The Skairosian Bestiary Revisited: Shadow Serpents

Along with the Glance Hound, this one didn't get many comments and I suppose that's fair.  What I wanted here was a third critter and I found the phase serpent in DF and it seemed like a nice bit of inspiration that I borrowed.  Originally, the Skairosian hound had a hallucinatory venom, but I just moved it over to the Shadow Serpent and gave it phasing powers and called it a day.  This helps explain alternatives to the source of Akashic deep time, as it might have stemmed from the venom of the Shadow Serpent, which might be showing them visions of possible, alternate futures in a great cacophany of imagery.  I also like the imagery of Labyrinthine Cults engaging in "miraculous" snake handling.

As a threat, this wasn't much of one, because it's pretty hard to justify the fangs of a snake, even one the size of a python, punching through armor.  But based on a suggestion, I went with the idea of ignoring DR entirely, with the excuse that they can "phase" through the armor.  This allows them to have remarkably low damage, which mostly acts as a vehicle for their venom, which is what they're really about.  I also added a constriction attack, but in practice this won't really make them more lethal. They're defensiveness is fine: they're tough enough to hit and touch enough to hurt, but in practice, any well-armed opponent will make short work of a single shadow serpent.  I see their purpose as more of an irritation, a problem to be stacked atop other issues, rather than a singularly terrifying boss-monster.

Given their ability to vanish for 10 seconds at a time, they should have no problem ambushing a commando and punching through their armor with their fangs to give the commando a tough time.  Commandos will fare better against swarms, though. Gunslingers might fair a little better with superior active defenses, and they don't rely on armor anyway, and they might be able to fast draw quickly enough to shoot the serpent before it phases away again.  The space knight may also be able to respond in time to the shadow serpent, and may be able to react to its presence if he's able to detect it psychically, attacking it swiftly once it comes out of the "shadows." A single sweep of a force sword is enough to defeat most shadow serpents, and space knights often have the will to work through a hallucination spell.

The Skairosian Bestiary Revisited: the Glance Hound

To me, the Glance Hound is the Skairosian Monster.  It's inspired by the original "Devil of Perspehone," and is probably closest to my first idea of what was in the labyrinth. Thus, it had to stay.

I've not really buffed the lethality much.  All I've really done is play-up their multi-dimensional nature as justification for increasing their armor divisor to 10.  This means that they still deal an average of 10 damage, but they can punch through up to ~100 DR, making them a potential threat (en masse) against a space knight, and I've kept the "bite-and-twist" concept to allow them to inflict an even more terrifying 17 cutting damage on limbs they've bitten, but I've expanded the idea of Extra Attacks more broadly, so they can also make several attacks with their claws.

I've pulled back from the idea of the Glance Hounds-as-dogs.  My original conception had them vanishing into shadows and clinging to walls, but this made them too much like Aliens and thus too much like the Insectoid, which I also wanted to include.  Well, on reflection, as nice as the Insectoid is, I think the engineers of Jotan would have created something more lethal to the Scourge than to humans, and thus needs a complete rethink.  In a lot of ways, this has allowed the Glance Hound to return to form, making it a stealthy, agile hunter par-excellence. 

The original reason I didn't give them the ITDR of the Faceless Kine or the Shadow Serpent was that if they ground things around them, they shouldn't be partially unreal themselves.  Well, why not make it switchable? They can "ground" shades, but this "grounds" themselves.  This creates an interesting tactical choice: they will always ground themselves around a shade, thus if you can bring them into a fight with shades, they can deal with the shade (and help you deal with it) and also make them easier to deal with.  I'm not sure how interesting it makes them, but it at least justifies both their use as an "anti-shade gargoyle/guard dog" and their ability to cut through armor like butter.

The net result is a creature that doesn't deal much more damage than before, but gets through armor a lot better, is much faster, much harder to spot and more aggressive.  Between its superior active defense and improved accuracy plus some tips on getting around defenses, they'll land more hits than, say, the Faceless Kine.

I think Commandos will find this critter a nightmare to deal with.  Between their stealth and speed, they'll often manage to sneak up on unprepared commandos and thus bypass a lot of their fortifications and defensive positions.  While a single shot from a heavier rifle will be enough to take out a glance-hound-as-henchmen (you need to do ~30 damage), you won't notice them until they're on top of you, and even if you do, they move so fast they'll cover all the ground necessary to get to you in a couple of seconds, and they hunt in packs. So you'll need to take out 4-7 in the time it takes for them to cover ground, and if you don't, your DR 80 or 100 is not enough to keep your limbs from being crippled (they'll deal an average of 17 damage, 7 to 9 of which will go through your DR, and will increase due to cutting to 10-13, which is enough to cripple, or even sever a limb through armor), at which point you're in a heap of trouble.

Gunslingers will fare better.  They can rapidly respond to the sudden appearance of a Glance Hound threat with a quick draw, and their weaponry and their skill with it is good enough to bypass their defenses and they can deal enough damage to hurt a glance hound (a 4d pistol will deal an average of 14 damage, 10 of which will get through their armor, which gets reduced to 5 by their IT:DR; 3 shots is enough to take down a glance hound henchmen, which is pretty easy for a gunslinger to do, provided the Glance Hound doesn't dodge).  The Glance Hound is pretty lethal to the gunslinger, but not much more so than a Commando, and the superior active defense of the Gunslinger might make a big difference unless the Glance Hound can get the drop on them, and "spotting ambushes" is what gunslingers do. If the Glance Hound gets a hit, they only average 10 damage, which is bad, but no worse than being hit by a pistol, unless the Glance Hound bites a limb.

Space Knights will tend to do well against them as well. Their psychic senses will surely warn them of the impending attack, giving them time to prepare, and their force sword is within spitting distance of defeating a Glance Hound in a single stroke.  Most Space Knights are totally capable of handling with the deceptive attacks of the Glance Hounds, and finding a way past the Glance Hounds great defense.  The melee-focus of the Space Knight means that the Glance Hound's speed or tendency to ambush is less of a problem.  In practice, I expect space knights to mow through a pack of Glance Hounds, but they'll be more careful of this version than they were of the last one.

Patreon Update

So Patreon is raising fees again conforming to new tax laws. They've given me a fancy spiel I can tell you, which looks something like this:

I wanted to give you an update on some changes that we’ll be seeing which may affect some of your pledges. Due to new laws passing in several countries and US states, Patreon will be required to start charging sales tax on some pledges starting July 1st. 

Less than half of all patrons will be charged sales tax, and for most, the amount will be very small. For example, sales tax rates in the US range from 4% to 11%, so on a $5 pledge, that would be between 20 cents and 55 cents. 

Whether or not you will be charged sales tax depends on your location, and what is considered taxable there. Not every pledge is taxable, not all benefits are taxable in every location, and sometimes only a fraction of a pledge will be taxable. The money that Patreon collects as a result of these laws are paid directly to local governments.

So, expect your pledge prices to rise.  They also have this bit to add:

 I’m working closely with Patreon to ensure I’m able to save you as much money as possible when it comes to sales tax - which is not something that’s possible with other platforms.

Which feels like an odd detail to add.  Like, what "other platform?" Oh right.  SubscribeStar.  Well, I'm on SubscribeStar, and at the risk of costing Jack Conte his second yacht, I don't really care which one you use.  In fact, I don't think I can pull funds from SubscribeStar until I hit five subscribers. And their fees haven't changed.  I don't know why.  But if you're bothered by the price hike tax hike and you want to continue backing me, I suggest you do the following:

• Cancel your Patreon subscription to me before June 1st.
• Become a Subscriber after June 1st

That way you can avoid being "double booked."  If you make a mistake, I'll see if I can get your money back to you, somehow. You can also do this before July 1st, evidently.

If you're happy with Patreon and don't mind the possibility of an extra couple of cents coming off every month (I don't think it's universal, so many of you probably won't get an additional fee), then by all means stick with it.  And I appreciate every one of you and the patience you have in putting up with all the surprising amount of hassle in what is, by all rights, a convenient way to set-up a monthly donation.

The Skairosian Bestiary Revisted: the Faceless Kine

"I think most powerful foes should be at the very minimum right frightening to even the very tough end of starting scrubs" -Kalzazz

So, my previous version of the Skairosian Bestiary elicited some criticism as being too tame.  This bruised my ego a bit, but I think a lot of good came out of it, including yesterday's post which gave me some much needed perspective.  I also really appreciated getting a sense of what people expected out of monsters of the labyrinth, which is that they are scary.  This makes sense, though: if House Kain uses the Labyrinth as a rite of passage, then we would expect this to be challenging to a starting heroic member of House Kain.  With that in mind, let's revise each of the 4, one at a time, starting with the Faceless Kine.

This one was more popular than I expected, I suppose because it has some good imagery associated with it.  As I was looking for inspiration for additional critters, I decided I needed "the Cattle of Hades," as cows tended to be sacred to ancient peoples (and the Skairos are meant to evoke ancient myth) and we have a long association of cattle and labyrinths.  I struggled with what they would be and how they would function, until I saw a wonderful picture of this eyeless demon-ape thing with great horns.  Ah, there were my cattle.

The real point of the "Cattle of Hades" was that you would want to steal them for some particular reason.  Thus, I settled on their flesh (and especially their hearts) empowering those that ate them.  Naturally, the Skairos would defend them, but they would defend themselves too.

They're primarily tough.  I borrowed the justification for IT:DR from the Madness Dossier (so, hat time Kenneth Hite) as the idea of "partially real" creatures fit the Skairos well.  Between that and their tendency to go Berserk, they're actually really hard to kill, the definition of the "pile of hitpoints" opponent.  This version requires ~600 damage (300 after accounting for ITDR) to kill, but this is slightly toned down from my second try, which was close to 1000 ("Did you bring a isomeric torpedo?" felt excessive for this sort of encounter).  I beefed up the skull armor and the armor in general, as they give off a rhino vibe, and thus particularly heavy skin (roughly on par with someone in heavy battleweave) felt right, and this enormous, impressive crest deserved more impressive DR.  The net effect is that someone with a force sword will deal an average of 23 damage to the body or 14 damage to the face (or 56 damage to the brain), all halved for IT DR (to 12, 7 and 23 respectively; which means you'd need about 13 hits to the brain with a force sword to take down a raging Bull Kine). Of course, this is all the defense they have, as if they berserk, they're not going to actively defend.

They're substantially less impressive on offense.  Their best goring attack will deal ~40 damage (I'm using the new, DF rules for slams here) with an armor divisor of 3.  Against DR 100, that will deal an average of 7 damage (or 14 injury), which is nasty, but that's the best they can do.  However, Psi-Wars is very generous with crushing damage, inflicting 1 point of injury for every 5 absorbed by DR, so I've emphasized this with some additional comments on the attack.  To make it more visceral and impressive, I've added additional notes about its size, including its ability to trample, grapple, throw targets around, and smash them into walls.  These are less lethal (though they average 4 damage per hit to anyone with 20 DR or more), but spectacular and will make it feel more impressive.  At skill 13 (plus a penalty for hitting smaller targets), it won't make deceptive attacks, which makes it fairly trivial to avoid if you have solid defense.

Thus, if Axton Kain faced off against a Faceless Bull Kine, it would mostly involve him carefully defending, with the primary concern being to avoid a grapple.  If it's a one-on-one fight, this should be relatively doable while whittling his target down.  However, if the Bull Kine gets a lucky hit, or other Kine join in the fight, it could go very badly.

Commandos might find this a more pleasing challenge.  They can put a lot of firepower "down range," and thus reasonably pepper a target this big with 3 or so hits per turn that deal between 15 and 25 damage, dealing 50-80 damage per turn (25 to 40 after ITDR), which means the Commando would kill it in 9 to 12 seconds of concentrated fire from a squad-support weapon.  Given the tight confines of the Labyrinth, the Bull Kine would probably be on him in less than that time, and the Commando would lack the additional defenses of the Space Knight, and so would start to take some real damage, but depending on how long he held it off, might be able to finish killing it in the last, hectic moments of combat.

Gunslingers should probably avoid it. None of their specialties will help them here, and their armor tends to protect less well against crushing damage.

What Makes a Good (Ultra-Tech) Monster

After my last post on the Skairosian bestiary, some commenters questioned whether they were "enough" of a threat.  That's a fair question.  I'll be honest, I mostly focused on the themes (Cattle, Guard Dog, Alien Monstrosity, Source of Weird Visions) than I did on specifically making them great encounters, though I did try.  Perhaps I can do better? But if I'm going to do better, we need to think our way through this.  What makes for a good monster to hit our Psi-Wars heroes with?

To answer that, we need to answer several questions:

• Is it dangerous enough?
• Is it fun and unique?
• Does it fit in the setting?

Into the Labyrinth: the Skairosian Bestiary

In addition to time shades, we need an expanded set of animalistic creatures to haunt the Labyrinth.  This takes the previous version of the "Devils of Persephone as space monsters" and expands them to four related entries, allowing greater variety in what characters might encounter, and adding some flavor to the labyrinth.

These creatures are all part of the path of the "Other" and fairly good examples of the high weirdness I expect it to cover.  I've also included the first treatment of Animal Handling yet in Psi-Wars.  I see Animal Handling in psi-wars as covering entire clades rather than individual species because the galaxy is already far too broad.  Thus, we might expect one animal handling skill to cover all "earth" animals, and we now have one covering all Skairosian beasts.  Having the details to a clade (even if it's only 4 critters) certainly helps illustrate how this will work.

Ultra-Tech Gun Damage Revisited

Yes, I'm still working on other things.  This won't become the Ultra-Tech Gun Blog (I leave that to better men). But yesterday's post created quite a stir, and I wanted to record some thoughts and some links.

First, this. Evidently not all of Pulver's errata made it into Ultra-Tech Revised, or at least the version I have, which is a shame.  But I find it more interesting what he says at the end:

Since the Weapon Design Rules, while functional, remain vaporware, some weapons in UT were not modified if deviated too much from Basic Set. --David Pulver

This doesn't tell you anything you don't know in your heart of hearts, I suspect, but it does confirm something important: there is no gun design system and there never was. He's using some baseline (likely from GURPS Vehicles) and then either fudging the rest, or just using stats from Basic, which are likely themselves converted from 3e (which probably used GURPS Vehicles).  So, in short, the design system is probably GURPS Vehicles with a large fudge factor. If you just make it up as you go, as long as things "feel" right, you're probably fine.

EDIT: Someone wanted to note that I'm misinterpreted this statement.  There does seem to be a design system, it's just not "publishable in its current form," and we're unlikely to see it.  My point about "you can probably fudge it because they do" still stands, however, given the final part of the statement.  I also doubt we'll ever see a behind-the-scenes look at the design system, as I get the sense SJGames is very much move moving away from revealing complexities that lurk behind GURPS design choices.

The second is this, which is probably the final word in most arguments about gun design in GURPS.

I've seen this article before and bounced off it a couple of times as incomprehensible. Seems I had to get to the point where I could invent it myself in order to understand it. --Skullman

Man, I know the feeling.  Well, we let's just dive in and see how it works out.

Ultra-Tech Quickie: Dynamic Sports Cycle

Another off-hand comment led to another discussion and I thought I'd post it here, as I'm sure someone will want a link back to it at some point, as it seems rather popular.  So, first, the bike and then the discussion.

TL 10 Dynamic Sportscycle

HP 22

Hand/SR +4/3

HT 11

Move: 20/100

LWt 0.3

Load 0.2

SM 0

Occ 1+1

DR 6

Range 300

Cost: $20k

Locations E2W

This TL 10 Sportscycle uses rechargeable power-cells to get a 3 hour endurance and top speed.  It uses dynamic wheel technology for superior grip and it adjusts its aerodynamics to improve handling at high speeds.  It can fold into an SM -1 box, 200 lbs in weight.  Additionally, it has programmable camouflage (allowing it to change color and pattern on command), an inertial compass, a rugged small computer, a small ladar, a small radio, and a small biometric lock.

Into the Labyrinth: Time Shades

Here's a rough draft of my first "monster" for the Labyrinths of Psi-Wars: the Time Shade.  If this gets enough approval, it'll eventually move to the Wiki.

---

Time Shades

The Labyrinth wends its way through time as well as space, and certain “time-lost” beings within it walk just beyond the dimensional edges “between” timelines. Akashic documents refer to these beings as “in the walls” or “in between.” They represent possibilities, things that could exist, but don’t, and they can only operate within the confines of the unique geometries of the Labyrinth, where the possibilities of alternate timelines have a whisper of more reality than in the rest of the Galaxy.

Time Shadows aren’t actually insubstantial or invisible. Rather, they occupy a space on another “level,” an “upside down” plane of existence which follows its own rules. This alternate reality only exists within the Labyrinth: time shadows cannot leave! Furthermore, while they may seem to pass through walls or others, they cannot pass through the walls or being that exist “on their plane.” As a result, they tend to be constrained by natural labyrinthine caverns or ancient artificial tunnels, but not newer construction. They might ignore an ancient door closed by someone recently, but be unable to pass through a door opened by someone in the real world.

Time Shadows can be anything. The stats below are a convenience measure for a generic shade. But their actual stats should reflect what they would be if they were back in normal, mundane reality. Thus, the stats can be altered to represent a “time-lost” person of any sort.

Shades of Hunger

The primary desire of the Labyrinthine Shade is to exist. The most certain way to do this is to “align the timeline.” If certain events take place, the shade has the option of enforcing a broader reality, changing the past the reflect the events of the present, and inserting themselves into the timeline, thus becoming real. A shade who achieves this loses all ghostly traits and becomes a completely concrete being; they lose all memory of being a shade, or what they did to become real, and instead remember only the details of the newly altered timeline. The specifics of this vary from ghost to ghost. Some examples include:

• Massacre: the shade is an “only survivor of a massacre.” They can truly manifest only if a party of 10+ people die in the labyrinth at a particular location. If this happens, their physical manifestation will crawl, traumatized and frightened, from the pile of corpses.
  
• Archaeological Resurrection: the shade is “a lost king,” who can only manifest if there are sufficient records of him and someone discovers his tomb and releases him, after which, he will only remember the timeline in which he controlled this part of the labyrinth.
  
• Marriage: The shade is “the true wife” or “the true husband” of a particular character. They need the character to ceremonially marry them in some way, after which, they will manifest as a real character “and have always been their” partner.
  
• “I am you”: The shade is some alternate reality version of a character. They must kill that character, and then replace them. After they have killed their target, they will remember always having been that character (others will notice a change in behavior).
  

Some shades have powers that let them immediately “trade places” with a target, forcing them into this inbetween state and then occupying the real world in their place, or absorbing sufficient temporal energy from victims that they can materialize fully as a concrete being. These tend to require the touch of a manifest ghost, or eye contact with the victim.

Shades of Defeat

Temporal shades have several weaknesses. First, they can only exist and operate from within the Labyrinth. When they near what, in the physical world, would be the entrance of the labyrinth, they see only endless tunnels that continue on into the labyrinth. Second, they’re not actually insubstantial, but simply occupy a different plane, and most operate by the geometry of that plane. The alternate labyrinths generally follow the same layout as the physical labyrinth, but there may be differences, places where a shade cannot go, and places where shades can ignore walls and doors.

Shades are invisible to all visual senses and generally silent, but they give away their presence in a few ways. First, they are not invisible to psychic senses: characters with True Sight can see them, as can characters with Awareness, Mind Scan or Detect Life (though these latter two suffer a -3 penalty). They’ve also visible in reflections, and when they pass through sheer cloth, such as those used to curtain Akashic Temples, the cloth moves as though on a wind.

Time Shades have no unusual invulnerabilities or resistances beyond their intangibility. If struck by a weapon that can strike insubstantial targets, or struck by a weapon while materialized or manifest, they suffer the usual effects of their damage. If something on their same plane attacks them, they’re affected as normal.

Temporal shades are unique in that they only exist as a possibility of a single timeline. As long as that timeline remains possible, they can manipulate the real world in some way. When that timeline becomes impossible, or so improbable as to move the ghost away from the current timeline, it effectively ceases to exist. Examples, based on the above timeline examples,might include:

• Massacre: the shade expects to be a survivor of a massacre in a particular place. If that place is walled of and people prevented from entering it, then this effectively locks away the ghost.
  
• Archaeological Resurrection: if all records of the “lost king” are destroyed, such that the “memory” of the non-existent “lost king” is completely lost, it effectively ceases to be.
  
• Marriage: If the character marries another, then this seals their timeline and prevents the shade from entering it.
  
• “I am you”: The shade probably can’t exist in a timeline where the character has already died. Thus, the death of the character effectively ends the possibility of the alternate version from happening.
  
  

“But they’re really ghosts, right?”

Time Shades are technically the echoes of alternate timelines; they’re not the spirits of the departed, nor manifestations of Broken Communion. However, a campaign might be too broad to support the sort of niche abilities necessary to defeat them.

ESP and Anti-Psi should treat ghosts, time shades and hyperdimensional beings as effectively the same as far as True Sight is concerned. In regard to the Powers of Communion, whether or not Time Shades are affected by the Miracles of the Path of Death is up to GM discretion. While not literally the dead, they could fall under the same symbolic umbrella as those of ghosts, and the Path of Death could govern (summon, exorcise, etc) Time Shades just as well as ghosts. If the GM prefers, the Path of Madness might be a better path, but in such a case, the Path of Madness should then gain access to miracles that work as the Ghost-summoning/manipulating miracles of Death, but only on Time Shades.

Necrokinesis abilities do not work on Time Shades.

The GM should decide if the exorcism traditions focused on ghosts (such as the Morathi rites of the Witch Cats, or the exorcisms of Domen Khemet, the Ranathim Death Cult) will work on Time Shades. If so, it’s likely only fair that the exorcism traditions of the Akashic Order also work on ghosts.  As a compromise, consider applying a -2 for ghost-based traditions to exorcise Time Shades, or for the Akashic tradition to exorcise ghosts.

Shades of Hell

Time shades occupy a plane of existence just “sideways” of the physical world. The physics of these “sideways” worlds might vary, which is especially interesting if the shades are “castling” with living targets. GMs can introduce this little bit of extra detail to make Castling more interesting, or to add additional flavor (and weaknesses) to shades. Different shades might be in different “hells,” and would be mutually insubstantial and invisible to one another, only able to interact with one another via manifestations in the physical world.

All “Hells” are suffused with a faint, omnipresent glow that obviates all darkness penalties. This is the source of the shade’s “darkvision.”

• White Hell: the glow here is a pale white. This parallel is cold, and the closer the labyrinth is to the light of the surface or to the warmth of a flame, the colder it gets, while the deeper and darker in the Labyrinth the ghost is, the warmer. If the ghost is in direct sunlight or within a yard of an open fire, it takes 1 point of fatigue (cold) damage per second. In places with any natural light, the ghost must roll HT or lose fatigue to the cold once per hour. In places of total darkness or “deep” in the labyrinth, the ghost is “warm” enough not roll or lose fatigue. Shades in the white hell manifests its presence as cold spots in the physical world.
  
• Red Hell: the glow here is a dull red or violet. This parallel is totally soundless. No sound will carry. The shade cannot speak, nor hear, anything that happens in the physical world or in the parallel. However, specific, loud sounds in the physical world can carry into the Red Hell, shattering the silence with a roaring cacophony of agony. In the presence of temple bells tuned to specific frequencies, the shade must roll HT-5 or suffer Terrible Pain (or Agony if it fails by more than 5) for a number of minutes equal to its margin of failure.
  
• Black Hell: the glow here is an inversion of color. This parallel has no walls. In place of the tunnels of the labyrinth, the Black Hell has platforms floating in the void. The shade can “pass through walls” by jumping from one platform to another. If it misses, it will fall until it hits another platform (shades never seem to fall forever, and will always fall on some platform, though typically much deeper in the labyrinth).
   
  

Time Shades

Time Shades should use the stats of whatever creature (typically, but not necessarily, a Skairos) they actually are. The stats below are a simple “grab and go” example of a time shade, and not definitive of what all time shades should be.

ST: 10	HP: 20	Speed: 7
DX: 12	Will: 14	Move: 6
IQ: 10-15	Per: 10
HT: 12	FP: 20	SM: +0
Dodge: 10	Parry: NA	DR: 0

Skills: Stealth-14; One of Diplomacy, Intimidation or Savoir-Faire, all at 14.

Traits: Darkvision; Divine Curse (Cannot Leave the Labyrinth); Insubstantial (Not to things on its plane; no vertical movement; ghost air); Invisible (Only to substantial; Affects Machines; Visible Reflections) Supernatural Features (Eyeless; Flickering transparency); Mute (Substantial Only)

Fright Check: +0

 

Powers

Time Shades can have one or more of the following powers. All time shade powers are psionic, and can be prevented with Anti-Psi, as normal.

Castling: The time shade “switches places” with a target. The manifested time shade must touch the target or the target must make eye-contact with the visible shade. If so, the shade can spend 5 fatigue to make a contest of Wills with the target. On a success, the shade materializes as a fully physical being (it loses the Insubstantiability trait and the Invisibility trait) and the target becomes a Time Shade, and follows all the rules for a time shade (including the rules for “Shades of Hell” above). The death of the manifest time shade will generally “bring back” the exiled target, but a successful contest of Exorcism with the shades Will will also generally work to restore the exiled target. At the GM’s discretion, the target might also gain the powers of the ghost for the duration of their Castling exile.

Dark Fate: The Time Shade dooms the character to make changes in the world that will bring the Shade’s desired timeline into being. This requires a touch from the manifested time shade, or eye contact with the visible shade; the shade spends 5 fatigue and rolls a contest of Wills. If the shade wins, the character gains a disadvantageous Destiny to bring about the events necessary for the time shade to fully materialize. This Destiny can be worth -5 to -15; -5 is the most common and most subtle, but at -15, treat it as a variation of Weirdness Magnet, where the character is regularly plagued by weirdness that pushes the character towards the desired set of events (a discarded knife keeps showing up in their inventory, gibbering minions hail the character as their messiah, etc).

Devour: The time shade “steals” the temporal energy of the target. The manifested time shade must touch the target and spend 1 fatigue per 3 dice of burn damage that ignores DR (with no upper limit). This damage is all or nothing. Either the target takes sufficient damage to die in one attack, in which case they simply vanish, or they take 1 point of burn damage from where the ghost touched them. If the target dies, the ghost is able to materialize a fully physical body. For the duration of the effect they are no longer insubstantial or invisible. The GM determines how long this lasts: 1 hour is a good duration, though it might be as short as a minute near the surface of the labyrinth, and days in the deep labyrinth. The shade can extend the time they remain manifest by using their power gain and again.

Illusion of Time: The ghost can manifest visions of its expected timeline or reality, or of the “Hell” that it currently occupies (see Shades of Hell). This can be as subtle as changing the words of a text to as dramatic and totally engrossing all the senses of the target with visions of hell. This requires a contest of Wills between the shade and their target. On a success, the character might roll IQ to “disbelieve” the illusion if they have any cause to disbelieve. While caught up in the illusion, they can suffer “real” damage, but if they realize the reality of it with a successful IQ roll, convert all of this damage to fatigue damage instead. The effect lasts for 1 minute per margin of the Shade’s success, and costs 1 fatigue per minute to maintain.

Manifestation: The time shade can manifest an ectoplasmic presence. This costs 1 fatigue per minute and grants them a “body” with DR 0, HP 1 and Injury Tolerance (Homogenous, No Blood). If destroyed, any “excess” damage applies their own actual HP totals (but still apply the benefits of Injury Tolerance for this attack) and their manifestation is destroyed. This typically Stuns the shade for 1d seconds, after which it might manifest again, but all manifestations after being destroyed thus cost 2 fatigue until at least an hour has passed.

Power of Fear/Friendship: The shade can undermine a target’s defenses by provoking an emotional response of fear or trust. In the case of the former, the ghost must find some way to invoke its intimidation skill against the target (appearing in a terrifying way, pronouncing doom upon the part, or manipulating their environment in a frightening way). In the latter case, the shade must ask the target if they trust it and then reveal a secret to the target (generally the shade’s name), make an agreement, or otherwise assist the target. In both cases, the shade rolls their requisite skill (Intimidation for Fear and one of Diplomacy or Savoir-Faire for trust) and the target resists with Will. If the shade wins, it may apply a bonus equal to its margin of victory to any use of any of its powers against the target once, to a maximum of +5; the ghost may automatically apply the full +5 bonus against a target that has failed a Fright Check against the shade.

Presence: If the manifest shade touches a target, or the target makes eye-contact with the visible shade, then the Time Shade can spend 1 fatigue to roll a Contest of Wills with the target. If the win, they “haunt” the target. They may appear before the target whenever they wish, for free, but nobody else will see them. They may also use their powers on the target at will. The target counts as “the labyrinth” for the purposes of the shade’s traits, and thus they can “ride” the target out of the Labyrinth. Shades often do this if they need something done outside of the Labyrinth. This sort of haunting can be undone with an exorcism: roll the exorcists’ Exorcism skill in a contest with the Shade’s Will.

Probability Alteration: The shade can push probability more in line with their desired timeline. This manifests as a blanket -1 to all rolls that would negate the shades desired outcome. The ghost can only affect one target at a time with this power. More powerful ghosts can also spend 5 fatigue to turn a failure into a critical failure.

Revelation: The shade can reveal themselves without the risks associated with Manifestation. This costs them one fatigue per second. They can attempt to pass themselves off as a living person, but they look transparent in bright light, and they must hide their eyeless appearance. If a power requires them to make eye contact, Revelation can substitute for Manifestation for allowing the target to see the shades’ eyes.

Terror: If the shade is visible, it may spend 1 fatigue to make its gaze terrifying. Anyone who sees its eyes must roll a Fight Check at a penalty determined by the GM (between 0 and -5). Victims who succeed are immune for an hour, and all victims get +1 per Fright Check after the first within 24 hours.

Zap: The shade can damage delicate electronics. The shade must touch the object in question (but an insubstantial touch is sufficient). They spend 1 fatigue and the object rolls its HT or it’s sufficiently damaged to require repairs (which requires, at the very least, a change out of any breakers in the system).

Notes: The powers of a time shade are listed with fatigue costs to give the GM a sense of scale; the GM needn’t actually worry about fatigue totals unless the players face a “boss” time shade. A typical time shade is not much of a challenge to a properly equipped party. Psychic characters will often pick them out fairly easily, and characters who have the ability to attack and destroy intangible targets will easily defeat them. They’re mostly a danger to unsuspecting or unprepared parties while they remain subtle. That said, a Castling or Devouring time shade can be devastating. The GM should allow player characters to use an Impulse Buy point to defeat a Devour attempt, and perhaps use a variation of the Imperial Stormtrooper’s Marksmanship Academy, where characters suddenly find burns materializing on their bodies and realize that they’re under attack before hitting them with the full effect.

Alternatively, hit the party with a legion of time shades. Many time shades manifesting at once represent a great example of a “mook threat” as each manifestation can be easily destroyed, but if paired with Probability Altering shades and Zapping shades, they can bring a party to their knees fairly quickly, enough to let their leader Devour or Castle a target.

 

Character Trait Notes

Veiled Gaze [1]: The character never makes eye contact unintentionally. By default, the GM should assume the character keeps their gaze away from a target’s eyes unless they explicitly say otherwise. The GM may assess a -1 reaction penalty, though, in circumstances where eye contact is expected.

Standard Operating Procedure (Veiled Sanctuary) [1]: Whenever the character “beds down” or sets up a camp in the labyrinth, they always create windbreaks and leave sheer veils around the camp, so they can see if a time shade has passed into the camp, if at all possible. The GM should be lenient in allowing for such a set-up (for example, if the character lacks the resources, the GM might allow a retroactive scrounging roll to see if the character could have set up something similar). The GM should almost always allow the character at least one Perception check to see if they notice an infiltration by a time shade.

Exorcism (Akashic): This is a specialization of Exorcism specific for Time Shades. Any ordained character may use it, or a character with the Licensed Exorcist perk.

Hidden Lore (Labyrinth) or Hidden Lore (Deep Time): Both can be rolled to know something about Time Shades.

Into the Labyrinth: Musings on the Monsters Within

Last week, I talked about labyrinth and the Skairos.  I've been hard at work writing up the labyrinth as an environment.  But once I had done so, I found myself pondering the dangers of the environment, especially the monsters therein.  These things are all tied together, so I can discuss one element, but it's hard to fully explain without exploring all of it, but we'll have to take this one step at a time.

One of those steps was thinking about the Skairos, which we already did last week, but in particular, the Skairos as Monsters.  What sort of weaknesses do they have and what sort of motivations do they have? If we were playing a monster hunting game and trying to kill one of the Skairos, what would that scenario look like, while remaining true to the lore we've already created.

This creates a bit of a condundrum, though: are the Skairos actually monsters? I find the best metaphor for them to be the fair folk, as they tend to be "dark mirrors" of Maradonian society, just as the fae tended to be "dark mirrors" of medieval European society.  But in another sense, they're also the angels of the Akashic Order: it is from them that the Akashic Order learned to explore deep time and to transcend temporal limits in their Shadow Councils.  But at the same time, during the tumultuous origins of the Akashic Order, the colonists of Persephone were being killed by the things within the Labyrinth.  Indeed, much of the Akashic Order's imagery are things meant to protect the Order from the Skairos.  Their gargoyles at their temples are meant to "ward away" the monsters of the labyrinth, and while the veiled eyes of the Akashic Oracles might serve as a convenient way to allow a Skairos to slip into their midst, it might also act as a form of protection, a way of tricking some things into thinking the Oracle is Skairos, or it could be a way of protecting the oracle from making eye contact with something.

So, what conclusions can we draw from all of this to work out how our sci-fi time-lost race, how you kill them, and why you'd want to.

Musings on Ultra-Tech Gun Damage

Most people who regularly participate in my discord are either $3+ patrons, or non-patrons who just really like Psi-Wars, but I have a few that are only $1 patrons and thus have only a passing interest in Psi-Wars, but mostly strip-mine my material for their own campaigns, which is fine!  That's part of the intent of what I'm doing. But a lot of my material lately has been more "Psi-Wars" specific, and not especially generic at all.

One such poster mentioned "Gauss Guns" as an off-the-cuff example of something more useful to him than what I had been posting (though I hasten to add that it wasn't meant to diminish what I was posting), and that single line got me thinking about something I honestly dread: Psi-Wars needs guns.  There are several reasons for this, but most of them revolve around illustrating a more primitive era, from the 40k-esque Mug to the hunting weapons of Nekotara, to the ancient weapons of the Tyranny, one way you can show that a particular race is ancient is to give them firearms rather than blasters (especially given that firearms are pretty much better than all beam weapons until Blasters show up, which means they can "keep up" nicely).  But this poses another problem, because the point of the Mug is to have extreme ST and to showcase what you can do with it, and part of the idea there is to give them arms and armor that take advantage of their superior ST.  So it's not enough to use the existing weapons, which are built for ST 10, SM +0 humans, because I need guns built for ST 20, SM +1 dragon-people.

So I need to be able to design guns.  And I don't have a system for it.  But my conversion of GURPS Vehicles gave me hope: it looks like most 4e vehicles are just 3e vehicles with some minor tweaks to a couple of formulas that we're largely privvy to, and a few arbitrary values chosen by the designer based on his assumptions for the vehicle.  Could the same be true of guns?

There are a lot of stats for guns.  The following, I think, can be arbitrarily assigned:

• Malf
• Acc
• Bulk
• Rcl
• LC

I suspect there's a formula behind Acc, Bulk and Rcl, but I think it's safe enough to make some basic, arbitrary assumptions: Pistols are Acc 2-ish, rifles are Acc 4-ish, and cannons are Acc 6-ish; rcl is generally 2, but it might hit 3 or maybe even 4 for extremely unwieldy weapons.  Guessing at bulk is more involved, and we need to get a sense of the weight and length of the weapon, but we'll come back to that.  But if we know these parameters, we can compare the weapon to existing weapons and make a reasonable guess.

The following are likely derived from formulas:

• Dmg
• Range
• Weight
• RoF (or at least, from design choices)
• ST
• Cost

For guessing at how these formulas work, I'm going to use Ultra-Tech exclusively.  I suspect LT and HT weapons aren't derived from formulas, but from real world stats converted into GURPS.  Thus, the only place where I think we can see a design system in action is Ultra-Tech, and that makes sense, as there are no "real-world" weapons from which the stats can be converted.  And this makes sense: if we want a gun design system it's for arbitrary weapons, like "What does a pistol for an SM +1 dragon-man look like, anyway?"  And I'm going to start with damage, as that's the most important, though we'll quickly see that the variables that matter to damage here will impact the values of other stats elsewhere.

Whenever I post something like this, someone inevitably responds with "But don't you know about X?" Someone somewhere has made a conversion, or worked out some formula and posted it somewhere on the internet.  To that, I say: Bring it.  I can use any help I can get.  I've done quite some research on this topic, and it's something I've been chewing on for a long time, so I may well know about it, but shoot it my direction anyway, or leave it as a comment, so other people can see it.  Every little bit helps, and it's safer to assume I don't know and annoy me with things that I've already seen than it is to assume I do know and then I miss the valuable, secret answer.

So, without further ado, let's look at gun damage.

Into the Labyrinth: Musings on the Skairos

At the same time that I wrote up the Akashic Mysteries, I also wrote up the Skairos, the "Devils of Persephone."  Originally, I had intended them as a sort of "special option," a unique "possible" race meant for mainly my patrons and "insiders," as well as some possible hooks or monsters that they could use in a primarily Akashic game and a nice nod to one of the more creative Star Wars races: the Miraluka.

As with the rest of the Labyrinth, I've found interest in them has grown and, at least in my mind, they're becoming more of a "central" part of Psi-Wars, though I think they're exact nature and motivations should remain a mystery.  As I explore more of this idea of "Psi-Wars as Monster-Hunter game" the more i find myself revisiting works I had previousl created to provide interesting monsters to players, including the monsters of Broken Communion, the Gaunt, and now the Skairos.

(In particular, much of this was inspired by the moment I released the Skairos as a race, and one person commented on how they all had a "Secret," and asked how they kept it. "So, do they wear armor all the time or what?" It's a great question and one I've been pondering ever since.  It's increasingly obvious that the Psi-Wars setting has "secret races" like the Eldoth and the Skairos and whatever pulls the strings of the Scourge.  So, let's dive deeper into this particular race).

Into the Labyrinth: Musings on Labyrinth Worlds

I've not been as active on my blog lately not because I've been too busy doing other things, but because most of the things I've been working on aren't "ready for primetime."  That said, one of the points of the blog is to let people see "how the sausage gets made," so revealing some of my thoughts and approach to things might not be a bad idea.  It at least shows you things going on behind the scenes and gives you material to chew on and perhaps do something with on your own.

Recently, the Tall Tales group chose to explore a route that brings them the most directly into contact with the Labyrinth and the Skairos.  I've been thinking about them for a long time, which likely is surprising to some, as the Labyrinth is just a foot note in other posts but in my head, it becomes increasingly central to the "mysteries, monsters and conspiracies" of the Glorian Rim.  They are:

• The source and wellspring of the Akashic Mysteries
• An initiation trial of House Kain
• A means of exploring the galaxy without ever getting onto a ship.
• A source of cool monsters and lost relics.

Thus the labyrinth is likely deserving of more attention than it's getting and, with it, their creators (or, at least, the race most deeply associated with them, the Skairos).

Backer Post: Bounty Hunter Factions Preview 2: the Saruthim

If you wondered why I've been so quiet, it's been because I've been working on this monstrosity.  I've wanted to give Ranathim "ancient bio-mecha" since I first read about them in Pyramid #3/24 and they've been a feature of the Dead Art since Iteration 6. Inspired further by my noodling about a Witcher/Mandalorian faction in my "How to run an RPG" posts, and the idea to explore Bounty Hunter factions as a part of the Bounty Hunter template release, I finally took the time to see what I could come up with.

It turns out to have a lot of moving parts, not all of which I could finish, but I need to shift gears, so I've wrapped up what I could and delivered it to you, dear Patron.  This one is limited to $5+, like the previous update, not because I'm shafting my Fellow Travelers, but because it's not finished and I want some feedback before I release it to the (relatively) more general public, but expect to see it, uh, soon-ish.

This is available to $5+ backers:

• On Patreon
• and on SubscribeStar

If you have feedback, I'd love to see it!

After Action Report: Tall Tales of the Orochi Belt Part IV - The Storm Comes

Last we left our heroes:

• Sir Axton Kain, Space Knight of House Kain, who has no heart.
• Viscontessa Shay Sabine, Space Knight of House Sabine, who sees the future on the petals of dreaming nymph
• Baron Mallus Grimshaw, Ace Pilot of House Grimshaw, who disapproves.
• Sir Tyro Pavonis, Ace Pilot of House Sabine, who sees without sight (but was unable to make the session).
• Walker Lee, Scavenger and War Hero of the Orochi Rebellion, and caretaker of one Jethro Page
• The Dread Pirate Xerxes, Captain of the Calico and its killer crew, and Asrathi Witchcat, but otherwise not a bad bloke.

They had captured the smuggler station "Port Mongo" after executing its previous owner, Mongo Corpulain, for the crimes of murder, human trafficking and Orochi poaching, and then carefully captured the rest to minimize casualties.  Then, they discovered that an Orochi Swarm descended once more on the damaged, inoperable station.

May the 4th Be With You!

Ahh, it's that one day of the year when us Star Wars geeks get really annoying and think we're cute!  Given the day, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on the current state of Star Wars for myself.

Personally, I'm fascinated by the current era of Star Wars, but for all the wrong reasons.  I like digging into politics and management stories, especially when they fail, and the behind-the-scenes stuff on Lucasfilm lately has read like a disaster investigation, but for management.  It seems the power-struggle is, in fact, still on-going, with some weird (shady?) things going on in the background.

So it should come as no surprise that the Star Wars community is, shall we say, pretty divided over the current state of Star Wars.  One common refrain I hear is "Star Wars is dead to me."  I think that's a mistake.  It's certainly not dead for me. In a lot of ways, Star Wars is more alive for me than it has ever been before.  To my ear, that refrain sounds like when a new edition of an RPG comes out, and you dislike it, so you throw out all your old books.  The old works are still around. Just because you don't like the new stuff doesn't mean the old stuff got retroactively worse.

I will never be the guy who tells you to like something out of brand loyalty.  I think if you didn't like the Last Jedi or Rise of Skywalker or anything that's come from Kathleen Kennedy's Lucasfilm, that's your right, and you should acknowledge your experience.  There is an entire world of interesting space opera and pulp adventures that I can recommend to you instead.  But at the same time, I don't think you should throw the baby out with the bathwater.

I've really enjoyed the Mandalorian.  I've really enjoyed Rebels.  I've really enjoyed Clone Wars, and its latest season (with the exception of one episode which, while fun, you could have missed and not realized you had done so; for the "last season ever," I don't think you have room to waste on a literal filler episode; the fact that you're spending time on money on a wasted episode makes the episodes or moment you didn't do but could have seem all the more galling).  Jedi: Fallen Order is actually really good!  I'm actually increasingly curious about the other Streaming Star Wars offerings.

But for me, what's really jumped out at me hasn't been the galaxy of the future, but the galaxy of long, long ago.  As a kid, I had skipped the EU as bad knock-off of the real thing. This was a mistake.  It's got some great stuff! I've been hunting for "space opera pulp that feels like Star Wars, but isn't the familiar Star Wars" and it turns out what I was looking for was... Star Wars!  A lot of the Old Republic stuff is especially good.  I've gone through the Dawn of the Jedi, the Old Republic Comics (including, especially, the Knight of the Old Republic comic, which is some of the best stuff I've read, even if the art has varied wildly in quality over that series).  I finally sat down and beat KOTOR (I'm still trying to get through KOTOR2, which I suspect I'll enjoy more, but I keep running into technical difficulties) and while Star Wars: the Old Republic is held back by its insistence on copying Warcraft mechanics, the stories in it, and the worlds it shows you, are magnificent.

I think what writing Psi-Wars has helped me do is liberate my mind from the confines of the original trilogy and get a better feel for what Lucas was trying to do in the first place.  When I was a kid, a lot of my friends liked West End Games Star Wars, but for me, back in the early 90s, it was too bound to the trilogy.  All you could be were knock-off characters of the trilogy, and all you could do were knock-off things of the trilogy. The trilogy dominated everything and it was hard to figure out how to be creative.

But now that I've explored what inspired Star Wars to begin with and seen other people dive into new and interesting directions in Star Wars (especially in the Old Republic, the Prequels, Clone Wars and Rebels), and now that I've done it myself with Psi-Wars, I think I could do it with Star Wars.  If I were pressed to run a Star Wars RPG, I could easily whip up an innovative set of star systems with unique cultures and underworlds and exciting new bounty hunters or criminal cartels, and create a totally new Star Wars adventure.  Or I could draw on the broader material of Star Wars.  The ideal would be a synthesis of both: the familiar (to remind you that it's Star Wars) interwoven with the novel (to keep you from being bored). Given a choice, I'd rather run Psi-Wars, but mostly for similar reasons that I prefer DF over D&D: I like how GURPS runs, and I feel like I have more explicit freedom from my players when I'm running "my own thing." But I could do Star Wars, which is something I couldn't really do before.

So I suppose, in the End, I'm pretty okay with the current world of Star Wars. Sure, a lot of stuff is burning down right now, but that's often what it looks like when an era is ending.  The Star Wars community is passionate, which means passions run high, but at the end of the day, you can go to marvel streaming comics and get every Star Wars comic ever released (or close to). You have an unbelievable amount of Star Wars available to you at your fingertips on Disney+.  You have a ton of Star Wars games that go on sale every May the 4th every year. And if you tire of official Star Wars, I can show you dozens of interesting settings and worlds that will scratch that space opera itch.  It's a bumpy ride, but that doesn't mean that there isn't a ton of stuff to enjoy. You just might need to leave the guided tour to find a lot of it.