Why I like low-powered games

I wanted to take a few moments to try and explain why I enjoy lower-point campaigns. Perhaps that is the wrong way to start. What I actually enjoy are campaigns where real-world style threats are actually threatening, like a pistol, or even a knife. I like stat “normalization” with a cap of around 13 to 14, because characters with more realistic-feeling attributes seem easier for players to get into, more so in modern day era settings. I want the players to feel like they can’t take any encounter for granted, and they have to use smart tactics and planning to get the upper hand on the bad guys. Now, to some extent I have to create bad guys that are somewhat on par with the PC’s (my dimension hopping campaign has an average point value of 120 with 30 points in disads (not counting lower than average attributes) and 5 Quirks). But on par doesn’t necessarily mean that all the NPC’s are equal to the PC’s, there are plenty of powerful bad guys, but the players know this (usually) and plan accordingly. Either ambushing the baddies, or negotiating if possible, finding an ally, or just coming up with a clever plan. Having characters that are grounded in what feel like realistic skill levels and attributes gives them a real sense of accomplishment when they do get the better of a serious bad guy.

Many great TV shows feature pretty normal folks dealing with a variety of RPG style adventures. Examples include Lost, Deadwood, Sons of Anarchy or Rome. All of those rely on [clever scriptwriters] the characters working hard to overcome various obstacles. None involve the protagonists wading into a firefight with a pistol skill of 25+ and a massive Dodge from their DX & HT of 18 and taking aimed shots at the eyes. The characters in these shows never seem optimized, or “efficient”, and they seem more believable and sympathetic as a result.

Body types

This is just a quickie post to touch on racial body types (Ectomorph, Mesomorph or “medium”), which I call Light, Medium and Heavy (I am fairly certain that this idea was used in Stormbringer way back in the day).

Effects of Body Type
Light: Max STR = SIZ+1
Medium: Max STR = SIZ+3
Heavy: Max STR = SIZ+5

Any STR over the max must be “paid” for with and equal amount of DEX, AGL, SPD or HLT.
If rolled STR is over the max, you may lower it and add a like amount to any of the above attributes.

In this way the character’s body type limits their Strength. Even if this seems too fiddly for use, it is still worth knowing what the usual body type of a particular race is.

Use a percentage roll to determine the individual’s body type.
For instance, the Antente have the following distribution:
Body Type:
1-75 Light
76-99 Medium
00 Heavy

My first racial write-up

Ok, before we get started, I want to explain my use of the term “race”. I realize that it is no longer really used in anthropological texts, however, each of the races on Domibia were literally created by their god or goddess about 1000 years prior to the current setting of the game. So, in addition to the dictionary definition “a group of tribes or peoples forming an ethnic lineage” there is also a real “differentness” to each of the races even though many can interbreed with no difficulty. I also have different attribute modifiers for female and male members of certain races where sexual dimorphism is more noticeable. This can be ignored if you don’t feel it necessary, but it should be at least used for NPC’s.

So, that said, here is my first racial write-up.

I decided to start off with one of the less difficult races to sort of get my toes wet with how I want to present this.

The Antente

The Antenté are a culture devoted to beauty and entertainment. Unfortunately only the aristocracy has the time and money available to fully enjoy this way of life.

Society is highly stratified, with only a small chance of upward mobility. At the top are the nobility who are a hereditary class and who own the bulk of the land and money. There is a small middle class, which is made up of civil servants, skilled artisans, athletes, artists and merchants. Members of the middle class can live quite comfortably; but theirs is not a hereditary position. This simply means that the mayor of a small town will not pass this title on to his son. The bulk of the population is farmers, with craftsmen and small business owners making up the rest of the population.

Their diety is named Rianté
Their language is called Wansi and the analog is archaic French.

What does that even mean, you may ask. As I mentioned earlier, I am not up to the task of creating dozens of fictional languages so I use analogs so that players and GM’s have a guide to naming characters and NPC’s. In the case of “archaic French” just use slightly more flowery language of the type you would use for English aristocracy during the 1700’s (and assume it is in French/Wansi).

They average 5’7″ & 130 lbs. They have fair to olive skin and tend to be fair-haired. Their eyes are light or dark depending on skin tone. Olive skinned individuals usually have dark eyes, while light skinned individuals have green or bluish eyes.

Here are their attributes in SAFUG to use as a benchmark:

STR   10
SIZ     11  1d4+1d3+7
HLT   10
AGL  10
DEX  10
SPD  10
INT    10
ESS  10
SAN  10
PER  10
WILL 10
LUCK 10
EDU    5  1d6+2
APP   12  +1d4
CHA   10

SIZ tells us that they have an average SIZ of 11 which puts them in the range for 5’7″ and 130 lbs.
The Education attribute is biased towards modern characters (like the attribute of the same name in Call of Cthulhu). The lower than normal EDU is more a representation of a lack of interest in intellectual pursuits than in a lack of brainpower. Since many important skills, such as architecture and medicine, require education, those who are inclined towards such professions are well paid by the aristocracy.
The Antenté are genetically more likely to be attractive (by human standards) than the norm because their deity prefers attractive people.

In GURPS there isn’t a large amount that needs to be done. All four attributes (ST, DX, IQ & HT) are all default human 10’s, as are the secondary characteristics. So in GURPS terms here is what we have

Antenté               

Advantages: Attractive [4]

Disadvantages: Illiterate [-3]

For a grand total of 1 point for the racial package.

For Savage Worlds it is a little more involved.
Being Illiterate is a Minor Hindrance, that is fairly straightforward. The Attractive Edge seems like it represents a more attractive person than just the bump of +2 (average on the SAFUG +1d4). So I am not sure that I would grant every member of the race the Attractive Edge. Then again, if you wanted to play a plainer Antenté you could simply forgo the Edge and use the point elsewhere.

Planetary info & calendar

While I am still mentally working on the idea of how spirits work, I thought I’d get more physical info about the planet posted.

~

I generated all this info using the Megatraveller World Builder’s Handbook published by Digest Group Publications and some stuff from GURPS Space.

Stellar Info
G0 V
Mass 1.04

Planetary Info
Circumference 25,446 miles
Density 1.00 (Molten Core)
Planetary Mass 1.038
Surface Gravity 1.01
Orbital Period 0.98 (357.95 days)
Rotational Period 18 hours, 2 minutes, 24 seconds
Axial Tilt 34 degrees
Orbital Eccentricity 0.0%

Hydrographic Percentage 75%

Stellar Luminosity 1.05
Albedo 0.68
Greenhouse 1.10
Base temperature 69.35 F
Surface Atmospheric Pressure 1.30

Info on the moons (Luna from Earth appears as 0.5 degrees angular diameter)

Infun 0.637 day orbital period, tidally locked
Appearance: 1/2 Luna (0.25 degrees)

Matun 0.838 day orbital period, 35.68 day rotation
Appearance: 5 1/2 Luna (2.8 degrees)

Patun 0.880 day orbital period, 31.33 day rotation
Appearance: 9 1/2 Luna (4.7 degrees)

This the standard calendar:

Here is a map of the planet with wind patterns and average high & low temps.

I’m not real happy with the names of the moons. They have a Latin sound to them, but there aren’t any races that speak Latin (or its equivalent) on Domibia. When I say equivalent, I mean that rather than go all Tolkien and create my own languages, I have assigned real-world analogs for all the different languages.

More about spirits

I touched briefly on spirits in my last post about the elements, and I want to try elaborating a bit on how I want Domibian spirits to work.

As I mentioned a while ago my first real roleplaying was with Runequest set in Glorantha. I have always had a soft spot for Glorantha and I would love for Domibia to be even close to as well fleshed out. On Glorantha there are spirits everywhere! There are ghosts, wraiths, ancestor spirits and a variety of minor spirits that teach spells and provide POW for spell casting. I like that, but I am not sure that is exactly what I want for Domibia.

(Remember, this blog is partly to help me work out ideas. So sometimes I am just gonna ramble like this a bit).

I like the idea of ghosts and ancestor spirits. The difference being that ghosts are “wild” and ancestral spirits are sort of “tame”. What I mean by that is that ghosts are usually the spirits of dead folks that were never laid to rest properly and are haunting a specific locale. Ancestral spirits are usually tied to their interred remains (possibly in a crypt or shrine) and are contactable by their descendents. An ancestral spirit would require some sort of propitiation from the living in order to maintain its ability to provide advice or information. The most logical sort of gift would be whatever spiritual or “life” currency the system uses to cast spells. Contacting the spirit would be like casting a spell, using Magic Points in Runequest, a spell slot in D&D, Fatigue in GURPS, Power Points in Savage Worlds, (you get the idea). That influx of energy would be pleasurable for the spirit and make them inclined to help out in whatever way they can. It seems that the more “energy” they received the longer the pleasurable sensation would last and they would remain active longer, so that spirits that were contacted regularly by many people would be most active. Those that are lost and forgotten with nobody to speak to them would possibly require more “energy” to awaken until they finally dwelt permanently with their god and no longer had any contact with the living.

Anyone have any thoughts on this?
(That was a test to see if anyone actually reads this!)

Elemental relationships in Domibia

This is how I imagine the elements of Domibia relate to one another.As the spirit “element” touches all the others, it is believed that everything has some motive spirit. Not necessarily animism where the various spirits are propitiated in some way, but just a belief that there is a fundamental spiritual component to all things.

Why wouldn’t that lead to animism?
I’m not positive.
I know that I want there to be elementals of all the various elements, and to have that you must have spirits that animate them. Perhaps some of the cultures (the ones that we would consider more traditional) practice a form of animism in addition to their theistic beliefs. The more technologically inclined cultures might see elemental spirits as simply servants who are not worthy of worship, except perhaps while magically bargaining with elementals for some favor.

Obviously, this will end up having some effect on how I finally decide magic works.

Text from creation myth

I am poking through Domibia stuff that I have already written in search of what I would like to remain canon (and is non system specific). And I came across this. For those who don’t know how Domibia came to be, here is a short history:

• Araj (the Prime Mover) created the world.
• Araj created a sort of sidekick that could appreciate his creations, just known as the Other in ancient texts.
• The Other gets tired of being just a spectator and decides to create stuff as well.
• Araj tries to kill the Other.
• Araj creates the Arajay, a race of bipedal elephants (roughly) who acts as his worshipers and custodians of the planet for the next 5000 years.
• Araj decides to spice things up by creating several other races to share the world.
• Weaker than he realized, Araj loses control of the creation process and ends up fragmenting into 52 different entities, each of whom created its own race of beings to worship.
• The Arajay, stunned by the sudden loss of their god, fight back against the human(oid) races, but without their hearts in it, they soon give up and retreat to their southern continent and leave the rest of Domibia to the usurper races.

This next part was my attempt to write a sort of ancient creation text and it covers the first four bullet points above.

It is kinda long…

Oshook Ochomem Usamemagan Araj
“Araj Gazes at the Blank Tablet”

Araj bloomed forth whole
Dust danced courtly
Swirling in void it doth
Beckon form to him

Form from naught
Araj craves form
To judge the works
He didst wrought

Cloaked in the clay
Araj brightly strides
Form from thought
Rampant change marks birth

Feel of sand grits
Clay caresses
Stone rises to heights
Wind sighs and shapes

Ne’er were such seen
Ne’er was sight enabled
‘Twas pitch save stars
But were the stars near

From dust left adrift
Ignition fueled of will
Bursts forth from ebon
Revealed is that called forth

Araj beams into the rays
His magnificent torch
Warms as it illumines
Showing all his works

Calling forth the names
Araj moves across the face
Learned of sight
Araj glories in light

Water soothed and carved
Bringing new shape to old
Bringing impermanence forth
From stony solidity

Pleasing as the face was
Araj conceived of an Other
He would bring forth one part
Riven he stands aside himself

~

Araj took hold the form
Showing his works anew
Delighting in fresh breath
His eyes seeing not his

Encouraged by his work
Araj grew wild in his
Passion to shape
The mountains as clay

Araj formed the moons
And set them on high
Spinning across the heavens
As dancers soft and languid

The Other spake
“Why this spasm?”
“Am I not all you wished for?”
“I feel but a test”

Spake Araj to him
“Nay thou art first made”
“And first dear”
“Would that thou shared this bounty”

And the Other grew melancholy
He looked with envy
Upon the face of Creation
And wept for his limits

Ne’er would he match
And in despair he called out
“What would’st that I do?”
“How may I please thee?”

Araj spake unto him
“Child but delight in this I do”
“Ne’er will I for I am not full”
And with this he took flight

Araj was vexed and distraught
He searched from icy peak
To lightless depths
Ne’er to find his Other

Araj beat his breast in despair
“Oh wretched am I whose child flees”
As he strode forth seeking
He came upon a movement

~

“What is this?” Araj cried aloud
A tiny form moved of its own volition
And the form spake
“I am the creation of your midden”

Araj scarce believed his eyes
“Never didst I dream such a thing”
“Thou art not of me!”
And with this he smote the form

Araj panned the face of creation
Searching for the elusive Other
Yet ne’er a sign was seen
Save wretched forms ascuttle

Araj turned to the skies
And with furious anger
Snared from the heavens
A second handful of dust

And upon the face of his beloved
He scattered the dust of all things
Covering the old with new
The Other a faint memory

The new mantle curved as old
Following old lines
Araj brought forth heaven’s mounts
And brought them down as hammers

New was the shape
Of the creations raiment
And for this new face
Araj conceived a new hue

Fecundity sprawled forth
From Araj’s brow
All the forms of beast and flower
Raged forth spanning ever

From lightless depths
To icy peak
Life sprung forth
Upon the face of creation

…