingenuity creates an opening for It to do so. Humans create such openings (is it a cosmological opening, the world torn asunder? Or is it psychological, opened by the wonder and panikon of future shock? These six remember fondly and with melancholy the days when that was still an active theological argument, if a bit of a tired one). They can only get together every other month to reminisce about the old days, discuss theology, and try to impress each other with their new ideas and inventions, but they never miss a meeting. And they're perfectly happy to tell others the Lost Secrets, but they recognize that history has passed them and their beliefs by. If they can't create the opening for Harmachis of the Horizon, then mebbe whatever has replaced their ways can.
So far, the religious landscape of Ishee involves:
4,966,607 sophonts (31% of the population) atheist/agnostic/non-religious
7,690,230 sophonts (48%) Liberty Fellowship of Spirit-Listeners
6 sophonts (essentially 0%) Lost Secrets of the Rose Brothers
3,364,470 sophonts (21%) not yet accounted for
Sunday, July 22, 2018
Finally! The last of the Virtues! (Design Domingo #5)
MYSTICAL (My)/WORLDLY (Wo)
Mystical people look to the spiritual world for guidance; Worldly people concern themselves with the affairs of this world -- many religions measure piety by the Mystical trait, while others measure piety by the Worldly trait, for their religion is of this world.
A mystical character often dwells on spiritual matters, and is aware of them and their implications in the material world. (This is not the same as worship, which is an action rather than a belief.) A mystical person is a spiritual person. An extremely pious person is devout or zealous, perhaps even saintly. Worldly indicates profligacy, taking great pleasure in temporal things such as fine clothes, comfortable furnishings, good music and poetry, and the best company. Do not confuse Worldly with Indulgent; the two often go hand-in-hand, but they are not the same.
Mystical is often used to make Knowledge (arcana, planes, religion), Spellcraft, and Use Magical Device rolls. Worldly, on the other hand, is involved in determining the maximum amount of weight your character can carry and in calculating hit points and is often used to make Knowledge (engineering, geography, history, local, nature, nobility), Profession, and Sense Motive rolls. Sometimes, it’s used to make Climb, Swim, Fly, Ride, Fortitude, Appraise, Craft, Linguistics, Survival, and Handle Animal rolls, as well as rolls to perform feats of strength. Both Mystical and Worldly are often used with Perception rolls.
Paladins use Mystical to determine how many skill ranks they receive each level.
Mystical governs the spellcasting of clerics, while Worldly governs that of druids and rangers.
PRUDENT (Pru)/RECKLESS (Re)
Prudent people look before they leap and think things through before acting. Reckless people believe in deeds, not words and trust in their instincts and skills to preserve them.
The prudent character gives thought to what they do before they act. Such a character is called cautious, and excessively prudent people are called shrewd, circumspect, or discerning — or “slow to act.” The reckless character acts before they think things through, without concern for anything but the immediate consequences. An extremely reckless character is called careless, or a hothead.
Prudent is involved in calculating your character’s Armor Class (AC) and is often used to make Reflex, Disable Device, Escape Artist, Sleight of Hand, Stealth, Appraise, Craft, Knowledge (engineering), Perception, Profession, Sense Motive, and Survival rolls. One of the common traits used to make attack rolls, Reckless is also used in Climb, Swim, and Acrobatics rolls, as well as rolls to perform feats of strength and Fly or Ride checks to charge or increase your mount’s speed beyond its wont. Both Prudent and Reckless are sometimes used to make Will and Intimidate rolls.
Barbarians use Reckless to determine how many skill ranks they receive each level.
TEMPERATE (Te)/INDULGENT (In)
Temperate people restrain their appetites and eat wisely and drink little. Indulgent people party the night away and eat and drink until they are fuller than full.
Temperance means that a character takes only what he needs of food, drink, and other temporal needs. They are frugal and abstain from excess. Extreme temperance indicates asceticism, perhaps even self-mortification. An indulgent character is a gourmand: they take pleasure in food and drink, both in quality and quantity. Extremes of this indicate gluttony and drunkenness.
Temperate is sometimes used with Fly or Ride rolls to reflect the careful treatment of the mount, as well as Survival rolls. Indulgent, on the other hand, is involved in calculating hit points; it’s also often used to make Appraise rolls and certain kind of Craft (like Craft (food)) and Knowledge (local, nobility) rolls. Temperate is more often used to make Fortitude rolls than Indulgent, but sometimes Indulgent can be used to reflect a body that’s used to handling new and strange excesses. Both Temperate and Indulgent are sometimes used to make Will and Heal rolls.
Monks use Temperate to determine how many skill ranks they receive each level, while sorcerers use Indulgent.
TRUSTING (Tr)/SUSPICIOUS (Su)
Trusting people assume the best of everyone until proven otherwise; Suspicious people fear the worst of everyone until proven otherwise.
One who is trusting tends to believe information without any inclination to suspect its falsity. An excessively trusting person is gullible and credulous, perhaps even a dupe. Suspicious indicates that a person is unlikely to believe what they hear unless proof is offered. An extremely suspicious person is called a skeptic or a doubter. A naturally suspicious person might still be extremely pious, however.
In some cases, jealousy is included under the Suspicious trait. Thus when someone acts jealous, they may start making rolls with Suspicious. Furthermore, Suspicious is one of the common traits used to make attack rolls, as well as being involved in calculating your character’s Armor Class (AC), and is often used to make Reflex, Disable Device, Escape Artist, Appraise, Will, Perception, Profession, Sense Motive, Bluff, and Disguise rolls. Trusting is sometimes used to make Handle Animal rolls. Both Trusting and Suspicious are often used to make Knowledge (local, nobility), Linguistics, and Diplomacy rolls.
VALOROUS (Va)/COWARDLY (Co)
Valorous people do not shrink from honest, fair battle. Extremely valorous people do not shrink from possibly suicidal battle. Cowardly people seize any chance to avoid combat.
To be valorous means to be brave and courageous, willing to place oneself in danger for the sake of victory, friends, or the simple love of battle. Many PCs, by dint of being the protagonists in an action-adventure story, are valorous, and thus might be referred to as doughty, stalwart, or valiant. Extremely heroic individuals are often called fearless or intrepid. Valor may be exhibited not only in combat, but whenever risks to one’s health or wellbeing are involved. Cowardly means to be fearful of pain and of harm to one’s self. Someone who is extremely faint-hearted is labeled as a poltroon, dastard, craven, caitiff, or recreant.
As mentioned before, the types of stories told in fantasy RPGs tend to privilege Valorous characters, though Cowardly heroes can be a helluva lot of fun. Accordingly, these two Virtues are very often used to make a wide variety of rolls in Middens & Morals. To start with, Valorous is one of the common traits used to make attack rolls, and is sometimes used to make Fortitude and Will rolls, too. Battlefield medicine often uses Valorous to make Heal rolls, and Valorous can reveal information about your opponent when used with Perception. Cowardly is involved in calculating your character’s Armor Class (AC) and often used with Stealth rolls and Perception rolls to detect ambushes and surprise attacks. Both Valorous and Cowardly (depending usually on the direction one is moving in relation to the enemy) are often used to make Climb, Swim, and Sense Motive rolls and feinting, ambushing, distracting, and other such tactics often use either Valorous or Cowardly to make Bluff rolls. Though swashbucklers and the like are probably using Proud or Reckless to make Acrobatics rolls, there are times when either Valorous or Cowardly will be more appropriate.
Fighters use Valorous to determine how many skill ranks they receive each level.
Mystical people look to the spiritual world for guidance; Worldly people concern themselves with the affairs of this world -- many religions measure piety by the Mystical trait, while others measure piety by the Worldly trait, for their religion is of this world.
A mystical character often dwells on spiritual matters, and is aware of them and their implications in the material world. (This is not the same as worship, which is an action rather than a belief.) A mystical person is a spiritual person. An extremely pious person is devout or zealous, perhaps even saintly. Worldly indicates profligacy, taking great pleasure in temporal things such as fine clothes, comfortable furnishings, good music and poetry, and the best company. Do not confuse Worldly with Indulgent; the two often go hand-in-hand, but they are not the same.
Mystical is often used to make Knowledge (arcana, planes, religion), Spellcraft, and Use Magical Device rolls. Worldly, on the other hand, is involved in determining the maximum amount of weight your character can carry and in calculating hit points and is often used to make Knowledge (engineering, geography, history, local, nature, nobility), Profession, and Sense Motive rolls. Sometimes, it’s used to make Climb, Swim, Fly, Ride, Fortitude, Appraise, Craft, Linguistics, Survival, and Handle Animal rolls, as well as rolls to perform feats of strength. Both Mystical and Worldly are often used with Perception rolls.
Paladins use Mystical to determine how many skill ranks they receive each level.
Mystical governs the spellcasting of clerics, while Worldly governs that of druids and rangers.
PRUDENT (Pru)/RECKLESS (Re)
Prudent people look before they leap and think things through before acting. Reckless people believe in deeds, not words and trust in their instincts and skills to preserve them.
The prudent character gives thought to what they do before they act. Such a character is called cautious, and excessively prudent people are called shrewd, circumspect, or discerning — or “slow to act.” The reckless character acts before they think things through, without concern for anything but the immediate consequences. An extremely reckless character is called careless, or a hothead.
Prudent is involved in calculating your character’s Armor Class (AC) and is often used to make Reflex, Disable Device, Escape Artist, Sleight of Hand, Stealth, Appraise, Craft, Knowledge (engineering), Perception, Profession, Sense Motive, and Survival rolls. One of the common traits used to make attack rolls, Reckless is also used in Climb, Swim, and Acrobatics rolls, as well as rolls to perform feats of strength and Fly or Ride checks to charge or increase your mount’s speed beyond its wont. Both Prudent and Reckless are sometimes used to make Will and Intimidate rolls.
Barbarians use Reckless to determine how many skill ranks they receive each level.
TEMPERATE (Te)/INDULGENT (In)
Temperate people restrain their appetites and eat wisely and drink little. Indulgent people party the night away and eat and drink until they are fuller than full.
Temperance means that a character takes only what he needs of food, drink, and other temporal needs. They are frugal and abstain from excess. Extreme temperance indicates asceticism, perhaps even self-mortification. An indulgent character is a gourmand: they take pleasure in food and drink, both in quality and quantity. Extremes of this indicate gluttony and drunkenness.
Temperate is sometimes used with Fly or Ride rolls to reflect the careful treatment of the mount, as well as Survival rolls. Indulgent, on the other hand, is involved in calculating hit points; it’s also often used to make Appraise rolls and certain kind of Craft (like Craft (food)) and Knowledge (local, nobility) rolls. Temperate is more often used to make Fortitude rolls than Indulgent, but sometimes Indulgent can be used to reflect a body that’s used to handling new and strange excesses. Both Temperate and Indulgent are sometimes used to make Will and Heal rolls.
Monks use Temperate to determine how many skill ranks they receive each level, while sorcerers use Indulgent.
TRUSTING (Tr)/SUSPICIOUS (Su)
Trusting people assume the best of everyone until proven otherwise; Suspicious people fear the worst of everyone until proven otherwise.
One who is trusting tends to believe information without any inclination to suspect its falsity. An excessively trusting person is gullible and credulous, perhaps even a dupe. Suspicious indicates that a person is unlikely to believe what they hear unless proof is offered. An extremely suspicious person is called a skeptic or a doubter. A naturally suspicious person might still be extremely pious, however.
In some cases, jealousy is included under the Suspicious trait. Thus when someone acts jealous, they may start making rolls with Suspicious. Furthermore, Suspicious is one of the common traits used to make attack rolls, as well as being involved in calculating your character’s Armor Class (AC), and is often used to make Reflex, Disable Device, Escape Artist, Appraise, Will, Perception, Profession, Sense Motive, Bluff, and Disguise rolls. Trusting is sometimes used to make Handle Animal rolls. Both Trusting and Suspicious are often used to make Knowledge (local, nobility), Linguistics, and Diplomacy rolls.
VALOROUS (Va)/COWARDLY (Co)
Valorous people do not shrink from honest, fair battle. Extremely valorous people do not shrink from possibly suicidal battle. Cowardly people seize any chance to avoid combat.
To be valorous means to be brave and courageous, willing to place oneself in danger for the sake of victory, friends, or the simple love of battle. Many PCs, by dint of being the protagonists in an action-adventure story, are valorous, and thus might be referred to as doughty, stalwart, or valiant. Extremely heroic individuals are often called fearless or intrepid. Valor may be exhibited not only in combat, but whenever risks to one’s health or wellbeing are involved. Cowardly means to be fearful of pain and of harm to one’s self. Someone who is extremely faint-hearted is labeled as a poltroon, dastard, craven, caitiff, or recreant.
As mentioned before, the types of stories told in fantasy RPGs tend to privilege Valorous characters, though Cowardly heroes can be a helluva lot of fun. Accordingly, these two Virtues are very often used to make a wide variety of rolls in Middens & Morals. To start with, Valorous is one of the common traits used to make attack rolls, and is sometimes used to make Fortitude and Will rolls, too. Battlefield medicine often uses Valorous to make Heal rolls, and Valorous can reveal information about your opponent when used with Perception. Cowardly is involved in calculating your character’s Armor Class (AC) and often used with Stealth rolls and Perception rolls to detect ambushes and surprise attacks. Both Valorous and Cowardly (depending usually on the direction one is moving in relation to the enemy) are often used to make Climb, Swim, and Sense Motive rolls and feinting, ambushing, distracting, and other such tactics often use either Valorous or Cowardly to make Bluff rolls. Though swashbucklers and the like are probably using Proud or Reckless to make Acrobatics rolls, there are times when either Valorous or Cowardly will be more appropriate.
Fighters use Valorous to determine how many skill ranks they receive each level.
Friday, July 20, 2018
Finishing off Boanerges (Fantasy Friday #5)
Time to choose Boanerges’s two feats. We’ve already chosen one, of course: Celestial Obedience (Awi) at 3rd level. The question is his first-level feat. Feats are often the most time-intensive aspect of D&D3.x/PF character creation, of course. I start by spending some time to see if can find an appropriate feat to counteract Boanerges’s Wisdom deficiency, but after looking through www.d20pfsrd.com and every book I could think of covering magic and religion, all I was able to find was a Rogue Genius Games 3rd-party feat that would allow me to just change his spellcasting attribute. The powergamer in me would want to shift it over to Charisma, but that (once again) seems to diminish the discomfort theme in Boanerges’s character. Intelligence makes more sense considering Awi’s associations with knowledge and books, but is still rather unsatisfying, to be honest. Furthermore, I seem to have grown a little bit more conservative as I age ~ the fact that it’s 3rd-party is, in itself, an argument against using it. Sadly, none of the books I looked through offered anything much terribly exciting even beyond that idea. The most interesting were various ways of improving Boanerges’s ability to make nonlethal attacks and one that improves his ability to redeem evil creatures, which is definitely a frontrunner possibility.
The idea of perhaps giving him Amateur Swashbuckler has been in the back of my mind from the beginning, as that’s how I imagine the army that gave rise to Boanerges, as composed of barbarians with the Amateur Swashbuckler feat, barbarian/swashbucklers, hooded champion rangers, devoted muses (from a variety of base classes), dancing blade fighters, wildstrider swashbucklers, and the like, all pumped up with teamwork and panache feats to make them even more frightening. By itself, however, the feat seems rather ho-hum and, more damning, not adding terribly much to Boanerges that he doesn’t already get from vigilante.
I get bored poring through the list of feats on the SRD, and the teamwork feats don’t provide anything overly attractive. Same story for the Improved Unarmed Strike tree and style feats. The afore-mentioned redeemer feat seems to be the best and most obvious choice, so let’s go with that. Except it’s a trait, not a feat >.< Well, I’ll definitely take that in the next step!
Realizing that I’ve mentioned Awi’s association with knowledge a few times but haven’t built that into Boanerges yet, I start looking for appropriate feats to do so. Searching “Knowledge” in the SRD and restricting it to Feats turns up nothing more interesting than Scholar, which feels kind of blah for Boanerges. But I later find Cosmopolitan, which weirdly feels more exciting as a marker of Awi’s blessing (and, in some ways, more powerful than Scholar, too, as it could be seen as the equivalent of 8 skill ranks at lower levels, as opposed to Scholar’s four). Yeah, let’s take Cosmopolitan, giving Boanerges access to two more languages (one of which, for sure, is Celestial) and two Knowledge skills ~ I’m gonna go with planes and arcana ~ as class skills.
That done (finally), we turn our eyes to character traits. As stated, Redeemer from Champions of Purity is a definite go, leaving only one more trait to be chosen. The other one involves a lot of scrolling through the Traits database on the SRD page. Enough that I started to despair of finding something good, until way down near the end, I come upon a list of traits from the Guide to Pathfinder Society Organized Play (sidenote: that abbreviates to P.S.O.P., which makes me think of the brandy qualification system and its V.S.O.P. Does the Pathfinder Society produce brandy to finance its operations? That could be the seed of a rad adventure/campaign idea). The rather-despicable-to-my-anarchist-mind Sovereign Court has a trait associated with it called Impressive Presence that does pretty much exactly what I want it to do. Much like most all of the ifrits in Boanerges’s horde have access to panache through Amateur Swashbuckler, archetypes, or the swashbuckler class itself, most all of them also have the Impressive Presence trait. It is the basis for their entire tactical understanding.
The last step with Boanerges is to equip him. A third-level character is supposed to get 3000 gp of equipment (that’s wealth equivalent to about $600,000 to $1,500,000 in modern money). It’s usually a good rule of thumb to spend no more than half of one’s wealth on an individual ite, but a prophetic paraphenalia from Faiths & Philosophies seems just a little bit perfect for something Awi might have given him ~ it’s very much in line with Awi’s style, and is 2000 gp (500 more than I should spend on an individual item). I usually despise limited-use magic items, a hatred borne of an over-extended critique of industrialized late capitalism’s disposable, planned-obsolescence, addiction-economy obsession. Ultimate Equipment offers four other possibilities for magic items: belt of tumbling, armbands of the brawler, seer's tea, and war paint of the terrible visage. I know I said I was wary of third-party content, but I also happen to own Nyambe, for the express reason of helping me add more African elements to my world, borrowing from someone who (hopefully) has better knowledge about it than I do.
Neither Nyambe nor Eberron’s Secrets of Xen’drik adds any droolworthy magic items to our list, but Nyambe can help us decide what mundane equipment we want Boanerges to buy, which can determine our budget. Let’s start with a large darkwood shield, which would cost 257 gp ~ a masterwork small would be 153, if we need more room in the budget. Nyambe lists a wooden plate armor; if we make that darkwood, it would cost 450 gp, which might be a bit much (especially with the -2 armor check penalty). So let’s go with masterwork studded leather (which I just learned is actually brigandine ~ the “studs” are rivets holding the plates beneath the leather) for 175 gp. So, armor as a whole costs 432 or 328 gp. For a weapon, we’ll call the whacking stick the official weapons of these swashbuckling ifrit barbarians. A masterwork version would be 303 gp.
We’re left with 2265 gp, or 2369 gp if we want the space. If we leave the prophetic paraphenalia behind, then the magic items I’ve chosen come out to 1950 gp, leaving 315/419 gp. He gets a traveler’s outfit for free, and we buy a woven backpack (2 gp), light blanket (3 sp), bottle calabash (5 sp), 2 wooden boxes (used instead of leather belt pouches; 2 sp), wooden headrest (2 sp), wooden game board (5 gp), 3 doses healing salve (30 gp), 4 doses marsh water (20 gp), iron fishhook (1 sp), iron pot (5 sp), iron sewing needle (5 sp), tent (10 gp), disguise kit (50 gp), and a silver holy symbol of Awi (25 gp). That comes out to . . . 144 gp 3 sp spent. We have at least 170 gp 7 sp left to spend. A light warhorse is 150 gp, but we wouldn’t be able to afford any barding for it. A labor elephant costs the same, and a pack animal is better suited to my visual image of Boanerges, anyway. A Huge pack saddle swallows up 10 gp, and 3 days of feed another 6 gp. We finally buy 8 days of trail rations for Boanerges himself, and are left with 3 gp walking money. Oh, let’s not forget a second traveller’s outfit for the Unseen Heart of the Flame’s costume. That’s a gold piece out of the walking money.
The idea of perhaps giving him Amateur Swashbuckler has been in the back of my mind from the beginning, as that’s how I imagine the army that gave rise to Boanerges, as composed of barbarians with the Amateur Swashbuckler feat, barbarian/swashbucklers, hooded champion rangers, devoted muses (from a variety of base classes), dancing blade fighters, wildstrider swashbucklers, and the like, all pumped up with teamwork and panache feats to make them even more frightening. By itself, however, the feat seems rather ho-hum and, more damning, not adding terribly much to Boanerges that he doesn’t already get from vigilante.
I get bored poring through the list of feats on the SRD, and the teamwork feats don’t provide anything overly attractive. Same story for the Improved Unarmed Strike tree and style feats. The afore-mentioned redeemer feat seems to be the best and most obvious choice, so let’s go with that. Except it’s a trait, not a feat >.< Well, I’ll definitely take that in the next step!
Realizing that I’ve mentioned Awi’s association with knowledge a few times but haven’t built that into Boanerges yet, I start looking for appropriate feats to do so. Searching “Knowledge” in the SRD and restricting it to Feats turns up nothing more interesting than Scholar, which feels kind of blah for Boanerges. But I later find Cosmopolitan, which weirdly feels more exciting as a marker of Awi’s blessing (and, in some ways, more powerful than Scholar, too, as it could be seen as the equivalent of 8 skill ranks at lower levels, as opposed to Scholar’s four). Yeah, let’s take Cosmopolitan, giving Boanerges access to two more languages (one of which, for sure, is Celestial) and two Knowledge skills ~ I’m gonna go with planes and arcana ~ as class skills.
That done (finally), we turn our eyes to character traits. As stated, Redeemer from Champions of Purity is a definite go, leaving only one more trait to be chosen. The other one involves a lot of scrolling through the Traits database on the SRD page. Enough that I started to despair of finding something good, until way down near the end, I come upon a list of traits from the Guide to Pathfinder Society Organized Play (sidenote: that abbreviates to P.S.O.P., which makes me think of the brandy qualification system and its V.S.O.P. Does the Pathfinder Society produce brandy to finance its operations? That could be the seed of a rad adventure/campaign idea). The rather-despicable-to-my-anarchist-mind Sovereign Court has a trait associated with it called Impressive Presence that does pretty much exactly what I want it to do. Much like most all of the ifrits in Boanerges’s horde have access to panache through Amateur Swashbuckler, archetypes, or the swashbuckler class itself, most all of them also have the Impressive Presence trait. It is the basis for their entire tactical understanding.
The last step with Boanerges is to equip him. A third-level character is supposed to get 3000 gp of equipment (that’s wealth equivalent to about $600,000 to $1,500,000 in modern money). It’s usually a good rule of thumb to spend no more than half of one’s wealth on an individual ite, but a prophetic paraphenalia from Faiths & Philosophies seems just a little bit perfect for something Awi might have given him ~ it’s very much in line with Awi’s style, and is 2000 gp (500 more than I should spend on an individual item). I usually despise limited-use magic items, a hatred borne of an over-extended critique of industrialized late capitalism’s disposable, planned-obsolescence, addiction-economy obsession. Ultimate Equipment offers four other possibilities for magic items: belt of tumbling, armbands of the brawler, seer's tea, and war paint of the terrible visage. I know I said I was wary of third-party content, but I also happen to own Nyambe, for the express reason of helping me add more African elements to my world, borrowing from someone who (hopefully) has better knowledge about it than I do.
Neither Nyambe nor Eberron’s Secrets of Xen’drik adds any droolworthy magic items to our list, but Nyambe can help us decide what mundane equipment we want Boanerges to buy, which can determine our budget. Let’s start with a large darkwood shield, which would cost 257 gp ~ a masterwork small would be 153, if we need more room in the budget. Nyambe lists a wooden plate armor; if we make that darkwood, it would cost 450 gp, which might be a bit much (especially with the -2 armor check penalty). So let’s go with masterwork studded leather (which I just learned is actually brigandine ~ the “studs” are rivets holding the plates beneath the leather) for 175 gp. So, armor as a whole costs 432 or 328 gp. For a weapon, we’ll call the whacking stick the official weapons of these swashbuckling ifrit barbarians. A masterwork version would be 303 gp.
We’re left with 2265 gp, or 2369 gp if we want the space. If we leave the prophetic paraphenalia behind, then the magic items I’ve chosen come out to 1950 gp, leaving 315/419 gp. He gets a traveler’s outfit for free, and we buy a woven backpack (2 gp), light blanket (3 sp), bottle calabash (5 sp), 2 wooden boxes (used instead of leather belt pouches; 2 sp), wooden headrest (2 sp), wooden game board (5 gp), 3 doses healing salve (30 gp), 4 doses marsh water (20 gp), iron fishhook (1 sp), iron pot (5 sp), iron sewing needle (5 sp), tent (10 gp), disguise kit (50 gp), and a silver holy symbol of Awi (25 gp). That comes out to . . . 144 gp 3 sp spent. We have at least 170 gp 7 sp left to spend. A light warhorse is 150 gp, but we wouldn’t be able to afford any barding for it. A labor elephant costs the same, and a pack animal is better suited to my visual image of Boanerges, anyway. A Huge pack saddle swallows up 10 gp, and 3 days of feed another 6 gp. We finally buy 8 days of trail rations for Boanerges himself, and are left with 3 gp walking money. Oh, let’s not forget a second traveller’s outfit for the Unseen Heart of the Flame’s costume. That’s a gold piece out of the walking money.
Tuesday, July 17, 2018
Space faith! (Traveller Tuesday #4)
Now that we've got an idea of the political situation on Ishee, we get to start looking at one of my favorite things: its religious landscape! In college, I became fascinated by the interactions between science/technology and religion. I studied the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormonism) in light of the very specific moment in anthropological histriography in which it began (their idea that First Nations peoples were descended from the Lost Tribes of Israel was a short-lived scientific theory) and Spiritualism as envisaging the medium as a human version of that new-fangled invention called the telegraph and Theosophy as continuing Spiritualism after the telegraph lost its shininess and Darwin was the new thing. And I studied UFO and ancient astronaut religions, like Scientology, Raelianism, the various formulations of Nuwaubianism, Heaven's Gate, and more. The Nuwaubians are extra-fun because they hit my other button: identity religions like the Radical Fairies, the Lost-Found Nation of Islam, Rastafarianism, etc.
So, we start off by giving a number to the atheist/agnostic/non-religious population of Ishee, the folk we won't capture with our randomized religions. Let's just roll 1d100 and call it a percent. A reasonable 31% of Isheeans list themselves on surveys as atheist/agnostic/non-religious, or 4,966,607 sophonts.
Because FTL travel in my religion is built on technology derived from actual Spiritualist weirdness (the New Motive Power of Unitarian abolitionist turned Spiritualist free love preacher and abolitionist John Murray Spear), there needs to be at least a significant percentage of the population of any planet that practices a Spiritualist religion. I'm gonna choose the appropriate God View until I'm satisfied with that percentage.
So, our first religion will be one of ancestor worship (God View 5), which means we roll 2d6-2+(5-3)/3, or 2d6-1, to determine its Spiritual Aim. Oh, goody! We rolled a 3, which means that the religion believes in reincarnation with a karma doctrine (meaning that one's actions, morality, and/or devotion in this life determine or affect your next life). Next, we roll 2d6-7+3 for the amount of Devotion Required. 11-4 is 7, so there are fortnightly services, with anything more being in the realm of personal piety rather than religious requirement. That feels more like a focus on a morality-based karma doctrine than a devotion-based one. Or, maybe, a simple consequential karma (if your actions create a 'verse with more poor people in it, than your chances of being reborn as a poor person are greater. Duh.)
The Organizational Structure of the religion ends up as a flat 2d6 roll, which results in a 6, which means that it has a loose hierarchy, with most decisions made on a regional (as in interplanetary) level. I'm thinking that means that there are some higher reaches of clergy that oversee several worlds and discuss theology, ethics, liturgy, and the like, with most of the lower clergy (planetary and local) generally listening to them and going forward with what they think while mebbe putting their own bit of a spin on it. Mebbe something like Islam's hierarchical structure but with a Spiritualist personal-gnosis approach rather than a reverence for an unchangeable text. There is a central authority in this religion (unlike Islam, or modern Islam anyway), but it mostly functions collegially and academically to keep the various regional leaders talking to each other for unification and the development of the understanding of the religion.
A 2d6-7+6 roll of 10 tells us that ritual (which, recall, is only held fortnightly) is generally limited to formal study groups discussing and interpreting church writings. I think this is a twofold thing. One, the religion focuses less on seances and spirit possession, and more on the little everyday ways that the spirits of the dead (especially one's own dead and the various Spirit Associations contacted long ago by John Murray Spear) direct and guide our lives. There is a whole body of religious writings talking about how the ghosts might do that, or about developing the discerning, present awareness to notice when they do. Another body of religious literature would, in fact, come from seances and spirit possession, generally practiced only by clergy (and practiced more, the higher up in the hierarchy you are). This body records direct communications from the Spirit Associations and is studied by adherents of the religion in order as a guide to belief and action.
The Missionary Fervor of the religion is always determined with a 2d6-2 roll, which in this case comes up 4. This means that adherents of this religion actively (but not zealously) proselytize among a limited number of sophonts. A friendship with a member of this religion won't involve a conversion attempt every time you hang out, or even once every five times, but there's a good chance there will be at least one conversation about how your ancestors and the Spirit Associations are trying to guide you and direct your life to your betterment and that of everyone that is, was, or will be. I'm getting the sense that, while there is some idea that there are bad actors among the spirits, this religion doesn't really focus on that very much, considering it uncommon or rare.
According to the theologians of this church, every sophont species has its own Spirit Associations leading its dead, and not all of them have come into communion with the Associations of Human Spirits that the church focuses on. This means that some sophont races are exempt from its proselytization efforts and encouraged instead, if it comes up (adherents won't bring it up) to talk to their dead to see what they should be doing.
Finally, we roll 3d6-4 to determine how many people follow these teachings and channelled documents. Wow, this is a popular one! We rolled a 12, which means that the religion has literally trillions of adherents ~ I'm imagining this covers at least a couple of subsectors, if not more. Let's use random.org to come up with an actual number: 2,045,958,269,515 people follow this religion. How many of those are on Ishee? We've accounted for 31% of its population, so let's roll a d69 to find out. 48% of Ishee's population belongs to this religion, or 7,690,230 sophonts.
We need to give it a name. Let's roll that dWikipedia and see what we can come up with . . . how about the Liberty Fellowship of Spirit-Listeners?
So, we start off by giving a number to the atheist/agnostic/non-religious population of Ishee, the folk we won't capture with our randomized religions. Let's just roll 1d100 and call it a percent. A reasonable 31% of Isheeans list themselves on surveys as atheist/agnostic/non-religious, or 4,966,607 sophonts.
Because FTL travel in my religion is built on technology derived from actual Spiritualist weirdness (the New Motive Power of Unitarian abolitionist turned Spiritualist free love preacher and abolitionist John Murray Spear), there needs to be at least a significant percentage of the population of any planet that practices a Spiritualist religion. I'm gonna choose the appropriate God View until I'm satisfied with that percentage.
So, our first religion will be one of ancestor worship (God View 5), which means we roll 2d6-2+(5-3)/3, or 2d6-1, to determine its Spiritual Aim. Oh, goody! We rolled a 3, which means that the religion believes in reincarnation with a karma doctrine (meaning that one's actions, morality, and/or devotion in this life determine or affect your next life). Next, we roll 2d6-7+3 for the amount of Devotion Required. 11-4 is 7, so there are fortnightly services, with anything more being in the realm of personal piety rather than religious requirement. That feels more like a focus on a morality-based karma doctrine than a devotion-based one. Or, maybe, a simple consequential karma (if your actions create a 'verse with more poor people in it, than your chances of being reborn as a poor person are greater. Duh.)
The Organizational Structure of the religion ends up as a flat 2d6 roll, which results in a 6, which means that it has a loose hierarchy, with most decisions made on a regional (as in interplanetary) level. I'm thinking that means that there are some higher reaches of clergy that oversee several worlds and discuss theology, ethics, liturgy, and the like, with most of the lower clergy (planetary and local) generally listening to them and going forward with what they think while mebbe putting their own bit of a spin on it. Mebbe something like Islam's hierarchical structure but with a Spiritualist personal-gnosis approach rather than a reverence for an unchangeable text. There is a central authority in this religion (unlike Islam, or modern Islam anyway), but it mostly functions collegially and academically to keep the various regional leaders talking to each other for unification and the development of the understanding of the religion.
A 2d6-7+6 roll of 10 tells us that ritual (which, recall, is only held fortnightly) is generally limited to formal study groups discussing and interpreting church writings. I think this is a twofold thing. One, the religion focuses less on seances and spirit possession, and more on the little everyday ways that the spirits of the dead (especially one's own dead and the various Spirit Associations contacted long ago by John Murray Spear) direct and guide our lives. There is a whole body of religious writings talking about how the ghosts might do that, or about developing the discerning, present awareness to notice when they do. Another body of religious literature would, in fact, come from seances and spirit possession, generally practiced only by clergy (and practiced more, the higher up in the hierarchy you are). This body records direct communications from the Spirit Associations and is studied by adherents of the religion in order as a guide to belief and action.
The Missionary Fervor of the religion is always determined with a 2d6-2 roll, which in this case comes up 4. This means that adherents of this religion actively (but not zealously) proselytize among a limited number of sophonts. A friendship with a member of this religion won't involve a conversion attempt every time you hang out, or even once every five times, but there's a good chance there will be at least one conversation about how your ancestors and the Spirit Associations are trying to guide you and direct your life to your betterment and that of everyone that is, was, or will be. I'm getting the sense that, while there is some idea that there are bad actors among the spirits, this religion doesn't really focus on that very much, considering it uncommon or rare.
According to the theologians of this church, every sophont species has its own Spirit Associations leading its dead, and not all of them have come into communion with the Associations of Human Spirits that the church focuses on. This means that some sophont races are exempt from its proselytization efforts and encouraged instead, if it comes up (adherents won't bring it up) to talk to their dead to see what they should be doing.
Finally, we roll 3d6-4 to determine how many people follow these teachings and channelled documents. Wow, this is a popular one! We rolled a 12, which means that the religion has literally trillions of adherents ~ I'm imagining this covers at least a couple of subsectors, if not more. Let's use random.org to come up with an actual number: 2,045,958,269,515 people follow this religion. How many of those are on Ishee? We've accounted for 31% of its population, so let's roll a d69 to find out. 48% of Ishee's population belongs to this religion, or 7,690,230 sophonts.
We need to give it a name. Let's roll that dWikipedia and see what we can come up with . . . how about the Liberty Fellowship of Spirit-Listeners?
Sunday, July 15, 2018
Virtues, continued (Design Domingo #4)
GENEROUS (Ge)/SELFISH (Se)
Generous people keep only what they need to maintain their station and reward their followers well; Selfish people are stingy and accumulate wealth all for themselves beyond their station.
Generous determines the impulse, learning, or desire to share with others. It includes the largesse of barbarian chieftains, and also the famed virtue of Charity. Extremely generous persons are called unselfish, magnanimous, and big-hearted. Selfish is the desire to possess, keep, and further accumulate things for oneself. Greed is usually a component of selfishness. This possessiveness usually regards material property and wealth, with the character being known as a miser or hoarder, but it might apply to glory, so that the character always wishes to keep the most glorious tasks and duties for themself. Very selfish persons are labeled both stingy and self-serving.
Generous is often used to make rolls to perform feats of strength or Heal rolls when your character is helping someone out, or with Handle Animal rolls in general. It’s sometimes also used with Fly and Ride checks involving overland travel, where endurance and being well-fed determine your mount’s performance more than anything else. In some cases, jealousy is included under the Selfish trait. Thus when someone acts jealous, he may begin rolling with Selfish. Beyond that, Selfish is sometimes used to make Reflex rolls, especially ones to protect a character’s stuff, as well as Bluff rolls. Both Generous and Selfish see common use with Disable Device, Craft, Knowledge (nobility), and Profession rolls and, depending on what you’re doing, with Sleight of Hand and Stealth rolls, too. Selfish is more often used to make Appraise and Will rolls, but there are situations in which Generous is used instead.
Rogues use Selfish to determine how many skill ranks they receive each level.
HONEST (Ho)/DECEITFUL (De)
Honest people are truthful and never lie under oath. Deceitful people use words as weapons to snare others with tricks.
To be honest is to deal truthfully with others, both in matters of import or triviality, no matter what the consequences. Persons of extreme honesty are said to have integrity and to be trustworthy, scrupulous, and reliable. A deceitful person is generally likely to distort truths, or to fabricate untruths, for their own ends (or perhaps on behalf of others) — or in some cases, simply for the sake of doing so. Chronically deceitful people are called liars, frauds, and false-hearted.
Honest is often used to make Diplomacy rolls, while Deceitful is often used with Escape Artist, Sleight of Hand, Stealth, Sense Motive, Bluff, Disguise, and Use Magic Device rolls. It’s also involved in calculating your character’s Armor Class (AC). Both Honest and Deceitful are often rolled to make Knowledge (all), Linguistics, Will, Profession, and Perform rolls and sometimes Intimidate rolls, too.
Clerics and druids use Honest to determine how many skill ranks they receive each level, to reflect the fervent nature of their faith.
MODEST (Mo)/PROUD (Pro)
Modest people play down their glory and do not ask for praise; Proud people sing their own praises and expect the accolades of others.
To be modest is to be quiet and reserved about one’s gifts and accomplishments, not seeking excessive attention in the recitation of one’s own deeds. A modest character is glad simply to perform deeds, rather than bask in the repeated glory of hearing about them. Very modest people are called humble and reserved, or perhaps even shy. The Proud trait indicates the degree to which one gets pleasure from hearing and/or boasting of their deeds. Many lifeways value Pride in a character. Excessive pride implies arrogance, and likely a boastful nature.
Proud is often used to make Acrobatics, Profession, Bluff, Intimidate, and Perform rolls, and sometimes used to make Climb and Swim rolls. Rolls to perform feats of strength, too. Modest people sometimes make interesting use of both Sleight of Hand and Stealth, so it’s sometimes used for those rolls, as well as for Knowledge (nature), Perception, Survival, and Handle Animal rolls. Meanwhile, both Proud and Modest are sometimes used to make Knowledge (local, nobility) and Diplomacy checks.
Proud governs the spellcasting of bards and also determines how many skill ranks they receive each level. They’re one of two classes which use the same trait for both (the other being wizards).
JUST (Ju)/ARBITRARY (Ar)
Just people adhere to the law. Arbitrary people do whatever they like.
A just character is capable of telling what is right and wrong (within the mores of their upbringing and their personal beliefs), and is desirous of passing due judgment based on that information. A very just person is called fair and impartial. Arbitrary means that the character has no concern for what is right or wrong, and uses other information and bases for his decision making. Very arbitrary people are labeled unjust, unfair, wrongful, and probably biased and partial.
Both Just and Arbitrary are one of the common traits used to make attack rolls and Knowledge (local, nobility) rolls. Arbitrary is sometimes used to make Escape Artist, Sleight of Hand, Stealth, Will, Bluff, Intimidate, Perform, and Use Magic Device rolls. Fly, Ride, and Handle Animal rolls sometimes use Just, as the animal learns more easily what a just rider wants. It’s also often used to make Appraise, Knowledge (history), Perception, Profession, Sense Motive, and Diplomacy rolls.
Just governs the spellcasting of paladins.
MERCIFUL (Me)/CRUEL (Cr)
Merciful people accept surrenders and treat prisoners well. Cruel people find it better to kill those who surrender so they can't cause you future trouble, or else to break their will through torture.
Mercy indicates a tendency to extend sympathy, pity, and aid to others. This includes sparing an enemy, giving money to the poor, helping the weak, and any other act that is not expected of one’s rank and station. A very merciful person is called compassionate. Cruel indicates a disregard for the feelings and needs of others, or lack of sympathy. High values in Cruel indicate that the character actually enjoys the discomforts and troubles of others.
Cruel is one of the common traits used to make attack rolls (especially melee attack rolls). Perception and Intimidate checks, too. Another incredibly powerful trait for combat-oriented characters, it also adds to damage rolls. Merciful sometimes finds use with Escape Artist rolls and often with Heal rolls. Depending on how you treat your mount, both Merciful and Cruel are often used to make Fly or Ride checks and sometimes both can be used with Sleight of Hand rolls to set people up or help them avoid the eyes of the law (or in similar situations, obviously).
Generous people keep only what they need to maintain their station and reward their followers well; Selfish people are stingy and accumulate wealth all for themselves beyond their station.
Generous determines the impulse, learning, or desire to share with others. It includes the largesse of barbarian chieftains, and also the famed virtue of Charity. Extremely generous persons are called unselfish, magnanimous, and big-hearted. Selfish is the desire to possess, keep, and further accumulate things for oneself. Greed is usually a component of selfishness. This possessiveness usually regards material property and wealth, with the character being known as a miser or hoarder, but it might apply to glory, so that the character always wishes to keep the most glorious tasks and duties for themself. Very selfish persons are labeled both stingy and self-serving.
Generous is often used to make rolls to perform feats of strength or Heal rolls when your character is helping someone out, or with Handle Animal rolls in general. It’s sometimes also used with Fly and Ride checks involving overland travel, where endurance and being well-fed determine your mount’s performance more than anything else. In some cases, jealousy is included under the Selfish trait. Thus when someone acts jealous, he may begin rolling with Selfish. Beyond that, Selfish is sometimes used to make Reflex rolls, especially ones to protect a character’s stuff, as well as Bluff rolls. Both Generous and Selfish see common use with Disable Device, Craft, Knowledge (nobility), and Profession rolls and, depending on what you’re doing, with Sleight of Hand and Stealth rolls, too. Selfish is more often used to make Appraise and Will rolls, but there are situations in which Generous is used instead.
Rogues use Selfish to determine how many skill ranks they receive each level.
HONEST (Ho)/DECEITFUL (De)
Honest people are truthful and never lie under oath. Deceitful people use words as weapons to snare others with tricks.
To be honest is to deal truthfully with others, both in matters of import or triviality, no matter what the consequences. Persons of extreme honesty are said to have integrity and to be trustworthy, scrupulous, and reliable. A deceitful person is generally likely to distort truths, or to fabricate untruths, for their own ends (or perhaps on behalf of others) — or in some cases, simply for the sake of doing so. Chronically deceitful people are called liars, frauds, and false-hearted.
Honest is often used to make Diplomacy rolls, while Deceitful is often used with Escape Artist, Sleight of Hand, Stealth, Sense Motive, Bluff, Disguise, and Use Magic Device rolls. It’s also involved in calculating your character’s Armor Class (AC). Both Honest and Deceitful are often rolled to make Knowledge (all), Linguistics, Will, Profession, and Perform rolls and sometimes Intimidate rolls, too.
Clerics and druids use Honest to determine how many skill ranks they receive each level, to reflect the fervent nature of their faith.
MODEST (Mo)/PROUD (Pro)
Modest people play down their glory and do not ask for praise; Proud people sing their own praises and expect the accolades of others.
To be modest is to be quiet and reserved about one’s gifts and accomplishments, not seeking excessive attention in the recitation of one’s own deeds. A modest character is glad simply to perform deeds, rather than bask in the repeated glory of hearing about them. Very modest people are called humble and reserved, or perhaps even shy. The Proud trait indicates the degree to which one gets pleasure from hearing and/or boasting of their deeds. Many lifeways value Pride in a character. Excessive pride implies arrogance, and likely a boastful nature.
Proud is often used to make Acrobatics, Profession, Bluff, Intimidate, and Perform rolls, and sometimes used to make Climb and Swim rolls. Rolls to perform feats of strength, too. Modest people sometimes make interesting use of both Sleight of Hand and Stealth, so it’s sometimes used for those rolls, as well as for Knowledge (nature), Perception, Survival, and Handle Animal rolls. Meanwhile, both Proud and Modest are sometimes used to make Knowledge (local, nobility) and Diplomacy checks.
Proud governs the spellcasting of bards and also determines how many skill ranks they receive each level. They’re one of two classes which use the same trait for both (the other being wizards).
JUST (Ju)/ARBITRARY (Ar)
Just people adhere to the law. Arbitrary people do whatever they like.
A just character is capable of telling what is right and wrong (within the mores of their upbringing and their personal beliefs), and is desirous of passing due judgment based on that information. A very just person is called fair and impartial. Arbitrary means that the character has no concern for what is right or wrong, and uses other information and bases for his decision making. Very arbitrary people are labeled unjust, unfair, wrongful, and probably biased and partial.
Both Just and Arbitrary are one of the common traits used to make attack rolls and Knowledge (local, nobility) rolls. Arbitrary is sometimes used to make Escape Artist, Sleight of Hand, Stealth, Will, Bluff, Intimidate, Perform, and Use Magic Device rolls. Fly, Ride, and Handle Animal rolls sometimes use Just, as the animal learns more easily what a just rider wants. It’s also often used to make Appraise, Knowledge (history), Perception, Profession, Sense Motive, and Diplomacy rolls.
Just governs the spellcasting of paladins.
MERCIFUL (Me)/CRUEL (Cr)
Merciful people accept surrenders and treat prisoners well. Cruel people find it better to kill those who surrender so they can't cause you future trouble, or else to break their will through torture.
Mercy indicates a tendency to extend sympathy, pity, and aid to others. This includes sparing an enemy, giving money to the poor, helping the weak, and any other act that is not expected of one’s rank and station. A very merciful person is called compassionate. Cruel indicates a disregard for the feelings and needs of others, or lack of sympathy. High values in Cruel indicate that the character actually enjoys the discomforts and troubles of others.
Cruel is one of the common traits used to make attack rolls (especially melee attack rolls). Perception and Intimidate checks, too. Another incredibly powerful trait for combat-oriented characters, it also adds to damage rolls. Merciful sometimes finds use with Escape Artist rolls and often with Heal rolls. Depending on how you treat your mount, both Merciful and Cruel are often used to make Fly or Ride checks and sometimes both can be used with Sleight of Hand rolls to set people up or help them avoid the eyes of the law (or in similar situations, obviously).
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