[Language][Milieu] Duhen Shes Wied’am-

(c) Copyright 2009 Kyrinn S. Eis All Rights Reserved

And, in case you were wondering what Duhen Shes Wied'am means:
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Duhen Shes Wied’am

Duhen:
Least-Duty, Wrought Spirits, Abiding: Freewill Dedicants
-and-
Abiding Spirit, Least Wrought, Duty: Guardians of Exile

Shes:
Subtle-Work, Subtle-Spirit: Blessed
-and-
Subtle-Spirit, Working-Subtly: Efficacious

Wied'am:
Very-Least-Breath, Spirit-Duty, Heavenward Journey: Dedicated [even to the] Death
-and-
First-Journey, -Dutiful-Spirit, Dust-wind: Discorporating and Returning to Origin

[Milieu][Wargaming] R'Tshen Skirmish/Tactical Rules-

Badelaire said...

Unless I missed it in an earlier post, any chance of a summary of these skirmish rules, perhaps what sort of troop level they work at, any comparable rules sets you're coming close to? I'm always interested in new skirmish/wargaming rules sets.

Badelaire, et al.,

(c) Copyright 2009 Kyrinn S. Eis All Rights Reserved

R'Tshen, which, when translated into English, means, "Ranks -- Exceedingly-Subtle, (Dedicated), Ready", is a miniatures combat training game for the Duhen Shes Wied'am warriors of the Durn Holy Kingdom.

The Duhen Shes Wied'am are folk (male and female) who have lived their life, and want to give back to the Community with the rest of the time allotted to them. To do this, they exile themselves outside the massive circular wall which surrounds the Holy Kingdom, into the profane world, where they build, maintain, and man fortifications. Their task is to try and persuade raiders/invaders/miscreants to turn away before Wrath rain down upon them from On High.

Barring the abandonment of their opponent's folly, the Duhen Shes Wied'am swarm from under-sand corridors to isolate small units of the enemy, so as to make their holy work more efficient (and reduce the DSW casualties, naturally). Even when their foes are at their mercy, the DSW attempt to pacify the attackers.

To train for combat, the DSW utilise R'Tshen to illustrate both squad (Draslin) tactics, and the consequences of defeat. Players take their figures (Zaul) and place them, with the DSW generally given first-go, and the attackers positions randomly determined based on the outter ranks of the DSW set-up.

The R'Tshen rules exclusively use lots and markers/tags to indicate the Zaul's status, as well as conducting all Actions. Figures generally represent either a Draslin, made up of five Dras, or its leader, a Drasl. If a Draslin is damaged, survivors may rally and form a new Draslin. If not, they will usually be attached directly to a Drasl. If this is the case, they are known as Endras. Dras without either a Draslin, or a Drasl are still capable of individual action, but lose a great deal of effectiveness.

It is a 1 Hit = 1 Trooper scale, but allows for 'dodges' that either outright negate the Hit, or reduce them to half-Hits, which do not affect Combat Actions, but do penalise Movement and non-Combat Actions (Correcting Machinery, Item Use, etc.).

Penalties and Bonuses use multiple Lots per Action, with the worse/worst, or better/best of them determining the result. All Lots have one of six colours, as do each of the Zaul. Only on a Draw of their Colour does a Zaul meet with Full Success. Partial Success is generated by associated Colours, and are further delineated by Like and unLike Lots.

Drasl are 5-Hit figures capable of any-, and everything that Dras, Draslin, or Endras can accomplish. Their prowess and Divine favour also manifests in their ability to automatically detect Ambush and Traps, but even still, Draws are necessary to warn their Dras in time.

Since most scenarios outside of League-play are not connected, healing is generally not a major feature, but is addressed. Drasl can contribute 3x as many Lots toward Healing.

Grognardian Madness! Madness, I Say!

James Maliszewski of GROGNARDIA has posted my favourite Erol Otus Drow image.

Thanks again, James. :)

[RPG][Wargaming] Update-

Agh! :[
These last eight Leaders are kicking my imaginative-ass. They are about all that is keeping me from going-over the rest of the text and determining what stays and what gets chopped from the beta. Aberrations are almost certainly out of the main document, as I expected a (few?) weeks ago. I may put the tech-arms/armour into another document and later compile these for the live edition.


R'Tshen, the skirmish/tactical rules, at least, are coming along nicely.
Jeff Berry has asked me permission to play-test with his regular Tekumel group. Um..."w00t"! :D
I am finishing up the greatly expanded outline for their use.

Brief Update-

To remain productive even while taking a break from the Adventure Locales, I have been working on a Skirmish/Tactical wargaming rules outline, based on the rules utilised by folks described in one of the Adventure Locales.
I've sent off what I had at the time to Jeff Berry (who seems to have made good progress back to health --thanks), and have expanded it since then, and seen glimpses of later era variants.
The most different aspect to it is the diceless mechanics that instead use a narrow, but robust version of my Colour Logic system with tokens drawn from a container, just as is used in-setting.

The AL is coming along nicely, and the data-headings, and rumours nicely fill-out the locations.

[RPG] Ancient Wonders Procedure-

(c) 2009 Kyrinn S. Eis All Rights Reserved

Ancient Wonders, Technical Skills, and Aberrations-

What once were the commonplace tools of living and leisure for the Ancients are now considered archaeological treasures and great boons.

While both Intelligence and Wisdom must certainly play a role in determining the type of item, and diagnosing its condition, with a strong argument that high Dexterity may illuminate additional features on most purely-mechanical devices, surely experience itself is a great teacher? So far we have something like this:

• Base Percentage Chance (BPC) based upon the item's Utility (01% -- 100+%, with higher being better). Simpler, or more 'user-friendly' items are easier to activate in their intended manner than similarly complex items with lower Utility.
• +/- 5% per Modifier on Exp, Wis, Int, and Dex
• Condition modifies the Threshold: Irreperable +100, Badly Damaged +75, Minor Damage -0, Superficial Damage -05, Display Item -10, New In Box -25, NIB still in Crate -50
• Remove Traps to Disarm/Make-Safe, Diagnose Condition, and effect Repair
• Open Locks to Diagnose and Clear Correctable Malfunctions/Reset
• Technologians have the correct skill set to perform these procedures, and receive a flat +20% bonus in addition to their rolls
  
• Certain Aberrations provide specific bonuses at various stages in the Identification/Diagnosis/Repair process
  

The Referee then rolls the dice and determines whether the character has discovered how to operate the item, provided it were working properly, and had whatever power needed.

Clearly, a series of steps are necessary to take an artefact and bring it back to operational level. To speed things along, I've come up with this procedure:

1. Spend an amount of coin on diagnosis and any possible repair at a cost equal to the item's XP value. A rush job will cost at least double (1d4+1x), and subtracts 25 from the item's Utility until the first six times it is used, decreasing by 6% each time until only 1% has degraded until the minor repair is performed.
2. Spend the XP for the Armour/Weapon Proficiency or Open Locks +%s necessary to operate the item in the field
3. Pay 1/2 the XP value of the item (if discovered, it may be a 'free cost')
   

That's it. Now the figure has legally purchased full operational usage of an Ancient wonder.

Stuff-

I didn't intend this.
Honestly, I'm not a masochist.

As I was editing the 16 Adventure Locations and their Leaders, I realised that each of them needed at least a few Rumours, if not an Encounter Chart.
Yeah, so, no, I'm not as close to being finished with the writing as I had intended, but yes, I think it will be a better product for the inclusion of those features.

* I've also fiddled with the Tunnels & Trolls snap-conversions (from ARGUS to T&T), and it looks like a nice mix between the very minimalist MR rating and a D&Dism. If anything, I think the T&T critters are laterally improved (Saving Roll bonuses) if not the overall number of dice they are rolling.

--In brief

• Each Fight Die is 5 Monster Rating
• AB is the creature's Combat Adds (and if one adds the CT value, Missile Adds)
• # Attacks is the minimum number of d6 the creature rolls
• modified Resolve is Spell-casting POW
• modified CT is the creature's LK score

Defence and Armour perform the same function, although Defence could be added to Defence and Stunt SR totals (dodging the Giant), while the Armour listing could be replaced with the Armour values in T&T, or used as is.

Other rules-set modifications (again to ARGUS, without affecting the host-system) are coming to mind, and as I write them up, I'll have an eye toward posting them alongside with the free Beta .pdf when it becomes available for your perusal and hoped-for testing.