This update focuses on two more capital cities located in the lands of Thulmhu. Gallringer, Wolfmore and Windreath, Spurnwy. These two cities are very different, with Gallringer being a hub for crime and industry, while Windreath is a hub for salvage and exploration.
As I write a story set in the Xethos Lands, I am exploring the different locations in more detail. As the story passed through these two regions, it was only right to make sure I had a good understanding of the cities and the people that live there.
As always, if you have feedback, join the Discord and let me know what you think!
]]>This is a real short update. I have been working on a story set in the Xethos Lands, and I started it in Spelwyth. This update focuses on just a small write up I did for the story, as the story moves through new lands I'll be adding more details about the different kingdoms.
Spelwyth is a capital city of the Kingdom of Dunmold. It is built on the conflluence of two rivers, and is a balance of religious, arcane, and technological influences. You can read more about it here Dunmold.
As always, if you have feedback, join the Discord and let me know what you think!
]]>I decided to design generic vehicle templates that fit in the world of Xethos Lands. Vehicles are rare, being all salvaged tech from before the Shattering. They are expensive and require a lot of upkeep, so they are not common. However, they are still a fun option for players, and I wanted to make sure there were some available.
One thing of note is that I used the vehicle rules in the Science Fiction Companion, adding an option for sails that gave the same speed as a turboprop, but simulated that with the energy pod to represent the sails saving energy. I spent all the mod points, but by stripping components according to the rules, you can customize the vehicles to fit your party's needs.
One additional note: for my world, I took the final price and reduced it by 10% to reflect that these vehicles are all salvaged and not in perfect condition, rather than giving them all the battered condition to reflect the salvage nature.
You can see the generic vehicle templates in the Vehicle section of the lore and documentation. As always, if you have feedback, join the Discord and let me know what you think!
]]>After last weeks update I received some feedback that making the DNA Splicing be skill boosts was a little over powered. While I tried to spread out the skills, I fully agree that there were some that were more powerful than others.
After some consideration, I went back and reworked the DNA Splicing. The new version is using more of the ancestral abilities and a few edges, no skill boosts. This gave me more animals, but instead of allowing multiple splices of an animal, now there is only one splice per animal. Using the ancestral abilities allowed me to use already balanced abilities only costing strain equal to the cost the ancestral ability would cost. The goal was to make the DNA splicing more of a choice, and less of a power boost, while still giving it some cool options.
You can see the new DNA Splicing gear in the DNA Splicing section of the lore and documentation. My group is on a break right now, but as soon as we are back I hope to one or more of my players will invest in them. As always, if you have feedback, join the Discord and let me know what you think!
]]>I was reviewing the Science Fiction Companion's cybernetics section, and I realized that it didn't fit the world of Xethos. I wanted to rewrite it to fit the world better, and I also wanted to expand it to include more options. I also wanted to include DNA splicing, which is a way to implant animal genes into a person, which is not as invasive as cybernetics but is not reversible. I also wanted to expand on the cyberdecks and tweak netrunning, which are essential parts of the cyberpunk genre.
In Xethos Lands there is a single required cybernetic of a Spinal Core Weave (SCW) that is what routes control of the brain to the various devices you get installed. With it comes a number of devices you can connect to the SCW, such as a data port, or a cybernetic limb. Strain as outlines in the Science Fiction Companion, along with the three hindrances and three edges are still in play. So cybernetics have two requirements to be installed, the Strain and SCW requirement, making it more of a choice to get them, but it lines up with my vision of how the world was before the Shattered War and the Shattering of the Lands. The technology of building and implanting is being restored in large cities, but it is still a long way from being widespread again.
The cybernetic devices or implants, many have a rating from 1 to 3, visuallized as Mk.I, Mk.II, and Mk.III, with each level being more powerful than the last. The higher the rating, the more Strain it costs to install, and the more powerful it is, but you only need to install the highest device you want, not all of the ones before it. So if you want a Data Port Mk.III, you get that installed. If you later want to upgrade a Communication Impant Mk.I to a Mk.II, you technically get the Mk.I uninstalled and the Mk.II installed, so other than the surgery cost and the cost of the device, there is no additional cost to Strain or SCW.
I kept the Side Effects Table from the Science Fiction Companion, with a slight tweak to the order of the chart. The goal of the side effects is to show how much strain you are putting on your body and mind, and to make it feel like a risk to go full chrome. Maybe in the days before the war there would have been more tolerance for cybernetics, but after the war, with the Shattering of the Lands, and the loss of knowledge and technology, people are more cautious about getting cybernetics, and the side effects reflect that.
Another form of augmentation is DNA Splicing. The art of taking animal genes and splicing them into a person's DNA to give them new abilities. This is a simple matter of a few shots of animal DNA in key locations on the body, and waiting 24 hours and then you have the new abilities, here though where a cybernetic impant can be removed, DNA splicing is not reversible, so you have to be sure you want the new abilities before you get it done. The Strain and side effects are the same as cybernetics, but there are no SCW requirements, so it is more accessible to people who don't want to get cybernetics, but it is also more risky because of the lack of reversibility.
Here, I felt that decks should be more than a single line item in the equipment section, so I built three decks with customizable hardware and software options. The hardware options are things like a better processor, more memory, or more Toughness. Software are things like stealth boost, damage boost, or armor that makes surviving an encounter with Intrusion Countermeasures (IC) easier.
The biggest thing I did was rewrite the netrunning rules to fit my personal vision better. Dramatic tasks were never a hit with my gaming group, they felt boring and lackluster. Oh draw three cards and try to get X number of successes, where you basically a promised a higher chance to fail on the numbers provided then succeed in the examples provided. So I rewrote the netrunning to be more in line with combat and acutally could take place at the same time as physical world combat. There is a limited action (once per round) where you can search for your target data node, then you need to hack the node to get the data, which may or may not be what you are looking for. If at any time the system detects you it will send IC to trace your location and boot you from the system.
Overall, I wanted to expand on the cybernetics, DNA splicing, cyberdecks, and netrunning to fit the world of Xethos better and to make it more interesting and engaging for players. I hope to test these rules in play and see how they work out, and make adjustments as needed. As always, if you have feedback, join the Discord and let me know what you think!
]]>While I work on my own system in the background, something I know can’t be balanced through mere thought or in a month's time, I want to develop the world through actual play. To that end, I chose Savage Worlds: Adventure Edition (SWADE) as the basis for my design.
It has a power-point system instead of a slot-driven one. I was introduced to role-playing through Rifts and its over-the-top power-point system; slots feel too limited. SWADE offers a rich point system that uses a small number of points, not crazy marks, to reach. This aligns with my goal of survival because there should be resource attrition, and you feel like you can run out quickly. I know, in practice with Bennies, it is unlimited; you're still burning meta resources to fill up your power points.
Even with powers, it has a very flexible system for them. Trappings allow you to have the feel of a spell associated with a bolt spell to create fire bolts, acid bolts, ice bolts, or even psychic bolts, all mechanically the same while being resisted differently. This is an added bonus of flexibility in the system that I hope to match in my own system. Now, because of the nature of my lore and personal feelings, some powers are going to be removed; teleport and resurrection are among the top candidates.
Character design options. I know I grew up with a class system to denote power in all my youth; Rifts, D&D, and RoleMaster, but I’ve always felt that was wrong. I’ve always wanted to mix and match abilities to create unique, unbalanced concepts. SWADE doesn’t have that level of baked-in support; it is a truly classless system. As the Game Master, I can build whatever wild thing I want, but its system is grounded, so it can pretty much build whatever the player wants. I know their companion books and interpretation of Rifts gives the illusion of classes through arcane background choices, but if you want a fighter mage, you can do it without requiring a special class for it.
Ancestry building blocks: Using the system of building blocks, it is possible to build an ancestry and have it balance against another fairly well. Incredibly, 16 ancestries using the building blocks, you can see their statistics in the ancestry part of the lore. Still, it lets me create the vision I saw for them all, down to adding some once-per-encounter ancestry edges that I thought were important to the ancestry's flavor. Of course, those need to be tested to ensure they are neither too powerful nor too weak. I choose per encounter not to overshadow higher-level edges that might do similar things.
I know there are a lot of reasons, but in the end, they are all important to get the feel of Xethos Lands right. Setting rules that can be adjusted per setting to make a feeling that fits the world. From limiting wounds to 4 to address the dice's explosive nature, the one aspect I do like is adding more skill points, because people would (in theory) take basics like electronics to cover basic use of high-tech devices. This flexibility lets me build the world I envision.
SWADE has some problems inherent to its system for my personal choices, which I’ll work around in my own system. Still, as a starting point, it is a good place to start because it is so flexible and can make pretty much anything with the right applications of edges and powers. I only hope to emulate its freedom of choice.
]]>Hello and welcome to my little project. It is to design a new role-playing world and system. I feel the world is ready for contributors and reviewers to help me flesh it out and make it something special. The system behind it is going to (at first) use Savage Worlds as the test of the system, but eventually I want to develop my own system (started that project it is not ready for review or testing at this time) that encompasses the art of dangerous, while not being swingy; streamlined, to replace fallen characters quickly; kind of in the old school vein, but with a little more to the characters. There will come a time when the RP system passes from design to testing, and at that point, I’ll ask the community for help.
Now on to a summary of the world.
The three pillars of the world of Xethos Lands are steel, spellcraft, and survival. Steel represents both the armament of sword and firearm, but also of cybernetics and DNA splicing, things that make you strong. Spellcraft is both the art of study and divine worship of power. Survival is the state of the world these days. The Shattered War is over, and the land has been cracked into two. Armies have time to consolidate power in regions of the world, and while everyone is putting the pieces of life back together, there is much ruin to explore.
The term “Shattered War” comes from the fact that the cults of the Bound divine powers (Death, Decay, and Disease) nearly broke their containment, forcing the Watchers (Life, Purity, Memory, Craft, Health, and Growth) of the Bound to send a shock wave through the Divine Wall that separates man from the divine. This shockwave had devastating effects on the world below, shattering the once large continent of Elythria into two separate bodies, where mountains had once stood, and now it is an inner sea.
The people, of whom there are 16 possible ancestries living and surviving together in this broken land, are a resilient people who have consolidated power into kingdoms around the new two continents of Thulmhu and Jotagoria. Even kingdoms not directly affected by the land's shattering felt the impact, and the once-global power grid was knocked out, forcing people to survive on nothing for years before engineers restored limited power to small sections of the grid. It is in these places that people flocked to live in the shelter of life they once knew. As the world is explored, the notes on the kingdoms will be updated. Right now, they list population numbers and primary capitals, and for the 5 empires that carried over from the old world, a few important cities that need to be fleshed out. We’ll dig into the background of the ancestries: they had 2,400 years to make peace before the Shattered War, and that has not been lost in this new age; it is within a community, not the whole world.
I’m going to let you explore the world's documentation at this time. There are 27 deities believed to have abandoned the world at one point, but are now back in the forefront of people's minds. There are 16 ancestries to choose from, and 28 kingdoms scattered around the world to explore and develop. Magic is alive both as a studied science and as a religious blessing. Cybernetics to DNA splicing still exists, though it is hard to duplicate, so it is in limited supply, just like ammunition for firearms. The world has not dropped back to medieval warfare; the high-tech stuff still exists, as it has only been 37 years since the land was shattered.
Please read and join the Discord to discuss with me about the world.
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