SHIELDBREAKER: Play Report 1

Last night I GMed my first LotFP game! The game was set in my Phantasmos campaign setting. On the whole I think it went pretty well, but I'll discuss it all in detail below. Also I don't know what the hell happened with the formatting on this post, it's clearly a mess but I can't figure out how to fix it so it's just gonna be what it's gonna be >.<.

The Premise

    The players are part of the Pearl Panthers, a mercenary group hired by the Grim General in Blue to resolve issues that Nova Arkham can't or does not want to directly involve itself with. The kingdom utilizes a program known as SWORD & SHIELD. Through unknown (and implicitly shady) means, the kingdom has acquired a large quantity of deceased axols, humanoid axolotl-like mutants born in pairs, where one sibling is a powerful psionic nematode-like creature. They reanimated the axols as Unliving, programming the humanoids into SHIELDs and the psionic siblings into SWORDS. 

    

    The SHIELDs are like tactical idiot savants, they have little to no ability to communicate rationally and little to no individual will, but are geniuses at urban tactics, manipulating the workings of the capitol in their favor. The SWORDs are like super-wolves, programmed to be the ultimate hunters. The SWORDs are programmed to hunt the SHIELDs, and the SHIELDs are programmed to divert the SWORDs. As the SWORDs learns the SHIELDs' tricks, the SHIELDs must improve their tactics to survive. The intel gathered from the SWORD & SHIELD program is utilized by the Grim General to better predict crime, re-organize the capitol for maximum efficiency, and tighten his grip on Nova Arkham. 

    One of the SHIELDs has gone rogue, manipulating the SWORDs and the capitol city of Nova Arkham itself. It is not known how, or why, but it is wreaking havoc in its wake.

The Characters

    Unfortunately only two players were able to make it to this first session, but fortunately they were both great!

    Cynope (played by Dan D): A quenduin amazon. She works for the Pearl Panthers to make money to take care of her sick sister.

    

    Xx_Slayer_Queen_69 (played by Michael Kennedy): Also known as X or Slayer. A mutant phreaker and thrillseeker. She's a goth cyberpunk hacker-type with a scarlet mohawk, spiky black jacket, automagic PMC strapped to one arm, and a roth obsidian visor covering her red eyes.

Play Report

          The party started at Helnwein's Tavern, celebrating their first successful mission, having busted a Dogu mafia electrocoil gun deal. They discussed the course of events to their handler, Arnold Tanaka. X charmed the entire gang and Cynope literally punched through their faces. Some embellishment may have occurred, but forever after that's how it will be remembered.

          Arnold planted a mesmeric suggestion into the party, effectively allowing them to maintain mental communication with him and each other. The communication is actually a neural network-like model estimate; the longer they go between mesmerism sessions, the more communication errors will occur.

          He gives the party the following intel: 

1.           The SHIELD was seeing the psychiatrist Doctor Hyboria before going rogue.
2.           A SWORD manipulated by the SHIELD intercepted the Phantom Sheriff during an arrest, releasing two dangerous outlaw mutants. Their victims are being treated at Quickie-Cut Barbershop and Feldshery.
3.           The Oracle owes Arnold a favor, as a last resort they can seek consultation.
4.           Arnold's mesmerist network predicts the danger of the rogue SHIELD with a doomsday clock. As they travel from place to place, the doomsday clock moves closer to midnight.

    The party traveled to Doctor Hyborea's mansion. They got lost along the way, but the constantly developing urban sprawl of the capitol is confusing, and the mansion is a bit off the meridian system... Anyway, they fail to find any major lead on the SHIELD, except that Doctor Hyborea does seem to know something, but also seems to be going dangerously insane.

    They travel to the Sheriff's office. The Phantom Sheriff gives them zir's intel. Most of it is redacted, but they learn that the outlaws were involved in some gang war, and their names are Barry and Terry. Barry is a barracuda-like bioluminscent mutant. When blue, he's docile, when red, he's psychopathically violent. Terry is a large humanoid mutant with super strength and loose skin which he calls his "foldy flaps". By stretching and scrunching the foldy flaps, he can tell fortunes and make predictions, making him not just strong, but also smart.

    They travel to the barbershop to interrogate The Feldsher and the victims of the fight with the outlaws. They learn that the outlaws were working with professional-looking goons associated with Occulon, and that the conflict involved a fight with electrocoil gun-wielding Dogu mafioso. Occulon is a powerful businessman who spends much of his time at the Forum, and has been gunning for the Grim General's job. While ostensibly above-board, everyone knows he's a crook.

    They travel to the Forum to investigate Occulon. Along the way, they get lost again. The Forum is located in the entertainment district and the party definitely knows how to get there. They realize that the SHIELD must be manipulating the city against them. X is ambushed by a SWORD, nearly killing her, before stalling momentarily and then running off. The party chooses not to track the SWORD, instead sticking to their original plan of investigating Occulon. Investigating the urban sprawl they were attacked in, they find a dead goon whose head was missing, as if entirely nullified. On the goon they find 30 gold and a potion that they could not identify.

    ... and that's where we left things off, with the Doomsday Clock at 4 and the party just outside the forum. Looking forward to seeing what they do next!

The Breakdown

    On the whole I think we had a good time and I'm reasonably happy with how this first game went. I generally prefer to have 3 or more players, but Dan and Mike were both awesome and made it work. I struggled a bit with the mechanics, not because LotFP is difficult, but because the sensibilities of OSR are so different from what I'm used to. I definitely over-relied on rolls when I should have made certain situations more streamlined. I also made some other mistakes that I'm kicking myself for because I know that I know better, and I think between being a bit rusty (my home group hasn't met in a while) and trying to get the feel for OSR, I stumbled a bit more than I would have liked. I also think I may have over-prepped a bit, to my disadvantage, and over-relied on exposition. I'm going to try to work on these things before the next game. That being said, Dan and Mike seemed to appreciate the mystery, the world, and the NPCs, so I think if I can clean up my GMing things will come together well for next play session. I anticipate this adventure taking 1-2 more play sessions, and from there we'll see where things go!

           

       

Qualia Elves and the Overlight by way of DeepDream

The mental images or thematic apperceptions of psychological projective tests; the objects seen in clouds; the phosphenes and hypnogogic imagery before sleep; pareidolia. Abstract like a Van Gogh painting or a projection of an elf through DeepDream. On sunny days they stream through physical space across sparse clouds on bolts of invisible lightning composed of the static charges of qualemes, the smallest units of subjective thought. They exist in and out of consciousness on the sunny plane of foggy minds known as The Overlight.

I ran this drawing by the artist Belibr of Merisiel from the tabletop RPG Pathfinder by Paizo through DeepDream, as a crude representation of the Qualia Elves and the Overlight from my list of 20 Weird & Wonderful Elf Subtypes. The "Overlight" was just some dumb bullshit I came up with on the spot as sort of a joking nod to the Underdark, but I was really happy with my writeup of the qualia elves and now I kind of actually want to write up a mini-setting for the Overlight. I dunno, is that something you would be interested in seeing? Let me know!

 

Elves

Unless I'm completely forgetting something, I believe this is my first Weird & Wonderful table that is setting-neutral and decidedly NOT Phantasmos. Elves in the traditional sense don't really exist in Phantasmos, but everyone likes elf subtypes, so I figured I'd if  I was going to do a non-Phantasmos table, this is where I'd have to start. My main goal will still be to focus on this setting (and at some point post about my other settings), but if people like these, I might do some more non-Phantasmos works now and then.

Elves (1d20)	Description
1. X-Ray Elves	Mostly translucent, shadow-like skin, muscles, and everything else up to the skeleton. Can project X-ray beams for X-ray vision.
2. Gamma Elves	Glowing neon-green skin, gigantic and muscular, violent and quick to anger, radioactive. Can project destructive gamma beams. Many wear special suits to contain their radiation and protect those around them.
3. Radio Elves	Bat-like ears which allow them to hear with greater spatial resolution and across a wider range of frequencies than typical elves. Have a mechanism in their throat like a cross between vocal chords, direct current generation, and the visual system, allowing them to emit and transduce radio-wave signals.
4. Cock Elves	Raptor-like warriors. Their hands and feet are bird claws, their forearms and lower legs are covered in feathers (usually white, brown, black, red, yellow, or less commonly green or teal). Males tend to have more exotic colors, and long, curled tail feathers (females have shorter tail feathers). Have a mohawk-like comb, sometimes feathered and sometimes hairy or bald. Commonly wear weaponized beak-masks.
5. Pestilence Elves	Mottled, jaundiced, green or blue skin. Rashes, parasites; bugs, mold, fungus. No hair or wispy and white. Pink eye. Rotten yellow or black teeth or gingivitis gums. STDs. Flesh-eating bacteria. Virulent. Can't be killed by any kind of disease, but can't live a life worth living either.
6. Purple Elves	Skin various shades of purple. Shiny obsidian hair like a starry sky. Fae-like in demeanor; whimsical and musical and brilliant and out of touch with reality. Dress lavishly, exotically, erotically, erratically, anachronistically, unconstrained by gender or class or race.
7. A-Gnostic Elves	Like a photo-negative of a black and white photo. Immune to any kind of divinity, divine presence, divine magic, faith, belief, or religion. Their very presence challenges the existence of gods, even in a world where gods or their divinity are tangible. Draw anti-divine power from themselves like a libertarian paladin, or jazz or blues or punk-rock bard.
8. Karma Elves	Born backwards- they spontaneously appear as elders, ending their natural lives as a sack of egg and sperm cells in meiosis. In their early elder stage they are nigh-invincible, full of karmic presence like an asura. They are childish, impulsive, and materialistic, but not necessarily evil. As they (de)-age, their karma drains, they detach from the material world, and their physical presence weakens. They can extend their stages of development by clinging to the material world, and in rare cases even reverse development, but in such a case they will inevitably and irreversibly transform into an asura, regardless of the cause or intention.
9. Asura Elves	Karma elves who, even if for noble reasons, became too attached to the material world. Incredibly powerful, but so driven by their base, material desires, that they no longer have a soul. They are still conscious, intelligent beings, but lack agency. Any intelligent being with a soul or agency innately finds them pathetic, unattractive, or disgusting, no matter how powerful, attractive, noble, wealthy, skilled, or accomplished the asura elf may be. For all their strength, they are perceived as children full of impotent rage.
10. Mu Elves	Elves from a sub-sub-atomic quantum relativistic microverse where logic is not only many-valued, but linear and effectively continuous. Causality as we know it does not apply, but can be roughly interpreted as backwards-causality. Their consciousness is a state of nonbeing; pure awareness prior to knowledge or experience.
11. Qualia Elves	The mental images or thematic apperceptions of psychological projective tests; the objects seen in clouds; the phosphenes and hypnogogic imagery before sleep; pareidolia. Abstract like a Van Gogh painting or a projection of an elf through DeepDream. On sunny days they stream through physical space across sparse clouds on bolts of invisible lightning composed of the static charges of qualemes, the smallest units of subjective thought. They exist in and out of consciousness on the sunny plane of foggy minds known as The Overlight.
12. Starborn Elves	Long ago, alien beings of light came to this world. The plants that absorbed the light merged with the celestial essence, transforming them. Able to absorb and manipulate light so efficiently that they can grow and move as rapidly as animals animate. Attuned to the world's electromagnetic field and plantae-sphere.
13. Shadow Elves	The distortions left behind in the presence of the divine- the platonic shadows of the gods themselves. Neither better nor worse than the gods from whom they are shaped. Manipulators of holy fire and the lesser shape of things, beings defined by absence.
14. Sex Elves	For every sexually reproducing species in every ecosystem, there are one or more ideal sexual types. They take on these types, co-opting the breeding pool of a species. Some take a form that will attract the most mates, others take a form that will attract a specific type of mate.
15. Blue Elves	Blue-blooded, tinge of blue to their skin. Vampiric, superhuman, superintelligent oppressors. Formed from the desire of other hierarchically-organized species to absolve themselves of responsibility for the state of their own civilization. Derive power from others believing in them, like Gaiman-esque gods or the desperate delusions of conspiracy theorists who want to feel important or believe there is order in the universe.
16. Lost Elves	Nearly indistinguishable from half-elves or even humans. A collection of elves all of whom were once of other kinds, but in failing to capitalize on their abilities, gradually degraded. Can be found, but the longer they are lost, the less likely it becomes. In rare cases, a lost elf not only finds themselves, but becomes some entirely different kind of elf.
17. Kink Elves	A homologue of sex elves. Not merely acting on primal "alpha" or "beta" instinct (although some utilize these instincts), they are intellectual and theatrical, charismatic, wielding force of will like sorcery. Systemic power is manipulated like an engineer designing an electrical circuit. Unlike sex elves, they are not necessarily physically attractive, their attractiveness comes from how they manipulate systems, power, and will.
18. Dada Elves	Not truly elves, an abstraction of a post-human fantasy age. Whereas humans bring civilization, science, and logic, the dada elves bring abstraction, critical thought, and uncanny deconstruction and recombination. Like uncanny valley alien anime characters come to life.
19. Reminiscence Elves	Fantastical creatures of sweetness and joy and naive adventures. A peaceful but stagnant people. Full of power, but without the desire or wisdom to apply it. Often develop co-dependent relationships with others.
20. Deep Elves	Of the forests, jungles, oceans, and other bodies inaccessible to humans. Majestic, but also fearsome. Animalistic but alien. Generally resemble dangerous, unknown, or long extinct creatures.

Danscape Play Report (with poorly-edited sprite art by me)!

I played my first game of LotFP/OSR/FLAILSNAIL the other day, with GM Dan D. His play report is great so I don't need to repeat it, just follow the link above. I feel like I have a better sense of what OSR and LotFP are all about now, and I'm looking forward to running my own Phantasmos LotFP game in the near future (was supposed to be this weekend, now I think some time next week :( ).

Despite rolling terribly all game, I'm really happy with how Harabim "Rob" Seraphael, the corrupted Anti-Mutant (former Anti-Cancer Druid) turned out. Ze was a little bit Data from Star Trek: TNG, a little bit Data doing other characters as he is wont to do on TNG, and a little bit of my own sensibilities.

I really appreciate Dan allowing me to use my own setting content in his game, and despite his caveats about how he was under-prepared, I had a lot of fun with his science fantasy sensibilities and hope to game again with him and the rest of the group soon!

Below is a brief writeup of Rob, and a poorly edited sprite art depiction of zir:

Zirs original name was wiped from zirs memory, along with any other pertinent knowledge of the anti-mutants and anti-cancer druids, after an encounter with an especially powerful urban organism corrupted zirs DNA. Ze nominally still identifies as an anti-cancer druid but has lost most of zirs abilities. Ze was chased off the Green Moon by the other anti-mutants, surviving only by chance after a clumsy escape. Ze has found zirself on a spacefaring vessel unfamiliar to zir, traveling far beyond the world ze knows.

Ze has taken on the name Harabim Seraphael, so named for zirs corruption of form, but after being told that the name sounded pretentious and morose, ze took the nickname “Rob”. Ze has most of zirs prior self-knowledge, but no personality or self-identity to speak of, although ze finds zirself phasing through different identities ze mimics from zir new acquaintances. 

Ze is humanoid, covered in a sleek metallic skin with neon green lines running throughout. Ze wears a vantablack cape and carries a noxium sprayer gun, stuck in the concentrated beam formation. With some effort, ze can feed simple matter such as crossbow bolts into the sprayer to fire reality-shredding beams of noxium. Ze’s head is reminiscent of a raven, and additionally has a neon green feathery plume. Ze also has a milky green, fleshy humanoid face.

Mogleth (art by Scrap Princess)

So now here is the official post for Mogleth, the second ordinal beasts which I have commissioned amazing art from Scrap Princess, and also the art I've used for the new background for the blog. I also have another piece of stream of consciousness prose and thinking man, I forgot where my head goes when I don't get a good night of sleep and really hope I'm not going to be embarrassed by this tomorrow.

(NOTE: temporarily removing prose, going to rewrite it at some point but I don't feel comfortable with what I wrote originally anymore)

Mun Jira REDUX (art by Scrap Princess)

This is a repost of Scrap Princess' amazing interpretation of Mun Jira, now accompanied with words.

5/31/19 Nearly a year later I am quietly attempting to re-do this writeup! It's definitely a WIP, I'll continue to work on it as time and inspiration allow.

6/11/19 Keep making false starts, will do this eventually...

LotFP: Decyphered (WIP)

This is an attempt to hack the OSR game Lamentations of the Flame Princess to utilize certain core mechanics from the Cypher System. Note that I have no LotFP/OSR experience (although I'm supposed to play my first LotFP game tonight!), but I love the Cypher system, and have been very interested in OSR for a while now and have read many OSR books and blogs and listened/watched many podcasts and actual plays. That being said, this is very much a WIP, given not only my lack of experience, and by extension that this has not been playtested, and also I whipped up this first version rather quickly. That being said, for as rough as it may be, I thought it might be more efficient to just put what I have out there and let people much better and more experienced than me at game design let me know what they think! As for why I'm doing this, I discuss in this post on r/rpgdesign why I love the Cypher System and how I think these mechanics can benefit other systems. Depending on how successful this is, how much effort it takes (pun intended), and how much I can playtest this or others are willing to playtest or contribute to this, I would like to do something similar for other systems such as FATE and some PbtA games. Without further ado:

Character Creation and Progression

Rather than the traditional D&D stats, there is Might, Speed, and Intellect. Roll 2d3 three times and either assign the sum of each paired roll to the three stat pools down the line, or assign by preference (GM discretion). An easy way to roll d3 is to roll a d6, where a 1 or 2 = 1, 3 or 4 = 2, and 5 or 6 = 3. For races/classes with starting HP > 4, assign 1 additional Pool point to either Might or Speed for every 2 starting HP > 4.

At character level 1, start with an Effort Level of 1, and increase Effort Level by 1 at every third level (4, 7, 10, etc.). Possibly cap Effort at character level 10 (max Effort = 4).

At character level 1, start with 1 point of Edge which can be applied to any stat, and add a new Edge point to any stat at every third level (4, 7, 10, etc.). Possibly cap Edge at character level 10 (max Edge across all stats = 4).

Do not roll for HP. Instead, at each level, roll 1d4+2 and add that many points split across the three stat pools in any way. Races/classes with HD > 1d6 receive 1 additional Pool point to either Might or Speed for each unit increase in HD die (e.g. +1 for 1d8, +2 1d10, etc.).


DESIGN NOTES: The choice of 2d3 for stat Pools was meant to provide starting characters with roughly comparable total Pool points to starting LotFP character HP, and roughly comparable variance in starting attributes by way of modifiers after random rolling. This was entirely determined by eyeballing/intuition and not something mathematically derived nor that I'm committed to. The 1d4+2 Pool progression rate was also meant to be comparable to HP progression. The bonus points for characters with higher HD in Might and Strength is meant to serve a similar balance purpose, but I'm definitely worried about balance with this. The rate of progression and proposed caps on Edge and Effort was meant to keep the characters from getting too powerful (and making balancing easier ;) ); this is still meant to be OSR-esque and players shouldn't be able to 100% buy their way to victory.

Combat

Attacking

Melee: Before rolling to hit, spend any number of Might Pool points up to Effort level and add Might Edge, split up any way either to Attack Bonus (AB) or as a modifier to the Damage roll. At GM discretion, certain melee weapons could use Speed Pool and Edge instead of Might, such as a rapier.

Ranged: Before rolling to hit, spend any number of Speed Pool points up to Effort level and add Speed Edge, split up in any way either to Attack Bonus (AB) or as a modifier to the Damage roll. At GM discretion, certain ranged weapons could use Might Pool and Edge instead Speed, such as a Gatling gun.

Defending

Before rolling to defend, spend any number of Speed Pool points up to Effort level and add Speed Edge to AC. On a failed defense, subtract Damage from Might Pool. If Might Pool is depleted, subtract remaining/subsequent Damage to Speed Pool, followed by Intellect Pool.

Initiative

Either roll for players vs. enemies, or for individual character initiative, prior to rolling for initiative, spend any number of Speed Pool points up to Effort level and add Speed Edge to initiative roll.

Spellcasting

For Damage-dealing spells, before rolling Damage, spend any number of Intellect Pool points up to Effort level and add Intellect Edge as a modifier to the Damage roll. Do likewise before rolling for success if the spell has a misfire or negative outcome possibility for a low roll, or before any other spell roll with a graded response (see below for magic saving throws).

Before rolling a saving throw for Magic or Magical Device, spend any number of Intellect Pool points up to Effort level and subtract Intellect Edge to decrease the saving throw.

In addition to prepared spells, spellcasters can cast a number of additional spells per day up to Effort level. The spell costs as many Intellect Pool points as the spell level minus Intellect Edge (minimum 0).

DESIGN NOTES: My understanding is that most spells in LotFP are not damage-dealing, but I wanted to hedge my bets. I wanted to avoid touching saving throws altogether, but it seemed unavoidable here, so then i figured I may as well do the rest of them.

Saving Throws

For Magic and Magical Device, see Spellcasting. For the other saving throws, at GM discretion, spend any number of relevant stat Pool points up to Effort level and subtract relevant stat Edge to decrease the saving throw.

Stat Pool Depletion

If a stat Pool reaches 0, Edge cannot be applied to actions which use that stat. Additionally, natural 20’s do not count as critical successes (although natural 1’s may still count as critical failures), and Pool points for actions using the other stats can only be applied up to half Effort level rounding down. If two stat pools reach 0, in addition to the above, Edge for actions using the remaining stat cannot be used, and Effort level is treated as 0. If all stat Pools reach 0, the character is either rendered unconscious, or dead (GM discretion).

ADDITIONAL DESIGN NOTES

1. Ideally I would like to apply this mechanic to skills as well, but can't think of a straightforward way to do so that doesn't require completely reworking skills. If it could be done in a way that used a relatively straightforward conversion rule, that would be ideal. In any case, especially for the Specialist this seems important to figure out. 
2. I have not considered what to do about retainers yet, but would probably fold charisma-esque stuff into intellect. 
3. I have not considered what to do about encumbrance yet, but would probably fold strength-esque stuff into might. 
4. There are plenty of other more specific rules for LotFP I have not thought about yet. 
5. I know that LotFP differentiates between various kinds of AC, but I don't know if this still makes sense given the level of abstraction of this three-stat system. That being said, I'd like to figure something out.