Building the Alchemy Campaign: Shop and Character

Continuing from my previous post- I'm working through the mechanics and structure for a one-on-one campaign featuring an alchemist and her shop, using the Strands of FATE mechanics.

THE SHOP
The shop serves as its own structure and NPC for the campaign. Much like the ship in Serenity or the base in Angel, it has its own life and details. I hit on some of these ideas when I talked earlier about merchant campaigns. The shop doesn't simply exist, it has to be kept up and managed in order to gain its benefits. Those benefits can be drawn upon (ala HeroQuest 2) by pushing those resources and getting a penalty, but usually they will serve as a standard benefit. Each characteristic of the shop require some time spent in keeping them in shape- with Resources as a group being treated as a single item. If a characteristic is valued at 0 or less, it eats up no time from the Alchemist’s schedule. If it is rated 1 or 2, then it uses up one block of time. If it is rated 3+, then it uses up two blocks.

THE ALCHEMIST'S LIFE
An alchemist has to divide up their work time into units. For purposes of this campaign, the alchemist has ten units of work in each of four weeks of a month. At the end of the month, the rent essentially comes due and the alchemist checks unkeep and takes stress tests on the shop.

• Research Recipes: The alchemist takes time to craft and entirely new recipe or significantly an existing one.
• General Research: The alchemist does research or investigation to solve a mystery, uncover truths, or find out about a topic. If the alchemist wishes to "uncover" a tag on something, they use this action. This can also involve simply hitting the streets and finding out about affairs and news.
• Perform Alchemy: The alchemist works through recipes they have not tried before or ones they wish to modify (such as change the aspect). The more recipes attempted in a session, the greater the difficulty. Too much alchemy in a single session can cause damage to the stress tracks of the alchemist and/or the store. Note that the middle task in making permanent items "Effect Mastery" is handled here.
• Crafting: The alchemist crafts the form for a permanent item. Usually only a single form may be crafted in any particular session. This session includes both Form Crafting and Item Synthesis.
• Alchemical Processing: Making general goods and such to either fulfill a mass order or to temporarily increase the Goods value. This represents the alchemist working assembly line to make bulk goods.
• Harvesting: If the alchemist has located and opened up access to a harvesting point, they can spend a unit to go and get a set of ingredients. Alternately, they can use this action to refresh their Goods pool or to add a temporary +1 to that pool.
• Sales: The alchemist spends time in the shop to make a sales test and potentially add to the shop’s temporary assets. In practical effect, this allows the alchemist to generate temporary assets through early special efforts or to convert Goods into Assets at a better than one to one ratio (based on selling actions).
• Adventuring: The classic task of going out to a location, finding secrets and uncovering treasure. Adventuring takes two units of time.
• Private Actions: This includes recruiting NPCs, socializing and handling all manner of non-essentially tasks. This can be used to establish social tags and the like.
• Special Projects: The alchemist may spend a unit of time to attempt to add a set of fragile specialty or standard aspects to the shop. Excellent results may result in a more sticky aspect.
• Upkeep (XXX): Each characteristic of the store, except Assets and Goods, requires a unit of time to be devoted to it each month if it has a value of 1 or 2. If a characteristic has a value of 3+ it takes two units of time per month. Failure to do so reduces the value of the characteristic on the following month- this continues until the deficit upkeep has been performed and then it returns at a rate of 1 value per week.
• Jobs: The alchemist may perform other tasks to generate temporary assets- teaching, bodyguarding, etc.
• Rest: An alchemist must rest and recover at least twice during a month. If an alchemist works more than fifteen units before taking a rest, they may take stress damage. Between months, the alchemist is assumed to take a rest.
• Events: Sometimes special opportunities will present themselves- the chance to meet with a learned scholar, a special market, festival days or even auctions. The alchemist may not find out about these until just ahead of time.

Upkeep
At the end of the month, the alchemist must make various payouts. This is done by adding up the positive value of the characteristics in each of the four areas. In the case of Resources, the difficulty is Goods + Reputation + Debt + Special Expenses. This test is measured against the alchemist’s permanent Asset score. If the alchemist fails this check, they may spend from their temporary Asset pool to make up the difference. If there remains unpaid upkeep, the alchemist may lose values temporarily from one or more characteristics in that set and take stress damage on the shop. The alchemist chooses the order in which to resolve the four areas.

BUILDING THE ALCHEMIST
Characters will be built using Strands of FATE. This version of FATE makes a number of significant changes- and so we’ll be modifying this slightly. Characters begin with a set of General Aspects, covering large-scale definitions of their character. They then have a set of twelve attributes with number values. I’m going to probably stick with that. If I make any changes, it will be to consolidate those down further. The system doesn’t have "skills" per se. Instead skills can be emulated in two ways. First, the player will begin with a number of specialty aspects. These are fairly narrow and generally attached to an attribute. They can be used as with other aspects, but also serve as nice fodder for arguments about actions. The second approach to skills lies in purchasing advantages. A broad skill advantage can offer a +1 to rolls of that type, a narrow skill advantage offers a +2 to such rolls. I’ll probably stick with that. Other advantages might be fairly specific to the alchemist- like being able to throw two healing-type potions at once.

While I’ll generally be using SoF as is, I will be making a number of small changes. I’ll be drafting my own advantage list. The PC won’t have to buy being an alchemist, since that’s assumed to be the PC default. Players will be able to buy some advantages for their shop as well. I’ll use SoF’s damage and armor system, but characters will only have two stress tracks for damage: Physical/Wounds and Mental/Social. SoF doesn’t have 'compels' as far as I can tell, and that seems like an important option, so I’ll be keeping that.

The PC will begin with about a dozen recipes. Two of those will be for permanent items, depending on how the player has described their character. The remaining ten or so will split evenly into utility and superior ingredient. Utility recipes create things like Fire Potions, Healing Potions, Smoke Potions, and so on. These are the kinds of things the alchemist can arm themselves with in the field, i.e. when adventuring. Monsters as the game progresses will begin to attack with status ailments, so the alchemist will have to be ready to deal with that. The other recipes will be used to create superior ingredients- essentially exchanging a set of low-value ingredients for a high value one (with some loss in transition). As well, these will allow access to new and better ingredient keywords.

The other power the alchemist has access to in the field is improvised alchemy. The alchemist can learn as set of 'attack' spells which are potions. They can also try to put something together on the fly. This system borrows from Castle Falkenstein. Any spell has a set of requirements- what values and of what suit needs to be pulled together to activate the effect. The player makes a roll which determines how many cards they can draw from the deck. If they have enough, they can throw the improvised potion. If they don’t, they have to wait for the following round. In general, these powers should be fairly nasty because of the delay risk. As with CF, non-aspected cards can be thrown into the mix with a value of 1. But this increases the risk of something going wrong. So, as an example, let’s say the alchemist wants to throw an oil slick on the floor, but hasn’t made of potion of that beforehand. The alchemist doesn’t have a recipe like that, but the GM thinks this is a fairly logical thing for her to know. He sets the bar a Diamonds 10- meaning that she needs to draw a total of 10 value worth of Diamond suit to have the spell effect release. She makes an improvisation roll, with a result of four. The GM allows her to draw four cards. She’s just short, with a Two Diamonds and a Seven Diamonds- she decides to add another card out of suit for a value of 1- which brings the total to ten. The GM now has the possibility of causing a set of problems- which would in turn given the player FATE points.

Ideally this system ought to offer a nice set of risky choices- with power to balance those risks.

PAPER DOLLING
One of the pleasures of these games lies in the acquisition of NPCs- and then their development and equipping. These are paper doll characters how become the responsibility of the main character. Key NPCs will have abbreviated stats (Social, Mental, Combat, Physical), aspects and powers. They can be given magical equipment to make them more effective. But the PC alchemist will be able to develop these characters in other ways. These NPCs will have aspects, some positive and some negative. They will also have some bad traits and some good traits. Bad traits can be bought up over time- things like Dishonorable, Lazy, Self-Centered, Angsty, and so on. Good traits can be brought into balance or even increased- perhaps developing their potential. Some NPCs will be better with some tasks offering bonuses when assigned to them (like Harvesting or Sales). Of course, the PC will only be able to take a certain number of them with her while adventuring.

I’m thinking I’ll borrow from the kinds of things Valkyrie Profile offers for these traits- rating them from -5 to +5. I’ll have to track that down. Certain things, like Laziness, have a negative rating, and can then be bought up to a positive rating (becoming something like Energy or Zeal). Of course, having too high a positive value can be a problem- things like Honor or Fearlessness taken to extremes could create awful situations. For GM purposes, I figure these traits (with each NPC having 3-5) will also have assocated aspects.

WORK TO DO
In order to get this campaign off the ground and running, I need to put together the following things:

*List of Recipes: Need to come up with the starting dozen, and perhaps that many more to have ready for the first session of two. This should be pretty simple to put together. Basically- what it is and does, the values needed to created, the max # of ingredients, and any aspects on the item.

*List of Ingredients: This should be pretty easy to put together. I can borrow names from the various Mana Khemia and Atelier games. Those I can probably get most easily from various online FAQS. These should be pretty easy to put into a set of GM reference spreadsheets. A page for each suit, with a column listing the values (from Ace to Eight to King), then three columns for the ingredients. In the first column, the name of an ingredient without any keywords. The original video games call these "factors: so I might use that term. A second column has ingredient names with negative or neutral factors (with those listed in parenthesis- as an example 2Hearts: Mini-Pendalook (Tiny), Uni (Fragile). The third column has ingredients with a positive factor, like sharp or strong. I figure I’ll need to do four ingredients for each rating to start.

*List of Advantages: Go through Strands of FATE’s slight listing, the list I did for the Treasure Hunters campaign and the other FATE resources I have (Diaspora, Spirit of the Century, Legends of Anglerre). Ideally I don’t want to put together more than say four or five dozen. Keep in mind some of these might be used for NPCs later. Might want to include some shop advantages- maybe.

*Character Sheets: Draw up character sheets for both the PC alchemist and the shop. Layout NPC cards for the player to have- 3x5 or playing card sized compact sheets. Sketch out list of NPC traits.

*Shop Analysis: Look at the economy for asset increase- figure benefit and distinctions between Comfort and Displays for example.

*Improvised Alchemy: Sketch out notes and guidelines for adapting the Castle Falkenstein magic system over.

*Number Crunch: Decide on experience and experience point costs. Does excess Assets at the end of a month have an impact on this? Figure out how many points go to the PCs, the shop, and to NPCs. Figure out how many points the PC has to spend on her character and her shop at the start.

*Build World: Do a Microscope session to create the world background.

Atelier Auzumel: Alchemical Campaign Building

CRASHING A CAMPAIGN
Many years ago I ran a one-on-one campaign for my wife. It was a modern fantasy game, drawing together a lot of elements I really enjoyed- riffing on Changeling, Over the Edge, Flicker, and Amber. It was really solid- and we played it without rules, more as a kind of storytelling activity. The game had started during a transitional time, when I’d really been screwed by some people and I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my career path. At the same time, a number of the ongoing campaigns had wrapped and new ones had started. That was a strange half-year or so. In any case, one of those campaigns, a fantasy GURPS one, imploded because the players didn’t mesh and seemed all stuck in a bizarre rut. I suggested that for the new campaign, we expand the one-on-one game, bring in some additional people and play that out. Long story short- that didn’t work out, the game crashed and burned, and I got to see some terrible play at the table. I felt bad that the story we’d started got mauled and never went back to it.

THE FIFTEENTH ANNIVERSARY IS DICE
Now we’re coming up on my fifteenth wedding anniversary, and I’ve offered Sherri her own one-on-one rpg. And I’ve told her that we won’t expand it out, ever. I let her choose the kind of game she wanted to play in. She thought about it for a few days and came back with a fairly interesting concept which surprised me. She mentioned how in Fringe (and to a lesser extent X-Files) you have these people impacted, hurt and often transformed by proximity to these incidents of the strange. Sometimes they get carted off at the end, sometimes the get picked up by an ‘agency,’ and sometimes they just get forgotten. She asked for a game in which her character would have been affected by one of these events and now she traveled around trying to rescue/rehabilitate other people like her- building a community and at the same time putting together the pieces of what was going on behind the scenes. I liked the idea- and it certainly wasn’t what I was expecting. I spent a couple of hours sketching ideas on that. The trick would be to come up with something new as the framework, something I hadn’t touched on before in other campaigns.

Then a few days later as we were walking, I brought up the idea of the game again, to make sure that’s what she wanted. We ended up talking about the one thing I suggested I’d taken off the table- straight fantasy, since I have four campaigns running in that genre right now. And then I made a joke about Atelier Iris.

Sidebar: Explaining Atelier
The Atelier series is a set of video games from GUST. They include various Atelier games (Atelier Maria, Atelier Judie, Atelier Rorona) revolving around the adventures of Alchemist protagonists. The series came over to the states in the form of the Atelier Iris series of three games. These took the basic core alchemy concept and married it with a more conventional JRPG structure- focused on adventuring, with the alchemy as a supporting element. They then shifted to two games of the Mana Khemia series which focused more on the alchemy, but in an academy of magic. But the original concept of the game revolves around budding alchemist characters, trying to balance learning alchemy, running a shop, fulfilling requests, gathering materials, and adventuring. Some of the games have time limits (like Atelier Annie) while others simply have rewards which can be gained through the process of alchemy (like Atelier Iris). Sherri’s a DBA, and loves games with crunchy micromanagement. She enjoys city building games like Zeus, making things in the Sims, and completism in Morrowind. And she loves this series of games. Except for the most recent one on the PS3 Atelier Rorona, which looked great but wasn’t very much fun in play. She’s tried to play through that three separate times and give up each time, disappointed.

THE TRICK IS TO DARE ME
Which brings us to our conversation with Sherri saying she’d love to see what I could do with that alchemist concept. I dismissed it right away- I couldn’t see how you could do something like that. But then something clicked- a mechanic for handling ingredients, some ideas about the economy involved...by the time we got home I was mulling this over. I sat down and wrote out a couple thousand words on the idea. And I think I’ve got it- figured out how it will work.

I’ve talked before about the liberty building a homebrew game a specific group gives you. In this case, I knew I would have a single player, enthused about the genre, and (as a DBA) more than willing to track and organize details. Resource management, people management and those kinds of stories would need to be brought to the front. I would basically echo the set-up of the main Atelier stories: an alchemist PC who gains and shop and has to make a go of it. The challenge, at least at the start would be to make that economically viable (echoing a little of the Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale video game). I’d want a detailed system for alchemy and for managing the shop as a resource. At the same time, I wanted a system which could be easily managed from my end. With minimal input, the black box of that system would offer a lot of options and details. I also knew I wanted the actually game system to be fairly light and transparent. I opted to go with a flavor of FATE, Strands of FATE which I’ve enjoyed. I makes some pretty major splits from the other versions, but keeps things easily adaptable.

Anyway, here’s the first of two posts laying out what I came up with.

ALCHEMICAL INGREDIENTS
Any particular alchemical ingredient has set of simple factors. For purposes of this system, I'm using playing cards as the scheme for detailing these. The why of that will come later. But essentially any ingredient has a strength measured from Ace (the lowest) through King (the highest). In addition, each also has a suit. Hearts (Fire- passion, thought, emotion, destruction); Clubs (Water- life, vision, time, future, preservation), Diamonds (Earth- material, solidity, creation), and Spades (Air- distance, movement, change, transformation). So they can have a literal elemental attachment or a more figurative detail. Beyond this, ingredients may have keywords associated with them like "Sharp," "Pungent," "Potent," "Dirty," "Tiny" or the like. Basically there are two kinds of alchemical items, standard and permanents. Standard items include food, potions, powders, fragile devices, and anything with a limited lifespan. Permanent items are the magic swords, shields, etc. of the setting.

STANDARD ITEMS
The alchemist gets a recipe which is pretty broadly defined. It provides the name of the item, its basic powers, and any aspects associated with the item. The actual requirements for making the item are based on the ingredients- so a recipe might look like this

Smoking Powder
Creates a cloud of noxious powder.
Aspect "Light Choking Haze"
Potency 12
Diamonds 5
Spades 5
Maximum # of Ingredients 10

What this means is that the alchemist can assemble the Smoking Powder by putting together ingredients whose potency equals 12. At least 5 potency of that must come from Diamonds and 5 from Spades. The most ingredients the alchemist can use to put this together is 10- meaning it is fairly easy to assemble from cheap stuff.

So the alchemist looks through their collection of ingredients and picks a set of them. If they have them, that's pretty easy. They have to make a simple Alchemy roll to get the process down the first time they attempt it. Some processes for more advanced items may require rolls for each creation. If an alchemist is short of the right kind of ingredient, they may substitute one or more from a suit not mentioned in the recipe. In this case, each of these ingredients has a potency of 1. Adding in such materials increases the difficulty of the operation and also runs the chance of creating a problem with the final result.

Keywords aka Factors
Now the trick is that the alchemist would like to get ingredients with either positive keywords or no keywords at all. That's because any keywords on the ingredient carry over the item's aspect. The alchemist can try to negate a keyword carrying over by increasing the difficulty of their alchemy roll. They can also try to find pairs of ingredients where the two keywords negate each other (like "fat" and "thin"). The alchemist player can make some arguments about why X would negate Y. Keywords not negated must be worked into the existing aspect on the item or else used to create a new aspect. Spin generated by an alchemy check can be used to affect this.

PERMANENT ITEMS
The more powerful and potent items of an alchemist's trade require a more involved process. To make these items, the alchemist must create a "form." The process works like this:

*Form Crafting: depending on the kind and number of effects the alchemist wants on the item, the GM sets a Materials Rank. This determines the kind of material (Gold, Brass, Highsteel, Laen, Eog) which the item must be made from. Form Crafting requires the alchemist (or an assistant) to actually make the item: forge the sword, hammer out the necklace, carve the wand, etc. This requires a crafting check.
*Effect Mastery: This works just like standard items- with the alchemist putting those things together to create the effect they wish to lay into the item.
*Item Synthesis: The alchemist now puts together the form and the effect, using a Mana. These are rarer and costly items, and some may have their own aspects. The potency of the effect determines the rank of the mana needed- low, medium or high. Each kind of item crafting requires a different type of mana:
Weapons (Fire Mana/Heat Mana/Light Mana)
Armor & Shields (Earth Mana/Shadow Mana/Darkness Mana)
Wands & Staves (Water Mana/Ice Mana/Time Mana)
Accessories (Air Mana/Lightning Mana/Energy Mana)
Aspects may be created, changed, added and affected based on the ingredients, the form, the mana and the alchemist's control (from the skill check).

So basically, the alchemist will have a spread-sheet of these ingredients and resources. They can use that to put use recipes. Alchemists can also research and develop their craft- modifying existing recipes, increasing output, or even crafting whole new recipes. That will be an essential drive for the alchemist.

THE SHOP
But the other big drive and the major focus of the campaign will the Alchemist trying to run, maintain and even expand their alchemical shop and lab. Their shop will have its own FATE character sheet, complete with ratings, stress tracks, and aspects. The major stresses on the shop will be upkeep & maintenance; rent & expenses; and lab accidents. The numbers on the characteristics may be used for tests against the shop itself in some cases (like against the monthly upkeep and rent tests), as a bonus to the alchemist’s actions (like researching a new recipe), or as an allocated resource (like assigning the staff to different tasks). At the beginning of the game, the alchemist gets a number of points to divide among these traits (with a couple of limits). They may then chose one trait from each set to add an aspect to (so four in total). Aspects and Specialty Aspects (such as topics for the library) may be added later.

The Alchemy shop has twelve characteristics, in four areas:

Physical
Space: The actual size and space available to the shop. It provides a limit on other items. The total value of the work characteristics can only be a maximum of 3*Space. Goods may exceed Space temporarily, but may cause stress on the shop. Displays and Comfort are limited to a value of Space +1.
Displays: The quality and existing set up of displays for the shop. Helps with drawing in casual customers.
Comfort: Represents the comfort of the shop both for customers, but also the amenities the shop offers for the alchemist and the staff.

People
Staff: The quality and number of staff the alchemist has working for them. Depending on how the alchemist wishes to define this (or flesh it out with aspects) it may represent more workers of standard quality or fewer with better skills. Staff can be applied to sales, alchemical or other tasks- with the value divided among those.
Contacts: The people the alchemist knows for gaining information, obtaining a steady supply of standard ingredients, obtaining rare items, finding out about auctions, and so on.
Clients: Superior patrons which may be used to sell high-end goods or may offer particular commissions. Can be used as a factor to drum up business if the alchemist needs to make more money.

Work
Library: The books, scrolls and scraps the alchemist has access to. Used for recipe creation and for researching arcane or occult questions. Acts as a bonus for these tasks.
Laboratory: The actual crafting lab with all of the necessary equipment and tools for performing alchemical transformations. Acts as a bonus for these tasks.
Foundry: The workshop, including furnace, forge, kiln, instruments, and set ups for doing any kind of crafting work for making forms. Acts as a bonus for these tasks.

Resources
Assets: Probably the most important trait in some ways. Assets represents the alchemist’s ready cash. This starts the campaign at 0. Assets will fluctuate wildly through the month. Essentially the alchemist will work to temporarily raise this value, which can then be spent for purchasing other things. The pool of assets is used at the end of the month in tests for upkeep- spending it out to maintain operations.
Reputation: How well regarded the Alchemist is. This acts as a bonus for social interactions and may trigger the arrival of new persons or unusual events.
Goods: The actual on hand goods the alchemist has. This value is used in tests to satisfy customers and generate assets. Goods can be converted temporarily into assets in this way. It represents all of the basic stuff the alchemist has. As such, it can be easily refreshed.

Each month, costs get assessed against assets, with stress and damage there having to be balanced. Stress on those tracks can reduce certain scores or add tags. The alchemist can devote time to adding fragile positive tags during the month to help with the various challenges of running the shop. I intend to thieve heavily from Bookhounds of London and Ars Magica for these ideas. Each characteristic of the shop require some time spent in keeping them in shape- with Resources as a group being treated as a single item. If a characteristic is valued at 0 or less, it eats up no time from the Alchemist’s schedule. If it is rated 1 or 2, then it uses up one block of time. If it is rated 3+, then it uses up two blocks.

Next- actions and building the alchemist

The Book of Sigils: RPG Supplements I Like

What Is It?
A sourcebook of magickal societies and magick across the whole Castle Falkenstein setting.

Introduction
As with the reviews of most of these Castle Falkenstein products, I need to assess the book on two terms. First, does it work as a CF supplement? Second, is this something which would be useful/worth reading for other gamers? On the former, I can say sincerely that The Book of Sigils is a major success. It echoes the best of the structures from previous books and provides new rules and ideas about magic. These ideas fit well with the systems of the main book. The expansion feels natural, that discussion about magic has been broadened, rather than that new mechanics and details have been added to create a salable book. On the latter point, I can attest to my own use of many of these ideas and concepts from this book in other games. There’s rich material to be mined here- especially for GMs fond of rich, consistent and interesting tapestries of magic.

The Book Itself
The Book of Sigils follows the same general layout as the rest of the books in the CF line. That’s both for good and a little ill. The good is that for the time, R Talsorian did a great job with the mid-1990’s DTP software. There’s clean layout, nice icons, and solid use of fonts (rather than going overboard). On the other hand, they use a grey-screen behind most of the pages which can make the reading less than ideal in places. I’d be curious to see how the pdf version of this would look on a mobile device. This 128 page softcover also falls into the same trap as the other CF books. Where they have a lot of information to present, they give it to you- at a much reduced font size- the section on Voudoun and Zombies is particularly egregious in this regard. That’s both an artifact of the technology of the time and editorial decisions. But it does mean the font size shifts from section to section.

The interior artwork in the book works- done for the most part by a single artist (I believe Mark Schumann, but I can’t tell from the credits or images). These are pencil sketches, in some cases oddly full-page, which fit with the book’s presentation. However the graphic images- such as the front cover, and some of the sigils inside, look really dated given modern graphics programs. They look very, very 1990’s. The book’s credited to a team of writers, including Mike Pondsmith, but it doesn’t feel like a product created by committee. The tone and presentation remains consistent throughout.

Weaving the Structure
Most Castle Falkenstein sourcebooks split into a handful of sections, with different kinds of material in each (Steam Age, Auberon's Memoirs, and Comme Il Faut split into two parts like this). The Book of Sigils is the exception which proves the rule. Like the core book and Six-Guns & Sorcery, The Book of Sigils has a strong narrative running through it- and like the game fiction from the main Castle Falkenstein book, this story works. In fact, I actually think it works better. I’ve said before I dislike most game fiction- it so often fails on both its purposes: illuminating the game world and providing a narrative I want to read more of. That narrative provides the story of a protagonist with many names, but primarily as known as Anthony Savile. His story of involvement with many magickal orders takes him across the globe. The division of sections is primarily geographic, as his tale moves from country to country, continent to continent. It is presented as a memoir, a device which again reinforces the central conceit of CF which has the PCs writing their own heroic memoirs.

The Story
I don’t want to give too much away about the story running through this book. Suffice to say, we get an on-the-ground perspective on the Magickal Orders, the life of magicians, the interactions of wizards among themselves and how they fit into the larger world. The first fifty pages tour New Europa, hitting many of the major locations. This connects up neatly with the material from the core book which focused on European mages and chantries. There’s great material on the necessary rituals for mages- including discovery, recruitment, and how they function as a kind of gentlemen's club. For GMs running campaigns with magic-using characters, these kinds of details will be invaluable, offering new kinds of plots and details to throw in for verisimilitude. Some sections of Europe don’t get individual treatment (I would have like to have seen something on the Russians) but overall there’s enough material to fuel many campaigns.

The following sections move the action further afield. We begin with Africa and the Middle East and then cross the ocean. Over fifty pages, Savile crosses the New World from Boston to Canada to the Indian Nations to New Orleans to South America to the California Free State. Some of this fits nicely in with the later Six-Guns & Sorcery- though it also has to take a detour to reference Wild, Wild West as well. The authors set up a nice contrast between the Chantry and Brotherhood structures of Europe and those of these regions. Each of them feels right- doing a remarkable job of avoiding too much goofiness. At the same time, each feels interesting within the context of the game. Dealing with the other, with marginal groups in historical games can be tricky. Following too much the sentiment of the period feels offensive, but going too much the other direction makes these groups overly powerful or cool. There’s the risk of liberal guilt payback (which I say as a liberal). The Book of Sigils strikes a great balance- with the non-western magical societies offered appearing just as interesting and just as problematic as those of the west. The last part of the book hits the Pacific Islands, China (quite nicely) and India before wrapping up the story in a way which feels right and yet leaves me wanting to know more.

The Game Material
Most of the material presented is narrative- either the first person narration of Savile’s story or discussion of setting elements. But the book also offers solid new rules and systems. Probably the most important for a GM will be the detailing of thirty new Magickal Orders across the globe. Most of these figure into Savile’s tale. As with the presentation of Orders in the main book, each offers a discussion of philosophy and structure, followed by a number of spells unique to the group. These are usually tied to a pair of grimoires. Spell effects don’t dwell on the minutiae- instead they simply present what it does, leaving the interpretation to the GM ( "...imbues the caster with the strength of a herd of buffalo," or "...allows the minute perception of the condition of a body.") The book illuminates the hows and whys of Orders, and presents mechanics for creating your own. In addition, the book lays out and examines some of the basic concepts of magic, clarifying some of the cosmology of the New Europa setting.

Topics of note covered in the book include Women’s Sorcerous Orders; hospitality and rules; making a living as a wizard; philosophical debates; order oppositions; gaining membership and so on. Book of Sigils also touches on a number of other important mechanics: learning from spell failure; sympathetic magick; spirit combat; handling the undead; magickal potions; custom spells; wizard duels, and so on. In short, there’s something for everyone- a useful book for player and GM alike.

Overall
For Castle Falkenstein gamers, this ought to be a must-buy. This would be my third suggested purchase, after the core book and Comme Il Faut.

For anyone else, that's another question. Here’s the thing...Book of Sigils offers serious exploration of the magickal side of the Castle Falkenstein world. That makes a good deal of it apparently setting specific. However, I’ve found it useful on several counts. I brought the ideas of the Sorcerous orders, especially in tone and approach, over to my own fantasy steampunk game. My players found that structure particularly useful in getting a handle the world of magic. In many cases I tied them to sympathetic clubs, which provided a ready set of alliances and battles. Book of Sigils offers a neat and portable concept. But it also presents a broader lesson- an excellent look at a functioning magical society from the inside. For GMs world-building with magic, BoS serves as a great touchstone. I've reread this a couple of times when I've been thinking about how to make issues of magic more vivid and interesting to my players. (There's a reason CF's so high on my list of evocative magic systems).

Portability
As I said above, I think the general ideas of BoS can be transformed and used elsewhere. On the flip side, BoS doesn’t add a lot of complexity to the Castle Falkenstein system. If you wanted to use CF for another game, these mechanics could easily be brought over. If you’re doing CF with another system, BoS doesn’t add any major barriers.

Campaign Map: Treasure Hunters

Quick map I put together for the "Treasure Hunters" campaign. I'm not an artist or even a graphics person, but I think it came out pretty decently. I wish I had added some kind of measure to give a sense of scale. This area ought to be larger than Europe, but I don't think the map gives that sense.

Click for the full thing apparently. 

Dreamreading the Dictionary of Mu

Finding the Dictionary
So I’d read about Dictionary of Mu, an rpg described as a pulp fantasy. I’d asked around on the Geek to see if anyone had played or read it and might provide a review. However, I got no takers even when I offered a bounty. So when my friend Steve headed down to Gen Con this year, I asked him to track down a copy for me.

Here’s what I knew about the game. I knew that it was a pulp fantasy game, set in our world. It could be handled more as a classical pulp campaign (ala Adventure!or Spirit of the Century) or as a kind of noir game taking place in the 1950’s (so something more like The Edge of Midnight). The characters would take on the role of investigators of the strange, more like archeologists of the arcane than your classic warriors against the darkness. For the Noir-style campaign, the characters would be more forced into the strangeness by accident.

Knowing the Dictionary
The central conceit of the game is the Dictionary of Mu, a mythic volume which is simultaneously the true history of the world, a great and elaborate lie, an analysis of a lost world, the occult blueprints to the universe, an infectious memetic fiction, and a joke. It clearly takes influences from modern meta-fictional works, but attaches theme to a more visceral and two-fisted set of tropes. So it is Invisible Cities, History of the Siege of Lisbon, The Dictionary of Khazars, and all of Borges meets Robert E. Howard or Raymond Chandler.

Diverse groups seek out scraps and bits of the Dictionary, it having been torn and scattered across the world. The how and why of that remains a question to work in play. That’s an important detail- in the game, the players decipher the Dictionary, in parts, but also reshape it, consciously and unconsciously. The various bits of the Dictionary have gotten changed over the years- taking other forms which have to be figured out (so there’s a little debt to The DaVinci Code there). May groups- from mad scientists, to agents of the crown, to secret Oriental societies seek out the pieces to try to put together the best and most valid version of the Dictionary. Multiple versions exist- some serving as doorstops for some twisted realities. The players end up caught in the middle of those wars, at the same time their own agendas set them to finding the pieces.

The Dictionary’s entries come in several forms. Some exists as copied and recopied text from the original document- while transformed, they possess their own power. However in the copying and over time, other ideas and sources have crept into these pieces. In game terms, these function as a kind of grimoire- offering powers and spells derived from the secrets of Mu. The purer and less muddled by noise the text, the more potent and potentially more dangerous the lore offered. Some entries exist as palimpsests- where an earlier artifact or shard containing a metaphysical portion of the entry has been removed and deliberately reworked for another purpose. These items may be useful and strange magical items, but will require significant research and reconstruction to be able to get at the secrets beneath the new use. Finally, entries may be more tangible, tied up in artifacts which contain something of the actual language of the Dictionary. These "Entry Doorways" offer groups and players the most interesting options.

The nature of the Dictionary of Mu means that it offers ideas outside of time and space. With the right knowledge and skill, characters can gain insight, interact with the ideas or even draw out a reading which affects the real world. The first approach reminds me a little of the Armitage Files- in that the GM can offer the players a literal text, such as a diary, collage, or letter describing events. These may refer to the future, in which case the players can investigate and deal with problems ahead of time. On the other hand, they may be perspectives or commentaries from non-existent or fictional persons on events or mysteries they’ve encountered. This allows the give to perhaps offer the players new clues or insights into game plots.

The second form of interaction actually shifts the stage significantly- players enter into a portion of the "root" story which takes place in a version of Mu. What Mu actually looks like depends on the GM’s focus, the players’ expectations, and details from the environment. It might look like a Greco-Roman version of Atlantis on one trip or more like a scene from a Paradise Lost etching on another. The characters take on other roles in this setting- a game within a game. This can be a scene, a full adventure, or even part of an ongoing adventure in this world. This last is most interesting since such a story might be told out of sequence. The game provides mechanics for handling the dual character natures fairly easily. Some games, such as Nephilim have a like mechanic for multiple life stories. But even more the ideas seem to echo those of Heroquesting from RQ’s Glorantha. The intent is that these stories have an impact- learned powers, new information about present events or event telling the real behind the scenes story of what happened to Mu.

The GM can also reverse this approach. Instead of the characters being transported back into the contradictory, historical semi-fiction that is the idea of Mu, those concepts escape into the present world when the item is examined. Suddenly those metaphorical stories and ideas reshape the world, making people actors in new dramas. If the players have opened the Pandora’s Box that caused this, they may be forced to figure out what their roles are to be- how to bring the story to an end. On the other hand, stumbling on one of these places acting out such a stories makes for a great scenario (especially if the PCs have friends caught up in that). As with travels back into the world of Mu- how they change, shape and decide those stories actually shifts things. It ends up manipulating the history, purpose and thematic of Mu- players (and others) can change the course of a great supernatural river running just below the surface of the world. In some ways, it echoes the idea of sites and nexus points from Feng Shui.

Reading the Dictionary
I was very excited about this game- I’d started to think about what a campaign might look like. The week after GenCon, Steve handed me my copy of the rules.

Which is completely different from anything I described here. I think Game Cryer’s review of it describes it best:

The Dictionary of Mu is a setting book for the Sorceror RPG. Written by Judd Karlman, Mu tells the story of Marr’d and its inhabitants through a series of dictionary entries penned by the insane Oghma, son of Oghma. The entries highlight places, people and concepts characters might encounter on their travels through the red deserts of Marr’d...Combine Conan the Barbarian with John Carpenter’s Ghosts of Mars and you get a sense of the flavor of Mu...On the dying planet of Marr’d, the people slave and perish amid the red sands. Things dead and forgotten are sources of power, and those who dare to summon such spirits often are themselves transformed and consumed, lost to barbarism in a world of cruelty and survival, hope and tragedy.

That’s cool...but seriously where the hell did my idea of the game come from? I was really and seriously convinced that this was the game’s premise. Was there another game that was more like this? I must have read the game blurb at some point, "The Dictionary of Mu is a pulp fantasy setting supplement for Ron Edwards' Sorcerer RPG where demons are dead things, bits of history made wrong. Players will decide the fate of the planet through play, adding to the dictionary as they go and creating a deeper and richer history with every demonic summoning." From there I imagined what the game would have to be like.

Unless it used to be like that and the world changed, and I’m the only one who remembers it.

Constructing Classes: Last Advice and Example

Last Advice
Following up from my previous posts on homebrew classes (part one and part two here), today I finish off with concrete examples from my most recent experiment. This for an eight-session fantasy campaign, with fairly fixed class roles. Each character type got a list of six class abilities, started with two of them and can buy more as the campaign advances. There are a few other class restrictions (mostly the impact of armor on spell casting). This is also the campaign where I'm experiementing with adding aspects and tags to our homebrew engine.

If there's some advice I'd give people wanting to take that leap into building their own homebrew game engine or even heavily adapting an existing set of rules. First, don't think broadly- there's often an impulse to think about the next big thing in gaming or about how to build an engine which everyone in the group can use. Think about what your GMing or play style is an consider how you support that. Think about what your players like to see- do they like points, do they want a story emphasis, do they like classes. Think about what you do at the table- are you comfortable crunching modifiers? Do you rush through combat? What things do you enjoy focusing in on and what things would you like to skip or move through faster? I hadn't quite realized what we'd accomplished in our group with the rules we use until we had a player sit in who had played with us ten years before. He said we'd managed to build a game that played to my strengths as a GM and to the players' focus as a group.

I'd also suggest that you be willing to go even more micro. Build the rules you want for the campaign you want. You should have a rough idea of how long the game is going to be and what level of power would be fun at the end of the campaign. Divide one by the other to get the average points or levels you dole out and build your experience purchase and powers accordingly. Focus on the key elements of the genre, especially if you're going to have a short run campaign. Don't be afraid to fudge/worry less about elements at the margins. Finally also be aware that if you do plan to do a long term campaign with a newly minted system, you may see stresses you hadn't expected especially in late play (after a couple of years). Figure out how you want to deal with those things and discuss that with your players.

Example Class Building from Treasure Hunters

WARLOCK
1. Warlock Ways: Warlocks begin with the methods Strike+ and Destroy. They may choose three mediums, at least two of which must be elements. Warlocks may not learn the mediums Holy, Life or Time. As Arcane casters, Warlocks use "Mental" for their spell casting pulls.
2. Burning Mana: Warlocks may use their own essence to fuel their attack spells. By taking an additional casting wound, they may do +2d damage or add a tag to their target. This damage may not be reduced.
3. Flee Puny Minions!: Warlocks kill any mooks or minions struck by a damage spell.
4. Master Blaster: The Warlock may spend a drama point to cast two damage dealing spells in the same action.
5. Inner Fire: The Warlock does +2d damage with any attack spell. In addition, they are no longer limited to spending one wound for additional effects, but may spend multiple.
6. Master of Magics: The Warlock may choose one bonus: either they can add the modifier "Seeking" to any spell freely (meaning they don’t have to make a combat pull to hit) or they can add the modifier "Extra Damage" to any spell freely (giving them even more damage dealing). This must be chosen when this talent is taken.

NINJA
1. Ninja Magic: Ninjas begin with the method Control and the mediums Light/Dark and Body. They may not learn a magical expertise and may learn a maximum of three methods and six mediums. Ninjas do not take a casting difficulty for wearing leather/light armor.
2. Ninja Movement I: The ninja may leap twice a normal distance, even straight up. He may climb at walking speed. He can run along solid surfaces without making pulls. On light surfaces, he leaves no tracks.
3. Ninja Weapons: Ninjas gain a bonus to damage depending on their proficiencies. For each of the three groups- Blades; HTH; and Ranged- they may select to do +(1w+1d), +2d or +1d.
4. Ninja Stealth: By spending a drama point, the ninja may hush and help conceal those with him. The ninja suffers no environmental penalties for hiding- he can essentially hide in plain sight if he remains still. On all moving stealth tests the ninja gains a +1 bump.
5. Ninja Movement II: The ninja can run up walls, leap prodigious distances, and balance on the most absurd surfaces (tree branches, blades). In addition, when fighting, his strikes and parries make almost no noise.
6. Ninja Strike: The ninja may spend a drama point to attack twice in a round without making an all-out attack.

BARBARIAN
1. Mighty Thews: The Barbarian does +2d damage. Always. With everything.
2. Skin Like Iron: When unarmored, the Barbarian take wounds on a 7+ and has DR1
3. None Will Stand: When making an All-Out attack (+2d or two attacks) the Barbarian gains +2 DR and does 2 wounds when he rolls a 9 or 10 on damage.
4. Towering Presence: The Barbarian kills any mook or minion he strikes. If he kills a target, he may choose to make a move or make an additional attack on a target in range. He may do this once per round.
5. Fury of the North: The Barbarian gains an additional line of five physical wound boxes. When unarmored, the Barbarian takes wounds on an 8+ and has DR2.
6. Like a Cornered Beast: The Barbarian only takes persistent wound tags for his last line. For every physical wound tag he takes, he does +1d damage. He may use his level four talent twice per round.

WIZARD
1. Wizard Lore: Wizards begin with their choice of two methods and four mediums. As Arcane casters, Wizards use "Mental" for their spell casting pulls.
2. Magical Specialist: The Wizard may choose one method to gain an expertise (+) in. The Wizard gains a familiar, which has four wounds- any damage from casting spells may be applied to the familiar instead.
3. Mystic Training: The Wizard may choose two mediums- when casting spells of those types, the Wizard gains an extra repull. Additionally, the Wizard takes one less wound when casting spells of that type.
4. Intense Study: The Wizard gains a +1 bump to all spell-casting pulls.
5. Magical Dueling: The Wizard gains armor 7+ with 3DR versus any magical damage. Additionally, if the Wizard has not acted this round, they may attempt to intercept a spell cast in their vision as an action. This is done as a contested mental pull.
6. Master Wizard: The potency of the Wizard’s spells mean that they do +2d damage and give a -1 penalty to all resistance attempts.

DRUID
1. Druidic Channels: Druids begin with the methods Imbue+ and Defend. They begin with the mediums Nature and Holy, plus one more of their choice. Druids may not learn the mediums Fire, Demon or Time. As Divine casters, Druids use "Social" for their spell casting pulls.
2. Strength of Oak: When a Druid casts a "buff" they may add an extra target to the casting for free. In addition, the Druid’s buffs gain a bonus (add extra damage, prevent more damage, last longer, add a tag) of their choice.
3. Pet: The Druid gains a pet. They share a mind-link, allowing the Druid to pass commands to it and see through the pet’s eyes. In combat, the pet functions as an additional aspect (which may be targeted by an opponent).
4. Animal Form: The Druid selects one of the following animal forms which they may then freely transform into as an action. While in this form, the Druid may not cast other spells: Bear Form: gain ten temporary wounds, claw attack does 4w +5d, armor 7+ DR 2; Wolf Form: fast running, tracking and discriminatory scent; Hawk Form: flight, small size, and keen vision.
5. War-Druid: The Druid adds +1d to all forms of attack. When casting an offensive spell, the Druid may freely add a tag to the target if the spell lands.
6. Arch-Druid: The Druid gains +1 DR to all forms of damage. Additionally, they may learn a second animal form. As a free action, the Druid may spend a drama point to heal either five points of damage to themselves or remove a non-persistent wound tag.

ROGUE
1. Jack of All Trades: The Rogue does +1d damage with a weapon type of his choice (swords, daggers, bows, etc). Additionally he gains +1DR to both physical and mental damage.
2. Acrobat: The Rogue may attack and then move. He can land without damage for any fall of 30’ or less. If he successfully makes a Dodge pull vs. area attacks, he take no damage instead of half damage.
3. Larceny: The rogue may choose two specialties from the following list: pickpocket, detect traps, lockpicking, disarm traps, shadowing and hide. Each specialty gives him a +1 bump to attempts. Additionally when "casing a place" the Rogue may use his assessment attempt to add two tags instead of one.
4. Combat Trickery: When attacking a surprised target, the rogue may "backstab." Each successful rolled die of damage does 2 points instead of 1. Additionally, when the Rogue invokes an aspect to do extra damage he adds +3d instead of +2d.
5. Striker: The Rogue now does another +2d damage with attacks. If in Light Armor, he gains +1DR to any physical attacks he’s aware of. As well, a successful fast talk/persuasion attempt by the Rogue may add a free tag or effect.
6. Tricksy Minx: The Rogue may make an extra free move each round. He gains a +1 bump to all Dodge, Parry and Block attempts. The Rogue may attempt to pickpocket an aware opponent- even in combat- instead of a movement action.

Howard Waldrop: My GM's Library

 The Set Up Tangent

 I was aware of Howard Waldrop before I was aware of Howard Waldrop. In grade school I recall looking over the shelves of the bookstore we went to and seeing The Texas-Israeli War. It looked like strange book and at that age, I really didn't get it. But I always looked at it and remembered the weird title. Then in high school, I bought most of the new Ace Science Fiction Special series, edited by Terry Carr. That included Gibson's Neuromancer, Robinson's The Wild Shore, Scholz & Harcourt's Palimpsests and Shepard's Green Eyes. But the one I read a couple of time, simply because I couldn't wrap my head around it, was Waldrop's Them Bones. It completely threw me, something so different from what I was reading at the time (PK Dick, Tanith Lee, Harlan Ellison, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Piers Anthony, and so on). Stupidly I never thought to follow up on that book. It didn't even register to me that Waldrop wrote the set up story to the Wild Cards universe, "Thirty Minutes Over Broadway!", even though I read that a couple of years later.

It actually took a strange link up of events to get me to finally focus in and catch what was going on. In 1989/90 I did my junior year of college abroad at American University in Cairo. It was a strange experience. In the second half of the year I managed to pull together a serious GURPS group and ran a campaign which had a solid beginning, middle and end. Since other forms of entertainment: TV, movies or going out to bars had significant barriers, gaming offered a nice outlet. But even more than that, reading. You could find amazing cheap editions of books in stalls on the street- usually in Britsh editions. Often you could find weird authors and a good deal of sci-fi. That's how I finally read all of Dune, a bunch of WS Burroughs I couldn't find in the States, Borges, Amis, and even PD James. These got passed around in our community. There was a girl I realized later I was in love with, Ann, and another I was seriously infatuated with who played in the game, Ellen. From the former I learned to be a more outgoing person, from the latter I got great books.

Strange Stories Read Close Up

The best, by my reckoning, was Strange Things in Close Up, a Legend Books anthology bringing together Waldrop's short story collections Howard Who? and All About Strange Monsters of the Recent Past. Ellen didn't like the collection so much- she was an Egyptologist and had some issues with one of the stories. But I loved it- I loved the work and craft that went into every story. I read the collection over three times and then someone borrowed it and I never saw it again. I like to imagine that the copy I got through Amazon used is the same copy, somehow having made its way here by wild coincidence.

Waldrop most often writes alternate history stories, the kinds of what-if and world making things I love. But it isn't that he just comes up with a premise- he absolutely works through it and finds a completely new approach to it. As always I have to bring these things back to role-playing games- and I think Waldrop offers a great model for GMs thinking about new worlds. Not only about finding interesting corners and niches in them, but about how to present that world carefully and subtly to the readers. New worlds require info dumps, and Waldrop's stories never feel like that. Instead they're refreshing- and honestly I've learned about more cool and obscure things through Waldrop than perhaps anyone else. A close second would be Ken Hite, who is the Waldrop of the gaming world- I've always thought that. I didn't know about Izaak Walton's background for I read “God's Hooks!” or anything about Phlogiston before I read “...The World as We Know't”.

I think my favorite story by Waldrop is “The Passing of the Western.” Spoilers: because it is about an alternate Wild West in which Rainmakers battled Robber Barons. But it doesn't tell that story- instead it sort of tells that story in telling about the Western movies made in the early 20^th Century based on those tales. But it doesn't even tell that directly, instead the stories in the form of pieced together articles and interviews from film magazines looking at those movies.

And it works. And I love it. And I love the idea that you can tell a story that indirectly and let the pieces accumulate for an effect. I think that applies fully to comic book storytelling and to gamemastering at the table.

I recommend you read Waldrop if you haven't. Howard Who?, All About Strange Monsters of the Recent Past, Night of the Cooters, Things Will Never be the Same: Selected Short Fiction 1980 – 2005 or Other Worlds, Better Lives: Selected Long Fiction 1989-2003 are all great places to start. If you like Ken Hite's Suppressed Transmission series or even just smart and remarkable sci-fi, then read waldrop.

Punch-Line

Why am I telling you this? Why am I going on in this way? Well mostly because I wrote an alternate universe story, DC Comic's Project Superman from Flashpoint. Mind you I had a lot of circumscribed and directed plot points from the powers above, but I got the chance to muck with the history. When I went to write it, I went back and re-read all the Waldrop stuff. Which leads me to this picture my sister, author Cat Rambo, took at ArmadilloCon 2011.

That's Howard Waldrop reading the first issue of Project Superman.