Ah, space fantasy!
Spaceships, held together by magic, traverse the space between the stars, pushing their way through the thickness of the aether in their search for new resources, new worlds to conquer, or... just making a quick buck.
Cosmology and LoreRacesHelmsmen - The future-past-space-fantasy versions of humans, they are one of the most resilient races around. Not just physically, but mentally as well! They've also got quite a penchant for biological and mechanical wizardry, often built to support and boost their already existing abilities, though their directly arcane skills are somewhat lacking. Their mental resilience makes them well suited to the role of pilot, as pilots have one of the most difficult and draining jobs in the galaxy, moving Jamships through the aether on little more than force of will.
Racial Bonus: +1 Will, and an effective plus one bonus to medicine and engineering checks. Regardless of class, may always treat these groups as "within class" for specialization purposes.
Ratticatavians - Known simply as the rats by most other races, they are the most physically fearsome of the races, and their tactical minds are sharp. Large, furred, sharp toothed and with four arms, the sight of a Rat boarding party is the stuff of nightmares. They are weak in general magic, mechanical and biological wizardy, but they do often matter some more directly applicable spells. Not purely focused on combat, and not giving half a mind for fighting "fair", they could be better described as loving to... exert their superiority, whether through subterfuge or outright domination. They roam across the galaxy, split into clans that war among themselves as often other races. They rarely build Jamships of their own, instead purchasing them. Rats have almost a religious reverence for the Mycos, and are the only race they will never attack or injure without provocation, and the only race they known to spare despite a lack of reward. In return, the Mycos have become the Rats main suppliers, willing to augment their bodies with cybernetics and provide ships without being harried by Rat bandits.
Racial Bonus: +1 Fitness, the penalty for multi-tasking is reduced by 1. May hold up to four items at a time.
Squelk - A race of one eyed squidlike beings, they find other races absolutely disgusting. However, they are also some of the most potent bio-mages in the galaxy, and their reputation is well known. A Squelk doctor at work is truly a thing to behold... so long as you have someone watching over him to insure he doesn't decide to make a "few improvements, while I'm here", like the addition of face tentacles or the removal of an eye. Fairly reclusive, and with ships that are not terrible powerful, they often conquer worlds by releasing a bio-plague in advance of their arrival "so [they] don't have to deal with all those disgusting :shudder: natives."
They are capable of quite a bit of focus natively, and make very effective specialists in esotoric techniques. While they are most renowned for their advanced medical skills, it's not the only perk they have going for them.
Racial Bonus: Specializing in Unique Abilities is twice as effective - gain two levels instead of one. Gain an effective +1 bonus with the Shaping Spell and the various Biotinker skills.
The Hrunter - Long-time allies of the Helmsmen, the Hruntar are a race of enormous buglike creatures with powerful telekinetic abilities and the love of bright, clashing colors. Artists and poets at heart, they have the ability to passively influence their surroundings to an extent unknown by other races. Their telekinesis is but a facet of that trait. They also have natural telepathic abilities, able to function over any distance (although they can only maintain a certain number of links with other Hruntar, and they need intimate personal contact to form them), making them invaluable communications assets to many different groups. They primarily travel in large hiveships, moving from place to place to trade and offer their wares, and there's generally very little within-race conflict. Some have said their abilities go a bit further than they appear at first glance, and that they have the ability to directly alter the thinking of others... but that has never been verified. All of the researchers sent to study the possibility claim on their lives that couldn't possible be true, and it is silly to even entertain the notion. They have middling abilities across the spectrum of magic and are not physically impressive.
Racial Bonus: Hrunter have a unique class, "Hrunter", in addition to their normal class. This class has a single (--) skill group, Psi. This group contains the subskills Telepathy, Telekineses, Teleempathy and Mind Control. The initial quality of each of these is Mediocre for Telepathy, Poor for Telekinesis, Terrible for Teleempathy and Impossible for Mind Control.
Mycos - Solidly built creatures, the Mycos are actually artificial - they are constructed, by other Mycos. They have amazing abilities with mechanical and ship-based construction, and they are quite capable of recovering from severe injury. Primarily merchants, they are not terribly expansionistic on the whole - a good thing, since their ships are the best you can find. They are no slouches in a more personal fight either, however, mostly due to the merits of their preparation. Immune to most diseases and not minding crowds, a Mycos planet will often be dug into and built up on until it is a single, enormous, thriving city, a capital of industry. They also have a fondness for rather impractical engineering feats, elaborate houses of worship for their strange gods, and death traps. Oh, do they love death traps. Many of the "abandoned ruins" that seem to litter the galaxy, teaming with treasure, are actually the follies of wealthy Mycos with spare time on their hands.
: Mycos always have an additional effective level in Runic. They are immune to diseases that are not specifically targeted at them. When Mycos "die", they deactivate and going into stasis instead, assuming their fitness is greater than -3. They may also purposely go into stasis. Mycos do not heal during stasis, but entering stasis DOES stabilize them and prevent further fitness checks and loss. Mycos in Stasis may take no actions, including waking up from stasis. Damage or outside interference will wake them from this state, however.
Attributes:Power - Power effects how hard you can hit and how much force you can bring to bear, whether with physical or magical abilities. In many ways, it's a measure of your commitment level. A high power means a 100% commitment to every action. You do not need to use your full power for every action though.
Will - Will involves your ability to resist hardship and keep going. It allows you to continue fighting after serious injuries, and endure the strain of serious spellcasting. Will is about mental endurance.
Fitness - Fitness determines the base for your physical abilities and how much health you have. Will can keep you conscious and fighting, but fitness will keep you alive.
Skills+ General Skills covered by this class. General skills can be used by anyone at a skill level of "Poor". A single point will raise them to mediocre.
- Specialist skills can only be used by characters who have at least one point in the skill, and start at Poor once a point has been spent on them.
-- These abilities are unique in that they can ONLY be purchased by members of this class. They start at terrible, and can never be more than twice as good as their governing class level, and do NOT gain points automatically when gaining a level in this class. Their subskills must also be bought individually, and can never be higher than this skill.
* General Subskills, like General Skills but with a governing skill group.
@ Class Abilities. These subskills are only available to members of this class, and can only be increased through points earned within this class.
+Weapons
@Body
*Blades
*Lance Launchers
*Cannons
+Strength
@Power Strike - A succesful power strike adds levels to damage. A failed power strike reduces chance to hit. Power strike is compared to the enemies defense BEFORE your normal attack is.
*Wrestling
*Weightlifting
+Agility
@Feint - Used in place of a normal attack roll. A succesful feint interrupts the enemies attack and gives them a situational penalty on their next turn. A failed feint simply robs you of the opportunity to deal damage, as feints never do. If your feint fails (and against enemies you didn't feint against) roll a normal combat roll, but with no chance of dealing damage.
*Evasion
*Leaping
+Resilience
@Death Throes - Even after you've taken lethal damage, you may continue fighting until either you fail an attack or choose not to attack.
*Survival - Survival represents your ability to deal with physical hardship, such as injuries and extreme temperature. A succesful survival roll can knock the severity of a wound down one level, though wound penalties DO apply to survival BEFORE such a roll is made.
*Fortitude
-Tactician
@Environmental Manipulation
*Awareness
--Chi Manipulation - Will lost to Chi manipulation returns at the end of the scene
@Boost - Expend a point of will to set one of your dice to a plus, before rolling. You can do this once per point, and a number of times per scene equal to your level in this skill.
@Blast - Expend will to launch a short ranged attack against an enemy, versus the enemies evasion. Each point of will spent increases this attempts success by one level, plus this skill level to determine your skill. The maximum possible injury can not be greater than the amount of will spent.
@Burn - Expend a point of will to: Clear this many points of posion from this character, start a fire, or cause this many standard wounds to a character you are grappling or succesfully touch.
@Pressure Points - Expend a point of will to use this in place of a normal damage role. Instead of dealing damage, they suffer a penalty to all actions for the remaining of the scene equal to your success. Pressure points do stack.
+Drive
@Rumblers - Tanks and other treaded vehicles.
@Rotors - Helicopters and other atmospheric flying craft.
*Rollers - Standard wheeled vehicles, trucks, cars and motorocycles.
*Rakers - Space-based fighter craft.
+Explosives
*Demolitions - Using conventional explosives
*Chemistry - Crafting conventional explosives
*Negaweapons - Using very special explosives
+Equipment
@Exoskels - Magical mech suits
*Seekers - Weaponry that fires magically guided and propelled conventional payloads
*Spellblasters - Weaponry that fires stored magical spells.
+Resilience
@Makeshift - Temporarily ignore damage to this character or a machine they are driving through temporary and ad-hoc repairs. Like first aid, but without the guarantee you'll be better off, and works on machines too!
*Survival
*Fortitude
-Tactician
@Aid Ally
*Awareness
--Presence
@Intimidate
@Draw Fire/Draw Attention
@Inspire - You may loan points of will to your allies
+Agility
*Evasion
*Leaping
+Driving
@Blinkbombers - A special type of unpowered space vehicle built to quickly fuse powerful explosives to an enemy hull or fire powerful short-range heavy spellblasters and then blink to safety. Minimal mass beyond the weapon and life support to allow easier blinking.
*Rakers
*Rollers
-Casting
@Warping
@Blinking
*Spell Detection
--Split
@Shadow Clone - Fight alongside yourself.
@Afterimage - Create a fake copy of an object that is little more than a visual illusion, in the same place as an object. You will then generally want to blink the actual object to another location.
+Focus
*Precision
*Control Spell
+Equipment
@Facets
*Seekers
*Spellblasters
-Casting
@Shaping
@Gemcarving
*Spell Detection
-Medicine
*Stabilize/First Aid
*Surgery
*Extended Care
--Biotinker
@Grafting
@Microbial Manipulation
@Neurotinkering
+Focus
@Trancing
*Precision
*Control Spell
+Equipment
@Blink Engines
@Traction Beams
*Seekers
*Spellblasters
-Casting
@Jamming
@Projecting
*Spell Detection
--Piloting
@Aethercalculus
@Jamhandling
+Resilience
@Perseverance
*Fortitude
*Survival
-Casting
@Evocation
@Enchantment
@Projecting
@Shaping
@Warping
*Spell Detection
--Surge
@Power Surge
@Mana Surge
@Imposing Surge
+Equipment
@Hypertools
*Seekers
*Spellblasters
-Casting
@Spellshaping
*Spell Detection
-Engineering
*Repair
*Tuning
*Construction
*Architecture
-Tactician
@Improvisation
*Awareness
--RuneCrafting
@Blink Engines - The core of a Jamship, but unique in its construction requirements.
@Jamships - Building Jamships and their weaponry.
@Roamers - A name given to all of the various powered vehicles that can be crafted, from Rakers to Rumblers.
@Spellweapons - Seekers and spellblasters
@Negaweapons - The magical equivalent of nuclear bombs
@Utilitools - Hypertools and Prosthetics
Author
Topic: Aether Jam - Game Cancelled. Forever. (Read 6569 times)