I've had great fun reading through ARs, and I figured it'd be interesting to try one on for size. Don't know how much will come of it, but I hope it'll be fun while it lasts. My rules are a bit... tweaked, inspired by some trends I've seen. Less complex than some, more complex than others. It's a bit weird. Don't hesitate to ask about anything that seems off or incomprehensible.
The biggest weirdness here is that I have done my best to make a path of... conventional warfare infeasible. There's plenty of magic to tool around with, and stabbing people with pointed sticks is a perfectly valid method of reducing their aliveness considerably, but I'm hoping to avoid the spiral of magic gun -> magic tank -> magic artillery -> magic bigger artillery -> magic high altitude urban defense stealth bomber.
Regardless, without Further Ado....
Fantasy Race - 20
Fantasy Race - 19 is currently in self-quarantine. 1-18 were killed for their impertinence.
Alikai and
Zehlin; two nations that pulled themselves up by the bootstraps, conquered their own harsh landscape, built a civilization from nothing, and now rise as dominant regional powers. They both rise, look toward the sea, and watch with consternation as some stuck up civilization that had it easy in their pillowed [Insert Other Nation's Biome Here] lands starts eyeing the territory they fought so hard to claim.
Clearly this region is only big enough for one strong and independent civilization, and the only solution is a landgrab. Probably followed by total war.
Zehlin ThreadAlikai Thread
The RulesAs it was done in days of old, Resources exist as threshold values. If you can meet the threshold, you can deploy a tech at a reasonable level. If you can't, you deploy it at a reduced efficiency. Speaking in broad strokes, every point of resource you don't have halves your ability to deploy. So if you're missing 1 point, you can deploy half as many as if you matched cost. If you're missing five, you can deploy at 3% normal capacity.
Basic Resources
Mortals: Sapient Species.
Beasts: Horses and cattle if you’re boring.
Minerals: Resources that grow inside the land.
Fruit of the Land: Resources that grow above the land.
At future points, you may see a need to create advanced resources, typically for magic. At the start you will gain an advanced resource for whichever form of magic you choose as your starting mastery.
If there is ever a discrepancy where one side has more resources than the other, the other side will be notified that they are at a production loss.
Alikai- A Kingdom brought forth from a near-barren deser, Alikai’s terrain is windswept sand and towering buttes, occasionally and mercifully interrupted by natural springs that feed civilization.
Zehlin- A Kingdom brought forth from a cold-water swamp, Zehlin’s topography is a mixture of islands of stable ground and limestone surrounded by chill and sodden swampland rich with glowing flora and fauna.
Northwest Land RouteBlasted Craters-Terrain is rocky and hilly, with sudden extrusive ridges and deep craters.
-Unstable underground geology results in sudden sinkholes, poisonous gas seeps, magma fissures, and natural gas detonations.
The Frostspire-Unnatural Cold permeates this region, emanating from the mountain and covering the area in permafrost. Terrain flattish, broken by sudden sheer faced eruptions of ice and stone.
-Mundane beasts become extraordinarily difficult to handle here, and there is no native animal life beyond swarms of endothermic ice-worms.
Central Water RouteThe Mossteeth-Shallow, warm-water sea. Prone to vicious currents and sudden storms, the tempestuous weather is very difficult for large craft.
-Frequent abutments of vegetation covered rock both give the region its name and rip apart the hulls of careless vessels.
Shifting Isles-Floating Islands that seem grouped roughly in the middle of the sea, capable of moving, but also somewhat repulsed by one another so that no large landmass forms.
-Exceedingly difficult to navigate and home to a bewildering variety of climates.
Stillreach-A deep and vast section of sargasso sea which is known for its incredibly poor winds and burning sun. Very easy to get stranded.
-The depth and stillness of these waters make it home to many vast beasts.
Southeast Land RouteGhoulwood-Very flat terrain, densely wooded. This area is idyllic with natural beauty and hypernaturally alive.
-Terrible, intelligent predators lurk in the woods- rapacious appetites taking advantage of the abnormal fecundity of these lands.
The Devil’s Scab-Mountains of Hexagonal Basalt Pillars with ridgelike shale extrusions, the Devil’s scab terrain is all but impassible, deceptively fragile, and sharp at all times.
-Home to hundreds of small oases of rain lakes and thousands of species of bird.
Designs
During the Research and Design phase you can undertake any combination of three Research, Design, and Revision actions.
Designs are similar to the AR standard. You write up what the design is, I judge the design and roll a die, and then magic happens. The major difference in this AR is that the roll of the die does not change the baseline efficacy of a design. Whether you roll as well as possible or as poorly as possible, it’s the quality of your background research, the weight of your existing knowledge, and the logical quality of your write-up that determines the efficacy of a design.
What the roll determines is how many bugs and flaws are present within the design, and, for this AR, you want to roll as low as possible. A ‘1’ is perfect, there are no bugs or flaws. The max number possible to roll is determined by your project overreach.
1d4: Project is Trivial
1d6: Project is Minor
1d8: Project is Ordinary
1d10: Project is Difficult
1d12: Project is Extremely Difficult
1d20: Project is Impossible
Unless your project rolls a 1 for its initial design, I’ll roll again on the following tables for bugs. In essence, I’ll have a budget of ‘bug’ points equal to your roll -1. I’ll roll on the tables below to select classes of bug to add. If I have enough points in the budget to pay for the bug, I’ll roll for modifiers, dream up a bug that fits the description, deduct the points from your budget, and add the bug. Otherwise I’ll roll again. This continues until I run out of points in the bug budget. For every 4 points remaining in the bug budget (rounded down) I add +2 to my rolls when determining what the bug is and any modifiers it might have.
Bug Table (Roll with d12)
1: Lucky Break (No Bug), -1
2: Minor Bug, -1
3: Minor Bug, -1
4: Minor Bug, -1
5: Minor Bug, -1
6: Moderate Bug, -2
7: Moderate Bug, -2
8: Moderate Bug, -2
9: Severe Bug, -3
10: Severe Bug, -3
11: Crippling Bug, -4
12: Hidden fault! (added bug), +1
13+: Crippling Bug, -4
Modifier Table (Roll with d8 for each bug added.)
1. Simple
2. Piggy-Back
3. Fascinating
4. Feature
5: Complicated
6: Hidden
7: Cluster
8: Intractable
9: Nightmarish
10: Eldritch
11+. Roll again
Minor Bugs: Minor bugs are things that would generally make things nicer if they didn’t exist, but aren’t actually deal breakers. The fact that an M1 Garand has a clip that acts like a struck tuning fork is an example. (Actually, that one would probably have the 'Feature' modifier, since soldiers reported it helped them know when to reload.)
Moderate Bugs: Are things that can cause serious issues in the wrong situation or persistent but manageable shortcomings. The Ford Pinto exploding when rear-ended is a moderate bug. It doesn’t always happen, and it won’t happen in the regular course of events, but it WILL ruin your day when it does. A constant, but not life ending, performance issue is in the same caliber.
Severe Bugs: Severe bugs represent a critical flaw that can undermine a design. The thermal port of the death star is a good example. It, by existing, doesn’t stop the Death Star from working, BUT it does mean that it can be destroyed by one blue-milk sipping pseudo-orphan who learned to shoot by killing small mammals and listening to the voices in his head. Likewise, persistent and pronounced performance shortcomings are also in this vein.
Cripplings Bugs: Crippling bugs are exactly what it says on the tin. They represent issues that, until resolved, make it nearly impossible for a design to work as intended.
Modifier Descriptions,
Simple: Simple bugs are easier than usual to solve. When a revision is used to address them, that revision rolls twice and uses the better number. If the revision fails, the bug is still degraded to one severity lower automatically.
Piggy Back: This bug is actually created by a different bug, listed in the description. If that bug is resolved, this bug will also be resolved. The other bug is always of equal or greater severity and will be listed in the bug description. No effect if this is the only bug.
Fascinating: When resolved, this bug will grant a random research insight.
Feature: This bug has a useful side effect. This side effect IS removed when the bug is removed.
Complicated: Revisions to fix this bug roll twice and take the worse roll.
Hidden: The source of this bug is masked by another bug. This bug cannot be revised away until the bug hiding it is removed. The bug hiding this one must be of lower or equal severity, but is not revealed. Becomes 'Complicated' if this is the only bug.
Cluster: When removed, this bug rolls its budget-1 again on the bug table.
Intractable: Revisions to fix this bug roll twice and take the worse roll. Even when the revision succeeds, the bug merely loses the intractable flag and gains the complicated flag.
Nightmarish: When resolved, this bug rolls its full budget again on the bug table. Any additional bugs created have the Intractable and Cluster tags.
Eldritch: While this bug exists, all bugs on the same design are treated as Nightmarish. This includes itself.
Revisions
Revisions are used to add a feature (or features) to an existing technology, remove a bug (or bugs) from an existing technology, or a combination of the two.
When adding features to an existing technology, each feature has a value between 1 and 6 that corresponds to the difficulty of integrating the feature into the design. A 1 is almost nothing, akin to changing the paint, while a 6 is a substructural overhaul that really, REALLY should have been a design by itself. Unless you do a research project first, you will not know what these weights are ahead of time.
When removing bugs, each bug has a weight equal to its point cost +1.
When making a revision, is placed in weight order from least to greatest, followed by all the features from least to greatest. I then roll a d6. If the sum of the value shown and the total value of all features and bugs is less than or equal to 8, then it’s completely successful and the features are added and the bugs removed. If, however, the number is greater than 8, then weights of all features are increased by 2 and partial success rules apply.
On a partial success, the ordered features and bugs who sum of weights + revision roll does not exceed 8 are still successfully added. Additional features beyond this point are discarded. Any bug which would cause the sum of weights + revision toll to be exceeded is reduced in severity by one. Additional bugs beyond that point will remain in the design.
It’s important to note that any feature that would remove a bug by existing (like replacing a too-heavy airframe with one made of new ultralight materials) will add the bug removal to the calculation before adding the feature. This means that you can’t fix bugs just by adding features, but that sometimes you can fix a bug even if you fail to add a feature.
If a revision would cause the cost of a design to change for the worse, both the old and new version will remain purchasable.
Research
Research Projects are launched in order to test the water for a feature adding revision/design you’d like to do or to gain research leads
When testing the water for a design, the exact Design is submitted. There’s no rolling, but you’ll get a heavily abbreviated write-up of how the design will turn out, what the difficulty will be, and anything in particular that’s holding you back. In addition, the project difficulty will be reduced by 1, unless the difficulty is impossible. This latter effect cannot be repeated. When testing the water for features, you can specify up to 10 features you want, spread across any designs. You’ll learn the exact weight those features have, and you’ll learn the exact value of the next revision roll you’re going to make.
When gaining research leads, you ask questions about the universe or write-up a pseudo-design that’s looking for a particular phenomenon- a research design. From there you’ll get an answer back about how things work, what’s possible, and a -2 roll bonus to use on a design specifically related to the phenomenon.
All things are suffused by the Miad. Under normal circumstances it is completely undetectable, a background field of magical energy that underlies the world. Generally non-interactive, invisible, and untouchable, the Miad can enter the world through a process known as Transcorporeal Crystallization. When crystallized, the Miad can exist in one of three basic states, depending on how it entered the world, and each state has certain unique properties.
Dull Miad: Akin in appearance to Copper Sulfate crystals, Dull Miad is generated by the interaction of velocity. It is quite light, with a density approximate to that of lithium, but with most other material properties similar to that of gypsum- save for an extraordinarily good electrical conductivity. Dull Miad evaporates rapidly when exposed to sunlight, and will degrade more slowly in ordinary light. In its solid form, Dull Miad is unaffected by gravity. Dull Miad releases free electrons as it evaporates.
The Interaction of Velocity: Any object traveling at velocity of 250 m/s or greater will begin accrete Dull Miad crystals as it travels. The rate of accretion increases as velocity increases. The process of accretion obeys conservation of momentum, and so will slow the object as the crystals corporate. Due to the low mass of Dull Miad, however, air resistance from dramatically increasing surface area usually contributes more to deceleration than the momentum conservation. Crystal formation is asymmetric and rapidly creates extreme aerodynamic instability for any free traveling object.
Quicksilver Miad: Quicksilver Miad itself as two principle states, inert and active. Inert quicksilver Miad is generated by the Interaction of Acceleration and manifests as an opaque silver crystal of considerable luster. Extremely dense, inert quicksilver Miad has most of its material properties in common with Osmium. It is affected by gravity. Unlike Dull Miad, Quicksilver Miad does not evaporate in light, but melts (rapidly in sunlight, slowly in other light) into active Quicksilver Miad. When active, it takes after its namesake in fluidity and is no longer affected by conventional gravitation. Quicksilver Miad is extremely ferro-magnetic in this state and will rapidly drift towards electrical imbalances. When in contact with a solid object, Quicksilver Miad will augment any acceleration the object undergoes, evaporating in the process. This interaction cannot allow an object to exceed the limit set by the interaction of Acceleration.
The Interaction of Acceleration: Any objection accelerating at greater than 7500 m/s2 will induce the formation of inert Quicksilver Miad crystals. The object’s acceleration will be capped at 7500 m/s2, and additional acceleration is consumed to fuel the creation of crystals. The crystals do not, necessarily form on the object that is accelerating, but can form on most any matter with three meters- though that radius can increase with particularly potent accelerations. Quicksilver Miad crystals are typically quite small, and while they can be generated by daily processes they typically activate and evaporate before they’re even noticed.
Burning Miad: Burning Miad is forms fragments of crystal created by the Interaction of Transition that burn with a light which depends on their exact atmosphere, but is usually blueish-white in standard air. The material properties of Burning Miad are quite difficult to measure, but seem similar to that of quartz. Burning Miad is pushed, rather than pulled, by gravity. Burning Miad does not evaporate in light, but is inherently unstable and constantly releasing energy- evaporating as it does so. Burning Miad crystals maintain a surface temperature of roughly 40,000 F for the brief time that they exist.
The Interaction of Transition: The least well understood of the of the basic Miad interactions, the interaction of transition occurs principally during rapid heat transfer. There is no exact threshold of either transfer rate or of temperature, the likelihood of the interaction occurring increases as temperature and transfer speed increases. When the interaction occurs, thermal transfer will abruptly cease and a Burning Miad crystal will begin to form. While the rate of transfer remains constant or increasing, the crystal will grow and store energy. During this period it will NOT emit any heat, glow, or exhibit anti-gravity. When the rate of transfer declines, the Burning Miad crystal will become active and exhibit its usual properties. This period is, in many cases, too brief to notice, as the amount of energy a burning Miad crystal releases is proportional to the amount it absorbed.
With training and care, individuals can influence the Miad mentally. In its simplest form, this alters the rules of the Interactions slightly, but there are stories and fables of uncommon or complex forms of the Miad brought about by skilled practitioners. However, it is important to note that when a student of the Miad modifies and interaction, it is many hundreds of times easier to lower the threshold at which an interaction occurs than it is to raise it.
The Communion of the Deep
There are legends of a place from which all thought began, a well of infinity from which the simplest forms of meaning first took shape. At first the Deep was a very gentle place, the nursery of the first thinking minds- yet long aeons have changes it much from the warm womb it began as.
When sapient minds first rose from the Deep and inhabited mortal bodies, part of them remained attached to that dark and gentle place. When a sapient being dies, part of its essence, the dregs of mortality, return to that deep places. Dark things, monstrous to behold but once ignorant of the existence of outer life, fed upon these dregs. As unnumbered years have passed, these beasts have grown to incredible sizes and gained many strange and terrible powers.
Those who hold with the Old Ways and take communion with the deep have learned to either imitate these beasts, feeding upon mortal dregs to expand their forms and their minds, or conjure up these beings from the deep in order to inhabit the mortal world for a time.
-Can conjure beings of the Deep to inhabit objects/beings.
-If the inhabited being is living, it must be willing.
-Inhabited beings and objects will be afflicted by enhanced entropy and will gain strange properties and abilities.
-Beings of the Deep are intelligent and inhuman. The can be commanded via ritual or bribed and bartered with.
-Beings of the Deep feed upon the dregs of souls when the mortal body dies. Sacrifices can be used to entice them, and they are eager to slaughter when in the mortal world in order to feast in their own.
-Beings of the Deep are not killed when their host in the Mortal World dies.
-Can be used to harvest soul Dregs either from the freshly dead or from the Deep. These can be consumed to grant vast and strange powers at the cost of ones sanity.
The Way of Lunacy
The Moon has always held a strange sway. It governs the tides, the movements of beasts, the flow of passions, and has captured the artist's eye for centuries. The moon is change, the evolution of one thing into another. Those who practice magic by moonlight are fascinated by these changes, not infrequently attempting to mutate themselves in order to gain a more... personal understanding of the sacred moonlight.
While frequently regard as madmen, the Sacred Lunatics possess the knowing of many rites and sacred times during which one object or person can take on a new and transformed existence. These changes are frequently dramatic, and can elevate the base to the supernatural with relative ease and permanence- if the transformation can be borne.
-Can induce any object or entity to undergo a transformation.
-An object an entity may only be affected by a single transformation.
-Transformations are always related to something that already existed within an object or entity.
-Transformations, particularly complex transformations or weakly related transformations, put heavy stress on the transformed physically or mentally.
-Imbuing something with a transformation can only be done at certain times of each month, at night, and takes time.
The Science Of Juxtematics
One of the most modern magics, the Science of Juxtematics was birthed from an intensive study of the natural world and an increasing ability to categorize and classify the individual properties of matter. Through the use of certain chemical catalysts and magical arts, these properties were found to not be as static as once presumed, and quite susceptible to being (at least temporarily) switched between materials.
Juxtematic alchemists have enjoyed a surge in their art in recent decades, as advances in mathematics and science have enabled them to attain a specificity in their work hitherto impossible to attain.
-Allows one material to switch one or many physical properties (Hardness, density, conductivity, etc) with another material.
-Requires Juxtematic Catalysts, complex alchemical compounds which are used to initiate the transfer.
-Material properties can be selected and transferred individually.
-A material can be a donor to many, or a receiver from many.
-Individual material properties must be transferred completely, you cannot donate ‘part’ of a diamond’s hardness.
-Transfer volumes must be equivalent, but transfer volumes need not be contiguous.
-Transferred properties will decay similarly to radioactive particles, with individual molecules losing their properties one at time with half-life intervals.
The Art of Awakening
Long suspected to be an offshoot of those who hold Communion with the Deep, Awakeners deal in the nature of the mortal spark - the divide that separates a person from a body that used to be a person. Time and practice have allowed them to manipulate this spark, to transfer it in part or majority from one host to another. While these connections are oft fleeting, the ability to awaken inert matter to do the labor of a person, or to give one champion the strength of many, cannot be understated.
Awakeners train for years or decades before being able to perform their craft with any precision, and it takes a special sort of individual to keep one's identity after years of touching and manipulating the very souls of others.
-Allows essence of one living entity to be imprinted onto another living entity or object.
-Imprinting a living entity with another living entity temporarily confers super-human abilities to the imprinted at the cost of weakening the imprint donor.
-Imprinting an object will bring it to life with a modicum of intelligence, at the cost of weakening the imprint donor.
-Imprints decay over time. Decay rate is based on the similarity between the donor and host.
-Non-living hosts can be shaped after their donor and given fragments of their donor (hair/nails/blood) in order to strengthen the connection.
-Emotional connection counts for similarity in living hosts.
-Imprints may be complete (renders the donor comatose) or partial.
-Donation can be induced. The awakener does not have to be the donor or the host of an imprint.
Author
Topic: FR20 - A Fantasy Arms Race With Odd Rules [Prologue 3 Out] (Read 5260 times)