[Wanderer] Career - Mystics

Classic Traveller's Book 2 was entitled simply Starships. This part of the core rules pervaded the rest of the setting and was instrumental in contributing to the "feel". When the Wanderer books were faked up, the artist made the second book of the trilogy hold the secrets for magic. Following the meta-pattern as much as possible, this bends our design of Wanderer to talk about magic or magical effects when Traveller speaks of starships and, well, travelling...

Low Passages in mustering out tables become one-shot magic items. Starships become Enchanted Artifacts tied to the setting. "Major races" and "minor races" are defined by their metaphysics; who codified their magics and teach them and who uses the magics taught by others.

With this concept in mind, let's talk about the Mystic career for our Wanderer.

[WFRP3] The Gem of Aquos

By Kevin Morrell (aka KK the Splash)

I'm a fan of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 3rd edition. I've gamemastered a few sessions and love the dice mechanics combined with the action of the cards. My current adventure is based in Athel Loren, the great forest of the Asrai, the wood Elves. The party of four characters is made up of two Wood Elves, a Way Watcher and a Wardancer, and two High Elves, a Bright Wizard and a Sword Master. They have been inextricably embroiled in the return of Morghur the Master of Skulls, also called Cyanathair the Corruptor in the tongue of the Asrai.

They have recently found an ancient artifact dating back to the last appearance of the Chaos Lord in Athel Loren nearly 1000 years ago. Called the Gem of Aquos, it was an item created by Morghur to capture the immense power of an elven Water Master known as Aquos. His spirit bound in the Gem, Aquos served his new master, becoming spiteful, but still occasionally showing his famous compassion and calm.

Anyone who touches the Gem can become Aquos' new master. They must be trained in Channeling with Magical Sight allowing the new master to commune with Aquos' spirit to gain his insights into the magic of Water.

[Pathfinder] New Poison - Pliancy

The Ebon Six enjoy a broad range of resources; including their own mad alchemist. Rhi is creative, brilliant, and exceptionally cruel. Raised in the nobility of the Yeomanry, Rhi's reputation was shattered when his cannibalistic appetites were revealed.

PLIANCY
Type poison, ingested; Save Fortitude DC 22
Onset 1 minute; Frequency 1/minute for 3 minutes
Effect +1 point of Pliancy (see below); Cure 2 consecutive saves negates 1 point of Pliancy

For each point of Pliancy the character accumulates, the subject suffers a -1 to their saves on mind-affecting Enchantments (charm, compulsion), and Illusions (figment, glamer, pattern, phantasm). If the specifics of the Enchantment or Illusion does not expose the subject to immediate, noticeable danger the penalty is increased to -2 per point of Pliancy.

Rhi's Insanity
Born the sixth son of a low-caste Suel family, Rhi's fantastic mind became his family's hope for advancement in the hierarchical society of the Yeomanry. Trained extensively at the expense of his siblings, Rhi became an accomplished wizard and a creative alchemist. His fascination with drinking the blood of commoners was only discovered when one of his victims managed to escape from confinement while Rhi was entertaining leaders of state.

Pliancy is one of the concoctions Rhi distills to help woo potential victims; Ursht has discovered that the colorless, odorless fluid dramatically helps his meddling with the Yeomanry's nobles. In exchange for regular additions to his collection of commoners, Rhi keeps the Ebon Six supplied with enough Pliancy to host parties where the drinks and foods are powerfully tainted.

[Wanderer] Career - Rogues

Among the peoples of the Empire, there is plenty of opportunity for illegal profit. There are innumerable practitioners of crime across the Kingdoms of the Empire, but the first and strongest organization to rise across multiple Kingdoms is known as the Coiners' League. Highly organized and focused, the Coiners keep their members ahead of each Sovereign's authorities.

[Community] Stack Overflow for RPGs

For those who may not know (read: people who aren't software developers), there's a site online called Stack Overflow. It's designed to allow social interaction between community members. You ask questions, your community answers them. You have an answer, you can contribute to someone else's questions...

Quite an effective way of hearing from your peers about tools and processes in the industry.

Now, someone's taken the Stack Overflow software and created a site for paper-and-pencil / tabletop RPGs! I'm excited about its bright future, and will be signing up for membership as soon as this is posted. This site is still in beta as of this writing, meaning that the administrators are looking for a certain magic number of people to sign up for accounts before moving the site out of beta...

So PLEASE! If you're interested in seeing a community of gamers grow an archived collection of gaming lore, join and participate. Communities are only as interesting as their members.

Game design, rules questions, player strategies, shared NPCs... Mmmmm!

[IMCotD] Traveller, or sick, sick ADnD

(2:04:27 PM) Gerall: is Grandfather a psionic Droyne lich, like an alhoon (illithid lich)?
(2:04:55 PM) Kevin: no, no, no, NO.
(2:05:03 PM) Gerall: you sure?
(2:05:09 PM) Kevin: no.

[Pathfinder] Vidiin - After the Scourge (level 1)

Background
Vidiin was just another gnome raised within the Percept Orphanage of the King's Kaer. Early on, his rebellious tendencies were aimed at simple attention-getting ploys. They became more and more elaborate as he grew up and his tastes changed. His first robbery provided all the children of Percept with new shoes. Unfortunately, it also got him on the wrong side of the Kaer's Thieves' Guild. To protect himself and provide the rush of recognition he's deeply addicted to, he has created a pseudonym; The Unseen Poet. The Poet's heists always involve difficult to trace goods, a robbery in silence, and a verse left at the crime scene.

[Wanderer] Muses - Optional Experience

The Problem
In modelling Wanderer on the Classic Traveller LBBs, we come to the inescapable conclusion that the original design did not provide for development of a character's skills after character generation. For the era, there was no precedent that advancement mechanics would be viable (or even popular). Modern RPGs are now an ecosystem of the descendants of games where character advancement was a means of making your character unique and fitting for the setting she was a part of.