Gods and Icons Kickstarter Video Production
Well, my camera-woman took off, but here's a sneak peak at the setup. As soon as she returns, I'll jump back into that chair. And do my spiel for Gods and Icons. And try not to talk too fast! :)
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Gods and Icons: Example Boons
Gods and Icons has hundreds of ideas you can use as Icon Relationship results. Pick what works for your group, roll the dice and see what happens, or mix and match. You could roll for the general form of the boon and pick the specific.
Here are some example boons you get from 5s and 6s. Next time we'll have some example complications from 5s.
In the dungeon example: The Player Character gets Hugely Important Information from an agent of an icon. A whispering wind tells her in elvish how to find a secret door. This door leads to a secret passage around the demon guards directly ahead of the party. They can skip the guards and move deeper into the story.
An in town example: Here a PC gets a one shot item. A clockwork owl comes to the window with a note. The note shows him where in a giant's lair he hides an epic level magic potion of fire resistance that will come in handy when the character faces the red dragon. As the GM you already had the giant and red dragon encounter planned, so you rolled for a potion and picked fire resistance.
A wilderness example: This time the player gets a true magic item. A white stag stares into a character's eyes and gives them a vision. They see a shining magical sword corrupted by an evil priest and given to an fell knight. Then they see a ritual that would cleanse the corruption and return it into a sword fit for a hero. Now when they meet the knight with the magic sword, they will know how to make it their own. After they deal with the small matter of the evil knight and her minions.
Gods and Icons Art in Progress
Artist Justin Wyatt (cover artist for The Sun Below: Sleeping Lady) has sent in some sketches for Gods and Icons. I took his rough for the cover and slapped a title and 13th Age Roleplaying Game compatibility license on it. Just to get a feel for what goes where. The final cover will be in color.
We'll reuse the art for the three gods above the castle in The Gods Have Spoken: Deities and Domains, as they share the same pantheons.
Of course we'll want more art, but that's what Kickstarter stretch goals are for.
Can I See Myself in your RPG Book?
As our hobby grows, I keep running into GMs and players who aren't the stereotypical gamer of the 1970s. Women, people of color, gays, trans, and even gray-haired oldies.
Which is great! More people to play with, to have fun with, to make friends with.
I have the original white box D&D set, and have been playing since the 70s. When a new player picks up a gaming book, do they see anyone that looks like their family? Images that include them? Or is there that barrier of "this is not for you."
Well, things are changing. And the lead author on The Gods Have Spoken: Deities and Domains, Vanessa Rose Phin, looks at the new 5E PHB to look at that change. Take a look on her blog. (Vanessa's also a major contributor to Gods and Icons.)
Of course this made me look at Dread Unicorn titles. Purple hermaphrodites are well represented, thank you very much. Numenera takes you out of the stereotypical RPG world in so many ways, art included. Our next titles are more in standard fantasy land, so we'll see what we can do there to make people feel like this is a game for them.
Some people have told me that if we make an effort to include more kinds of people, we could loose straight white males. Really? I think that's selling straight white males short. What if my sales are as flat as Star Wars: The Force Awakens?
Horrors!
Squeezing Deities into Your Adventure
We're thinking a lot about the gods in fantasy roleplaying games as we work on Gods and Icons and The Gods Have Spoken. Here Vanessa gives advice on adding a pantheon to your game, depending on what kind of GM you are. You’re about to begin a new game. You’ve spent time on plot, NPCs, maps. You've thought of absolutely everything, and it’s all gleeful daggers and mayhem until someone says—
“I wanna play a cleric.”
Ruh roh.
If you’re here, one of your players wants a religious class, and your adventure doesn’t have gods. Or you’re trying to encourage one of your players to play a religious class so that the party has a healer. So you've grabbed a supplement or gone to a website or rifled through the PHB and found a pantheon. Or your player has handed you one god or many, and you promised to work them in.
Problem is, the gods? They weren't in your world to begin with, and they don’t really fit. Or you might like a pantheon but have no idea how to integrate them into your world. You know that the religious-class player will want to have a sense of faith in the game—a cleric without a big religious moment is like a fighter without a battle. How do you squeeze a pantheon into your homebrew so that PCs have fun but you don’t waste a lot of time?
Easy. And it all depends on your GM style.
Map Maker
You always have a map for your game. It’s the first thing you build, and the chief way you think about your world. Boundaries, cultures, cities, terrain, and movement over a large area.
Large scale: Religious practices reflect the land in which the people live. Pick a place that is similar to the original terrain of the pantheon and make it the faith of the people there. Taiga for Norse gods, rainforest for Maya, rocky chaparral for Greek, etc. If there isn’t a terrain that satisfies you on the map, every map has an edge: add something beyond it. And if you’re stuck—if you’re using seafaring gods in a Dark Sun world—just remember that historically speaking, religious practices change over time. What if you landed a sea people on a desert world? How would they change their rituals to match their new territory?
Small scale: Stick a temple on your map. The faith may have been widespread, but now it’s a tiny vestige with limited influence. Or it’s a small cult that has broken off from a larger religion. The cleric has left either to proselytize or bring back an artifact/treasure to restore their former glory.
NPC Builder
You have a list of NPCs that makes the Monstrous Manual look tiny. When faced with a gaming problem, you ask yourself, “What would [NPC] do?” Their individual motivations drive the world.
Large scale: Instead of thinking about the pantheon as an entity, think of the pantheon as a group of NPCs. Let's say this pantheon encounters your world. What do they want? How would they change the world, and be changed by it? Caveat: resist having the avatars get too personal with the party—nothing spells frustrating (or Iliad) like having your level 1 PCs constantly trapped into acting for the gods.
Small scale: Look at your NPC list. Make sure some NPCs are familiar with your cleric’s religion. They don’t have to be devout: heck, maybe they hate the faith. They just need to understand the symbols your cleric is wearing and respond to them.
Master Plotter
You’ve got the story down to the last detail. Random encounters? Ha! There is no random in your land. Your plot is epic and world-spanning, and you can’t wait to see how the players interact with it.
Large scale: Tweak your world plot. It doesn’t have to be huge. Perhaps the main villain is also of the cleric’s faith (awkward!) or is undead, giving the cleric some extra power in combat. Maybe the artifact of power defeating the evil wizard can only be found and activated by someone who follows your cleric’s god. Perhaps your main antagonist has a paladin minion who hates your paladin’s guts. Or the world tree is dying, and only a druid can research and perform the spell that will protect it from a horde of dire aphids.
Small scale: Create an encounter that requires the player-character’s faith. It can be as simple as a knowledge check or as complex as encountering an undead cult with a thirst for the blood of the PC’s religious brethren.
Player Responder
You see yourself as the person who helps your players create the story they want. If someone wants to explore that rocky crag and you didn’t prepare for it, you wing it. You spend a lot of time thinking of encounters to showcase player skills or backstories.
Large scale: If you haven’t already, consider asking your players to take a gamer motivation quiz: https://apps.quanticfoundry.com/lab/10 Look at the data. Do you have someone who loves to get powerful, to “win” the game? Create a priesthood with ranks determined by deeds. How about someone who loves combat? Generate gods and NPCs in opposition to your cleric’s faith, so the smiting may commence! They love to go on collection quests? Time to prepare some god-blessed artifacts. Someone who loves to roleplay? Make sure the cleric’s faith isn’t obscure: perhaps the people respect and defend priests of the faith, or perhaps the ruling class has mandated worship and the people are in revolt.
Small scale: Why do the work yourself? Give the player the basics of your world and let the player create the order from which they come.
Just Remember: Pantheons are Putty
Nothing is carved in stone (as deep as a spear is long on the trunk of the world ash tree). If there’s anything history teaches us, it’s that religions change and people’s ways of conceiving gods differ. The same Artemis who was worshipped as a javelin-thrower in Sparta was conflated with the goddess of magic in Athens. A Brauron cult had girls dress up as bears to appease Artemis the plague-bringer; in other places, Artemis was considered a protective goddess of childbirth. And while many knew her as a virgin goddess, Artemis was also worshipped as a mother goddess in Ephesus.
Moral of the story: You want to change the gods to suit your world? Do it. Humans have been doing it for millennia as it is.
Spotlight Cards
Index cards are a GM's best friend. Remember the Hipster PDA?
I hate forgetting to give each player time in the spotlight. Therefore, I love having an index card for each player. I shuffle them before the game, and then flip the deck so I can see the top PC card.
On the left I put the information from the game system I need to be able to improv, things from the player's character sheet. I don't need numbers, just the background bits that help in roleplaying.
On the right side of the card I put the stuff the player loves to do in game with this PC. Play with his pet bear, drink at her regular watering hole, flirt with their favorite NPC, and so on.
I finish the left side with a question to myself. Has this PC gotten the spotlight yet? If not, I give them the spotlight ASAP, then put this card on the bottom of the deck and make sure the next PC gets a spotlight moment.
What's a spotlight moment? When you let the PC shine, make them the star of a scene. If they have a favorite action, like pick pocketing, flirting, or flying, I let them go for it. Action scene or pure roleplay, I make sure the character gets center stage.
Here's some examples. You can probably improve on these because no one knows your players better than you.
This is the Cypher System card. I have another question to myself: Has the PC had a GMI (Game Master Intrusion) yet? I'm talking a GM Intrustion that gives them experience points. The card helps me remember. GM Instrusions are fun, and players love the XP that comes with them.
This is the 13th Age card. When I'm working on a spotlight moment, I need the PC's One Unique Thing, their Icon Relationships, and their Backgrounds. Under the notes I might include favorite icon spirits and agents from past icon relationship rolls.
Here's the 5E card. What's important for spotlighting a 5E character might include the PC's background, trait, ideal, bond, and flaw.
Here's a generic GUMSHOE card. Drive and Occupation give me a handle for spotlight scenes.
I thought about doing a card for each GUMSHOE game, but realistically, I'd do them as needed for the games I'm running. On the right side I'd definitely list any sources of stability if they are used in this system, species for Ashen Stars, and so on...
It's easy enough to make your own for your favorite game system. They help me, maybe they'll help you.
Player Facing Monster Mash-up
I sometimes build monsters off of the PC's backstories. I'll use 13th Age as an example, because ba
ckstory elements are a major part of the game and every PC has them on their character sheet. But any game where you've got player character backstories will work.
For 13th Age PCs, I look at their one unique things, backgrounds, icon relationships, and whatever weirdness the players have latched onto, and try to build monsters out of this strange stew. I don't use every backstory bit every time. I pick 2 or 3 for my monster mash-ups.
First I figure out what level, and then I mash up two monsters of that level that have some tie to my PCs backstories. There's a great master monster list you can download here. Or just use the chart in the back of the Bestiary.
For example: Do the PCs have lots of icon relationships with the Orc Lord? And a PC whose background is an ooze and slime collector? I look for monsters associated with the Orc Lord and ooze or slime at my target level. I think it must be time for a 4th level Gelatinous Orc! Simply take the best features from both, and use them.
If I take a 3rd feature from a PC, I'll take one that is just for flavor, like Cat Whisperer of the Elf Queen's court. A little gelatinous cat sits on the monster's shoulder, but has no mechanical effect.
Hmm, I can't find any 4th level orcs, but a bugbear will work! A gelatinous bugbear! I take stats from the Barbarous Bugbear from the Bestiary. (I could level an orc, but if I'm improving in game, I don't have time.)
And the gelatinous tetrahedron, also from the Bestiary. I better bookmark both pages.
I take the higher value of two out of the three defenses and for HP and initiative. I take the lower of the two for one of the defenses. I chose the lowest of the defenses from either monster and use that. I like to keep the rock, paper, scissors (armor class, physical defense, mental defense) design of 13th Age combat going.
I'll write down the init, defenses, and hit points. So, AC: 18 or 19 -> 19; PD: 17 or 17 -> 17!; MD: 16 or 14 -> 14; HP: 51 or 160 -> 160. Init +12 or +3 -> +12. I'll make the size huge for the gelatinous special effects. I might give small boosts to PCs with relationships to the Orc Lord or with ooze and slime backgrounds, say +1 to hit.
"It's a huge bugbear made out of green gelatinous goo. On it's shoulder sits a gelatinous cat who squints at you."
I'll just flip back and forth in the Bestiary for the attacks.
Bugbear stuff: The ferocious start is cool, I'll use it. 2 attacks a round to start with, yay! I'll also use the club attack from the barbarous bugbear, calling it a gelatinous club, but I won't use the natural even hit or miss power. I'll save the special effect for the gelatinous part of my creature.
Gelatinous stuff: I'll say an even gelatinous club hit triggers the gelatinous tetrahedron's engulf and dissolve, on an odd hit it does the club damage from the bugbear. "The gelatinous club splats all over you and covers you in slime, drawing you inside the huge jelly-like bugbear. The gelatinous cat licks its lips."
I think I'll leave out the gelatinous tetrahedron's instinctive actions. I'll save those for the full-on gelahedrons.
Nastier Specials: For extra scariness I like to ask my players. "What's the worst thing about a gelatinous bugbear?" One player is sure to blurt out something awful. Probably about the gelatinous cat spitting slime balls. The rest will moan and beg them not to say things like that, but really, everyone is enjoying the fun. If no one offers a fun suggestion, I'll choose from one of the base creatures or make my own (slime ball attack on a natural even miss!). Crits on 18+ is easy. 16+ if I'm in the mood.
See Also: The undead owlbear archaeologist.
OrcaCon
Had an amazing time at OrcaCon. Attended amazing panels and played amazing games. The organizers made everyone feel included. Ran some great 13th Age demos. Jonathan Tweet even stopped by during one. Bumped into old friends and made new ones. Shanna Germain congratulated me on my success. I melted.
Great time.
Did you know that 13th Age has undead owlbear archaeologists?
13th Age tip: I made up the monsters to match the PCs one unique things (magical archaeologist), backgrounds (Red Wastes explorer, which is close to the Owl Barrens), and icon relationships (lich king). Undead owlbear archaeologists power!
Happy New Year from Dread Unicorn Games!!!
Dread Unicorn Games in 2016
Are you going to OrcaCon? I am, please say hi! I'll be running a few 13th Age games for Fire Opal and attending as much gaming goodness as I can.
Our first products are sister titles: Gods and Icons for 13th Age and The Gods Have Spoken: Deities and Domains for 5E. Why two? It turns out most of the writing and art will work in both products, so why not?
Here's where we are now with Gods and Icons and The Gods Have Spoken:
- The writing is 75.09% done (+ or -). Vanessa has done a great job with three pantheons, and I'm excited to plug in their relationship to the icons for Gods and Icons. There will be holy swords for paladins and religious items for all the divine classes.
- I've been playtesting Gods and Icons for a few months now. Soon I'll give it to the real playtesters to try out.
- We're going to Kickstart the gods! You'll be able to pick either or both titles as your rewards.
- Since this is our first kickstarter, we're going to be cautious. We don't want to promise what we can't deliver! For example, we're not going to do our own printing and shipping. For physical copies, we'll use Drive Thru's Print on Demand and let them do the shipping.
- But we will have lots of great stretch goals: more content and more art!
- Speaking of art, we have a great cover artist! Justin Wyatt has agreed to do our cover art, which will include three gods and three icons. Yay! Gaming art fans will recognize Justin from The Sun Below: City on the Edge where he did interior art and The Sun Below: Sleeping Lady, where he did the amazing cover and interior art.
- Some of Justin's work:
After the Kickstarter, our next title will be a return to Numenera with another adventure: The Sun Below: That's How the Light Gets In. There the players will confront what happens to the underground world when The Sun Below starts to fail!
After that? We're not telling! There is so much going on in roleplaying right now. We've got a lot of great ideas, but first, let's get these three products out the door.
Happy New Year!
John
Announcing The Gods Have Spoken: Deities and Domains
Here at Dread Unicorn Games we love 5E. And we're developing three new d20 pantheons as part of our Gods and Icons supplement for 13th Age.
We thought, why not make a 5E supplement using those same wonderful gods? And thus it is happening.
The Gods Have Spoken: Deities and Domains will be available as an optional reward from the Gods and Icons Kickstarter, coming soon. There will be reward tiers that include both, or you may choose just the 13th Age supplement or just the 5E one. Choice is good!
So check out The Gods Have Spoken: Deities and Domains.
End of Year Sale!
Farewell 2015 Sale! 40% Off!
That's Right, 40% off on PDFs & ePubs
20% off Print of The Sun Below: Sleeping Lady
Adding the Challenge Without the Slow
This is about speeding combat in 13th Age, but the general advice works in any rpg. In fact the math works great in most d20 games, from 3.0 to 5E.Here's the problem. You want to increase the challenge, so you add difficulty, but now your combats go on and on and on. What happened to those 20 minute combats you loved when you first found 13th Age?
To start off, look at Building Battles, page 186 in the Core book. If you follow the advice there, most of your battles will be quick. Great! But once your players start to master their characters, you'll find them too easy. Not great.
So, you opt for a combat 1.5 times or 2 times as hard as a standard battle. That's easy, just add more monsters! And now your battles are more challenging. And long. Too long.
13 True Ways to the rescue! Check out Leveling Up a "Book" Monster and Customizing a DIY Monster on page 159 of 13 True Ways. We're going to combine these to up the challenge while making combats faster.
For each monster you add, you have to manage their position and tactics, roll to hit, track hit points, and so on. Players have yet another target to worry about.
So: Start with a balanced encounter, then up the Levels and apply the Offensive customization.
For example, let's add one level to each monster, and max out the offensive customization. I like the offensive customization to speed up play, as the players miss less, making combat faster. However, the monster misses less, increasing the challenge for the players.
- Attack Bonuses: +1 for level, +3 for offensive = +4! Yay monsters!
- Defenses: +1 for level, -3 for offensive = -2. Yay PCs!
- Hit Points: * 1.25. A bit of a buffer for all those extra hits the PCs will be doing.
- Damage: * 1.25. More hitting AND more damage.
- Specials: * 1.25. I apply this to initiative, since the PCs will hit more often, you don't want the monsters to go down without getting their licks in! (Exception: I don't do this for slow monsters, as being slow is part of their deal. So I might just skip this for the slowest monsters in the combat.)
So let's apply this to a medium red dragon (is that a red dragon who tells fortunes?). They're on p. 220 of the Core book.
Changes:
- Level: 6th +1 = 7th level wrecker
- Attack Bonuses: +11 +4 = +15 for both the Fangs, Claws, and Tail and the Fiery Breath attacks. No more missing!
- Defenses: AC: 21 -2 = 19; PD: 20 -2 = 18; MD: 16 -2 = 14. 10% more hitable.
- Hit Points: 90 * 1.25 = 113.
- Damage: Fangs, claws & tail: 8 * 1.25 = 10 each; Fiery breath: 10 * 1.25 = 13 on 2d3 PCs.
- Initiative: +11 * 1.25 = +14.
- Resist Fire: 12+ * 1.25 = 15+
How's that? The challenge is upped, because this dragon will go near the top of the initiative order, hardly ever miss, and will do more damage. But the lower defenses will mean the dragon goes down faster, ending the combat in fewer rounds.
You can do this for all, or just some of the monsters in an encounter. Leveling up by itself without the offensive customization will be faster than adding monsters.
By choosing a creature like a dragon who attacks multiple times each round, the downside of the "glass cannon" effect you can get with the offensive build is minimized. Even if the dragon only lasts a few rounds, it's going to hit a lot of PCs for damage.
You can do with with the other creatures in the encounter. Perhaps your enhanced red dragon has some enhanced kobold dragon-souls (13th Age Bestiary, p. 125) as friends...
Fast AND Furious!
A Plague of Ones, Part II The Bad and the Ugly
Now it Gets Bad.
Now it Gets Ugly.
In Numenera, The Strange, and all other Cypher System games, the rule is: roll a one, the GM gets a "free" GM Intrusion with no experience point award. Ones are supposed to happen. 5% of the time.
But if you game enough, you'll be sure to run into the dreaded plague of ones. So many ones, what's a GM to do? A lot depends on what's going on in an encounter.
Last time we talked about the good side, when everyone is still having fun, despite the plague of ones. Now let's look at the harder problem, where the ones are wrecking your game.
A Plague of Ones in an Encounter that is No Longer Interesting
Combat
The cypher system is made for fast, exciting combat. But if the PCs just keep missing and are running out of pool points, what do you do? (For a more general solution, see End With a Bang.)
Adding typical combat intrusions (creature/artifact/environment) will slow down combat. But there's yet another one sitting there on the table, taunting you. We're assuming the combat is not spiraling down the TPK drain (see below), so why not try a different kind of intrusion?
If the foes flee, combat ends, and you can move to a more interesting scene. Next time the NPCs will be better prepared for the PCs (+1 level for attacks? Return in greater numbers? Find a higher level friend?). An iron door or a force screen could stop the party from pursuing and prolonging the pain. The foes might jump through a secret door and lock it behind them. Perhaps the foes can wave some treasure, say a cypher or artifact, at the PCs as they vanish. So long, suckers!
Or, give a typical combat intrusion a silver lining that helps bring the dragging combat to a close. The artifact sword slipped out of the PC's hand and flew across the room, but it also cleaved through a statue revealing hidden cyphers (that are perfect for ending the fight) within. A creature careens into the PC, knocking them both across the floor, but put itself in a vulnerable position for a different PC. Thanks Nojo! And sorry about the concussion...
Environmental (climbing, crafting, and so on...)
It's not any fun anymore, so end it. Maybe give some damage for doing something dangerous like climbing, then narrate how the rest of the party got the PC over the wall. The item in the workshop broke, the PC needs new parts, so try again another session. End it and jump to an exciting scene. The workshop's doors fly off their hinges and in comes a hulking steam powered automaton!
Social
Same thing, wrap it up and move on. Give the PC one last insult, and show the party the door. If this is a critical plot point, an NPC can whisper to a different PC to arrange a private meeting later. "The king will never listen to you now, but the prisoners in the vineyards still need you. Meet me in the park at midnight..."
A Plague of Ones in an Encounter that Threatens to Ruin the Session
Oh noes. Too many sessions like this can kill a campaign. At least you can blame the dice.
Combat
All these ones are pointing in one direction: TPK. Move to capture or let the PCs retreat. An intrusion could set off a trap that imprisons the PC, followed by an ultimatum for a party surrender. The PC could be mind controlled. A larger trap is sprung, and the way out is blocked while more foes join in the battle. "Surrender!"
Or nudge the party into fleeing. Describe how the tide has turned against them, and the foes are trying to encircle the PCs. A friendly NPC could try and hold off the foes. "Fly, you fools!" Drop the PC down the damage track and just let them know "You still have time to flee."
Dropping a PC down the damage track encourages them to flee as it makes the player feel vulnerable.
Environmental (climbing, crafting, and so on...)
It's hard to see how this kind of failure would kill a session, but if the players keep hitting their head on the wall, help them move on. Leave the scene and narrate to something fun. The wall collapsed, the workshop blew up, and a week later the party reaches the baron's tower (or whatever the next fun scene is).
Social
It's sad their social strategies have failed, but they did. So move on and narrate them to something exciting. If you succeed here at the tower, those back home might change their minds. But first things first. Like those giant clockwork worms heading your way. What do you do?
Move On
You see a common thread in all of these suggestions? If it's not fun, cut the scene and move on. Sometimes groups will get stuck trying the same thing over and over again, waiting for the dice to save them. Help the players move on, and everyone will benefit.
It's a game. It's supposed to be fun. So when it's not, move on.
A Plague of Ones, Part I
Too many Ones in a Cypher System Game? -- It's All Good
In Numenera, The Strange, and all other Cypher System games, the rule is: roll a one, and the GM gets a "free" GM Intrusion with no experience point award. Ones are supposed to happen. 5% of the time.
But if you game enough, you'll be sure to run into the dreaded plague of ones. So many ones, what's a GM to do? A lot depends on what's going on in an encounter.
Subjectively, more ones than is normal feels like a lot more. If the group's been rolling 10% ones instead of 5%, they're sure to notice. And claim that 25% of their rolls are ones! And since rpgs are entertainment, it's the perception that counts.
A Plague of Ones in a Fun Encounter
This is the easy case. Everyone's having a good time. People are laughing at all the ones showing up. (For when the Fun-O-Meter flatlines, see Part II: The Bad and the Ugly). The biggest problem is coming up with new and entertaining GM Intrusions.
Go with, or against, the theme of the game. Numenera intrusions should be high-weird. Intrusions in The Strange often work with the theme of the recursion. Playing a horror game? More horror!
Combat
OMG, another GM Intrusion, what can I do? Try another kind of GM Intrusion. You've been using creature intrusions? Great, now try a cypher or artifact intrusion. Or have the floor fall in, gravity reverse, objects turn into bubbles. Another foe shows up. A dead foe gets back up, always a table-pleaser. Or have the PC spring a trap.
There's nothing wrong with going back to creature intrusions, just sprinkle some other types in between.
Environmental (climbing, crafting, and so on...)
The poor nano has rolled three ones in a row trying to climb that wall? OK, falling is good to start with, but then think outside the box. Itchy insects have a hive right where the nano puts his hand. A passerby spots them, and wants to talk. The PC gets to the top, but falls over the other side. At least they're with the party now.
Crafting? They made something, but not what they set out to make. Perhaps it will work as intended, but have side effects, like being loud when the PCs want to be stealthy, or dripping oil on the Prince's favorite carpet, and so on.
Social
Perhaps you started with a social faux pas or two, now what? The PC is already looking like an idiot, move on. The PC could convince an NPC to do something, but not at all what the character intended. Communication breakdown! Has the slip of the tongue implied a marriage proposal? Was the party trying to hide their true motives? Oops, they just gave them away.
Next Time
Next time we'll look at the harder problem when people are rolling ones and the players are not having fun. Attention is flagging or maybe even people are no longer willing to engage. What will you do?
Cypher System Creature: Child of Golthnor
The Child of Golthnor is found in The Sun Below: Sleeping Lady. For more on this horror, and it's parents, see the adventure. Without the adventure, just gloss over it's parentage.
This eldritch horror is designed as an extreme challenge to any tier party, from tier one to tier six. Need a transdimensional boss fight? The child is here to help. Stats are presented in three groups, separated by /s. The first stat is for tiers 1 and 2. The second for tiers 3 and 4. The last for tiers 5 and 6.
Child of Golthnor 6/8/10 (18/24/30)
This transdimensional child of a synite and Golthnor is a sanity-blasting monstrosity. It usually stays invisible, but once it attacks, it shows its true form: a 16 foot (5 m) synite saucer covered in weeping red eyes and lipless drooling mouths. Atop the saucer is a writhing mass of purple trunks and tendrils, some ending in eyes, others in fanged maws.
The first Child of Golthnor the PCs meet has a lumpy humanoid face that stares out in horror from this mass of corruption, whispering, “Help me,” in a dozen languages, including Truth. Perhaps this is a face the PCs have met before in happier circumstances.
Motive: Open the door between worlds and let Golthnor in. Seek out esoteries that deal with transdimensional entities. Eat mass quantities of fresh meat.
Environment: Any, especially near a portal to other dimensions.
Health: 18/30/42
Damage Inflicted: 6/8/10
Armor: 3/10/25 vs. normal physical weapons; 1/3/6 vs. numenera weapons and esoteries.
Movement: Short (flying)
Modifications: Speed defense 8/10/10 when invisible; 5/7/9 when visible. Those in thrall to Golthnor are immune to the Child’s sanity blasting attacks.
Combat: When invisible, approaching within 100 feet (30 m) causes an Intellect attack that does 3/4/5 points of Intellect damage if not resisted. To physically attack, the Child must become visible.
When visible, looking at it the first time causes an Intellect attack that does 6/12/18 points of Intellect damage.
A Child of Golthnor attacks twice per round, with a bite and a constricting trunk.
Bite: 7/9/11 points of damage
Twisted jaws clamp down on your flesh and grind back and forth. Will the pain ever stop?
Trunk: 11/15/19 points of damage from crushing and blood drain. Target must escape the next round to avoid automatic crushing and blood drain.
You can’t breath and it feels like your ribcage is about to pop. Dozens of mouths burrow into your wounds and suck. Your head spins as your blood is drained. The trunk holds on, obviously unsated.
Interaction: Will only assist those in thrall to Golthnor.
Use: This creature is great for defending a portal that Golthnor is trying to open.
Loot: The saucer yields 1d6 squirming bio-mechanical cyphers.
GM Intrusion: A mass of tendrils reaches for the face of someone in immediate range, level 8/10/10. If it hits, it forces the target’s mouth open, and a wriggling mass of pus with worm-like appendages slides down the victim’s throat. Move down one step on the damage track and gain the Gibbering descriptor until Golthnor is defeated (use Mad if you don't have The Sun Below: Sleeping Lady).
Options: In a Cypher System horror game where you are using shock levels, the Child of Golthnor counts as mind-bending. Any encounter that ends up with a Child of Golthnor is a great excuse for using Horror Mode.
In a recursion of The Strange, a Child of Golthnor may be a mad-science child of a robot and a planetovore.
More: Follow the link for more information on The Sun Below: Sleeping Lady.
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Instant Adventures, Part III -- GM Intrusions
Let's return to the subject of Instant Adventures. In part I we took them apart and saw how to build our own. In part II we had an example using Numenera, complete with toadling queens. Today let's talk about GM Intrusions. You need to have GM Intrusions for your players to get xp and to keep the game interesting. We want to be sure to use GM Intrusions in our own Instant Adventures.
Many GMs new to the cypher system say they forget to do GM Intrusions. Hint: pass out physical objects for xp when you do a GM Intrusion. Use cards, poker chips, dragon tears, whatever. The deck/pile of xp objects in front of you will remind you to keep on doing it.
Monte Cook Games sells xp decks; I like them, but anything will do.
Almost all creatures for Cypher System games come with a built in GM Intrusions. (All of the creatures from Dread Unicorn Games' Cypher System books do.) I like to start combat with a GM Intrusion. It shows off a cool ability and I can do it again if the players roll 1s.
Now if you just made up a bunch of creatures, like my toadlings in the example Instant Adventure, you can make up GM Intrusions for them. Let's go!
- Margrs and Nibovian Wives are from the Core book, and already have GM Intrusions in their callouts. See pages 244 and 249. The Nibovian Wife's GM Intrusion is an escape, which is great for avoiding combat, particularly if time is running short.
- Toadling GM Intrusion: a swarm frenzies, attacking at 2 levels higher (6) and doing 12 points of damage.
- Toadling Queen GM Intrusion: She spits a glob of acidic poison at a character's face. Level 6 attack for 4 points of ambient damage, plus the character has to make a Level 6 Might defense check or take another 4 points of poison damage.
- Toadling King GM Intrusion: He hops into the air and lands on a character. This is a level 7 attack which does 5 points of ambient damage and dazes them for one round.
Note: these attack GM Intrusions are extra attacks, so the creature can follow up with it's normal attack.
Now, let's make up some social GM Intrusions:
- Uncle Liskal GM Intrusion: a character in Liskal's chamber must make a level 6 Intellect defense roll or for the next 28 hours refer to the AI as "Uncle Liskal" and feel compelled to impress the machine. "When Uncle Liskal hears how I dealt with this problem, he'll really be impressed." (Probably not.)
- The Song of Love GM Intrusion: if none of the male characters are falling for Klaru's charms, use a GM Intrusion to change one of their minds. "Despite you better judgement, there is something about her that makes you throw your caution (and clothing) to the wind."
- Faux pas with the Queen GM Intrusion: the slimy floor is too much for a character, causing them to slip and fall, right onto one of the queen's offspring. The little toadling croaks in pain!
- Jealous King GM Intrusion: If the characters fixed the moon pool to gain the queen's help, she plants a slimy kiss on a character before they go to see the king. He sniffs the character "You've been fooling around with one of my queens! I can smell her on you!"
You get the idea. Things to make the game a little more interesting, to keep the story exciting, and to give everyone at the table a good laugh. And xp.
Cypher Cyber Monday Sale!
Cypher Cyber Monday Sale! Dread Unicorn Games Numenera titles: 40% off on electronic versions, including The Sun Below bundle! 20% off on Sleeping Lady Print!
Sale runs for the rest of November.