The Wonderful World of Symboitic Armour, Coral

part 2 in a series. Also go back and look at the first one  because some sweet art got done for it.

CORAL


Advantages:


It's solid , repairs very slowly but easily accepts grafts of coral.  Can be used to replace or internally buttress bone, sharp edges shred attempts to entangle or grapple
Possible enhancements: Poison stings

Anemones (either small and protect against vermin swarms or large and attack independently)

Astral feedings allow you to replace a cast spell if someone casts the same one near by. Spell will have reduced effect (-2 on any dice roll, +2 on saves)

Crabhammer : one limb is a big hammery fist mass. Shards break off into flesh of those struck causing pain and muscle spasms.

Obscuring Clouds

Bio-luminescence

 Disadvantages: heavy, requires periodically migration to nutrient rich streams or winds to filter feed. Will take you for walks at night if deprived.
Who can hook a girl up? 
mermaids, eldritch underwater types, wise and cunning crabs and crayfish, sentient reefs of coral and its druid guardians

Specific Kinds:

Cold Fire Crown:
People intruding on the reefs of the Drowning Druids will be forced to work out their sentence with one of these driving their body. It's a spired crown of coral that fuses to the skull. It glows and flickers blue and causes weird aftertrail effects (Treat as Displacement ). The thing about these druids is they have been known to deliberate lure ships on the reefs so they can claim fresh labour to enhance their reefs.
Each druid has a different reef and they compete by laying down fresh material for the coral to grow on.
The mind control effects of the Cold Fire Crown require the presence of the druid or the reef , so if found further afield it is benign. For now.


Red Ruin:
Thick sharp scab like bands in rings around the body. Thick around the knuckles , elbows and knees. Adds 1d8 poison/abrasive cutting damage to any grapple or unarmed strike. For going drink for 2 days triggers a survival mechanism in the coral, it drains and stores all your blood, keeping you preserved in a dessicated state. Being submerged in water will rehydrate you to life with no last effects, except for weird colonial organism dream hangovers.
Red Ruin has been used to store and smuggle troops into strategic locations


Architect of Bone:
This coral must be planted underneath the skin directly on to the bone. Once there it will spread , reinforcing all bone structure (+1 hitpoint per level) and repairing any breaks in a couple of rounds. If you are attacked without a weapon it will form a large spike out of your wrist, for use as a sword. This inflicts 1d8 damage on you however.
In addition , everytime it repairs damage , it is making the bone thicker than before, with the distinct possibility of turning the host into a immobile hulk. Each time it repairs a bone or you are reduced to zero hitpoints, deduct 2 points of dexterity or strength (players choice) Reducing either stat to zero means you are now sessile. 

The Wonderful World Of Symbotic Armour, Fungus

Cédric Plante drew this amazing pictures for this post!

and a follow up here


Lack of home gaming and disorganization in playing anything regularly like online , plus the bizarre swellings of on-going projects have left me feeling pretty hesitate to just pour stuff on here like I have being doing.

But in the interest of maintaining the current inertia , I asked on g+ for some ideas for a blog post.

The one I choose was  Tom Middlemurk's Jeremy Duncan's one for more species of symbiotic armours. This might be a series, because I have more notes.

FUNGUS:
okay I have already done this one, but I still like it and you should go and look at it again, because I'm referring to it below

Advantages: Self Repairing, protection from physical attacks, hitpoint "loans"

Possible enhancements: Spore Weapons (poison, percussive, choking), regeneration, breathing filters, autopilot in the case of extreme mental/physical distress or subjugation

Disadvantages: risk of being usurped , might be a strain that has a "take control of nervous system and make body climb as high as possible before rupturing it with spore delivering stalks" cycle of life. Or a stage of life that involves being eaten by something, and will effect your behaviour to make that happen.

Who can hook a girl up? Myconids, Fungal Cultists, Fungus elementals, wind blown infections, previous owners  now deceased, worryingly evangelical current owners sharing starter kits (in the style of  Kombucha teas)

Specific Strains:
The Destroying Angel:
Spores on the wind make contact physical and psychic with the dying and vengeful.
Destroying Angel will bond with the willing and give regeneration , weird slabby mushroom plate, and make them count as a fungus for mind effecting effects.

In exchange after the mission is complete it will ask to go to somewhere high where it can convert  the bearer into a large fruiting structure and disperse its spores.

The Candle-Snuff :
Sometimes found in the wild. Appear as over-lapping  black and grey circles on the hosts skin with fine translucent hairs . Anti-photosynthesizes converting both the darkness and the psychic energy in the straining to perceive something in the darkness into fuel/food for both it and the host. Feeding too long on one patch of darkness will convert it to another type of darkness
 
The Amethyst Deceiver:
Carefully grown by myconists of slippery characters. Purple, fuzzy matts. Could be mistaken for woolen vests. Interlacing spiracles of keratin mean it counts as leather. The real power of this is a constant release of hallucinogens  that mean the host is remembered differently by everyone they met and everytime they meet.

The Glutinous Gomphidius :
The host will look like a michelin man. Extra 10 hitpoints. Need to eat 4 times as much.

DISPLACERKLAUS: AFTERBIRTH

Picking through  the debris of DISPLACERKLAUS :

Plot Bombs: On further thought , the talk of narrative was misdirective and I should of mention how my idea of a "plot bomb" also includes "stuff that the g.m should be lenient with when your character tries this", like if you play a thief , you expect that if you are trying to find a dodgy contact in the bar , you are going to be better at it than the knight, or if you are fighter and you are directing the massive stake trap to blind the cyclops, that is going work out better because that is like a fighter thing.

Basically there is stuff that each class has that is might be too broad or vague to put a exact mechanic on, but if you are writing up a new class or re-writing the intro to an old one, it's nice to put some thought into what the players can expect from each class. Like if I am a wizard and I start mixing random magical fluids stuff I find , am I just as clueless as the guy on the street or will I know when to duck a split second earlier?

This is also a wider thing to reflect on with setting , style and g.m-ness, ie
How much resistance will your players get from you when they try different things?

e.g How Hong Kong can stunts in combat be? How technically do explanations of crafting have to get? How favorable is physics  to your plan? How magic is your rope? Does fighter mean "goon with a stick" or "plausible action hero"?

And how well is that communicated? Or needed to be? Try stuff and see if you die seems to work out okay for most people.


 Kicks: I really get my g.m kicks from communicating a distinct feel about what the players are exploring. Like I'm only having a great time (as opposed to a good time as you generally do when you are co-engaged on an activity with friends) if I feel that some gestalt with the setting came across. Generally achieved if the players start doing stuff just for the purpose of learning about something or effected something that doesn't directly result in numbers increasing.

It's something to be mindful of when I'm prepping stuff, as in the players might be needing other things, like a chance to meaningfully interact with the stuff, or a certain level of challenge.
None of this is particularly at counter-purposes though, in fact overlaps are heaps.
Like if you want people to "experience" the setting make sure you lather in on the moving parts, ie moving parts: stuff that the players can immediately interact with and the consequences  can matter in all kinds of ways.

Like no-one cares what the king is wearing unless than dictates what monster pelts are valuable   , what you can bribe the guards with or how easy it is to trigger open revolt.

Murderhoboism: No idea why this is so interesting to people. Like in it's purest state, like you find stuff and kill it and get treasure. Like if the stuff doesn't do anything if it lives or dies and the treasure is just a way for numbers on character sheet to get bigger, who gives a shit?
I know basically everyone does stuff more complicated than this, but some times I read some post or blog and it's like "hey we killed something for treasure, so crazy".
and I have communicated my dissonance with this right now

 THAT SURE WAS INTERESTING BY THAT I MEAN I WILL TALK OVER THE TOP OF YOU BECAUSE IT WASN'T


oh DISPLACERKLAUS I do cherish and actively conspire against yoTALKING I AM NOW NOW NOWu

Magical tattoo effects!

Any other bearer of this tattoo is an effortless organ donor for all bearers of this particular design. Like literally just cut out their hearts with a knife and shove them in and it will immediately attach and start working 


(certain) Ghosts and Spirits can't see you

Attempts to age or change your form instead effect the depiction of the tattoo

The mouth of its gurning face vomit up any poisons and intoxicates currently in your system if you tickle its belly

People will remember the tattoo but nothing else about you

This depiction of an item or personage will draw you to them through the actions of cruel fates

THE FINAL CASE OF DISPLACERKLAUS

ONE LAST THING!!! SOMETHING NO ONE WANTED AN AW HACK

oh fuck you. Okay I will do the rest of this post so you don't have to deal with all that red and shouting.






So this thing , where you roll 2d6 and add an attribute and then:


"


7-9 is a partial success; you do it, but there’s


some cost, compromise, retribution, harm, etc.


A total of 10 or more is a full success; you do


it without complication and a total of 12 or


more is a critical success; you do it perfectly


to some extra benefit or advantage.

"


Actually makes for comedy gold. Like whatever dumb thing the players suggest actually has a decent chance of working but just with unintended consequences. Maybe it's like ouja board and with some players it drives it towards tense drama and with everyone I play with the spirits of violent slapstick start ectoting up the place.










But anyway I have sometimes/always impulses to play strange one off sessions of some particular thing and thought I could make something to use for when that strikes.




Okay so I have an idea for a game. I think about what everyone is going to be most grandular interested in , like how strong or faster they are the each other. Or how witty or whatever.




Write down 4 or 5 of them. Those are the stats. Either random or point buy , which either seems to make the most sense.

Should range about -3 to +3.

Those add to that 2d6 roll.


If I decide to use classes each class has a talent. Which is something everyone can do but that class has an edge at doing it.





Talent: SOmething you get a to roll the lowest dice again for. Like fighters doing damage (or attacking?) or rogues sneaking







and the class has a schtick.


Schtick: something you can attempt others cannot, like animal befriending or magic.




Also I like plot bombs. Which is a limited resource that can be exchanged for adding something to the campaign world. Pretty much it something to do with the character though, like representing a shady underworld figures range of contacts or a rangers obscure knowledge of mushrooms. Might still require a roll for success or complications


Plot BOmbs


: 1 point that you spent to get something relevant happening in the game, like having a contact in town or having just the right gadget on you.Also can be thought of formal mechanic for when a player declares they are trying something and you didn't realize that is something people could even try in your campaign until now. More narrative games would have it more "plot twisty" and less "Schrodinger character abilities"


Now the hitpoints or mental health or whatever. Some games might just have one circumstance.





Circumstances: This might be health, wealth ,magicness, mental stability or social standing


. MAYbe a game that was a CAR RACING would have the position race as a form of hitpoints. So taking damage means you just would move from 1st to 3rd or whatever.


Some games would have simple damage others dice rolls or whatever.





when zero some stats are at a disadvantage, (roll the highest die again) and each negative you need to roll something (con or willpower check or ass-kissing) or be out of the game (temp or permanent)




HEre is examples of this. I'm is explaining all this badly because I have distracting with the housing and the giving up caffeine again, and I might be coming round to some of those wacky anarcho-primitivist ideas, so if this blog goes dark for a couple of months I'm prob killing and eating people or painting pagan runes on a sub-station.











Example:


Capcom dungeon fighter


STATS


str: (muscling stuff)


dex: (dodging and throwing stuff)


con: (a formal declaration of rights health and wellbeing)


wits: (perception and reactions and mental audacity)


knowledge (for when your character has being paying attention but you have not)




THIS IS CLASS GAME SO CHOOSE YOUR CLASS oh race well america has a black president so that doesn't matter anymore hahaha no it's race as class


Warrior:


Knack: Violence (to hit rolls.. and maybe damage)


Schtick: Can use all weapons and armour. Especially extremely implausible big or batshit ones


Plot Bombs: armour / weapon crafting. With the right equipment you can make all kinds of booby traps , skin armours and jawbone clubs.





NInja:


Knack: Ninjitsu (acrobatics and hidings)


Schtick: cloud foot stance. All that running along rooftops and up walls shit.


Plot Bomb: Suddenly revealed to be actually hiding or disguise as ____:





Sniper:


Knack: ranged attacks


Schtick:absurd shots


Plot Bombs: Trick arrows





Thief:


Knack: Tampering (pick pockets, sneaking , open locks)


Schtick: in combat thief skills


Plot Bomb:retroactive theft (you can declare you have stolen something that you had the opportunity to steal, but didn't declare you were stealing it at the time)





Wizard:


Knack: obscure knowings


Schtick: Can use spells via scrolls and tomes


Plot Bomb: rare and dangerous experimental wizarding/drug usage ("I will cure my mummy rot by eating this salamander heart" "I will replace my eyes with this basilisks eyes because I am a wizard!")






Dwarf


Knack: Obstinance (against everything from booze to reasonable arguments to head injurys)


Schtick: Stoneken (My dwarven sense is tingling! This is no normal igneous rock! )


Plot Bomb: ancient dwarven grudges ("I am spending a plot bomb point to declare my clan has an ancient dwarven grudge against the forest gnomes of lesser dunwichen")





Elf


Knack: forestken


Schtick:doing everything anyone else can do but in a shite elven way aka mary sue race


Plot Bomb: obscure elven resistances and talents





Cleric


Knack:Morale


Schtick:Healing and wardings


Plot Bomb: Minor Divine interventions and guidance





Gadgeteer


Knack:engineering


Schtick: Useful devices


Plot Bomb: mcgyvering





Barbarain


Knack::Violence (as Fighter)


Schtickliving without pants


PlotBomb:Epic Flip outs





CIRCUMSTANCES:


Health (hitpoints )


Soul (spend to power spells , magic items and attacked by certain creatures)


Money (used to buy stuff and sleeping elsewhere from the gutter. Reducing by day to day life, legal problems, social assassinations and spending it on stuff)



WELL THIS IS FUN NOW FOR ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF SOMETHING WITHOUT CLASSES AND EVEN LESS EXPLANS BECAUSE NO ONE CARES ALSO WHAT HAPPENED TO THE SYSTEM YOU WROTE FOR THIS ALREADY?


Dunno, I can't remember it all off by heart so it can't be that good right? Also making definite statements about the future is stressful.






MERMAID PROM

stats:

Callousness (how not to care about open wounds and lost friendships)

Underhandedness (petty theft , grand larceny , and casual deceit )

Nastiness (knowing how to hurt people both verbally and physically)

Talent (knowing how to make bombs and outfits and where to buy ingredients for both)

Sexitude (how to use what mother spawned on you)


No classes just pick on of each, so these are things everyone can do , but you get an edge at doing it





Knacks:


reading


stealing


destruction


booby traps


shopping


flirting


threats


empathy


cruelty


arson


deviance


poisonings


Advanced Outfit Repair


Schticks allow you to do things or do things in ways that no-one else can:





Rich


Bat shit


Mutant


Heart Destroyer


Bullet proof naivety


Thug


Does Not Give A Shit


and choose a plot bomb


Plot Bombs:


Gadgets


Extensive and sordid past


Big family


Crazy Prepared


Imposter!


Black Mail Dossier


Faustian Pacts


Drama Maelstrom


Chaos Magnet


All the Drugs




Circumstances are:

health, social standing ,and self esteem

Being reduced to zero in any of them means you can't act that session.




Okay well I hoped no-one enjoyed that. I don't know when I will use this. Lack of play and ongoing projects have made feel even more burned out than usual. Dissatisfied with everything etc. That bird is loud and looking at me funny. Atleast it has stopped raining. I kicked a hedgehog last night. Not on purpose. It was a dark and I did not see it. We have bumble bees , hedgehogs , possums and rabbits here because some thought this should be the beatrix potter colony. In another 100 year feral cats will be as big as panthers in australia. If I start making hedgehogs swim will they become pufferfish?IT IS THE SEASON