Technocracy Manila Characters

Hi. I’m back. It took way too long but I now have the Technocracy characters for Mage the Ascnsion here. They are meant to be Enlightened Technocrats working at Technocratic Union recruitment center. I’ll figure out the strongholds for both the Technocrats and Tradition mages at a later time along adventures related to these strongholds. I’m thinking the Tchncrats will have their office in the Philippine Stock Exchange building in Makati while the Tradition mages will have a temporary base somewhere in Manila while they plan to exorcize and then establish a base in the haunted Aduana Building in Intramuros, Manila.

Above is a picture of Jose Rizal. Our National Hero… sort of. There’s no current official legal recognition of this, apparently, despite much of the country thinking of him as such. With regards to Mage the Ascension, however: Was he an Aesculpian or Lightkeeper of the Union… House Solificati Hermetic of the Traditions… Child of Knowledge Mason… an independent Technomage… a Divine being… or just a guy who intentionally or unintentionally inspired revolution with the use of the written word?

Mage the Ascension Manila Characters

I’m a big fan of the Mage the Ascensioon Tabletop RPG game and love the fact that they made a 20th Anniversary edition of it. It was a game that made me think about the nature of reality and the world I lived in and how different people had very different ways of looking at things. The main things I took away from it are that a person could be trying to do the right thing for all the right reasons but still end up doing something terrible that negatively impact the lives of others, that there’s always more than one way to look at anything, and that belief and hope are very truly important. The game had quite the impact on my life.

As a gift for my fellow Mage players and to Mage the Ascension itself, I’ll be making material for Mage the Ascension games set in the Philippines now and then as part of what I post on this blog.

This first file I’ll be placing here is a set of nine Adept level Mage NPCs. The idea is that they were sent to the Philippines in the 2020s to establish a multi-Tradition stronghold in or near Manila that will serve as a repository of mystic knowledge, a training center for mages in Southeast Asia, and a potential starting point for an entire new Nine Traditions to reform from in the case of the total destruction of the Council, or of some other cataclysmic disaster akin to the implosion of Doissetep or the resurgence of the Avatar Storm: Here (File updated 5/8/2020)

I then plan to make a set of Technocrat NPCs, probably an Amalgam disguised as a recruitment agency working in the Philipines to find and recruit Enlightened individuals and other people who could benefit the organization. This will be eventually followed by an adventure for Tradition mages involving the establishement of the Manila chantry, an adventure for the Technocrats of some sort, and eventually some sort of game involving a battle with Bakunawa, the moon-eating serpent.

Tips for Running One-shot Games

I’m talking (writing) about One-shot Tabletop RPG games, in this case, where the game begins and ends in one session. I tried running one just yesterday as a way to entertain my friends, as a means of figuring out what could go wrong when doing such a thing, and also as a way of finding out what needs improvement in my own RPG system (The slightly crunchier long version seems fine but the rules-light one needs a whole bunch of fixes here and there). So the idea was, me and a few friends would get together on hangouts, decide on-the-spot what sort of game they would like to play, then I would aid them in building their characters, before taking just a few minutes to prepare the game scenario. After that, I’d run it, of course. This is, of course, is not the best way to do things, but it I did it expecting problems would come up and hoping that it would help me learn more about how to be a better game master.

Here’s what I learned. For a one-shot game, or any other game for that matter, it’s probably best to set the sort of game to be run before the game is even scheduled.

Things move quickly once people have a direction, but deciding the direction people want to move towards takes time for most gamer groups. What could be time used for character creation and gaming gets spent just figuring out what everyone wants to do. Maybe the GM should make a few game pitches and have players vote on which one they’d prefer to play or maybe the group should set aside time to figure this out or just leave their ideas in a shared chatroom over the course of a week. Especially for one-shot games, as little time as possible should be spent on figuring out what to do. It is, however, quite important that at last enough time is spent on this topic to learn the exact sort of things players don’t want in a game, so that the GM can cut out as much of that as possible from actual play. Some players don’t like long boring talky scenes where nothing exciting seems to be happening, some don’t like violence, and so on and so forth. his should be easy enough for GMs who have been gaming together with their group for a long time, but might entail some mediation and compromise otherwise.

Now, with regards to character creation. If possible, have a few pre-made characters ready. Players sometimes just want to game with a minimum of effort and pre-made characters will help. Some players might want to customize these a bit but still have the comfort of a ready made character to copy from. The system made allows for relatively quick character creation but a few tings did come up. A skill or ability list to use is something players want, even in a game where such things are made freeform. The same goes for things like feats or powers. A lot of time got spent on character creation mainly because players didn’t have an idea of what they wanted to play… because no one knew what sort of game was being run until we all got together and decided on it. Then players struggled for a bit with figuring out the sorts of skills and powers or feats they could have since there were no examples or lists to be had at first. Eventually things panned out positively, though I’m sure new gamers with new GMs would have had a much harder time at this.

Finally, there’s the game itself and time. For most of the games I’ve run, it was good to have a nice etablishing scene or two where characters all meet up and figure each other out before they get to the meat of the adventure. In a one-shot, it’s best to send players right into the meat of the game with only a preliminary few sentences describing exaclty what they are doing in the same adventure. If its an ation game, it should probaby start with the action already happening, if its a mystery, they can get right to the investigating, and so on. I guess you could just think of the whole game as the story chapter where players might figure each other out, just in case the one-shot turns out to be popular enough to become an ongoing game. Finally, the game itself should be short. It should be short enough that you can finish the scenario over the course of your gaming time with time to spare. A lot can happen and its possible that the game will run longer than expected, after all. I guess, for a one shot, a good outline or set up would be like: Introduction (more narrated than run), the start of the body of the adventure (involving the players and with as little narration as much as possible), the dramatic climax (perhaps involving a plot twist), and then the end or session (where loose ends are tied, and hooks leading to the possible next game might come up). I hope this helps all the Game Masters out there.

Aliens for a Science Fiction Game

Happy Easter. I took a few days off the blog for the Holidays. I hope everyone is fine where you are at. I am stuck on lockdown over here but at least I am with good friends and my 6-year-old niece who thinks I’m some sort of magical cartoon creature.

I was reading some comments on a forum somewhere about how so many science-fiction aliens are pretty much the equivalent of odd looking humans and got to thinking about designing a few for gaming use that are not so alien as to be all but incomprehensible to us but not too close to human-like that they might as well be just weird looking humans. I decided to limit myself further to creatures alike enough to us that they might create or join something like a galactic alliance or federation and recognize us as people but with evolutionary paths significantly different from our own. I stayed away from things like species with hive-minds and digital beings but might try to work on things like that sometime in the future. So, without further ado, here’s what I came up with.

Called Fuzz, because their word for what they are sounds something like “fzzz” to the human ear, they are a race of small and fluffy creatures that are an odd cross between bird, rodent, and primate. Some humans call them chirpers, furballs, or space mice. They are descended from a species of creature used for laboratory experiments by the former dominant species of their world. They were made hyperintelligent and given control of that world’s powerful artificial intelligence systems in the twilight years of that species. They quickly took advantage of these gifts and developed their own space-faring civilization.

They average seven inches in height while standing, but have prehensile tails about twice as long as the rest of their bodies. To these they attach special clips that allow them to mentally command their robotic assistants. They have beaked mouths, a nasal opening not unlike a dolphin’s, jewel-like eyes, and owl-like necks. They have three toes on each hind foot and four on each forefoot configured in a way that lets them use these forefeet as hands. They reproduce sexually and lay eggs. Their gender differences are not obvious to most humans.

They tend to like brightly colored surroundings with playful and maze-like architecture, set up their homes and work places to have easy access to food and drink, and are almost never idle during their waking moments. Having robots to do their heavy lifting, most Fuzz are some mix of scholar, technician, designer, and theoretical scientist. Their closest thing to a religion melds the pursuit of truth with reverence to their ancestors, their artificial intelligence caretakers, and their predecessor race.

These winged creatures are usually called Griffins by humans after both the mythological beast and the surname of one of the first humans diplomats sent to them. Their word for what they are sounds to human ears like something between a growl and a shriek that some say is best written as Rghreakhis. They evolved from the apex predators of their world and later organized themselves into nations of monument-building beast herders, led by a noble warrior caste. They were at their equivalent of our world’s Classical era when the Fuzz discovered them, replaced their lower classes with robots, and elevated them to space-faring status. They had, what they would call their “Great and Glorious Civil War” at that time. They are stalwart allies of the Fuzz, whom they consider highly intelligent but physically fragile benefactor of their race.

Griffins are roughly the size of lions or tigers but significantly lighter and built so as to be capable of winged flight. They have four eyes, the inner ones optimized for binocular vision and the outer ones allowing for a wider field of view. Their bones are hollow but surprisingly sturdy. A soft down cover most of their bodies. They have four “fingers” on each foot, each of the outer ones capable of functioning as thumbs. They also have a sharp claw on each foot, which they use for hunting or combat. Their flexible tails end in a stiff dolphin style fin.

While they do not seem troubled by nudity, they tend to wear clothes for both utilitarian purposes and as a means of communicating who and what they are in terms of profession and status. Space-farers favoring armored spacesuits that also allow for atmospheric flight and flight in a vacuum. They favor tall structures with spacious interiors that are open to the sky, and in the typically cramped confines of space stations and space vehicles they tend to reside in5 virtual reality chambers or rest in spaces with simulated windows to space or an artificial sky. They like to think of themselves as warrior race and are exert in both unarmed combat and the use of combat and utility drones. Most of the species ascribes to one or another variant of a fatalistic belief system that stresses that all things are eventually going to end but that the purpose of life is to delay that ending and to live as full and glorious and happy a life as possible while helping others do the same. They tend to dislike overly processed food, thinking of such as famine food or emergency rations, and favor fresh or even raw meats.

Called Hexapods, for lack of a better name, this amphibious species of the Galactic Alliance Alien evolved in the ice-covered ocean of a gas giant’s moon. They were discovered by Griffins and Fuzz upon the launch of their first rail-gun powered, jet guided, satellite. Their discovery prompted the formal creation of a Galactic Alliance with the Fuzz, Griffins, and Hexapods as the founding members.

The Hexapods are unnaturally resilient creatures having impressive regenerative capabilities as well as skin and muscles that are reportedly as hard as stone. Their enormous, four inch in diameter, eyes are liquid-filled solid globes protected by a clear, glassy, protective ocular covering. Each is composed of 6 more-or-less symmetrical parts, each with its own eye, heart, prehensile appendage, and brain cluster. The brain clusters work together rather than independently much like the hemispheres of the human brain. They have a spongy, corrugated breathing apparatus atop them, typically capped by space-farers of their species by a life support device. They have a strange digestive apparatus underneath them, covered by six sturdy and muscular flaps. They are slow moving by the standards of other races but seem to move with more or less the same speed in water, thin atmosphere, or a vacuum. They are capable of survival in both crushing pressure of the depths of their world and the vacuum of space. Around every 30 to 40 years or so the Hexapods reproduce by splitting into 2 to 6 separate Hexapods, each with most of the memories of their parent. They eventually regrow the lost sections of themselves, enter a stage of rapid learning and experience some degree of personality change. They speak using the central hole of their breathing apparatus and sound trumpet-like to humans. They also use a form of sonar, hearing sound using the sensitive pads on their appendages. Their digestive systems can easily process substances toxic to most species.

Hexapods like to live in tunnel-like habitats with subdued colors. They tend to live in family groups or groups of similar interest. Most wear a harness with six pockets for things they like to carry around with them. It is normal for even civilian hexapods to carry a ranged weapon with them as both a cultural quirk and a holdover from the times they had to defend themselves from deadly sea monsters. They use bright colors as an indicator of danger or places of activity and interest. They tend to take a slow and careful approach to most things and have some of the most secure spacecraft and structures in the Galaxy. They have a highly advanced musical and food culture. The majority of them believe that reality unfolds as a series of cycles to be weathered by the resilient and strong.

Called Geoducks (Gooey-ducks) by humans in reference to Earth’s odd-looking Pacific saltwater clam, this species of alien discovered the Galactic Alliance with a Faster-Than-Light Speed probe sent to explore their nearby Galaxy. They made themselves known to their “Outer-Space Neighbors” soon after that event and have somehow managed to become something like the unofficial ambassadors of the. The actual name of their species in their language sounds something like “hootahoot“. They evolved in primarily heavily forested and marshy parts of their planet before conquering the rest of their world.

Geoducks have an oddly bent body that contains their brain and vital organs. Attached to this are a sensory arm, utility arm, and reproductive arm. Each of these arms is prehensile. The former of these serves as something like a head; complete with eyes, olfactory receptors, and the equivalent of ears. The latter has an extremely long middle finger that serves as a male reproductive organ. Female reproductive organs are in hidden by the way its body bends at the end. They talk using breathing tubes and can make a wide variety of sounds. Their mouths are also the exit point for undigested food. They are surprisingly strong and agile despite their unusual appearance, moving around like some sort of twisted, three-headed snake. They weigh about 50 pounds and are not unlike a large backpack built for humans in terms of size.

Most of these creatures like to travel using a hovering cushioned personal vehicle that looks like a sort of fancy flying tray. They are a clothes wearing species, typically wearing a sleeve with a large pocket or pouch on their main body in a way that exposes their mouth and breathing tube. Some wear gloves on their reproductive arm. They favor small, burrow-like tight spaces as resting spots, and functional vehicles as actual homes. They are naturally inclined towards an energetic extroversion and optimistic enthusiasm that members of other species can, at times, find quite disconcerting.

Called the Mantis by most humans, though they look more like a pale green variety of crab with the face of a mantis shrimp, this race was discovered by the Alliance around the time they were developing Faster-than-light travel. Their language is composed of a series of clicks, taps, and scratching sounds that are utterly unpronounceable by the average human. They are highly organized, overly legalistic by the standard of most species but conscious of this and not at all apologetic about it, claiming it prevents barbarism. They are the foremost experts on Alliance law, having formalized much of it themselves and even working out application of galactic law in posited unlikely scenarios. That said, their interpretation of the laws tended to be reasonably fair in the opinion of most of the Alliance.

Their high-resolution compound eyes can see much more of the electromagnetic spectrum than most of the other races. Their colorful flaps on either side of their heads and their mouth appendages are what they use to display emotion. They are amphibious, are natural climbers, and can use their claws and legs as stabbing weapons.

They are a clothes-wearing, highly hierarchical group, who highly prize scholastic achievement, and artistic capability. Their works of music, sculpture, painting, theater, and interactive and educational media are some of the best in the world. They spend time to try and make interfaces for technology that’s user friendly to members of all Alliance species.

Lumps, or Lumba are a species of alien that evolved in a stormy and relatively high-gravity planet. They were discovered by the Alliance during something akin to their stone age and owe pretty much all of their advance technological know-how to the alliance. They tend to act as the Alliance agents in places inhospitable to most members of the Alliance.

The roundish part of their body has a rough diameter of 2 feet. They have six eyes, the bottom of which are sensitive to heat and the top of which sensitive to the ultraviolet spectrum. They have a small breathing flap that looks like a frowning mouth and an eating flap atop their heads. They have at least 3 of each vital organ, configured in a way that allows for survival with the failure of the other two. That said, they are extremely resilient beings with skin the consistency of off-road tires.

They don’t tend to wear much except shoes and armbands they use as a means of carrying small tools, bringing bags only when necessary. They prefer to be outdoors when possible and have a thing for open spaces, imposingly wide and tall structures, and heavy machinery.

And then there’s this fellow. I don’t have anything for this guy. I just drew it this way and call it the chicken snake.

Anyway, this whole thing took longer than expected to write. I hope people like these alien ideas. In fact, I hope people get to use these in their games for their non-commercial game purposes. Well, in the end, these aliens can still be portrayed as just another bunch of weird looking people, but I hope a step is taken beyond that to try and make them both culturally diverse and yet different enough from humans in a way that suits each alien’s histories and life-cycles.

I’ll continue to try to come up with fun game related stuff for people to use in a reasonable amount of time while working and surviving quarantine.

Sky’sEnd Abilities

My friends are telling me that I should make a 3 to 5 page Quick-Start rulebook for my Sky’sEnd RPG game to introduce players to the system and setting; and so I guess I will. They also mentioned that some people might be intimidated by having to come up with their own “Abilities” freeform, which is what the rules-light basic version has players do. This isn’t really a problem in the Advanced version of the system; which has a list of suggested abilities so large that, in retrospect, it is probably intimidating as well. The Quick-Start rulebook we’ll be making will be meant for beginners, though, and must not leave anyone wondering what sorts of Abilities they can use. So below is a list of what I’m thinking will work.

Art: The ability to add beauty or emotional value to images or objects

Athletics: The ability to move one’s body and perform feats of strength and agility

Construction: The ability to make houses, buildings, and other structures

Electronics: The ability to make and maintain electrical and electronic devices

Expression: The ability to communicate using the dance or body language

Geography: The ability to navigate as well as knowledge of local and foreign cultures

Health: The ability to resist illness or poison and to quickly recover from injury

History: The ability to investigate the past and knowledge of current and past events

Magic: The ability to use magic and understand magical theory

Medicine: The ability to diagnose and tend to illness and injury

Mechanics: The ability to make and repair mechanical devices and plumbing

Melee: The ability to use and maintain melee weapons and shields

Music: The ability to compose and play music

Perception: The ability to notice things and used for rolling initiative

Ranged Combat: The ability to use and maintain ranged weapons

Science: The ability to understand and add to theoretical scientific knowledge

Speaking: The ability to communicate using the spoken word

Stealth: The ability to evade detection and hide things

Unarmed Combat: The Ability to fight while unarmed

Willpower: the ability to resist mental and social influence or pressure

Writing: The ability to communicate using the written word

Your opinions are most welcome.

So I happened upon Feast of Legends

So I was surfing the internet for something completely unrelated to gaming when I happened upon “Feast of Legends”. Feast of Legends is Wendy’s, the fast food restaurant chain’s, very own pen and paper RPG. It’s a great piece of work for what it is (see here), but while it’s a functional game, it seems to be more of an advertising stunt for the fast food chain. It’s a good one, really, and I really hope they do more things like this in the future… perhaps a hack and slash video game next time, or something else entirely. I’d go to Wendy’s right now if it weren’t for the whole Corona Virus lockdown thing here in the Philippines.

As an actual game book, however, it has some fairly annoying flaws, such as a buff system biased towards certain Wendy’s products, really unhelpful descriptions for a whole bunch of things, and no way to figure out what some members of the various orders might look like. This post isn’t meant as a review though so I’ll stop my critique right there. Kudos to everyone involved in the creation of this game.

What I want to do here is add some ideas to the setting. I’ve wanted to run or play an RPG game set in a ridiculous fast food restaurant chain themed word since around the time I started gaming and the appearance of this game has reminded me of that.

So, let’s keep Queen Wendy, “The Clapback Queen” and her Freshtovia in Beef’s Keep more or less as is. Let’s say that the Ice Jester’s Deep Freeze plot was just the first part of an invasion force sent by Emperor McD (or Mickey, or Ronald, or whatever you want to call him) of the Golden Arch Empire. He’ll later be sending his agent “Burglar” to steal from and sabotage Freshtovia food supplies while his Advanced Air Striking Force, led by “Lady Early Bird” and her Nugget Buddy Squadron, tries to bomb Freshtovia into submission. This will be followed up by an infantry invasion force of Fry Gobblins, who will sneak into the kingdom lookinglike harmless fry-loving kids before gathering en-masse to hypnotizing potato aligned creatures to join them.

Attempts to attack the empire will be opposed by Captain Crook’s Freighters of Fish Warriors, Officer McBiggs Oversized Enforcers, and the Emperor’s personal ever-evolving mutant bodyguard “The Grimace”.

Other characters important to the empire might include Sundae (The emperor’s Dog), Mayor McCheese (Manages the Imperial capital of McDonaldland for the Emperor), and the Professor, the mysterious creator of the Hamburger Patch, a place where intelligent hamburgers are grown on trees, like fruit, for the comsumption of the Imperial Elite. The burgers of the patch have a hivemind and welcome being eaten, providing those who consume them with unnatural strength and regenerative powers in exchange for protection of the patch and ongoing efforts to improve create hardier and more potent hamburger tree varieties.

The emperor himself should have regenerative powers that make him virtually immortal and the power to revive his dead or dying subjects.

I don’t have as much for the other fast food chains but here I go anyway:

I was thinking that ‘The Colonel” runs this motley group of anarchists known as the Knights of Freeom of Choice or Knights Fury and Chaos or something, depending on what you want to do with them. Maybe the knights can be based on characters taken from KFCs Dating Sim (see here) such as Lady Miriam, Sir Sprinkles/Archwizard Dog, Sir Aeigshley, Sir Van Van, Clank the Pressure Fryer Golem, A ghost of some guy killed by Van Van, Barkeep, Squire Pop, and the Spork Monster.

The Subways could be the equivalent of the world’s underdark, populated by sorcerous Sand Witches; the Breakers with their ability to flatten themselves to aid in stealth and entry into tight places, and a subterranean plant people.

Hutters could be a horde of hut-dwelling circular shield bearing spartan-like warriors.

Maybe there’s even a nation of Bee People in some far away eastern island that’s successfully resisted the invasion forces of the Empire since 1975.

Well, anyway, that was fun. I don’t really see it happening, but if anyone picks up these ideas for an actually game, I’d really like to actually hear from them.

Dragons in Dungeons

I once ran a game of Dungeons and Dragons set in my own version of Faerun, where players played pre-made Legendary Dragon characters who, after awakening from a deep slumber found that dragons were being hunted to extinction by a powered-up version of the Shadovar Empire. It was fun but got me to thinking how dragons might be incorporated into DnD games as Player Characters. Here’s what I came up with.

 

Dragon (Race):

Ability Score Increase. Your Strength score increases by 2.

Age. A dragon Wyrmling becomes a Young Dragon at the age of 6, an Adult Dragon at the age of 101 and an Ancient Dragon at the Age of 801.

Alignment. Most Chromatic Dragons are Evil. Most Metallic Dragons are Good.

Size. Wyrmlings are Medium in Size. They also increase in size to Large as Young Dragons, Huge as Adults, and Gargantuan as Ancient Dragons.

Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.

Darkvision: You see in dim light within 60 feet as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light, You can’t discern color in darkness , only shades of gray.

Languages: You can speak, read, and write Draconic.

Dragon: Your Creature Type is Dragon rather than humanoid

Dragon Physiology: Due to your shape, you cannot wear most worn items not meant for your size or physiology. Amulets, Rings, Belts, and some kinds of Bracers and Hats of the proper size (probably built for some sort of giant) may be worn but most other such things won’t even fit. You cannot wear armor (or clothes) not specifically built for dragons. Such armor costs the same as barding of the appropriate size. While capable of picking things up, you have disadvantage when attempting to make proper use of weapons or shields or to use tools that require anything other than crude simple motions to employ. You can readily use the magic of held magic items but can’t wield the items themselves with any amount of proficiency. Dragons making magical items tend to require telekinesis or an assistant craftsman willing to follow the dragon’s exact instructions.

Natural Armor: Your AC while unarmored is 17. You use this in the place of your AC from worn armor if your AC from armor is lower.

Natural Weaponry: You can bite as a melee weapon attack against a creature within 5ft. The attack deals 1d10 + strength piercing damage on a hit.

Flight: You have wings that give you a fly speed of 30ft. You cannot fly while in medium or heavy armor (or while encumbered)

Subraces: Chromatic Subraces are Black, Blue, Green, Red, White. Metallic Subraces are Brass, Bronze, Copper, Sliver, Gold.

Subrace Movement Feature: Black: Swim at walking speed & Amphibious, Blue: Burrow 15ft (This becomes 20 for a Young Dragon, 30 for an Adult, and 40 for am Ancient), Green: Swim at walking speed & Amphibious, Red: Climb at walking speed, White: Burrow 15ft (This becomes 20 for a Young Dragon, 30 for an Adult, and 40 for am Ancient) & Swim at Walking Speed & Ice Walk (The dragon can move across and climb icy surfaces without needing to make an ability check. Additionally, difficult terrain composed of ice or snow doesn’t cost it extra moment) Brass: Burrow 15ft (This becomes 20 for a Young Dragon, 30 for an Adult, and 40 for am Ancient), Bronze: Swim at walking speed & Amphibious, Copper: Climb at walking speed, Gold: Swim at walking speed & Amphibious, Silver: Swim at walking speed & Amphibious,

Damage Immunities: Dragons have Damage Immunities depending on their Subrace. Black: Acid, Blue: Lightning, Green: Poison, Red: Fire, White: Cold, Brass: Fire, Bronze: Lightning, Copper: Acid, Gold: Fire, Sliver: Cold

Breath Weapon: Beginning at 2nd level, a dragon can use a breath weapon depending on its Subrace. The breath weapon is recharged and can be used again after the roll of a 5 or 6 made with a d6. The roll is made at the start of each turn after a breath weapon was used. A dragon’s breath weapon deals (Character Level -1)d6 damage of the appropriate type and half that much on a successful save against a DC of (8 + the dragon’s Constitution bonus + Proficiency Bonus )

Black: Exhaled Acid in a 20-foot line, 5 feet wide with a Dexterity Save.

Blue: Exhaled Lightning in a 20-foot line, 5 feet wide with a Dexterity Save.

Green: Exhaled Poison in a 15-foot cone with a Constitution Save.

Red: Exhaled Fire in a 15-foot cone with a Dexterity Save.

White: Exhaled Cold in a 15-foot cone with a Constitution Save.

Brass: Exhaled Fire in a 15-foot cone with a Dexterity Save.

Bronze: Exhaled Lightning in a 20-foot line, 5 feet wide with a Dexterity Save

Copper: Exhaled Acid in a 20-foot line, 5 feet wide with a Dexterity Save.

Gold: Exhaled Fire in a 15-foot cone with a Dexterity Save.

Silver: Exhaled Cold in a 15-foot cone with a Constitution Save.

Secondary Breath Weapon (Metallic Dragons Only): Beginning at 3rd level, Metallic Dragons get a second Breath Attack as noted below. Chromatic ragons instead get a +1 to a chosen Ability other than Strength instead.

Brass: Exhaled Sleep Gas in a 15-foot cone with a Constitution Save against falling unconscious for 1 minute. This effect ends for a creature if the creature takes damage or someone uses an action to wake it.

Bronze: Exhaled Repulsion Energy in a 15-foot cone with a Strength Save against being pushed 30 feet away from the dragon.

Copper: Exhaled Slowing Gas in a 15-foot cone with a Constitution Save against being unable to use reactions, halving speed, the inability to make more than one attack on its turn and being only able to use either an action or a bonus action on its turn, but not both for 1 minute. The creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself with a successful save.

Gold: Exhaled Weakening Gas in a 15-foot cone with a Strength Save against having disadvantage on Strength-based attack
rolls, Strength checks, and Strength saving throws for 1 minute. A creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.

Silver: Exhaled Paralyzing Gas in a 15-foot cone with a Constitution Save against being paralyzed for 1 minute. A creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.

 

Dragon Character Class (Yes this is weird, I know)

Requirements: Must be a Dragon? It might be funny if other creatures could take these with extra requirements for some features and others being completely inapplicable.

Hit dice: / Hit Points at 1st Level: 1d38 + your Constitution modifier / Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d8 (or 5) + your Constitution modifier per Dragon level after 1st

Proficiencies: You are proficient in Strength, Constitution, Wisdom, and Charisma Saves.

Levels: Levels work a bit differently for dragons. They gain one each level but get to choose which one they gain, though some of these have requirements. Three of these (Young Dragon, Adult Dragon, and Ancient Dragon) listed just below are only accessible to dragons at the indicated age and must be taken in the place of character levels at the indicated ages. Typically, only true dragons may take these levels. Even if you are not yet of the appropriate age, you must get young dragon at level 7, Adult Dragon at level 14, and Ancient Dragon at level 21 if you don’t already have these. If you do so, your size does not increase until you are at the appropriate age. Also, every fifth level in this class, you can have an Ability Score Improvement: increasing one ability score of your choice by 2, or two ability scores of your choice by 1, or you may gain a feat. You cannot increase an ability score beyond its maximum (normally 20) using this feature. Features follow below, gain 1 per level other than level 5, 10, 15, & 20 (Which are ability score improvements):

Young Dragon: Must be taken from age 6 onwards: The dragon’s size increases to large and the dragon gains +2 Strength & +1 Constitution. These increases also increase the dragon’s maximum level in those abilities

Adult Dragon: Must be taken from age 101 onwards & requires Young Dragon: The dragon’s size increases to huge and the dragon gains +2 more Strength and +1 more Constitution. Item armor now costs 8x normal.

Ancient Dragon: Must be taken from age 801 onwards & requires Adult Dragon: The dragon’s size increases to gargantuan and the dragon gains +2 more Strength and +1 more Constitution. Item armor now costs 16 times normal.

Draconic Senses: You gain Blindsight to a range of 10 feet allowing you to perceive your surroundings without relying on sight up to a distance of 10 feet. You may add your Proficiency bonus to the result of your Perception rolls. Your Blindsght extends to 30ft as a Young Dragon. This extends to 60ft instead for an Adult or older Dragon.

Draconic Hunting Skills: You must have the Draconic Senses feature. You are Proficient in Perception and Stealth and double your Proficiency bonus when applying it to Perception.

Fast Flight: Your Flight Speed increases by +30 feet. This becomes +50ft for a Young or older dragon instead.

Draconic Constitution: The AC provided by your Natural Armor becomes 15 + your Proficiency Bonus. You may take this feature in the place of a level once for each of Young Dragon, Adult Dragon, and Ancient Dragon that you have. Each time, it provides you with +2 Constitution.

Draconic Health: You must have Young Dragon: Hit dice provided by your Dragon levels change to D10s and Hit Points to 6 (1d10) per level. If you have Adult Dragon, you can take this feature a 2nd time so that this becomes D12s and Hit Points of 7 (1d12) instead. If you have Ancient Dragon, you can take this feature a 3dr time so that this becomes D20s and Hit Points of 11 (1d20) instead.

Draconic Might: You may take this feature in the place of a level once for each of Young Dragon, Adult Dragon, and Ancient Dragon that you have. Each provides you with +2 Strength & +1 Constitution.

Draconic Battle Prowess: You must have Young Dragon: Your bite now has a range of 10ft and deals 2d10 damage; You may now use claws to make a melee weapon attack against a creature within 5ft that deal 2d6 + strength slashing damage on a hit and You also gain a multiattack allowing you to make one bite attack and two claw attack as an action. If you have Adult Dragon, You gain the ability to use your tail to make a melee weapon attack against a creature within 15 feet. This deals 2d8 + Strength bludgeoning damage on a hit. If you have Ancient Dragon, your bite range increases to 15 feet, your claw reach to 10 feet, and your Tail reach to 20 feet.

Innate Spellcasting: You must have Young Dragon: You can innately cast a number of spells equal to your Charisma modifier, chosen when you gain this feature. Each spell can be cast once per day, requiring no material components, and the spell’s level can be no higher than (your level -1)/ 3 rounded down. The dragon’s bonus to hit with spell attacks is its proficiency bonus + its Charisma Modifier. The dragon’s spell save DC equals 8 + its proficiency bonus + its Charisma modifier. When your Charisma modifier increase, you add 1 more spell to this list of spells and may exchange one spell in the list for another.

Frightful Presence. You must have Adult Dragon: Each creature of the dragon’s choice that is within 120 feet of the dragon and aware of it must succeed on a DC (8 + the dragon’s Charisma bonus + Proficiency Bonus ) Wisdom saving throw or become frightened for 1 minute. A creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success. If a creature’s saving throw is successful or the effect ends for it, the creature is immune to the dragon’s Frightful Presence for the next 24 hours.

Legendary Actions: You must have Draconic Battle Prowess and Adult Dragon: You gain 3 legendary actions. Only one legendary action option can be used at a time at the end of another creature’s turn. The options are noted below. You regain spent legendary actions at the start of its turn. You may purchase this up to 2 more times, to increase your legendary actions by 1 more each time.

• Detect. Make a Wisdom (Perception) check.
• Tail Attack. Make a tail attack
• Wing Attack (Costs 2 Actions). Beat your wings so that each creature within 10 feet of the dragon must succeed on a DC (8 + the dragon’s Strength bonus + Proficiency Bonus ) Dexterity saving throw or take (2d6 + your Strength bonus) bludgeoning damage and be knocked prone. You can then fly up to half your flying speed.

Legendary Resistance: You must have Adult Dragon to get this. Up to 3 times a day, when you fail a saving throw, you can choose to succeed instead.

Change Shape: You must have Adut Dragon to get this. The dragon magically polymorphs into a humanoid or beast that has a challenge rating no higher than
its own, or back into its true form. It reverts to its true form if it dies. Any equipment it is wearing or carrying is absorbed or borne by the new form (the dragon’s choice). In a new form, the dragon retains its alignment, hit points, Hit Dice, ability to speak, proficie ncies, Legendary Resistance, lair actions, and Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma scores, as well as this action. Its statistics and capabilities are otherwise replaced by those of the new form , exceptclass features or legendary actions of that form.

 

I hope this helps and amuses some people. Your comments and opinions are appreciated.

Hello and here is an RPG system

Hi. I’m Nicco, a tabletop game enthusiast from the Philippines. I’ll give a better introduction with more details about myself in a later post but thought I would much rather start by doing exactly what I set out to do by making this blog, which is sharing my gaming ideas. Mostly I’ll be posting my ideas for Tabletop RPGs systems, settings, adventures, characters, creatures, items, and other things and things like board games and card games here in this blog.

So my first post will be about an RPG system I developed for my own RPG setting called Sky’sEnd, which I’ve been developing and running since around 1998. The system was meant to be an exceedingly flexible, rules light thing, that could handle absolutley any sort of setting or character. There’s a bit of compromise in each of those aspects, but I’m pretty happy with the result and player feedback has been mostly on the positive side. As it is, the basics of character creation and play can be explained in maybe five minutes, characters can be made in around five or ten minutes by those with a clear idea of what they want, and play can begin even if only the game master has a fair or better grasp of the rules. The Sky’sEnd setting itself is a fantasy world with numerous entrances to other worlds scattered within it, including a massive tear in reality known as the World Storm. It’s a newly formed empire filled with various fantasy races, forged in the fires of its own world war. It’s just recently reached its own equivalent of the age of exploration and industrial era and is sending expeditions to explore connected worlds to seek out new territories to coonquer and allies to trade with. All in all it’s a game about new discoveries, unforseen possibilities, and fantastic adventure. Here’s a map of the plae though some games will be set in other worlds and I’ve run a fair number of games using the system  that have nothing to do with the Sky’sEnd setting.

Character creation for Sky’sEnd is as follows:

Step 1: Create a Character Concept: List Back Story, Motivation, & Defining Quality in one phrase each. Back story is pretty much what the character is or was at or before the start of the game. Motivation is what drives the character to do more than just survive and seek comfort. A Defining Quality is something that makes the character different from at least a fair number of others.

Step 2: From lowest to highest Abilities are rated as follows: Poor (D4), Average (D6), Good (D8), Great (D10), and Excellent (D12). Select 1 Great Ability, 8 Good Abilities, and 1 Poor Ability. (All other Abilities are Average). Abilities are things like skills or talents the character is capable of that can be learned and honed to perfection over time. They are not superpowers (That’s what Perks are for). For the basic game, just use any Ability that can be clearly defined with a definition that can be agreed upon by player and Game Master, and that isn’t too general. If an Ability can apply to any task or to broad sets of tasks such as Physical Activity, Mental Activity, or the like, it’s probably too broad. Abilities may be adjusted up to 3 times during character creation. Each Adjustment raises the level of an Ability and Lowers another

Step 3: Select 6 Perks: Perks are powers or other things a character gets for being who they are. Whatever they represent, the GM can rule that a Perk grants some moderately useful power, capability or benefit and 2 Perks can grant a very useful but not game breaking power, maybe flight without fatigue or wings or throwing fireballs, or something else that doesn’t equate at all to a numeric Bonus or Penalty. The GM might charge 4 Perks for ridiculously strong powers, assuming they’re allowed. This is pretty freeform with the very basic rules so its up to the Game Master to balance these.

Step 4: Note Other Traits and Items: Initiative (Perception + D6), Movement (10 feet), Reach (5 feet), Energy (0), Shield (0), Armor (0), HP: 4 OK, 2 Hurt, 2 Battered, 1 Crippled, and 1 Incapacitated & Starting Items: 1 Set of Regular Attire, 1 Luxury Item and 5 Cheap Items. In the basic set being Rich (2 Perks) makes the Attire and Cheap Items Luxurious and the Luxury Item costly, while being Super Rich (4 Perks) Makes these Costly, nd Priceless respectively.

Step 5: Submit the Character for GM Approval

Now this information would be pointless without the basic rules so here they are as well as a character sheet.

Sky’sEnd Quick Rules

Sky’sEnd Character Sheet

The actual system book I’m trying to finish making (Which I call the Sky’sEnd Adventurer’s Manual) runs over 500 pages, though really, anything beyond what I’ve given you here are add-on optional rules meant to make the game more interesting and fun, including things like a suggested list for Abilities, rules for their use, more in-depth combat, Perks, Creature Templates, Items, Vehicles, Magic, Superpowers, Systems for Social influence, Crafting, War, and so on, as well as a few Mini- Adventures. This more advanced ruleset is actually more or less complete, although I plan to eventually add more things like magic, items, martial arts, and creature rules specific to various settings and styles of play and grand adventures for people to play. I should focus on getting the first book out thugh. The only real reason I haven’t released this book is that I do not have enough art to make the book look good. As it is the 14 chapter book has a cover and enough art to decorate pages up til around chapter 3 and a few illustrations for chapter 4 and some mini adventures in the back, but no back cover and nothing for the other 10 chapters. I’m not really in the position to pay for art at this point so I’m slowly making art for my game and hoping I can get things to go faster in the future.

In an case, that’s my first post here and I hope you all like what you see. Even if you don’t, constructive criticism is very welcome. I’ll probably be posting stuff for established games along with my original game ideas soon enough.