Spire: An Unknown Game

[Eldan]

CITIZENS!
My beloved.
Traitors walk among you.
They are the traitors
HERETICS! TERRORISTS! MURDERERS!
My true believers. My warriors. My avengers.
They look like any of you. Trust no one. They may be your servant, your manager, your grocer, your carter. Anyone. Your midwife, your lahjan, your priest. No matter how respected. Your brothers, your mothers, your daughters. No matter how loved.
One day soon, all will rise up, and the sisters will return.
They are among you. The Ministers.
You are among them. My Ministers.
If you see anything, if you hear anything, if you suspect anyone. Contact the Guard. Contact the Black Watch. Contact the Paladins. Contact the Allied Defense Force. Contact the Bureau of Ethics.
Kill them. Break them. Subvert them. Become them.
THIS IS FOR YOUR SAFETY.
This is for your freedom.
They don’t fight for your freedom. They will destroy our culture, our city, our lives.
The city my pyre. My burnt offering. My hecatomb.

They tell us we should answer questions here. Why should we do what they tell us? Our Glorious Lady cares not for your level of experience, for your wealth, where you came from. You are here now, in her embrace. You have seen our city, our Spire. You know what they have done to it. You are ready to do what must be done. You know it must fall. That is all we need.

Anyway. Going out of character for a bit, I’m looking to run a game of Spire: the City Must Fall, the game of dark elf rebels going Too Far(™). Or attempt to, I’m still not sure it’s going to be a very compatible system with Play by Post. This is a system where the questions don’t really help to explain what we’re doing. For now, I’ll just say that I’m open to almost all material for Spire, with a few exceptions: I think that at least early in the campaign we don’t want an vigilites, vyskant, and other similarly destructive and campaign-derrailing player factions and advances, especially those who are not loyal to the Ministry (things may change). I’m open to varying experience levels: the system is quick and easy to learn, and as far as I care, you don’t have to have read all the setting material, because it’s long and intricate and there’s a lot of it, but a general idea should be there. A general impression of how the system works and preferably ownership of at least the core book are all that is required.

I’m also not posting a story or an adventure we’re going to run here. This is a system that’s very well suited to improvising and a GM flying by the seat or their pants, and that’s how I run campaigns anyway.

Instead, I’m just going to ask people to talk a bit about what kind of characters they might want to play. What classes, what advances, what extra advances, what kind of backstories and bonds. No character sheets necessary yet, we can do those later. Tell me a few sentences about who you think your character is, where they came from, why they joined the rebellion. Doesn’t have to be a detailed backstory, we can work that out later when we do bonds, which are best done as a group. And give me some ideas. Whatever you want to call them, different games have different names: palette, moodboard, milestone… what kind of campaign would you like to have? Any particular facet of the setting you really want to explore? Something you absolutely want your character to do at that point? Do you want to avenge yourself on that old noble who used to own your durance? Are we going to summon ancient spirits of the sorcerer kings from rivers below the city? Will there be a masked ball? Are we going to smuggle weapons, or find out where all the trains went and why there’s only one left in the Vermissian? Are you going to go too far in attempting to bring about the revolution and unleash something terrible from another dimension? Will the crowds love you for freeing them, or hate you for how you did it? Just post two or three vague ideas of things that would interest you in a campaign.

Also, a general notes: this game can and probably will get dark. Since we are still on GitP (and also out of personal tastes), there will be no too-graphic violence and only implied sexual content and absolutely not even a hint of the intersection of those two. If people would like to add other lines or veils (that is, things you don’t want shown and things you don’t want even mentioned), please mention them as soon as possible. Everyone is comfortable with different levels and kinds of violence, oppression and other darkness, and that’s fine. As a game of Spire, this game will almost inevitably bring up personal trauma, systematic oppression and racism and some level of body horror, which is hard to avoid.

PVP is a bit more complicated in Spire, as there are fallouts which can end up as one player possibly betraying the rest, but I’d still like to keep it rare. Players disagreeing over plans or the correct approach to a situation, yes, active backstabbing, treason or player combat, generally no, but with the option of some of it occurring if it’s talked about beforehand and everyone involved enthusiastically agrees it makes sense.

It should also be clear that this game is NOT D&D. It is not even in any way similar to D&D. This is a game about mostly bad people doing mostly bad things and mostly coming to a bad end. It’s a narrative game where we build a story together, with a suggested setting, tone and theme. It requires open communication and occasionally a willingness to see one’s own character suffer or fail and for things to go in unexpected directions.

Speaking of open communication: this is essential for all RPGs, but especially so for Play by Post. A lot of these games fail. And many die with a whimper, where people gradually lose interest, post less, which makes other players care less because nothing happens, which… etc. I already said that this game may perhaps not be the greatest for play by post. So we may have to put in some effort into making this work. And that requires that people openly communicate if they don’t like what’s going on or wish we could just move to the next more exiting scene. So talk to me and each other. Play by Post is not live play. You have to be ready to switch the boring stuff, and abstract a few things in the name of flow. (Also: I’m giving players permission to make small assumptions about the world and even occasionally control an unimportant NPC if it helps them write a scene. You don’t need to ask me if there’s merchants at a market, just write your character shopping. That kind of thing.)

And finally, about myself: I’m probably not a great GM; but I’ve done this for a while. I also don’t know Spire extremely well, I’m still reading through the expansion books, and I’ve only run one one-shot before and played in a few other one-shots. Mistakes may get made. I’m just doing this because I want to play more Spire and this is the only way I’ll get it.

That’s the big points for now, I think. Once we have three or four players together, we’ll see what kind of campaign we can build out of the proposed characters.

Of course, you may ask if anything is unclear.

[Lacco]

Reporting for dutydurance!

First off, thank you for running this!

Also new to Spire (been looking at the book for a long time, but with no group to play it with it was just on the shelf... of a shop), relatively new as a player (I'm an eternal GM), and looking forward to the horrible things that will happen.

I'd like to have the Vermissian Sage class: I am very intrigued both by the lore and the mechanics. I'm big on exploration and discovery, so I'd like to see as much of Spire as possible: moving across whole areas to see the differences. The character I would like to play should be your normal academic: a bit lost in the real world, book-wise, with a great interest in finding new areas he never saw before and documenting them. Maybe an information broker, or someone who spent most of their life in jail before - maybe for a good reason. After getting out he just wants more knowledge, more information and dislikes the aelfir way of treating knowledge: locking it up and not spreading it out.

At least once per game I'd love to have a wild chase across the non-euclidean Vermissian vaults and libraries. And uncover something that should not be known.

I don't usually have need for lines/veils beyond the ones you mentioned, but I will respect any put forward. And of course, if something comes up, I'll let you know.

[Captain Cap]

I'm still thinking about possible character concepts (sure this game has a lot of interesting possibilities :smallbiggrin:).

Anyway, since this game is pretty new to me, I'll take the opportunity to see if I got a few things right about it (other questions may come later on :smallsmile:):

Stress: I kinda understand how it's dealt, but I'm still somewhat unsure about the recovering part. Specific actions seem to recover specific stresses (i.e. asking for a loan can heal Silver stress), but do Refreshes and Fallouts affect the entire Stress pool, removing X total Stresses in whatever combination is decided (whoever decides)?
Advances: If I got it right, you can spend an Advance on a same level in-class ability or extra-advance (like Minister), on a lower level multiclass ability, and if it's Low, also on a skill, or dominion, or +1 resistance. That's pretty much how a character improves (at least mechanically), right?

[Eldan]

Refresh is your main way to clear stress. It's a basic thing you probably do often, which clears stress. It doesn't clear specific stress, just "stress", so the players are the ones who chose what gets cleared.

And correct, yes. Think of advances as DMs handing out level-ups at story appropriate points.

[Captain Cap]

Refresh is your main way to clear stress. It's a basic thing you probably do often, which clears stress. It doesn't clear specific stress, just "stress", so the players are the ones who chose what gets cleared.
So, let's say, I have 2 Mind stress and 1 Blood stress, I roll 3 with the Refresh, therefore I can clean it all, right?

The reduction of Stress from Fallout seems to be also unspecified, but I guess the GM is the one choosing for that?

[Eldan]

I'd also let the player choose, honestly. It's written as adressed to the player, anyway. That said, it should clear must of your stress when fallout happens.

[Captain Cap]

Man, I'm so torn between a Bound and an Inksmith right now.

[Eldan]

The Bound is probably easier to handle, and it has a few very nice roleplaying hooks, with the minor gods living in your gear. The Inksmith is very meta, so that would colour the kind of game we play a bit, probably. It is very cool, though. I think the "man with a gun" ability won a "coolest ability in an RPG" contest.

[n0ble]

Definitely interested. Thinking of maybe doing a Carrion Priest with Sacred Pelt from the Magister's Guide and Red Mary's Chosen from the Strata splatbook if those are allowed-general idea is the character went from being part of a child gang all the way down in Derilictus to the heights of Spire as a faithful of Charnel and it left them feeling hollow inside/hungry for something different when it became apparent that they really hadnt accomplished much. If that doesnt work then maybe the same but an ex-soldier from the wars against the gnolls. Would probably take Kept a Low Profile in Derilictus in lieu of a durance if the former of the two is allowed. :smallsmile:

Edit: What I have so far is mostly just mechanics but I'll come back and fill it in with some background that ties them to Spire a bit more once I have some free time.


Name: Kurza
Durance: Kept a Low Profile in Derilictus (+2 Shadow Resistance, Low Society Domain)
Resistances: +2 Shadow, +4 Blood, +4 Reputation
Refresh
- Complete a Hunt & Take Your Quarry
- Help a Child in Need
Skills: Pursue, Sneak
Domains: Religion, Low Society
Knacks: Low Society (Street Urchins)
Equipment: Prey Hook (D3, Ranged, Stunning), War Cleaver (D6)
Core Abilities
Hyena (Lee-lee): You have a companion hyena who obeys your com- mands. At character creation, pick two commands that your hyena understands. At the start of your turn, choose one command to give to your hyena from the list that it understands so long as it can hear you speak:
• Sic ‘em: When you launch a surprise melee attack on a target, your attacks gain the Brutal tag.
• Guard: When you take stress to Blood, take 1 less stress than the result rolled to a minimum of 1.

Lay of the land. You are a trained hunter, and others would do well to heed your words. When you enter a dangerous situation, you can name up to three features or opportunities that your allies can take advantage of. The first time you or an ally uses an opportunity, they roll with mastery (for example: cover with a good view of the battlefield, an exit, a badly-guarded door, a stack of barrels, etc).

Low Advances
- RED MARY’S CHOSEN. [Divine] You bypass the need for food, replacing it with blood shed in the name of the goddess. +1 Reputation, +1 Blood. When you take Blood fallout or spill the blood of someone else, you don’t need to eat until you next wake up.
- SACRED PELT. [Low advance] +1 Blood, +1 Reputation. A pelt taken from a particularly mighty and holy hyena, hunted on the blood-moon and skinned by the wearer. Some sects of Charnelites like to keep the skin as unadorned and intact as possible, going so far as to create a hood with eyeholes out of the hyena’s face and head fur; others like to cover it in crow-bones, obsidian beads and red streamers to display their allegiance.
Medium Advances
High Advances

You have a street-level bond with the faithful of Charnel – a collection of worshippers of the corpse-eater god who live in New Heaven. Name three of them, and what’s weird about them. Kurza's fallen in with a sect of Charnelites known as the Broken Teeth. Their primary base of operations-were one to be generous in calling it such-is known as Cracktooth, a squat tower with an uncompleted fourth floor that serves as a sort of impromptu rookery. While this is far & away the most useful resource available to Kurza & Lee Lee, it would be foolish for the Carrion Priest to discount the extensively cultivated mushroom garden found in the tower's basement.
- Stellacy, the Mother of Corvids: the sects bird-keeper, a bitter old crone of a drow whose moon-crazedness is typically on full display via the megacorvid skull she wears as a mask. While she absolutley cannot stand Kurza's presence-the Carrion Priest tends to send the ravens into full on attack-peck mode-she is, like the rest of the Teeth, more than happy to put up with Lee-lee for the calming effect she exerts over the ravens.
- The Mycognicist: Nobody in the Broken Teeth can put a name to the mysterious person who cultivates the corpse mushrooms in the tower basement. They are-at best-indifferent to the Carrion-Priest outside of the kills they bring to the sect for the various forms of worship present within. Gossip amongst Stellacy and Dwarth holds that the Mycognicist would even be indifferent to Lee-Lee were it not for the odd rare mushroom the hyena has fetched for the grower.
- Dwarth, the Hyena Keeper: Manages the sect's keep of hyenas-currently two females and one runty male pup. Spends a great deal of time worrying over the insufficiency of available food insofar as they've had to split the corpse-allotments into fourths with the other members. Has a mean streak for Kurza due to their pelt yet especially enjoys Lee-Lee's company for how shes a well behaved hyena that could impart some of her manners onto the kennel members.

You have a bond with another PC who you have helped deal with a death – either by guiding them through the grieving process or disposing of the body. Say who it was, and who died.

Backstory:

[Eldan]

Alright. The three players I knew would post have shown up (but of course others can still feel free to post interest). I'll be here and on Discord for any questions or comments. Once everyone has a name and a rough concept, we can talk about bonds and fill out exact character sheets.

[Captain Cap]

Definitely interested. Thinking of maybe doing a Carrion Priest with Sacred Pelt from the Magister's Guide
Oh, I almost forgot about the Magister's Guide. I gave it a look and it has some interesting stuff, but it also raised a few other questions :smallbiggrin::
— Special Equipment seems to work like Advances, but in case it's lost, would the Advance cost need to be repaid? (The Bound rifle is quite interesting, though)
— To keep things simple, I imagine Acquisitions (which seem to be an alternate advancement mechanic) won't be used?

[Eldan]

Don't think so.

This game is sometimes quite abstract. Generally, I'd say I wouldn't take away someone's equipment as a DM, not if they paid an advance for it. Or at least not for more than a scene or so. (There are fallouts which can disable an advance until fixed, "lost your rifle, need to go back and get it" would be a good example for a medium-ish fallout, I'd think. )

Acquisitions: no, I'd rather not. I like some aspects of it, but honestly, it covers a lot of stuff that already exists in other forms. Equipment can already be bought, advances can already be gained. At best, I might take them as a guideline for how difficult it might be to find some rare stuff and how many rolls are involved.

I might involve a safehouse at some point, though, those are fun rules.

[n0ble]

Added in some NPC members of the Charnelite sect that Kurza joined-happy to do the PC bond with whoever! :smallsmile: Thinking about it I might have durance be Toughed it Out in Red Row instead-maybe as an ex-Arena fighter who came up from Derilictus or some such.

Safehouses do look like tons of fun as a base of operations-they're pretty well handled as being a potential bond to request stuff from too.

[Captain Cap]

I still got to answer those recrutiment questions.

Anyway, I decided I'll go with a Bound, simpler and I got a more developed idea for it: a charismatic vigilante, a deeply hurt survivor who hunts down scum and plots with the Ministers not so much because of ideological reasons, but because she wants to feel powerful, take her pain out on those who deserve it, and tear down a status quo that betrayed her.
More in detail, it could be something like this: never really got a warm loving home, having spent most of her youth in a wretched and crime-ridden district, seeing the worst "humanity" has to offer, with a stepfamily jealous of her natural charms and talents. Ironically had a cozier time during her durance, when she was kept as a beautiful Pet to bring around and show off in the upper echelons of society. But things don't end well: the lords' heir happens to catch actual feelings for her, they aren't happy, seeing her as nothing more than a pretty ornament, and through some machination they get her conscripted and sent away (extra advances: Enlisted), confident that a "delicate flower" like her wouldn't survive a day out there. But she survives, thanks to her strong will and resourcefulness, and comes back even more hardened; determined to take control of her own life, in the face of all the injustice in the Spire, she pursues the ways of the Bound, and later on joins the Ministery to get back at the oppressors.


Whatever you want to call them, different games have different names: palette, moodboard, milestone… what kind of campaign would you like to have? Any particular facet of the setting you really want to explore?
All of it!
More seriously, I'd like to explore both low and high society far and wide. Dark alleys, markets, parties... I'd prefer going around dealing with people and people issues (which seems to be the strong suit of the game anyway), social as well as physical challenges, but the occasional mysterious and otherworldly obstacle should be fun too.
Simultaneously, a chance for the characters to explore themselves and develop.


Something you absolutely want your character to do at that point?Do you want to avenge yourself on that old noble who used to own your durance? Are we going to summon ancient spirits of the sorcerer kings from rivers below the city? Will there be a masked ball? Are we going to smuggle weapons, or find out where all the trains went and why there’s only one left in the Vermissian? Are you going to go too far in attempting to bring about the revolution and unleash something terrible from another dimension? Will the crowds love you for freeing them, or hate you for how you did it? Just post two or three vague ideas of things that would interest you in a campaign.
I'll want my character to face her past and her unresolved feelings (like the matter of her former lords' son) at some point, to find herself in situations where beating up the bad guy isn't good enough, to be challenged morally and emotionally (situations where there are bad guys to beat up shouldn't be missing, though).
And along the way, meeting and dealing with some very whacky characters wouldn't hurt :smallbiggrin:

[Eldan]

Nice.

You may also be interested in Stray Dog from Sin, which is an extra advanced for hardened Veterans from the Far Nujab wars.

[Eldan]

So, to tally up, two votes for seeing different areas of the city, and what look like some neatly distributed broad areas of competence of fighter, scholar, face.

If we're combining "social", "travel" and "dark secrets", plus Vermissian, the dead and an infiltrator, I'm thinking smuggling between districts, maybe? That should be a nice start and then we'll see where it goes.

[Captain Cap]

You may also be interested in Stray Dog from Sin, which is an extra advanced for hardened Veterans from the Far Nujab wars.
That could be interesting, although at this point I'm not planning to take Stray Dog advances, so she'd be one just by name.


If we're combining "social", "travel" and "dark secrets", plus Vermissian, the dead and an infiltrator, I'm thinking smuggling between districts, maybe? That should be a nice start and then we'll see where it goes.
Sounds fine, and with smuggling there's good chance to meet vile crooks on the job, so a nice hunting ground for my character.

[Kvard51]

Alright, I'm here to put forth my interest. I've worked a lot this week due to a Flu outbreak (I'm a nurse), but things are calming down and I'll try to decide on concept over the next two days.

[Lacco]

Hello everyone!

Okay, so a character name (damn, I am terrible at coming up with those...) and a concept.

Kaervac
I was thinking of a drow that spent his durance in prison, for a crime they did commit but thought not of as a crime: for finding out secrets. The only thing that it lead to was him finding out that a Vermissian Sage is sitting in the next cell, and he spent his time corresponding with this other incarcerate. Once he was taught enough secrets, he figured out a way into Vermissian, where he met with his mentor - who came and went as they liked, and spent enough time 'on the outside' as on the inside. Once he was let out of prison, his thirst for secrets, both great enigmas and small whispers, became insatiable and he only thought of finding more - and handing them out to common folk. Knowledge should not be imprisoned, but spread.

He views secrets as something that needs to be uncovered, but not at once (people not accustomed to knowledge will reject it - which is why he actually landed in prison?), as means to achieve the goal of complete information freedom, as something valuable that needs to be kept safe until it's time, and as a currency.

I like the Thorned Tongue and Find Connection advances. In future, I'd aim for the Dynastic Memory and the access to the Glass Library.

As stated previously, I'd like to uncover secrets along the way. Piece together a puzzle about something unspeakable and unspoken of (but that's a longshot) and have fun roleplaying someone who is on one side obsessed with gaining knowledge and finding secrets about everything and everyone, and on the other afraid of holding them.

As I do not have any further books than the core rules, I'm open to potential suggestions for advances that are good for the kind of exploration and seeking out truths.

[Eldan]

For low advances, you may like Metaphysical Crowbar from the Magister's guide: a crowbar made of melted-down Vermissian Tracks, which allows you to more easily open doors to the Vermissian. You can use Back Door more than once per session, but opening a door after the first time costs d6 stress. And you can use it to open other dimensional gateways, if you should find any, examples mentioned are doorways infected by the Heart and gateways to the Moon Gardens.

That brings me to another thing... I need to find out how we're defining "once per session" and similar in a PbP game.

[Captain Cap]

As I do not have any further books than the core rules, I'm open to potential suggestions for advances that are good for the kind of exploration and seeking out truths.
Another couple low advances for the Sage, from the Master's Guide, are "Cultist of the Celestial Wyrm", which basically represents the religious belief that the Vermissian is divine in nature (you gain Religion and refresh a little whenever you enter the Vermissian), and the special equipment "Metaphysical Crowbar", which lets you force open passages to other dimensions for a Stress cost.

I too have a name now: Diana.
For now I'd like to keep her background vague aside from the main points, as the book suggests: this way, if later on we'll want to tie in other stuff, it'll be easier.
So, in a nutshell:

A childhood spent in a wretched and dangerous side of the Spire, with few friends and allies (Derelictus and/or Red Row seems good).
A durance as a pet, which concludes badly after her lords' son catches feelings for her.
She's sent away as a conscript, to return after the failed assault on Dar Alqad (possible Stray Dog advances in the future).
Among other things, she becomes a Bound and joins the Ministers.

[Captain Cap]

That brings me to another thing... I need to find out how we're defining "once per session" and similar in a PbP game.
Perhaps we could define a session as a set of X consecutive situations (and anything else in-between)?

[Eldan]

I do have a pretty good idea how we might tie the Pet background into things later, so let's leave the Noble's name open. I'd like one background thing from you, if you don't mind: the god knife. Tell me what kind of god is in there. (Strata has some great ideas on god knives, they are all pretty cool.) The general idea is that it's a minor divine spirit bound in a knife. You could have tricked it, brute-force bound it, or entered a pact with it. And the kind of spirit it was - its divine domain - might give the knife minor abilities (for fluff).

[Eldan]

Some friendly people on Discord shared this character tracker with me:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1JHCZHiAl9GZvjMdBlBmuY_KmjA9WUnIOsm-f6yKAaZc/edit?usp=sharing

If everyone could just fill in information on the first tab as they decide on it. Just pick a column. Images not required, but appreciated.

[Captain Cap]

I'd like one background thing from you, if you don't mind: the god knife. Tell me what kind of god is in there. (Strata has some great ideas on god knives, they are all pretty cool.) The general idea is that it's a minor divine spirit bound in a knife. You could have tricked it, brute-force bound it, or entered a pact with it. And the kind of spirit it was - its divine domain - might give the knife minor abilities (for fluff).
This requires careful consideration, because everyone knows that fluff is the most important part of a character, and one needs to overthink any tiny detail (it isn't just me, right? :smallbiggrin:)

[Eldan]

Oh it absolutely is.

But personally, I started out as that guy who would write ten pages of background and I'm now in the place where often, my character backgrounds are three or four lines long and get filled out during play. You don't have to write everything now. As a DM, I'm even fine with a player asking "can this noble we just met be the noble I mention in my background, so we already have history?" or similar.

If you don't want to detail your knife yet, that's fine.

[Eldan]

If you want a more out-there idea for your godweapon and you don't hate GM suggestions: take a bound rifle from Magister's guide. It's the rifle you were given as part of the war effort in Far Nujab and somehow, deep in the desert, you found a friendly spirit that bound itself to your gun.

[Captain Cap]

So, I was thinking, given the kind of place I envision Diana to start from, as a connection with n0ble's Kurza we could have both characters having been part of a same child-gang (at some point she might have involved herself to escape from her dysfunctional family, at least until the family got her back).
This way they might have had a reason to reunite later on.

[Lacco]

For low advances, you may like Metaphysical Crowbar from the Magister's guide: a crowbar made of melted-down Vermissian Tracks, which allows you to more easily open doors to the Vermissian. You can use Back Door more than once per session, but opening a door after the first time costs d6 stress. And you can use it to open other dimensional gateways, if you should find any, examples mentioned are doorways infected by the Heart and gateways to the Moon Gardens.

That brings me to another thing... I need to find out how we're defining "once per session" and similar in a PbP game.

Okay, that sounds nice, but I think I'll keep the ones I have now.

I'm fine with the GM stating that our 'per session' stuff refreshes at certain points. Depending on the game itself, this may be at fixed points, or when enough time passes. I'm not sure if we can define an exact mechanic for this at this moment.


Oh it absolutely is.

But personally, I started out as that guy who would write ten pages of background and I'm now in the place where often, my character backgrounds are three or four lines long and get filled out during play. You don't have to write everything now. As a DM, I'm even fine with a player asking "can this noble we just met be the noble I mention in my background, so we already have history?" or similar.

If you don't want to detail your knife yet, that's fine.

I'm similar: used to think of a detailed backstory as something that is necessary, but now I prefer finding out the backstory during play. With some story hooks placed in the 'skirt length' backstory that I want the GM to use.

Filled in what I knew about the character into the google doc. Also have a bond with a PC... I know a secret. Who wants to be the subject of this secret?

[Eldan]

Yeah, I'm probably just going to call out breaks in the action of the story to refresh abilities. Or maybe make them once per chapter of the adventure.

Anyway, also saw that the character record keeper I'm using has the full text of all the core book abilities, so I copy-pasted them into the sheets.

[n0ble]

So, I was thinking, given the kind of place I envision Diana to start from, as a connection with n0ble's Kurza we could have both characters having been part of a same child-gang (at some point she might have involved herself to escape from her dysfunctional family, at least until the family got her back).
This way they might have had a reason to reunite later on.

Yeah that sounds like a great connection to make! Kurza's definitely going to be an orphan through and through I think but I'm totally up up for a gang in common connection.


Filled in what I knew about the character into the google doc. Also have a bond with a PC... I know a secret. Who wants to be the subject of this secret?

One of the options for my inter PC bonds is helping to deal with a death-either via the grieving process or hiding a body. I can say who it was and who died if you want to come up with a secret Kurza and Kaervac discover about said body if the later of the two options has merit. Doesnt have to be about the body either though mind you :smallsmile:

[Kvard51]

I'm going to go with a Masked. Details will be provided tomorrow.

[Eldan]

Alright, nice. I'll start thinking about what kind of missions would fit this group composition.

Captain, I think you still have a second Advance to choose.

[Captain Cap]

Captain, I think you still have a second Advance to choose.
I finally decided :smallsmile:

[Eldan]

Alright. I posted most of n0ble's character over, too. Most of you still need to add their NPC bonds, too, preferably with some short description. And we need to distribute the rest of the player bonds, preferably so that everyone is the target of one. (These are actually rather important, it's an overlooked rule that you can use bonds to roll with mastery.)

[Eldan]

Not to push anyone, but do we think everyone can get their sheet filled out by the weekend?

[Lacco]

I'll need some help with the bonds:

@N0ble: I think I went the wrong way about this. I should name someone whose secret I know and you should say who died. I'll gladly let Kurza help Kaervac with overcoming grief: so hit me with it - my mentor? My family? Be as cruelly creative as possible. As for Kurza's secret that I safeguard... how about 'I know where your parents are.'?

For NPC bond, I like most the researcher idea. I have this vision of a semi-mad (who isn't?) Vermissian Sage that is obsessed with finding the ways how to navigate the Vermissian Vaults most proficiently and efficiently: making maps, finding routes, marking corridors, exploring it as deep as possible, but providing mostly academical or riddling answers to any question. Her name would be Eryz Pol. @Eldan: are you ok with that?

Also: where to put the charsheets? Is google doc ok? Or do you mean the excel sheet?

[n0ble]

I'll need some help with the bonds:

@N0ble: I think I went the wrong way about this. I should name someone whose secret I know and you should say who died. I'll gladly let Kurza help Kaervac with overcoming grief: so hit me with it - my mentor? My family? Be as cruelly creative as possible. As for Kurza's secret that I safeguard... how about 'I know where your parents are.'?


Yeah that totally works for me! Hmm. So it might be a bit too wacky but what about your mentor in the next cell being a Kaervac from another dimension/timeline/part of the Vermissian who was older or maybe just learned about the Vermissian earlier than the Kaervac your playing as. Kurza could have helped the latter in grieving for themselves once the were taken away for execution/killed by an inmate/died to negligence while you were both incarcerated in the Hive. And I'm totally down with Kaervac knowing where Kurza's parents are-maybe he knows where they're buried or something like that? :smallsmile:

[Captain Cap]

Kurza's definitely going to be an orphan through and through I think but I'm totally up up for a gang in common connection.
Kurza and Diana could also come rival ones. I've still have decide if she left in good terms with her former companions.


Not to push anyone, but do we think everyone can get their sheet filled out by the weekend?
I should be done in a couple days, PC bonds aside.

Speaking of PC bonds, to ensure everyone has at least one "in" bond and one "out" bond, I suggest, also for maximum connectivity, that we establish them circularly, so something like A -> B -> C -> D -> A.
Anyway, if anyone's interested, this would be Diana's bond: You have a bond with one of the other PCs who you rescued from a dangerous situation. Describe the situation they found themselves in.

[Eldan]

NPC bonds: go wild. I can't guarantee that they'll play a major role, but as long as you keep it at approximately the right power level (i.e. no leader of a city-wide organisation for a personal bond) and roughly within things that make sense in the setting (your bond isn't a dwarf or halfling), I'm fine with it.

[Eldan]

Oh and characters on the excel sheet, right. I think it's easiest when we have them all together. Descriptions and so on in notes, if any are necessary.

[Captain Cap]

I'd like one background thing from you, if you don't mind: the god knife. Tell me what kind of god is in there. (Strata has some great ideas on god knives, they are all pretty cool.) The general idea is that it's a minor divine spirit bound in a knife. You could have tricked it, brute-force bound it, or entered a pact with it. And the kind of spirit it was - its divine domain - might give the knife minor abilities (for fluff).
The Heartbreaker: A masterwork axe as strong and exquisite as its owner. The spirit it holds, a fallen angel who once lost what she held most dear, accepted to be bound at the condition that she could peer unrestictedly into her jailer's heart. Whenever wielded, a tear of blood can be seen running through its sharp edge, leaving no trace otherwise.

[Eldan]

Can we not call it an angel, but maybe a lesser god? It's a small thing, but Angels seem to specifically be emissaries of the heart in this setting.

I.e. these friendly chaps.

https://rowanrookanddecard.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Heart-The-City-Beneath-RPG-ANGEL-1094x1536.webp

[Captain Cap]

Can we not call it an angel, but maybe a lesser god? It's a small thing, but Angels seem to specifically be emissaries of the heart in this setting.
Sure. Where can I find a rundown of the otherworldly beings in the setting?


https://rowanrookanddecard.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Heart-The-City-Beneath-RPG-ANGEL-1094x1536.webp
Yeah... that doesn't really spark joy.

[Eldan]

Honestly, the books are often badly organized... I've been trying to keep notes, but finding stuff is always hard. I don't think there's such a list somewhere. The ones I can think of are:

Demons: dangerous chaotic energy from another dimension, with a sort of almost-consciousness, badly controlled through rituals and bargains and often exploding. Some are culturally significant to the drow, but they have their own magic system. Djinn might be their own thing, but they are probably just demons summoned by the gnolls.


Angels: emissaries of the heart, drives you mad just to think about them

Gods are frequently mentioned, some of those gods have avatars or can be bound in various things (there's a rumour that the Gnolls have trapped one or more of the Aelfir gods and that's why there's war). There's many dozen gods, several of them just one-off side mentions

Ghosts are very common all over and a few classes interact with them

There's various things that humanoids turn into (Blood witches, Midwifes, etc.) Special mention: ghouls, you can turn into them.

There's many intelligent and quasi-intelligent animals (megacorvidae, hyenas, spiders)

There's a one-off mention of a fey court in one place. They are connected to the Corvidae and have small rituals where you can make deals with them. The mentioned ones have noble titles and are birdlike.

Saints and hallows are chosen of the gods, mostly the Drow Damnou, you can dedicate yourself to them or turn into them.

Probably forgetting some. There's a lot more weirdness down in the heart, certainly.

[Eldan]

And you can invent your own, of course, within reason. The world is big and there's tons of just off-hand mentions of weird stuff. (There's a telescope that has recently proven there's a race of moon elves.)

[Captain Cap]

So, given the troubles this site is clearly having these days, may I suggest—in one of these rare windows of time I'm able to post— we open a Discord channel? I'm sure we could discuss and decide the last details more quickly.

[Eldan]

So, given the troubles this site is clearly having these days, may I suggest—in one of these rare windows of time I'm able to post— we open a Discord channel? I'm sure we could discuss and decide the last details more quickly.

Probably better, yeah. I'll send out invites.

[Lacco]

Yeah that totally works for me! Hmm. So it might be a bit too wacky but what about your mentor in the next cell being a Kaervac from another dimension/timeline/part of the Vermissian who was older or maybe just learned about the Vermissian earlier than the Kaervac your playing as. Kurza could have helped the latter in grieving for themselves once the were taken away for execution/killed by an inmate/died to negligence while you were both incarcerated in the Hive. And I'm totally down with Kaervac knowing where Kurza's parents are-maybe he knows where they're buried or something like that? :smallsmile:

Ooooh. I like the idea. Will have to check with Eldan regardin ghe 'another timeline Kaervac', but I love it.

I'd also leave the whole 'where parents are' a black box. Kaervac knows where Kurza's parents are (and that will also show us if they are alive or dead or something else). Also, if we go with Captain's suggestion, Kaervac should know where Diana's parents are, and our fourth player should have a connection with Kurza.