REALMS OF VIOLENCE 4th edition reskin

Print PDF Like there wasn't anything else I meant to be working on...
sigh.

Okay so there is this world, like one of those "wahey olde time people were wack" (which may or may not be Renaissance propaganda), like it's a massive flat bowl (to keep the sea in duh) held aloft by armies of conquered titans, their grotesque forms even more grotesque from the weight of the world pushing down on them.  They hold the world aloft from some kind of primordial sea of the dead, where all souls go to rest.

Anyway this massive bowl shaped world progressed through various wars, empires, alien invasions, usurpation of spirits, demons and angels and parasite cosmology,   never-weres, and as ever the titans ( known formerly as KAIJU) climbing up and over their fellows to the under lip of  the world to punish and destroy).

It now has progressed to the mechanized armour and sweet looking motorcycle tracking shot level of technology, the gods having recently left to go fight some alien gods as they do. The northern and southern empires have collapsed from the aftermath of the latest alien invasion and all is warlords and bandits and here be time dragons.

Anyway so classes. Due to the bizarre semi-subjective physics of this reality, an individual can become far more powerful than any army, which means the focus of military progress has been to make super units, champions, leaders, warlords , and monsters. Some staying in the service of Daiymo or King, others becoming RONIN-X
And if you haven't guessed by now, this is a re-skin for 4th edition dungeons and dragons.

The power sources: are
Martial is
 KUNG FU. Some individual's KUNG FU is strong enough to kick physics into becoming an obedient fellow.
AND

CYBER : Most people can handle the odd implant here or there without their chi flow becoming sickened. Fortunate others can keep piling it in. These are known as Cyberborgs. New geo-nano-tech means the machine grows with its host, the enhancements coming with personal growth not mere consumer purchase (blah blah cybernetics is treated as class abilities rather than equipment that you can purchase. You can't just make an robot arm strong enough to rip a tank in half, instead one is grafted onto the host and their chi flow and it is grown to such implausible capabilities)

Divine:
is now
Administrator privileges. The gods wrote down a bunch of the short cuts and back doors they use for tinkering with the place. They made it real complicated so only the worthy can not have their eyes explode by reading it. Spells are known formally as Protocol and called spells by fucking ignorant peasants.

Arcane:
is now
 HACKING:  Wait you are waiting for permission to rewrite reality? The truly shrewd and audacious find the backdoors on their own, and when they can't, will tear them. A particular short cut , cheat,  or spell,  is known as a Glitch.  Glitches often have more abrupt , disruptive effects as compared to Protocol which tend to more restorative, status quo orientated effects.

http://www.violentia.com/

Cleric   is now  WARNURSE: taught the Protocol (spells) given to the nations and then cyborg parts because cyborg parts, they are healers, leaders , diplomats , templars and inquisitors. Their power source is CYBER and Administrator privileges

http://www.epilogue.net/cgi/database/art/view.pl?id=27008

Fighter     is now BOOMER: These cyberborgs are the  backbone and spear head of every army. Some keep their human form,fiendish devices appearing and disappearing as necessary, others bury it in layers of exoskeleton , techno flanges and mystery pipes. Their power source is CYBER.

Paladin  is now    SOHEI: The hammer to the WARNURSES other kind of hammer. Disdain corruption of their chi with gadgets, instead relying on fierce training and supreme discipline.
 These are warriors who are armoured in life and punching righteous! While the WARNURSE is often beholden to authority and public spotlight , the SOHEI is the special forces, black ops and elite guard.

Their power source is KUNG FU and Administrator Privileges

Ranger    is now   MOREAU:  Animals are closer to the flow of things than people. So surely one can give people greater kung fu by use of grafting animal parts? In the MOREAU's case, why yes , yes you can. (in most cases however, another entry in the monster manual happens).  Some MOREAU appear human except for a couple of traits (say a tail and cat ears) others are an animal awkwardly hunched on 2 legs. MOREAU are made in both directions from animal to fellow and from fellow to animal.
Their power source is KUNG FU

Rogue is now NINJA

....



Their power source is (rumoured) to be KUNG FU and CYBER

THESE TOOK FAR TOO LONG TO FIND FOR SHAME INTERNET FOR SHAME

Warlock is now W.I.T.C.H:  with all these demons, angels and other usurpers lying around, one would wonder "can we smoke them?".
Why yes. A huge variety of reality altering drugs can be made from them. W.I.T.C.Hs name come from the infamous girl gang (We Intend To Create Havoc) to first make a serious effort to drug themselves into super human power and Burroughian form
W.I.T.C.H'S today are still no-good punks , with the coloured hair , loitering and angular sunglasses. Each W.I.T.C.H has a particular habit (pact) whether Yokai (fey) , Usurper (Infernal), or Never-Were (Star)
Their power source is HACKING

"because I fucking said so"

Warlord is now GEOMANCER. One who studies the flow of chi and history and knows best how to direct their efforts and those of others
Their power source is KUNG FU

Sorcerer is now  BLIGHTS. Savants for tampering , backdoors , and unraveling reality on a whim.
Their power source is HACKING

Wizard  is now     PSYKER. It is some peoples nature to always find the easiest way. While BLIGHTS constantly discover, tamper and tear new paths, PSYKERS have no talent for invention, but vast ability to learn and exploit what they can learn. They hold tight any glitch they can find and wring every drop of advantage out of it, each holding to them precious their book of scams, cons and swindles. A BLIGHT has a talent for finding new glitches but lack the patience to know them as thoroughly as a PSYKER will.
Their power source is HACKING






















Barbarian is now  DRAGON the truly greatest of martial artists, their name the nickname of their greatest pioneer and bad ass.
Their power source is KUNG FU




(and there's like a bunch of other classes which is not immediately obivous what to do with.
Monks for example, some how, don't fit.  Druids I was thinking about some kind of Cyberborg that can transform into other robot shapes. Like a TRANSFORMER, but like then what was I gonna do with their magic? Like have it work via near by technology instead of plants?  I guess making the Primal power source Technology or something.
 Anyway look I got all this other shit I should be doing , and I don't have a play group for this , so I'm just writing down the easy reskins.
Also when I started typing this , I was thinking there would be a lot more weird psychic, chronolord,bursters and various warhammer stuff in here, but then the 80s anime just took up all the room and yeah. But if you are gonna run with this yourself I would recommend looking to warhammer 40,000 or other weird British gonzo sci-fi when you reskin the other classes)

OH YEAH RACES
Now I coulda made these the various nations of REALMS OF VIOLENCE but then as much fun assigning various human cultures stat modifiers is (by "fun" I mean "wack ") how about
 class as race 
Brave New World style?
As in each social class is separate from the others not by being a dwarf or an orc or something, but by choice of language, mannerisms, minor genetic modifications, quality and type of cyber implants, dietary supplements, geo-nano-bot injects and steroids.

Half Orc: Untouchable : steroid injections, growth hormones , modifications to the adrenaline and digestion system) : soldiers , sewage workers, meat vat works, Kaiju corpse disposal crews, salvage

Human: Lumpen Proletariat:  what ever they can afford or steal: thieves, scavengers, con artists, middle men, fences, entertainers

Dwarf: Proletariat: muscle grafts, bone latticing, supplementary immune system, high gravity nurseries: mining , construction, engineering, demolitions

Halfling:Bourgeoisie: reaction time implants, economy model body size, pheromone upgrades: reporter, entertainment, sales, liaisons, human resources

Gnome:Literati: life span upgrades, improved memory storage , small build for reduced use of resources, optic implants, brain "shock absorbers" for improved ability to comprehend protocol: sciences, scholars, researchers, academic

Elf:Illuminati: best life span upgrades, all look like models including access to designer (copy write protected) genes such as the Bowie , Grace Jones or the Twiggy, extensive brain capacity upgrades:  any high status positions, which they are always more qualified to do , having downloaded the required expertise.
            (Illuminati is particular apt , ignoring boring conspiracy association boringness,
 its etymology is enlightenment , as in a spiritual sense as well as a allegorical sense , "to throw light on" , and the royal family in Japan is said to have a lineage directly to the sun goddesses her self.)

Actually wait 4th edition had all these other races like shardling and stuff but fuck it, I'm done. What? No I haven't actually read the book and yes I am doing a re-skin that I would fully intend to play had I the time and interest.

Also I was going to use Japanese names for the classes , such as Eta, but wahey, discrimination against the Burakumin (Eta being a ..less polite term) is still a thing today
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burakumin
Real glad I looked that up.

Treasure!

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"treasure"

Treasure! 
How do people make it interesting? 
(don't say "make it hard to get" .What are you? My dad?)
 Does it even need to be that interesting ? (right now, however , I can't even make myself write 200 gold pieces plus assorted gems without my hand rebelling and drawing a flying skull ship instead)
It often turns into semi-abstract units of advancement, like the transformers and their energon cubes..

"..and here is your share of the exp loyal henchman"

because it is pretty much a semi-abstract unit of advancement.
Like you can write a tidy little description of say," a pearl and serpentine necklace with the pearls carved to illustrate hubris and the serpentine carved to illustrate a humbling" but like if the p.cs are going to need a couple of 1000 of them to make it to the next level, then very quickly it's just so much box text.

Anyway my point is it's one of those things that is there because of how it is entwined with the flow of play more than how it is part of the setting/world building/simulation/whatever.

(I prefer personally to not do the 1 gold piece 1 exp thing. Like I have 5 categorys of thing (conquest, cunning, diplomacy, exploring, riches) and you get either 10/20/50/100/200  per level for whatever categorys depending on if there was abit/kinda/yes/heaps/hella amounts of that thing in game.
And each character chooses a category that they focus on , they get double in that category, and can change it once per level. Still tinkering with the numbers.

Also it sometimes gets brought up that 1 gold piece = 1 exp is way of exactly defining the amount of achievement and that it is too much work to try and decide what is worth 500 exp without such a formula. I don't really understand this at all, like sure, it is harder but its still not actually hard to make up some fucking numbers. Also say the players steal an antique ebony writing desk to convert into energon cubes sell for gold. How much gold is it worth? OMG YOU HAVE TO MAKE UP A FUCKING NUMBER CRAZY

And that other thing that gets said and I struggle to not be rude about because why am I even being rude about a fucking game mechanic anyway, is that if you make exp mainly from fights then p.cs have to go around fighting stuff all the time and that makes the flow of the game wack. Which is true, but the goldpiece standard also makes the game go to some pretty wack( or colossally entertaining depending on tastes) door knob stealing places.

)
ANY WAY TREASURE WHAT IS IT?
You have a thing for the p.cs to want to get, and a way to reward them when they get it and they get enough of the reward and they can do new things hooray.

Anyway I was thinking about other things that could do this, as a thought experiment more than anything else.

Junk:  miscellaneous scrap metals and debris, to be utilized by the scavenger community you are part of when you successfully come home with it . Junk can be found lying around and stashed in ruined and buried military bunkers  (teeming with mutants, killbots, cyborgs and bioweapons, who of course, yield "treasure" when killed) and if you felt like being fancy could be broken down into categories such as "researchables", "metals/basic materials" , "fuels" , "rare components", "semi-operational parts".

A nice mechanic would be that once certain amounts of a material were retrieved  to the community things would change. Get enough basic materials and better housing happens. Enough "researchables" make it back and someone has better weapons they can make for you.
The role played by magic items could instead be played by actually blood dripping hunks of cyborg monster that you bring home to have installed into you.
 And if you as g.m did not want to have such a direct sudden mechanic improvement, then treat the trophy as "treasure" ie it generates exp, but can still shape the characters mechanical improvement more directly than "I have 10, 000 gold pieces, what can I buy?"  (and without resorting to magic item shops which clunk.

IF the characters were some kind of horrible cyborg bioweapon , new abilitys and classes  could be unlocked by the increasing development of the scavenger community. Like "oh we have enough fuel that we can install a jet pack in you/ or you can start purchasing levels in a living gun/fusilier class now" etc.



Suffering:

The p.cs are physics, obscure ghosts, or miscellaneous freak shows. They are on this earth to eat psychic trauma residue, which congeals in the secret places of the dark underbelly of the earth. Often Horrors, murderous angels , and reality chewing worms lurk there  and are, more often than not,  the cause of the  trauma. The suffering/treasure could have some physical form or could require the p.cs to deduce what has happen there in order to digest it (or filing reports??) and thus cleanse the environment.
So the more accurate your report / understanding of the event, the more exp you are getting.
In a way this could be "evidence" as "treasure"

Secrets:
Might overlap with the above. There is secrets. The more you learn the more you are. Either like the Planetary or like the characters as barely real dream spirits , growing in actualness and power. Similar game flow as suffering, but more investigatory/exploring.
At the end of the session , the players relate to the d.m what they have unravelled (and can prove?) and get exp based on how much they have got right.

character selection screen?

Souls: The world is dead, everyone is dead, but various souls are left trapped in the husk of the world. You have to find them, liberate them from their horders and take them back to the void where they can disperse freely.

Glory:

like you get exp when you are back in the drinking hall and have a great story to tell. And something to prove it. So severed heads are always good, but also, say, the beard of the red lake king, cut from him while he was sleeping, or the golden cattle of the honey lands, or a flower from the
garden of death. Basically treasure is anything you can impress everyone with by showing it off back in the long house.
What would be really good here is if the end of session exp tally had some kind of specific boosting/bragging minigame.

Food:
Mike's blog http://terruizeng.blogspot.co.nz/ seems to be in status mode at the moment , which is a shame for it does wonders with the idea that treasure is food you bring back to your tribe to increase your mana (not as in magic, but a word meaning social standing, personal power and responsibility ), ie your exp.

Also shout out to Zachs "dungeon Chernobyl" involving treasure as weird tech, anomalies , and dangerous artifacts of science