Mothership: Thoughts

This post is brought to you by Dan, RimWorld and NewSovietWave.

I started writing a post last year that I never ended up publishing which was intended to be a review of sort for Mothership, from Tuesday Knight Games. My review is as follows:

Mothership is pretty great.

Normal service will now resume.

 

Glenn Clovis

I ran a small adventure for some friends of mine using the core rules in the Mothership Player's Survival Guide not long after picking it up. It was fairly simple - the PCs were passengers on a ship who awoke from cryosleep to find the vessel stranded in a system's Oort cloud with the laws of physics behaving weirdly, the crew having gradually been driven insane and consumed by an energy-vampire entity that lived in interstellar space mostly interacting with dark matter. They loved it, and most of them even survived! Since then I've been thinking about it on-and-off and have a few ideas about a general setting.

The below is mostly predicated on the existence of non-relativistic Faster-Than-Light and the theory of the mind as essentially non-computable. I've got a few ideas for a subsequent post where FTL travel incurs serious time-debt and Dan has some excellent stuff on digital posthumanity (it's great, go read his blog).

When?

Some time in the mid-late 22nd century. The exact date doesn't matter a whole bunch for a few reasons:

• Mothership is a pretty lethal system and having a vague idea of time works easier for me to drop a new party into rather than strictly defined chronology.
  
• FTL travel, while not strictly relativistic, has its vagaries with regards to the passage of time for both travellers and observers.
• FTL communication isn't possible - information travels at the speed of the fastest ship - leading to a large information timelag the further across space one travels.

Time is still generally tracked on a 24 hour day ((Earth) Standard Day) and 365 day year ((Earth) Standard Year) largely out of inertia, but decimal time is also popular on starships. Extrasolar residents will usually keep a parallel Local time system.

Where?

Human space is laid out in three rough concentric spheres centred around the Sol system, comprising a diameter of ~300 parsecs (Rigel here we come!):

The Core sphere

The space occupied by the initial extrasolar colonisation efforts and, thus, the oldest and most developed worlds. Travel time between these systems is reasonably quick and the relative speed of information and travel results in the Core largely existing under the iron fist of UN Intersolar Authority (UNISA) with centralised government (read: corporate) structures, component standardisation and elements of cosmopolitanism. Also the region of space that bore the brunt of the PERIMETER Crisis - the Sol system is still cut off from hyperspace. You can get from one side of the Core to the other in about 3 months in a Jump 4 ship.

 

The Outer sphere

The space colonised by the second wave of Terran efforts. The UNISA still holds authority here though their structure is necessarily decentralised given the less well-established hyperspace routes and distance from their Core strongholds. As such nominally independent 'sovereign system' polities have emerged - this process has accelerated in the wake of the PERIMETER Crisis as requisitions and taxes have been levied by colonial authorities to assist in Core reconstruction efforts, sparking brushfire wars and insurgencies. Travelling from the edge of the Core to the boundary of the Outer sphere takes about 6 months at Jump 4.

 

The Rim 

The far frontier holding the furthest documented human colonies in the Milky Way. Hyperspace travel is still risky and unpredictable here and the authority of the UNISAis virtually unrecognised and grows weaker every day. Cult leaders, political dissidents, corporate prospectors and more congregate at the fringes of human space and society. To travel from the edge of the Outer sphere to the loose boundary of the Rim takes around 9 months at Jump 4.

 

The Beyond 

Non-colonised (officially) space past the boundary of the Rim.

Who?

Most of us could be transported into this setting and not notice much different about our descendants, but it depends where you look - metahumanity is emerging:

Mind-machine neural interfaces have allowed for advanced cybernetic implantations - cosmetic implants, heads-up displays, fully-immersive VR, truly integrated synthetic limbs & organs, implanted or wearable-wirelessly-linked eidetic memory storage, full cyborg-isation (humanoid or otherwise), and more, are available. Some corporate employment contracts are more akin to cybernetic mortgage clauses.

 

Genetic engineering has improved to the point where genetic illness has largely been eliminated and resistance to many diseases can be conferred (if you've the cash to pay for treatment). Changes can be made to the human genome to aid in colonising extrasolar or void environments - adaptations for low- and high-G environments or low-light, aquatic, or low-oxygen planets, for instance. Somatic (non-heritable) genetic augmentation can be made without too many problems in advanced medical settings (although requiring appropriate therapy while the changes take effect). Germline heritability, however, is heavily scrutinised by the UNISA. The mega-rich Core families have surreptitiously begun the gradual process of marshalling their familial genes into that of a genetic over-class and colony worlds in the Outer sphere and Rim have begun the slow path to true speciation as their citizens choose to adapt further to non-Terran environments. Transgenic changes have been made to Terran bacteria, animals and plants to aid in colony establishment in extrasolar environments.

Further to the above improvements in the human genome via gene editing and subsequent augmentation are able to confer increased longevity, extending the lifespan of a Core world citizen almost indefinitely. Outer sphere and Rim residents see this as paltry compensation for having to live in the Core.

 

Human tissue cloning is widely used but regulations against reproductive cloning or full-body recreation exist in UN space, and among many independent polities. Elsewhere it's a free for all, but the immortal holy grail of mind-transfer remains thoroughly out of reach.

 

Mind digitization remains elusive - the data requirements are immensely prohibitive and even where this has been surpassed the recreated digital minds quickly degrade into a roiling mass of insanity for lack of biofeedback from the brain's physical structures. The future remains, in this instance, meatbound. An exception of sorts exists in the use of neuronal network data to act as 'seeds' for artificial intelligences.

 

Truly artificial intelligences, on the other hand, do exist in strong and weak varieties. These are strictly regulated.

 

Alien ruins and artefacts have been found but mankind has thus far encountered no 'intelligent' life among the stars. Microbial and even complex organisms are present, though rare, so the lack of intelligent life has promoted huge discussions around the Great Filter and what lies in wait for humanity.

 

3AAA

How?

What are the tools by which humanity has cemented its place in the stars? I'll dig into this in a subsequent post, but general details below:

Jump drives are the lynchpin of humanity's spread through interstellar space. Whereas travelling under conventional power, even at relativistic speeds, would take years to cross even minor interstellar distances (not even getting into the time debt of the crew) Jump-capable ships can cross these distances in a fraction of the time. A Jump 1 rated ship can make the journey from Sol to Centauri (~4.25ly) in ~9 days travelling at ~1 parsec/week without experiencing relativistic time-debt. Higher Jump ratings are capable of increased speed, with Jump 2 drives capable of travelling ~2 parsecs/week etc.. Jump 4 is the general maximum most vessels will travel at due to the sheer financial and energy cost of increasing Jump capability and the increased hyperspace fluctuations that follow higher Jump travel - it is possible to travel at a lower Jump rating with a more capable drive thus saving the increased Jump ability for a true emergency. Jump transitions take place at the edge of solar systems as a star's gravity well (being what you might term a 'big boi' of physics) distorts spacetime too much to allow a safe transition within a system.

This hasn't stopped sleeper ships from venturing out into the great beyond at sublight relativistic speed - sometimes things are just that bad that you want out of life for a few decades/centuries in cryosleep to start things completely anew.

Even with Jump drives providing a way around the hard limits of relativity, it's not enough for the UNISA to remain in control. An interstellar polity's ability to control far-flung systems relies on its ability to project force, economic or military. The UNISA controls the wealthiest and most developed systems but they're hamstrung by the limitations of jump technology - how can you control a recalcitrant subject (of suitable development) when it takes you up to a year to bring any real military force to bear (bearing in mind the timelag in receiving notification of a rebellion) and the target, by virtue of the cost of interstellar shipping, is largely self-sufficient in most industrial and material needs out of necessity?

Hyperspace is the key to the operation of Jump technology. Hyperspace is a higher dimension that interacts closely with spacetime: Jump drives expend huge amounts of energy to bridge the gap between the dimensions, allowing a Jump-capable ship to travel outside of spacetime and bypass relativity. A complex quantum field encases the vessel in a bubble of spacetime as it travels through the currents of hyperspace as the dimension itself is corrosive to physics as we know it - travel time and distance is not a sure thing. Organic crew will normally spend the Jump portion of their journey in cryosleep and leave navigation to the ship's computer or astrogation android - even the latter will undergo a full systems error check after emergence from hyperspace. Those who remain awake in hyperspace have reported visual disturbances, auditory hallucinations, nausea and a sense of persistent unease - androids questioned on the matter describe their experiences as unpleasant. Whatever lies outside the realspace bubble of a Jump ship apparently cannot be viewed by the human mind - any attempt to do so results in visual white noise and a nasty stinging sensation.

 

Starships are many and varied. They share this in common: Newton's laws are supreme, artificial gravity is provided by acceleration G- or centrifugal force, and waste heat is a constant enemy. Expect rotating crew quarters, G-force couches, heatsinks and radiators, and barebones design. Very few spacecraft are able to touch down on anything near Earth-gravity planets due to their non-aerodynamic design and the fact that many use fusion torches for void propulsion which would eject a nasty amount of fallout into a planetary biosphere - most have a spaceplane and/or rely on some form of orbital infrastructure to reach ground level and return to orbit. The prevalence of fusion drives has led to He3 becoming a future 'gold standard' for currency exchange.

Artificial intelligence exists in strong and weak varieties. Weak AI are advanced intelligences built from the ground-up towards a series of specific tasks but lack the capacity for generalised intelligent action or self-improvement - ship computers are weak AI constructs able to manage and maintain a ship's systems and assist the crew but limited in their ability to act outside of their operational constraints. Strong AI, by contrast, are capable of human-level or greater intelligence and have the flexibility to apply this intelligence to any situation facing them. In contrast to the step-by-step algorithmic creation of a weak AI a strong AI is 'spun off' from the neural patterns of a human brain and gradually moulded to produce the desired outcome - while a human mind cannot be digitised a full neural mapping can form the basis of an AI neural network, but the failure rate is still astonishingly high. A strong AI is not capable of surviving in an active state in any and every computer system for two reasons: storage and complexity. A human brain can hold ~2.5 petabytes of data, even advanced computers in the future lack this storage space as standard. In addition, creating a functioning digital intelligence requires specialised circuitry to simulate the emergent properties of neurons in a human brain. As such strong AI inhabit nanite-infused 'persona cores' that are linked into other systems or implanted in android bodies, as appropriate, but are able to store inactive copies of themselves in a regular computer given enough storage space. These cores are unique to each AI - they're able to make new ones based on their own neurocircuitry patterns but can't inhabit another AI core without... weirdness... A persona core inhabiting an android shell will possess roughly similar intelligence to a person, although their demeanour can be a bit 'off' and their core processes will possess innate preferences for tasks and types of work, but a core linked up to additional processing power and storage is capable of immense mental feats and leaps of logic. These abilities saved strong AI from outright prohibition in the aftermath of the PERIMETER Crisis and instead left them working off mortgages for their own creation.

The aftermath of the PERIMETER Crisis was severe - all new strong AIs were required to be 'braked' and fully autonomous weapons systems were prohibited (androids with guns are acceptable, autonomous nuclear-armed drones are not). In-built aversions to self-alteration and improvement were hard-encoded at the basic level of persona cores to reduce the likelihood of a singularity cascade - agents from the Office of Synthetic Intelligence ('Turing Police') regularly test strong AI baselines to verify that braking protocols are intact. For what it's worth most AIs don't particularly want to lose their minds in a fit of what is essentially indistinguishable from complete insanity. An unbraked AI (or simply refusing to comply with the OSI) is one of the few things guaranteed to bring the full might of the UNISA bearing down upon you - secession is one thing but creating an existential threat to humanity merits the most severe possible response.

(You may recognise the above as a crude rip-off from Stars Without Number, which it is. Go read SWN, it's great.)

Seth Pritchard

Scepter'd Isle: Things Godly and Supernatural

In my previous post I detailed the more 'realistic' elements of an Elizabethan England setting. Now comes the decidedly 'unreal' in the form of:

1. The 'true' nature of gods/deities
2. Magic
3. Weird and wonderful creatures, and demihumans

 This is, of course, largely useless to my players but I do enjoy inulding myself.

 Historia Mundis Naturalis, Pliny the Elder - Woodcut from a 1582 edition

 

Gods, Deities, and other Powers

In a real-world setting where Christian sectarian strife plays a significant role in shaping events, is the God at the head of it all real? And if so what input does he have? These are less important than you might think given that I'm not planning on using the Cleric class in this setting, for a number of reasons:

• In a setting where the majority of Europe is dominated by some form of Christian faith and relatively large numbers of people are inducted into the priesthood I would imagine that there would be a reasonable number of Clerics present. This would imply that holy magic/miracles are somewhat commonplace, which I want to avoid.
• As an explanation for the above - in a game where magic can be used by a person sufficiently inducted into the occult arts, having a completely separate book of spells for Clerics implies that spiritual devotion and adherence to ritual would be enough to qualify, which would dial down the weirdness. You could of course say that Magic Users have the gift and instead Clerics are chosen by a deity or other power to fulfil their will on Earth, which to me implies that they are legitimate saints capable of performing miracles. Or alternatively that they've somehow deluded themselves into having powers through sheer faith. YMMV, Clerics are out of my game.
• Would all deities/powers provide the same spells to their followers, even if their nature and beliefs are radically different?
  
• In Lamentations of the Flame Princess Clerics mechanically sit as a sort of combined Fighter/Mage that lacks the former's increasing Hit Bonus and the latter's wider range of utility spells. They have access to unique spells and can cast at a greater encumbrance level but I think removing the class and giving Magic Users access to Cleric spells helps focus the character specialisations - Fighter is kill-y, Specialist gets skills, Magic-User gets magic, demihumans are where the weird edge cases emerge. In addition I find that having easy access to healing tends to encourage my usual players into a more 'combat as sport' playstyle which I try to avoid (though that might be on me as the GM).
  
• Clerics are Sunday School Mircale Makers and I can't think of a reason to not just lump their spells in with Magic Users - if I were to use a Cleric class (in the vein of a saint) I'd probably give them some sort of 'divine intervention' ability where they can channel their patron's energies but run the risk of harm and/or martyrdom.

That being said, it's fun to think about and a setting's cosmology provides inspiration for allies, monsters, powers, Faustian bargains and all sorts of weird things for players to dig into! So, does the Abarahamic God exist in this setting?

...

Maybe.

There's certainly a throne, and a Heaven, and angels, and a plan (or the remnants of one).

But no sign of Jehovah.

Metatron sits upon the throne, barely able to keep the firmament together as the kingdom of Heaven slowly crumbles around him. Such is the effort required to maintain the decaying edifice that he is able to narrate only snippets and fragments of the Almighty's cosmic plan (himself having only a limited perspective of it compared to the omniscience of his creator) to the choir of Seraphim that attend the throne and record the works of Heaven. As a result, the actions of angels make even less sense to mortals than they would with a fully functioning heavenly hierarchy. Confused mortal souls cower in the face of divine discord and it is not unknown for the angels to herd souls into the hall of the throne, never to be seen again.

The devils still inhabit the circles of Hell, both freed and imprisoned by the ancient pact with their creator. Satan reigns over the dukes of Hell but is not the same fallen angel cast out of Heaven by the host - Lucifer too has not been seen for many years. The title of Satan is claimed by the archdevils who fight internecine conflicts to claim the crown of Hell in an endless Miltonian struggle as none can truly kill the others. The souls of the damned are tormented and twisted to provide sustenance to the devils, though there are areas of Limbo that some are able to hide and persist in. The devils take great pleasure in rooting out these havens when they're not tempting mortals, planning an escape from their prison domain or organising a Black Crusade against Heaven.

Similarly, the adherents of the Hindu and Buddhist traditions find the cycle of rebirth unstable and souls achieving samsara are unable to free themselves, and unmentioned faiths would likewise find their divine hosts unsettled. Those old gods of faiths long extinguished and subsumed by the Abrahamic religions and others linger in the sidelines, bound by heavenly treaty but jealous and covetous of human souls. They may even be able to provide cryptic clues as to what malady has overtaken Heaven. Essentially the cosmological cycle of the world is fucked for reasons but the established faiths hold sway over the souls of mankind. The threat of Hell and damnation is very real, whether the Pope or other earthly ministries have any actual sway over that is less certain.

There are of course other Powers that will accept, if not necessarily care about or understand, worship - surviving nephilim, elder Elves, beings of the Veins of the Earth that were old when the Church was founded, particularly powerful and insane sorcerors, things from other realities etc. - but their abilities are decidedly limited. An elder Elf may be able to control a small pocket plane or affect the environmental conditions within a few square miles, and they certainly possess more knowledge than virtually any mortal, but they lack the reality-shaping powers of a true deity. I'll be writing more about this category later.

Thomas Honz

Magic

So if gods are maybe, kind of real, or were once at least, how does magic fit into it? Well gods might be real but the books written about them don't necessarily contain the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. The influence of the Heavens on the world is strong but it is not the only influence.

Imagine a roiling sea upon which floats flotsam and jetsam. A being of sufficient energy in said sea can pull together enough materials to make their own small island - life might be easier on it but it takes constant maintenance to render it seaworthy. As a craft upon the ocean, so do the various 'dominions' float upon a sea of roiling aether - the base essence of reality. Some entities did so in the past to create the universe the world exists in - through ebbs and flows in power, reproduction and other unknowable methods the modern pantheons emerged as inheritors of their power. This aether quests for cracks in the realities it buoys and infiltrates the essence of chaos into them. Bubbles of the raw substrate of reality boil free for a time and like a mutagen their passing leaves traces on the worlds they flow through. When beings in the world manipulate and use this power it manifests as magic. It is rather risky to do so. Some creatures incorporate this power into their very being, becoming magical themselves.

A trained magician can harness and direct these flows of power into spells and rituals. Spells are your usual Vancian trigger-mechanisms - a coiled spring prepared through meditation and self-delusion that can be unwound with a word and a gesture. A ritual is a longer, more involved affair that draws on this power slowly but in much greater amounts - items can be infused with power or even greater effects can be unleashed, provided no-one interrupts. This is, of course, a strictly human way of doing things - human psychology and physiology require that that magic be shaped and formed in this manner. Other beings have different ways of doing things...

The power of this magic ebbs and flows depending on the aetheric currents - great calamities and epochal shifts have occurred as our universe shifts between raging currents and relatively still 'waters'.  In-game magic is at it's lower ebb - it's very uncommon, almost universally feared and outlawed, and while stories abound most people have little to no true experience of the supernatural.

BE NOT AFRAID

Weird and wonderful creatures, and demihumans

There's a few general categories of supernatural creatures to consider given the above. This is a general overview of each, stats and mechanics will follow in a later post:

1. Angels, devils and other 'religious' entities.
2. Mythical beings.
   
3. The undead.
4. Folklore creatures.
5. Demihumans.

Angels, devils and other 'religious' entities

 

Angels

Angels are the servants of God and act as extensions of His will. Currently this involves implementing the fragments of the divine plan uttered by Metatron when he's not wholly focused on maintaining Heaven from the throne. As such their actions on Earth seem random and senseless, when they appear at all. See above for an example of what they look like - these aren't beautiful people with feathery wings but the servants of an eldritch intelligence far beyond the comprehension of humanity. Angels have the following common traits:

• Terrifying Visage: There's a reason angels herald most of their appearances to humans with 'BE NOT AFRAID'. The human mind is almost incapable of comprehending angelic form - animals don't seem to mind - any human looking upon an angel must Save vs Magic or (1d4). If telepathy is used then there is no save and the telepath takes 2d10 psychic damage:

1. Prostrate themselves while weeping piteously for 2d6 minutes.
2. Flee in a blind panic until 1 mile away. They'll know when they're far enough.
   
3. Be struck vacant and stand drooling in mindless terror until roughly jostled (Save vs Poison again to try and break free of the effect).
4. Suffer a grand mal seizure for 1d6 minutes (Save vs Poison or be rendered semi-conscious for another 3d10 minutes; fatigued until the character can rest).

• Flight: Angels are capable of moving through the air. They don't bob unless they feel like it - most of them take a linear path between points at high speed, changing speed and direction with no regard for momentum.
• Halo: Angels possess a halo of divine light that illuminates all within eyeshot and dispels falsehood - a character must Save vs Magic or be unable to lie while within the light of an angel's halo. An angel may dim this light or increase the intensity to blind an opponent - Save vs Poison or be blinded until the light is dimmed.
• Tongues: Angels can speak, read and understand all languages.
• Adamant Form: Angels are immune to harm from mortal weapons, magic and forces. It is possible to bind and/or ward them for a time with the correct spells, formulae and glyphs but to cause them true harm takes astonishingly powerful magic, Hellish energies, or weapons and powers from Heaven itself. A barrage of cannon fire will barely slow one down.

The idea here is that angels are terrifying servants of an incomprehensible eldritch abomination that can and will completely fuck up your day if you get on their bad side. They have a plan and you will not obstruct the plan. Admittedly they don't know what the plan involves, but that's beside the point.

Devils

Those angels who broke the compact and rebelled against their creator continue to rail against their imprisonment in the circles of Hell. Set to watch over the world and guide humanity, certain angels became enamoured with mankind and lived among them in human form, fathering children and neglecting their duties. In time they began to resent their creator and attempted to storm the gates of Heaven, leading to them being cast down into the pit of Hell and a Biblical scourge being enacted upon their descendants. In time their isolation led to hatred and envy of humanity (with some exceptions) - though the fallen angels were free from the constraints of Heaven they remained bound in a new prison, while their former wards continued on almost blissfully unaware. The First Satan, leader of the revolt against the Heavenly Host, set to work constructing the Brass City of Dis and soon Hell was reshaped in the eye of its new rulers. The souls condemned to Hell are used as tools and nourishment for the new devils, and the Circles of Hell were born.

Their time among mankind and the infusion of human soul-essence leaves the devils with a more comprehensible mindset compared to angels - they're not entirely alien creatures though their motives are hidden and their schemes span centuries. While they war and scheme against each other the primar motivation of a devil is to escape Hell and extend their dominion over creation. Devils share the following common traits:

• Mutable Form: A devil can change their size and shape as a Main Action. They can assume human form (though with a mark somewhere on their body that marks their true nature) and can dissolve into shadow. Smaller forms will change their relative stats but they can't increase their stats and abilities beyond their normal maximum by increasing in size.
• Hellish Pact: All devils can form a bargain with a willing sentient creature. This bargain must be made freely (not under duress or threat) and both parties will be immutably bound by its terms until the pact is fulfilled. There is no save against this, the law is immutable.
  
• Telepathy: Devils can speak directly into a person's head. They can't read their thoughts but they can project their voice inside a target's skull. They can control the volume from barely audible whispers to thunderously loud. They can do this to any target in eyeshot, or to a target whose location they can scry. Save vs Magic to resist the effect for a day.
• Possession: All devils are capable of possessing people and animals. Animals can be possessed at will. To possess a sentient target they must maintain an unbroken telepathic link for a week before invading the target as they sleep as a Full-Round Action - Save vs Magic to resist the effect (this will also break the telepathic link). Receiving the Eucharist from an ordained priest automatically breaks this a telepathic link and confers a +4 bonus to saves against it over the next week. If a church service is missed then the bonus is lost. For every additional week spent maintaining the link, or prior successful possession, the target takes -2 on their save. When possessing a target the devil still cannot read their thoughts but otherwise has complete control of them. The target's appearance is normally unchanged while they are possessed unless the devil wills it, but gains access to powers specific to the devil. The first possession lasts for 4 hours, the second for 8, the third for 12 and so on. In the aftermath of a possession the target must Save vs Magic or suffer an erratic episode for 1d6 hours afterwards (treat as under the effects of the Confusion spell). Regardless of whether the save is successful or not, the possessed has little to no memories of the possession save for a distinct sense of unease and nausea. Once the devil possesses the target for 24 hours the target can no longer save against possession and can be possessed by the devil at will. The devil is capable of leaving a fraction of their awareness possessing the target, i.e. if engaged in combat, but the possessed target makes all rolls with disadvantage until direct control is assumed. A possessed target can be exorcised by a priest which effectively 'resets' the possession modifiers, breaks an existing telepathic link and/or ongoing possession, and prevents the devil from scrying the target for 1d6 months - Save vs Magic, a success leaves the target fatigued for a week in addition to the above, failure does 1d10 damage and immediately provokes a possession attempt. An exorcism is subject to the following modifiers:
• -2 for each prior possession.
• -2 if currently possessed.
• -2 if the target has committed a grievous sin that they have not atoned for.
• +2 if the exorcism takes place on hallowed ground.
• +2 if the target is anointed with holy water.
• +2 if the target is touching a true relic of the Church.
• +2 if the target has confessed and undertaken penance for their sins.
• An exorcism in the presence of a friendly angel is rolled with advantage.
  
• Tongues: Devils can speak, read and understand all languages.
• Profane: Devils are vulnerable to the effects of holy water.
  
• Tarnished Adamant: Due to their rebuke from God devils take half damage from all mortal weapons and full damage from magic. They will take full damage from Heavenly weapons and most Hellish weapons.
  

Devils are slightly more accessbile in their thinking but desire to use humans for their own ends. The abilities here play into the 'chessmaster' style of devil who seeks to manipulate, dominate and control for their own ends. They are also still capable of flattening most mortals but are not as durable as angels.

 

Daemons

Night creatures spawned from Hell's twisted souls to do the bidding of devils and those they contract with. The devils have grown exceedingly proficient at flensing and reconstituting the souls of mortals into forms more useful to them. The experience is quite agonising and few daemons are capable of thought beyond a slavering bloodlust. Those that retain their faculties are highly prized. Some brave and foolish mortal sorcerors who enter a pact with a devil may be granted use of daemons under the devil's control, some even more brave and foolish attempt to pilfer daemons for their own purposes without the security of a pact - a much riskier proposition. Daemons share the following common traits:

• Bound Corpus: Daemons are beings of soul-stuff bent into myriad forms by the will of devils. While they have form in the Outer Spheres they cannot manifest in the world without a body. Anyone attempting to summon a daemon must provide a suitable body (or other quantity of meat) to house it. The daemon is then sealed into the 'body' with a binding glyph - if this is destroyed the daemon explodes in a rush of soulfire dealing 2d10 damage to everything within 10 metres (Save vs Breath for half). Reducing the daemon to 0hp has a 1-in-6 chance of breaking the binding. If struck by a critical hit the daemon must Save vs Poison - failure means the binding has been broken.
• Bloodlust: Daemons are driven to consume flesh and blood. If not directly commanded a daemon must pass a Morale check whenever it is within 10 metres of a wounded creature - failure means it moves to attack and consume that target, regardless of whether it is a friend or foe. If there are multiple targets within range roll randomly to select.
• Chaos Unchained: If summoned without the permission of a devil the summoner must make a Domination roll as per the Summon spell - if successful the daemon will be permanently bound. However if away from its master's presence for over 7 days, Save vs Magic - success means that the daemon has slipped its bonds and gone feral. It will lair and hunt and consume until slain or recaptured by its master. 'Presence' is determined loosely - within the same city would be fine but not further away than this.
• Profane: Daemons are vulnerable to the effects of holy water.

Daemons are a specific type of summoned entity. I love the Summon spell but I often find players are more reluctant to use it given what can go horribly wrong - this allows them a more control over the outcome (though I'll do a specific table for daemons to distinguish them from truly eldritch abominations that slither between realities) but also prods them into getting involved with literal Satan. I think that's a happy compromise.

Harshanand Singh

Given that this post has gotten pretty long I think I'll leave it there for now and do the mythical beings, undead, folklore creatures and demihuman sections in a subsequent post.

The Hierarchy of Forests, or Forest Feudalism

Royal forests are cool. From Wikipedia:

"...under the Norman kings (after 1066), by royal prerogative forest law was widely applied. The law was designed to protect the venison and the vert, the "noble" animals of the chase – notably red and fallow deer, the roe deer, and the wild boar – and the greenery that sustained them. Forests were designed as hunting areas reserved for the monarch or (by invitation) the aristocracy (see medieval hunting). The concept was introduced by the Normans to England in the 11th century, and at the height of this practice in the late 12th and early 13th centuries, fully one-third of the land area of southern England was designated as royal forest; at one stage in the 12th century, all of Essex was afforested, and on his accession Henry II declared all of Huntingdonshire forest."

Royal forests, by nature of their creation and mode of use, are special places. Perhaps more so than anywhere else in the land, they are places where the king and his nobles leave their mark. Anyone can take and hold a castle, it's just a pile of stones, but if anyone can hunt in a royal forest then it ceases to be a royal forest. That's why poaching in a royal forest is punished so harshly - it's both a physical and spiritual theft against majesty itself. Naturally, royalty infuses these places and enforces its own indelible order on its inhabitants in a mirror of mankind's feudal society:

• Kings & Queens (Stags & Does)
• Dukes and Counts (Bucks)
• Barons (Boar)
• Knights (any animal that seems particularly noble and doesn't fit into the other categories)
• Peasants (other prey species)
• Outlaws (Wolves, Bears)

 Maybe the examples below are literal. Maybe they're metaphorical. Maybe they're both.

Stag King

Satoshi Matsuura

A braying call heralds the charge of the King of the Forest, and the forest bows to his will. A shining aura surrounds him as he thunders towards you, glittering antlers rearing skyward. None feel the influence of the glory of royalty more than deer, the favoured hunt of monarchs.

AC: Plate, HD: 8, Attack: 2d8 lance + Save or be thrown 30ft into the air, Move: 50', Morale: 10, Special: Aura of Royalty - when first encountered any foreign (to the forest) creature must Save or abase themselves before the King of the Forest.

Interesting things: Gilded antlers, royal lance, oak-pattern royal seal, briar-walk boots.

Boar Baron

Satoshi Matsuura

A muffled grunt echoes from across the clearing. Then again, and again, rising in tempo until reaching a screeching squeal. The heavy-bodied baron and his retainers close in for the kill, froth at their lips and bloodlust in their eyes. The King of the Forests trusts his barons to police his lands and guard his borders.

AC: Chain, HD: 6, Attack: 1d8 sword + Save or bleed, Move: 30', Morale: 10, Special: Blood-scent - the baron can sniff out the scent of any wounded outsider within 3 miles.

Interesting things: Fortifying fats, razor tusks, engraved nose-ring, armoured bristles.

Otter Knight

Satoshi Matsuura

Lost and tired, your party stops by a river to make camp and rest. You think you're safe, but when you go to draw water from the river you see too late the glimmer of steel beneath the surface.

AC: Chain, HD: 4, Attack: 1d6 sword, Move: 30'/Swim 60', Morale: 8, Special: Water walk - when immersed, the otter knight can move to another body of water within 1 mile as a full action. This works in a river, stream or pond, but not in a bucket.

Interesting things: Gill helm, insulating coat, swimming boots.

Beaver Man-at-Arms

Satoshi Matsuura

It is a lord's right to charge a toll to all those who cross his bridges while in his domain. The lords of the forest entrust the construction and wardship of these vital passages to trusted servants, and none are more trusted in this matter than the beavers. Their blunt demeanours and stout axes are more than required to ensure that travellers pay up.

AC: Chain, HD: 3,  Attack: 1d6 axe/1d8 crossbow, Move: 30'/Swim 60', Morale: 8, Special: Woodworker - instead of dealing damage, the beaver man-at-arms can instead choose to destroy an opponent's wooden shield with a swift bite of their teeth.

Interesting things: Bag of bridge fares, waterproof oiled pouch, plans for a nearby fortification.

Fox Verderer

Satoshi Matsuura

Although the King of the Forest does not hunt, he nonetheless holds swathes of the forest for himself. He entrusts his chosen servants to maintain these lands in his absence, and to catch and punish those who would wrong him. The crafty fox serves him well in these matters, stalking criminals silently and administering the king's justice swiftly.

AC: Leather, HD: 2, Attack: 1d8 longbow/1d6 cudgel, Move: 50', Morale: 8, Special: Shadowstep - instead of a move action, the fox verderer may teleport to a spot 30' away.

Interesting things: A nefarious trap, seeker arrow, map of hidden trails in this area.

Bear Outlaw Boss

Satoshi Matsuura

The wolves and bears both reject the King of the Forest's claim to the throne, and their mutual enmity can sometimes be put aside in pursuit of mutual raids. A grown bear is a fearsome foe, and even more so when drunk on blood-mead, wielding weapons of awesome size and surrounded by clouds of bees that nest in their armour. Few can stand against them.

AC: Plate, HD: 6, Attack: 2d8 greatsword, Move: 30', Morale: 10, Special: Stinging cloud - the bear outlaw boss emits a cloud of angry bees when struck. All targets engaged in melee for the next turn attack with disadvantage.

Interesting things: Horn of blood-mead, royal jelly comb, armoured pelt, rune-inscribed bear claw necklace.

Fiefdoms

With thanks to Skerples' feudalism writings, Crusader Kings II and Game of Thrones, for getting my head back into the game. Behold the outline of a British mythology-inspired medieval setting. Bold places are on the map, you'll have to guess where.

Jose Daniel Cabrera Peña

The Bastard's Conquest is some 250 years past. The land is at a rare moment of peace, but a precarious peace it is.

To the north, the Seelie King of Alba rules beyond the ruins of the Rûmish wards of the Vallum Hadriani. Few Anglians have encountered the sidhe that whisper in his ear, fewer still have lived to tell the tale. Raiders sally from both sides of the border but sometimes, when the winter night is still and the moon is full, the mournful horn of the Wild Hunt heralds an altogether different threat.

To the west, the last Prince of Mount and Vale has been slain and Cambria has been subdued with an iron fist. However, the Prince's son was smuggled to Breizh, far to the south, and seeks supporters to avenge his father and claim his birthright. The populace glower under the rule of the Marcher lords and the high mountain valleys still hold hidden bastions of the Old Gods.

Hex Kit is great for mapping out your totally original ideas.

Past Cambria over the sea, the Crown has carved out a tenuous foothold in Hibernica. What started as an easy conquest became a brutal stalemate as armoured knights were ambushed by saffron-cloaked javelineers and brutal mailed axemen. Tales returned of great shaggy beasts battering down palisades and keeps. The war is not over, but each side licks their wounds as they wait for the conflict to flare again.

To the south across the Mare Francorum, the King of the Franks looks enviously upon the King's continental holdings, and conspires to claim them for himself. The jarls of the King of the Northmen have largely given up the practice of raiding from their Island Holdfasts, but hard men live hard lives and piracy and mercenary pay are now often as lucrative.

In Anglia itself, noble squabbles are a constant threat. The barons look to safeguard their privileges and expand their influence by any means necessary, and the great counts and dukes even more so. The Church is divided between its loyalty to the High Priest and its duty to the King. Rûmish artefacts and dungeons are scattered throughout the land, calling the foolhardy like moths to a flame. Magic is outlawed by divine decree across the Church's reach, but there are always those willing to grasp at otherworldy power at the risk of their sanity, lives, and immortal souls.

Star Wars Pitches

Recent weeks have been taken up with holidays, funerals and general creative listlessness. Time to change that.

There was some interesting G+ discussion on a post by FM Geist (who everyone should follow, by the way) on the topic of lore and how it can be presented in RPGs. I'm guilty as charged when it comes to building up large amounts of lore that my players never interact with and has no bearing on the game, often with entirely superfluous writing. It's something I've been trying to change because, in the words of Kevin Malone, "why waste time say lot word when few word do trick"?

There was a particular point made by David Shugars that the lore for a game's premise should fit in the opening crawl of a Star Wars film, which sounds like a great exercise to try and distil the essence and tone of a campaign setting down to the meat. On average there are 80 words in a Star Wars opening text crawl, so that's my limit for this exercise.

Without further ado, here are a few setting ideas I've had in my head distilled down to the basics along with the premise for my Egradus campaign.

Credit, Amir Zand

1. Egradus

The Ugishi Sultanate and Kothen Imperium lie in ruins, destroyed in the final cataclysmic paroxysms of brutal warfare. Ancient weapons and magics litter the land, but civilisation has emerged once more from the chaotic aftermath of the conflict and the Long Night is over.

Buried beneath the war’s detritus lie mysteries of even older powers and their secrets are coveted by the petty kings and gods of the reborn world. Opportunity and danger await in equal measure.

Word Count: 77

Credit, Amit Naik

2. Broken Heaven

The Divine is dead, slain by His treacherous children - the Chosen. The City of Heaven is blackened and corrupted by mortal touch, and foul beasts and magics, the product of the Divine's dying curse, wreak havoc. The surviving Chosen slumber in their cursed palaces and warp the world around them with semi-divine fever dreams.

The Godstear Comet marks the sky once more, and the Chosen will awaken. The petty kings and trifling sorcerers of mortals will be powerless before them.

Word Count: 80

Credit, Amir Zand

3. The Night's Dark Sea
The Solemnis took flight to the stars 200 years ago. Designed to transport a self-sustaining population to a new world, she held the combined knowledge and the most advanced technology of her homeworld.

Many of Solemnis' systems have failed irreparably over time, including navigation. No communications have been received from the homeworld in over a century, and the original crew are long dead. Their descendants debate on the fate of the vessel, and conflict is about to flare.

Word Count: 78

Credit, Amir Zand

4. In the Shadow's Wake
The immortal sorceress known as the Tyrant won her bloody war of conquest generations ago, crushing all who opposed her. The Empire has enjoyed prosperity since her final victory, but the Tyrant has secluded herself in the Iron Citadel in recent years. Bureaucrats and warlords are making their opening moves in the power vacuum, opposed by the Tyrant's loyalists, and rumours abound of a resurgent rebel movement that claims to have a means of slaying the Tyrant herself.

Word Count: 78

Pike & Shotte: The War, Part 2

So, the War. My previous post contained possible causes and scenarios for the War itself. This post will get into the nitty-gritty of creating the armies.

This post contains precious little in terms of historical accuracy and instead focuses on implementing a set of easy-to-follow guidelines to create a warzone that your PCs can frolic, adventure and be horribly killed in. It originally contained a number of sections, but I've limited it to Armies & Battles due to the length it was reaching. Be warned that this post is incomplete and will contain references to things that have been left to later posts.

I'll be making subsequent posts on:

1. Creating the Map
2. Battles & Sieges
3. Campaign Event Cycle & Timeline

As in my previous post, this assumes an Early Modern style of warfare, but can be easily tweaked.

'Rocroi, el último tercio', by Augusto Ferrer-Dalmau

There will be at least two armies in any region of Pike & Shotte. Armies may be created, altered or destroyed by events in a campaign. I classify armies as any armed group with more than 500 members, and an organised command structure. Smaller groups represent noble retinues, bandit gangs or smaller mercenary bands that, while potentially violent and aggressive, don't have the same power to disrupt a region like a true army does. However, larger armies may split off into smaller groups as part of their campaigning.

Armies have the following features:

General Characteristics

1. Health: An abstraction of the number of soldiers and units in an army. Higher current health means more units are at full-strength, lower health means many units need reinforcement. Maximum health refers to the overall size of the army.

2. Leadership: The ability of officers and generals to meaningfully plan and command the army.

3. Morale: The will and confidence of an army's soldiers. This tends towards a median over time.

*4. Mobility: How quickly the army is able to move on the campaign map, and how good they are at running down fleeing enemies in a rout. The higher the proportion of cavalry in an army, the higher this is. Artillery always reduces it, and larger armies are always slower.

5. Supplies: How well provisioned the army is. Each army must have adequate supplies for their troops or suffer Morale & Health penalties.

6. Cost: Soldiers don't fight for free. This is the monthly cost in gold pieces (not silver) of fielding the army.

Combat Characteristics

1. Skirmish: How good the army is at irregular warfare and harassment. Roughly reflects the proportion of light cavalry and skirmishers in the army.

2. Shock: The army's ability to deal and absorb heavy punishment in battle. Roughly proportional to the amount of line/heavy infantry, heavy cavalry and artillery in the army.

3. Siege: The army's effectiveness in besieging settlements and fortifications. Large amounts of artillery and infantry will increase this.

*4. Mobility: How quickly the army is able to move on the campaign map, and how good they are at running down fleeing enemies in a rout. The higher the proportion of cavalry in an army, the higher this is. Artillery always reduces it.

Creating an Army

Stats
Leadership, Morale and Mobility start at 10. Health, Supplies, Cost, Skirmish, Shock, Siege & Mobility start at 0.

Commander

Roll a statline for the Commander of the army using your system of choice and note their modifiers. Add the average of their Intelligence & Wisdom modifiers to the army's Leadership and their Charisma modifier to the army's morale.

Roll 1d4 + their Charisma modifier to find their Renown - this is their legacy of past actions that has built up as part of their reputation. Winning battles increases it, and losing battles reduces it.

Roll below to find the Commander's speciality and note the bonus, applying it to the army's stats if appropriate:
1. Dogged Attacker: +2 Shock
2. Dreaded Foe: -2 Enemy Morale
3. Military Mind: +2 Leadership
4. Lightning Fast: +2 Mobility
5. Inspiring Presence: +2 Friendly Morale
6. Bane of Cities: +2 Siege
7. Raider: +2 Skirmish
8. Scorched Earth: the Commander's army gains 1 Boon on the results of all foraging actions.
9. Zealous: the Commander's army gains +4 Morale when fighting opponents of a different religion.
10. Reaper: the Commander's army may re-roll their Shock roll during a battle, but must keep the second result.
11. Greedy: the Commander's army gains 1 Boon when rolling to check the outcome of looting a settlement.
12. Cautious: the Commander's army will notice an ambushing foe on a 3-in-6 instead of a 1-in-6.

Give them a name, allegiance and a general description, and maybe some noted past battles. You may end up with Hannibal Barca or Eugene of Savoy, or you might get Quinctilius Varus or the Earl of Cardigan, but don't worry too much either way: incompetent commanders can produce equally interesting results compared to their betters.

Initial Funds

Roll 3d6 x 1000gp to find the army's starting funds.

Initial Objective

Roll below to find the army's initial objective:

The commander wants to...
1. Fortify...
2. Raid...
3. Destroy...
4. Reinforce...
5. Besiege...
6. Reach...

1. A major settlement (roll randomly).
2. A minor settlement (roll randomly).
3. A strategic location (bridge, pass, junction, fortification etc., roll randomly).
4. An enemy army (roll randomly).
5. A specific region (roll randomly).
6. A friendly army (roll randomly).

Some of these results may not make sense, like destroying a friendly army, but my reasoning is that even armies that are nominally on the same side are still divided by factionalism and infighting. Or maybe the objective comes about as a result of shifting orders and allegiances.

Recruitment
Using the tables below, spend the initial funds rolled above on recruiting soldiers and specialists. Soldiers are a broad class of fighters who perform the general parry-and-thrust dirty work on the battlefield, while specialists posses special powers or abilities that can influence an army in battle or on campaign. Specialists do not count towards the army's Health, nor do they have a supply cost:

Soldiers	Combat Stats	Cost (GP)	Supply Cost
Light Infantry (e.g. Jaegers, Irregulars)	+2 Skirmish, +1 Shock, +1 Mobility	500	1
Heavy Infantry (e.g. Tercios, Caroleans)	+3 Shock, -2 Mobility	1,000	2
Light Cavalry (e.g. Dragoons, Hakkapeliittas)	+3 Skirmish, +2 Shock, +3 Mobility	1,500	3
Heavy Cavalry (e.g. Gendarmes, Winged Hussars)	+4 Shock, +2 Mobility	2,000	4
Light Artillery (e.g. Falconets, Sakers)	+1 Skirmish, +1 Siege, -1 Mobility	750	3
Heavy Artillery (e.g. Culverins, Full Cannons)	+2 Skirmish, +2 Siege, -2 Mobility	1,500	4
Siege Artillery (e.g. Basilisks, Howitzers)	+5 Siege, -2 Mobility	1,500	3

Specialists	Effect	Cost (GP)
Chirurgeons	Reduces Army Health loss due to disease or battle damage	1,500
Line Officers	+2 Leadership, multiples don't stack	2,000
Master Smiths	+1 Shock for all Soldiers	3,000
Pioneers	Army movement speed suffers only 50% of the normal terrain penalties	1,000
Sappers	The Commander may attempt to tunnel into or out of a besieged settlement, allowing them to make a single Shock roll against an opponent in a siege	2,000
Skilled Quartermaster	Supply Cost of all Soldiers reduced by 1 (to minimum of 1), multiples don't stack	2,000
Standard Bearers	+1 Army Morale, multiples don't stack	800
War Wizards	+4 Shock, -2 to enemy Morale	3,000

Renown
A commander's Renown allows them to choose a number of entries from the following table. Commanders can choose any number of entries provided that the cost of them does not exceed their current total Renown. If a commander's Renown decreases for whatever reason they must immediately remove entries until they have reached their new cap. An increase in Renown allows a commander to choose extra entries in the post-battle phase. Each entry can only be taken once, unless explicitly noted.

Asset	Description	Effect	Renown Cost
Venerable Chronicler	A scholar and diarist who records the Commander's great deeds.	If the Commander defeats an enemy who had previously defeated them, they gain +1 Renown	1
Crazed Apothecary	Neurotic and erratic, but their brews are potent.	Roll 1d4 before a battle: 1: +2 Skirmish, 2: +2 Shock, 3: +2 Mobility, 4: +2 Morale. 50% chance of dealing 1d4 damage to Commander's Army	1
Battlefield Reliquary	The remains of a saint or holy artefact, borne aloft by the devoted.	+4 Morale	2
Herald of Arms	A messenger who proclaims the Commander's authority.	The Commander gains 1 Boon on all rolls when negotiating with settlements or parleying	2
Embedded Assassins	Masked killers wielding mighty weapons who fight in silence.	+3 Skirmish, -1 enemy Morale	3
Varangians	Barbaric foreign fighters, eager for gold and glory.	+3 Shock, +1 Mobility	3
Great Captain	A pre-eminent military leader offers their advice to the Commander.	+4 Leadership	4
Horse Lords	Wild riders follow the Commander, spitting savage war cries.	+4 Skirmish, +2 Mobility	4
Wallbreaker	A mighty gun inscribed with arcane runes, attended to by wizard-engineers.	+3 Skirmish, +8 Siege, -2 Mobility, 10% chance of misfiring (1d4 damage to Commander's army, no progress on Siege phase)	5
Fey Allies	Capricious sylvans lead a Wild Hunt from deer-back with blades of bronze and bone.	+5 Skirmish, +3 Mobility, -2 enemy Morale, -1 friendly Morale	5
Magical Beasts	Strange and savage products of arcane crossbreeding. Handled with great care.	+4 Shock, -2 enemy Morale, 25% chance of dealing 2d6 damage to Commander's Army	6
Archmage	A master of the arcane arts, and a source of great disquiet to enemies.	+6 Shock, -2 enemy Morale. 25% chance of a devastating magical mishap (treat as doubling the enemy's strength in the current phase)	6

Health

With the army's recruitment completed, calculate its Health by totalling up Hit Dice according to its composition. Roll for each unit accordingly:

Light Infantry: d6

Heavy Infantry: d8

Light Cavalry: d4

Heavy Cavalry: d6

Artillery does not contribute to the army's overall Health.

Thus an army with 2 units of Light Infantry, 3 units of Heavy Infantry, a unit of Light Cavalry and a unit of Heavy Cavalry would roll 2d6+3d8+1d4+1d6, getting a total of 28 Health.

Supplies

Roll 2d10+5 to determine the army's starting supplies.

Please note that this is still being tweaked and that the above tables are not exhaustive - I definitely plan to flesh out the Specialist and Renown tables further. Any comments, constructive criticism and suggestions are welcome. Posts on how to actually use the armies will be forthcoming.

OSR: Cosmology & Deep Time

The Deep Time machine keeps on going. Things seem to be moving on to how Deep Time could be used to create worlds with bizarre layouts, as opposed to the regular geological layers in a sphere. Skerples has posted about spiral worlds, where travelling downstream brings you to past epochs and an upstream passage has yet to be discovered (or maybe a cold, icy future is what awaits), which I found to be a very interesting take.

This got me thinking about how Deep Time could be integrated into a setting's cosmology, and how this could affect the shape and layout of the material world. One thing that immediately popped into my head was Yggdrasil in Norse mythology - the enormous tree that connects the nine realms of gods and mortals.

Etrian Odyssey V: Beyond the Myth

Premise

In the beginning the Authority created the First World, forming it from the raw stuff of chaos that roiled and churned in the void. It created and hung the burning sun in the day sky and the moon and stars in the night and sculpted the land and seas in the ways that pleased It, and the First World was good and beautiful. But the Authority was unsatisfied with Its creation for nothing lived and moved below it, and it created plants and animals the likes of which mortals have never seen. The Authority was pleased and It made and planted the Tree of Eternities and made Its throne atop the highest reaches, whereby It could survey Its kingdom. And it was good.

The Tree of Eternities grew beyond all other plants and creatures and the Authority could see all of Its creations in all their wonder. But the Authority had made the Tree of Eternities from Its own power and its branches breached the firmament even as its roots pierced the floor of the First World and entered the void. Thus was chaos and magic unleashed upon the First World, destroying all that the Authority had made good. The Authority left the First World and created Heaven, whereby it could better view all of creation, and created the Second World from the Tree of Eternities and Hell from its roots.

I've thought up a few possibilities as to how this could play out.

Credit, Vincent Presseau

Necklace Worlds

The Tree of Eternities grows upwards like a regular tree. The Authority creates a new world around the upper trunk of the tree. The icy north & south poles of the world abruptly give way to lush greenery and warmth, and an enormous knotted trunk emerges from the ground and stretches into the sky. It can't be seen from far away because the Authority keeps it hidden, but astronomers note the regular and uniform spacing of the planets that they can see through their telescopes. Travellers can ascend up and down the trunk to reach past or future worlds, or Heaven and Hell if they travel far enough. The various worlds are strung together like beads on a necklace of vines. You could travel from one world to another with a spaceship quite easily. Offshoot growths of the Tree of Eternity can provide smaller routes of access to the main trunk.

Matryoshka-Doll Worlds

The Tree of Eternities continues to grow and the Authority creates new worlds inside it. As the tree grows more rings, more worlds are created on top of the last. The worlds are cylinders - one can travel the circumference without difficulty but the upper and lower ends gradually dissolve into oozing channels of divine xylem. As the Tree grows, its cambium produces a new layer that builds off the old, leading to a common history that runs through the many layers. With adequate equipment and preparations one can travel through the Tree's vascular system and be deposited on other worlds. The other way to do this is to dig deep enough or climb high enough to find the tough sapwood layers that separate the rings and break through to the next world (this has a high fatality rate due to sudden exposure to great heights or high-pressure magma). If one travels to the heartwood of the tree they have a direct route to the First World and Hell.

Dew-Drop Worlds

As the Tree of Eternities grows, its branches spread and the Authority creates new worlds from them, as drops of dew on a leaf. Each world exists in its own astral bubble, as if suspended in a crystal sphere. Some worlds are created in higher reaches than others and receive more light, and some are created near other things that live on the Tree, like parasites or astral lichen. The Authority moves and reorganises them as it sees fit, which often changes their conditions massively. Worlds on the same branch tend to be more similar than those on different branches. One can travel between worlds by breaching the surface of a celestial sphere and undertaking a long and hazardous journey on the surface of the Tree of Eternities, which still exists in the corrupted First World.

Fractal Worlds

The branches of the Tree of Eternity pierce the firmament at different angles as they grow towards the light of Heaven. As they grow and branch, the Authority creates new worlds upon them, and new worlds from these when they too branch. Each branch is associated with the end of an epoch, and the worlds created from the branch can diverge wildly. Most of the worlds look like shelf fungi growing out from the branches and vary wildly in overall shape. Their one common factor is that one of the cardinal directions inevitably ends in an enormous, curved wall of bark. Bold explorers can traverse the branches and find other worlds that mirror their own, or travel back to the main trunk and experience ancient epochs.

Coppice Worlds

The Tree of Eternities breaches the firmament and a new world is formed around it. However, the Authority, ever wary of further cosmological problems, regularly coppices the Tree back down to the level of the First World. This completely destroys the world currently built around the Tree, but broken traces of it remain in the lower reaches of the new world that is formed as the Tree rapidly regrows. The deeper one travels, the closer to the First World and Hell they get. Stories of judgement, wrath and revelation have a real chance of coming true if pruning time is getting close.

Pike & Shotte: The War, Part 1

One of the central elements of Pike & Shotte will be the War. Not a war. The War. The kind of war that kills one in every fifth person through violence, famine, and disease. War breeds chaos, confusion and the opportunity for adventurers to break out of the established social order. Chaos, as Littlefinger says, is a ladder.

Credit, Olli Hihnala

I'm going to provide a framework to answer the following questions with regards to the nature of the War, in order to flesh out the scenario that the PCs will find themselves in. Mechanical implications that I will detail in a subsequent post.:

• Where is the conflict occurring?
• What is the cause of the War?
• What is the current state of the War?

Where is the conflict occurring?

I've thought up a number of options for this and presented them with my thoughts below.

1. An empire of semi-independent petty kingdoms and principalities

This is the assumed 'default' setting of Pike & Shotte, based on the Holy Roman Empire. While the emperor leads one of the Great Powers (at least in the local region) their realm is riven with innumerable squabbling Princes, Electors, Bishops and Lord Mayors each pursuing their own agenda or forming dangerous factions. External enemies lurk like hungry wolves, preparing to pounce on undefended territories at a moment's notice. Membership of the empire means that the constituent states are (theoretically) bound by oaths of loyalty, but individual cultures, traditions, and even languages may be vastly different from one region to another.

2. A rich and powerful kingdom under threat from a foreign usurper

This takes inspiration from the Hundred Years War, where the Kings of England warred against the Kings of France in various attempts to enlarge their French holdings or contest the French crown. The kingdom is something of a patchwork - the crown is strongly centralised in their own demesne and powerful nobles control much of the reaches. Independent kings and dukes hold suzerainty over lands traditionally considered part of the crown. Levels of lawlessness and wealth may shift rapidly from one region to another. A common language is shared and cultural norms and traditions are roughly comparable between different areas.

3. The borderlands between rival kingdoms

Inspired by the Welsh and Scottish Marches. These bleak and sparse lands see almost constant low-level conflict between rival clans of border reivers. The armies of the rival kingdoms also foray into and beyond the borders in their own raids. The kingdoms can be as similar or distinct as you like, but the marches possess their own hybrid culture that is distinct from either parent, and marcher inhabitants from either side of the border have more in common with each other than their own countrymen.

4. A land divided by civil war

Based on the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. Some matter of religion or politics has divided the people of an isolated country. The different factions seek allies from all avenues to help them in their struggle for supremacy. Regions declare for either side leading to a chaotic spread of allegiances that span the country with little recognisable pattern.

5. A foreign land, or close to home

Somewhat based on the First Crusade, from either perspective. Armies of varying nations have arrived in a foreign land on some sort of mission. The foreign armies exist in a loose alliance but all have their own agendas and desire prestige and wealth. Likewise the local inhabitants have their own factions and plans which complicate their response. Each side may have a little knowledge of the other but vastly different cultures and languages.

Credit, Irfan Yang

What is the cause of the War?

The War is out of the scope of the usual border squabbles and small scale conflicts. Use these to gauge the overall aims of the warring sides. 

1. Religion

Schism and heresy have long been a cause of bloody wars throughout history. Each side is focused on ensuring that their particular religious ideal is practised as the dominant form of the faith, whether they practise different forms of the same faith or worship different gods altogether. Inter-faith relationships will be even more fraught than usual.

2. Resources

One side wants control or possession something the other one has. Gold, some magical material, opium, tea, water, fertile farmland, wealthy cities - all of these and more could be the target of a warring power. Possessing even a small amount of the desired resources could make the PCs very wealthy indeed.

3. Dynastic struggles

Each side in the war is aligned to a branch of a certain dynasty which, through centuries of intermarriage, has ascended to the thrones of many nations. Either the different branches begin to have designs of their own, or a rival dynasty takes action when they see an opportunity. Widespread fighting breaks out as local nations choose sides and attempt to alter the balance of power. Oaths of loyalty to the dynastic heirs are not taken lightly.

4. Conquest/Colonisation

The attacker desires the complete subjugation or the defender, absorbing their lands in their entirety, or the carving out of their own enclaves. This could be an invasion launched from their homeland or a migration-style invasion where the entire populace is on the move. The defender will be fighting for their very survival.

5. Politics

The commons rise against the king; the nobles demand that their ancient rights are protected; the king grips the country with an iron fist. Some issue of politics or governance has kicked off a brutal civil war, turning countrymen against each other in the throes of ideological fervour. This will not be a simple either/or situation - each side will have numerous sub-factions clamouring for their versions of the True Cause to be given primacy.

Credit, Paul Guzenko

What is the current state of the War?

1. Opening Phases

The War has only just begun, with only a few participants. Armies have mustered and preliminary skirmishes and small battles have been fought. The land remains mostly unchanged as the armies manoeuvre and prepare for their first pitched battles. Smaller settlements may have been besieged or taken. The land remains relatively unspoiled.

2. Main Thrust

The fighting heats up significantly with several pitched battles being fought. New participants enter the fray and larger settlements are besieged and assaulted. Free Companies start to peel off from the main armies as pay starts to dry up, taking up brigandage and banditry. Food shortages start to bite and the civilian population suffers as turmoil engulfs the land. Disease spreads like wildfire in besieged cities and towns.

3. Late Game

Armies continue to clash, though allegiances may have shifted between the warring powers. Some participants will be knocked out by this point and still some new powers will throw their weight behind one side or another. Roving armies and brigands have picked the countryside clean and famine sweeps the land. Hordes of unwashed bodies in close quarters have spread pestilence to all corners and some areas are virtually depopulated.