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Building a Campaign: Mirafar


GargantuaBlarg

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Re: Building a Campaign: Mirafar

The Corruption Tables! Characters that have selected to benefit from one type of corruption pick one side of a table and pick something from the first 12 possibilities on both tables. Characters that gain corruption from whence they didn't have it before will pick one of the two corruption columns of the type they have acquired, then roll on the table for a random effect. Whenever a new corruption level is achieved, we roll on each table again, and add twice your corruption level to the results to see what new traits you manifest.

(Tip: Don't select a Master Passion off the Mental Effects table. If you read the pertaining section of aWoD, you'll know that it's a pain to have one of those.)




Edit-> Oops. I left an opening in each of the tables...
And there's a typo: 'Misery' is supposed to be 'Miserly'
I think your corruption tables are broken. This quote says they're pictures? They don't show up, though.

I'd also like to ask, how do you intend to handle the artifact resource? Does it just net us a +3 or whatever to whatever weapon we end up taking? If not, what kind of limits do we get to play with it - that is, as a rough outline, how powerful a thing do we make? Does it strictly have to be a weapon, or could it be, like, a holy relic? Living weapon, Soul Edge style? Cursed ones, like a really powerful sword that also fills you with total bloodlust, like that one in Baldur's Gate?
 
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the_taken

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Re: Building a Campaign: Mirafar

I think your corruption tables are broken. This quote says they're pictures? They don't show up, though.
Even in your quote, I can see the pictures. Try copy-pasting the url for the pic into... never mind, I know what I done wrong. (I don't know if this board supports tables, but I know BBcode tables a bitch, so I made pics.)

I'd also like to ask, how do you intend to handle the artifact resource? Does it just net us a +3 or whatever to whatever weapon we end up taking? If not, what kind of limits do we get to play with it - that is, as a rough outline, how powerful a thing do we make? Does it strictly have to be a weapon, or could it be, like, a holy relic? Living weapon, Soul Edge style? Cursed ones, like a really powerful sword that also fills you with total bloodlust, like that one in Baldur's Gate?
Oops, that's the old version of the Artifact Resource. Can't seem to find the new version, so I'll just rewrite it:

Magical Artifact
A magical artifact is a great item of power. There are many forms of magic items - hats, shirts, belts, jewelry, weapons, shields, toys, furniture - but they all share the common feature of being awesome items. Not "Wow!" awesome, more like "MY EYES!!!! I"M NOT WORTHY!!!" awesome. Everything about a magical artifact is awesome, even when it isn't doing anything. A magical artifact hat, no matter how goofy looking, looks awesome on you. When you sheath your magical artifact sword, you can almost feel the scabbard shiver in orgasmic pleasure. When you pluck a magical artifact harp's string, it sounds like a choir of tiny angels. When you polish your magical artifact helmet, you're reflection gives you a thumbs up. When you hang a magical artifact painting on the wall, everything on the other side of the wall just looks more awesome, even if it's painting of a red squiggle (though, it would be the most awesome red squiggle ever!).

So there's a few of common features of Magical Artifacts that they all share:
  • A magical artifact has a name. And it isn't something lame like +3 longsword of frostburst and of ghosttouch. Said sword would be called something like Ghostwinter, and there wouldn't be a +4 or +5 version.
  • A magical artifact bathes everything in its presence with awesome, making it easily identifiable to anyone, even if its purpose or function is unknown.
  • A magical artifact has a purpose beyond whatever it would be as a common item. A magical artifact sword isn't just an awesome sword. He who wields Excalibur is King of the Britons, while The Bolt of Zeus is a javelin a certain deity gives to a champion to exact justice upon the wicked. Or maybe it's Cupid's Harp, a musical instrument to be played by an Archangel to woo a Demon Lady.
  • A magical artifact is very difficult to destroy. It took convoluted conditions to create, and so convoluted conditions are needed to destroy it. Most often, a magical artifact's method of destruction is unknown, so most unusable artifacts get buried in tombs.
    But what this means for players is that they never have to worry about their magical artifact getting destroyed. A magical artifact axe never needs to be sharpened, though you may want to wipe those blood smears off of it before it awesomely attracts flies.

If you so choose this resource at character creation, you must decide the magical artifact's name, why your character has it, and what kind of purpose this artifact was created for. You don't get to choose what kind of magical powers the artifact has, but I guarantee, the more ranks you have with this resource, the better the artifact.
Also, your artifact can't declare that the wielder (your character) is the King of Mirafar.
 

Pheonix Alugere

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Re: Building a Campaign: Mirafar

Could an artifact do something like make it to where any time you take a roll for a new corruption symptom, subtract 2 (for a minimum of one) and then store up each 'point' subtracted this way as a sort of ammo for a magical attack?

(Also, I'll throw out that this looks like it might be a fun system to playtest.)
 
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the_taken

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Re: Building a Campaign: Mirafar

Could an artifact do something like make it to where any time you take a roll for a new corruption symptom, subtract 2 (for a minimum of one) and then store up each 'point' subtracted this way as a sort of ammo for a magical attack?
No. Wait. Maybe... I don't want to have anything modify the rolls on the charts, especially since gaining a corruption level will be quite an important event. However, having a weapon that feeds off corruption wouldn't be a problem.

Sugen på himmelska - This is a magical artifact weapon, a lance, crafted by the Gargoyle King Bradavice out of his malice and gluttony in the third age of Kings. Bradavice was as much a cannibal as a warlord, and took particular delight in skewering angels in battle, and eating them later. He crated this lance out of a desire to eat more angels every battle.
This magical spear is made of gold, and so deals aggravated damage to celestials and can hit them while incorporeal. It also has it's own Demonic Power Pool, which can hold 3dp, and recharges via the Feeding Schedule, but only the blood of Celestially corrupted living beings can be used. Additionally, as a complex action, the wielder may prompt the lance to use the Grass Rope power, spending 1dp of the lance's in the process.
 

Pheonix Alugere

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Re: Building a Campaign: Mirafar

Well, the appearance that I had originally thought of for an artifact that fed off of corruption (possibly only recharging when the character gains corruption points) was what appears to be a long, rust-colored, metallic arm guard that extends from the wearer's wrist up along the back of their shoulder-blade to the base of the wearer's skull. Overall, it would appear quite similar to a massive centipede.

For weapon abilities, either it could launch bolts of magic from the 'head' of the centipede (which would rest on the person's wrist) or it could elongate a leg or two into a sharpened whip like weapon.

A disturbing tendency would probably be the fact that, if it's user dies, it animates and actually runs off to find a new wielder. Possibly, it could have its origin as a special enchanted phylactery of an ancient mage and that the weapon was designed the souls of those it kills in order to revive the mage if he ever died.
 

GargantuaBlarg

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Re: Building a Campaign: Mirafar

I am bad with names. I've got four of 'em thought up, debating which one I like most, and none of them have names. :\

When you say they have a presence, is by looking at it, or do they sorta have like a "awesome aura"? One's sorta a concealed weapon sorta thing, and the other's kind of a low-level trinkety thing the character made herself (maxed alchemy, sorta artificer character).
 

GargantuaBlarg

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Re: Building a Campaign: Mirafar

More questions:

- Any more fluff on the IDI? Maybe I missed something, but so far all I've gotten on them is that they're from another dimension and maybe have guns. What do they look like, do we understand their language, stuff like that. How powerful is their average grunt-level soldier?

- Regarding magic, is "wizardy" sort of stuff - maining hexes and fireballs in combat, for instance - limited to only corrupted characters? The universals in the aWoD link are specifically not "sorceries", but it is a different setting, after all.

- At what level of corruption should a character expect to "become a slave to the hive mind", and how enslaved is the character? Should I worry that corruption will completely derail a character's motivations? I mean, while it can certainly make for a good story, I'm a little off-put by the notion that, by levelling up, the system can possibly override my character's personality and how I was expecting/wanted to play them.
 
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the_taken

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Re: Building a Campaign: Mirafar

-centipede artifact-
That's a cool idea. It would functionally be a weapon, a ranged once with a special property.

I am bad with names. I've got four of 'em thought up, debating which one I like most, and none of them have names. :\
I suck with name too. The ones I posted, I used Google Translate to and used certain word which meant what I wanted the artifact and character to represent.

When you say they have a presence, is by looking at it, or do they sorta have like a "awesome aura"? One's sorta a concealed weapon sorta thing, and the other's kind of a low-level trinkety thing the character made herself (maxed alchemy, sorta artificer character).
The awesome aura is a side effect of being an artifact. You can't hide it, unless your character has a specific power that allows the unusual to pass as mundane. At best, a concealed artifact that enters the room makes everyone in it say "I sense a disturbance in the Force, and it's coming from that direction."

On the other hand, characters can make trinkets and gizmos, like holy water vials, exploding pies, or pen quills that flare and blind when ignited. magical Artifacts are Awesome, but alchemical items can be cool.

- Regarding magic, is "wizardy" sort of stuff - maining hexes and fireballs in combat, for instance - limited to only corrupted characters? The universals in the aWoD link are specifically not "sorceries", but it is a different setting, after all.
That's exactly right, but you'll notice that those Universal Abilities are pretty good. Devotions are also available to uncorrupted characters, since they are an advanced power derived from universals. This means Hulking out and Telekenisis are available to uncorrupted characters.


- Any more fluff on the IDI? Maybe I missed something, but so far all I've gotten on them is that they're from another dimension and maybe have guns. What do they look like, do we understand their language, stuff like that. How powerful is their average grunt-level soldier?
I'm working on IDI stuff as I fill in the encounter tables. In terms of effective power, the IDIs have a human level soldier, and each of those whether IDI, corrupted or not is better than a zombie in many ways. They have an annoying habit of regenerating, but it's not so fast as to make them notcibly more powerful in an actual fight. The IDI don't have true Exalted, since they are alien to the world, and Exalted that are taken over by the IDI lose their Exalted status until their corruption is expunged.

IDI creatures are created something like the Zerg from Starcraft, though I'm using any Zerg. You have your basic foot soldier guy (above the zombie unit they create sometimes) which is effectively a human, and there are higher forms the hive mind has created to either supplement it's combat efforts, or do some specialized task like digging for brass veins in a volcanic region that would kill it's regular human drones.

Yeah, they have a big advantage in that they have guns, but it's not in equipment format that would allow the world's natives to reverse engineer and fight on equal terms. And while they are a bit more powerful because of it, they don't have the numbers to defeat a whole world that hates them without a really big advantage they had and lost because a group of Exalted did some epic magical shenanigans.

Anyway, I'll make a post soon about the IDIs I'll present and the things everyone that fights them know.

- At what level of corruption should a character expect to "become a slave to the hive mind", and how enslaved is the character? Should I worry that corruption will completely derail a character's motivations? I mean, while it can certainly make for a good story, I'm a little off-put by the notion that, by levelling up, the system can possibly override my character's personality and how I was expecting/wanted to play them.
I will allow character to get away with a single level of IDI corruption per level Potency and beneficial corruption (if you have one) before risking joining the IDI as either an NPC villain, or Zombie to be rescued (player's choice on which happens). Beyond that, you'll have a 1 in 4 chance the first time, then a 7 in 12 chance the second, 3 in 4 the third and a messily 1 in 12 the fourth. The fifth IDI corruption will absorb your character. Don't worry, it's not too easy to acquire corruption.

You won't need to worry about your character permanently losing their personality, though master passions will override your character under certain conditions. Some traits will affect some aspect of your character's personality, but I genuinely tried not to make them completely character rewriting. If you seriously feel a character may be in jeopardy of becoming unrecognizable by gaining a mental trait, I'll come up with something...
 
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Sponge

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Re: Building a Campaign: Mirafar

I am open to new zombie ideas. I'd like to create a special zombie for Corruption type. Like Fey Zombies are also refereed to as gang-bang zombies, as the go around collecting people to have sex with non-stop.
Ok, being a zombie geek and watching any movie within mention of such monsters, you need to acknowledge how they have evolved.

Zombies these days in movies and games are FAST. They are driven by pure rage and lust for blood. It's great to have good old fashioned zombies, and I fully approve of it. But these zombies I'm thinking of would probably be a real high rank in the threat meter if there a lot around. They probably would be faster than normal people do to the fact they always seem to be having an adrenaline high. If this zombie was to be integrated into your game somehow, I don't think we could simply say it was some sort of bio hazard chemical science testing ordeal. Most likely this would have to be a Necromancers perfection in zombie making. Able to take a fresh corpse and keep it in such a state, yet give it the bloodthirsty tendencies of the other zombies. Think 28 Days Later or Left 4 Dead. Just an idea though. X3

With the Fae zombies, they most likely would of been people eaten by carnivorous plants, re birthed from a pod or flower type thing. More leafy plant material than actual flesh, but still pretty damn creepy looking. Maybe something like this.

And am ready to argue to the death that 28 Days later is a Zombie movie. People that once were dead, and now up and killing people? Eating, tearing, or ripping them apart without any real individualism or personality. Zombie.


Also, regarding to your corruption list, it seems pretty much ever magic entity suffers the same afflictions mentally. Cruelty and such. The Celestial shouldn't have that. Perhaps unfeeling, as long as it seems "just" they don't feel for whatever pain they cause. It's not cruel, it's just no regret. I don't think Fear would be something an Angel would go through either. Fearless perhaps, nothing scares them, at all. Even if it's obviously going to totally crush in their bones. They wouldn't be able to back out of a "just" fight because they are fearless. Things like that. Fae are more passionate. Not just sex. Loving, too caring, sensitive, I don't know I'm just throwing ideas out here. I never been a Dungeon Master or anything, but I'm always glad to suggest things if it can make the experience better.

Oh, and the game looks pretty damn fun. Might join when I read all the rules and applications to the game 0_e.
 
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the_taken

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Re: Building a Campaign: Mirafar

Violent Actions

An essential component of fantasy genres and zombie apocalypses is the actual monster slaying. There are a couple of rules a player needs to know to pick an appropriate stick to whack things with.

Every entity has 3 sets of 10 wound boxes. Non-Lethal, Lethal and Aggravated wounds. Every entity. Mice, deities, dogs, zombies, exalted, commoners, kings, dragons, giant beasts. Everything.

When your character accumulates 10 non-lethal wounds, he passes out. 10 lethal wounds, and he's likely to die in the next few minutes unless he gets immediate medical attention. Aggravated wounds are lethal wounds that are not gonna heal properly, and accumulating 10 of is even more likely to kill your character. An attack that deals aggravated damage deals an equal amount of lethal damage.

Bringing the Hurt
"It's only a flesh wound!"

Agility and Combat are used to determine whether you hit in combat, while Strength alone is added to the amount of damage you dish out on a successful Combat Check.

Strength and Combat are used for grappling.

Below is a table of common melee weapons. The second column denotes how much extra damage the weapon deals on a successful attack, and (N) means the weapon deals non-lethal damage. The second column represents the strength score your character needs to wield the weapon. A small weapon can only be used in one hand, while exceeding a medium weapon's strength requirement by 1 allows your character to wield it in 1. A large weapon can be wielded in one hand if your character's strength exceeds the requirement by 2. The special ability becomes available to your character if he specializes in the weapon.
Code:
Weapon | Damage | Strength req | Size | Special Attribute
Natural Attack (Fist) | 0(N) | 0 | - | You cannot be disarmed of your natural attack.
Dagger | 1 | 1 | S | 1 in 6 chance to deal an extra point of aggravated damage
Longsword | 3 | 2 | M | 1 in 6 chance to deal an extra point of damage
Mace | 2 | 2 | M | 1 in 6 Chance to stun
Spear | 2 | 2 | M | Provides reach, and has 1 in 6 chance to deal aggravated damage
Battle Axe | 3 | 3 | L | 1 in 6 chance to outright kill extras, or a free attack if the attack killed it anyway
Greatsword | 3 | 3 | L | 1 in 6 chance to deal aggravated damage
Bull Whip | 1(N) | 1 | L | 1 in 6 chance to cause Agony
Lance | 2 | 3 | L | Provides reach and outright kills extras when used in a charge
Below is the table for ranged weapons. The follow similar rules, however, your character must use the Bow and Arrow in two hands, as does reloading the Crossbow require two hands. Neither the Bow and Arrow nor Cross Bow deal extra damage from Strength. Additionally, if your character hasn't specialized in the weapon, it reduces his effective range with it by one category.
Code:
Weapon | Damage | Range | Strength req | Size | Special Attribute
Throwing Axe | 2 | Short (Near) | 1 | S | 1 in 6 chance to cause aggravated damage.
Bow and Arrow | 2 | Way-Out (Short) | 2 | L | Add agility to damage and 1 in 6 chance to deal an extra point of damage
Cross Bow | 3 | Way-Out (Short) | 2 | M | Add agility to damage, and 1 in 6 chance to cause aggravated damage.
These lists are far from exhaustive. If you would rather have a different weapon we can discuss it.

(Naturally, after finding a BBcode table writer and composing these tables I discover that this forum doesn't support the code. I'll make it something readable later.)

Range Categories
Code:
Range 	| meters 	| Threshold
Adjacent 	| 0-2m 	| Special
Near 		| 2-5m 	| 1
Short 	| 5-20m 	| 2
Way out 	| 21-100m 	| 3
Extreme 	| 101-1000m| 	4
Remote 	| 1001+ 	| 5
Layers of Protection

Your character Agility and Combat skill are used to determine how hard it is to be hit in combat. Since you are resisting being attacked, Edge is also added. A shield also makes it harder for your character to be hit.

Strength reduces the amount of damage your character takes, and armor improves this based upon the level of protection it provides. After reducing lethal damage, armor also reduces the same amount of non-lethal damage, providing double the protection.

Non-armors:
Provides no protection from attacks. This category represents clothing.

Camouflage Suite - This is an outfit made to blend into a specific environment.

Fancy Clothes - These clothes are expensive, but also very nice. You are going to have a hard time mingling with nobles if your covered in blood and mud, so a nice dress or elegant robes are essential to making a good impression. Might want to take a bath first, that helps.

Functional - These are the clothes everyone wears when they need to do work. You don't want to ruin your frilly dress picking potatoes, and you don't need to sneak up on dragon poo to clean it up (though you may want to hide from it, anyway.)

Chain Mail Bikini - Provides no effective protection, but it looks so hawt!

Magical Clothes - Attire that simply exude magic. Truth be told, it's mostly your pants. They provide no actual benefit, but a wizard usually conjures a suit as proof of his abilities.

Light Armors:
Provides a basic level of protection from attacks, reducing incoming damage by 2.

Chain Shirt - Tiny rings of metal laced together to protect vital organs. Can be hidden under functional clothing.

Studded Leather - Leather padding covered in metal button. If you take aggravated damage, you reduce the aggravated damage (but not the lethal damage) by 1.

Cord - You are wrapped in knots. You can unravel a section to act as either a whip, or be used as a climbing robe.

Still Suit - Heavy robes that are amazingly cool on the inside. This armor reduces the affects of hot environments significantly.

Winter Clothing - Heavy furs and cloth that keep you warm. This armor reduces the affects of cold environments significantly, like mountains or blizzards.

Medium Armor:
Provides more protection, but at the cost of flexibility. All medium armors reduce damage taken by 4, but also reduces the difficulty to hit your character by 1.

Hide Armor - You wear an animal as a hat. You reek in those animal pants. But you reek like another creature, making you unlocatable by Scent. It's also easier to disguise yourself as that animal.

Breastplate - Your vital organs are covered in a thick metal plate. This armor leaves your limbs free, and doesn't increase the chance to hit you like other medium armors.

Bone Cage Armor - You whole body is encased in the bones of other creatures. It makes you look spooky, and can fool people into thinking you are undead.

Chitin Carapace - Made from the exoskeleton of a giant bug. It's surprisingly light weight, and makes you look like a crazy mantis man. Other giant bugs of the same kind think you are one of them when you wear this.

Dragonscale suit - This impressive shirt, pants and boots are made from the hide of a Bearded Dragon. It provides limited protection from fire, and protection from hot environments. It's also difficult to get in and out of.

Elaborate Gowns - Incredibly expensive, bulky, and protective robes or frilly dress, it's both an impressive feat to afford the outfit, and the team of servants to dress you in it. Since there's so much of material, it's easy to hide things in it, like weapons, tools, important papers, cutlery, another person...

Lobster Mail - Crafted from the exoskeleton of a crustacean. It upgrades you Natural Attack to deal 2 points of lethal damage, and allows you to breathe underwater. It's also buoyant, allowing you to swim without penalty while wearing it.

Scale Mail - Leather padding topped with many overlapping scales of metal. It provides even better protection from ranged attacks and constriction, reducing damage from those sources by an additional 2.

Heavy Armor:
The pinnacle of protective attire, these heavy suits reduce damage by 6, at the cost of decreasing the difficulty to hit your character by 2.

Full Plate - Thick padding under thick plates of metal covering every part of the body. When your character takes aggravated damage, there's a 1 in 6 chance of only taking lethal instead.

Sexy Plate - A woman's suit of steel that still exudes femininity. It's beautiful, erotic and practical without any compromises.

Coral Armor - Made from living coral, it is adorned with spikes, improving your natural attack to deal 2 lethal damage, and have a 1 in 6 chance to poison on a successful attack. You can also breathe underwater with it on.

Sun Plate - Glorious golden armor forged from Hope and filled with Goodness. During the day, it removes 1 lethal wound from it's wearer every hour. It also shines very brightly, repelling zombies. It can only be worn by characters with at least 4 levels of celestial corruption.

Demon Armor - Diabolical hellish armor, it is actually a type of demon. Every time it's wearer kills a creature living, it removes 1 lethal wound from them. It also has naughty tentacles it likes to use to molest it's wearer, or assist them in molesting others. It can only be worn by characters with at least 4 levels of demonic corruption.

Titan Wood Plate - Incredibly tough wooden plates cut from a very rare tree. Makes giant bugs, animals, fey zombies and unintelligent plants friendly towards its wearer. It's also buoyant, allowing your character to swim without penalty while wearing it. It can only be worn by characters with at least 4 levels of fey corruption.

Bone Plate - Thick plates of bone from large creatures held together by enslaved spirits. This armor exudes death, making it a very spooky source of protection. It constantly heals the wearer, removing on lethal wound every hour. It also renders the wearer invisible to all undead. It can only be worn by characters with at least 4 levels of necromantic corruption.

Mechanus Armor - A very large suit of armor plates covering a complex system of gears, wires, and tubing. It occasionally lets out a plume of steam, and whistles loudly, making stealth impossible. It increases it's wearer's strength by 1, and allows them to use the Operation skill in the place of the Combat skill, with benefits from Combat specializations. The suit also fights on after it's wearer loses consciousness (or dies) for the remainder of combat.

Silk Steel Armor - A steel carapace held together by strands of giant cave spider silk, it is very quiet armor, muffling the sounds of movement from the wearer. It also looks really cool, impressing even the most snooty nobles.

Shields:
Shields reduce the chance to hit you by 1, since it's assumed your character will want to keep it between them and harm. Of course, what kind of shield your character is using makes a difference.

Wooden Shield - Thick planks of wood held together by steel or leather straps, everybody and their grandma has a few of these lying around as they are easy to make and dirt cheap to buy. It's also great when something tries to grab you, as you can let them have the shield instead, at the cost of not having the shield anymore.

Steel Shield. - A solid sheet of metal that provides excellent protection from attacks. It's also a heavy blunt object, allowing you to deal lethal damage with you natural attack, and have a 1 in 6 chance to stun if you specialize in 'Shield Bash'.

Mithril Shield - It's as strong as titanium and as light as titanium. Who are we fooling? This is a great shield. It's also aerodynamic and can be thrown, using identical statistics to the throwing axe, but specializing in the 'Flying Shield' makes the shield fly back to you instead.

Bone Shield - A seemingly random assortment of bones collected into a shield. The shield absorbs necromantic energies, granting a +1 bonus to resisting powers that use necrotic power points.

Crystal Shield - An alchemical marvel: A solid crystal grown into the shape of a shield. It's transparent, and warps what is seen on the other side, granting a +1 bonus to resiting powers that require line of sight.

Kappa Shell - The shell of a large dragon turtle, it is worn on one's back instead of wielded in one's hand.

Kite Shield - A large shield shaped to benefit a steed as much as it's rider, increasing the difficulty to hit a mount by 1.

Tower Shield - A light, mobile wall of wood and steel. The wielder may claim cover from it, instead of attacking, granting effective immunity to ranged attacks.

Getting Better
Insert Monty Python's overused newt joke here.

Even the thickest suits of armor can't protect your character from all attacks. Sometimes a mook gets lucky, or maybe your character runs afoul of a mightier foe. Regardless, he (or she) is gonna be hurt, and they are gonna get better.

Each track's rate of healing is calculated separately, and characters only heal when they are resting. Wounds are healed in pairs, until there is only one wound in the track left, but every time a pair of wounds is healed, one wound is added to the next track. (This makes it possible for a Knight to heroically win a fight then die, or a Succubus to fuck someone to death.) Aggravated damage, of course doesn't go over to a worse track, since it already is the worst it possibly can be.

Non-Lethal wounds heals at a rate of one pair every 20 minutes. A pair of Lethal wounds is healed every 12 hours, and pairs of aggravated wounds heal every two days.

While this may seem very deadly for characters (and it is) the Medicine skill is used to remove wounds from characters at a faster rate. The skill can be used to remove a pair of wounds from a wound track, but only once in the healing time frame for each track (and with a successful skill test). The skill can also be used to stabilize a character that has taken 10 lethal wounds, and specialization to do this task is available, but only in the first 20 minutes of receiving the injury that brought them to that level. A character with 10 aggravated wounds is even more likely to die, even if stabilized, but a very difficult test can be made to try and save them. At that point, they won't heal at all until two days pass and they have less than 10 aggravated wounds.

Also, in the Main Camp is a healer with maximum ranks in Medicine who will heal you as long as you maintain good relations with her.
 
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GargantuaBlarg

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Re: Building a Campaign: Mirafar

Chain Mail Bikini - Provides no effective protection, but it looks so hawt!
I lol'd.

Also, "your vital organs are covered in a tick metal plate."


This readable enough?

Melee weapons
Format
Weapon | Damage | Strength req | Size | Special Attribute
Natural Attack (Fist) | 0(N) | 0 | - | You cannot be disarmed of your natural attack.
Dagger | 1 | 1 | S | 1 in 6 chance to deal an extra point of aggravated damage
Longsword | 3 | 2 | M | 1 in 6 chance to deal an extra point of damage
Mace | 2 | 2 | M | 1 in 6 Chance to stun
Spear | 2 | 2 | M | Provides reach, and has 1 in 6 chance to deal aggravated damage
Battle Axe3 | 3 | L | 1 in 6 chance to outright kill extras, or a free attack if the attack killed it anyway
Broadsword | 3 | 3 | L | 1 in 6 chance to deal aggravated damage
Bull Whip | 1(N) | 1 | L | 1 in 6 chance to cause Agony
Lance | 2 | 3 | L | Provides reach and outright kills extras when used in a charge
Ranged weapons
Format
Weapon | Damage | Range (clarification requested: max (min)?) | Strength req | Size | Special Attribute
Throwing Axe | 2 | Short (Near) | 1 | S | 1 in 6 chance to cause aggravated damage.
Bow and Arrow | 2 | Way-Out (Short) | 2 | L | Add agility to damage and 1 in 6 chance to deal an extra point of damage
Cross Bow | 3 | Way-Out (Short) | 2 | M | Add agility to damage, and 1 in 6 chance to cause aggravated damage.
Any reason the ranged weapons had their sizes spelled out, unlike the melee's S/M/L?

Broadswords are just the catch-all term for really big swords, right? Claymores, Zweihanders, that sort.

Also, the range chart thing, from aWoD.
Range | meters | Threshold
Adjacent | 0-2m | Special
Near | 2-5m | 1
Short | 5-20m | 2
Way out | 21-100m | 3
Extreme | 101-1000m| 4
Remote | 1001+ | 5
 

Pheonix Alugere

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Re: Building a Campaign: Mirafar

Broadswords are basically fat longswords. They are one handed weapons. There is no 'catch all' name for two handed swords except for saying two handed swords.


Also:

Magical Clothes - Attire that simply exude magic. Truth be told, it's mostly your pants. They provide no actual benefit, but a wizard usually conjures a suit as proof of his abilities.
My character will wear some awesome stripy pants.
 

GargantuaBlarg

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Re: Building a Campaign: Mirafar

I dunno if just being "fat" would warrant a size upgrade though. The terms are kinda nebulous and confusing, so I try not to assume.

If I look 'em up on wikipedia, for example, broadsword gives me "one handed/basket-hilted sword", whereas longsword'll give me "two-handed greatsword".
 
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the_taken

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Re: Building a Campaign: Mirafar

My character will wear some awesome stripy pants.
:p

I dunno if just being "fat" would warrant a size upgrade though. The terms are kinda nebulous and confusing, so I try not to assume.

If I look 'em up on wikipedia, for example, broadsword gives me "one handed/basket-hilted sword", whereas longsword'll give me "two-handed greatsword".
OK. I admit. I got the terms mixed up. I was trying to go for the general one handed sword you use with a shield = longsword, and the two-handed sword that you have to be really strong to use in one hand.

Those are passable tables, Blarg, but I think I'll go with what I did last time. Make them up in a spreadsheet, then take a screen shot.

I don't know why I spelled out weapon sizes in the ranged weapon chart... and I forgot to write up the shields...

Updated. Up next: IDI splat post.
 
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GargantuaBlarg

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Re: Building a Campaign: Mirafar

Ah, I see. In that case, I'd suggest "longsword" for your basic sword, and "greatsword" for the big one.
 
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the_taken

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Re: Building a Campaign: Mirafar

And now presenting your inter-dimensional invaders.

Spawn of the Black Moon

Brief History of The Black Moon

The Black Moon is a massive, nearly spherical black rock well over 2 kilometers in diameter. It has hundreds of massive holes of various sizes where pale-purple flesh covers, acting as gates to whatever insane labyrinth exists within. The fact that such a massive mass of rock is capable of flight would be disturbing, if it weren't for the fact that in this fantasy world are other floating continents that are way bigger. Like the one Mirafar sits on.

The origin of the Black Moon before it's appearance is unknown. It is known it it existed before since was summoned, but beyond that, nothing is known. Who summoned it is also clouded mystery, even to the most powerful diviners. The only thing known was their hatred for the Kingdom of Mirafar was so strong, they were willing to summon something as terrible as The Black Moon to destroy it.

And destroy the kingdom it. Like the great shadow of oblivion it self, The Black Moon hovered over the capital and unleashed a flood of nightmarish creatures into the unprepared city. As the days passed, the great and terrible siege waged, heard below the floating continent, the other Kingdoms braced itself to face the unknown threat. It was believed that nothing could survive the slaughter that The Black Moon wrought, but as Mirafar was declared fallen, refugees and deserter of the once great army began to trickle out of the wilderness.

Then The Black Moon began to promotes it's own agenda. It had captured a many of nobles from Mirafar, and corrupted them into its own agents. These agents were sent to every Kingdom across the world, tasked with promoting the message that the Black Moon didn't kill everyone. It assimilated many people into its hive mind and gave them eternal life. It transformed those who embraced it into great and powerful immortals.

Countless centuries of stories, rumours, and experience will soul hungry dark gods allowed everyone to tell The Black Moon to go fuck itself. And it turned out the emissaries were not there to negotiate, there were actually assassins sent to throw the kingdoms into chaos. A few kings died, but the kingdoms resisted the initial attacks and braced for war.

The Black Moon sent armies of horrors everywhere. Kingdoms fell, warlords rose, bandits ran amok and did ensue, but after 10 years, the world banded together and fought the spawned armies to a stalemate. Only the active participation of The Black Moon itself could topple a Kingdom, and even then, a Kingdom's leadership and population could escape and continue the war effort.

It was another fifty years before a breakthrough in the war was achieved. Central to the war effort was the leadership of one Kingdom from a small floating island high above the world's vastest ocean. Ayoun City. The Black Moon decided to assault them directly, in and effort to ruin the world resistance. It proved an impossible task, even with it's massive black form blotting out the sun for weeks as it sieged the isolated city.

The Battle for Ayoun City was a distraction. As the battle waged on, The Black Moon diverted more of its resources into toppling it, giving other Exalted across the globe time to gather together, and cast the greatest spell ever conceived. The power to strip a god of it's salient powers and dominion.

Striped of it's potent powers, The Black Moon was weakened, it's most potent powers no longer functional. Without them, Ayoun City no only ruined its enemy's invading force in short order, but successfully assaulted The Black Moon itself. The assault failed, no survivors retuning from within its massive form, but it retreated for the first time, having failed to conquer a Kingdom.

Four decades later, the battles against the spawn of The Black Moon can be said to be going well. The armies are no longer invincible, their number dwindling noticeably with each passing year, and the active participation of The Black Moon itself no longer a death sentence to a Kingdom. Eradication of the inter-dimensional invader is now not only more than faint hope, but an objective foreseeable in the current generation's life time.

The Black Miasma
The most fearsome ability of The Black Moon was a thick black fog that surrounded it. This fog was entirely stationary, the wind being unable to affect it, but it was as fine as any mist, allowing beings to walk through it unhindered, besides the reduced visibility and the darkness beneath it. The Black Moon itself can feel everything within this miasma, granting it unparallelled awareness of everything going on within the miasma.

Additional, anyone who breathes it begins to hallucinate, seeing everything as much scarier than it really is, and becoming extremely confused. Exalted were immune to this effect, as were many strong willed or corrupted people being capable of resiting it's mental effects to a degree.

As The Black Moon crossed the world, it would erect dark spires which would emit this Miasma, extend it.

When The Black Moon was stripped of its powers, The Black Miasma became susceptible to the wind, and no longer provided the hive mind with incredible awareness. Additionally, the presence of Exalted now repels the miasma around them, granted a bubble of sanctuary that grows as they grow in power, allowing more soldiers to fight within it's dark shadow.

The Mind Worm
Key to The Black Moon's strategy was a tiny worm like creature with a mouth of razors, no larger than an earth worm. Every drone of The Black Moon would house several of these creatures, and would sometimes spit them at people. The worm would then burrow into them, painfully finding it's way to their brain. Then the person would have to either choose to embrace The Black Moon and become a terrible servant of it, or become a soulless zombie, a fully corrupted slave in either sense.

Now the mind worm is merely a nuisance, capable of no more harm than a bug bite. They also shrivel when salted, and many demons claim they taste good with marmalade. Most of everyone that was corrupted by mind worms is now free of the hive, though most are likely still in the great expanses of miasma.

That said, The Black Moon has other ways of corrupting people and adding to it's numbers.

Zombies of The Black Moon
The sad fate people that resit The Black Moon's will when they become corrupted by it. What distinguishes them from other kinds of zombies is the fact sometimes one of their arms has some sort of metallic tube or two instead of a hand. Occasionally, the zombie will aim the appendage at a foe, and with a load crack, fire off a hard, bony projectile. Some zombies fire several of these 'bullets' in rapid succession, while others can fire a blast of tiny pellets. Still others have incredible range with these projectiles, though their accuracy is dubious at best.

These boom sticks are superior to any common soldiers ranged weapons, and it is recommended that soldiers specifically remove these enhanced zombies first with ranged attacks, as they are horrifically deadly at close range.

Soldiers of The Black Moon
A less common sight within the ranks of The Black Moon's spawn is a person that has accepted the hive mind and joined with it. Before The Black Moon lost it's great power, these traitorous creatures were individually a force to be reckoned with. They were extremely strong, had an though carapace, could shape shift their limbs into any weapon they desired (including the boom sticks they can use to much greater effectiveness), annoyingly would heal their wounds right before your eyes, and were totally without pain nor fear. They were terrible enough to give Exalted pause, though enough determination and judicious application of superior numbers could slay them with minimal loss..

Now these traitorous scum are brought down back to a sane level. No longer able to morph and regenerate at an astounding rate, and the boost in power removed, these former super soldiers are more manageable by conventional troops. They still can morph their limbs, but not fast enough to change their tactics in combat. They can still regenerate, but it now take hours to recover from near death, as opposed to minutes. They also feel pain, now, though they are still without fear.

A common variant of the foot soldier, is a strider, who instead has four long legs they use to easily run at great speeds. Their arms are most often long barbed lances they use to stab from their great hight, or a couple of boom sticks that fire multiple 'bullets' in rapid succession.

Mutant Spawn
More fearsome than the enhanced humans The Black Moon absorbs are the monster it creates from the combined imaginations of its hive mind. They've had a variety of forms over the century, ranging from floating masses of tendrils, to massive armoured insectoid hulks springing huge boom sticks instead of arms, to packs of running jaws lined with dagger length teeth. These monster could change the tide of battles, and were a daunting task to defeat for even the mightiest Exalted Warriors.

Like the corrupted humans, they used to be able to morph and heal in a blink of an eye. Now their forms are set when they are created, though they are still difficult to contend with.

Intelligence Report
Mirafar was the most well defended city of its age. The King's Palace was sounded by a mighty wall and powerful magical enchantments, and could only be reached by fighting through the city, or by air. A second wall was built ages ago around what is now the inner city, and lesser wall divide the the whole city up into sections. To demonstrate his raw arcane power, four centuries ago The Lich King of Mirafar created a single, massive obsidian wall which now surrounds the outer city with one spell. This wall is a single slab that run from the edge of the continent, around the city's limits, and back to the edge of the continent. It has three holes in it that are the gates to three of the sections int the outer city.

The Capital of the Mirafar Kingdom had two Black Spires that spew the Black Miasma, as well as one in the mountains to the south.

General Edward Duke, of the World Combined Resistance Forces lead a suitably large army into Mirafar on orders from the leaders to retake the fallen kingdom from The Black Moon. He met minimal resistance, mostly in the form of zombies and wildlife corrupter by powerful magic, and lost far too few troops to even be considered glorious combat. Within sight of the walls of the Capital, he was ordered to fortify his position and await further orders, instead of beginning incursions and sieging the city as originally ordered.

Some flying form of Black Moon Spawn can occasionally be seen flying above, most likely scouts.
 

GargantuaBlarg

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Re: Building a Campaign: Mirafar

Questions again.

- What is "average"? Like, your regular, average Joe. 2 for stats, 3-4 for rolls? So your run of the mill non-awesome blacksmith might have 2 in the smithing-relevant stat, and 2 in artisan (metalworking)?

- How about the camp? It's been in place for a year, right, so should I expect it to still be all tents and a palisade wall, is it more of a permanent place, with maybe log cabin barracks, towers? It's kinda strange when I think of taking servants and having a team of maids attending my wagon, sleeping in pup-tents.

- Wait, so our entire country's on a flying continent? How big is this continent? Cities, environments? What's the non-flying stuff like - all ocean, or land too?

- We're in a world-wide coalition thing, too? How many other countries are there, and are they in the camp? Are they also all humans, or do we have like freaky Thri-keens and Mindflayers in the coalition too?
 
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the_taken

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Re: Building a Campaign: Mirafar

Questions again.
There are no stupid questions. Except for Billy's questions.

- What is "average"? Like, your regular, average Joe. 2 for stats, 3-4 for rolls? So your run of the mill non-awesome blacksmith might have 2 in the smithing-relevant stat, and 2 in artisan (metalworking)?
Your guess is close. A peasant will typically have only 1s and a couple a of 2s in his or her attributes. It'll be an impressive feat if they can get a second rank in any skills. Fresh recruits will have those 2s in physical attributes, and 2 ranks in combat. Technical skills come with a specialization, so artisans don't need to have a second rank in their skill, to or even a second rank in the relevant attribute to get an automatic success in making simple things.

Shambler zombies have 4 STR, 1 AGI, and 1 Combat. They are worse than soldiers at combat, but way tougher. Ghouls have a Combat specialization for grappling, so they are actually dangerous.

- How about the camp? It's been in place for a year, right, so should I expect it to still be all tents and a palisade wall, is it more of a permanent place, with maybe log cabin barracks, towers? It's kinda strange when I think of taking servants and having a team of maids attending my wagon, sleeping in pup-tents.
The camp has been there for less than a year. However, with the crazy kind of monsters that The Black Moon creates, and the things that can come out of the wilderness, a wood and mud wall is only a minor deterrent. Since mobility wasn't gonna be needed indefinitely, General Edward Duke took defence very seriously. The outer wall is made of stacked timber logs, several feet thick, and has a dozen towers he stuffs with lookouts and archers. There's still hundreds of tents for all the soldiers, but a few log cabins have been built for things like food storage and artisan work stations.

Somewhere in the sea of tents are hidden the siege engines General Edward Duke brought to take the Capital.

- We're in a world-wide coalition thing, too? How many other countries are there, and are they in the camp? Are they also all humans, or do we have like freaky Thri-keens and Mindflayers in the coalition too?
There are no countries. The world's 'government' structures are closer to an Iron Age setting than even late Medieval. Even the term 'government' hasn't been invented yet because people are operating under the rule of might makes right.

Classically, when someone wants to be in charge of an area, they just say it and they are unless there is someone more powerful than them competing. This is usually Exalted, though they are not always the official figure head. The administration of an area is necessary. It's there to tell people what their ruler wants them to do, and to let you the ruler know when the people aren't doing what he wants them to. You get Warlords when all the resident bad ass wants to do is start huge fights, and you get really awesome kingdoms (like Mirafar) when the ruler tries to minimize stresses on population growth, like angry rivals, uppity Exalted that wanna be warlords, famine and disease.

When Kingdom isn't ruled by an Exalted, the current official ruler will try to get on really friendly terms with some so that he can get their support and stay in charge. This often involves coming up with an excuse to marry off a suitably attractive relative.

-------

Most of the sentient entities are human. All the playable ones are. There are supernatural entities like genies and demons, but they have some not nice habits and incredibly powerful abilities that makes them not appropriate for this game. Crazy physical features come from various corruptions, and if you really want your character to look a certain way, I'll work with you to achieve it in game.

- Wait, so our entire country's on a flying continent? How big is this continent? Cities, environments? What's the non-flying stuff like - all ocean, or land too?
The world has a few 'layers' of continents. Think of the story 'Jack and the Beanstalk' and you get the idea of what floating continents are like. You have the planet's surface where there are oceans, as well as massive land masses. Then you have these continents floating hundreds to a couple of thousand feet up, that are very much like the surface kind, but don't have ocean side beaches, they just drop off via a strait cliff. The floating continents are as stationary as the surface kinds, and big plants really do grow up and down between everything, allowing access to almost every continent. Few 'beanstalks' are the right size and shape to allow creatures that suck at climbing (like pack boars) to use them.

There are some floating continents floating over top of surface land masses, keeping them in darkness except around sun rise and sunset, and Mirafar is one of them. It's hovering above a large desert, people call The White Sea. It's not perfectly white, but it is all sand and very hot. People don't live there, though sometimes you can see the dunes shift as if something moves beneath the surface.
 

Sponge

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Re: Building a Campaign: Mirafar

<_<

I don't think anybody saw my earlier posts about the monster suggestions.

You did say you were looking for zombie plant things right? Somewhere in the thread earlier I thought about things as you said you were thinking of new zombies and such. The plant monster picture I found should give you a pretty good idea what those could be like, the fae zombies I mean. Yeah I know I'm a newbie, but I still know what it takes to take a good plot, story, character development, and historic background that stories need. It would be nice to at least consider the idea.

Ok, being a zombie geek and watching any movie within mention of such monsters, you need to acknowledge how they have evolved.

Zombies these days in movies and games are FAST. They are driven by pure rage and lust for blood. It's great to have good old fashioned zombies, and I fully approve of it. But these zombies I'm thinking of would probably be a real high rank in the threat meter if there a lot around. They probably would be faster than normal people do to the fact they always seem to be having an adrenaline high. If this zombie was to be integrated into your game somehow, I don't think we could simply say it was some sort of bio hazard chemical science testing ordeal. Most likely this would have to be a Necromancers perfection in zombie making. Able to take a fresh corpse and keep it in such a state, yet give it the bloodthirsty tendencies of the other zombies. Think 28 Days Later or Left 4 Dead. Just an idea though. X3

With the Fae zombies, they most likely would of been people eaten by carnivorous plants, re birthed from a pod or flower type thing. More leafy plant material than actual flesh, but still pretty damn creepy looking. Maybe something like this.

And am ready to argue to the death that 28 Days later is a Zombie movie. People that once were dead, and now up and killing people? Eating, tearing, or ripping them apart without any real individualism or personality. Zombie.


Also, regarding to your corruption list, it seems pretty much ever magic entity suffers the same afflictions mentally. Cruelty and such. The Celestial shouldn't have that. Perhaps unfeeling, as long as it seems "just" they don't feel for whatever pain they cause. It's not cruel, it's just no regret. I don't think Fear would be something an Angel would go through either. Fearless perhaps, nothing scares them, at all. Even if it's obviously going to totally crush in their bones. They wouldn't be able to back out of a "just" fight because they are fearless. Things like that. Fae are more passionate. Not just sex. Loving, too caring, sensitive, I don't know I'm just throwing ideas out here. I never been a Dungeon Master or anything, but I'm always glad to suggest things if it can make the experience better.

Oh, and the game looks pretty damn fun. Might join when I read all the rules and applications to the game 0_e.
 
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the_taken

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Re: Building a Campaign: Mirafar

<_<

I don't think anybody saw my earlier posts about the monster suggestions
I totally saw your post. Didn't I post a comment on it?

...

Oops. I'm sorry. I wrote something along the lines of "That's a neat idea. You may want to stay out of the forest now." in a draft, but got omitted from the post.

Yep, creepy plants that eat you and spit out a zombie in your likeness + vines. Good times.
 
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