Apparently, it’s been ages since I posted about a wiki update on my blog. This is likely the result of a migration and being caught up in various campaigns and that damn Tyrannic ships post that took forever. My blog has the last post in march, so let’s see if we can do some catching up.
The Spy
I’ve added the Spy template. This was definitely a case of “What took so long?” It required a little revisiting of the rank structure of Maradonian houses to bring them more in line with the new rank structures that have proliferated across organizations in Psi-Wars, and I needed to integrate some of the new hacker rules into the spy template. But I needed it done, because I noticed people using the old It5 version only because I hadn’t updated it to the new format, and I wanted to have it in place for Undercity Noir 2 (as 1 is rapidly winding down) and one of the prospective Wanderers of Dhim players would like to play as a Mithanna Spy.
The Mystic
So I finally found a way to write mystics that I don’t hate. The biggest issue with Mystics is the wonky pricing of Communion, which is 15 for level one, then 5 per level, then suddenly 10 per level, then suddenly 15 per level and so on. Worse, I had hoped to have certain groups with Unconscious Communion and other groups with normal Communion, and I wanted to have smooth transitions between the two, but that doesn’t work. At least not unless you have really chunky upgrades, then it works out fine. So I finally settled on 50-point power-ups. That does mean your “masters” of a mystical art are deeply invested in their art, but that lines up with the costs.
I’ve written up a draft power-up structure for three forms of the Divine Masks and for True Communion, and a first draft of the Akashic Mysteries, but I wanted to see what it would look like to have an actual mystic. Can I write it as one single template? Answer: No! No way. There’s a lot in common across all Mystics that I can see: they’ll have basically the same statline and likely very similar primary skills (except for specialization) but from there it becomes as wildly different as druids are from wizards and priests. I can’t even make just the Divine Masks fit into one template! But I’ll see if I can find some way to organize it to make it easier for players to see the connections between them.
While none of those templates are out, I’ve made some updates on the Divine Masks, particularly details on Domen Sefelina and their mystical power-ups. Next are some martial arts associated with them and then their final template. My plan is to roll out Domen Sonostrum and Domen Khemet next (Venalina is important, but I would argue the least popular of the four cults). I’m starting with the Divine Masks because it serves my Dhimian campaign and, more importantly, because the Divine Masks is one of the least important mystic sets, with True Communion and the Mystical Tyrant as the most important (Akashics somewhere in between, and Neo-Rationalists pondering whether they even belong among mystics).
Part of this has also involved updating Communion miracles a little. In particular, I want to round out the lower-price learned prayers because I notice that’s where most gameplay exists: players can easily buy those, rely on them happening often, and the GM is more likely to allow those to come out. So I wanted to make sure everyone had some luck, charisma and Blessed (Heroic Feats) variation. Most of this has impacted Broken Communion which has gained a few new miracles (Broken Confidence, Servant of Unreality and Moment of Broken Truth), and will likely see some Blessed (Heroic Feats) coming soon. The other forms have received a little love, but less than Broken Communion, because I’ve noticed that Broken Communion is far more popular than I expected, and I wanted to give it a little more utility.
Knives!
Third, I’ve released the Universal Edge, the fifth Assassin martial art. I discussed it more extensively in yesterday’s post. This has a more “Westerly” than the other assassin styles, and is directly inspired by Riddick, so if you wanted a more brutal, tough-guy assassin style, this is the one for you. This has also been integrated into the Assassin template.
Vithanni, again
Ahh, everyone’s favorite “obscure” race that’s my eternal headache. After some deep introspection, I decided to reduce the price of IQ for the Vithanni from 20 to 15. While I still argue that there’s definitely 20 points of value still in IQ for them, the problem is that Aura because such a good value for them that you’d be a fool to take one to access IQ. A slight discount makes a high IQ, low AU Vithanni at least a plausible, instead of laughable, build. This required going through each template adjustment and re-working things, but the result is far more pleasing. I’ve also integrated the Spy into their adjusted templates.
See You Next Month?
This month isn’t as dominated by a swarm of sessions like the last few have been, so I should have a bit more time to get some writing done, so with luck, some more material should be coming out, and I’ll try to be better about the updates (but a 2 month estimate might be more plausible)
Mailanka's Musing 