BIWA: Feedback and Criticism

Meikle641 · Post by **Meikle641** » Fri Mar 28, 2014 1:49 am

Should some (all?) weapons have bonuses to attack right out of the gate as compensation for less base damage?

I sort of did that with buckshot and the reverse for the Trollhammer. I know BRP and the like had base accuracy ratings.

Meikle641 · Post by **Meikle641** » Sun Apr 20, 2014 4:05 am

So, made an update. It'd be nice if people would give some input, but I won't hold my breath.

Direct download: http://www.mediafire.com/view/315nwxc4y ... r_0.19.pdf

or via my blog: http://heartbreakerdesign.tumblr.com/po ... a-ver-0-19

codeGlaze · Post by **codeGlaze** » Mon Apr 21, 2014 3:30 am

How long do you imagine character generation taking for a person brand new to your system?

Meikle641 · Post by **Meikle641** » Mon Apr 21, 2014 7:26 am

Not *too* long, I hope. The main time sinks are choosing gear and magic, I'd say. Having more pre-made gear packages would help that. Probably could do something similar for magic, if I had to.

Otherwise... Maybe 10 minutes for level 1. Much like D&D, higher level chargen would take longer.

Meikle641 · Post by **Meikle641** » Sun May 04, 2014 1:35 am

Well, I'm going to be talking to an organization that helps small businesses this week. I'll be showing them my printed off copy of Biwa and a couple other things. With any luck I'll get $5000 in funding as a grant. That should help with a few things.

Seriously, though. Can I get some actual breakdowns on the system? Would just linking to the google drive be less onerous than using mediafire?

Meikle641 · Post by **Meikle641** » Mon May 05, 2014 7:16 pm

So, thinking I'll consolidate the test/soak modifiers. Instead of having one for each attribute, having just two could work: Physical and Mental.

Mental: Intelligence + Willpower/2
Physical: Agility + Brawn/2

Seems like it'd streamline things some.

Also wondering if I should remove DR bonuses from Brawn. Been finding myself wondering how to balance DR against expected damage outputs. I think I should just scrap it. Between armour, magic, and certain class features I think that characters and NPCs will have acceptable values.

Meikle641 · Post by **Meikle641** » Mon May 05, 2014 7:26 pm

So, I'm guessing nobody paid much attention to the vague blurb I had in the super hopelessly out of date IMOI thread about the base setting I'm designing for, and missed my blog post about it. So, I'll copypaste here.

tl;dr: I'm designing a TTRPG and that is magitech in a post-apocalypse world, like D&D meets Fallout

So, the base setting of BIWA is the world of Pyrrhus, a world recovering from a magical catastrophe/war a hundred or so years ago. The event caused massive destruction, reshaped the landscape and changed the shape of nations.

In the ruin-filled land of Pyrrhus only one city still shines in pre-cataclysmic splendour: Bastion. The Bastion is a neutral city of crystal, steel and concrete arranged in circles, with buildings that often claw at the sky itself. Enforcing its neutrality of the Sentinels, mechanical wonders from before the cataclysm armed with powerful weapons and warded protections, allowing people from all corners of the world to meet and trade in relative peace.

"Once, there was a period of great prosperity and growth on this world, which was called Pyrrus. The gods and people worked together to make magnificent structures and inventions across the land; continental travel in hours, cities that seemed to scrape the sky…

…But as with most things, it could not last. Many of the gods grew haughty and arrogant, claiming dominion over the people, the others choosing to oppose them for their freedom. Thus the War of the Gods began, Pyrrus and her people caught in the midst. Both sides wielded weapons of great power, as did their servants. Mountains were crushed while others sprang forth, oceans emptied, cities turned into naught but dust and rubble, and the gods themselves falling. In time, the hostile gods were defeated at the hands of the good, but at the cost of most of their own. The instigator was far too strong to be killed by the surviving gods, too filled with hate and madness. With great sorrow and reluctance, [God name] and Wotan sacrificed themselves to seal him away forever.

It is now several hundred since the War of the Gods, and the land and people have healed many of their scars while others have opened. Across the world there are rifts and leaks, allowing corrupted daemons known as fiends to appear, formed of nightmares and negative emotions. But even amongst the devastation and monsters hope burns strong.

Welcome to Pyrrus, the land of daemons, fiends, and mortals. A land bereft of the divine.”

Region: The Swamplands.
People: Anfisa aka Swampers.
The Anfisa dwell in on the east coast in swamps and salt-water marshes, thought to be cunning but a backwater culture. Some areas were part of the once thriving Lizardmen run Empire, but most have fallen into ruin these days. The Anfisa region is famous for its shinobi and assassins.

Region: Arkadios
People: Arkas
The Arkas are a disciplined and skilled people living in the western mountains. They are known for their skilled soldiers, scholars and philosophy.

Region: The Golden Sea
People: Azzurra
The Azzurra live in a vast plain that stretches from the foothills of Bastion to the searing hot White Wastes to the far north. The people are nomadic and are fierce warriors, and are known for having powerful shamans and oversized blades.

Region: The White Wastes
People: Duranta
The Duranta are a relative newcomer to Pyrrus, having arrived fifty years after the Cataclysm in a blaze of fire as their metal ships crashed in the former inland sea that became known as the White Wastes. Hostile to outsiders, these masked foreigners are a common sight among the continent as they scour the land for materials and relics. Aside form their ubiquitous masks, their distinguishing feature would be their use of powerful technology. Indeed, they are the largest producer of firearms and have managed to reproduce some pre-Cataclysm Pyrrian technology. The Duranta are primarily humans, but tribes of thri-kreen can be found in the wastes.

The White Wastes were are once a small inland sea before the Cataclysm, and are now a giant salt flat and desert. The original inhabitants either died or emmigrated to better regions after the loss of the fishing that made of their livelihod. Fifty years after the cataclysm a handfull of advanced ships crash landed, scarring and gouging the Waste.These ships held a foreign group of humans known as the Duranta, along with their version of Prometheans. Initial contact went badly which lead to the Nine Day War and the self-destruction of the battleship Stargazer, creating a massive glass crater known as The Eye.

Region: The Dark Forest
People: Umbra
The Umbra live in the Dark Forest, a magical region of forest to the south, below the Bastion. Barely any light penetrates the boughs of these ancient trees, but the air is filled with motes of light that make it appear to be
perpetual dusk or twilight. The Umbra are primarily alfar, kitsune, [tengu] and lycanthropes.

Region: The Blight
People: Wastelanders
The Blight is the magically irradiated and contaminated nation of Ronto, several crashed flying towns, and scavenger communities. On the outskirts of the Blight you may find places like the cliff city Scarberg or the towns of Nimby, Meridian, and Rogcaygeon. The waste is filled with riches, dragons, and mutants.

———————————

Keep in mind some of that stuff is 5 years old and was from when I was writing for 3.5 D&D. Still, the gist of what I have so far is there.
My own writing tends toward melodrama and gradiose speeches, so I'm relying on actual writers to piece together the setting proper.

momothefiddler · Post by **momothefiddler** » Tue May 06, 2014 6:40 am

I only just read this thread, which is actually probably for the best because without that last post I probably wouldn't have had much interest, but now I'm all sorts of excited.

That said, I'm reading through the PDF now and am starting to have input. Questions, though:

Do you even care about my input? I have minimal experience critiquing games and noise:signal might be too high to be worthwhile.

What sort of scale are we looking at here? I presume you don't want me to point out typos. Formatting issues? Math stuff? Only high-level conceptual difficulties? The disclaimer at the bottom of your last post implies that I shouldn't worry about setting consistency, but if I see, say, a spell that would majorly affect the setting, should I bring that sort of thing up?

Meikle641 · Post by **Meikle641** » Tue May 06, 2014 7:27 am

Thanks for responding. I asked for input, after all.

Largely been working in a vacuum for the last year or so.

Math, formatting, or whatever you feel like. I'm trying to make something worth selling, so knowing what I can do to improve it is appreciated.

momothefiddler · Post by **momothefiddler** » Tue May 06, 2014 8:22 am

Okay then.

p5: Under d100: It should be noted that the 10s digit and the 1s digit need to be differentiated before rolling. I know people who wouldn't even realize the probability is different that way than just picking what you want after.
p5: Under Basic Mechanics: What is the modifier? Skill+Attribute? p6 says those are added to form your final Skill total. Is that the roll modifier? I can't find it in the PDF or this thread. I did not check your blog or IMOI, to be fair. Additionally, if a Skill lists two Attributes, do you pick the higher? the lower? add both?
p5: Under Basic Mechanics again: What is the number modified by difficulty? Are bonuses and penalties? Spell adjustments? Is it just the base value?
p5: Under Basic Mechanics (last one I swear): Is "target number" really necessary? It seems unnecessarily confusing for new players. If the target number will always be the same (please god let it always be the same) then I feel like you'd be better served by dropping that bit of jargon altogether and say "a result greater than or equal to 100 is a success" or something of the sort. I'm not certain on this though.
p6: House Rules: No. I really appreciate including the players in this decision but "maybe you want to make the levels last twice as long" does not go in character creation and "maybe you want to start at a higher level than 1" probably doesn't either.
p6: If you're including the Skill trainings and starting Essence on this page, it should probably include the Attribute array.
p7: I like the "character/concept you like -> your own modifications -> template" thing.
p8: ????? Why are gear packages so early? Where the hell do you put a four-meter pole? Why are spears and laser rifles both options? Suddenly I have no clue what's going on in this game.
p10: Nice table. I notice that, for HP, the difference between Brawn as main starting stat and Brawn as third-priority stat is more than the difference between 1st level and 4th level. Seems like a pretty big deal for a stat that also grants DR and melee damage and the only explicit automatic Attribute successes and 3 Skills. I was going to contrast it with Intelligence, which gets nothing but 10 Skills, but then I realized that casting is a Skill (sort of), so Intelligence is still super important.
p10: Brawn grants +1 melee damage per 10 points. Brawn also adds to Combat, which gives you +1 melee damage per 10 points margin of success. Is this double-counting?

And I just realized what time it is and I have to get some sleep. I'll get back to this tomorrow.

Meikle641 · Post by **Meikle641** » Tue May 06, 2014 10:08 pm

1) Good catch. This work?
- d100: While there are technically d100 dice around, in practice a d10 is actually a pair of d10 dice rolled as a pair, where one represents the 10s digit and the other represents the 1s, which must be decided before rolling.

2-4) Haha, yeah 100 is always the DC. Alright. How about now?
"The skill modifier is typically attribute + skill bonus + bonuses from tools or magic; in the case of skills tagged with more than one attribute, choose whichever is more advantageous."

" Easy doubles your modifier total, "

"- Roll a d100.
- Add any relevant bonuses, penalties and difficulty modifiers.
- A result greater than or equal to 100 is a success. If the result is lower than that, you fail. "

5) Fair. Should stick that in the MC chapter. Reckon the housrule section of chargen should just say "Check with your MC for any existing house rules or banned material."?

6) Good point. While fixing that I noticed some relics of an earlier revision (different attribute array tiers) and deleted them.

7) Thanks. I borrowed the template from 8headeddragon, who has DMed for me a few times (and I him). Think it was based off King of Fighters, originally.

8) (re: gear packages) I originally had them in the gear chapter, but then I figured they might be better suited for chargen.

The way I figure it, a new player is going to get overwhelmed when having to buy a bunch of stuff at chargen... I know I was when I started 3e in 2003. Plus sometimes you just want to get playing in a hurry; maybe you're joining an inpromptu game session at a shop or with friends?

9) Haha... Yeah, the pole was a goof. Probably 2.5 metre pole would fit the D&D origin better. It's more of a tradition item than anything else.

Hey man, spears and swords are cool. Still, I'll be raising the cost of lasers a lot, since they should be comparitively more rare. Lasers rifles will now be equal to cost and effect to a Flaming gun.

Anyway, schizophrenic tech levels aren't uncommon in games. D&D had the spaceship and lasers, J-RPG games have gunblades and airships, etc. It's weird, but I'm fine with it.

10) Yeah... It is a bit of a mess, haha. Basically, I'm going to be removing the Brawn bonus to DR. I'm waffling on removing the double dipping for damage bonuses, though, since I do want melee and such to be competitive. It's also a relic of Biwa's roots in the archaic BRP system. I recently changed/simplified how guns and energy attacks work on DR, which has lead me to thinking that I can reduce the damage/DR arms race. Maybe.

momothefiddler · Post by **momothefiddler** » Wed May 07, 2014 2:45 am

Numbers are good.
1) Something like that, yeah.

2-4) Much better. Still, "Add any relevant bonuses, penalties and difficulty modifiers" Isn't all of this already included in the "skill modifier" or "modifier total" referenced before? Is anything lost by saying "Add your [adjusted?] skill modifier"?
Now, a piece of equipment that gives +20 on Navigation rolls actually gives +40 on [Easy] Navigation rolls, +20 on [Normal] Navigation rolls, +10 on [Hard] Navigation rolls, and +5 on [Improbable] Navigation rolls. Similarly, a leg wound that gives -20 to Athletics rolls actually gives -40 [Easy], -20 [Normal], -10 [Hard], and -5 [Improbable]. Is this intended behavior? Even if it is, is it possible to get similar behavior out of something that won't require players to recalculate division on the fly? If it's just the skill+attribute that gets modified, you could even have a place on the sheet for them to list all four values so it's easy to grab. Dividing by 4 during play isn't that bad, but I'd avoid it if possible.

5) Yeah. Maybe word it in a way that maintains the current implication that the players should be involved in that decision, because I really do like that part.

8) Hm. Okay. But maybe put them after race/class choice? "Ooh, I want to have a pistol and brass knuckles" ... "Ooh, I want to be a Mage"

9) Yeah, mashing tech levels isn't inherently bad, but it calls for some baseline assumptions that most people won't have. In the real world, the one that we base our reasoning on unless given something else, a pistol outranks a spear outside of some odd fringe cases. Your setting fluff in no way prepared me to think anything else. I'm aware that's not the finished thing, but if real-world-based intuitions don't match your world, call it out specifically. Like you do by stating that there's magic, or throwing out a table that shows that a starting character can lug around a small car without even caring. I like both of these things, but they need to be clear. I suppose putting both pistols and spears in gear packages does imply that they're both valid equipment options, so I guess I shouldn't be complaining.

10) If you do keep the double dipping on damage, clarify that somewhere, because I wasn't sure if you were just stating the same thing in both places or not. Maybe also say Melee Damage Bonus because that table was part of the reason I was confused about how Attributes added to Skills.

Now.

11) p11: Do Attribute modifiers come up enough to have a standard definition of them here? I don't even know what they are, since they probably aren't the table on p10, since HP deals in 1/2 Brawn, not 1/10 Brawn.

12) p11: It'd be nice to either give some examples of automatic uses of other Attributes or to say "You probably won't encounter any automatic uses of Intelligence, Willpower, or Agility."

13) p12: Carry Home column at the bottom should read +5 tonnes. "etc" is a bit unclear and could easily be interpreted to mean that after Brawn 60, Carry Home increases by 2 tonnes/Brawn instead of continuing to be 1/2 Max Lift.

14) p13: "A wounded doppelganger will bleed pastel colored blood" is awkward in the text of Shapeshift, but I understand why it's there. Perhaps move it into the base description and add "even when under the effects of Shapeshift" after?

15) p13: Phantom Essence: "per 10 points of Intelligence or Will" is not clear whether you pick one to divide by 10 and truncate, if you do that with both and then add them together, or if you add them and then divide/truncate. Also, Will is not an Attribute.

16) p13: Thank you for giving humans an actual shtick and not weird adaptability bullshit.

17) p14: Murderous Intent: Most humans, and every single human PC will get significantly worse at improvising Primitive weapons if they learn even the slightest relevant skill. Is this intentional?

18) p14: Do humans get any bonus to [Easy] Endurance checks? Probably not, and that's fine, but it should be mentioned so people aren't trying to figure out how to make those one step easier.

19) p14: Alfar and Hrokr are capitalized even in the middle of a sentence. Human and doppelganger are not.

20) p14: As the Crow Flies: I'm really worried about how this will balance with combat. Alternatively, I'm worried that it sounds cool but doesn't do anything.

21) p14: Shapeshift: Hrokr can turn into humans. Kitsune can turn into male or female humans regardless of original sex. Are Hrokr invisibly limited by sex, somehow?

22) p15: Mystic Eyes: Unless I missed something somewhere, MP don't exist?

23) p15: Regeneration: "or" implies different things, I think. Maybe "Heal 1HP at the end of every combat round (4HP per minute)"?

24) p15: Shapeshift: "While transformed a lycanthrope..." I presume this means while in the animal form?

25) p15: No Silver, No Sell: as 24.

26) p16: Battery: Is that 2 Strain removed per 5 Battery points? Does this apply to all Strain or just waking up Strain?

27) p16: Fire Eater: Does anything keep the Myrmidon from sleeping in the campfire and waking up with outrageous amounts of temporary HP?

28) p16: Blood Pool: Does anything keep the Vampire from eating an entire village and having outrageous amounts of temporary HP? Granted this is less of a problem than above, but still.

29) p17: Spawn: Will is not an Attribute

30) p18: Is there a difference between N/A and a blank cell?

And that's it up through Races. I'll start on Classes in a bit.

Meikle641 · Post by **Meikle641** » Wed May 07, 2014 6:48 am

2-4) Nah. The idea is for the difficulty modifier to come last, so a +60 bonus becomes +30 on a Hard check. Not sure how to word that sort of thing, for order of operations.

8) I see where you're coming from, but I do think that the character generation section would be the best place for it. Chapter 1 has enough useful tables and information to make it worth flipping back to.

10) I'll alter the table to show that. Thanks.

11) For some reason I thought it was used somewhere... But I also do not see it. Consider it gone.

12) I'll probably do the latter.

13) I'm bad at math so I'll take your word for it.
14) Good point. Moved it to the general description.
15) Changed it to "and" now.
16) Yeah, I for one am sick of that shit. So humans all being potentially violent killers is something I was down with.
17) Shit. That is a really good catch. The weird x10 thing was from an early version with different stat numbers. Then I just noticed that I need to codify what bonuses Hobbies get, since they sometimes need a roll. Got a suggestion on the bonuses involved? Thinking a scaling bonus based on level, but the wording might be weird. +10 per 2 levels?

Anyway, the intent was for them to be better than anybody else at making primitive weapons... Which is something I should define, I guess (spears, knives, shivs, clubs, ???)
18) Nope. Easy is as Easy as things will get. Theoretically I'd say "no rolling needed", but I don't want to get into weird stuff like eternal marches from lvl 1 peasants.
19) Fixed.
20) Eh. Basically they get a flight speed for free, without using magic. Otherwise a PC would need Wings of Flight or Fly.
21) Yeah, the restricted sex was intentional. Made it explicit and added a strain cost now.
22) Relic. Corrected to Strain.
23) That works. Amounts to the same thing, but is clearer.
24) Yes, that and the hybrid form.
25) Yeah.... Should probably make that a restriction.
"No Silver, No Sell: When transformed lycanthropes get DR 10 against weapons that aren't silver or mithral, which ignore it entirely. When not transformed a lycanthrope instead gets DR 5, with the same limitations. This DR doesn't stack with Armour, but it retains its full value against ballistic and energy damage."

26) Yup. Any strain.
27-28) Well... I need the wording/mechanic to be better there. Still, it is somewhat intentional for making places on fire or filled with electricity terrible places to fight Myrmidons. But... it does need fixing.

Huh. Seems I forgot to actually put the temporary HP rule in the game. Well, guess the idea is for temp HP to wear off in 15 minutes, unless specified otherwise, and that temporary HP doesn't stack.
29) Ah, that missed my sweep. I'd renamed Will to Willpower a while back. Fixed.
30) In the case of the race stuff, N/A means the race doesn't age. Blank means I haven't figured out what to put there just yet.

momothefiddler · Post by **momothefiddler** » Wed May 07, 2014 11:00 am

2-4) That's how you have it worded. It's just that, with a Brawn of 30 and an Athletics of 10, a [Hard] task is 1d100+20 - 21% chance of success. If you have a leg injury that gives you -10 to Athletics checks, that's not an 11% chance of success, it's a 16% chance of success, because the penalty also gets halved. I don't know if this is intended behaviour.

Also, my second point is that while someone uncomfortable with division could note Athletics +80/+40/+20/+10 and not have to pull out a calculator during game, that same leg injury turns it into +60/+30/+15/+7 (actually, how do things round? I don't think you state that anywhere) and that is something most people I've played with couldn't do in their head.

13) Actually I am assuming that you want Carry Home to always be half of Max Lift - is that true? If so, then it should read +5 tonnes.

15) I have Intelligence 15 and Will 25. Do I have 3 points of Phantom Essence or 4?

17) I presume you want background humans without class levels to also have the bonus. +20 and +2/level, maybe? Letting them use 2x their Intelligence instead of their Intelligence could be a real and scaling bonus, but it's not the easiest to word.

18) That's what I expected. It needs to be explicit, though. "[Easy] checks are unaffected" or "remain [Easy]" or something.

20) Hm. Okay. Magical flight is fairly cheap, it looks like, so I guess it's a nice benefit but not gamebreaking. Probably something to note for playtesting, though, because it has potential to be bigger than it seems.

21) Why? But okay. That's clear, at least.

24-25) Wait, do lycanthropes have two forms or three? Which one is their "base" form and which one(s) count as being "transformed"?

27-28) So the vampire could only get 2 temp HP and the Myrmidon could only get one round of fire damage worth of temp HP and it'd wear off in 15 minutes? That seems fine, then.

Classes!

31) p19: To be clear, "soak or attribute rolls" specifically does not include skills based on those attributes, yes?

32) p19: I'm not sure how your fluff (use/break/rewrite) works, but since your spells are all defined, it doesn't really matter.

33) p19: Caster classes indicate that +10 HP is balanced with +2 Strain Limit. All of the classes have either +10 HP/+0SL or +5HP/+1SL. Points for consistency, thank you. I was expecting that to be unpleasantly unbalanced or even arbitrary.

34) p20: Wait, so everyone's a caster, and everyone chooses a power type, but Magi/Paragons/Technomancers have substantially increased casting stats and resistances in return for no actual class abilities (and no class-specific scaling)? Or does everyone choose to be a Mage/Paragon/Technomancer AS their power source in addition to their actual class?

35) p20: The table lists "Berserk", but the description is listed as "Berserker Rage"

36) p20: I like the Fury mechanic, but I'm worried that it's too much bookkeeping. Tokens, maybe. Hm. Also it's inconsistently capitalized.

37) p20: How long does Fury last before wearing off?

38) p20: How long does Scorn Armour last before wearing off?

39) p20: Berserkers can apparently use Scorn Armour on each other. Which Berserker's class level is used to determine the effect? (If parties are expected to be all about the same level and it wears off pretty fast, it could be a fun thing for the party Berserker to prepare a few lower-level NPC Berserkers for a climactic battle or something?)

40) p20: I was wondering how Berserkers' Fast Movement "20% faster" interacted with Hrokr's "Rapid Jog". Rapid Jog doesn't seem to exist, and it makes me wonder if Hrokr suffer all the penalties of movement while flying, and if they can hover, and if Berserkers Careful Search at 4.8m/round, and...

41) p20: Furious Blow comes before Fast Movement in the table, but after in the descriptions. This bothers me more than it has any right to.

42) p21: So a Berserker who has used the Walk It Off spell already this hour can use it again, at the cost of 1 Fury?

43) p21: "to gain the effect of this spell" - arguably not casting the spell, so how long does this take? Is it instantaneous?

44) p21: Hungry like the Wolf: [Difficult]->[Hard]? Also, scent-based Brawn test? Is that like, roll to not be sickened by this smell?

45) p21: Berserker is inconsistently capitalized.

46) p21: Brutal Strike: [Difficult]->[Hard] again? And does "nearby foes" include the target of the Brutal Strike?

47) p20-21: Is there anything to prevent the Berserker from using these abilities on ranged weapons? If not, is that intentional? A couple of the major balancing points (Brutal Strike's vulnerability to melee attacks and Impenetrable Skin's speed reduction) are hardly problems at all for a ranged fighter.

48) p22: A Monk has Bad Willpower Test Bonus? Odd. And come to think of it, what's a Test Bonus? What does it mean for that to be Good or Bad?

49) p22: Absolute Territory: Why the hell is this called Absolute Territory?

50) p22: Furious Blow bonus damage specifically does not benefit from damage multipliers. Does the lack of such specification mean that Living Weapon's does?

51) p22: Living Shield should probably specify that it only works if the attack is successful. It's implied, but not actually stated.

52) p22: What path? Does Shockwave include movement? Does the Monk have to move through the subjects' spaces, with whatever combat maneuvers that implies, or does the Shockwave have a width?

53) p22: Come At Me Bro: Seems like it would be more elegant to give DR vs all attacks from more than 3 meters rather than DR vs all attacks that are not from less than 3 meters. Not a huge deal, though, and I'm not sure how to word it.

54) p23: See The Invisible: Are spirits not merely invisible? Is seeing spirits different from seeing invisible? Is invisibility given such a big place in the setting that such a distinction is relevant?

55) p23: Does Double Jump apply to the "between two walls" version of Wall Jump? If so, what does it do and what's the Strain accumulation rate?

56) p22: Out of order but I didn't notice until Double Jump: How far apart can the walls be? At any time someone is probably between some two walls.

57) p23: Onion and Banana Juice is cute, but unless you have special requirements for making the juice (and I don't see any) it's literally just flavor and should not pretend to be a real ability on the table.

58) p23: Only relevant if there's some reason not to drink Onion and Banana Juice all the fucking time: Does a single dose of juice apply to the next use of Purge the Chakras in an hour or to all uses within an hour? Does it apply when removing conditions to someone else? Does it change the sacrifice cost (I assume not)?

59) p23: To make things clear, should it be "never accumulate any additional penalties for growing older (though appropriate bonuses continue to accrue)"? Assuming there are aging bonuses, of course.

60) p23: A passive resistance seems like a dull top-level ability. Not sure it's bad, but that's my feeling on it.

Next up: The Necromancer

Meikle641 · Post by **Meikle641** » Wed May 07, 2014 1:03 pm

2-4) That is the intended behaviour, I think. Bonuses and penalties are tallied, then difficulties modify the total. Wait... I think I see the problem.

"- Add any relevant bonuses and penalties, then apply (if any) difficulty modifiers. "
Changed from:
"- Add any relevant bonuses, penalties and difficulty modifiers. "

I admit that division is something nobody enjoys, but I figure the difficulty modifiers are a decent way to handle static DCs. I can't imagine playing D&D without a calculator, myself. Still... I am open to hearing some alternatives, since... yeah.

...This also reminds me. I've been meaning to port in the Take 10 rules from 3.x. Basically, 50 + skill bonus when you're not in a stressful situation (or whatever) or can take the time.

13) Alright, cool.

15) It'd be 4, since 15+25 = 40. Why would it be 3?

17) 2x Intelligence for Hobbies/Murderous Intent would be nice and simple, indeed... And if a Human takes Craft (weapons) as a Hobby they could get... +10 to the (Murderous Intent) roll, I guess due to synergy.

18) Yeah, I'll spell it out to head those arguments off. Avoiding headaches is always something to strive for.

21) I've read stories about Kitsune turning into whatever they felt like in regards to getting laid, so I went with that. I figure that, unless the ability/spell says otherwise, shapeshifting keeps sex as the same. I'm sure there will be enough ways to do that if someone wants to.

24-25) Base, hybrid and animal. The transformation stuff mentions they may turn into an animal or some form of hybrid.

31) p19: Yup. Skill rolls are skill rolls. Still, I'm hoping any confusion will be removed in the upcoming update (The soak thing mentioned on pg 3 of the topic); making class bonuses apply only to the tests/soaks will help there, I think.

32) I have no idea what you mean here.

33) Hah, thanks. I tried to make it consistant across the board but I hope it will work.

34) The 3 generic classes have no other class features, yup. Frankly, I eventually plan to make them NPC classes. The strain limits are higher, sure, but that's all they really ahve going for them. Resistances are the same... Aw, shit didn't note what "Good" and "Bad" bonuses are for the detailed classes. Basically, +15/+30, like the generic ones. I'll fix that.

35) Thanks. Fixed.

36-37) Good catch. Fury will last as long as the Berserk spell is active.

I'm not happy with the wording of it, but how is this?
"Fury is physically exhausting, and whenever a Berserker gains even one point of fury they will become [Tired] five minutes later, whether they still have that Fury or not. Fury points vanish when the Berserk spell ends. "

38) Thanks. Fixed to mention it lasts for 8 hours.

39) Hmm, good idea.

"Scorn Armour: Berserkers may prepare special oils or bodypaint that infuse their skin with defensive magic, a process that takes 15 minutes, lasts 8 hours, and only works for themselves or other berserkers. This item provides a bonus to user's DR equal to 2 + 1/2 the creator's class level (rounding up), but only stacks with Tough Clothing, Ballistic Clothing, or the Armoured Flesh power. "

40) Blargh, another artifact (re: Fast Jog). Fixing Fast Movement to round up, to avoid those nasty decimals.

Otherwise... movement is movement, so moving fast while flying is just as penalizing as running. I hadn't really given much thought to overall manueverability with flight yet, to be honest. Hovering and all that? I dunno, I supsuppose they can. I'll have to write something up somewhere.

41) Fixed the table, so they're now in their alphabetical order.

42) Yup! The idea is they can use Fury instead of Strain, but I should make that explicit.

43) It'll be a Simple action, like the spell.

44) I think I've managed to scour the last of the [Difficult] references, but the current pdf doesn't show that yet. Thanks, though; that shit is insidious.

Yup, that's the idea. A saving throw, basically.

45) Fixed.

46) I want to say no, but I think I'll make it everyone within range.

47) Ah, yeah the intent is for it to be melee only.

48) Good point, but... I'm mixed on this. I'm more going for the physical aspects of this. Perhaps I should rename it to Martial Artist?
Re: bonuses, check #34

49) Shit. Mixed up my terms. I'd MEANT to reference the Absolute Terror Field from Evangelion for this and "Come At Me Bro". Other ideas were along the same lines (Light of the Soul, Guard of Yog Sothoth, etc).

50) Yeah, the intent is for no damage multipliers to apply to that sort of ability; most mention that, but I guess I missed some.

51) Good catch. "As a simple action, monks may make an unarmed melee attack on adjacent target that, if successful use them as a living shield for 1 round. "

52) Fixed. "A monk may create a shockwave as a Complex action, and may knock over targets in their shockwave's path. A shockwave has a range of 5 + class level metres, and a width of 2 metres. Targets must pass a Hard Agility test or be knocked prone, and are dealt 5 + 1/2 class level in damage regardless of the result."

53) Yeah, wording is always the hard part.

54) I'd been thinking that spirits are not merely invisible, but it's not set in stone just yet. I'll leave this until I figure something out.

55) I'd say no, since that says climbing instead of jumping.

56) This work? "and if you're between two walls within 4 metres of each other you can instead climb at 1/2 your speed with a successful roll."

57) Fair. I'll make it an item, like my friend originally wanted.

58) I'll have it apply only to the next use of PtC. The target of PtC will need to drink it and the sacrifice cost will be the same.

59)I haven't written any aging effects yet, but I eventually will.
Now: "At 9th level Monks no longer appear to age, never accumulate any penalties for growing older (though appropriate bonuses continue to accrue) and will never die of old age."

60) Yeah... I haven't been happy with the idea, so I've had a placeholder there until something better comes up.

Meikle641 · Post by **Meikle641** » Wed May 07, 2014 8:32 pm

Uploaded an updated version
http://heartbreakerdesign.tumblr.com/po ... pdate-time

momothefiddler · Post by **momothefiddler** » Thu May 08, 2014 10:26 am

15) Because 15 points of Intelligence gives me 1 points of Phantom Essence and 25 points of Willpower gives me 2 points of Phantom Essence. It's a matter of where you round (truncate, actually).

17) Hm. Something like that. I didn't realise Artisan(weapons) wasn't a skill, and I'm not sure about Hobbies. I'll address that when I get there though.

24-25) So "when transformed" means "when in hybrid or animal form" and "when not transformed" means "when in human form"? Just trying to clarify what's going on here.

32) "Paragons use the inherent powers of the world to their benefit with Menhir magic. Technomancers break the rules of the the world using Akashic magic. Magi rewrite the rules entirely to their benefit with Celestial magic." I have no idea what this means, but it's basically fluff as far as I can tell so I guess it's not a big deal.

36-37) Can Berserkers only gain Fury while under the effects of Berserk? If so, that should be stated because as written currently they get Fury any time they damage or are damaged.

39) I like that.

47) Better specify that, then, because currently you could have a really awesome Berserker pistolero and that's... a potentially cool idea that you probably don't want.

48) Still a heavy conceptual focus on self-control, as far as I've encountered. I'd go with something more like Brawler, if I could think of a similar word that included exotic abilities like the class gets. Monk is probably good enough if nothing better comes along....

52) A straight line? Starting at the Monk? What are valid targets? Does the Monk get to exclude allies (or trees, or squirrels, or...)?

55) Yeah, but it's implied that it's a series of jumps. I s'pose it's fine without affecting it.

56) Seems ok.

Not a lot of stamina at the moment, so I'll probably just get through the Necromancer.

61) p24: I really like the Bonds of Ka mechanic. I have no idea if the numbers are balanced or whatever; I just really like it.

62) p24: Bad Touch: Is this an attack or not? It's a "simple Combat action", and it's called a "touch", so maybe not really, but it still applies Brawn bonus damage, so maybe yes. Do Parries/Counters/Dodges apply? Do Sneak Attacks apply? And so on. Does this also do standard unarmed damage? What' is standard unarmed damage? I was amused at the Fists entry, but now I don't know if the 1bl in the table is for punching or what.

63) p24: Knuckle Buster: What's the Range on this?

64) p24: Signature Spell: I like this. It means you have to make sure none of your spells break the game if they're cast for free, though, and that any further supplements also have to be checked for that. Worth it? Maybe.

65) p25: Meatshields: Is the term well-enough known that the joke would still be accessible if you made it, like, "Boneshields" or something to reference the undead nature of the......... never mind I am horrible at humour.

66) p25: Undead Familiar: So the familiar can have Willpower up to the Necromancer's Willpower-10, and Intelligence up to the Necromancer's Intelligence-10?

67) p25: Undead Familiar: Can the Necromancer sequester extra strain to affect only one stat? That is, if the 6th level Necromancer has Intelligence 40 and Willpower 50, and the Undead starts with both at 10, the Necromancer can spend 3 Strain to raise those to I:28/W:28, right? But can spend 4 Strain to raise them to I:30/W:34? Or 5 Strain to raise them to I:30/W:40?

68) p25: Undead Familiar: The Familiar Abilities don't all necessarily depend on the Familiar's Intelligence or Willpower - can a Necromancer sequester zero Strain and get the Familiar without raising its abilities at all?

69) p25: Undead Familiar: Can a Necromancer have more than one Familiar at a time? This is far more important if zero Strain is an option as above, but even without it's important.

70) p25: Master of Death: See this (probably) isn't nearly as consistently useful as Immaculate Soul, but it's cool and it's active and the general utility is covered by Mystic Arts anyway and I'd probably pick Necromancer over Monk every single time if it were just based on the final level abilities.

Next: Scout

(Note, I've had this open and been working on it off and on all day (night) and did not notice the updated version until I previewed the post. I'll start using the new pdf next post and if anything in this one is already fixed that's why.)

momothefiddler · Post by **momothefiddler** » Thu May 08, 2014 10:31 am

Brief note before I go to bed: If you're drawing numbers out of a hat, your d100 has to be a draw->replace->draw, not a straight draw->draw or you eliminate a tenth of the options (which are fortunately fairly evenly spread, but still) because you can't have doubles.

Maybe also mention that in either case 00 is 100, not 0.

Meikle641 · Post by **Meikle641** » Thu May 08, 2014 4:31 pm

Here's a sample of the setting by my head writer, Robert Kosarko:

If we are victorious in one more battle with the Romans, we shall be utterly ruined.
-Pyrrhus of Epirus, King of Macedon, 279 B.C., on the Battle of Asculum

Welcome to the world of Pyrrhus.
Weapons locker’s on your right, the enemy’s straight ahead. Win and you’ll be richer than the dreams of avarice, or at least going to sleep with all four limbs intact this time. But victory may have a devastating cost.

Pyrrhus is a world of perpetual war. Violence is the universal language and the cornerstone of society. The known world is still recovering from the after-effects of catastrophe some hundred fifty years ago, by the local calendar. The glove was thrown, the hammer dropped, the destruction all but total. The shape of cultures, of nations, even the very landscape was changed. Some said it was the war to end all wars, the War of the Gods, but the rest knew better. War doesn’t change.

Or… does it?
In the ruin-filled continent, packed to the brim with squabbling fiefdoms, principalities, kingdoms, empires, republics and combines, one city still shines in pre-cataclysmic splendor.

Bastion, the City of Crystal and Steel. Concrete, pavement, metal and light ring outward in circles of wonder, spires clawing at the sky while mist pools in the neon-drenched streets. Flicking lights from computer and radiovision screens reflect off oil-slick puddles, and the coated masses hustle below flickering ghosts of the past. Every grand market and dingy back-alley shop holds wonders, and every grand plaza and seedy street-rat bar has some opportunity for the enterprising young adventurer. Bastion’s neutrality is enforced by the Sentinels, fearsome pre-Cataclysmic guardians armed with powerful weapons and psionic wards. Under the Sentinels, Bastion allows people from all corners of the world to meet and trade in relative peace. Peace, what a foreign concept!
There might be hope for a better world yet, if some enterprising young do-gooders push it along enough. Of course, maybe instead they’d just like to get filthy rich instead.

If they survive the mysterious hostile aliens, enemy armies, mad scientists, cyber-crackers, corporate hit-squads, criminal masterminds and unstoppable ancient relics of the Age of the Gods, that is. Have fun!

Commence Wargames & Wizards!
Pyrrhus is a campaign setting designed as a backdrop for tabletop gaming with the BIWA Role-Playing rules system. This is a world where might makes right and constant warfare is the rule. After a horrific cataclysm about one hundred and fifty years before the present, the three great nations of the world were effectively shattered. Into this political power vacuum arose an almost endless number of smaller nations, countries, kingdoms and what have you, all battling for dominance over land, resources, ancient cultural and racial enmities, and plenty else. The powerful can always find a reason why they need something more, and everyone under them gets dragged along.

Into this world go you, our intrepid heroes. Pyrrhus is a world of endless opportunity for adventuring sorts, filled to the brim with ancient empires both remembered in battle-cries and forgotten in graves, dilapidated ruins reeking of treasures, legends to pursue and megalomaniacs to catch. You’ll probably want to start in Bastion, the only city in the world untouched by war, neon-drenched streets winding beneath dizzying spires, all full of every sort of person and being and every sort of technology and wonder sandwiched between fantastic old-world science.

Bastion has endless stories to tell, like the Sprawl of William Gibson’s cyberpunk stories or the Gotham City of DC Comics’ Batman. (Indeed, those two cities were a great influence on the look and feel of the place.) But there’s more than that. Plenty of nations have agendas to advance, and there’s room enough that MCs and players can make their own to their hearts’ content. There are mysterious visitors from the stars occupying desert craters, subterranean dungeons, crumbling military bases, and high-tech floating laboratories travelling on the ocean waves. We’ve tried to provide all the idea seeds and tools an MC would need to tell a good story.

Maybe players want to save the day from scheming advisors, shut down hostile mega-corporate takeovers, or just kick in the door to the secret underground military base and start blasting with your shotguns. Maybe they want to make a difference in the world, make things better, reconcile ancient hatreds and put an end to the warfare. Maybe they’re just in it for the shiniest toys. It’s always up to you, really. We’ve got a place in our hearts for Gary Gygax and Zeb Cook both, and Pyrrhus is meant to accommodate role-playing (amateur drama!) and roll-playing (shootin’ up bad guys for experience points) equally.

The 21st-Century Gentleman’s Guide to Pyrrhus
Pyrrhus’ setting can best be described as ‘Alternate Modern’. The world’s technology level is roughly equivalent to our world’s early 1980’s. Computers exist, of the glowing teletype text on black screens variety, and there is some limited networking, enough that ‘hackers’ find a demand for their work. Transportation is by automotive and motorbike rather than horse and caravan. The weapon of choice of militaries is the automatic rifle instead of the spear, and street thugs prefer big shiny wrist-breaking handguns to daggers. Business empires frequently wield as much power as nations, and are often much richer. (We don’t have cell phones, because there’s too many classic story tropes that access to cell phones kills dead. Think about it.) Things have progressed along roughly similar paths as the real world, with two great differences. The first is that unlike the real world, where humans are basically decent (or at least, just want to be left alone), the cultures and society of Pyrrhus grew up around the wholesale embrace of violence as a solution to life’s problems. The second major great difference in the path of development is Magic.

Psionics, psychics, ESP, spells, wizardry, sorcery, call it whatever. Magic is real. Magic is real enough and common enough that people react to it roughly the same way that people in North America react to the sight of a pigeon. Roughly two thirds to three quarters of the population are psychic. About 15% to 20% of the population are powerfully psychic, able to do things with their minds and a few impressive-sounding syllables what it would take expensive machinery to do in the real world. The most advanced tech are careful fusions of mechanics and psionics, substituting or bypassing the limits of physical laws with psionic effects.

There are three categories of magic which every power falls into, each named for one of the three great pre-Cataclysmic societies and each messing with the mundane world in a fundamentally different way. Menhir powers are the most ancient, a primal force coming from the bones of the land itself, stretching the laws of reality to enable mighty feats. Celestial powers come from, and are inspired by, the stars and extraterrestrial forces, warping the rules of reality to enable unlikely and spectacular effects. Akashic powers fuse psionics with technology, making machines work better or differently than they ought to, and effectively breaking the rules of reality.

Three kinds of psionics. Enhance laws of the universe, bend the laws, break the laws. From magic comes Menhir-enhanced berserker strength to shrug off a face-full of buckshot, Celestial-twisted bolts of light offering up a staircase over the barb-wire fence, or Akashic-altered submachine guns ignoring that whole ‘ammo capacity’ problem for when you just really need to go Sylvester on some bad guys. Just as well, Menhir-enhanced construction results in buildings literally sticking to sheer vertical faces without supports, Celestial-enhanced skyscrapers reaching high into the sky despite the objections of gravity, and Akashic-enhanced motorbikes making travel across hundreds of miles a matter of a few hours, instead of the weeks a horse would take. The more advanced theories of electromagnetism may not have been discovered, but when you can simply bend the air to transmit radiovision pictures hundreds of miles instead, who needs them?

It isn’t any wonder that war is bloody when anybody you meet could be packing a hydrogen bomb in their gray matter.

O brave new world, that has such people in’it!
Humans are great, we all like humans. Most of us, anyway. This is no doubt because almost all of us are humans. But in the world of Pyrrhus, humans are just one of many races spread out on the continent. Creatures in Pyrrhus come in all shapes and sizes, each with multiple distinct cultures, nations and histories of their own, each with their own opinions on the others formed by diplomacy, history, trade, and the business ends of their firearms.

The Humans are the ones everyone already knows. A mixture of contradictions, humans are equally known for their capacity for great cruelty and ruthlessness, and their willingness to integrate with and befriend outsiders. With one hand they can offer a pistol cartridge to the face, with the other a box of food to a starving beggar. They are, at best, half-civilized, with only the thin veneer of society keeping most of them from acting out their worst impulses. Still, there are enough who act otherwise to give the rest of the world some hope.

The Alfar hail from the lands below, a short and thin people with pointed features and eyes that sparkle like gemstones. Alfar are a people of extremes, their mood either melancholy and grumpy or jovial and cheerful with very rarely a point in-between. In a world where the arms race is perpetual and technology advances at a breakneck pace, the Alfar are still the undisputed masters of craftsmanship, their long lifespans and attention to detail making their works of art priceless treasures and their weapons terrifyingly innovative.

The Hrokr are giant avians with trickster grins and an inborn warped sense of humor. Though by nature introverted and preferring to live isolated lives, their equally-strong desire to cause disruption and chaos occasionally lead them out of their high-altitude and deep-forest monasteries into the rest of civilization. Hrokr are a race of scholars, by their tradition being the first people to receive the gifts of writing and Celestial magic from their ancient gods, and Hrokr tech is desired and feared by all the other races, particularly the ones tired of city-wide blackouts. At least the birds thought it was hilarious.

Myrmidons are the now-waking remnant of lost technology in a bygone era, intelligent humanoid war machines known for waking up confused in centuries-old battlefields, and for their unflinching loyalty to whatever cause or people they adopt as their own. Myrmidons come in many shapes and sizes, but all are composed of machinery that mimics the biology of living beings. Myrmidons make the best bodyguards on Pyrrhus, and command respect from those they befriend for both their loyalty and their tendency towards foolish heroics. Just as often, sadly, they command derision for their attempts to integrate into a world which has long since left them behind.

The Dopplegangen are a race of no fixed appearance, paranoid and secretive, who live like cuckoo birds on other societies, fitting in where they’re welcomed and hiding where they aren’t. Master infiltrators, the Dopplegangen are able to shift their facial features, increase or decrease their body proportions, and change skin tones with mental effort. Rather than having a psionic tradition of their own, Dopplegangers are able to read the minds and powers of other races and take magic spells for their own use. Not just mimics in the physical sense, reading the minds of others to survive has made the race simultaneously master psychologists and master thespians. Doppleganger-created entertainment and theater is renowned; Doppleganger spies and infiltrators moreso.

The Irkrhysst, ‘Children of the Sun’ (or just Lizardmen, as the rest of the world calls them), are hulking, hunched-over reptilians, formerly the undisputed masters of the largest of the three pre-Cataclysm nations, now more apt to live in enclaves outside major population centers. Engineering masters, the Lizardmen are more capable than even the Alfar in construction on Pyrrhus, building their cities in impossible locales like deep swamps and hurricane-wracked bays, seamlessly blending artificial with nature. Unusually, the Lizardmen don’t seem to other cultures to be especially bitter about the loss of their empire; in fact, Lizardmen seem to have an easy way with everybody, smoothly integrating wherever they go and gaining a reputation as the best diplomats on the continent. They’re almost too friendly…

The Lycan, or Lycanthropes, are less of a people than an affliction. A disease passed among humans and alfar transforms them into a bestial form, taking on the aspects of animals and simultaneously turning them into creatures out of the sort of stories we really shouldn’t be reading to children at night. Lycanthropes are masters of Menhir magic, known for using it to bizarre and innovative effect, and driving up the asking prices for Lycanthrope mercenaries in armies across the continent. The nomadic family unit is more important to Lycanthropes than any nation, creed or origin; even moreso than Dopplegangers they have little culture of their own.

The Orcus, or just Orcs, are an aquatic people, hairy powerfully-muscled bodies at home slipping through the waves below, or traveling above in their floating cities. The Orcs do everything in extremes; a job is a noble cause that ends in victory or death, a new weapon must be the finest weapon their hands had ever built, and every campaign is the campaign that finally reunites the continent under their banner. Orc navies have no match in Pyrrhus, and other societies find it easier to buy or steal from them than try to match the Orcs’ masterful fishbone battleships. Orc Marines, soldiers trained to infiltrate battlefields from unusual directions like below the waterline, are some of the most desirable mercenaries on the continent.

Duranta are the new kid on the block. Mysterious, secretive, sharing nothing with anybody, coming and going like the wind, jealously guarding… something. The Duranta arrived within the last few decades on Pyrrhus, coming from a colossal ship that came screaming out of the sky and crashing into the great salt deserts to the north, leaving behind the massive crater now called ‘The Eye’. Duranta tech and weaponry are completely unlike anything else in the world of Pyrrhus; something distinct, something alien. Duranta motives are frequently unfathomable, and while they seem to be trying to spread a reputation as traders with their fleets of caravans distributing bizarre wonders, whispers behind their backs speak of darker secrets. Things the Duranta are desperate to keep from the rest of the continent. More than one story tells of bizarre shapes twisting in the depths of the Eye…

The Pyrrhic Geographic Society wants you!
The Pyrrhus campaign setting takes place on a supercontinent, a single giant landmass with a dizzying variety of environments. Great salt deserts boiling with heat lie to the north, frozen wastes which none have passed beckon from the south, and in every direction lie forests, mountains, valleys and plains, all bearing the unmistakable mark of the Cataclysm that reshaped Pyrrhus’ geography.

Roughly near the middle of the landmass lies the sole center of neutrality among the world’s factions, the Free City of Bastion, drenched in neon and mist from the top of its spires to the bottom of its streets, patrolled by sentinels from an ancient time. Scattered in every direction around are fiefdoms, kingdoms, empires, principalities, republics, theocracies and confederacies, all vying for land and resources, led by master tacticians with grand plans of conquest or just petty tyrants looking to get enough land to build a bigger palace.

Cities of the Lizardmen cling to the outskirts of major population centers, the Alfar communities stretch below ground and touch surface in the most unexpected places, and Orc floating cities travel on the complex network of bays and rivers that wind their way west to east across the continent. The massively irradiated Blight to the north-west, the aftermath of a long-forgotten battle, gives way on the south to Scarberg, a mountain with a massive slice taken out of the middle, whose sheer walls are now lined with elaborate carvings and gravity-defying homes. The Crying Mountain, an autonomous enclave of powerful businesses and cartels, drips with a perpetual dew that gives the territory its name. The mysterious, unsettling Eye, the glass crater left by the Duranta’s wrecked vessel, beckons from the White Wastes, great salt deserts where once oceans stood millennia ago. Hrokar monasteries dot the peaks of the Knife Tooth mountains, promising secrets of science and magic to those willing to beat the odds of disaster on the tricksters’ roads.

National and societal identity is equally as important in Pyrrhus as race, the usual status quo in an average fantasy role-playing game. Though individual cities and towns may be peopled heterogeneously, particularly Hrokar enclaves, most of the upstart nations on the continent identity with one of the three major pre-Cataclysmic civilizations: the Akashic Hegemony, Menhir State, and Celestial Empire. Many of them see themselves as the one true rightful inheritor of one of these fallen states, and feel a duty to attempt to reunite the wayward under their banner. People are bound by ties of political beliefs, family history, or even just which fizzy sugar-water beverage they prefer. There’s more than enough reason for conflict everywhere you go, and once the cycle of violence starts it is very, very difficult to stop. That doesn’t mean someone won’t try, though, does it? Even if not, your opportunities await.

Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up.
The world of Pyrrhus is designed to offer the players and MC two things. The first is, of course, to give us something to do with the extensive combat rules. Role-Playing Games are, after all, descended from the medieval miniatures war-gaming played on felt-covered card tables in wood-paneled basements of 1970’s Lake Geneva, and combat is the major part of the BIWA rules system. That’s fine. War-gaming is fun.

But over the years, plot has become just as important. It’s not enough to kick in the door and attack the Orc with a Greatsword, we want to know why he’s there. What’s he doing? Does he have a plan of his own? Are you making a widow of his wife or orphans of his children by treating him as just some obstacle? You monster. Get out of this house.

No, you don’t have to take it that seriously if you don’t want to. Games are supposed to be fun. But Role-Playing Games offer much more than just a backdrop to fight things, they offer a chance to tell stories, design elaborate plots, let players create a character and see what that character does. Playing a role, as it were. Pyrrhus offers the opportunity for both in equal measure. There’s fighting, there’s conflict, and it’s for a reason, however petty or grand it might be. This campaign setting is designed to give you those reasons, make players think about what they’re doing, while still letting you take out the bad guys and rake in the treasures. Amateur drama is fun.

Stories can be set in the City of Bastion, in one of the provided lands, or MCs can simply design their own; there’s plenty of room for expansion. The rest of this book will contain descriptions of places, people, societies and history of this world, all the better to spark some ideas.

Now get out there and have some fun already.

Meikle641 · Post by **Meikle641** » Thu May 08, 2014 11:15 pm

15) Mm, okay.
"Phantom Essence: A Doppelganger has one point of Phantom Essence for every 10 points of their combined Intelligence and Will attributes."

24-25) Yup, that's the gist of it.

32) Yup, just a fluff thing.

36-37) "Fury points vanish when the Berserk spell ends. A berserker gains 2 + 1/2 class level points of Fury when the Berserk spell is cast, they also gain 1 point each time they're damaged, and 2 points when they damage a target while under the spell. All remaining Fury points are lost when the Berserk spell ends."

47) Added the word "melee" before attack.

52)
"Shockwave: A monk may create a shockwave as a Complex action, and may knock over targets in their shockwave's path. A shockwave is a straight line with a range of 5 + class level metres, and a width of 2 metres and hits everyone in its area. Targets must pass a Hard Agility test or be knocked prone (if possible), and are dealt 5 + 1/2 class level in damage regardless of the result."

61) It seems like it should work. It's a good idea to me since I makes you balance your need to not die vs having more or streonger minions. It also allows for the big bad necromancer to go all boss mode on the party once they clear through his minions.

62-63) How's this?
- Bad Touch: Necromancers may cloak their hands in green and black wisps, and dealing damage to those they touch. As a Simple action a necromancer may make a [Normal] attack, dealing 3 + 1/2 class level in magic damage on a successful Combat roll. This harms living creatures, but heals undead and necromancers.

- Knuckle Buster: Necromancers can shoot bones from their hands at as a simple action, at the cost of 1 HP. On a successful Marksmanship roll, it dealing 5 + Willpower modifier in damage, in addition to Agility bonuses. The bones regrow after each shot and have a range of 20m.

65) The meaning is straight forward enough, so I figured it'd be fine.

66) Yup)
67) Basically, yeah. He's the revised version.
"By sequestering at least 1 point of strain into a particular undead, a necromancer imbues it with special abilities and increased mental prowess. Each strain point increases the target's Intelligence and Willpower by 3 + 1/2 class level (rounded down) to a limit of the necromancer's attributes -10.

If the familiar dies or is released from the familiar bond, the sequestered strain returns to the caster. Sequestered strain does not return until the familiar bond is released or destroyed. Only one familiar can be bound to a necromancer, and the binding ritual requires 15 minutes to complete. "

68) Nah. I changed the wording to make it explicit now, though.

69) I think it'd be best if it is restricted to one familiar, so I changed it to this:
"Only one familiar can be bound to a necromancer, and the binding ritual requires 15 minutes to complete."

70) Yeah... It is pretty awesome, but I'll need to figure out the mechanics for it. I'd definitely like something as awesome for Monk. Maybe a reincarnation effect like Koumei's Totemist?

--

Good point on the dice and drawing. The dice thing does vary on the particular die, though. I know I have d10s that do it either way; some have single digits others have 2. I'll make a note about it, though.

momothefiddler · Post by **momothefiddler** » Thu May 08, 2014 11:59 pm

36-37) "A berserker gains 2 + 1/2 class level points of Fury when the Berserk spell is cast. In addition, while under the effects of the spell, they also gain 1 point each time they're damaged and 2 points when they damage a target. All remaining Fury points are lost when the Berserk spell ends."

52) Technically still doesn't say the line has one end at the monk, though that's pretty obviously RAI at this point.

67) How long does it take to release the familiar bond? Can it be done at a distance?

70) "What's that? I'm a ghost? I don't have any weapons or armor? Oh well, I didn't need them anyway. Lemme just punch Death in his dumb ugly bone face and then I'll climb back into my body." I have no clue if you want anything like this but it was what I immediately thought of.

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Fair. Even then, though, 10,10 is 100, not 1010 or 110.

Meikle641 · Post by **Meikle641** » Wed May 14, 2014 3:08 am

36-37) Cool. Worded a lot better.

67) If the familiar dies or is released from the familiar bond, the sequestered strain returns to the caster. Sequestered strain does not return until the familiar bond is released or destroyed. Only one familiar can be bound to a necromancer, and the binding ritual requires 15 minutes to complete or 1 minute to sever, with a range of 5m. A familiar bond has a range of 1km per class level.

momothefiddler · Post by **momothefiddler** » Fri May 16, 2014 6:57 pm

Sorry about the delay here. Stuff.

Anyway, the Scout!

71) p27: Power Type: This is the first class with a power limitation and I haven't yet looked closely at the spells, but I wonder how much of a limitation this is, and what caused you to pick these two instead of a different pair?

72) p27: Combat Exploits: "Combat Exploits have a 2 round cool-down period." Does this mean you use it one turn, don't the next turn, and then do again the turn after that, or do you have to go two turns without using it? Maybe this is obvious and I'm just missing it.

73) p27: Combat Exploits: Is the cooldown shared (you can't use any combat exploits within _____ of using one) or individual (you can't use that one, but can trade off once you have two or three)?

74) p27: Tuck and Roll: Given the cooldown, it's a valid strategy to throw a scout twice in quick succession. Seems odd, but plausible I guess.

75) p27: Opportunist: You may...?

76) p27: Shock and Awe: Listing the cooldown here again is redundant.

77) p28: Parkour: That's one Strain total, right, not 1 Strain per metre? Also "1 metres"->"1 metre".

78) p28: Cheap Shot: "Scouts hurt people from a distance. Any target flanked by" this is not a mechanical complaint but the flavor is dissonant next to the immediately following bit of mechanics. Plus, the name and flavor both indicate this is about ranged stuff, but this is more useful for melee. Just a mismatch there.

79) p28: Afterimage: If the roll fails and you have another afterimage, can you sacrifice that, or is it just one per attack?

80) p29: Afterimage: Also why doesn't it say you may sacrifice an afterimage? I suppose it makes some sense but it seems odd to force the Scout to use them on the first 1-3 attacks rather than a potentially worse one.

Next: Vanguard

Meikle641 · Post by **Meikle641** » Sun May 25, 2014 6:03 am

Sorry for the delay; been a busy and distracting week or so.

71: Think I figured that those two would be most beneficial, maybe. Thinking of changing these things to either "you must be x oy y", "All" or "Usually x". Like, Berserkers are usually Menhir while Necromancers would usually be Menhir or Celestial.

72) The intent for it was to be every other round, but wording is hard.

73) They're meant to be individual, so that after say, using Draw Fire you could then use something else, actions permitting.

75) I think the idea was to have an AoO or rogue type thing going on, but I never got around to it.

76) Good point.

77) One point total, yup.

78) Basically, Cheap Shot is Tome Assassin's Death Attack meets Rogue's Sneak Attack. A Cheap Shot is slang for a dirty or underhanded attack, so I went with that for the name. I think I wanted to try and balance melee and ranged for it, since ranged attacks would otherwise totally dominate, given the higher ranged weapon damages.

79) Probably should just be 1 per attack, but I could see it going the other way too.

80) Yeah, the intention there was to not give the scout choice on when to sacrifice them. It's like 3.5's Mirror Image spell in effect, basically. Plus all they need to do is stop, then start running again to get more.

Meikle641 · Post by **Meikle641** » Tue May 27, 2014 5:28 am

Another sample from my writer.

When the past is always with you, it may as well be present; and if it is present, it will be future as well.
-William Gibson, Neuromancer

2. The Free City of Bastion

~Here is Dennis Taygir, human, twenty-six years old. He's a bad mother, you can tell. Stands there smoking a cigarello beneath a flashing street sign, mirror-shades shining.

Yeah, Dennis is bad. Look at him, one hand taking a draw, the other resting on the handle of his Jarais Maker Custom. .44 Auto, best damn piece you can find down here in Static-town, baddest part of the baddest ring in Bastion. Even got it embossed, got his name right there in the handle, inlaid in platinum. Piece like that, you're either bad or a corpse, this part of town, this time of night. Piece like that, the piles'll be wet in the pants even before the Bastion night rain gets to them.

How bad is Dennis? The worst. The best. Rat, hoodlum, thug, Street Samurai, call him what you will. He's heard it all, any name you got, he doesn't give a flip. That coat he's wearing? That's Hrokr-made, real ancient work, carved scale runeplate and real bear fur, legit. You can't buy that, the only way you get that is taking it off some mother who ain't as bad as you. That's how he got it. That crow-man didn't need it, not in the gutter where he's sitting now. Got plenty of blood in the pool to keep him warm, the poor pile.

Dennis is bad. He finishes his cig, throws it on the rain-slick conplast, stamps it out. Taps his Jarais. He's telling the world he don't give a flip what you think. Wearing what he is, he's telling the world to bring it. Bring what you got, he'll bring more. Got a contract lined up just tonight, 14 megabytes of hot ram in his satchel, four dead meatsacks in his past and just a dropoff to go. Gonna make his employer happy, gonna make Dennis happy. Maybe the money'll go to an even bigger piece. Maybe he'll get his gods-damned name engraved into the armor, why not. Let the suckers really know who they're messing with before their brain gets a bit of air.

Watch Dennis finish his smoke, watch him swing off as if these streets belong to him. Street Samurai, this is my fiefdom, move out the way, rice paddy peasant. Yeah, he's bad, no doubt about it.

The psychic bullet ripping through his skull a second later lets him know, just a second too late for it to be useful, that Dennis, you poor flipping meatsack, it don't matter how bad you are. There's always someone badder than you, and Bastion, she's got a million more of em'. Maybe would have been a useful lesson for Dennis a second ago. But he ain't bad no more.

Look at the crow-man smile as he takes that mighty fine piece and that mighty fine armor.

Intro: The Neon-Drenched Streets

The Cataclysm, whatever its nature, changed the face of the entire continent both geologically and socially. In all the world of Pyrrhus, only one city still shines in untouched pre-Cataclysmic splendor.

Bastion is the neutral city, the Free City, concrete and crystal and electricity in concentric circles, drenched in flickering neon and buried under smoke and fog, but rising to touch the bottom of the sky. Bastion is the stronghold of the past in the uncertain present, and the reflection of the future in the mirrored shades of street thugs.

In less poetical and more statistical terms, Bastion is a city sited in a glacier valley almost exactly in the geographical center of the Pyrrhus supercontinent, shaped like a series of progressively tighter circles, holding a population of about ten million over an area of perhaps 250 square miles. Circles of Bastion are differentiated from each other by the height of the structures within; single-story on the outermost ring, tall enough to touch the clouds in the center. The tallest spires are perpetually shrouded in fog and mist, and the lower levels of the inner circles rarely lack at least a drizzle of cold rain.

In the midst of this downpour, Bastion is a city of lights. Psitech bulletin-boards, corporate and national ads, radiovision broadcasts and neon-tubed signs compete for the attention of a teeming population of millions of traders, corporate officers, foreign diplomats, hardened soldiers, street thugs, mercenaries, vagrant wanderers and kids out for a good time. The city is both the geographical center of the continent and the cultural center of Pyrrhus society, where the latest in psitech and the most mysterious of ancient remnants mix. Alfar peddle their crafts from electric storefronts and back alley shops. Human Street Samurai make shady deals over drinks and cigarellos with cloaked and hooded Lycan agents. Recently-awakened Myrmidon warriors play board games with Hrokr mystics on trash can lids. Inscrutable Duranta caravaneers call out their strange, alien wares to passerby. Mercs to join your cause, thugs to mess up your rivals, adventurers for hire to raid ancient ruins, weapons and armor and electronics and vehicles and computers and more abstract wonders. If it can be found anywhere, it can be found here.

This cultural mixing, unique in Pyrrhus, is due to several unreproducible examples of surviving pre-Cataclysmic technology which effectively make the city impossible to besiege or take by military force. Most are subtle, but one is blatant, the one which any visitor to Bastion will notice first: the Sentinels, hulking psionically-powered, autonomous machines. Bristling with horrifying weapons, clad in impenetrable armor alloys and covered in powerful magic wards, Sentinels come in an array of shapes and sizes, from building-high to human-high, light as a bird and wide as a boulevard, but all endlessly patrol the borders, streets and skyline of Bastion, seeking out any sign of military presence and brutally suppressing it with lethal force. Though less interested in stopping simple everyday street violence, the Sentinels enable the people of Bastion to meet, trade and live in relative peace.