Big Ol' Sale on a ton of books at DriveThruRPG & RPGNow

This is one of the biggest sales of the year from DriveThruRPG, and they've only got it up until Mar 7, 2012. They call it their GM's Day Sale -- most, if not all, the books on sale are really geared towards making a GM's life easier.

And we players want that, right? It means we get more gaming time in, and occasionally get to try out new RPGs or settings without having to run it ourselves.

So go out and buy your GM a new RPG or RPG sourcebook today!

Noteworthy Items

Old school game collectors may want to pick up PDF copies of Bushido, Space Opera, Aftermath!, and Flashing Blades for archival purposes.

OSR devotees may wish to peruse Goblinoid Games' offerings for Labyrinth Lord, TimeMaster, and Mutant Future and finally pick up a copy of Realms of Crawling Chaos.

A Call of Cthulhu fan? Look at all the Chaosium items on sale!

One of the few Elric game groups and looking to buy your GM a whole slew of old school Elric! and 4th edition Stormbringer rulebooks and source material? Always wanted to play Hawkmoon? Looking for some more material for that Legend RPG you heard about that's based on the last Runequest rules incarnation under Mongoose? Want to pick up some Traveller stuff on the cheap? Go to Mongoose's page and browse for some deals.

Want to complete your Heavy Gear collection of sourcebooks, or get all the ship diagrams for your Jovian Chronicles-inspired campaign? Visit Dream Pod 9's page.

Looking to grab all the older sourcebooks for Fading Suns from Holistic Design to prepare for RedBrick's release of the 3rd edition rulebooks later this year? A fan of Cubicle 7's Doctor Who, The Laundry, Qin, Clockwork & Chivalry, or Airship Pirates RPGs? Been itching to try the Marvel Heroic Roleplaying RPG? Or the other Cortex Plus stuff like Smallville and Leverage and Supernatural?

Go to this sale! I mean, even Eden Studios has their Army of Darkness and the Buffy Corebooks marked down by 50%!

Shopping Tips

Go through the sale, and just keep adding stuff to your wishlist. Don't think, just do it! When you're done, then begin picking from your wishlist and select the things you REALLY REALLY want, add them to your shopping cart and buy them.

Once you're done, share the wishlist (with all your remaining items) with your family, friends, and fellow RPG players with a subtle hint that they can do their birthday / Christmas shopping early buy availing of this one week sale!

i09 Post on John Carter and Michael Chabon gives D&D insight

In an io9 article titled "Michael Chabon's 17-year Quest to Write a Mars Adventure Movie" (which tackles an io9 interview of Michael Chabon and the upcoming John Carter film), there is an interesting quote that I feel has direct bearing on the once-prevalent post-apocalyptic fantasy flavor of D&D:

As the 19th century turned into the 20th century and archeologists started to press deeper in to the jungles of Central and South America and into the deserts of Mesopotamia and India, they began to encounter clear evidence of many civilizations that had attained some level of technological greatness. You look around at these places and you see the living descendants of these people living without the incredibly sophisticated caliber of technology that their forebears had invented. I think it's a very haunting, stark memento mori for a representative of any civilization.

And then another related quote:

The rise and fall of civilization is this inevitable process, to which we must all eventually succumb. Nobody's going got be more haunted by that thinking than a parvenu, an ariviste who's kind of new to it all. The person who's most worried about losing everything is the person who's had it the least amount of time.

This can, perhaps, inform not only the PCs we create, but also the higher level NPCs -- the movers and shakers of the land -- who are perhaps closer to the former glory, are perhaps long-lived survivors of that fall, are perhaps seeking to recapture that former greatness.

And the seeds to that greatness may lie in some forgotten ruin. Somewhere.

Weird Adventures: List of Adventurer Templates

One of the many excellent illustrations in the
book Weird Adventures.

The thought-provoking idea of mashing up old school D&D tropes with the pulp genre made me rethink how to group together the various types of adventurers. I wanted to adhere somewhat closely to the Fighter / Mage / Cleric / Thief approach, but there are certain pulp tropes that break out of those archetypes. I figure that Fighters are Muscle, that Clerics and Mages are Arcanists of different flavors, that Thieves can be broadened into different types of Expertise. Last but not least, there's the folks who have different types of Smarts and are quite useful in the modern idiom.

Along these lines, I began organizing a starting list of package deals (the standard HERO way of doing things), but looked at tweaking them more as templates ala the classic d6 Star Wars RPG, for faster character generation.

Here's my first pass on the list of customizable templates I'll be building for my attempt at Weird Adventures in the HERO System:

MUSCLE
Famous Athlete
Crusading Cop
Tough Gangster
Great White Hunter
Hulking Sailor
Sharp-eyed Soldier
Two-fisted hero
Wild Man

SMARTS
Eccentric Archeologist
Amateur Detective
Bookish Professor
Nosy Reporter
Curious Scientist
Sultry Spy

EXPERTISE
Reckless Aviator
Suave Dilettante
Grizzled Explorer
Eager Gadgeteer
Grease Monkey
Jazz Musician
Thrillseeking Criminal

ARCANA
Traveling Priest
Haunted Missionary
Gifted Innocent
Craven Wizard
Exotic Sorceress

I'm going back to the book to find out if I've missed some more setting-appropriate terminology for the templates.

Fantasy Philippines: Nosfecatu & Hari Ragat posts

One of the GSL release of Nosfecatu.

This post is mostly for my own reference, but I do follow two blogs on fantasy games set in the Philippine milieu:

• Nosfecatu Publishing's blog; and
• Dariel Quiogue's Hari Ragat blog.

I also visit various jungle-related posts on Fire in the Jungle.

Here are several posts that have caught my eye:

• Buan: The Kadatohan
• Hari Ragat: Of Men Gods & Spirits I
• Hari Ragat: Of Men Gods & Spirits II
• Hari Ragat: Of Men Gods & Spirits III
• Hari Ragat: Of Men Gods & Spirits IV
• FitJ: Hunting in the Jungle

Enjoy!

Amaya Post: Rate the Armor Class

photo by: dencio isungga

Armor Class questions pop up from some promotional pics for the series ender of Amaya showcasing the attire of the lead character Amaya (played by Marian Rivera) and a visiting Magellan (played by Marian's real life beau, Dingdong Dantes).

Spaniard attire

No shoes, no skirt, no service.
(photo by: dencio isungga)

This is supposed to be Magellan, in armor, holding a sword strangely, and looking off into the distance pensively.

He's got some armor on the upper half of his body, primarily covering the torso area.

The rest of it seems to be just unreasonably warm and fashion-oriented for our tropical country, and may not offer much protection.

I know that the attire of the show is meant to be historically accurate (within budget constraints), and I wish that the promotional material would cover that aspect. Alas, most watchers of the show don't really care and follow it for the fantasy and dramatic elements -- and the popularity of the celebrities of course -- making such efforts a wasted marketing exercise, really.

I think this thing's out in DVD, and may try to see if a copy is available... somewhere. I hope to actually watch the entire thing to mine it of period elements.

The lovely Amaya

(photo by: dencio isungga)

The armor is not your typical female fantasy armor outfit. Covers up far too much skin.

Again, only the torso seems to provide any protection -- but I love the just-below the knee leg coverings, especially the native woven patterns (the Philippines had a strong weaving and complex weaving craft at the time). It really speaks to the 'fighting on a treacherous beach' vibe of the outfit.

I also like the scabbard and the way the grips on the dagger and the sword are done, though I wish there pic of them drawn.

I wonder what the torso armor is supposed to be -- some kind of leather mail? Perhaps some folks out there in D&D land can hazard an educated guess.

About Sourcebooks: Some Initial Thoughts on Types

The Event Strategy of Marvel Heroic Roleplaying -- a series of sourcebooks centered around comic book events -- makes sense for comic books. While comic books like Astro City are obviously centered around a specific location, a majority of the ongoing series are centered around storylines.

It made me start thinking about the common types of sourcebooks that have come out for RPGs.

Location Sourcebooks

The most common type of sourcebook, aside from the rules expansions, tends to be tied to a location. In fact, if you think about the earliest non-rules RPG books, they were mostly locations: dungeons. And I've been fascinated by them -- now that I think about it, the very first RPG book that I bought (a module) was a location-centered module: T1 - The Village of Hommlet. Locations then expanded to the setting boxed sets and books that dominated TSR & WOTC lines.

Character Option Sourcebooks

Another common sourcebook is one that gives character options. White Wolf really milked this one with the clan books (I think that they're called splatbooks -- dunno why). I think it was an important strategy for them, especially with Vampire: the Masquerade not only trying to break the older stereotypes of vampires (castles, counts, and the Carpathians), but also the more modern stereotype kicked off by the juggernaut series of novels from Anne Rice -- to show what kinds of vamp characters are open for play in a modern setting.

Storyline Sourcebooks

I don't know exactly when the storyline sourcebook can be considered to have started. Some might point to Ravenloft and of course the Dragonlance series of modules, some might cite Paizo's Adventure Paths, others might cite the influence of the Storyteller folks at White Wolf. Or we might go back to some of the earliest D&D modules and revisit them as disguised storylines. In any case, I always looked for some kind of our adventure support in an RPG.

When I think of this type of sourcebook, I think of popular choices like Call of Cthulhu's Masks of Nyarlathotep, Warhammer Fantasy's The Enemy Within, and Shadowrun's epic Universal Brotherhood. But I also think of the Fading Suns shards, the Cyberpunk collection of adventures titled Tales from the Forlorn Hope, and the Over The Edge adventures.

NPC Sourcebooks

Normally tied into one of the other sourcebooks, sometimes they come out with these: sources of NPCs. Sometimes they're combinations of allies, enemies, and neutrals. Over the Edge had a killer collection of characters -- all with interesting names -- not only in one sourcebook, but also in their CCG!

But sometimes they're all enemies like WOTC's excellent 3rd Edition Forgotten Realms sourcebook Champions of Darkness, or the series of Enemies sourcebooks from Hero Games.

I don't really see that many of these, but it's hard to actually come up with interesting characters in this situation. Super-villains tend to try to cover all bases, but definitely end up with some that will never be used. Is it the same for other genres?

Observations

So far, the non-rules expansion sourcebooks essentially break down into

• character
• plot and metaplot
• setting and milieu

where are all very much story-related, but they can be considered as ways of bolstering certain aspects of an adventure or story that a GM needs.

A Weis Strategy? Events for Marvel Heroic Roleplaying

The news article on the Margaret Weis website regarding future releases for Marvel Heroic Roleplaying reports something interesting:

Each MARVEL HEROES Event builds on the Marvel Heroic Roleplaying Basic Game and best-selling Marvel publishing events to provide a complete open-ended super hero game experience. The Event Book is the central product, with Event Supplements adding characters and expanding play.

Essential Editions are full color casebound hardcovers priced at 29.99 and include a full MARVEL HEROES campaign, with character rosters, locations, and expanded rules. Best value for those who already have the Operations Manual from the MARVEL HEROES Basic Game.

Premium Editions are full color prestige hardcovers priced at 39.99 and include all the Essentials Edition content plus the Operations Manual and additional resources.

If I understand this correctly, Premium Editions essentially reprint the entire Operations Manual from the Basic Game in addition to the full 'campaign' material for the Event in question.

In contrast, Essential Editions do not include the Operations Manual -- which is great for all the people who got it with the Basic Game.

What does this mean?

• Premium Editions are essentially 'complete RPGs' with core rules + additional rules + setting + timelines + characters.
• Essential Editions are the equivalent of a standard RPG sourcebook, with additional rules + setting + timeline + characters.

Interesting strategy to tackle the non-RPG market of Marvel Super-hero fans. Let's see if it works.

Enigmundia: Pagan Spells -- Light, Continual Light, Magic Missile, and Protection from Evil

Here are four spells that have one god in common -- one god with different epithets.

The god is known as Apollo Phoebus, who is interesting because he is one of the few gods who had no direct equivalent during the transition from the Parthenian Age to the Imperian Age. His Parthenian name was Apollo; his Imperian names included Apollo Phoebus (in his aspect as god of light) and Apollo Helius (in his aspect as god of the sun.

There are other reputed invocations that call upon Helios and Sol as sole names, not as epithets of Apollo -- most of them deal with aspects of the power of the sun.

For now, let's take a look at how Light & Magic Missile are handled as part of the Imperian magical tradition.

Light (1) and Continual Light (2)


Invocations to the spells for Light and Continual Light are to Apollo Phoebus, which is a source of surprise to many. As god of light, it would seem that granting Continual Light would be an easier spell to cast, but it is theorized that all gods are concerned about granted permanence to their spells being to easy. Another theory is that the prison that binds the old gods makes such permanent boons difficult, hence the presence of the easier to cast Light spell.

Magic Missile (1)

There are many distance spells open to mages, but one of the most dangerous and accurate spells is magic missile. The signifier of light-kissed arrows flying unerringly to their target is a sure sign of Apollo Aphetor -- his aspect as god of archery.

Protection from Evil (1)

As Apollo Alexicacus, his aspect as protector and warder against evil, comes to the fore. Mages with a number of spells already from his portfolio tend to call upon him for this spell, as they have already formed a familiarity with his particular brand of power.

However, most mages seem to prefer to spread their invocations across several sources -- there are rumors of benefits and banes to spellcasters that tend to favor a single source.

My Fiction Online: Triskaidekaturions

I guess that running a modern horror game, but with a slightly more light-hearted touch, has been with me for a while.

My prior posts on The Laundry RPG reminded me about a short story I'd written a while back and was published just last September 2011: Triskaidekaturions.

I used the (slightly misspelled) name I'd come up with for an even older post on Campaign Premises.

On the Radar: Marvel Heroic Roleplaying available in PDF

Close on the heels of several releases for their Leverage RPG, Margaret Weis Productions has come out with their RPG for the Marvel Universe built using the Cortex System.

It's called Marvel Heroic Roleplaying: Basic Game, and I hope to tell you all more about it when I finish reading it.

Fine, I'll say it: Excelsior!

On the Radar: Seeker the RPG

When I used to frequent Game Stores, there were RPGs that would catch my eye, ones that -- based on cover and backcover blurbs -- were totally not my thing to run, but would be interested in trying out once with a good GM; ones that, if it wasn't wrapped in plastic, I'd be intrigued enough to pick up and leaf through to see if the text would convince me to buy it.

Seeker would've been one of those RPGs. Check out the blurb:

Seeker is a role-playing game of wandering mystics and philosophers on the back roads of the rural US.

• A complete role playing game. No other products needed to play.
• Uses ORC-L, the lite version of Organic Rule Components, designed for quick character creation and light or live action play.
• Play PCs from any background, tradition or philosophical viewpoint.
• Each character approaches enlightenment, self-improvement or wisdom in their own unique way, and each gains unique abilities from it.
• Contains “Weaponized Honeybees,” a complete introductory adventure.
• Although Seekers’ adventures may take them anywhere, extensive information is given on small-town America and the secrets and dangers one may find there.

And there's a game system too! I'd be curious about it. It comes across as potentially very touchy-feely, but I get the feeling that trouble on the backroads of America isn't all going to be hugs and kisses.

Seems like a good resource to meld with Weird Adventures, primarily for the urban legends and telling details of road travel in North America. Of course, I wouldn't know since I can't say anything about what's actually inside the book.

And it seems like Vajra Enterprises (Vajra? Not to show my complete cultural ignorance, but wasn't that the Tibetan name of Peter Cannon: Thunderbolt?) has several other games and sourcebooks out as well, and they seem intriguing. In the old days, they'd never get shelf space -- now they have to contend with being drowned in the huge catalogs of online stores. And honestly, what genre is this going to be filed under?

If it were fiction, we'd say contemporary fantasy (not urban, given the road-based theme), but where do you find that on DriveThruRPG? Tear through the huge number of items under the Fantasy category?

Want a $10 gift certificate? Identify these quotes

The first person to correctly identify the movies that the following quotes appear in -- and post their answers in the comments -- gets a $10 gift certificate to DriveThruRPG. When I declare the winner, I'll need to ask for your e-mail address so the folks at DriveThruRPG can e-mail you their gift certificate.

1. "'Tis but a scratch."
2. "When someone asks you if you're a god, you say: yes!"
3. "If it bleeds, we can kill it."
4. "What is steel, compared to the hand that wields it?"
5. "Lo, there do I see the line of my people, back to the beginning."
6. "Stay frosty."
7. "Who is this? What is your operating number?"
8. "This is my boomstick!"
9. "Target that explosion, and fire."
10. "One shall stand; one shall fall."

How is this related to gaming? Well, these are semi-common to pretty common movie quotes that I've heard at gaming conventions and with my old gaming group. It's true that some of these films have more commonly quoted quotes, but hey, didn't want it to be a cakewalk.

My OGG's House Rules for HERO 5th Edition

Yes, I know HERO System is now on 6th Edition.

But my old gaming group (OGG) is still on 5th Edition, with a few tweaks as listed below, for reasons listed below as well.

Why am I reviewing them? I'm building some NPCs for them, and sending them some of my old PCs rebuilt. For the heck of it. What the heck, I'm diving into it already for Weird Adventures.

House Rule 1

No Megascale.

I assume that this is because it's too cheap, and my buddies are classic rules, uh, lawyers.

House Rule 2

+1 stun multiplier is 1/2 advantage not 1/4.

"The new 5th edition rules make +1/4 advantage for +1 stun but most of us agree that its a ridiculous thing to do. Imagine 30 points 1d6 RKA +4 STUN. It makes for a very unbalancing campaign. It really needs to stay at +1/2 advantage."

"Imagine the following 105 Active Point power:

1d6 ReKA NND Autofire AE (1 Hex), 0 End, +10 STUN multiple

That will average, if you have an 11 OCV and get 44 STUN per hit, with 5 hits (average roll hits the hex 5 times) doing 220 STUN or 110 STUN if you have 1/2 Reduction.

Same cost as a 7d6 Killing Attack, which averages 24.5 BODY and 74 STUN against which defenses are applied.

If you look at the same Active Points (105) with the same Advantages, except no extra STUN multiple, you get almost a 1 1/2d6 or 2d6-1 Killing Attack (this would actually cost 112 points), averaging 16 STUN per hit for 80 STUN total or 40 vs 1/2 Reduction.

Even less reasonable, in a low powered game (60-70 Active Points max), you could buy the first power at 1d6-1 and hit 70 Active Points averaging 32 STUN per hit or 160 STUN total for the 5 hits - destructive in the extreme in a low powered game."

House Rule 3

Old school multipower rules: the Active Points of a power can never exceed the Active Points of a reserve, and you can have as many Real Points active as you have points in your reserve.

For example, for a 60 point reserve you could have two 60 point slots each with a one limitation on at the same time.

Things we don't handle in RPGs (usuallly)

In the past (and in the present, and I'm sure, in the future), there have been many discussions on realism / plausibility in RPG systems.

Which is fine -- we do shoot for some kind of internal consistency and some kind of congruence to the reality we're trying to emulate (real world physics, TV physics, movie physics, fiction physics).

There are some things that we don't tackle because, really, part of the game is an escape from reality. You can talk about how (like other media) RPG holds up a mirror to our reality, helps us realize truths, and so on and so forth, but you can't get away from the fact that we're selective about what truths we try to tackle. For example:

• how often do your PCs have to answer the call of nature?
• how often do they suffer from colds or the flu?
• how often do they catch an unforeseen mundane disease and die from it?
• how often do PCs deal with things like cancer, heart problems, gout, and so on -- unless they get points from it in a point-buy system?

RPGs are a selective reality, and I'm comfortable ignoring certain things from 'real life' because -- the dignity and wonder of the human condition aside -- sometimes it can be a real drag.

D&D 5E designers check out Trail of Cthulhu, D&D 0E to 4E, and Pathfinder

Looks like he used Non-Euclidean dice
for his saving throw. Rookie mistake.

According to a thread on Yog-Sothoth.com, which was apparently based on some "questions from the audience" session that the D&D 5E game designers held, the D&D 5E game designers have played a variety of games as part of their research work.

Those games include:

• video games - Call of Duty, Skyrim
• boardgames - Lord of the Rings confrontation
• D&D editions - "every edition of D&D and Pathfinder"
• RPGs - Pathfinder, Trail of Cthulhu

In response, Robin D. Laws held forth on his blog regarding his input on the investigation mechanic and something called the "Whiff factor" as an insight into the Trail of Cthulhu investigation mechanic and as cautionary advice on utilizing it for something like combat.

For folks uninterested in the discussions at those sites, here are some choice quotes and re-quotes:

D&D seminar Q&A

What are you guys playing that's not D&D?

Call of Duty, Skyrim, Trail of Cthulhu, Lord of the Rings Confrontation.
In the run-up to D&D Next we played every edition of D&D and Pathfinder.

Monte Cook

A couple of days ago I talked a little bit about how we want the core mechanic of the game to be the interaction between the DM and the player. And one of the great tools for that is the ability score. So what we want is to empower DMs and players so that if you want to attempt to do something "I want to open the door" then the DM doesn' t have to even have you roll, he can just look, see you have a 17 strength and says "Yeah, you burst through that door". We want to get past some of the mundane rolls and not tie up a lot of table time with that and move on to the more interesting stuff and the table narrative.

Bruce Cordell

An example I saw yesterday was a rogue going into a room and looking for traps. You can describe what you're doing and roleplay what you're doing. If he says I look in the jar and I know there's a gem in the jar, I'm not going to have him roll. However, if something is more hidden, like a secret compartment on the shelf I would look at their intelligence and see if he can just automatically find it or if he's looking in the exact right place. However, if he's doing that check in the middle of some other stressor like fighting, then I'd have him roll.  

Rob Schwalb

Earlier this week I had some players fighting some kobolds in the room. One of the guys wanted to jump over a pit, he had a 15 strength so I let him just do it - it wasn't that big of a jump and it sped up combat. It's very liberating to be able to do that kind of thing and just keep the flow going.

Robin D. Laws

The pacing of roleplaying sessions improves when the GM follows a simple principle: never ask for a roll if failure would lead to a dead end or other uninteresting result. This principle appears in various guises in GUMSHOE, HeroQuest, and the 4e Dungeon Master’s Guide 2. Sometimes though... it becomes important to distinguish between an uninteresting result and a setback that makes the player unhappy.

Modern Era Classes -- Having Weird Adventures

Not as clumsy or random
as a pistol or a barrel-fed
tommy gun.

I've been thinking about this for a while -- what kind of classes or character templates does the Weird Adventures setting call for?

As a mash-up of traditional fantasy RPGs and a more modern pulpy feel, it makes sense that the classes would have a little of both. So I racked my brain for the very basic types of classes or templates on both sides.

For fantasy, it would seem that you'd have the basic fighter, mage, cleric, thief contingent along with their respective variants. For pulp, it's a little bit less defined; the modern world is rife with strange backgrounds and combinations of talents and skills and professions.

Since I decided to use the Hero System anyway for this exercise, the wide variety of possible classes isn't a problem. It's finding those sets of archetypes that are appropriate for the genre. And that starts with the basic campaign frame or the types of adventures you're looking at having. Let's start with the classic types of D&D adventures and see what Weird mash-ups we can inject into them.

Dungeon Adventures

For dungeons set in the wilderness, these could be your basic criminal overlord lairs, your strange tribes of creatures preying on nearby settlements, your awakening evil stirring, your portal to a strange underground world, your journey to the center of the earth (or hollow world)!

This was an awesome series of Tintin meets Cthulhu
Mythos faux covers. Maybe hecan do Tintin in
classic D&D modules as well?

For dungeons set in the cities, sewers and subways immediately come to mind. In addition to any of the options above, you can have underground communities that run by different rules from the surface world, and perhaps some strange remnants of a wondrous, long-forgotten era in the city's past that has found new uses by less than scrupulous inheritors.

Wilderness Adventures

Weird Adventures has a lot of interesting options for these. Monster hunting springs to mind, as does extending the reach of civilization into wild areas. Investigating strange rumors for wealth, power, knowledge or science are more than sufficient motivators for expeditions -- and expeditions to other lands or lost civilizations are a staple of both FRPGs and Pulp RPGs!

City Adventures

There's no shortage of story hooks for this (you've read Weird Adventures, right?), but the types of non-dungeon adventures I'd run would include the monster-loose-in-the-city trope, the city-predators-in-disguise trope, the series-of-strange-crimes trope, the find-the-macguffin trope, the murder-mystery trope, the break-the-curse trope, the race-to-get-all-the-pieces trope, the stranger-dies-and-passes-on-the-mystery trope, the dude/damsel-in-distress trope, it just goes on.

Okay, I think I've got a better handle on it. Next step is to come up with a campaign frame or two and start listing classes / templates.

Enigmundia: Pagan Spells -- Charm Person, Protection from Evil, Sleep

My prior post on mage spells powered by pagan gods tackled three 1st level spells and one 2nd level spell. Here are three more by different gods.

Charm Person (1)

It should come as no surprise that Venus is the primary source of sudden charm. Given her powers, her past, and her nature, the only surprise seems to be that the spell is so subtle in its effects. Those who've endured its effects in the name of mystical inquiry have stated that the caster seemed to have suddenly become more attractive and worthy of friendship, and that romantic or sexual thoughts were only at the very edges of consciousness. Her patronage is often signified by the scent of rosewater and myrtle.

This effect is similar to another favorite patron for this spell: Bacchus. Victims of this flavor of the spell have mentioned experiencing a strong but ultimately fleeting bond of friendship with the caster, much like one who has shared a round of strong drink with a group of strangers and have become fast friends. The feeling of friendship evaporates in the same way that the prior night's drunken memories fade and are gone. His patronage is signified by the faint scent of wine that grows stronger as the spell nears its end.

Protection from Evil (1)

Terminus, god of boundaries, is often called upon to define the limits of property and location. Though fairly focused, his power and authority afford an easily tapped set of spells -- such as this one -- for mages.

No visible signs are shown, though ghostly boundary markers appear briefly when the protection is triggered by need.

As an aside, Terminus is also often called upon when inscribing certain magic circles or sacred geometry.

Sleep (1)

Because the name of the god is synonymous (in ancient Imperian) with the common name of the spell, many mages are unaware of the patron of this spell: Somnus.

Somnus is the god of sleep, and ruler of a vast land of dreams, chimeras, and nightmares in the Underworld. He belongs to a set of gods (known in the Parthenian tongue as the Demos Oneiroi) of that place not directly related to death or hell, and raises the eyes of many scholars and mystics regarding our understanding of those vast unknown depths. They have been mentioned elsewhere in this blog as Hypnos, Morpheus, Phobetor and Phantasus.

For this spell, in the caster's shadow, appear to wings briefly stretch and move, arising from the caster's shoulder or brow.

Enigmundia: Wands, Rods, and Staves revisited

In an earlier post on mage culture, I talked about wands, rods, and staves.

That philosophy tends to be the case for the male mages in particular. Many female mages follow a different tradition. Wands tend to be wielded for purposes of creation, Rods tend to be wielded for purposes of detection, measurement, management, or control. Staves tend to be used for destruction.

This is because these women look to the Parcae -- the Fates -- for their inspiration and resonant sources of power.

The wands tend to evoke the look of a stylized spindle, reminiscent of Nona, who spins the thread of life. As per her name, there tend to be nine of something in the patterns of the wands.

The rods tend to evoke the look of a measuring rod, reminiscent of Decima, who measures the length of each thread of life. As per her name, there tend to be ten of something in the pattern of the rods.

The staves are the most distinctive, because they are stylized to look like long, closed sets of scissors sheathed in a scabbard of sorts. This is reminiscent of Morta, who cuts the threads of life. Patterns of skulls tend to adorn these staves.

Their light weight tends to suggest a lighter material transformed into wood or metal.

Armchair Reviews: The Laundry RPG

The Laundry RPG is based on the series of novels, novellas, and short stories by Charles Stross that detail the adventures of "Bob Howard" in a setting that mixes espionage, office bureaucracy, math, computer theory, geek culture, and unspeakable gods.

Now, since I like the series, it stands to reason that I'd be predisposed to an RPG set in its milieu.

However, I have to say that I also like the RPG on its own merits. Here are the reasons why.

Layout

The book / PDF document has a great feel to it, as the layout has the look of a dossier of material. While most of the fonts are the same, there are 'paper-clipped' photos and annotations in different paper types and fonts to reinforce that feeling.

Writing

The style of writing is clear and clean, with a mixture of exposition and explanation and just enough of the humor and informality to be The Laundry. It doesn't dip into Stross's tendency to throw sink-or-swim bits of espionage telling detail or mathematical esoterica that work so well in the fiction, but would leave gamers screaming bloody murder.

Updated Character Creation

It looks similar to the fast character creation rules in Call of Cthulhu, and it should -- The Laundry RPG uses the same Basic Role-Playing system. However, there are some modifications and additions to that process.

Characteristic Rolls -- back in the day, there were only Knowledge Rolls, Idea Rolls, and Luck rolls that were all percentile chances based on a STATx5 formula. Now there are Effort Rolls, Endurance Rolls, Agility Rolls and Influence Rolls, also based on the same formula. I like it, because it makes attributes faster than the old method of referring to the Resistance Table (which still exists, but only for instances with opposing difficulties).

Personality Types and Assignment & Training -- in COC, your Profession determined your primary skill set. Now you have Personality Types and Assignment & Training which do the same thing, but with different rationale. This fits in with the Laundry getting people from all walks of life and backgrounds, and then shoehorning them into the org because they know too damn much about the wrong things.

Possessions -- you get some default equipment based on your work in the Laundry and your various skillsets.

Great Setting Resources

Chapters Nine, Twelve, and Thirteen give great starting background material for folks unfamiliar with U.K. government intelligence institutions and their international counterparts, and the Laundry itself, of course.

Chapters Nineteen and Twenty-One define some pretty important code words in the Laundry setting: BLUE HADES, DEEP SEVEN, GORGONS, and of course, CODE NIGHTMARE GREEN.

Chapters Ten, Eleven, and Fifteen share some of the gear and flavor of working in an occult espionage agency plagued by modern views of bureaucratic best practice.

Chapter Fourteen is a welcome chapter, as it deals with magic. Devotees of the series know that magic isn't as per traditional Cthulhu spellcrafting goes -- there's a layer of mind-straining electromagnetic and mathematical theory on it. Here's where we get to differentiate between mathematical sorcery, traditional sorcery, and the enigmatically named true sorcery. Also, some spells that are mentioned in the books make an appearance here.

Chapter Eighteen has the statted-out characters that appear in the series, as is tradition for many IP-related sourcebooks. What is great is the inclusion of stats for generic support personnel (Plumbers, Cleaners, Baggers, and Toshers) -- unlike the more maverick and isolated cell-structures of the American-based Delta Green RPG / sourcebook, the Laundry is an organization that supports its personnel as much as it tortures them.

Overall, a great book! I just wish that the PDF had a better set of bookmarks.

Pagan Magic-users: Pythagorian Mathemagicians

Unlike the clerics of the Pio Familia, the Magic-Users of Enigmundia do not worship the gods of the lost Imperium -- nor do they view them as such. Most of them were inculcated into the mysteries of magic in a very rigorous manner similar to the Pythagorian Mystery Cult.


They are taught the secrets of mystic geometry, drilled in the domains and limits of the various entities and intelligences that were known as Gods of the Imperium, and learn the formulae that allow them to tap those sources of power and influence for their own use. When casting spells, their words and thoughts consist of petitions to the Gods of the Imperium, numbers, equations, geometric patterns, ideal geometric solids, harmonic theory, resonance, pitch progression, and octaves.


Minerva is one of the primary entities that is called upon with regularity, due to her influence over magic, her preference for calculated offensives over brute force, as well as the legendary shield that she owned and wielded. 

Janus is another primary entity whose power is tapped, primarily as an Opener of Doors -- most spells ask for mystical portals to be opened to the primary entity and allow their influence to be felt in the world. 

Terminus is another primary entity called upon. His affinity over boundaries synergizes with the mystic geometry and keeps the powers of tapped entities bounded within acceptable parameters -- ones that do not risk the ire of the dominant Gods; ones that do not accidentally leave unwanted resonances on the places and people affected by the powers called upon; ones that do not seek to rouse the sleeping Gods of the Imperium from their stygian prisons. Of course, less scrupulous magic-users look for ways to replace Terminus in their modified spellcraft -- but only the most intelligent and learned tend to survive this risky tinkering with age-old mathemagical formulae.

Many Magic-Users subscribe to the belief in souls; it is certainly part of their official training. Some are driven to learn the secrets that will allow them control over these souls and memories once their mortal shells pass on; others seek to extend the durability of their bodies beyond natural lifespans; still others seek to bind their souls to other things that don't wear away.

Enigmundia: Pagan Spells -- Detect & Read Magic, Hold Portal and Knock

As I mentioned in my post regarding Wizards and their pagan sources of power, I decided to embark on a series of spells and my suggested patron pagan gods.

In Enigmundia, the equivalent of the Roman Empire -- the Imperium -- had a policy of integrating the portfolio of the gods from their conquered lands into their pantheon. To that end, all my suggested patron pagan gods per spell will be Roman.

Detect Magic (1) & Read Magic (1)

It stands to reason that a spell granting the ability to detect magic would derive power from a deity that has magic in her portfolio. In the Imperium pantheon, that would be Minerva.

Analogous to the Greek Pallas Athena, Minerva is a virgin goddess whose aspects include the portfolios of poetry, medicine, wisdom, commerce, weaving, crafts and magic. She can therefore be the entity tapped for any magic spell, but given that magic is one of her portfolios, she is most often the one called upon by ancient rote rituals for these spells.

A signifier tends to be present when spells are called upon for this effect. I suggest the ghostly image of an owl hovering near the wizards when the spell is cast.


Hold Portal (1) & Knock (2)

Because Janus is set over doorways, doors, gates, beginnings, endings, and transitions -- he can be tapped for the ability to hold a given portal.

For each spell, the spell caster calls upon a specific aspect of Janus.

• Hold Portal calls upon Janus Clusius (Janus as the Guardian of Closed Doors)
• Knock calls upon Janus Patulcius (Janus as the Guardian of Open Doors)

For signifiers of Janus, normally the door is sufficient -- but at higher levels, a ghostly spinning coin is sometimes visible during the casting, showing the two faces of Janus on either side. It stops on the aspect of Clusius or Patulcius depending on the spell cast.

NOTE: I updated this post because I woke up this morning and noticed that it kind of trailed off. Never post under the influence of pain medication, I say.