Seems like people would get bored of these.

Seems like I should finish the other world I started designing before I start designing a new one.

Life is full of things that seem really obvious, but aren't. :)

"Kickin' it Old School" has kind of fallen by the wayside because I decided I wasn't really all that interested in sky pirates.  I didn't feel like I had anything really cool to do, and I couldn't work up much enthusiasm.  Since this blog is purely voluntary, I'm letting that project languish in the back corners of my mind and the non-updated corners of my blog.

But all is not lost.  Another old idea of mine has bubbled to the surface, and I think I'll use my blog to hash it out for a while.  For now, I'm just concentrating on the setting, without thinking about rules or game systems.  (Well, I say that, but really I'm thinking about rules and game systems, just not writing down the specifics.)  My goal is to build the world and figure out how stuff in it is supposed to work, then figure out how to represent it mechanically.

So, let's get started.

Origins
This world came to me from several sources.

•   Princess Mononoke, with a modernizing world pressing up against an ancient, magical world.  I love the talking animals and the god of the forest.  I love how magic isn't something intrinsic to any of the human characters.  People with magical knowledge use it the same way that people in the real world use practical knowledge.
•   The Arthurian mythos (also seen in other places) with the King's ties to the Land.  The King is the Land, and the Land is the King.  While Arthur was strong and true, his power extended across the world.  When he was laid low by sloth, treachery, and falsehood, the very land weakened, and eventually Camelot fell.
•   A desire of mine for a world where "Magician" doesn't mean "Superhero in robes."  (Not that there's anything wrong with that.)  I like the idea that "Magic" is the manipulation of forces external to man.  What this means in comparison to, say, a D&D Wizard or a Mage: the Awakening Mage is pretty subtle.  On the surface of matters, there's not much difference between casting a fireball spell and summoning a fire spirit to tell it to burn someone, but there's a big difference in what the magician thinks about it, and a lot of little differences in how it all plays out.
•   A little bit of Hermetic lore I picked up in various places (including RPG.net, where all the cool kids hang out): One of the laws of Hermetic Magic (of which I'm ignoring many more) is that human magic can't affect anything beyond the Lower Air - which is to say the moon's orbit.  Shadowrun had the same rule, as I recall.  I wonder if the guys at FASA were inspired the same way I was.  Another bit is "As above, so below," which points to a symmetrical world.

These tidbits floated around in my cluttered brain until they collided, and the shape they took was of a fantasy world with a different flavor than the bog-standard High Fantasy world I'm used to.  I started thinking about how this world might fit together and what the people who lived there would act like.

So, without further ado, here's the world:

The World

In the center of creation is The Land, where men and beasts dwell.  On the Land is fresh water and every manner of plant and animal.  The Land shelters life, and is Alive.  The Land is sometimes a lover to be cherished, a teacher to be respected, or a foe to be defeated for your survival.

The Spirits of the Land live upon it and within it.  They take their shapes from the Land's nature and power.  In the deep wilds, the Spirits of the Land are huge and fearsome.  In the places of men, the Spirits of the Land are smaller and tamer, diminished and changed by the presence of Men.

The Wise might know the ways of the Spirits of the Land, but cannot compel them with words learned in the movements of the Stars.  Men must contend with, or supplicate, the Spirits of the Land, for they can be deadly enemies or powerful allies.  Every demesne within the Land is ruled by a powerful Spirit, a Genius Locus.  A Man (or Woman, the spirits don't really care) who can bind this Spirit to himself through force of arms, cunning, or sacrifice, becomes the Lord of this demesne.  Thereafter, the Land answers to the Lord, so long as he remains true to it.

Above and around the Land is the Lower Air, home to incorporeal spirits.  The Spirits of the Lower Air are reflections of the primordial world.  A Spirit of Fire is the essence of flame, and dances in every candle and sleeps in every ember.  Spirits of Storms dwell in the heart of raging maelstroms, making the wind blow, spitting lightning, and crying out with voices of thunder.  Ponderous and slow, the Spirits of Stone are hard and impenetrable when they are young, but over centuries are worn down to Spirits of Sand.  Everything has its Spirit, its archetype and first cause.  Those who follow the Wise ways can learn the language of the Stars, which allows them to speak to these spirits, and sometimes to command them.

Normally, Spirits of the Lower Air are incorporeal and only able to affect the Land in limited ways.  Spirits of Storms do not cause storms, they are born in them, and they rarely take notice of specific places to savage or to avoid.  They only interact with Men when they are called to do so, or in times and places of power.

Beyond the Lower Air is the Greater Air (or the Higher Air).  Here, dwell the Spirits of the Greater Air.  The Spirits of the Greater Air can never be summoned or compelled, only entreated.  They cannot directly affect the Land, but they can inspire Men and Spirits to do their will. 

The Spirits of the Greater Air wish to see Man ascend, but they are not united in the belief of how Man should ascend, or what ascension means.  Thus, the Spirits of the Greater Air often contend with each other.

Every Star is a Spirit.  Their movements through the heavens reveal secret knowledge to those who learn to read it.  Every person is born under a specific Star, and some people are chosen by their Stars as special agents.  Only through these Champions do the Spirits of the Greater Air directly act upon the Land.  To follow one's Star is to follow one's Destiny, often into greatness, but just as often into death.

As above, so below.  There are worlds of Spirit beneath the Land, as well as those above it.  Beneath the Land, and in every dark place, there is the Underworld.  Those human spirits that cannot ascend beyond the celestial sphere and are not dragged into the ever-darkness of the Deep dwell in the Underworld, as do fallen and corrupted Spirits of the Land and of the Lower Air.  The Underworld is not evil itself, but much evil dwells there.  It is a place of stagnation and rot, but also a place of ancient knowledge.  Some who follow the path of the Wise learn to treat with the Spirits of the Underworld.

Like Spirits of the Lower Air, Spirits of the Underworld are generally incorporeal and unable to treat with Men.  They can be called and bound, and they can touch the Land in times and places of power.

Beneath the Underworld, and beyond the Land, is the Deep. 

The Deep touches all waters.  The Sea is a barrier to the magics of the Land.  No man can rule the Sea, even if he slays 1000 Krakens.  Similarly, the magics of the Land often have difficulty passing over water.  The magics of the Lower Air are generally unaffected, but the Spirits that dwell over the Deep are not the same as those who dwell over the Land, except for those of the wind, which blows everywhere.

People of the Land are always suspicious of those who choose to live their lives over the Deep, and those who live on the waves are rarely comfortable on the Land.

In the Deep, terrible spirits dwell.  As the Spirits of the Greater Air wish to see Man ascend, the Spirits of the Deep seek to drag Men down and diminish Mankind.  Men who fall to despair or hatred, or who were born under fallen Stars sometimes hear the voices of these Spirits.  The Spirits of the Deep will offer knowledge and power and strength to those who hear them, but such power destroys the user as surely as it destroys all around him.  The Stars will not shine upon such a one.

Next up, Magic (which might be split into several parts)

I really love these things, and they're so darn easy.  Here's one more.

Funny how her face never looks the same way twice, isn't it?  Mostly that's because I'm not terribly consistent.  But also it's because I haven't quite found an image that completely "clicks" for how Li should look.

Anyway, here's a look at Li's tattoo from the back.  I'm thinking of doing another one from the front.

Here's a new one

This one will be short and sweet, since it's not a huge, vastly-thought out change.

Here's the deal: right now, Dex, particularly in Cinematic Unisystem, is the king of stats.  Far and away, Dex is worth more than any other stat (With the exception of Willpower if you're a Witch.  Then it's just far more valuable).  Dex gives you your dodge, your to-hit, your number of attacks, and adds to your damage in the form of extra Success Levels (and extra attacks).

This is somewhat emulative of Buffy (and Angel to a lesser extent) and it's a handy way to keep the Slayer from needing a 9 STR to be as cool as Buffy.  But it has some drawbacks.  When your Slayer does get that 9 STR, on top of her 7 or better DEX, she's nigh-unstoppable.  And she can get there while largely ignoring two of her physical attributes.  Also, it's really hard to build a big, strong guy who's effective without being hyper-fast.  By the time he's strong enough to make up for his lack of speed, the "glass ninja" effect really kicks in, and people start going splat and looking like wall-art.

So I suggest a minor change: make STR and DEX interchangable for Melee attacks.  Dex still wins on Initiative, number of actions, and defense, but now a big, strong, slow guy can hit by plowing through defenses with brute force.  This only works on attacks where pure strength matters.  Mostly, that'll be hand-to-hand or melee weapon attacks.  I'm not even sure I'd apply it to thrown weapons, and for sure it wouldn't apply to launched ones like bows or crossbows.

I might also suggest a new Defensive Maneuver called "Just Take it" which is Kung-fu or Getting Medieval + CON.  It works just like Dodge, but the idea is that you parry, shield your vitals with your arms, or whatever, and... well... just take it.  I'd only allow it to apply to Bashing damage unless the defender has natural armor or something - in which case he probably doesn't care as much.  I haven't thought that one out yet.  It just occured to me while I was typing this post.

That's the kind of cutting-edge, up-to-the-minute, heavily-hyphenated game design you get around here.

Inspired by RPG.net, a word done entirely in MS Paint:

It shouldn't prove too hard to guess.  I did it at lunch today.  I could have done better at home, with two monitors.  The next one (should there be a next one) will go better, as I've figured out the order of operations better.

I found this one last night at Wal-mart, where, incidentally, 5-shelf bookshelves are on sale for $29.95.  Sometimes they'll get down as low as 25 or so, but I think I'm gonna go buy some today.

(The above should not be considred an endorsement of Wal-mart)

We return, dear readers, to the Unisystem.  (Have we ever really left?)  I've been thinking about a lot of things lately about how I like games to run.  Eventually, I might undertake to design a game completely around the principals I'm mulling over, but for now I want to see if I can implement the concepts in an existing game.

Unisystem is a great one for this purpose, since the system is so easy to tinker with in general.  For these articles, I'm focusing on the Cinematic rules, but they'll adapt to Classic Unisystem almost effortlessly.

First up is the dreaded topic of Social Skill Use on PCs.

Any time an NPC does something to a PC, it has the potential to be un-fun for the player.  Getting stabbed, ensorcelled, or snuck past is no fun, but the results can be fun and the absence of the possibility makes the whole game kind of boring.  Social skills are even worse than physical ones, though.  The results of a physical action will tell a player what happens to his character: You're hurt; You don't notice X; You're turned into a frog.  Social skills, in theory, tell a player how he has to play his character: You're in love with the evil princess; You're scared of the bully and have to run away; You believe the war in Iraq is completely just and logical.

That can suck.  Not always, of course.  Sometimes it's a lot of fun to play the besotted victim of a seductress, or the enraged guy who goes after his own friends because he's been fooled or magically charmed.  But some players really hate it.  Some are terrifically bad at it.  And sometimes, even for the folks who normally like it, it's just not their thing that night.

Worse yet, basically social skills come down to GM Fiat.  The rules tell you what happens in a concrete way when you get stabbed, and exactly how to overcome the wounds.  All the rules usually tell you about being conned, seduced, or intimidated is to roleplay it.

So I wanted to come up with a system that would be more concrete, without adding too much complexity or weight to the game.  "Social hit points" might be really interesting, but honestly they don't quite work like physical hit points anyway, and I'd have to add new stats and stuff to the game.

Instead, I'm building off the Success Level system and the system that allows complementary skill use to give you bonuses or hit the other guy with penalties.  It works like this:

When an NPC uses a social skill on a PC, the GM states a goal like "he wants to get in your pants," or "she wants to fool you into believing X."  He doesn't necessarily have to tell the player the goal, because sometimes that would ruin the interaction, but he needs a baseline.

With the goal in mind, the GM sets a difficulty, taking into account things like the PC's Drawbacks and Qualities and situational modifiers.  For example, if a she-vampire is trying to seduce a PC and drag him off for dinner, and the PC has Lecherous -1, the PC is going to take his lecherous penalty.  But if he also has Honorable 3 and leaving right now would violate his code, the vamp might get a penalty to her roll, too.

The test is Opposed, generally using Willpower for the "defender" and Intelligence or Perception for the "attacker," but there are other ways to stack it out.  Influence is usually the relevant skill unless you got all fancy with Wild Card skills.  (For you Classic users, there's Orate, Seduction, Haggling, and whatnot.)

If the attacker wins, the defender has a choice.  Option A is to do whatever the GM says he's been convinced to do, within reason.  Some goals might take multiple tests.  A vampire trying to seduce a victim might need to get his attention, get him to dance with her, then convince him to go off alone with her.  Option B is to accept a penalty to all "mental" tests equal to the margin of success.  So if the vampire netted 3 SL, the victim would be at a -3 to things like perception tests (he can't stop looking at her), social tests (he's hung up on her and says stupid stuff or whatever), and intelligence tests (he can't stop thinking about her).  Physical skills are only affected conditionally.  Most of the time, they won't be.  The only major exception you might want to consider is combat.  I'd impose the penalty to Initiative and the first roll the PC makes in combat.  After that, fear for your life has a remarkably focusing quality, and you ditch the penalty.

Keep in mind that the skill penalty is a "metagame" thing.  In some cases, it doesn't make much sense, but it's still there to provide a mechanical consequence to failed Social tests.

The penalty generally only hangs around for a scene or so, or until something happens to nullify it.  In our running vampire/victim example, the victim might shake off the penalty by spending a DP, or by getting counter-seduced by one of his friends who he has a crush on.  And, of course, all bets are off when the vamp bites him, unless he's in to that kind of thing.

The penalties also don't stack up.  Only the highest result ever applies.  Even so, repeated attempts can wear down a PC's resistance, so I might cap the penalty at -5 or -7.  To keep the "dog pile effect" to a minimum, I'd also limit how many social rolls you can make in a given time frame; say one every 10 minutes or half-hour for extended things.

If the player chooses option A, he should almost always earn a Drama Point, and maybe a bonus XP if he plays it really well.

This system would also work on PC vs. PC social tests, but I generally try to avoid those in my game.  I'd rather have the players agree on those.  There's a difference in social perception between the GM/NPCs and another Player/PC that makes things more personal.

I suppose it'd also work for NPCs, but I would generally choose to have my NPCs choose Option A rather than juggling penalties and stuff.