Progress: Ken's Interview-

Due to a rather large impromptu sporting event in Trollhalla over the weekend, Ken St. Andre has been detained, and has sent dispatch that the e-mail interview is now under-way, as it were.
When it arrives, I will post it, post-haste.

Friday Pre-Game Monologue-

Hi,

* Ken has said that my questions actually forced him to think, so that is causing the delay. Let us take that as a positive sign.

* I have been expanding the role of the Ancients in shaping the PCs through four d% rolls to determine actual heritage, and the possibility of Imperial Legacy. Through this, I hope the little hints help form the image of the evolution of the setting, and how unique aberrations can develop into systematised mental routines or defining physical traits.
This is one reason why I think the subsequent book on Aberrations is necessary, as the full extent of the genetics-theme in the setting could easily drown the fantastical/adventurous, if included in the core rules -- and, may not even appeal to some play groups. By packaging it separately, it can play whatever role a given group assigns it in their game.

* It looks as if it was propitious timing for me to have started the APG secondary-characters, as Tybalt's player will not be present, again.
The new Apothecary 2ndary was happily fortunate to have rolled as an ancestor a Medical Officer, and along with the odd dreams and deja-vu, she gains a degree of competence at related Tests.
Ashta's ancestor was a Ship's Superstructure Technician, which immediately suggests a link to the Yirinn/Dryvv, and makes her Western Isles Vrun ancestry even more interesting.

* I need to think of which creatures will make the final cut of the book. Recent grog-hive-mind consciousness has informed me of the importance of a select and defining group of regular miscreants and inimicals upon whose weapons the PCs may fling themselves.

* Thinking of where I ought to look among my stuff, to find my copy of Jorune.

* When this work is complete, I think I'd like to run a Mercenaries, Spies & Private Eyes - Villains & Vigilantes crossover game. Likely just a mini-series (5-session?) affair, with pre-generated characters, likely on based on my most loved Bill Willingham Elementals setting.

[Milieu][RPG] (Alkemikal Lords)-

(c) Copyright 2007, Kyrinn S. Eis All Rights Reserved

THE ALKEMIKALS-


AETHER: LORD HYPERION
CREATURE: GHOST

+ LIGHTNING: PRINCE THUNDER
CREATURE: BOLT

SHADOW: LORD SHADOW
CREATURE: SHADOW WOLF

AIR: THE MOON-FAERY SISTERS
CREATURE: SYLPH

FROST: LADY ARCTISE
CREATURE: ARCTIC FOX

SMOKE: CHANCELLOR SNUFF
CREATURE: MATCHSTICK MAN/WOMAN

FIRE: PRINCE WICK
CREATURE: SALAMANDER

STEAM: PANT THE IT
CREATURE: LECH

WATER: PRINCESS WAVE
CREATURE: NAIAD

SILT: LORD WORM
CREATURE: GRUE

DUST: MR. DUST
CREATURE: DUSTDEVIL

EARTH: PRINCE TREMOR
CREATURE: GNOME

GLASS: PRINCESS VAIN
CREATURE: VISION

RADIANCE: PRINCE LUCENT
CREATURE: SPECTRAL RAY

- LIGHTNING: PRINCESS NYX
CREATURE: VAMPIRE

VOID: MISTRESS ABYSS
CREATURE: CHAOS

Bulletin Board Post (BBP)-

* I have amassed a small book of mutation tables from various editions of various games, and now need to distil a list for inclusion in the RPG, while the rest get reserved for a potential subsequent product.

* Ken St. Andre has been kind enough to be interviewed, and I will post that soon -- likely this week.

* Re-focusing on the essential list of topics that still need to be covered for UWoM, using BFRPG as a comparison of what to include and what to leave out.

* Further the wargaming rules outline.

[RPG] Critter (Limited OGC)-

(c) Copyright 2009 Kyrinn S. Eis

The statistics block is designated Open Gaming Content under the terms of the Open Gaming License version 1.0a.

Qetswn ('Exceedingly Subtle, FAST, Wise Spirit')-
]OGC[
Fight Dice: 1+2 to 8+16 depending on age
Resolve: (+8 + FD)
Defence/Armour: variable: (+12 + FD +1d6/1d6EM)
AB: (+1 + FD)
# Attacks: 2 By Weapon Type/Claw-Claw-Bite/Bite
Damage: Light-weapons/1d4 + .5 FD/1d6 + .5 FD
Move: 40 x FD' LoS Phase Travel, at will
Organisation: Family (2 adults, 1d4 kits)
CT: (+5 + .5 FD)
Loot: +67% Types IV-I
XP: (75 - 1,875 Base) + (42 x FD)
]OGC[
These sleekly-angled, long and lean creatures are capable of both upright and quadrapedal locomotion, and have three-fingered hands with opposable thumbs and padded palms and digits that terminate in claws of iron. The Qetswn are rather adept with their natural weaponry which extends to their toothy bite, but prefer the Shizar (thrusting Rapier) or the Brumshal (Cutlass). Clothing tends to be loose and easily shed, and often includes a long coat and a broad-brimmed hat with a rust-coloured feather tucked in its band.
Qetswn are vulpine (fox-like) in appearance and behaviour and rarely settle down in an area if it is heavily populated, although they will gladly traverse a metropolis in search of their victims. Their usual tactic is to disguise themselves with their coat and hat and operate near taverns and docks, as well as other areas frequented by prostitutes. Depending on the 'clientèle' either a female or male Qetswn will move forward toward the client, while the mate will co-ordinate and attack as soon as the trap is sprung.
Victims are then raced off to a feeding ground, where the parents ingest the food for transport and delivery to the kit(s). It is through this contact and systemic familiarity with the victim that the Qetswn's remarkable Humanesque ability gains a broader pallet, for it is the way they are able to assume a generic human-like appearance, in face and full body. Feeding humans to their young, early, provides a great aid in their survival and propagation. It lasts for (24/FD -- meaning it is easier for a younger Qetswn to maintain their human form than it is for an older creature) hours before another human must be eaten to re-activate the extremely taxing ability.
Qetswn are only injured by High Energetic or Magicked weapons.

[Milieu][Wargaming] Preview-

(c) Copyright 1998, 2000, 2006, 2009 Kyrinn S. Eis All Rights Reserved

WARGAMING URUTSK-
: Autumn Garden


I - Overview
II - Colour Logic
III - Constructive Dice Pool Basics
----------------------------------------
IV - Unit Data
V - Squad Structure
VI - Cohort Rules (Attached Units)
----------------------------------------
VII - Formations & Distributed Assets
VIII - Command & Control
IX - Poor Order, Disarray, & Route
----------------------------------------
X - Terrain & Movement
XI - Darkness, Weather, & Circumstance
XII - High Energetics & Magical Effects
----------------------------------------
XIII - Optional Complications
XIV - Roster of Forces
XV - Scenarios
----------------------------------------
XVI - Postscript



I - Overview
II - Colour Logic
III - Constructive Dice Pool Basics
----------------------------------------

I - Overview-


Daqhtshal:Ikarentes-Yahannl
<"I am a dutiful, trained soldier: Proud First Wave Air Cavalry, a Devastator">

No, knowledge of the Vrun language is not necessary to use this rules-outline, but it certainly wouldn't hurt. In fact, you may be surprised at just how much of it you will learn through the process of reading these pages.
I took the opportunity to illustrate the manner in which Vrun structure their divisions, and the idiomatic manner in which, in this instance, the Resth Clan Confederacy name their companies.

When the Ancients, the First Parents, fell from the sky in the War in the Heavens, they brought with them a diverse range of martial traditions dating from millennia before, and millions of worlds amid the infinite Empyrean.
Because of the haphazard manner in which they tumbled to Urutsk from the great heights of the Space Beyond the Sky < Aya 'Eye-Ah' > , the variety of troops and armed units became so dispersed that individuals or detachment-sized remnants of squads and larger groups simply became associated with enclaves of other survivors.
From this jumble of civil servants, constabulary, home guard from dozens of environments, to elite and specialised warfighters, isolated societies cobbled together their individual tables of organisation, training, and deployment as Black Winter set in with its scouring celestial wind of space debris and plasma storms.

In some locales, due to the distribution of more favourable geographic features, limited surface activity was possible over the time-forgotten span of the Scourge. However, the vast majority of the scattered Imperial cantons were forced literally underground and expanded their holdings over the centuries.
It was not long before the tunnelling unearthed and awakened long dormant creatures and monstrous civilisations as recent as their own, also escaped to Urutsk. These wars, The Onyx Battle < Yuon Hakar >, never truly ended. It was only the gospel report of the Scourge's cessation that allowed Humanity to flee the Stygian depths for the sunlit world of the surface.

While certain kingdoms and other cultures did meet during that long period, few had the resources to maintain larger communities and had often kept the contact secret from their constiuents. Now upon the surface, the enclaves and empires of thirty or more generations removed cousins gradually were reunited.
The grand traditions of the Imperium made the re-integration of the disparate colonies more easily possible. Of course, there were those who desired no part of the resurrected behemoth that had created the Cataclysm, and from these 'deserters' came the first intra-Human wars.
But Fate was kind to renew the enmities with the non-Human, and in some cases, also the Allied Peoples (human-like aliens). More often than not, Human enemies were brought past their bickering and resource grabs to unite briefly against their common foes.

Through these various organic mechanisms of transmission and re-implementation, there became a great commonality to Human military endeavours that was retained as various groups spread out to seed the barren planet with animal and plant life from their long-destroyed homeworlds and others once held within the Imperium's grasp.
From the hereditary melange that had defined the Core of the Imperium ('The Sphere of Suns'), as had been recorded in myths of the long vanished past, Humanity became a species of multiple peoples. As the Human pool of bloods split and refined, specialised, and re-introduced other groups, the ethnicities of Urutsk came into being in only a few hundred years. With these divisions, martial procedures changed and were lost to time and replaced with more ideal methodologies and practical measures as suited each group's particular needs.

As the planet grew lush and green, as the rains fed the multitudes with blue and white-tipped marsh grains and fattened game animals, in many cases the non-human races began to find more ideal conditions above ground and expanded rapidly -- often out-breeding humans by several generations.
These groups usually fell upon each other as readily as upon Humans, but in some cases, great bands or more subtle confederacies were formed, and these both were a thorn in Humanity's side for much of the Mad Spring.

Blah...-

With three of my four players present, we began where we left off, and it quickly became clear that there was no (winnable) fight without Tybalt (the PC of the missing player). Captured once the Control (Spells) Test was failed, the PCs were eventually purchased in trade by out-riders hired by the Kherstic League (PC patron organisation) to fetch them from the local manifestation of the TriUne goddess (while different from the Morrigan in particulars of the setting, similar enough for this purpose).

Once out of the witches' camp, the out-riders then suggested that they'd be better served negotiating a newer, higher price for the PCs. In a rare fit of using an NPC'd PC, I had Tybalt create a distraction using the comm-link, which spooked the 'cossacks' for two Rounds and allowed the party to escape. End of gimped session.

---

Whatever uneasy feelings I may have about tonight's session, I will chalk up to tired players and Referee and general oddness at the LGS.

I may be in the irregularly-scheduled C&C Freeport game tomorr-- Later today.

> publish post, shut down system, sleep <