[RPG] Weapons of the Ancients: 06-

:: Painting costs 3 shots
:: Rotary/Long costs 2
:: Pulse costs 1 shots

KVadrXveim ('Artifice - Specialist - LASER')
* Type: Multi-Frequency Multi-Beam Painting LASER Rifle
* Effect: Explosive/Heat 5d6x5 Painted; Explosive/Heat 3d6x5 Rotary-only; Explosive/Heat 2d8x5 Pulsed
* Range: 2,000 Yards Optimal Terrestrial Environment; 200 Yards Realistic
* Ammo.: 10-shot (5d6 Shot-Life, ea.) Cyclode with 10-Round recharge-rate (1/Round offline)
* Weight: 10 Lbs.
* Frequency: R

:: Following the development of the low-power energetics project to a fieldable weapon system, designers sought to replicate the light and elegant found Grand Ancient beam weapons in a contemporary manner. The Xveim is the result of that broad period of global development, and stands not as an individual weapon, but a host of national and factional standards and their hoards of sub-variants and mission-specialised versions. Resembling the basic pattern of the KMH rifles, their ergonomics proved intuitive for anyone familiar with the KMH class of arms, and they are able to work the essential controls, including eject/load new cylinder and basic diagnostics. This purposeful move insured a swift adoption of this class of weapon, and furthered the depth and breadth of the global human arsenal.
:: Painting comes from putting multiple laser beams onto the same point on a surface. The early rifles were not painters, nor pulsers, but 'long beamers' of a single frequency. This proved inefficient, and the projects around the world were stymied. Groups of dispersed civilians solved the problem through a variety of solutions, one of which is the 'Rainbow Painter' which sets multiple and diverse single frequency laser beams on a spinning cylinder mounted on a track manually positioned by the firer to overlap in one spot on their target, and then powering-up to full intensity and fire all of the beams in unison, or pulses of the same multi-chromatic energy frequency. LASER wounds are explosive internal steam catastrophes, and not the simple tiny hole drilled through one's body-scenario often imagined.


KVadrXveimum ('Artifice - Specialist - LASER Pistol')
* Type: Multi-Frequency Multi-Beam Painting LASER Pistol
* Effect: Explosive/Heat 3d6x5 Painted; Explosive/Heat 1d10x5 Long-beam; Explosive/Heat 1d8x5 Pulsed
* Range: 1,000 Yards Optimal Terrestrial Environment; 100 Yards Realistic Outdoor Dry Maximum
* Ammo.: 15-shot (4d6 Shot-Life, ea.) Cyclode with 03-Round recharge-rate (5/Round offline)
* Weight: 7 Lbs.
* Frequency: S

:: The pistol version of the painting LASER is a sonar/radar-ranging auto-painter, although the rotary feature is absent, and the number of frequencies is reduced to three (low-mid-high) beams. Their wounds tend to blister and disrupt unevenly due to the trinary beam pairing two frequencies with wave overlap.
:: The higher fire to recharge ratio was a primary goal in the development of this class of weapons, and as a result, the shot-lifetime of each cylinder is lower. Subsequently, only officers and independent specialists tended to be issued these sidearms. Rifle and Pistol cyclode cylinders are not usually interchangeable, although some examples of field conversions and prototype adapter units exist.

[RPG] Weapons of the Ancients: 05-

Weapons of the Ancients-

KVadrXtsayukd ('Artifice - Specialist - Low-power Particle Gun')
* Type: Low-energy Particle Beam
* Effect: Lethal 3d6x10, Fire/Heat 2d10x2 10'x20x10' VoE behind target
* Range: 0-85 Yards at Full Effect, 86-267 Yards at Half Effect/VoE
* Ammo.: 15-shot Cyclode with 5-Round recharge-rate (3/Round offline)
* Weight: 18 Lbs.
* Frequency: T

:: A 48" hard-chromed cylinder connected by a single large cable to a hip or backpack mounted cyclode generator. The generator is fuelled by Eiadu (Aether-infused clay) vapour mixed with purified antimony, tin, and other metals. This mixture comes in a slender cylinder roughly 7" in length, and each contains enough breeder material to donate one shot's-worth of matter for the cyclode. There are fifteen such cylinders in a hip-mounted cyclode.
:: When a shot is available and fired, a quantum-plasma of neutrons is created as the relatively dense matter sheds its electrons and protons within the target. The effect is essentially the same as large-calibre ballistic damage, minus the entry and exit wounds, and carries a fair amount of imparted physical impact at the reaction site/wound-path. Figures nearby a target will suffer flash effects from the flare-up of light particles, and this can easily affect electronics in the 2,000 cubic feet Volume of Effect behind the target.
:: Backpack mounted cyclodes have twice the number of shots, and can fire a quick follow-up shot at +2d6 (Lethal 5d6x10, Fire/Heat 2d10+2d6x2), but this also adds 15 Lbs. to the weight. Generally, anyone armed with this weapon had only a knife and sidearm with them due to the weight and bulk of this unit.

* Hip: 15 shot battery, regenerating 3-shots per Round of inactivity (for a full recharge in 5 Rounds of inactivity).

* Backpack: Twice the number (30) & 6-Shot regen. per Round of inactivity (still 5-Rounds for full recharge).

:: Each cylinder has a 10d6-shot-lifetime.

[RPG] Weapons of the Ancients: ##-

The grenade-rifle-

KMerThayk ('Artifice - Standard Issue - Throwing Device')
* Type: Grenade Rifle
* Effect: Varies by Grenade-type, but grants a +01 Combat Bonus to use
* Range: 675 Yards on level ground
* Ammo.: 25-Stick, 72-Drum
* Weight: 3 Lbs.
* Frequency: K

:: This stand-alone weapon duplicates the capabilities of under-barrel grenade-launcher systems common to the Yaeshani ranks of the Far East, but is set into a stout and utilitarian wood or synthetic stock-set, making a rifle-length grenade-launcher of incredible utility and precision both in Direct and Indirect (arced) Fire modes.
:: It is a magazine- (stick or drum) fed system with an additional single-feed port for spur-of-the-moment opportunity shots with a particular grenade type not loaded into the magazine. Some heavy Arctic versions found are dual- or multi-feed magazine systems and are built for sustained rapid-fire in -120*F weather. Those particular weapons were found smashed or slashed open.
:: Skilled Grenadiers were the bane of enemy units, and were a frequent high-priority target, which necessitated of the Grenadier to quickly adopt the best scout tactics and skills. Heavy Urban units consisted of an equal mix of Grenadiers to Riflemen, so effective their support capability compounded by their precision as a primary shooting unit.

[RPG] Gear of the Ancients 2-

KXem|K| ('Artifice - Portable Computer - Mechanical')
* Type: Hardened Mechanical (non-digital) Processing Unit
* Strength: H (81%)
* Power Requirement: 0 -- Accessories may require Power
* Weight: 22 Lbs.
* Frequency: D

:: A wonder of PicoEngineering, this entirely mechanical computer is capable of any equivalent digital-electronic computer programme, but is entirely hardened against electromagnetic burst attacks which would otherwise neutralise their circuits. Interface cables to powered peripheral devices require powered adaptors, each adding weight to the setup.
:: Ultra-thin metalloid plates Pico-Etched and magneto-scribed with hard-coded analogue processes allow the computer's configuration to be changed or upgraded with a minimum of effort, although upkeep and maintenance are more specialised.
:: When paired with a KSkermAm (Radio), its memory can be written to and accessed by the Xem|K|, even altering the computer's command plates programmes. When plates/units are found in the field, the most frequent data discovered is Operational and Map Data, with battle recordings a close third. Each region exhibits different keyboard and function key layouts, as well as particular variations ranging from brightness of electroluminescent backlighting to Interface Standards (making them incompatible with foreign Standards).

[RPG] Gear of the Ancients-

I am beginning to run low on standard hard-tech examples of Ancient technology without simply enhancing stuff we have in our present toolbox, while still preserving them in a 'useful to Player Characters' context.
--Unless I receive requests for specific types of gear, this is likely to be among the last of the HardTech doohickeys I'll present.

That said, here is the super-radio:

Gear of the Ancients-

KSkermAm ('Artifice - Radio - Portable')
* Type: High-power VLF Pulsed Laser-Phasic Radio Communications System
* Range: Line of Sight and over Horizon
* Power Requirement: 01 Unit per transmission to maximum range, less at shorter distances
* Weight: 4-6 Lbs.
* Frequency: M

:: Due to its Very Low Frequency waves and its pulsed nature, the carrier wave is capable of excellent transmission (wave propagation) over bodies of sea, brackish, and fresh water, while drier earth and dense jungles reduce the range to roughly 8.1 miles (at which point the curvature of Urutsk prevents LoS). However in such unfavourable terrain, other factors, such as the extensive and pervasive ionisation of the atmosphere can begin to degrade propagation as early as 4-6 miles.
:: While near instantaneous, there is a discernible delay at extreme ranges, such as from sea to sea transmissions which travel beyond the horizon. The data is compressed, with a multithread factor of 10, and on military models can utilise a ternary/trinary-qubit rough-equivalent of 16,384-bit encryption. Storage memory on most common models exceeds 100 Terabytes.

[Gaming] Praise of a Blank Planet v. Fear of Failure?-

The guys in the OSR are still feeling their way through the issue of legitimacy regarding 'Each Hexism' versus 'Grand Visionism', which still baffles me to a great deal.

Having thought it wiser a few times to not publish remarks to various blog posts on this subject, I have instead mulled it over and have this incomplete thought to offer for derision or consideration:

Urutsk started out as a single city, Kryssan, but by the end of that first discussion (not session, as the system hadn't even been created, let alone an existing game system chosen) with my players, everything else began to follow as links in a chain, until, very shortly thereafter, I had a nation, culture, and internal politics. This 'big picture thinking' was, and still is, one of the things I am most noted for in gaming, fiction, and analysis.

I am not entirely certain why the OS seems afraid to embrace the middle-path between philosophically-engineered settings and the pride of retaining ignorance about what is in the rest of the one hex on the map.
--Isn't it 'game how you like'? Why expound dogmatic philosophies; selectively cite the 'Elders'; and then reward likemindedness while deriding holistic vision as part of the dreaded Third Wave Railroading / 'Frustrared Writer' syndrome, when nothing about it is that absolute or soluble to a repeatable process, let alone a design philosophy (supposedly 'the FORGE'-istic in nature)?

I think (as in, the jury of my mind is still in deliberation, and this is not a dogmatic opinion from which I cannot be dissuaded) complete worlds make many folks fearful that they'll 'play it wrongly', and it is that rather than the case of their taking some sort of moral highground that randomised exploration of each hex is the superior path to gaming enjoyment.
--As such, it may be difficult for (mostly) men to admit that sort of fear/sour grapes, and instead meet in agreement of the clan's chosen method and proceed in happy perpetuation of the 'tradition', so as to reassure that theirs is the One True Way (even though some make a real effort to make clear that their words, however unintentionally weighty, are not imperial edicts, but rather merely their own opinions, based upon their careful investigations and interpretations of the source materials).

While I would be glad to host such a debate here, I offer [a] Middle Path, namely, knowing what one wants the world-setting to be like in general, while still employing the 'Hexploration' methods to detail one's individual conception of an established and well-documented setting.
--I, too, believe in the 'Oracular power of dice', but also believe that preparation makes for more effective and safer undertakings.

Just a few Monday-midday thoughts. Nothing absolute, dogmatic, nor intentionally inflammatory.

Thoughts?

[Playtest Campaign] 1st of December, 2010-

Ymyk used the mechanical bow taken from the Xarj' corpse that Tybylt had fetched after his hideous near-petrification event last session. Although his physical strength isn't high, Ymyk has the equivalent to the GW mutation 'Heightened Strength', which adds a flat +3d6 to all melee damage he does. I have also allowed him, at times, to simply add 3d6 to his various prowess-related rolls to simulate the idea of his great strength. Anywho, this bow adds an additional 3d6, an the javelin-like projectiles do 1d10 each, for a whopping 6d6+1d10 (07 | 26.5 | 46) points of damage. This proved instrumental in the upcoming fight with these things.

Tybylt decided to investigate a malign-looking metal torch the party had picked up earlier in the weird complex (in a vast jungle, under lavender skies) and discovered that its operation required the immersion of the crown in blood. With handy fallen baddies nearby, and after a bit of jumping up and down on the cadavers, said blood was procured and the item (after the undisclosed command word was uttered) spouted a blood-red flame in which the writhing souls of the deceased could bee seen. This fell arcane light was shed to 30' and looked like rivulets of blood in water, and proved effective in countering the effects of The Void in which the citadel was located (behind the mean/nasty door that had led Tyb to the petrification trap he only narrowly escaped).
--Armed with this, the group left their +/- Lightning followers behind, and moved on to retrieve Tybylt's two fey daughters. Coming to one of the many portculli in the citadel's wall, they looked through and saw Khark and Kaukara humans dressed in very little clothing going about their business. I made it clear that this was a caste society, and that many of the porters showed signs of early and frequent flogging; their backs carven with scourge scars.

The party, stealthy as ever, lasso the lever and let themselves in, at which point, one said slave backs away without drawing attention to anyone else, namely the four-armed 12-15'-tall critters. Sadly, that didn't last, as one of the creatures spotted them and moved forward to investigate/hold the choke-point. I rolled for CiCi's behaviour and she lobbed an alchemical firebomb at it and scored a direct hit, but the spatter caught a noble-woman's gossamer 'dress' alight and surprise was utterly lost.
--Although there were four of these creatures, and each had 4 attacks per Round, I was not rolling well, and the party was, and the four were quickly neutralised.
---Horns were sounded throughout the citadel.

Spellcasters cast at the party and Mela was bedazzled by the pretty blue lightning bugs she saw, and was out of commission for three or so Rounds. During all of the fighting, Ashta had pressed on, always looking for a fight, while everyone else was still controlling the gateway of the portcullis, being badasses.
--A glittering whirlwind of chert and gypsum shards would have made short work of Tybylt, but we rolled off to see if his Shield spell was effective, and his player won that Round. His action was to grab the female caster's imp or whatever (that was the one actually casting the spell) and fling it away, upon which time Ymyk shot and slew it.

A shield wall of heavy infantry blocked off the street they were nearest and poked poisoned spears through the wall for added effect.
--A Round or two later, a 'rhino-rider' smashed through the shield wall and used his flaming segmented sword to attack the force-field enshrouded Darius, who took about 30 points, but transmitted about twelve electrical back along the weapon and ticked the rider off. More importantly, Tybylt cast Sleep on the steed and it took a nap, but the rider was able to jump off without getting pinned under it. He didn't last too long: First a Bleeding (Condition Three) leg wound, then enough wallop to KO him.

The party again asked for the two fae-girls, and a few minutes later, down the two streets that hug the citadel's walls, came two litters preceded by scribes and virgins carrying bowls of lit incense, and made their way to the area in which the party had entered, and stayed (hoping to demonstrate that they were not invaders, but merely interested in collecting what was theirs).
--Each street procession was attended by a temple representative carried upon a litter. On the right was a bald man with a bright red chevron painted upon each side of his head and wearing a necklace of large gilded wooden links. He was accompanied by an Undead man thickly covered in aromatic resin. This individual (clearly a reasoning being) acted as the priest's representative and addressed Tybylt, asking him to accompany them back to the temple for a feast. At roughly the same time, down the left street came a reddish-brown haired woman wearing a solid (green) jade torc. She was represented by a perfectly symmetrical and flawlessly beautiful nude woman. Tybylt was forced to attempt a Control (Spells) Critical Test (due to her unearthly beauty and the lust it provoked) and just succeeded.
---The Undead and this Symmetrical Woman both spoke via some sort of translating magic, and both spoke of their patron's respective temple (The Devouring Worm, and The Golden Goddess), and I made certain to demonstrate that their source language was significantly different than anything they'd ever heard before, with only Ymyk understanding one word in ten of untranslated speech. Tybylt, much to the Horse-archer's protests, accepted the invitation to the feast, and was encouraged to hear that the girls were still intact and could be traded for, and slaves were offered but instantly refused, with brief mention that they had battled slavers. This was translated back to the priest of the Devouring Worm by a scribe who had not been addressed by the priest. After receiving the impertinent informant's info., the priest smacked the other's head sending him to the ground, whereupon he was speared by at least three guards in the procession.

Following the priest's procession (they would have been carried upon shoulders, but all refused, and those kicked away by Ymyk were also slain by the guards for failing to please the 'demons' --as the PCs were addressed). The central plaza contained a cubic temple decorated with electric blue and electrum-inlain murals of the dragon-headed Devouring Worm, replete with images of wailing corpses and undead falling from his maw and clawed hands as he writhed in and out of the ground of the surrounding jungle countryside. The Golden Goddess' temple was a tall, stylised phallus atop an irregular-faced dais.

The party entered the temple of the Devouring Worm where they were asked to kindly extinguish their blood torch. Tybylt asked for blood to re-ignite it, and a temple virgin girl was slain on the spot and her blood collected in a golden bowl. The players were dismayed, and my SO, Tybylt's player's sister, made a comment about morality as did Ymyk's player, to which Tyb's replied that having already died once and his spirit being used to power a Dryvv Shadowdrive craft, there wasn't much worse he thought could happen in an afterlife. I laughed knowingly and we proceeded. The party saw that the priestess of the Golden Goddess and her retinue entered from an underground passage on the side nearest their temple.
--Within the rather large structure were hundreds of face-painted adherents, dragon-masked warriors, undead, and other monsters, including upright reptilian warriors, some of whom sported maces at their tail tips (this starting to sound familiar yet?). These reptilian warriors demonstrated feats of strength by fighting amongst themselves in mock combat with their wickedly curved and serrated longswords, and then fought 7-8' tall powerfully-built humans in dragon-motif armour > wink < who invariably lost the fight and were torn, limb-from-limb as the party either sat or stood at the banquet table (only Mela partook of the fare and found it richly flavoured: for example, long-grain and wild rice with blanched almonds and currants, mixed with cinnamon and slivers of mango-like fruit). Eventually the two fae-girls were brought out, and Ahni (the eldest of the three girls) Jaunted to the stage and attempted to save her favourite of the two (Vania), but was prevented from doing so by one of the lesser Worm priests.
---Ymyk took that cue to shoot the man, but suffered half of the damage as both he and his target saw that the 'arrow' occupied both places simultaneously before disappearing in a flash. This, however, was enough to disrupt the psychie/spell, at which point Ahni Jaunted back with Vania and urged their father to ingest the Shadow Travel potion he had received directly from Lord Shadow. The chief priest then cast a mass Hold spell, and only Mela saved, but had to burn through two DP to be able to act and re-ignite the torch by lifting the bowl of blood to the item and encanting the command word. Rather than leaving one of his daughters behind, Tybylt used his new combination of Levitation and his Shadow mysteries to pick up the cage in which the third (we've forgotten her name) was held. There was a moment where all looked lost, but as the priestess of the GG and her retinue departed, one dispelled the priest's Hold spell and the party dipped by falling into Tybylt's shadow. There were shots fired and a few characters took hits, but not enough to '86 them. He left last and made certain they weren't being followed.

They emerged, not in Shadow, but back at the canal in the underground gypsum city of the Lightning Undead. They navigated the marketplace after purchasing a few grounding staves, and DiDi'd back to the still-cloaked Aelbaan craft (outlined nicely by the rain).
--We held it there. The secondary characters (and Ymyk) each received about 4500 Adventure Points, and the Primaries one half that much. A few were close to matriculating to the next higher Magnitude, but were still at least 1k or so away.