GURPS Fantasy , shared world, recruiting

[Ze'Manel Cunha]

Originally Posted by tantric

I hadn't considered power-bones - good catch. I ended up with a Path with most of the spell from the Spirit Path, then rituals to summon the different spirits. Medium and/or Oracle as prerequisites. The spirits occupy the 10pt/point cosmic modular abilities slot(s).

Yeah I was mostly thinking of power-bones for an aspected mana setting.
I wasn't going down the voodoo path stylistically, though some of the spirit riding can be lots of fun, that didn't seem to fit the basic magic that combatmedic is looking for in the world.

Originally Posted by tantric

What Christian bits?

Palo is a lot like voodoo and santoria.

Kobayende - Saint Lazarus
Mariguanda - Saint Teresa
Gurunfinda - Saint Silvester
Nkuyu - Saint Antonio
Má Lango - The Virgin of Regla
Chola Wengue - The Virgin of the Caridad del Cobre
Kimbabula - Saint Francis
Watariamba - John the Baptist
Nsasi - Saint Barbara
Ma Kengue - The Virgin of Mercedes & Obatala
Sarabanda - Saint Peter

[tantric]

Palo is an African diaspora religion. Make it (some other) diaspora religion. There's Norse Voodoo in Abydos. Or if you want an psuedo-African culture, I guess I'm the guy to ask.

This is an edited version of the type of Palo used in my mythic fantasy campaign:

Palo

Palo is the magic of the ancestors. Palo centers about a huge cauldron, called the Nganga, set on a bed of guinea hen eggshells. Although the cauldron is made from clay, it is etched and banded with gold, silver and iron. When a villager dies, his skull and the bones of his right hand traditionally go into the Nganga, whereas his Family Bone goes in an Ancestor Urn. The skulls go in the pot, the fingerbones are marked and become Knucklebones. Using Palo, a Mayome can summon Ancestors spirits invisible form. This is Ritual Magic, requiring Initiation, and the Palo way is call the Path of the Ancestors. The host of Spirits is called Vinyamkela, which is a kind of group-being, whereas the dead are called Wafumbe. For the most part, Palo is about divination, but Mayome do have the power to summon and release Dzedzeta ghosts (which have individuality). Some of these Ghosts, such as the Ombwiri, are guarding spirits for their relatives, even though the are invisible and incorporeal. Owmbwiri often communicate via dreams. There are also Wajini and the Majini, which are the ghosts of violent men - Mjini (pl Wajini) are individuals, whereas the Majini is what Sorcerors call Legion. Palo can also summon Nikisi, which are powerful archetype Ancestors. Foremost is Grandfather Mantis, followed by Kwaku Ananse (who is not actually dead, though she can still be contacted), Porcupine, Rainbow Serpent, River, Honeyguide, and, for the dangerously insane, the All-Devourer.


Ancestor Urns

Each family has a special urn containing the bones of the families ancestors. The Urns are offer sacrifices of beer and chili pepper incense regularly. Upon becoming an adult, a young RealPerson must select his bone, and only that bone can enter the jar. This can lead to many problems, including meddling witches and restless Undead. if the Urn is lost, the eldest most family member must commit suicide, el

Mind you, in my world, this is practiced by meerkats, were-warthogs and baobab dryads.

[combatmedic]

Awwww, yeah!

Looks like the juices are flowing now.

DAT- I like your barbs.

Agramer-

My suggestions were just that, suggestions.

WW1 aircraft seemed like a good analogy: can hand drop bombs, strafe troops on ground [bows instead of machine guns] agile enough to dogfight, good spotter/observers. Dropping fire-hoops might be cool, too.

Anyone that has trebuchets has the basic idea of 'bombardment.' It's not all that modern. Indeed, it's rather like dropping stuff from a parapet [common tactic in sieges]- only you can move the parapet!

If you prefer shock dragon troopers, go ahead.
Let us not simply hand wave the limitations imposed by armor, the ginormous caloric intake of these beasts, the borderline suicidal nature of lance attacks while flying, etc. 'It's fantasy' works very well in some settings, but not so well in this one.

Decide if these dragons are more like bats/bird/pterodactyls- or big D&D style bruisers. If they are big bruisers- how do they manage to fly? A ‘mana organ’ is fine- but it might be a bit silly if we just hand wave a flying mountain of scales, claws, and muscle.


A humble suggestion [not editorial directive, I stress that]:

Ditch the aerial lancers [this isn't Dragonlance, and the concept does great violence to my own SoD- and probably does that for many other folks, as well] and go with a 'leapfrog' set-up. The dragoneers bound/fly over the enemy, like knight figures on the chessboard. They don't stay in one spot too long, because the enemy might cripple the dragon's wings- and then it's probably game over, even if the dragon and rider take out scads of the foe before they are butchered. Losing twenty or thirty infantry to take out a single dragon and rider might well be a very good trade-off for their enemies. Dragons are exponentially more expensive than ordinary soldiers.


Ze'- Great to have you on board! Magic bones!

[combatmedic]

Note to Douglas-

Those books sound fun, but I suspect that the dragons in them are not a good fit for what we have now.


It seems that Agramer really wants literal 'knights', not aircraft analogues or flying warships. I've suggested 'shock dragons' inspired by the knight (or horsey, as my nephew calls it) chess-piece. That might be more in line with what he wants, yet perhaps better suited to the magic level and 'verisimilitude' of the setting. We'll have to wait and see what he thinks.

[combatmedic]

Anyone who hasn't read this essay by Poul Anderson, please give it a look when you get a chance:

http://www.sfwa.org/2005/01/on-thud-and-blunder/

It emphasizes the sort of thoughtful common sense approach to fantasy that I enjoy. I'm not saying that everyone should think like this- but it might give you some insight into my editorial thinking process. I poke holes in the harder-to-swallow [for me] aspects of things offered up, not to be a jerk, but to help you refine your contributions and make a more fully-realized, gameable, fun setting.

BTW, feel free to comment on any contributions that I make.
This is a collaborative effort. I've taken the helm because I initiated the project, and because someone has to have final authority to edit. Without an editor, it would become a fractured mess in short order. We are all co-creators, though, and all positive input and feedback is welcome.

[Threlgar]

Originally Posted by Agramer

I didnt want them to be as numerous to "fall over them on every step".
If you read above youll notice that I said that there should be gradation:
First sword of Empire is awesome character...but when you consider that he is "The Best"(probably) very high point value is believable.

We are talking here about Fantasy World.Write up GURPS MA 3ed has template for Miyamoto Mushasi at 575 points(would be more if revised for 4th ed) Katana skill 30 +assorted skills 18+. And He was in real world.

I really dont see a problem with such individuals being one in few million,and having "lesser versions" available for different campaign scopes.

Yes, I see the point. Though I doubt the Mushasi from MA is "the real" one, he is rather the one from the legends. People get bigger in stories... This is quite interesting, BTW. GURPS Greece 3e has a sidebar titled "The history behind the myth" (p. 29). I was very intrigued with the idea of playing in a world with cinematic, yet somewhat realistic characters that later in stories grew into the heroes of the legends we know.

Do you own GURPS Conan ? Great book, but long out of print, I think. It contains stats for Conan at different times of his live. I think it is save to call him the greatest warrior of his time, but his stats don´t even come close to that of MA´s Mushasi.

I am not really uncomfortable with high point characters at all, in fact I love anime-style and D&D / DF style fantasy, but when I started to think about that Shattered Empire thing, I wanted something different, and in fact something more fantastic than Conan but not more cinematic / mythic.

I just wanted to point this out since our goal is to make something different and "epic level characters" could give it a feel like just another, if somewhat original, D&D style fantasy.
(EDIT: If you do not think so, I´ll just put aside the thought. Legendary heroes are cool, anyway.)

Talking about D&D style versus pulp era style - what do you think how common magic items are going to be ?

[combatmedic]

Originally Posted by Threlgar

Yes, I see the point. Though I doubt the Mushasi from MA is "the real" one, he is rather the one from the legends. People get bigger in stories... This is quite interesting, BTW. GURPS Greece 3e has a sidebar titled "The history behind the myth" (p. 29). I was very intrigued with the idea of playing in a world with cinematic, yet somewhat realistic characters that later in stories grew into the heroes of the legends we know.

Do you own GURPS Conan ? Great book, but long out of print, I think. It contains stats for Conan at different times of his live. I think it is save to call him the greatest warrior of his time, but his stats don´t even come close to that of MA´s Mushasi.

I am not really uncomfortable with high point characters at all, in fact I love anime-style and D&D / DF style fantasy, but when I started to think about that Shattered Empire thing, I wanted something different, and in fact something more fantastic than Conan but not more cinematic / mythic.

I just wanted to point this out since our goal is to make something different and "epic level characters" could give it a feel like just another, if somewhat original, D&D style fantasy.
(EDIT: If you do not think so, I´ll just put aside the thought. Legendary heroes are cool, anyway.)

Talking about D&D style versus pulp era style - what do you think how common magic items are going to be ?

Magic items are not terribly common. Remember that they cannot be mass-produced. This is not a 'magic-shop in every town' kind of setting. There are pockets of higher mana- but such places can be drained quickly if overused for spell casting/item production.

I set up the guidelines for the setting to avoid the D&D tropes of ubiquitous magic items and spell casters, Tolkienian rip-off races, and a gazillion intelligent nonhuman monsters.

[combatmedic]

I have a solution:


The 'First Sword' is just a guy who's really good at sword-fighting- but still a 'normal.'

If Agramar is burning with desire to create very high point value stat blocks, he can do that. Just put it in a sidebar! This is GURPS. Sidebars are our friends.
Describe the 'epic' stats in terms of : if the hype is true. The default assumption should be that even great heroes put their pants on one leg at a time, and don't floss with the armpit hairs of the gods.

This way, we have a world that allows for an 'epic option', but is generally written assuming a human- not superhuman- scale.

[Agramer]

Originally Posted by combatmedic

I have a solution:


The 'First Sword' is just a guy who's really good at sword-fighting- but still a 'normal.'

If Agramar is burning with desire....

High point values arent necessarily unbalancing world.

/looks in Combatmedics direction...???

We are always playing "Semicinematic" Fantasy games.


Houserules we go with:
----------------------

Magic is relatively rare.

Forbidden spells:
----------------
Invisibility,Teleport,Body of Air(and similar),Force/Utter Domes(and similar),Time spells,Majority of Gate spells,Walk on air/clouds(similar),Flight,Great Haste
-Sometimes we include Mind Control also on no/no list

No Chambara rules.
No Combinations.

Maximum 1 level of Extra Attack.

Very stringy on non-human traits(advantages)

Pros:
-PCs can be heroes and with enough cps can simulate D`Artaganian and such ,fighting multiple opponents
-No need for stupendous defences of Major figures in game world(Since you need ridiculous amount of defences to defend against all variations that different combos of spells can create and it hits brick wall of suspended belief why some Baron would have multimillion defences with dozen different mages bodyguarding him around the clock)
-World overall is still in realm of "suspended belief borderline"*

*I dont have any problem in believing that any of those below can kick ass of up to 10 average Cops,Soldiers simultaneously:
Fedor Emelianenko,Cro Cop,Tyson (Actully when I had night club,Chief of Bouncers threw some guys out from another bar he was working in...8 of them returned with bats and chains...He knocked out 3 of them and rest runed away)
OR
Lancelot,Richard Lionhearth,Miyamoto Mushasi...etc could do same vs armed opponents

Also :
Pressure points - are somewhat realistic with all talk about acupunture,nerve junktions....etc

Breaking Blow: -we do see Karatekas breaking bricks..etc(sure its in controlled environment and probably structuraly weakened...but still...)

Power Blow:-It does look utterly fantastic on first glance,but there are reported cases of Woman(50-60kg) lifting cars to pull their children out

Flying Leap:Athletes do jump over 2m hight(its just a small step for "ninja" to jump straith up instead over back as athletes),Athletes also do jump 7m in distance...or run 11 yarads/second

Tic-Tac:-we have stuntman running tic-tac between walls

Heh,or just check any Tony Jaas exhibition....(watch all 4 minutes,at 3:18 is "cinematic" move ;) )

Or Cyrill Rafaelli
Again Tony Jaa

If every village thug starts doing that,it would break my suspended-belief,but if those are very rare occasions..why not?

Whats "breaking" my suspended-belief is when people start flying around

Cons:
-PCs on 250+ cps are force to be reckoned with (heh thats what rpg is about)

To put all of above into perspective:
Game were playing now is 315+45 cp...In last 18 sessions(4-7 hours each) we encountered:
-few Vampires
-2 Mages
-few Demons
-<i>only</i> two opponents with cinematic skills(same session both)
While rest of humanity is "human"...lol

I think that explains rarity Im aiming at,while still allowing for such people to exist

[Agramer]

/nudges Tantric ....

Cant make it without Religion :))