Secret Santicore 2013: Volume 3 PDF

Click Santicore above to get the Secret Santicore 2013 Volume 3 PDF! 

Click the thumbnail below to get an illustrated Secret Santicore 2013 cover by Scrap Princess!

Volume 1 is here
Volume 2 is here

Edits, corrections, etc can be emailed to metalvsskin at gmail dot com

Kalak-Nur: Fate Moves On The Wind

I'm starting a background, play-by-post/email game based on Zak S's Slow War rules for my 

Kalak-Nur setting. I was trying to be coy about it, but it's not gonna get done right without a big blog post everyone can refer to, so here is that. Players, remember, email me your moves. If you put them here or G+ you're giving info away to your potential enemies.

If you're not playing, it's full up at the moment, sorry. Comment here and if I remember I'll let you know if a spot opens up and there are unclaimed factions.

If you're in my every-other Friday games, hey, we're all adults here; either don't read this or separate player knowledge from character knowledge. Some of this your guy might even know, as history or whatever.

There's no functional difference between light and dark grey hexes; they're all dunes of metal filings. The whitish hexes in the frozen south are, uh, frozen. 
Movement is generally 4 Hexes on the Map per turn.
Special Movement notes:
-The following forces move at half the above, 2 hexes per turn, barring special circumstances: Digrot, Trepan, Rebel Droids
-EMFLWEM's forces must Occupy a hex for a full turn before moving on to properly freeze the ground for movement. Hella slow, but see bonuses to fight in those hexes.
-Occupying a hex: at least 20 STR worth of your forces are there unopposed (or winning a conflict) for a turn. This lets you take resources if there's a town there. Only the major cities are listed above; there are smaller settlements that can be found by exploration.
-The Goblin Coalition forces can move at double-speed below ground, IE not exploring just getting troops into position; there's less NPC stuff underground to encounter, but more of it is hostile.

A lot of this is adapted from Zak S.'s Slow War Rules.

Direct and relevant quotes from his blog:

"Moves:
Make a move at any time by telling me. Do whatever you want. I'll inform you what needs to be done to resolve your action.
There'll be a lot of rulings-not-rules and Common Law game design here. 

Most of the rest of this is just nitpicking and I-dotting, so don't let it intimidate you.... 

Timing and Speed:
I'll try to get back to y'all at least once per day. Actions where timing is immediately important will be resolved in order of fastest action first. 

Nominally, each day represents at least a day, so put everything you want done (including if/thens) in your orders.

Strength: **
Basically you start with 100 Strength. This is the currency you use for a lot of things representing wealth, power, influence, etc. 

1 strength point represents 1% of your army (usually about 1000 hd worth of regulars) or 10 levels/HD worth of special types (including whatever is needed to train, transport and feed them)--like if you need an assassin, you can spend a Strength point to get a 10th level assassin or spend a strength point to make a little force of 2 3hd fighters and one 4th level wizard, etc.
(At the start, some armies (like [Amaya Neow's or potentially Digrot's] army) are big; some, like [The Black Veil] are small, but the total strength of those forces is equal. One [Sister of the Veil] is effectively worth [several crazy biotech mutants or mindless undead].) 

When you win fights or take important territory you win Strength. 

A lot of things cost no Strength, you just do 'em. 

I'll keep track of how much Strength you have. 

**Exceptions: Town armies start at 50 STR, but a player may have two of them as their Forces. Digrot's army's STR depends on his first move.

Exploration:
Every space on the map has something on it...

Just rolling around purposefully searching territory without fighting anyone else is kind of like pulling cards off the Chance pile in Monopoly--you might get something good, you might get screwed. 

If you find anything good, likely at least one other faction will hear about it. 

Battles:
Each side rolls d100 plus or minus modifiers plus the total Strength of the troops you sent. High roll wins, disparity equals the percent of the strength gambled that the losing side lost.
You can send as many troops as you want, but a maximum of 30 Strength worth of troops can be "gambled" on one roll. Battles larger than that go in phases, and there is time for forces to maneuver after the first engagement/roll. 

Headquarters:
Many factions have a headquarters at their starting location. If you lose that, you lose half your Strength.
[Digrot, Rebel Droids, Amaya Neow, and The Elves of Trepan have no headquarters to begin with.] 

Winning and Losing:
When you're out of Strength, you gotta lick your wounds and take your army home. 

Maybe make a new faction. Last man, woman or salient entity standing is the winner or, if the game ends early, whoever has the most Strength when the game ends wins. 

The players will be ranked, and their FLAILSNAILS D&D PCs will be awarded bonus xp based on that rank.

Spies: 

When you do secret stuff there's a pretty good chance at least one other faction will find out. This is the table I'll roll on (note [Digrot] isn't on there, he only notices the obvious):

Who hears about your plans?

Roll d20

1. Mocata (I know, I know, no one's playing him...)
2. Mocata
3. Victarion
4. Victarion
5. Chchcchchctktktktktk
6. Chchcchchctktktktktk
7. Chchcchchctktktktktk
8. Goblins
9. Goblins
10. Rebel Droids
11. EMFLWEM
12. Black Veil
13. Black Veil
14. Amaya Neow
15. The Elves of East Trepan
16. Targenmoor
17. Baksheesh
18. Vance
19. Cortuth
20. roll 1d4 on 16-19

Temporary Defense Coalition of Independent Goblin Working CollectivesCan move quickly underground to position troops. -1/4 STR if they attack Victarion's forces (they are traditional allies).
-10 in open battle; +10% to success of tricks and traps.

The Droid Army of Victarion the Brave

Occasionally, something draws Victarion's attentions beyond his plantation and the delivery of food from it to the settlements of the Grey Waste. Once his droids get out of the Westlands, whatever that something is usually doesn't last long. -1/4 STR if his forces attack Goblins (they are traditionally allies.)

Rebel Droids for a Free Future

A faction of Droids have freed themselves from Victarion's will and formed their own force. Through means both physical and otherwise, they have bound some of the mindless zombies infesting the Westlands to use as footsoldiers. 1/2 move, +10 to open warfare, 1 in 10 chance of fuckup (zombies, mindless, etc); -10 to attack zombies except in self-defense.

EMFLWEM The Ice Demon

Since being released by adventurers some time ago, EMFLWEM has taken over in the dark, frozen South. Ice Goblins are his footsoldiers, and if he freezes enough ground he can call forth Frost Giants.

(Must occupy a hex one entire turn before moving to the next; +20 to open combat in frozen squares)

 Sisterhood of the Black Veil
Look, poetry fails you sometimes, so here: Psychic Jedi Nuns whose mission is to keep anyone else from getting too much magical strength or using big items.
Low in numbers, so -10 STR to open warfare each turn after the first in sustained fights. They act first in battle.

Amayawjkqd neow3j0100101010 - Amaya Neow for short

An insane mutant vocaloid who has turned most of the isolated cults in The Grey Waste into human/android/insect hybrids. Lots of weird abilities, but 1 in 6 chance her forces get distracted by something shiny for a turn.

Chchcchchctktktktktk

"We have lived among them, even loved them, but their time is over. The pretender moves through the waste, and we must end her and her tortured mutants."

Starts at 25 STR in any settlement, must get to any other to gain another 25 STR.

Digrot

The one who had bound me is destroyed; I awake, and soon, all will sleep. Forever.

(His forces are at -25 STR to attack Droids; they hunger instead for living flesh. Possibility to raise the slain fleshy types to increase his strength.)

The Elves of East Trepan
Our spies in many settlements have stopped reporting; perhaps our inferiors are finally catching up. Time to crush them. Even separated from our homeland, we will triumph.
1/2 move (unfamiliar territory), Sorcery, -10 STR if they have not occupied a settlement in the last 5 turns.

The Armies of the Free Cities
Each starts at 50 STR; a player may choose 2 of them to begin with.
Targenmoor
The grand bazaar is soon. (modeled on fantasy arabia, but just one sprawling city; allied with genies)
Baksheesh
Built on crashed ships. Has some weird tech. Closely allied with Mocata. Why hasn't be communicated recently?
Cortuth
Grew around a remote trading post. Defiantly independent. Relies on trade to survive though. Protected by the Ludo, giant furry beasts that can control stone by singing.
Vance
Ancient, dark forces flow through here, causing the people to keep secrets, conspire against one another, and get in touch with dark powers.

Return to Kalak Nur Session 3 follow up

Return to Kalak Nur Session 3 follow up

The below assumes it's been about 11 hours. Your escapades ended around 3 AM.

2050 XP each (if this would take you up more than one level, go to 1 xp below the second level you would have gained)

From what you can find, Mocata had 35,672 GP on hand in coins. Kalak-Nur is a somewhat cash-poor place, so this would keep the stronghold intact and goatmen fed for another 6 months if left alone.
Tell me how much you take. 

Sir Ward and Blixa wake up covered in little bumps. They feel like little objects under the skin. Your bodies will flush them out in another 12 hours. 

Q-Bot has trouble seeing for a day.

Treasure:
•164 intact ruby spikes, worth 300 GP each. You'll get XP for these when you get them to a place to sell them or find a buyer. The Grand Bazaar of Targenmoor is in a month.
•4 Giant Khopesh. Takes STR 16 or more to wield, -2 to hit for every point of STR below that. 2d8 damage. (Value as masterwork greatsword)
•2 Anti-Magic Orbs individually like a scroll with three Dispel Magics (lvl5) on it, together like a scroll with one Anti-Magic Shell (lvl12) on it
•1 Anti-Magic Orb like a scroll with two Dispel Magics (lvl5) on it (the other one this guy was holding broke/was expended
•4 Stone Killer Spears STR 14 or more to wield, 2d6 damage, destroys armor it pierces, can pierce stone twice

Salvaged Robot Modules

Q-Bot can add ONE of the following, or swap one he's got for another:
•Welding Torch: sheds light as a torch, 1d6 damage on a melee hit, can weld 1 ft of metal per 5 rounds.
•Battle Droid: Attacks advance as a Fighter (+level to hit) in Melee or Ranged. If you roll this again, have both.
•Independent Limbs: Your may detach your limbs from your body and operate them independently. Your arms cannot see and your head cannot walk or anything like that, but sticking your head on your arm might get a functional you into some tight places. (If you roll this again, each limb has some form of sensory input equivalent to very dim lighting that is relayed to the Droid PC’s brain.)


-Santos Christo: Hooray! You have saved the legendary adventurer. His age is catching up to him, and he must leave in a hurry, though. His tribe has a moot, some sort of singing thing determined by the position of the other planets. He is very grateful, and will return after if you want. You can ask him questions before he  goes.

-Augustus Grantz is terrible at being Mocata. He has the face and accent, and that's about it. He's playing along, but clearly wants to get lost in a lab with a staff working under him. He's interested in robots and rockets, not leading a semi-military organization. You've got a week or so to figure something out before the goat-men and dog-men rebel.

-The mansion/barracks is 3 stories above ground. There are lushly appointed quarters for "Mocata" and guests, sparser quarters for the 200 or so goat-men and 45 dog-men stationed here, and several guest-rooms and studies. You've got the run of the place for now, as "Mocata's Elite Guard" or whatever, but see the info under Augustus Grantz above.

-The Dungeon is 3 stories, from what you've seen. The inner circles are: 
--top: magic-users being kept barely alive and slowly drained of blood in weird harnesses
--middle: vampires being fed the blood from the magic-users, in different harnesses, their entrails regularly dumped into some device and fed below
--bottom: the wreckage of two spaceships that had been combined into a device of obscure purpose, covered with a techno-organic virus. A pile of rotting ruby crabs. A harness into which a viscous liquid pumps, and a growing hum can be heard. Not hard to figure out this is what the processed magical blood and entrails is being fed in to, although what it is turned in to before going into these tubes and what the harness did is unclear.
----There's a passage to a cavernous chamber, several stories high. On the ground is a shape is traced in salt, a shape you can't quite describe. It hurts to look at. Inside the shape is a metal foot 15 feet high, what looks like several chunks of buildings made of odd materials, and other inscrutable metal objects. Let me know if you go inside the shape or otherwise disturb it.
The outer rings are hallways of cells, switchbacks, secret control rooms, conduits the size of a halfling or so, some hidden as well. You do not have control down here. There are signs that creatures still pass through. There are goat-man corpses that have been half-eaten. The cells you can get to safely all seem sealed still, though, and full of weird creatures.

Reports from the Dog-man Captains:
-"The matter of concern down below has gotten worse. I had just increased all prison patrols to a minimum of three guards before we lost contact with the spider-goat platoon. Your reticence to discuss the events when you went down there prevents my full ability to carry out my duties, but I have faith in your wisdom.
Unfortunately, one of our brothers lost in the attack had just reset all the passcodes. We'll need your memorized master list."

-"Patrols of the mountain to the West of the stronghold have been reporting strange movements in The Westlands. This morning, our patrol was attacked by zombies for the first time in over a year. The unthinking undead took them by surprise, almost as if some party had placed them strategically. I await your instructions for the afternoon patrol."

-"A messenger creature of some kind was shot down by an outer patrol, heading North. Having reviewed your picture-books of creatures from other realms, it seems to be some poorly constructed mutant combination of a pigeon and a bumblebee, although there are tech components of unknown nature or function. A human eye was removed from it's side, and a tiny box and indecipherable note were recovered. They are included in the sack accompanying this report."

Santicore 2013 vol 2 updates/edits

There have been edits and updates since uploading yesterday...

Trash your current file of the PDF and re-download by clicking

Santicore's dread visage up above (or in the last post, link there updated) and keep on enjoying all this wonderful madness!

Namely: some name order issues fixed in the Table of Contents and updates/edits to the entries on pages 105-107, 148-152, 160-161, and minor edits elsewhere.

SECRET SANTICORE 2013 Volume 2 PDF is HERE!

by Jeremy Duncan

Click Santicore's aching head above to get the PDF of Volume 2!

There are so many awesome and useful entries here, and so much wonderful art!

Again, the PDF is fully bookmarked and the ToC entries are clickable to go to the page of each entry. The ToC list at the bottom of each page is clickable, too.

There may be a few lingering mistakes I didn't catch in how I put things together, so feel free to contact me with corrections and suggestions at metalvsskin at geemale dot calm. I'll get to those when time allows.

ENJOY! I'd love to hear what people are digging as you find time to go through this.

CHARGES FROM YOUR LOCAL LIEGE

1. Murder, unprovoked, loot gained thereby untaxed: 75% of loot reduced 5% for each day spent in public stockades

2.Murder, unprovoked, tax willingly given: 50% of loot - praise the kingdom!

3. Murder, provoked, tax 30% of loot if taxes willingly paid, 60% if taken by duress

4. Property damage, in pursuit of selfish goals: 100 GP per establishment affected, 50 GP to owner, 50 GP to authorities

5. Property damage, in pursuit of community goals: reduce above by 50%

6. Open carrying and/or display of weapons in a civilized area: 25 GP license tax per day

7. Vehement Carousing, to the distraction of others: 10 GP first offence, 30 GP thereafter

8. Failing to inform Liege or associates of major local changes (IE enemies removed or freed): 45 GP, 22 GP refund if information given at time of charge aids in future victory

9. Open worship of non-local deity: 45 GP, license issued

10. Open consorting with Liege enemies: must disclose all information known, 2 teeth will be removed after.

11. Seducing local citizen: 7 lashes, 1 GP

12. Seducing member of Liege's harem: 14 lashes, 2 GP

(written for +Claytonian JP as JOESKY tax for the last blog entry. It or the ideas might be useful to someone at some time. Didn't want it to get lost in G+ comments.)


ART: Pieter Breughel the Elder painted this scene, "Paying the Tax." It was destroyed or something, but his son painted 40 copies, so this is one of those.


EDIT: THE OTHER KIND OF CHARGES FROM YOUR LOCAL LIEGE:

1. Thee Crowne Has Withdrawn Support, and Her Generals Have Lefte; Thou Must Leade Mye Armies Unto Victory in the current conflict or Be Put To Torture

2. Seize the magickal well from our neighboring Barony, and a mile surrounding it thereupon; Hold these for a weeke whilst I finish other business

3. My earnest and goode knight, Sir Guffin, lays siege at mine command to the tower of Albrecht the Hard; it pleases me that this siege continue, and not succeed or fail; I charge thee group of scoundrels to discreetly sabotage the siege weapons of Sir Guffin's forces; if thou are caught, this conversation never happened; if thou succeed, riches are thine.

4. Thou sneakest this food for many mouths into the tower of Albrecht the Hard without attracting the eye of Sir Guffin's forces.

5. Citizens and goodly maidens of my harem alike have disappeared at their privy of late; thou shall searchest thee sewers for them, and murder any foul beasts who may be responsible

6. A star from the heavens hath fallen within the Black Forest upon my lands; venture into that dread place and bring back news; and any precious metals or blessings the meteor carried thus.

7. I seek this night to command a demon, through dread ritual in the keep's basement; my sage tells me I can ask of it most ponderous questions and return it to the abyss with no danger; thou wilst stand just outside and make sure none intrude

8. Travel forth and speak to the common people; under guise of ignorance, discover the opinion of my rule from those in my many provinces

9. My beloved advisor has angered the King and been banished; he is also hated by the people, whom may have hired parties unknown to slay him; escort him outside these lands without incident and fortune, land, and title are yours.

10. A group of native slaves have escaped the project to erect a monument to my magnificence in this damned foreign place; track them through the forest and return them so they may be made example of.

11. Take this great sealed casket and scroll to the University of Learning in the North; at no time are you to open them. Protect them from all comers and brigands, or be branded criminal most foul.

12. Travel to the capitol city and gain intelligence which might allow my army secret entry.

13. Discreetly slay the king, so that I might lead our Kingdom to greatness.

14. Lead the great beast which has been stuck in the bay and caused great destruction back into the sea so we do not invoke Poseidon's wrath.

15. Pirate the ships of our enemies; thou must meet with my Master of Coin every other fortnight to pay taxes on your winnings.

16. (DM rolls twice and combines results somehow)

Sometimes The Ideas All Hold Hands...

This blog might be pretty quiet for awhile, or quieter than I thought...
While working on Secret Santicore 2013 (Volume 1 was released on PDF on January 27th, scroll down and get it!) I would come to the blog and vomit out ideas into a draft, intending to edit and refine for later blogging. The thing is, they started fermenting in my subconscious...talking to each other...fucking like bunnies...a few things clicked and cast them all in a different light...

So all these ideas I had and was going to post as separate blog entries want to be a dungeon. Maybe even a mega-. They all work in Kalak-Nur, too, and I'd love to run the thing after a lot of writing and refining. I'm a huge fan of randomly created dungeons, and tend to run things sandbox style, but a coherent thematic structure in a dungeon can bear a lot of fruit and be it's own weird experience while leaving a lot of room for variety. (orange phrases above are links to other people's blogs that are good. There are many more good blogs, these are two of them.)
So the creative output I had planned to have here while I work on getting the rest of Santicore into PDFs is mostly tied up in that. I guess I won't be done with big projects when Santicore is done, after all. I'm eager for the new challenge and to take on something big that springs from my own creativity and allows me to channel some creative influences that have been building up.

I believe in contributing to a community, and that includes the people I play and talk about RPGs with on G+. I'd like to have a high signal to noise ratio, that is, a high ratio of my own creative output (running games, making blog posts that are things others can use) compared to output that is social-only (IE commenting on others' posts, ephemeral G+ posts, etc.) However, I need to let this thing bake a bit before I figure out if I can separate some of this stuff back out into postable form...and I'd like to run the thing for people who know nothing of what's inside.
All that said, for various reasons I will have to write out and post stats for the Bug People of Kalak-Nur soon, so that's going to happen.
And there's Santicore 2013 V2 and V3 coming up, all of the amazingness from everybody that has been like an RPG grad course for me.

Art in this post by Sarah Horrocks. Go buy her stuff.