Wiki Update: Psi-Wars Sidekicks

It’s Wiki Week! I’ve started running a Wiki Week poll at the beginning of the month, and I thought I’d rapidly run out of material, but it seems not so much! The amount of notes that have piled up over time is enormous! Technically, Rare Powers tied with Sidekicks, but I decided to break for Sidekicks for now.

NPC Highlight: Chet Starbeam and his Blazers

Chet Starbeam
The Design Diary

I’m not usually a fan of pre-generated NPCs, as I generally prefer to make bespoke campaigns with my own particular NPCs.  I have noticed, though, that people do make use of them.  They can be a nice way to quickly illustrate a particular element of a setting, and as an immediate encounter.  So, I thought I’d try a new series, wherein I outline an NPC that I’ve whipped up.  I usually make them for playtests I run, or to make sure a particular template “makes sense.”  But they might prove useful to you, so I’ve created a new entry on the Wiki for them.

Of all the opponents that PCs might meet, I think Bounty Hunters are likely the most universal.  We can justify them fighting just about anyone.  In Jedi: Fallen Order, they sprinkle encounters with Bounty Hunters across the map as your adventure progresses to keep  you on your toes.  Having access to a variety of ready-made bounty hunters, then, could be useful to any Psi-Wars GM as someone to bust in the door and shoot up the place.  After the initial encounter, the PCs can try to piece together who put the bounty on them.

I’ve started the series with an NPC that I created as part of my “Let’s kill Everyone” series, which was designed for the NPCs of the Tall Tales of the Orochi Belt.  We never got to encounter them, but you can use them in your campaign.  The first is Chet Starbeam, celebrity bounty hunter and total bro. I started with him because he is the most generic of the Bounty Hunters I’ve created, and he makes a nice, fun “first step” into being bounty hunted, as he’s not especially difficult to defeat, and can be entertaining to fight.

See what you think of him, and I’d love to hear if you think the series would be useful to you, and if there are particular sorts of NPCs you’d like to see.

Alright, fine, let's kill Axton Kain too! Bounty Hunter Design Diary addendum

One of my players complained when the Bounty Hunter series ended, as he had hoped I would explore how to defeat all of them.  This isn’t a bad idea, actually, as it informs the sorts of things bounty hunters should be able to do. The primary argument against it is a matter of time: how much of my time is better spent building sample bounty hunters vs building out more of the setting?  This isn’t a rhetorical question, as I don’t know the answer, but I’ve had to balance it, and it does directly feed into Tall Tales of the Orochi Belt, even if we’re unlikely to see these hunters right away.  So, shall we come up with one last bounty hunter to fight the legendary Axton Kain?

Some of my favorite people are bounty hunters — Greef Karga, the Mandalorian

This isn’t an entirely inappropriate question.  Patrons have already seen the current state of the Bounty Hunter document, but one element I’ve begun to include are Bounty Hunter Lodges, organized groups of bounty hunters, and one of the three I intend to release is the Exilium, a group of hunters deeply embedded into Maradonian society, who have the diplomatic finesse to operate across several borders, including in Imperial Space, without being questioned or sanctioned.  Thus, this asks the question: how do you hunt a Maradonian?

The Maradonian aristocracy aren’t Jedi by any stretch.  In some ways, they’re far harder to hunt, and in other ways, far easier.  On the one hand, their mastery of psychic power leaves much to be desired when compared to the psychic mastery of the Jedi and they’re not elite force swordsmen.  On the other hand, they are all psychic force swordsmen, who also have armies and international influence networks and vast wealth available exclusively to them.  When you fight a space knight, you’re not just fighting him,  you’re fighting his house, thus you must move with caution.  Presumably, a nobleman with a bounty on his head has been cast out of his house, and thus can be as easily caught as any aristocratic pretender, but this is not always the case, especially in circumstances where a rival has begun placing bounties on a member of the house.

Of course, Axton is a little different: he’s not psychic at all, but cybernetic.  He belongs to a House that skirts the line between legitimate aristocracy and pirate-lord empire.  Where the other aristocrats play at being a space knight, he’s trained in the Old Ways and has personally knocked genetically augmented super-soldiers off their feet with the full force of his cybernetic body, single-handedly taken on a dozen men and shrugged off plasma shots to his chest.  He’s not an easy mark to take down, and still, someone in the Exilium must be able to take down a member of House Kain.

So how would you do it?

How to Fight Axton Kain

There are several possible acceptable strategies here, but we need to address a few core concerns: the support the character will have from their house, their mastery of their force sword, the fact that they’re likely to have several bodyguards with them, and whatever Kewl Powerz they have at their disposal, in this case, cybernetic powers.

For this build, we’re going to aim once again for ~300 points.  We can go higher, but no higher than 450 and a good bit less would be nice.  Of course, Axton has no Enemies, so any Bounty Hunter we sick on him is purely by GM fiat, and thus such a hunter could be any value, but ~300 is a nice value for a hunter.

In keeping with the diplomatic nature of the Exilium and in dealing with Houses, this will be a “polite” hunter, for whom this is “just business,” and will treat Axton in a manner he’d like to be treated.  This is not to curry favor with Axton, though if done right, it might get his guard down.  It’s also to ensure that no reprisals come from House Kain.  If everything is “by the book” and the hunter inflicts no insult upon the House, then the House is unlikely to crack down on any Bounty Hunter group to avenge the loss of one of their scions.  It also means that if he fails, he’s likely to be spared by Axton and his soldiers, and be free to hunt another day.

Some traits I’d like to try here:

• Diplomatic: Obviously, our bounty hunter moves through dangerous waters in hunting aristocrats.  Thus, we might expect to see him have Diplomacy, Legal Immunity, and Law (Galactic) to know what he can and cannot do. Politics also helps you get a sense of where the wind is blowing.
• Polite: It’s not enough to have the law on your side.  If a cybernetic space knight decides he doesn’t like you, and said space knight is already on the wrong side of the law, all that may keep him from killing you immediately is that he likes you.  Savoir-Faire (Servant) might help ingratiate you, and also helps you glean some information about the character.  Some positive reaction bonuses wouldn’t hurt either.
• Honorable: If you want a member of House Kain to like you, you’d best follow a code, just like they often do.  The manlier, the better.  The Bounty Hunter’s code is a good one: by fastidiously sticking to the rules of what it means to be a bounty hunter, then everyone knows where you stand, and you claims that it’s “just business” have a lot more weight behind them.
• Lodge Hunter: This hunter won’t be independent, but will have the benefits associated with being associated with a Lodge.
• Flanking: If we want to take down a member of House Kain, it’s important to understand their weaknesses.  Almost all members of the House use either the Destructive Form or Knightly Force Swordsmanship, both of which are forward focused, which means if you can hit him in the back, you can take him out pretty quickly.  The best way to do that is to hit him from two sides at once.  With our set-up, I’ll focus on a “tank,” our primary hunter, who will occupy Axton’s attention, and a “sniper” Ally who will strike when the time is right.
• EM Disruptors: Obviously, our weapon of choice should be something, anything, that shorts out electronics.  A stunner will work, and we can use EMP grenades too (as limpet mines, or from a payload rifle).  We’ll need pretty high-grade stuff, as all members of House Kain tend to have a high HT and resistance to cybernetic threats, which means they need a really big penalty before they start to notice a problem and slow down.  In the case of Axton, shutting down his cybernetics will likely shut him down, rather than just knock out an arm or a leg, as is often the case for most members of the House.
• Strength on Strength: If we’re going to “tank” Axton, we need to be tough.  We need to be at least as strong as Axton, and we need the ability to withstand strikes from a force sword.  That sort of armor is really hard to come by without serious cash or serious ST, preferably both.  This suggests a cyborg, at some level, a “dark mirror” to Axton Kain.  This also fits with being someone Axton would like: someone as tough as him, who thinks the way he does, but is respectful of the Kain and their way of thinking.  Thus, the “tank” needs high ST and high DR.
• Tempered Cunning: Like all big game, if you’re going to catch someone like Axton Kain, you have to out think them.  The core tactic as noted in the “flanking,” is to hit him from two sides at once.  For this to work, you need to lead him, somehow, into an ambush without the support of his regulars or robot or, if they are, there, they need to be eliminated in such a way that it doesn’t draw reprisal from the house.  Our Hunter will need to know our target well enough to figure out what would motivate him to leave the protection of his group (suggesting Psychology and perhaps Acting) and have some sort of ambush prepared (Tactics, Shadowing and Stealth, and perhaps Traps and Foresight).

Taken together, I see a character who would, after carefully watching Axton (Observation, perhaps) and getting a feel for him, would approach him directly to notify him of the hunt and give him a chance to surrender. He would lay out the terms of the hunt in such a way that it clarified to Axton how he could eliminate any potential harm to his allies, and under what circumstances the Hunter would leave empty handed, to create the sense that this was a game in which Axton could prove himself, and become the victor.  Then, when it came to the hunt, the Hunter would quietly stack things in his favor; if he failed, he would likely follow the terms he laid out and walk away, as doing otherwise risks drawing down too much heat.  He’d make an interesting contrast with the previous “generic” Bounty Hunter, who would come across as crass by contrast.

Hey guys, let's fight everyone! Bounty Hunter Design Diary Part III

So, as part of my Bounty Hunter designs, I’ve been picking on one of my Tall Tales players, Xerxes, because he actually has Bounty Hunters as an enemy, so it’s fun to tailor some opponents around him. But realistically one would not expect to see every bounty hunter tailored to their target.  Certainly, if bounty hunters realized that a Witch Cat was their target, those who specialize in hunting Witch Cats would pick up their kits and rush out the door to take down their preferred target.  But that anti-cyborg guy needs to put food on the table too.  Sure, he might not be as good at it as the first guy, but he only needs to get lucky, right?

So, we should have at least one “generic” bounty hunter.  This also makes it useful since you, dear reader, are unlikely to need a bounty hunter who specializes in hunting Witch Cats.  Thus, of the three-ish hunters I’ve proposed this week, this is the one you’re most likely to actually use.

But what to do?  Every hunter needs a schtick, and our first one already melds excess collateral damage with precision planning.  Our second one melds melee excellence with a sympathetic character.  Every hunter should feel different enough that they represent a unique challenge for the PC, so ours should feel different.

Well!  I’ve been discussing Bounty Hunters with some of my Patrons, and Gentleman Gamer suggested that most bounty hunters are “either bosses or groups of mooks.” I corrected him on the latter: you’re unlikely to see a group of mooks.  “Why?” he asked.  Well, the real reason is that we expect to see highly competent loners doing these tasks, and that it’s hard to pay an entire crew off of the sorts of bounties most people collect.  But that just means its rare, so why not have a bounty hunter with a group of mooks at his disposal?  It offers some unique opportunities: when searching for the character, his posse can canvas an area as a group and when they close in for the kill (er, capture), they can “beat” the target towards the primary hunter, like dogs in a hunt.  Gentleman Gamer went on to muse about drones, robot dogs and Shinjurai hunters, and I’m not going to dismiss any of those as ideas.  There’s an entire world of hunters we could be making.  I’m going to focus, for now, on a guy who uses human mooks to help him fight.

How to fight, like, literally everyone

So, we need one last hunter who uses a group of allies to help assist in his defeat of his target.  This suggests a few traits already that should help differentiate him from the other hunter’s we’ve had so far.  Mainly, what sort of hunter is it that has a bunch of people helping him?  Such a hunter might lack the skills to do it himself, or he might prefer to have an audience, or he might be highly organized and runs his hunts like a business that he brings partner onto.  I’m going to push more for the former two (especially since our hunter is worth no more than the 300 points that Xerxes is worth): he’s not that great of a hunter on his own, and he likes a bit of an audience.  That said, he’ll make good use of his minions: they’ll make noise, push and chase the target and drive them into an ambush by our primary hunter.

This suggests some traits:

• Ally Group: Obviously, our hunter needs a group of hunters to assist him.  I would say at least 5, but probably no more than 20.  These would be mooks, of course, their BAD associated with his BAD, but likely between BAD 2 and BAD 5.
• Nothing without his minions: Our hunter should be at a heavy penalty when he’s lost his troops.  He might have a trait like Chummy to represent this: if you can defeat enough of his mooks, he’ll retreat.
• Kind of a Dick: This is a hunter who sends “wave after wave of his own men” after the target, so he’s probably a bit egocentric, and he claims the lion’s share of the bounty once the mark has been taken, so he’s also probably selfish.  I had mentioned yesterday that having an NPC that the players will relish defeating can be fun.  This might be such a character.  I see braggadocio in the character.
• Charisma and Good Looks: I picture Captain Laser from “I’m not a Monster.” This character needs to attract people willing to accept low pay for a high risk profession.  He needs to be the sort of guy who talks the 10 campers into jumping the bear, claiming “only some of you will die,” and then claim to be the one who killed the bear.  You need to have a nice smile and a lot of charm to pull that off.
• Command and Coordination: This is not a solo hunter who traps targets through cunning and research, but a middle manager who uses his employees to do the hard work for him, but that requires him to know how to get the most out of them. That suggests Leadership and Tactics.
• Ambush: If he’s going to have his minions make noise and drive your target towards you, you need to know how to take advantage of that.  He’s likely a skilled ambusher, which mean he needs Stealth.
• Non-Lethal Take Downs: He’s likely the sort that wants to look like a hero, so he’d rather have a photo op getting a mark to do the perp walk than he would showing up at the bounty collection office with a body bag.  Thus, he’d likely favor stunners and stun grenades, and perhaps good old fisticuffs, for taking his target down.
• Media Attention: If you’re good looking, trying to present yourself as a hero (to get more gullible mooks to join you), then it helps to have great media presence.  It might also make a valid tactic to beat out the target from hiding: set yourself up as a glamorous bounty hunter, do some interviews about your latest target, offer a modest reward for information leading to the capture of this “dangerous fugitive,” (a tiny percentage of the award, obviously, like “Here’s 20 credits, thanks kid”) and otherwise plaster the area with holo-posters of your target.  That lets you turn Propaganda into a research skill and get everyone else to do your work for you, which seems to be this guys schtick.

Put all this together, and you get an interesting and useful bounty hunter, in that despite his stealth, he’s really really obvious.  When he joins in the hunt, wanted posters go up everywhere, he starts doing interviews, and his mooks start running around really obviously interviewing people and looking for the target.  It’s a clear shot off the PC’s bow that he’s being hunted.  It’s not the worst bounty hunting strategy, though it does tend to interfere with other hunters’ desire to keep the character from being aware of their presence and interest in the target, as it puts the target in a heightened state of awareness, but for an NPC vs a PC, it’s a pretty good GM strategy.

Hey Guys, Let's Annoy the Witch Cat: Bounty Hunters Design Diary Part II

Yesterday, in an effort to keep the blog from being empty and giving the impression that I’m not busy behind the scenes, I unveiled some of my thoughts on making an interesting and rather tailored challenge for a character who took Bounty Hunters as an enemy.  The point, of course, is not to single him out for having the temerity to take the Enemy disadvantage, but to use his Enemy disadvantage as a spring board to create some interesting NPCs, because I expect you’ll want to feature Bounty Hunters in your campaigns too, and why not have some ready, on-hand ones, even if these are rather specific.

But not every game is D&D, and even D&D doesn’t really benefit from making every single encounter as lethal as possible.  Yes, we can treat Bounty Hunters as random Boss encounters, but  we don’t have to.  An encounter, especially with something as “random” as a broad and general group of ill-defined enemies, offers us opportunities to explore and reveal some things about the setting.  Not every enemy needs to be lethal.  Some can really suck.  A weak opponent not only reveals something about the world, but makes the game feel less like a mechanical series of ever more difficult encounters and more like a real world to interact with.  And an inept enemy creates an interesting set of choices.  Sure, you could just, you know, kill them, but are you the sort of person who would do that? Or you can leave them alive to threaten you further and eventually they might get lucky.  Or you can try to talk them out of killing you.  But suddenly, you have a more interesting set of choices beyond just “kill or be killed.”

So, I propose we introduce a bounty hunter or, actually, a team of bounty hunters that isn’t constructed to be a thoroughly dangerous opponent, but an interesting NPC encounter that happens to involve a strong desire to kill you. I want to introduce a “newbie” bounty hunter.

How to Annoy a Witch Cat

Okay, so, simple enough, we create a weak opponent that our PC can easily trounce.  But, if we just do that, we leave our weak bounty hunter open to being killed.  We put in a ton of work and then Xerxes, that sinister space pirate, rolls his eyes, shoots him dead and walks on.  Boring, a waste of his time and ours.  So, we need to tempt him not to kill his opponent.  So, a better question is, then: how do we create a character that our Witch Cat won’t want to kill, despite them trying to kill the Witch Cat?

You make it a kid.  Or better, a couple of kids devoted to one another.  Even better, you make them misguided Asrathi kids who are hoping for a big break so they can chase their crazy dreams and they happen to see Xerxes as their ticket to the big time.  It’s not Xerxes, it’s just business.  Only they suck and they sort of need your help.  That should be at least tempting.

Of course, the point here is not to put a Xerxes in front of a couple of waifs in rags, one of whom has a knife that he halfheartedly tries to shiv Xerxes with.  They should represent a real threat.  Not a major threat, but not such an easy opponent that Xerxes can just roll his eyes.  Were they too easy to defeat, then Xerxes would just smack them around and set them on the straight and narrow path.  No, we want to create a scenario where he knows he could win by killing them, but he doesn’t want to, so he must put himself at serious risk by attempting to capture them.  His charity could result in their victory, creating an interesting choice.

There should be a consequence to not killing them. Mainly, they should become better.  This fits with a story of green hunters trying to make a name for themselves.  We can give them additional traits that the GM can start stacking onto them for each additional encounter as they learn with each fight.

There should also be a consequence for choosing to kill them: they should be very difficult to kill.  Easy to defeat, of course, but you’ll have to really go out of your way to kill them, and by making two of them, we create a situation where vengeance becomes more likely.  That way, we don’t just have to rely on Xerxes’ compassion to keep them alive, and we still get interesting play if he just blasts them.

So, some traits

The Brother

• Rogue Hunter: He’s not a true bounty hunter, he just pays close attention to the bounties.  He lacks a license, which means he technically can’t arrest you and the cops can stop him.  He hopes to make a score that will make a Lodge sit up and notice and hire him and thus ensure that he gets his license, but he doesn’t have one yet.
• Asrathi: Of course
• Obsession: He’s the one who really wants to become a hunter and is lost in the dream of it
• Gullible: He’s a big dreamer, so naturally he’s buying all the things he can to “look cool,” but some of his gear is surely substandard and he’s likely easily tricked.  He is, after all, just a kid.
• Unluckiness: This might seem like a terrible trait to pair with a bounty hunter that we’re going to throw at a Witch Cat, but that’s rather the point.  Maybe our hunter would make it if he just caught a break.  Yet, he never seems to.  Perhaps the Witch Cat could even cure his perpetual unluckiness… The only downside is that this isn’t a great NPC trait, as it relies on the GM deciding when it happens, but if the GM wants terrible things to happen to an NPC, they just do… So we might allow the players to contribute suggestions for bad luck.  It might be fun!
• Hard to Kill: Obviously, he’s going to be at risk of death a lot, yet he never seems to die.  We might pair it with some Rapid Healing and other traits that make him more likely to spring back after defeat.  We might also consider Extra Life with limitations that require it to be used in a way that seems plausible, like a set of coincidences that keep him alive.
• Code of Honor or Pacifism (Cannot Harm Innocents): The point, of course, is to be the best bounty hunter, but we have an idealistic idea of what it means to be a bounty hunter.  So we follow the niceties that many other “real” hunters neglect. He’s not a bad guy, he just happens to be your enemy.
• Natural Talent: He has real potential.  Most PCs will optimize their character, but you can get a lot of interesting mileage out of not optimizing your character: characters with Talent 4 for skills they don’t have (or barely have), or too much DX for the amount of skills they have.  If we give our Asrathi boy an extremely high DX, he’ll have a lot of unrealized potential.
• Total Lack of Skill: Paired with this, we should have sufficiently low skills that the character is fairly easy to beat.  I think we should be aiming at a BAD of 2 or 3, so skill 12-13 where possible.
• Flashy Skills: Our Asrathi has cinematic ideas of what it means to be a bounty hunter, so likely focuses on “cool” skills: Acrobatics, Karate, parkour, and moves and techniques that make him fast, allowing for lots of quick, light, inept strikes. He might even have a Showoff Quirk, forcing him to take as many penalties as possible even when it’s not necessary.  He shouldn’t have highly effective skills though: no feint, no highly lethal targeted attacks, no sniping from a distance.
• Ally (Sister): He’s part of a pair of hunters. They come as a package deal.  The fact that his sister has his back is fundamental to the character. 
• Sense of Duty (Sister): They’re in this together, and he’ll do whatever it takes to keep her safe, whatever her flaws.  Just as long as it doesn’t interfere with his bounty hunting, of course.

What about Overconfidence?  Well, the problem isn’t that he thinks he can do it, the problem is that he desperately wants to do it.  He knows he’s outclassed, but he feels he doesn’t have a choice.  He needs this.  What about Daredevil? Well, that would give him a bonus for punching above his weight, and his problem is that he lacks those bonuses.  It’s tempting to go the other direction: Low Self Image, where if he has everything lined up, he does great, but the moment things start to go south, they really go south for him.  I think Low Self-Image is a criminally underutilized disadvantage, but I’m not sure it’s the right choice here.

The Sister

The sister needs to be both a contrast and complement to the brother.  She needs to represent the other side of the coin, keep him stable, but also help explain why he is the way he is.

• Rogue Hunter
• Asrathi
• Pitiable or Beautiful or Honest Face: The point of the pair is to invoke sympathy, and few things push someone to reconsider murder than being pretty or cute. I also think having a high reaction modifier is an underrated bounty hunter tactic that I’ve not seen used outside of Killjoys.  If the mark underestimates you, it’s easy for you to get close and use unarmed skills against them. She’s that sort of hunter.
• Debt: One of the reasons her brother might be desperate for a big win is because his sister might have built up a big debt and have pressures on her from the underworld to drag her into things she really doesn’t want.  By hunting, they hope to pay it all back.
• Compassionate: Like her brother, she’s good people (which is one of the reasons killing her should be hard).  She’s the sort of street rat that looks out for other street rats, even if it gets her into trouble.  She might also pick fights that she can’t win, hence why her brother has picked up some combat skills.
• Smart: Where her brother is physical and skilled, she’s street smart and practical.  She’s good at manipulation and avoiding scams. Where her brother has a lot of potential to be good at the physical end of bounty hunting, she has a lot of potential for the mental end of bounty hunting, but like him, only actually has skill 12-13.
• Thieving: Her hunger for material goods and class has led to a skillset in sticky fingers, which she can also turn to her benefit when helping her brother hunt.  She’s also stealthy and observant.
• Scrapper: She’s competent at self-defense.  She can handle a blaster and if a drunk guy tries to get handsy with her, she can handle herself.  She’s not the real combat specialized of the pair, though.
• Sense of Duty (Brother): Were it up to her, she wouldn’t be a bounty hunter, but a smuggler or a con-artist, or something even classier, like a performer. Circumstances have forced her into this line of work, but especially her brother’s passion.  She’s fiercely protective of him, and the people who try to manipulate him.  If he dies, she’ll seek vengeance.
• Ally (Brother): They come as a paired set.

Together, they should make a nice one-two punch.  She can try to shadow, then dazzle and bamboozle Xerxes into an ambush, and he can try to capture (not kill, of course!) Xerxes.  They’ll fail, probably, and Xerxes will see through most of it, but it’ll be up to him to decide what to do with them.  They make a great warning shot, a reminder that he’s being hunted and a definite inconvenience, but not the “OMG I’m going to die!” of the previous bounty hunter.  Sometimes, non-stop death traps makes for a tedious set of encounters, and they make for a nice change of pace.

(Incidentally, you don’t have to make sub-par opponents “nice.”  The tension between “Do I kill them or not?” isn’t nearly as fun as hitting a player with an annoying little bastard that squirms his way out every time, only for them to finally pin them down and relish actually eliminating them. I personally think the sub-par opponent is underrated.  Yes, if your game lacks challenge people can lose interest, but constant high tension can be exhausting).

Patreon Double Trouble: the Names of Humanity and Building Imperial NPCs

Today, I’ve got not one, but two, Patreon posts!  In the first, I’ve got the Names of Humanity, a proposed expanded list of the generic sci-fi names offered in Iteration 5.  These include a brief discussion of the various “ethnicities” of humanity in Psi-Wars, and where the original culture groups came from ages ago, to create a cohesive set of names, as well as a discussion of how to mix and match them.  Hopefully, this gives you plenty of ideas on how to name your characters.  The Names of Humanity is available right now to all $3+ patrons (and no, you’re not crazy, back in the State of the Patreon I argued that this would be a $1+, but in retrospect, it’s less of an aside or generic article, and more of a preview of coming Psi-Wars material, so thus appropriate for $3+.  I hope this change does not offend!)

Next, I have Building Imperial NPCs, an open invitation to all $7+ patrons (my Disciples) to contribute to the Empire by creating your own NPCs.  I’ve included instructions, what I’m looking for and what I’m not, as well as questions and real or fictional characters to inspire you.
Go and take a look!  If you’re not a patron, as usual, I’d love to have you!

Patreon Posts: The Empire and the Emperor

Today begins the reign of the Empire!  Over the next month, I’ll release all the details of the Empire, from its organizations to its unique technology and its dangerous personnel.  For my $3+ “Fellow Traveler” Patrons, I have a complete preview (though currently lacking technology and personnel!)

For my $5+ Companions and Disciples, you get to decide on the Emperor himself.  Heir to the great war hero’s legacy, he might be a sinister psion or a misunderstood genius.  What is his true agenda, and who will reign when he passes away?  The introduction post is here.

As usual, I want to thank my patrons: you guys make this possible.  If you’re not a patron, don’t worry, all of this stuff will eventually be available to you too, but if you’d like to join, I’d love to have you.

Damien Bogsworth, Viscount of Toys, King of Toyland

Belphegor acquired the Estate of Toys by contract, which stipulates that he must honor the laws of Toyland, the seat of the Estate of Toys and a complex world home to a variety of lesser estates. The law of Toyland states that Toyland itself chooses its King, who is also made the Power of Toys. Upon turning 13, the King of Toyland must give up his position to the next king of Toyland.

Damien Bogsworth, the current King of Toyland, refused. The only child of a wealthy lawyer and a doting trophy mom, Damien has lived a life surrounded by the best and most exclusive toys. He’s learned to collect limited edition toys that he leaves in their box (“It preserves their value”), and his parents ensure he has better toys than everyone else, which he uses for leverage to ensure that he’s “the coolest kid in school,” bribing those he’d like to be his friends by letting them watch him play with his awesome toys. His magnificent collection contained such occult weight that Toyland selected him to be the King of Toyland when he was 8.

As his thirteenth birthday approached, Damien realized he had already been replaced and that toyland had selected a new king, Tommy Tinkerton, who would ascend to the throne on Damien’s birthday. Furious at the prospect of losing all the wonderful toys of Toyland, Damien turned to Belphegor, who was all to happy to agree to help him. Belphegor and Damien found Tommy Tinkerton and kidnapped him. Damien keeps Tommy locked up in a dungeon in the bowels of toyland in a magical cage that slowly drains the youth from Tommy and keeps Damien eternally twelve. Soon, Tommy will be too old to be king, and Damien will be the immortal emperor of Toyland.

As the toys of toyland become increasingly aware of these, they have rebelled and tried to free Tommy. Damien has responded with brutal crackdowns and secret police. The toys of Toyland are now divided between those who support Damien’ revolution, enforcers and informants, and those who fight it: rebels and guerillas.

Damien’s flowers are aconite, the Key of Rage, and oak, the Key of Something That Hasn’t Changed.  He follows the Path of Hell, and his anchors are Tommy Tinkerton, the True King of Toyland, the Pinup Princess, the Great Toy Hoard, and Toyland itself, his Sanctum.

Estate of Toys

-Toys are the playthings of others (3).
-Toys tempt you to use them (1).
-Toys spark nostalgia and fond memories (1).
-Toys bring fun and amusement (1).
-Toys are childish (1).

Domain Miracles of Toys

1. Summon a common toy from nothing, or change one toy model to another, common toy model.
2. Know a toy’s true name at a glance. Know everything about an obscure toy. Talk to a toy, get it to talk back, to find out whatever it knows.
3. Make a toy even cooler: More fun, more tempting, more nostalgic. Upgrade a common toy to a limited-edition, exclusive, high-end toy. Make a toy physically stronger and tougher.
4. Create a toy to spec. Bring a toy to life, so that it’s animated and able to act according to its will. Make a toy enact your will. Give a toy a new function (“Kung Fu Grip!”)
5. Use a toy like a ouije board or a magic 8-ball to see the future. Damage or destroy a toy. Strip a toy of its value, or its color, or some of its functions.
6. Change a toy’s destiny, what purpose it serves, or how the world sees it. Make a toy haunted, or extremely valuable, or the last of its kind. Make a toy epic, making it immortal, unbreakable, or magical.
7. Animate all the toys of a region or a city. Summon one of the Seven Fabled Toys. Create a magical toy from nothing. Create a new genre of toy.
8. Destroy all toys in a nation. Destroy a genre of toys. Create an item capable of destroying even one of the seven fabled toys.
9. Empower a toy to become one of the Seven Fabled Toys.. Forbid toys from ever entering a particular area.

Persona Miracles of Toys

1. Make someone a little more plastic, a little more fun, or a little more childish
2. See through the eyes of any single toy. Become a specific toy.
3. Make yourself tempting. Make it so that someone remembers you fondly. Become enormously fun. Become a child.
4. Turn someone into a toy, or a toy-like creature. Make someone into your plaything. Curse someone with childishness.
5. Strip a toy of its fundamental toyness. Remove any fond memories someone has of someone else. Remove all of someone’s childishness. Destroy a toy-like quality of toys, such as making them boring (“An educational toy”), or remove the fond memories associated with them. Become an army of toys.
6. Connect someone to their toy. Change who is connected with a specific toy (“This teddy bear is now fundamentally yours”). Bless (or curse) someone so that they can see the true lives of toys around them as those toys come alive in their presence. Bless someone so that they may enter toyland, or that they may never enter toyland. Become a truly epic toy. Create a specific fond memory about yourself and put it into the mind of a god. Tempt the whole world to make use of you.
7. Turn someone into a magical toy, or into an entire genre of toys. Make someone into an eternal child. Bind someone into eternal servitude as your plaything.
8. Remove an entire genre of toys from your estate. State that all toys within a nation no longer count as toys. Curse someone so that nobody will ever have fond memories of them again, or that nobody will ever have fun with that person again.
9. Connect someone to an entire genre of toys, so that they are its king and defender, existing so long as they exist, granting them access to a minor estate associated with that toy genre (like one of the seven fabled toys).

<========================Spoilers========================>

Damien and the Tacoma: No power of Belphegor hates the Tacoma’s powers more than Damien, who works actively to defeat them. Percival the Teddy Bear Knight, once one of Damien’s royal guard, abandoned his position to protect his Boy, and worked with Jack Livingston to steal Snickersnack, the primeval wooden sword, from Damien, who has sworn unending revenge. Furthermore, Hazel technically falls within the Estate of Toys, and is the only toy that’s also an Imperator, making her themost exclusive toy, and Damien, as the Power of Toys, claims ownership over her, and wishes to put her “back in her box” to “maximize her value.”

Aspect 0 (Mortal)
Domain 2 (Viscount)
Persona 0
Treasure 5

Gifts: Sovereigns Gift (1)
Miracle Points: 8

Passions and Skills

Passion: “I want to collect all the coolest toys” 2
Skill: Toy Trivia 1
Skill: Tantrums 3
Skill: Feigned Innocence 2
Skill: Things only grownups understand -1

Bonds and Afflictions

Bond: I am hot for babysitter (1)
Bond: Nobody else gets to play with my toys but me! (3)
Bond: I am seek total dominion over Toyland (2)
Bond: I will make Tommy Tinkerton suffer (1)
Affliction: I will lose my estate if I ever turn 13 (4)
Affliction: I am a twelve year-old boy (1)
Affliction: I reveal the secret life of toys (3)

Anchor: The Great Toy Hoard

Damien Bogsworth has the besttoys. These are typically wondrous anchors, and work as described, though it Damien wants to be surethat they’ll help him in a specific way, he needs to use a Treasure miracle. These include:

Exclusive Studio-Worthy Iron Man™ Costume with Working LEDs
Acquired from a winning e-bay bid shortly after the Avengers first came out, the costume is one of a kind, and comes with a manual that states that the armor is “virtually impregnable,” which Damien took to heart. It is a wondroustwo with the following two properties:

• Armor of Argumentation (2): Damien’s Iron Man costume is technically vulnerable to bullets and other real-world weapons, but those are unfair and against the rules, so Damien can use the armor to argue that it doesn’t count.
• Armor Times Infinity (3): If one attempts to attack Damien’s armor in the context of a toy-fight, he’ll argue that the armor is “virtually impregnable” and so that any hit he takes would be absorbed by the armor, making him nearly invincible in Toyland.

The Nerf Warfighter™ cannon with fully-automatic firing action, unlimited ammunition and underbarrel water-balloon grenade-launcher
This custom-designed prototype never made it fully to market, but it did have an advertising campaign and made the rounds in toy magazines, so naturally Damien decided he wanted it. It serves as his primary weapon when engaging in military-scale combat.

• Unlimited Ammunition (1): The Warfighter never runs out of ammunition, though he needs to carry a bandoleer of water balloons independently.
• “You’re Out!” (1): The Warfighter can’t kill you, all it can do is make you out, if you’re hit. This also counts as a wound, but it means you may “no longer participate in the game,” in whichever context Damien currently sees the contest.

Working Darth Vader Lightsaber™ Replica with light-up action

When Jack stole Snickersnack, that left Damien without a primary sidearm or sword, the symbol of his kingship. However, while Damien definitely objects to anyone stealing any of his toys, he prefers Darth Vader’s Lightsaber because it’s way cooler.

• Cuts Through Infinite Armor (3): Darth Vader’s Lightsaber can “cut through anything, just like in the movies!” In the context of “play” combat, it can defeat any material that protects someone.
• “You’re Out!” (3): Darth Vader’s lightsaber, despite impressive visuals, can’t actually kill you. If Damien hits you, though, you’re “out” and not allowed to play anymore, jut like with the War Fighter above.

Genuine Flying Hoverboard™ As Seen in the Movies
Ever since Back to the Future 2, every kid has wanted a hoverboard. Well, Damien has one, and no you can’t play with it. And yes, it doesactually fly.

Combat Robotics Commando Elite™ Action Figures with 100% Articulation

Damien Bogsworth has the complete set (including the rare Brick Bazooka action figure, who was recalled due to the danger his included fire-cracker bazooke posed to children), and they form the core of his “praetorian guard” in Toyland, acting as his enforcers and assassination squads.

Passions and Skills

Passions: “Be all you can be!” +1

Passion: “Death to those who oppose Damien’s Glorious Revolution!” +2

Passion: “We’re Action Figures, not Dolls!” +1

Skill: Frag ‘em all +4

Anchor: Beatrix Freeman, the Pin-Up Princess

Beatrix has been the baby-sitter for the Bogsworth since she was 14 and Damien was 9 (They share a birthday), and he’s had a slowly growing crush for the increasingly attractive young woman. He’d bring her his most expensive toys, let her watch him play his most exclusive games, and one time, he even let her touch one of his collectibles. She thought his exclusive Colonel Chip Murphy toy was a “nice doll,” and smiled sweetly at all of his little toys, and then kissed him on his head and sent him off to bed. Oh, how Damien loved those kisses.

Beatrix was also an excellent student and attractive enough to win the heart of any young man in her school, but she kept herself unattached, and Damien knew it had to be that she loved him too. It had to be! Then she announced that she had been accepted at Queens University in Kingston, but she wouldn’t leave until she turned 18. She told Damien that she would “miss him.”

Damien was furious. How dare she leave him! So on the last night that she was to babysit her, he asked her if she would come look at his “Secret place.” Suspicious, she joined him in his room, whereupon his Commando Elite grabbed her and dragged her, while he laughed, into Toyland.

She resides now, chained to his throne in Toyland, his beloved Pinup Princess. He intends to marry her, and brings her the riches of Toyland and asks her, but she refuses, demanding to be released so that she can go home, go to College and finally grow up. Toyland cannot accept her as an adult, but it can accept her as a toy, so it slowly changes her, turning her skin into plastic and her hair into nylon. She can feel her will sapping, being replaced with a desire for someone to just play with her. When she can, she conspired with Toyland’s resistance, but she is increasingly aware that Damien uses her as his puppet, connected to her by his obsession for her, and she’s concerned that she might be undermining the very resistance she is trying to foster.

Passions and Skills
Passions: “I want to grow up!” +2
Skill: Modern Parenting Psychology +3
Skill: Innocent Flirting +2
Superior Quality: Plastic Beauty +2
Cool +1

Bonds and Afflictions
Bond: You can trust me with your kids (1)
Bond: I can never leave Toyland so long as Damien rules it (2)
Affliction: I am a living toy (3)
Affliction: A demented Power loves me! (2)

Anchor: Tommy Tinkerton, the True King of Toyland

Tommy Tinkerton never knew his true parents, as they died in a mysterious, toy-related accident when he was just a baby. Since then, the ginger-haired boy bounced from orphanage to orphanage. In one, he met a doddering old carpenter who taught him to carve his own wooden toys. In another, he met an old seamstress who taught him to sew his own dolls. In a third, he met a toymaker who showed him how to care for and maintain the old, antique toys, like tin soldiers and rocking horses. Each craftsman told Tommy that he was special, and meant for bigger things, but that he should use his skills to improve the lives of those around him, and that he should respect his toys.

He did. He plied his skills in each orphanage, fixing the broken dolls of crying girls, or building new ones from scratch for a set of twins who had nothing to play with. He named each toy he made, and could even imagine a life for them, and he dreamed that they thanked him for their true names, and promised to keep them hidden and that, one day, when he needed them, they would come for him.

Then, at least, the door to Toyland opened up to him. The toys he had built lined up before him and welcomed him to his new throne. He was to be the next King of Toyland. Then, the clouds gathered and, Damien Bogsworth and his elite strike force, alerted by the Magic 8 Ball as to the time and location of Tommy’s arrival, scattered the Tinkerton’s loyalists and snatched Tommy away and spirited him to his dungeon.

Damien demands that Tommy abdicate his position as King of Toyland in his favor, officially and before all the Toys of Toyland, so that the resistance against his rule will finally end. Tommy refuses. In retaliation, Damien finds one of Tommy’s created toys and breaks their wooden legs and rips out their stuffing in front of Tommy while the serene prince refuses to give in.

“If you leave a toy in its package,” He’ll tell Toyland’s dictator. “You’ll never understand it the way I do.”

Passions and Skills
Passion: “I love toys” +5
Passion: “We can fix a problem by talking about it reasonably” +2
Skill: Toymaking +4
Skills: Magical Kingdom Administration +2

Bonds and Afflictions
Bond: I am the True King of Toyland (3)
Bond: I will defeat Damien (1)
Bond: I love the toys I created (1)

Anchor: Toyland

Toyland is the Sanctum of the Power of Toys, and is described in its own post.

The Seven Fabled Toys (and the Thirteen Hell-Toys)

The Estate of Toys is vast. Damien rules over far more than just toys. He rules over the balls that bounce in playgrounds, over the dolls that rest in a child’s crib, the teddy bears that watch over their children as they slumber. The Estate is so vast that no single Power can rule it directly, and the Estate of Toys has seven additional guardians, the so-called Seven Fabled Toys, who act as its lesser gods. When the Estate of Toys is harmonious, the Seven Fabled Toys are the servants and lieutenants of the Power of Toys, and the True Power of Toys approaches an Imperator in total power, his sanctum almost a chancel, and his Estate encompassing at least seven other estates! But Damien has lost control of the Estate of Toys, and the Seven Fabled Toys have fled him.

The Seven Fabled Toys are Spirits of the Ogdoad. They are not powers, but they are like them, only lesser. Each rules over a lesser Estate associated with one form of toy, and has power similar to a Noble, but lesser (typically between 10 to 20 character points, rather than 20 to 30).

Toys do not die, but they do break down, fade or become lost. Thus, in time, even Fabled Toys must leave their estate behind and when they do, a new Fabled Toy rises to take its place. This churn means sometimes the nature of the Estate of Toys change. There hasn’t been a Fabled Toy of Tin Soldiers for a long time, for example. Not all Fabled Toys are listed below, and Snickersnack is not listed here (it’s one of Jack Livingston’s anchors), but is the Fabled Toy of Toy Swords.

Estate of Dolls

• Dolls are playthings – at the mercy of the whims of others (2)
• Dolls are models of real-world beings (1)
• Dolls have only the life you lend them (3)
• Dolls seek to have clothes and accessories (1)

The Dollmaker – Fabled Toy of Dolls

The Dollmaker was crafted by the greatest of dollmakers, a Japanese man in Kyoto during the Edo era, and the effort required to create her cost him his soul and his name. Only she remembers who he was, a treasure she holds in her heart. The Dollmaker lives to protect, heal and create dolls. She has long had a standoffish relationship with the kings of Toyland, for too often they favor the toys of boys over the beloved dolls of girls, giving her a unique place in Toyland as a patron saint for the second-class citizens of toyland. Since the rise of Damien, she was among the first to oppose his tyranny, and her power was too great for him to easily crush, but he has certainly tried, and she has become the prime target of his aggression. This has driven her into hiding, while her dolls end up in his dungeon, tortured and mutilated, calling out for their absent saintess to come and rescue them.

Aspect 1 (Touched Up)
Domain 0 (Pawn)
Persona 1

Gifts:

• Natural Weapons (1): The Doll-Maker can manifest a dozen needle-tipped threads that float behind her, like a dozen scorpion tails or spear-tendrils, which she can use to attack. As effective as a magical sword.
• Glorious (2): The Doll-Maker is the manifestation of every girl’s desire to have a doll. She is the most desirable of all dolls, and the weight of her presence is enough to make a little girl’s knees buckle in the desire to worship.
• Immutable (1): The Doll-Maker does not need to eat, or to sleep, and ages very slowly. She will, someday, fade away and be replaced, but that will not be for a few centuries yet.
• Doll-Crafter (1): With a few moments and a Normal Miracle, the Doll-Maker can turn someone into a doll, create a new doll from nothing, or repair any damage that has been inflicted upon a doll. For this last, many dolls ruined by Damien’s torture seek out this pure saint of dolls.

Miracle Points: 8

Passions and Skills

Passion: “I want to take care of others” +3
Skill: Doll Trivia +4
Skill: Childish Games +1
Superior Quality: Elegance +3
Cool: 4
Shine: 2

Bonds and Afflictions

Bond: I protect all of doll-kind (4)
Affliction: I haunt the thoughts of little girls (2)
Affliction: Dolls come to life around me (2)

Estate of Teddy Bears

• Teddy Bears are loveable versions of real bears
• Teddy Bears have a deep, primal connection with one and only one child
• Teddy Bears always know where their child is
• Teddy Bears protect their child from monsters

The Dire Teddy Bear – Fabled Toy of Teddy Bears

Also known as the Primeval Teddy Bear, or the First Teddy Bear, the Dire Teddy is the first Teddy Bear ever created, and belonged to Theodore Roosevelt, who gave the Dire Teddy his name, his purpose, and his power. Since the death of his boy, he has left to go to Toy Mountain, where he lives in seclusion, growing larger and larger, more and more wild. Toys speak of him in hushed tones, for they say he towers over the other toys, nearly as large as the mountain itself, and will devour any toys that displease him, but the resistance moves to add him to their number, for the incomparable might of the first Teddy Bear would strike a mighty blow against the dread reign of Damien Bogsworth.

Even so, his feral heart beats within the heart of each Teddy Bear, and when riled, sometimes, the Primal Teddy Bear manifests within them, and their button eyes grow wide, their threaded lips part to show sharp teeth, great plastic claws erupt from their plush paws, and they grow enormous, able to rend a boogie man to tiny pieces. Rare are the teddy bears who can regularly manifest these possessions, and called (in hushed tones), shamans of the Dire Teddy.

Aspect 1 (Touched Up)
Domain 0 (Pawn)
Persona 0
Gifts:

• Titanic Might (3): The Dire Teddy has the equivalent of Aspect 6 for the purpose of Strength and ability to deal wide-scale damage.
• Immutable (1): The Dire Teddy will live for centuries longer than his boy.
• Durant (1): The Dire Teddy is virtually unkillable
• Heart of the Dire Teddy (4): Anywhere in the world, whenever it’s right, the Dire Teddy will manifest in one of his Teddy Bears, granting the Teddy Bear Paramount Strength and an unconquerable rage.

Miracle Points: 8

Passions and Skills

Passion: “Leave me alone!” +1
Skill: Monster Slaying +5
Skill: Comforting Children +1
Superior Quality: Cuddliness +1
Cool: 1

Bonds and Afflictions

Bond: I grieve over my lost boy (2)
Bond: No Monster can defeat me (4)
Affliction: I’m absolutely huge (2)

Estate of Franchise Toys

• The fate of a Franchise Toy is tied to the Fate of its Franchise.
• A Franchise Toy is fiction given physical form.
• A Franchise Toy changes as its Franchise changes.
• A Franchise Toy is connected with other Franchise Toys through their shared world.

The All-Former – Fabled Toy of Franchise Toys

Among the youngest of the Fabled Toys, the All-Former came about in the 80s when cartoons began to act as advertisements for toys and vice-versa. The myth making inherent in that exercise gave birth to a new spirit, a new God of Toys who was the master of a new and broad Estate.
The All-Former is a vast, die-cast construction of every mechanical, robotic or vehicular toy with a franchise tie-in. He subsumes them and can change into them, or split them off from himself. He speaks with the voice of Peter Cullen, and he speaks a theology of unity, compassion and adaptation. His shape changes and adapts to the latest fashions, meaning he is always among the coolestof toys. He seeks to connect with other toys, and to help them keep up with the interests of children in the same way. He alone spoke in favor of Damien’s reign, making dire predictions of what war with Damien would cost all toys, noting that Damien, if treated right, could come around to seeing the true needs of his responsibility. Since Damien kidnapped Tommy Tinkerton, though, the All-Former has left Damien’s court. Where he is, nobody knows. Many a vehicular toy has revved its engine and gone out on a spirit quest to find the All-Former.

Aspect 2 (Pulp Hero)
Domain 0 (Pawn)
Persona 1
Gifts:

• Shapeshifting (Vechicular or Robotic toys) (2): The All-Former can become any vehicular or robotic toy, even mixing and matching their traits as necessary.
• Immutable (1): The All-Former will live for centuries.
• Durant (1): The Die-Cast All-Former is exceptionally durable.
• Elusive (1): With endless patience and the ability to change its form, the All-Former cannot be caught in the snares of temptation or shape-changing curses.
• Paramount Strength (1): While not as powerful as the Dire Teddy, the All-Former is hugely strong.
• Natural Weapons (Laser beams and plasma swords) (1): The All-Former can manifest any number of wondrous weapons capable of destroying his foes!

Miracle Points: 8

Passions and Skills

Passion: “We must fight as one” +3
Skill: Franchise Lore +2
Superior Quality: Warmachine +1
Cool: 5
Shine: 5

Bonds and Afflictions

Bond: I am the coolest toy ever! (3)
Bond: You have heard of me (3)
Affliction: I’m a giant robot! (2)

The 13 Forbidden Hell-Toys

Not every toy is suitable for children. Some toys sting the feet of children, or poison their mind, or even strangle the air out of them and kill them. Some, even worse, threaten to unweave the very fabric of what it means to be a toy. These toys generally suffer the dreaded recall, where they are unmade, so that they never existed in the first place, but often, even then, these toys escape. The Kings of Toyland have long hidden these toys away in the Dungeon of Lost Toys, but sometimes, they escape. Damien has actively usedthe Hell-Toys when necessary, in keeping with the hellish philosophy is his master, Belphegor.

Toyzilla

Toyzilla accumulated slowly in the deep bowels of the Dungeon of Lost Toys. As it wandered those dank passages, it devoured each recalled and dangerous toy, adding new sharp spikes and sharp edges to itself. It walks on the spines of jacks, lawn-dart claws jut from its fingers, pop rocks bubble in its belly and the heating elements of a thousand easy-bake ovens burn in its fiery throat. It grew each time it devoured a new toy until it began to shake the very foundations of Toyland, and the King had to chain it away.

Aspect 1 (Touched Up)

Gifts:

• Monstrous Strength (3): Treat Toyzilla as Aspect 6 for the purposes of sheer strength or the ability to inflict wide scale damage.
• Durant (1): Toyzilla is exceptionally durable.
• Fire Breathing (1): Toyzilla has atomic heating-element breath. Whoosh!
• Natural Weapons (Sharp Edges and Spines) (1): You could put an eye out!

Miracle Points: 3

Passions and Skills
Passion: “You could put an eye-out” +2
Passion: “I just want children to play with me” -1
Superior Quality: City Smashing +4
Skill: Wrestling +1
Skill: Childish Games +1
Skill: Haunting the thoughts of children +3
Cool: +3

Bonds and Afflictions
Bond: I am the most dangerous toy ever created (2)
Affliction: I harm children (4)
Bond: Without the soul of a child in my heart, I would die (5)
Affliction: Corporations want to recall me! (1)
Affliction: I’m a giant, towering toy-monster (2)

The Puzzle Box

This ancient toy has rested in the vaults of the Dungeon of Lost Toy for as long as anyone in Toy Land can remember. Some toy academics (the Speak-and-Learn academy in particular) have spent years studying the ancient thing, but unlocking some of its secrets have also unlocked terrible curses and dread monstrosities. Exactly what it is, where it came from, what its purpose is are unknown. Even Damien is loath to do anything with it, convinced that unlocking it would utterly destroy his estate.

The Adult Toys

Adult Toys represent an abhorrent abomination to Toyland. Only children can come into Toyland, and all toys are childish, but adult toys represent toys for mature audiences only. They are toys that are the opposite of childish. They are a blow struck against the Estate of Toys itself, and were created by a dread Excrucian. The Powers of Toys keep them locked away where they cannot corrupt Toyland further, but Damien has taken to studying them more closely as a back-up plan. They might allow him to escape the clause that only a child can rule Toyland, by allowing him to bridge the chasm between childishness and adulthood by being childish while being an adult. His experiments have borne some fruit, changing the world around him so that grown men regularly collect toys, and dolls become more and more naughty, but the corruption has begun to seep back into Toyland, and especially the darker corners of Toy City where strange perversions have begun to crop up.

The NPCs of Toyland

Dolls

Ace (“Asu”) Daisho

Passions and Skills

Passion: “I believe in Justice” +2
Passion: “I am better than you” +1
Superior Quality: Elegance +1
Skill: Assassination +4
Cool +5

Bonds and Afflictions

Bond: I am the Coolest Doll (1)
Bond: I must protect my sister, Alice (1)
Bond: I serve the Doll-Maker (1)
Bond: I’m in love with Hazel (2)

Background
As a Japanese ball-joint doll, Ace is among the most expensive and prestigious of dolls, hand crafted from porcelain like the rest of his family, the House Daisho. Their prestige means the Daisho family resides within the Great Toy Castle, and often act as the courtiers, body guards, knights or maids-in-waiting for the King of Toyland. When Damien became the King, he allowed the Daisho to remain in the castle, for while they weren’t his favorite sort of toys, he acknowledged and admired their  collectability. Even so, he shelved them, preferring his franchise toys and his Commando Elite.

With nobody to play with, Ace watches the life slowly drain from his sister, Alice. He would tend to her, setting up tea parties for her, or inviting her to some of the most prestigious dollhouses with other Japanese ball-joint dolls, but nothing worked. So, in an effort to prove how fun it would be to play with him and his sister, Ace put himself in service to Damien as an assassin and spy par-excellence, working with the tyrant to take take down the Resistance. But when he hunted one of the Resistance members to Damien’s great vault of Packaged Toys, and Ace saw what an abomination Damien was turning Toyland into. Shortly after, he met the Doll-Maker, the leader of Toyland’s resistance, and he pledged himself to her, vowing to play both sides of the conflict.

Brat

Passions and Skills

Passion: “All the world is corrupt” +1
Passion: “You can change yourself for the better” +3
Skill: Flirtation +3
Shine: +1

Bonds and Afflictions

Bond: I serve only myself (1)

Background
Brat belonged to a tween girl, who didn’t likebarbies. Brat was terrified that she’d be discarded and end up in the Dungeon of Lost Toys, but no, her girl changed her. She took a pen and paints and remade her face. She sewed new clothes for her barbie and changed her name to Brat, and Brat loved it. Other Barbies wore prissy dresses and attended dreadful tea parties, Brat got to attend the scene. She turned Ken’s head, and flirted with G.I. Joe, and danced her heart out in a tin-foil disco.

Eventually, her girl grew up and Brat slipped away into toyland. If she’d learned anything, it was that the status quo was broken, but she didn’t have to accept it. She violated convention, crossed boundaries, dated teddy bears and took joy rides with Transformers. She was her own doll, and she was on the look out for her and her alone. If she didn’t like her situation, she’d just change it.  As she strutted about Toyland, she saw whole broken and ruined the rest of Toyland was and felt better about being abandoned: It was all a lie anyway, and she was going to make the best of it.

Teddy Bears

Inspector Bearington

Passions and Skills

Passion: “Everyone lies” +3
Passion: “I want to bring justice to the dispossessed” +1
Skill: Conspiracy Theory +1
Skill: Street brawling +3

Bonds and Afflictions

Bond: I refuse to follow the rules (1)
Bond: I’m in love with Brat, even though I know better (1)

Background
Inspector Bearington used to work for the TCDP, until his instistence on solving crimes and exposing corruption in of Toy City forced Commissioner Gadget to take his badge away for being a “loose cannon.” Thus, Inspector Bearington was cast out into the mean, rain-wet streets of Toy City, where he became a private investigator.

His work for the poor and outcast of Toy City led him to the femme fatale, Brat, and into conflict with that other force against corruption, Commando Bear. He’s begun piecing together a vast web of conspiracies: the sock puppet mafia, the Commando Elite, the All-Former’s disappearance, Percival the Bear Knight, and the rantings of the Mad 8-Ball and he now believes that Damien has made some sinister pact with a devil who has secretly ruled Toyland for years, and through this pact now holds the True King of Toy Land captive and is somehow maintaining a grip on Toyland to become President for Life, but he doesn’t know how to reveal this to the toys of Toyland.

Commando Bear

Passions and Skills

Passion: “Evil must die!” +1
Passion: “If violence doesn’t solve your problems, you’re not using enough of it!” +4
Skill: Commando Bear Stare +3

Bonds and Afflictions

Bond: I must finish my crusade (3)
Bond: I always have enough firepower to finish the job (2)

Background
Once one of the Care Bears, Commando Bear and his friends and family were cut down by a battle between the Sock Puppet Mafia and the Commando Elite. His fluffy belly was ruined, with stuffing spilling out as a pool of growing foam around his still body. The local doll-hospital managed to preserve his stuffing, but not his adorable Care Bear symbol, which had to be cut away and replaced with scar-stitching. Driven mad by the loss of who and what he was, he had a skull stitched into his belly, and took up an armory of toy guns, and began to clean up the streets. His crusade took on religious connotations when he cornered the Sock Puppet Don and nearly died under a hail of gun fire, but was possessed with the righteous rage of the Primeval Teddy Bear. He didn’t defeat the Sock Puppet Don (who managed to get away), but now he believes that he is ordained by the Fabled Toys to clean up Toy Land, and he has his sights set on the highest prize, Damien Bogsworth.

Other Toys

The Mad 8 Ball, Prophet of the Sandbox Wastes

Passions and Skills

Passion: “If reply is hazy, you must try again later” +2
Passion: “Embrace randomness” +1
Skill: Prophecy +3
Skill: Sandbox Survival +2
Shine 2

Bonds and Afflictions

Bond: I serve the will of the Seven Fabled Toys (1)
Bond: My cult can rely on me (1)
Affliction: I know the future (4)

Background
Toyland is a vast realm, encompassing Doll Town, the Teddy Bear Reach, or the Asphalt Courts, full of chainlink and home to feral tribes of balls. But amongst the most dreaded are the desolate Sandbox Wastes. Exiled from Damien’s court for an unfavorable answer, the Magic 8 Ball found himself lost in them, his inner liquids draining out as he stared up at an unforgiving sun, and saw visions of wavering sandcastles in the distance. The outlook was not good: He thought he’d gasped out his last and would be a rattling, desiccated ruin when he looked up and the shadow of the All-Former looked down upon him. He spoke words, in his glorious, Peter Cullen voice, the last words any Toylander has ever recorded: “Without a doubt, you bear the truth of Toyland within you. Spread my word.” And it was decidedly so: The Mad 8 ball sprang to his feet, filled with religious fervor. He scribed new words into his hide, into his answers, and became the mad prophet of the Seven Fabled Toys. Toys from all over Toyland flock to the Sandbox Wastes to try to catch a glimpse of him, and to ask him about the future, and a new religious has begun to form around the All-Former and his wild prophet.

Rubik’s Tessaract, the Preacher of the Lost Toys

Passions and Skills

Passion: “The Puzzle Box is the answer” +1
Skill: Sermonizing +3
Skill: Dungeon Navigation +2
Shine 2

Bonds and Afflictions

Bond: I serve the Puzzle Box (3)
Bond: My words hypnotize (1)
Affliction: I can see a puzzle from all sides simultaneously (2)

Background

Originally just a traffic consultant for Toy City, a hot cars traffic snarl was blamed on him and he was thrown into the Dungeon of Lost Toys and promptly forgotten. As some toys do in the Dungeon, he managed to escape his cell and wandered the endless labyrinth of the Dungeon, trying to avoid ravenous Hungry Hippos and haunted dolls, when he found the Puzzle Box, floating serenely in one of the vaults of the Dungeon of Lost Toys. The Puzzle Box seemed to speak to him, glowing and humming as it floated from the ground. Parts of itself unlocked while Rubik’s Cube watched, solving itself before his gaze, and then unleashing a fragment of its horrifying cosmic truth, and Rubik was enlightened. The world shifted, and he saw it from an impossible new perspective. He knew what he had to do. He took his message to the rest of the Lost Toys, his wild, charismatic sermons hypnotizing them into following him deeper into the dungeon, where they meet the Puzzle Box. Some are devoured by what it shows them, but others are changed, and become as fanatical as Rubik’s Tessaract.