The World of Solem

[DangerousThing]

One problem I see, and this may be purely due to my experiences.

Your Church of the Silver Flame looks really good for a book, but I see some some major problems with it as a role-playing device.

In a book you need such organizations to provide danger to the protagonists.

In an rpg you have many other ways of providing danger.

I just have a suspicion that the players may feel personally attacked when the Church of the Silver Flame attacks them. To be perfectly honest, it's much too powerful.

[deanjday]

Originally Posted by DangerousThing

One problem I see, and this may be purely due to my experiences.

Your Church of the Silver Flame looks really good for a book, but I see some some major problems with it as a role-playing device.

In a book you need such organizations to provide danger to the protagonists.

In an rpg you have many other ways of providing danger.

I just have a suspicion that the players may feel personally attacked when the Church of the Silver Flame attacks them. To be perfectly honest, it's much too powerful.

Perhaps I am not describing it fully as I see it, Its going to be quite a regional power, in some areas very powerful, in others its tolerated and in others its widely banned. Think of ot as a medieval catholic church but more regional.
As for the players I am going to try to make it complex enough that the church is possibly able to be reformed and certainly the leadership will have a range of individuals good, bad and neutral.

There will be many other threats in the campaign to them, this is just one I have got to so far. A much stronger threat than the Church will be Darkfriends within the Church (and all organisations of the setting) manipulating it for its own ends.

Lastly, in the campaign really as always the players will dictate what they find interesting and want to combat and what setting elements will be less important to them.

I am going to provide enough interlocking elements that hopefully they will be interested to learn more, and they could always start with a character template of the church!
I am now working on a template of a Knight of the Church next. Thank you for your feedback keep it coming please.

[deanjday]

Rules - Template Occupation.

[B]Knight of the Silver Flame 125 points/B]

Attributes
ST 10 (0), DEX 11 (20), IQ 10 (0), HT 10 (0)

Secondary Characteristics
Damage 1d-1/1d +1
Bl 24 ibs
HP 11 (0)
WILL 10 (0)
PER 10 (0)
FP 11 (0)
Base Speed 5.5 (0)
Base Move 5 (0)

Advantages
Fit (5)
Patron (Church of the Silver Flame) foa 9 or less, Equipment (weapons, armor, horse), Special Abilities. (75)
Rank 1 (5) (Squire)
Status 3 (15)

Then 15 points from
Charisma (5 per level)
Combat Reflexes (15)
Fearlessness (2 per level)
High Pain Threshold (10)
Higher Purpose (defeat all Darkfriends) (5)
Legal Enforcement Powers (10)
Increase Fit (5) to Very Fit (15)

Disadvantages
Duty (fairly often 9 or less, Extremely Hazardous) (-10)

then -25 points from
Bad Temper (-10)
Blood lust (-10)
Bully (-10)
Callous (-5)
Code of Honor (chivalry) (-15)
Fanaticism (-15)
Honesty (-10)
Intolerance (non-believers) (-5)
Obsession (slay Darkfriends) (-5)
Overconfidence (-5)
Selfishness (-5)

Primary Skills
Either Axe/Mace or Broadsword A DEX +1 (4) 12
Riding (Horse) A DEX +1 (4) 12
Shield E DEX +1(2) 12
Theology (Church of the Silver Flame) H IQ (4) 10

Secondary Skills
Spend 7 points from

Intimidation, Knife, Leadership, Savoir faire, Tactics.

Background Skills
Spend 3 points from

Diplomacy, Heraldry, Interrogation, Politics, Religious Ritual (Church of the Silver Flame)

Notes
If a Player wants to he or she can purchase more ranks at character generation up to 3 levels.
the Knight of the Silver Flame Ranks are,
1 - Squire
2 - Cavalryman
3 - Knight
4 - Sergeant
5 - Captain
6 - Commander
7 - Lord Commander.

I will do a follow up post on the setting info of the Knights of the Silver Flame.

Behind the curtain
So these are the extreme knightly religious order of the setting, I purposely did not give them much in the way of attributes as i seem them being all physical shapes and sizes, rather then there physical attributes, there are accepted into their order due to their religious zeal. as they are not particularly popular in many parts of the setting, they cant be fussy with recruits. I will do a more heroic fantasy knight order with perhaps better stats at a later stage.
I should also mention that only the race of Men can be part of the Church of the Silver Flame, so no magical Elves and Dwarves allowed thank you!

[DangerousThing]

Originally Posted by deanjday

Rules - Template Occupation.

Most templates are influenced by GURPS pentaphilia.

[Gold & Appel Inc]

So wait, some but not all Knights of the Silver Flame have far-reaching Legal Enforcement Powers within their jurisdiction, which is not tied to Rank? I'm having trouble visualizing how this works.

[deanjday]

Originally Posted by Gold & Appel Inc

So wait, some but not all Knights of the Silver Flame have far-reaching Legal Enforcement Powers within their jurisdiction, which is not tied to Rank? I'm having trouble visualizing how this works.

The way I see that in the setting is its very regional, in some cities like their power bases, they have a lot more authority than in other cities were they might not have any permanent presence and are barely tolerated by the local government and leaders.

I was not sure how I should process that in a template, could I have done it better?
Also if taken by a PC as it stands they only have rank 1 which is Squire, who as a trainee Knight would not have nay legal powers, should I link it to that they have to take rank 3 Knight before they can take legal enforcement powers?

[deanjday]

Originally Posted by DangerousThing

Most templates are influenced by GURPS pentaphilia.

Sorry I don't understand that reference?

[Stormcrow]

Originally Posted by deanjday

Then 15 points from
Charisma (5 per level), Combat Reflexes (15), Fearlessness (2 per level), High Pain Threshold (10), Higher Purpose (defeat all Darkfriends), Legal Enforcement Powers (10), Increase Fit (5) to Very Fit (15)

You might want to specify what should be done with leftover points for those who take Fearlessness but don't take exactly 5 levels of it.

Secondary Skills
Spend 5 points from

Intimidation, Knife, Leadership, Savoir faire, Tactics.

Background Skills
Spend 2 points from

Diplomacy, Heraldry, Interrogation, Politics, Religious Ritual (Church of the Silver Flame)

You probably want to give minimum values to secondary and background skills so players know what levels are appropriate. It also cuts down on rules look-ups.

Originally Posted by deanjday

The way I see that in the setting is its very regional, in some cities like their power bases, they have a lot more authority than in other cities were they might not have any permanent presence and are barely tolerated by the local government and leaders.

I was not sure how I should process that in a template, could I have done it better?
Also if taken by a PC as it stands they only have rank 1 which is Squire, who as a trainee Knight would not have nay legal powers, should I link it to that they have to take rank 3 Knight before they can take legal enforcement powers?

Modify the template to reflect what all Knights of the Silver Flame have in common, then create various lenses to reflect the regional or vocational variations. For instance, you might have an Urban lens that includes things like Legal Enforcement Powers [10] and Military Rank 3 [15].

[Emerald Cat]

Originally Posted by deanjday

Rules - Template Occupation.

DangerousThing is referring to the fact that your template comes out to 122 points rather than 125, a multiple of 5. Multiples of 5 are preferred because Advantages and Disadvantages typically have values that are multiples of 5. To get there, you need to spend 3 more points elsewhere on this template.

Formatting wise, this is a good start. A minor nitpick is that character points for individual traits are usually enclosed in [] rather than (). That could cause confusion on templates that contain Innate Attacks, since armor divisors are enclosed in ().

Your Advantages and Disadvantages would be easier to parse if each trait were put onto a separate line. This would be especially helpful for the Patron (Church of the Silver Flame) advantage, because it is hard to tell where that trait ends. If you do keep them in list form, please use semicolons to separate traits to make it easier to separate them out.

I'd recommend using a consistent phrasing for the menus that enable player choice. You are dealing with new players, so your menu needs to make it clear to your player what they need to do. Your "spend [X] points from" wording from the Secondary and Background skill section is clearer than "then [X] points from" the Advantages section. For the Secondary and Background skills, you may want to explicitly state that players may invest more than 1 point if that is an option.

Regarding the actual traits on the sheet, most of it looks good but I do have a few critiques. For one thing, the highest skill level on the sheet is a 12. Is that indicative of PC skill levels? I also share Mailanka's opinion that the Vow disadvantage is easier to roleplay than Code of Honor. Vow should at least be an option on the disadvantages list.

[Þorkell]

Originally Posted by deanjday

The Mother
Her true name is said to be Gaius, and Druids of the old faith say that calling out her true name in the need of nature will always elicit and kind and needed response.

Sorry. I have to nitpick. Gaius was apparently a masculine name in Roman times, so it looks a bit odd to me to have it as the name of the mother. Perhaps you'd want to consider using the feminine form of that name instead, Gaia?