GURPS Hekinoe Sorcery

Alright, so we're all familiar with the dreaded unreliability of sorcery in my campaign world. It hasn't been too much of a problem in Orcunraytrel, because Orcunraytrel is different. But I'll give you a few examples. One time Eric was casting a healing spell on someone (I think he was actually trying to heal himself), the spell misfired. Instead of healing his target, his character vomited up several glowing pus colored darts of magic that whipped around and zapped him in the face, dealing damage to him instead of healing. Another time, the group was trying to use gaseous form to sneak inside of a building, and Fred's casting misfired, ended up raining a rain that turned everything it touched into a gaseous form version of itself. It worked out in the end, but it could have gone very bad. In the final battle of last campaign, Nakmander the Big Bad Evil was going to hit one of the players with power word: kill and it misfired and removed all the oxygen from the area and caused him and several others to pass out. He ended up with a blade in his face. Thank goodness for contingency.

Anyway, the way magic works in Pathfinder Hekinoe is that each spell has a 4% chance per spell level to misfire. 0-level spells have a 1% chance to misfire. There are some other factors, but that is the base for most spellcasters. Sorcerer type classes roll an extra d4 with the result increasing their caster level for the spell and also increasing the misfire chance by an equal amount. If a spell misfires, there are a bunch of charts to roll on that determine the end effect. The spell could just fail, or it could fail and misfire, work and misfire, or become overpowered and get a metamagic feat for free. It is pretty varied. There are also feats, traits, and flaws that can impact the misfire chance as well, but never reduce it to 0%. Magic items also have a percentage chance based on spells used in their creation and the length of time they have existed that can cause them to explode into fiery shrapnel when used. 

The way magic works in GURPS is very different than in Pathfinder, no spellbooks or spells per day or anything like that. It is all based on the IQ stat and fatigue points. It is also skill based. Basically you treat each spell like a skill and buy it at a certain level (IQ+0, +1, -1, etc.). Spells also have prerequisites. For instance, you have to know create fire and shape fire to learn fireball. You also have the Magery advantage. Magery 0 is your basic magical sense, it allows you to determine whether or not something is magic in nature. You cannot learn spells without having Magery and some spells require a certain level of Magery for you to learn them. Magery above level 0 also increases your effective IQ for purchasing spells, for instance someone with Magery 2 and an IQ of 11 that buys wither limb at IQ+0 rolls at a skill level of 13 and not 11.

To cast a spell in GURPS you roll against your skill level (3d, roll lower than your skill = success, 3 or 4 equals critical success, 18 equals critical failure) and pay fatigue points, your fatigue points are determined by your HT stat, but can also be increased independently from HT. Spells also have a casting time. Often times you can put extra FP into a spell to increase its effectiveness. Fireball for instance costs 1 FP and takes 1 second to cast, however you can put in 1 FP a second for up to three seconds. Each FP spent deals 1d fire damage. So for three FP and casting for three seconds you can create a fireball that does 3d damage. When you cast the spell, you make a check against your fireball skill level and if you roll below your skill level you have successfully cast it. If you roll an 18, that is a critical failure and the spell doesn't work and you roll on a critical failure chart. If you roll a 3 or 4 (or up to a 6 depending on your effective skill with the spell), the spell is a critical success and costs no FP and does something additional up to the GM. You can also burn HP to cast spells as well. There is also something called mana, that is the ambient magical energy of the area. It can do things like make spells impossible to cast, or allow you to cast some for free.

Alright, so now you have all the background info. The most easily explained way that Hekinoe magic differs from basic GURPS magic is that it is based on Will and not IQ. My reasoning for this is because while magical rituals and incantations are learned, there is also a very strong focus on imposing your will on the force that is sorcery. Sorcery is wild and unpredictable in Hekinoe and it takes a strong willpower to force it to behave itself and do what you want. Because Will is based on IQ, it still favors intelligent creatures, but Will can also be bought for cheaper than IQ. It is conceivable that someone with an IQ of 9 could spend those bonus points to give themselves a Will of 13. However, it should be noted that there are a shit ton more IQ based skills than there are Will based, so the brain dead spellcaster is probably not the wisest decision. Especially considering most magic oriented skills are based on IQ.

The other way that magic differs from regular GURPS is that Hekinoe uses something called Threshold Limited Magery. Basically, you don't pay HP or FP for spells anymore. Instead, you track how many you would have spent and call it your tally. You keep a running total of your tally as you cast spells. Each spellcaster has something called a threshold, something like 30. Your tally also heals over time, something like 8 each day or so. Now, you can cast spells as normal (based on Will and making spell skill checks) as much as you want whenever you want (up to something like a tally of 150 or so). No FP or HP lost to the art. However, on any turn that you go over your threshold or cast a spell while your tally is over your threshold, you make a calamity check. This check is 3d +1 for every full five points your tally is over your threshold. These calamities can be pretty bad, a 3-10 on the roll does nothing though. As you move up the chart you see stuff like your threshold decreases for a few weeks, but you don't know by how much. You start losing advantages or gaining disadvantages, you start losing levels in your spells, or you can alter magic on a global scale. It can get pretty nasty and the one calamity that increases your chance of critical failure with spells can make things pretty frustrating. There are of course a bunch of advantages and disadvantages to modify your threshold and the rate at which your tally recovers.  There are also ones that can modify how calamity prone you are.

So that is kind of the run down on how magic would work in Hekinoe with the GURPS system. Luckily there are a lot of different critical failure tables for spells for me to play around with. The system that was so difficult and time consuming to institute with Pathfinder has been almost a complete breeze to make work in GURPS.

Racial Template: Vyanth

Vyanth Racial Template

75 points

Attribute Modifiers: ST-1 [-10], DX+1 [20]

Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: Basic Move +1 [5]

Advantages: 

• Dark Vision [25]: The Vyanth have the been warped by long use of sorcery and have the ability to see in complete darkness. They have Dark Vision.
• Flexibility [15]: The Vyanth possess four elbows, four knees, and multiple extra joints in the fingers. They have Flexible (Double-Jointed).  
• Long Arms [20]: The arms of the Vyanth are much longer to accommodate all their extra joints. They have Extra Arms (Long Arms). 
• Long Lived [6]: The Vyanth are an extremely long lived race, though not immortal. They have Extended Lifespan 3. 
• Nictitating Membrane [1]: The eyes of the Vyanth possess a nictitating membrane that helps filter grit from their vision and protect their eyes. They have Nictitating Membrane. 
• Sleeplessness [8]: Vyanth need little sleep. They have Less Sleep 4.
• Sorcerous Dilettantes [5]: The Vyanth lack the reasonable fear of sorcery that other races hold, they have used it for so long that it has become part of their very nature. They have Threshold Limited Magery 0. 
• Sorcerous Resistance [15]: The Vyanth have used sorcery for so long that they have become resistant to its effects. They have Magic Resistance 3 (Improved +150%). 

Disadvantages: 

• Bloodlust [-10]: The Vyanth have a long history of taking slaves from other nations and watching them die for their enjoyment in their arenas. They are also known for their joy of murdering other races. They have Bloodlust (Self Control Roll 12).
• Impulsive [-10]: The Vyanth are a race of hedonists that have little sense of restraint. They tend to do whatever they want whenever they want. They have Impulsiveness (Self Control Roll 12). 
• Low TL [-5]: While the Vyanth race is generally well educated, they have a tendency to rely on sorcery instead of industrialization and their society is slightly less advanced than other nations. They have Low TL 1.
• Skinny [-5]: Despite the size and flexibility of their limbs, Sereth are exceedingly skinny. They have Skinny.
• Unusual Biochemistry [-5]: The Sereth are a strange race warped by long use of sorcery and their physiology bears little resemblance to what they once were or to that of any normal race of The Known World. They have Unusual Biochemistry. 

Suggestions

Advantages: Fit, Manual High Manual Dexterity, Magic Resistance (increase levels, or remove the enhancement).
Suggested Disadvantages: Bloodlust (increase or decrease the Self Control Roll), Gluttony, Greed, Impulsiveness (increase or decress the Self Control Roll), Intolerance, Laziness. 

Skills: Vyanth are hedonists, but generally well educated. Anything involving court etiquette or the pursuit of a particular interest would be appropriate for them. They are also skilled sorcerers and magic related skills would be appropriate as well. It would also be completely appropriate for them to be incompetent at everything except satisfying their own base desires.

Racial Template: Uncout

Uncout Racial Template

25 points

Attribute Modifiers: ST+1 [10], DX+1 [20], HT+1 [10], IQ-1 [-20]

Advantages:

• Keen Senses [4]: The Uncout of The Beast Lands and The Wild Lands are excellent hunters and have developed a keen sense of smell. They have Acute Senses (Taste and Smell). 
• Night Vision [2]: The forests of The Beast Lands and Wild Lands are dim places with an overgrown canopy of leaves and the Uncout have learned to thrive and hunt in the dark forests  They have Night Vision 2.
• Primitive Society [-20]: Uncout originate in a primitive society of bronze weapons and armor and animal husbandry, while the rest of the continent kills each other with guns. They have Low TL 4. 
• Sixth Sense [15]: The weak and the unwary do not survive in The Beast Lands and The Wild Lands. The Uncout have Danger Sense.
• Toughness [4]: Uncout are notoriously hard to kill and subdue. They have Hard to Kill 1 and Hard to Subdue 1. 

Suggestions

Advantages: Fit, Hard to Kill (increases levels), Hard to Subdue (increase levels).  

Disadvantages: Innumerate.
Skills: Uncout are a hunter/gatherer society in their homelands, and skills that work well with that background are appropriate. They also have some knowledge of herbal remedies, so Herb Lore would be appropriate as well.

The Uncout and Greenskin Abraxen are basically the same race from a mechanical standpoint. Their environment is the same, so it would stand to reason that their abilities would head along the same line, except for things like tusks and whatnot. When we convert the Uncout to GURPS we lose weapon familiarity (which is irrelevant because anyone can pick up and use and get better with any weapon in GURPS). Yay GURPS. There is also a City Uncout variant. However, I don't feel that is worthy of a separate template. If one were inclined to create a city Uncout, merely buy off the low TL and IQ disdvantages. Low TL can make it impossible to learn some IQ based skills from a higher TL, but I believe DX based ones can be learned. 

Racial Template: Soulless

The Soulless are a pretty hefty racial template, so all the things I said about the Rankethlek and points totals for characters would apply to them as well. 

Soulless Racial Template

111 points

Attribute Modifiers: ST+2 [20], HT+2 [20]

Advantages:

• Armored Carapace 1 [18]: Soulless are built of thick layers or iron and steel but their size makes them unable to wear armor. They have Damage Resistance 6 (Can't Wear Armor -40%).
• Armored Carapace 2 [10]: Soulless are built of metal and have little to worry about from the pain of blows. They have High Pain Threshold. 
• Ash Reliquary 1 [30]: Soulless are animated by the sorcery imbued ashes of Fallen whose bodies have been destroyed, this sorcery animates and sustains them. They have Doesn't Breathe and Doesn't Eat or Drink.
• Ash Reliquary 2 [5]: The ash reliquary within Soulless binds them to life through sorcery and connects them to it. They have Threshold Limited Magery 0. 
• Empty 1 [10]: Soulless have no brain and no eyes. They have Injury Tolerance (No Brain, No Eyes).
• Empty 2 [25]: Soulless have nothing inside of them but metal and ash. They have Injury Tolerance (No Blood, Unliving). 
• Fleshless [40]: Soulless are not made of skin and bone and are resistant or immune to many of the weaknesses of living creatures. They have Resistance (Very Common: Metabolic Hazards) and Temperature Tolerance 10 (5 Hot and 5 Cold). 
• Interior Supports [10]: Soulless are built with interior supports of steel and wolf-iron instead of bone. They have Injury Tolerance (Unbreakable Bones).
• Undying [15]: Soulless, while often poorly constructed, are animated by sorcery and as long as they possess a physical body, they will continue to be animated by the reliquary within them. They  have Unaging. 

Disadvantages:

• Cannot Float [-1]: Soulless are made of thick slabs of heavy metal and cannot float in water. They have Cannot Float. 
• Colorblind [-10]: Soulless can see, despite not having eyes, but they are colorblind. They have Colorblindness.
• Disturbing Voice [-10]: The Soulless speak with the voices of the Fallen that animate them, they have a strange echo-like voice that can be irritating and somewhat disturbing. They have Disturbing Voice. 
• Fallen [-15]: Though the Fallen making up the ash reliquary within Soulless have been physically destroyed, The Bleak Tyrant binds them to life irrevocably and they still exist within the Soulless. They often harass the Soulless, ordering him to carry out their will or that of The Bleak Tyrant. They have Phantom Voices (Diabolical). 
• Noisy [-6]: Soulless are large, clanking metal monstrosities. They have Noisy 3. 
• Sexless [-1]: Soulless are sorcerously created metal machines and cannot reproduce. They have Sexless. 
• Sorcerous Nature [-10]: The sorcerous nature and monstrous appearance of Soulless frightens and disturbs mundane animals. They have Frightens Animals.
• Tasteless [-5]: Soulless have no noses or tongues and cannot smell or taste anything. They have No Sense of Smell/Taste. 
• Unhealing [-30]: Soulless are sorcerously created metal men and do not heal naturally like living flesh. They must be repaired or healed through other means. They have Unhealing (Total).

Suggestions

Advantages: Claws, Damage Resistance (increase levels), Hard to Kill, Hard to Subdue, Size Modifier +1 or -1, spells, Teeth, Weapon Master.

Suggested Disadvantages: Berserk, Bloodlust, Ham-Fisted, Low-Empathy, Numb, Phantom Voices (decrease the severity), Slave Mentality, Social Stigma (Subjugated)
Skills: 

Racial Template: Sereth

Sereth Racial Template

54 points

Attribute Modifiers: ST-1 [-10], DX+1 [20]

Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: Basic Move +1 [5]

Advantages: 

• Desert Dwellers [1]: The Sereth are accustomed to living in the harsh heat of Serethnem. They have Temperature Tolerance 1 (Heat). 
• Flexibility [15]: The Sereth possess four elbows, four knees, and multiple extra joints in the fingers. They have Flexible (Double-Jointed).  
• Keen Eyesight [4]: The Sereth are known for their skilled marksmen and scouts. They have Acute Senses 2 (Vision).
• Long Arms [20]: The arms of the Sereth are much longer to accommodate all their extra joints. They have Extra Arms (Long Arms). 
• Long Lived [4]: The Sereth are a long lived race , though not immortal. They have Extended Lifespan 2. 
• Nictitating Membrane [1]: The eyes of the Sereth possess a nictitating membrane that helps filter grit from their vision and protect their eyes. They have Nictitating Membrane. 
• Piercing Eyesight [4]: The keen vision of the Sereth allows them to see more clearly at night. They have Night Vision 2. 

Disadvantages: 

• Skinny [-5]: Despite the size and flexibility of their limbs, Sereth are exceedingly skinny. They have Skinny.
• Unusual Biochemistry [-5]: The Sereth are a strange race warped by long use of sorcery and their physiology bears little resemblance to what they once were or to that of any normal race of The Known World. They have Unusual Biochemistry. 

Suggestions

Advantages: Fit, Gunslinger, Less Sleep, Manual High Manual Dexterity, Magic Resistance, Telescopic Vision.
Suggested Disadvantages: Loner

Skills: Sereth are survivalists that live in harsh desert condition, skills of that nature would be appropriate. They are also legendary riflemen, so firearms related skills and techniques would also be appropriate.

Everything translates to GURPS pretty well. I didn't give them long legs in addition to long arms because that felt kind of like overkill, it increased their size modifier to +2. I did however increases their base move to simulate the long legged stride of the Sereth. They also lost the Pathfinder bonus against being disarmed because they have those extra fingers and joints to wrap around hilts and whatnot. I haven't seen rules for disarming yet in GURPS, so I need to get a look at that before I can find an appropriate advantage, so this template may change once I do. 

Racial Template: Rankethlek

Alright, so before we get started, the Rankethlek are a hefty, hefty racial template. They weigh in at 117 character points to build just the race. Depending on the points level of the game, this could obviously blow your load just building the race. My though on it is thus, if being a Rankethlek blows your points load, I would let a player buy the template and any skills and advantages they want as well, within reason. So when buying skills, a 10 or 11 would be ok, but blowing a bunch of points you don't have and getting a 17 in your main attack skill or spell would not. Then your character growth is paused until everyone else catches up.

Rankethlek Racial Template

117 points

Attribute Modifiers: ST+2 [20], HT+2 [20]

Advantages:

• Armored Carapace 1 [18]: Rankethlek are built of tough metals like springsteel and wolf-iron, their large bodies cannot easily accommodate armor though. They have Damage Resistance 6 (Can't Wear Armor -40%).
• Armored Carapace 2 [10]: Rankethlek are built of metal and have little to worry about from the pain of blows. They have High Pain Threshold. 
• Faceless [10]: Rankethlek have smooth, featureless heads that contain only metal. They have no eyes or brains to leave them vulnerable. They have Injury Tolerance (No Brain, No Eyes).
• Fleshless 1 [25]: Rankethlek are metal men and have no blood or flesh. They have Injury Tolerance (No Blood, Unliving). 
• Fleshless 2 [40]: Rankethlek are not made of skin and bone and are resistant or immune to many of the weaknesses of living creatures. They have Resistance (Very Common: Metabolic Hazards) and Temperature Tolerance 10 (5 Hot and 5 Cold). 
• Interior Supports [10]: Rankethlek are built with interior supports of steel and wolf-iron instead of bone. They have Injury Tolerance (Unbreakable Bones).
• Lightning Heart [30]: Rankethlek are energized and sustained by the electrical processes of A'lst's lightning heart and require no other sustenance. They have Doesn't Breathe and Doesn't Eat or Drink.
• Undying [15]: Rankethlek are built to last and do not decay over time like living flesh. They  have Unaging. 

Disadvantages:

• Cannot Float [-1]: Rankethlek are made of metal and cannot float in water. They have Cannot Float.
• Colorblind [-10]: Rankethlek can see, despite not having eyes, but they are colorblind. They have Colorblindness.
• Disturbing Voice [-10]: The Rankethlek have a tinny, somewhat static laden voice, while not as disturbing as that of Soulless, it can still be grating. They have Disturbing Voice. 
• Electrical [-20]: Rankethlek are powered primarily by the electricity generated by A'lst's lightning heart, but this leaves them vulnerable to electrical damage. They have Electrical.
• Noisy [-4]: A'lst and the First Five build Rankethlek well when they convert them from Soulless, but they are still sometimes over half a ton of moving metal and make a fair amount of noise when they move. They have Noisy 2. 
• Sexless [-1]: Rankethlek are living metal machines and cannot reproduce. They have Sexless. 
• Tasteless [-5]: Rankethlek have no noses or tongues and cannot smell or taste anything. They have No Sense of Smell/Taste. 
• Unhealing [-30]: Rankethlek are living metal warriors, but their flesh is made of metal and does not naturally heal like flesh. They must be repaired or healed through other means. They have Unhealing (Total).

Suggestions

Advantages: Damage Resistance (increase levels), Hard to Kill, Hard to Subdue, psionic powers, Size Modifier -1 or +1, Trained By a Master, Weapon Master.

Suggested Disadvantages: Disciplines of Faith (Asceticism), Ham Fisted, Honesty, Killjoy, Low Empathy, Maintenance, No Sense of Humor, Numb, Truthfulness.
Skills: Rankthlek are a warrior society and also an industrialized one. Their background would be influenced by these aspects. They would also need to be mechanically or electrically inclined to do self repairs on themselves to survive.  

Racial Template: Greenskin Abraxen

Greenskin Abraxen Racial Template

13 points

Attribute Modifiers: ST+2 [20], HT+1 [10], IQ-1 [-20]

Advantages:

• Keen Senses [4]: The Greenskin Abraxen of The Beast Lands and The Wild Lands are excellent hunters and have developed a keen sense of smell. They have Acute Senses (Taste and Smell).
• Night Vision [2]: The Greenskin Abraxen have learned to hunt by as little light as possible. They have Night Vision 2.
• Primitive Society [-20]: The Abraxen race is known for their technological prowess and intellect, but the Greenskins have been a primitive society for centuries since their ships crash against the coast of The Beast Lands. They have Low TL 4.
• Sixth Sense [15]: The weak and the unwary do not survive in The Beast Lands and The Wild Lands. The Greenskin Abraxen have Danger Sense.
• Tusks [2]: The Greenskin Abraxen have large tusks jutting from their mouth, giving them the ability to gore their opponents. They have Teeth (Fangs). 

Suggestions

Advantages: Fit, Hard to Subdue.  

Disadvantages: Bestial, Innumerate, Stress Atavism.
Skills: Greenskin Abraxen are a hunter/gatherer society in their homelands, and skills that work well with that background are appropriate. They also have some knowledge of herbal remedies, so Herb Lore would be appropriate as well. 

Racial Templates: Glenwighta

I am going to post all three branches of the Glenwighta race here in one post. Their GURPS versions are very small stat blocks so I don't feel it necessary to post three separate pages of Glenwighta. They're fundamentally the same, just differentiated by place in Glenwighta society and how big they are with a few slight variations in ability bonuses, so here goes. 

Glenwighta: Conwighta Racial Template

35 points

Attribute Modifiers: ST+1 [10], DX+1 [20]
Secondary Characteristics: Will-1 [-5]

Advantages:

• Claws [5]: Glenwighta have sharp black claws on their fingers. They have have Claws (Sharp). 
• Night Vision [3]: Glenwighta are native to the underground caves of The Fell Peaks and they have developed a keen night vision. They have Night Vision 3.
• Pheremone Language: [6]: The Glenwighta language is partially pheremone based, giving them a keen sense of smell. They have Acute Senses 3 (Taste and Smell)
• Teeth [1]: Glenwighta have sharp teeth. They have Teeth (Sharp). 

Disadvantages:

• Unusual Biochemistry [-5]: The Glenwighta are a strange race of egg laying mammals. They have Unusual Biochemistry. 

Glenwighta: Okwighta Racial Template

30 points

Attribute Modifiers: DX+1 [20]
Secondary Characteristics: SM-1

Advantages:

• Claws [5]: Glenwighta have sharp black claws on their fingers. They have have Claws (Sharp). 
• Night Vision [3]: Glenwighta are native to the underground caves of The Fell Peaks and they have developed a keen night vision. They have Night Vision 3.
• Pheremone Language: [6]: The Glenwighta language is partially pheremone based, giving them a keen sense of smell. They have Acute Senses 3 (Taste and Smell)
• Teeth [1]: Glenwighta have sharp teeth. They have Teeth (Sharp). 

Disadvantages:

• Unusual Biochemistry [-5]: The Glenwighta are a strange race of egg laying mammals. They have Unusual Biochemistry. 

Glenwighta: Solwighta Racial Template

47 points

Attribute Modifiers: ST+2 [20], DX+1 [20]
Secondary Characteristics: Will-1 [-5]

Advantages:

• Claws [5]: Glenwighta have sharp black claws on their fingers. They have have Claws (Sharp). 
• Longevity [2]: The Solwighta are longer lived than the other races of the Glenwighta race. They have Extended Lifespan 1.
• Night Vision [3]: Glenwighta are native to the underground caves of The Fell Peaks and they have developed a keen night vision. They have Night Vision 3.
• Pheremone Language: [6]: The Glenwighta language is partially pheremone based, giving them a keen sense of smell. They have Acute Senses 3 (Taste and Smell)
• Teeth [1]: Glenwighta have sharp teeth. They have Teeth (Sharp). 

Disadvantages:

• Unusual Biochemistry [-5]: The Glenwighta are a strange race of egg laying mammals. They have Unusual Biochemistry. 

Suggestions

Disadvantage: Social Stigma (Subjugated).
Skills: Okwighta are usually inclined towards mechanical and technological pursuits while Conwighta and Solwighta usually lean towards more martial pursuits. 

Racial Template: Fell Soulless

Fell Soulless Racial Template

25 + variable points

Attribute Modifiers: ST+1 [10], HT-1 [-10]

Advantages:

• Dark Vision [25]: Like their base race, the glowing eyes of the Fell Soulless have the supernatural ability to completely pierce darkness. They have Dark Vision. 
• Metal Flesh [10]: Part of the flesh of the Fell Soulless have been replaced with metal plating and appendages. They have Damage Resistance 2. 
• Sorcerous Bloodline [5]: The sorcerous blood of the Fell Humans is the only reason Fell Soulless are able to exist, and they are still bound to the sorcery in their blood. They have Threshold Limited Magery 0.
• Soulless Augmentation: When creating the Fell Soulless Nakmander fused them to random pieces of the Soulless he had captured, or added his own creations to their bodies. This led to a very random assortment of abilities, choose one of the following sets of abilities:
• Blade Fingers [5]: Some Fell Soulless had blades of metal fused to the flesh of their hands. They have Claws (Sharp Claws).
• Fangs [1]: Some Fell Soulless had jaws of metal welded to their flesh. They have Teeth (Sharp Teeth). 
• Leather Lungs [20]: The Fell Soulless has a pair of leather bladders instead of lungs, these allow it to draw breath to speak, but they no longer require air to live. They have Doesn't Breathe.
• Oily Blood [5]: Some Fell Soulless have had their blood replaced with a thick, viscous substance very much like oil. They have Injury Tolerance (No Blood).
• Sorcerous Furnace [20]: Some Fell Soulless have a sorcerous furnace implanted in their body that fuels them and protects them from fire. They have: Doesn't Eat or Drink,  Damage Resistance 2 (Limited: Fire -20%), and Temperature Tolerance 2 (Heat).
• Wolf-Iron Bones [10]: Some Fell Soulless have had their bones replaced with wolf-iron struts. They have Injury Tolerance (Unbreakable Bones).

Disadvantages:

• Short Lifespan [-10]: The sorcery coursing through the blood of Fell Soulless is just as deadly to their lifespan as it is to normal Fell Humans. They have Short Lifespan 1.
• Unusual Biochemistry [-5]: If possible, the living metal components of the Fell Soulless make them even more warped and aberrant than normal Fell Humans. They have Unusual Biochemistry. 

Suggestions

Advantages: Buy additional advantages from the selection, Damage Resistance (increase levels), High Pain Threshold, Threshold Limited Magery.

Disadvantages: Disturbing Voice, Frightens Animals, Ham-Fisted, Numb, Unhealing (Partial or Total), Unnatural Appearance.
Skills: Fell Soulless are typically found in the southern pole of Hekinoe with A'lst and have a strong background in mechanical pursuits. 

Racial Template: Fell Human Descendants

Fell Human Descendant Racial Template

30 + variable points

Advantages:

• Dark Vision [25]: The glowing eyes of the Fell Human Descendants have the supernatural ability to completely pierce darkness. They have Dark Vision. 
• Sorcerous Bloodline 1 [5]: The blood of the Fell Humans and their descendants is rich with the power of sorcery and it is intrinsically tied to their nature. They have Threshold Limited Magery 0.
• Sorcerous Bloodline 2: The powers and appearance of the Fell Human Descendants are varied. If you wish, you may choose one of the following sets of abilities, if you do so, you must also choose the Unusual Biochemistry or Short Lifespan 1 disadvantage:
• Acid Blood [8]: Some Fell Human Descendantss have acidic blood that burns through their veins, protecting them from other acid. They have Damage Resistance 2 (Limited: Acid -20%).
• Claws [5]: Some Fell Human Descendants grow nasty claws from their fingers and toes, rather than more mundane fingernails. They have Claws (Sharp Claws).
• Fangs [1]: Some Fell Human Descendants grow fangs instead of teeth. They have Teeth (Sharp Teeth). 
• Fiery Blood [10]: Some Fell Human Descendants have blood that flickers through their veins like liquid fire, protecting them from the effects of heat. They have  Damage Resistance 2 (Limited: Fire -20%) and Temperature Tolerance 2 (Heat).
• Icy Blood [10]: Some Fell Human Descendants have blue blood flowing through their veins like half-frozen slush that protects them from the effects of cold. They have Damage Resistance 2 (Limited: Cold -20%) and Temperature Tolerance 2 (Cold).
• Scaly Skin [4]: Some Fell Human Descendants have scales covering their bodies, rather than flesh. They have Damage Resistance 2 (Semi-Ablative -20%, Tough Skin -40%). 
• Storm Blood [8]: Some Fell Human Descendants have blood that flashes blue-white like lightning when exposed to air, protecting them from the effects of electricity. They have Damage Resistance 2 (Limited, Electricity -20%).
• Tail [5]: Some Fell Human Descendants have strange growths of tentacles or tails. They have Extra Arm (Extra-Flexible +50%, No Physical Attack -50%, Short -50%).

Suggestions

Advantages: Buy additional advantages from the selection, Damage Resistance (increase levels), Vampiric Bite.

Disadvantages: Disturbing Voice, Frightens Animals, Unnatural Appearance.
Skills: Fell Human Descendants are found everywhere, in every walk of life and their skills and background can be just as varied. 

Racial Template: Fell Humans

Fell Human Racial Template

15 + variable points

Advantages:

• Dark Vision [25]: The glowing eyes of the Fell Human have the supernatural ability to completely pierce darkness. They have Dark Vision. 
• Sorcerous Bloodline 1 [5]: The blood of the Fell Humans is rich with the power of sorcery and it is intrinsically tied to their nature. They have Threshold Limited Magery 0.
• Sorcerous Bloodline 2: The powers and appearance of the Fell Humans are varied, choose one of the following sets of abilities:
• Acid Blood [8]: Some Fell Humans have acidic blood that burns through their veins, protecting them from other acid. They have Damage Resistance 2 (Limited: Acid -20%).
• Claws [5]: Some Fell Humans grow nasty claws from their fingers and toes, rather than more mundane fingernails. They have Claws (Sharp Claws).
• Fangs [1]: Some Fell Humans grow fangs instead of teeth. They have Teeth (Sharp Teeth). 
• Fiery Blood [10]: Some Fell Humans have blood that courses through their veins like liquid fire, protecting them from the effects of fire. They have  Damage Resistance 2 (Limited: Fire -20%) and Temperature Tolerance 2 (Heat).
• Icy Blood [10]: Some Fell Humans have blue blood flowing through their veins like half-frozen slush that protects them from the effects of cold. They have Damage Resistance 2 (Limited: Cold -20%) and Temperature Tolerance 2 (Cold).
• Longevity [15]: Normally, the sorcery in their blood makes Fell Human lives much shorter than other races, but occasionally it has the reverse effects and grants the Fell Human immortality. They have Unaging.
• Scaly Skin [4]: Some Fell Humans have scales covering their bodies, rather than flesh. They have Damage Resistance 2 (Semi-Ablative -20%, Tough Skin -40%). 
• Size [0]: Some Fell Humans are misshapen and physically altered. They have Size Modifier +1 or -1.
• Storm Blood [8]: Some Fell Humans have blood that flashes blue-white like lightning when exposed to air, protecting them from the effects of electricity. They have Damage Resistance 2 (Limited, Electricity -20%).
• Tail/Tentacle [5]: Some Fell Humans have strange growths of tentacles or tails. They have Extra Arm (Extra-Flexible +50%, No Physical Attack -50%, Short -50%).

Disadvantages:

• Short Lifespan [-10]: The sorcery coursing through the blood of Fell Humans, while often empowering, burns out the candle of their lifespan much quicker than other races. They have Short Lifespan 1. This disadvantage is incompatible with the Longevity trait and they lose it if they choose the Longevity trait from above or buy Unaging. 
• Unusual Biochemistry [-5]: Sorcery warps and alters the biology and physiology of Fell Humans to be something strange and alien. They have Unusual Biochemistry. 

Suggestions

Advantages: Buy additional advantages from the Sorcerous Bloodline 2 selection, buy off the limitations of the Tail/Tentacle ability, Damage Resistance (increase levels), Innate Attack, Vampiric Bite.

Disadvantages: Disturbing Voice, Frightens Animals, Supernatural Features, Unnatural Appearance.
Skills: Fell Humans are found everywhere, in every walk of life and their skills and background can be just as varied.

Fell Humans work a little better in GURPS than in Pathfinder. They have the base selection of mandatory weird sorcerous abilities, and because GURPS is a more versatile system, they can just buy more if they want to be weirder and more mutated. 

Racial Template: Fallen

Fallen Racial Template

60 points

Advantages:

• Sorcerous Creation [5]: As creatures perpetually bound to life by sorcery, the Fallen are intrinsically linked to sorcery. They have Threshold Limited Magery 0. 
• Undead 1 [20]: As undead creatures animated by sorcery, the Fallen do not need to breathe. They have Doesn't Breathe.  
• Undead 2 [10]: As undead creatures animated by sorcery, the Fallen do not need to eat or drink. They have Doesn't Eat or Drink.
• Undead 3 [25]: As undead creatures animated by sorcery, Fallen are not as vulnerable to injury as living creatures. They have Injury Tolerance (No Blood, Unliving). 
• Undead 4 [30]: As undead creatures animated by sorcery, Fallen are immune to many dangers that face the living. They have Resistant (Very Common/Metabolic Hazards). 
• Undead 5 [6]: As undead creatures animated by sorcery, Fallen are not vulnerable to temperature extremes. They have Temperature Tolerance 6 (3 cold, 3 hot). 
• Unfeeling Flesh [10]: The flesh of the Fallen is often numb or deadened to sensation, so they do not often suffer any sort of shock when their flesh is injured. They have High Pain Tolerance. 
• Undying [15]: As undead, the Fallen do not die of old age. They have Unaging.

Disadvantages:

• Monstrous [-20]: As rotting undead creatures, Fallen typically have a nearly impossible time conversing with mundane races not accustomed to dealing with them. They have Appearance (Monstrous). 
• Bad Smell [-10]: Fallen have been rotting for many centuries and smell like it. They have Bad Smell.
• Numb Sensory Organs [-5]: Fallen have difficulty smelling or tasting. They have No Sense of Smell/Taste.
• Sexless [-1]: The Fallen are rotted creatures bound to unlife and are unable to procreate and lack sufficient blood flow to commit to the act even if they were. 
• Unhealing [-20]: Fallen are undead, their rotted flesh does not heal through normal means. They have Unhealing (Partial). 
• Unusual Biochemistry [-5]: The Elduman are crystalline creatures and their physiology is very different from normal races like the Uncout and reacts differently to drugs and chemicals sometimes. They have Unusual Biochemistry. 

Suggestions

Advantages: Affliction, Innate Attack, Spells, Unkillable, Vampiric Bite

Disadvantages: Disturbing Voice, Disciplines of Faith (Asceticism), Frightens Animals, Missing Digit, Numb, One Arm, One Eye, One Hand, Vulnerable (fire).
Skills: The Fallen are the masters of sorcery in The Known World, it would be appropriate for them to have many, many skills related to arcane knowledge and pursuits.


It should be noted that GURPS Hekinoe uses a style of magic called Threshold Limited and bases spellcasting off of Will, not IQ. What this means is that Hekinoe spellcasters do not use fatigue points to cast spells. They just cast them while keeping a tally of how many FP they would have used, when they reach a certain number, they start having to roll on a chart called the Calamity Table. The higher their tally, the more dangerous the calamity, but essentially they can keep casting forever. Or at least until a calamity ruins magic on a global scale or it starts erasing spells from their mind/character sheet (it can happen). At some point I will actually write up a post about how magic works in GURPS Hekinoe, but suffice it to say it is more powerful and more dangerous than its Pathfinder version. 

Racial Template: Elduman Descended Uncout

Elduman Descended Uncout Racial Template

11 or 12 points

Advantages:

• Elduman Longevity [2]: The Elduman Descended Uncout have a much longer lifespan than normal Uncout. They have Extended Lifespan 1.
• Elduman Traits: Elduman Descended Uncout have some of the traits of their Elduman forebears, choose one of the two following traits:
• Elduman Resilience [9]: Like their ancestors, in times of great stress, the Elduman Descended Uncout have the ability to reinforce their partially crystallince flesh with psionic power, making them much more difficult to harm. They have Damage Resistance 5 (Semi-Ablative -20%, Costs 1 FP -5%, Emergencies Only -30%, Psychic Healing -10%). 
• Elduman Repletion [10]: Like their ancestors, sometimes Elduman Descended Uncout need only be sustained by their own psionic power. They have Doesn't Eat or Drink.

Suggestions

Advantages: Damage Resistance (increase levels or buy off any of the limitations), psionic powers, Trained By a Master. 

Disadvantages: Disciplines of Faith (Asceticism), Unusual Biochemistry.
Skills: Elduman Descended Uncout can be found in many areas, the three main ones are The New Empire, The Beast Lands, and The Wild Lands. The skills appropriate for those areas of background would be vastly different. 

Racial Template: Elduman

Elduman Racial Template

30 points

Attribute Modifiers: HT-1 [-10], IQ+1 [20]

Advantages:

• Crystalline Flesh [2]: Eldumans are crystalling creatures, and while not immune to the effects of heat and cold, they are more resistant to them. They have Temperature Tolerance 2 (1 Heat, 1 Cold)
• Elduman Resilience [18]: In times of great stress, the Elduman have the ability to reinforce their crystallince flesh with psionic power, making them much more difficult to harm. They have Damage Resistance 10 (Semi-Ablative -20%, Costs 1 FP -5%, Emergencies Only -30%, Psychic Healing -10%). 
• Elduman Repletion [10]: Elduman are creatures of the mind and are sustained by their own psionic power. They have Doesn't Eat or Drink.
• Immortal [15]: The Elduman are immortal crystalline creatures and cannot age or die of old age. They have Unaging.

Disadvantages:

• Unhealing [-20]: While the Elduman can sustain their bodies with their psionic power, they do not heal naturally. They have Unhealing (Partial). 
• Unusual Biochemistry [-5]: The Elduman are crystalline creatures and their physiology is very different from normal races like the Uncout and reacts differently to drugs and chemicals sometimes. They have Unusual Biochemistry. 

Suggestions

Advantages: Damage Resistance (increase levels or buy off any of the limitations), psionic powers like Mind Reading or Telekinesis, Trained By a Master. 

Disadvantages: Callous, Disciplines of Faith (Asceticism).
Skills: The Elduman society is very rigid and very dedicated to self reliance and monastic traditions so martial arts skills and survival skills are appropriate.

The only real changes from the Pathfinder version are the ability to pay power points to increase saving throws. I don't quite know how to manifest that ability in GURPS, as having Resistance to everything would get very expensive. I also added in Unusual Biochemistry and Unhealing to show that the Elduman can play at being normalish "humans" but really aren't. 

Racial Template: Dwenoren

Alright, so this is going to be the Dwenoren of The Known World. Dwenoren are the most populous race on Hekinoe and the most ancient of the native races. You don't see them too often in The Known World because they live underground in massive kingdoms of stone and dirt and don't have much need to venture into the daylight world. Interestingly, at one time I had decided that they were a kind of flightless bat humanoid, but then I settled on them being some sort of sexless grub humanoid. 

Dwenoren Racial Template

9 points

Attribute Modifiers: HT+2 [20]

Advantages:

• Large Ears [4]: The large ears of the Dwenoren are specially adapted to catching even the faintest of noises in their underground kingdom. They have Acute Senses 2 (Hearing).
• Oily Skin 1 [8]: The skin of the Dwenoren secretes a slick fluid that protects them from cold. They have Damage Resistance 2 (Limited: Cold -20%).
• Oily Skin 2 [1]: The oily fluid on a Dwenoren's skin makes them more tolerant of low temperatures. They have Temperature Tolerance 1 (Cold). 
• Oily Skin 3 [2]: The oily fluid coating the skin of the Dwenoren is quite slick and makes them more difficult to get a hold of. They have Slippery 1.
• Sensory Spines 1 [20]: Though blind, the Dwenoren have the ability to emit a form of echolocation that their chin spines can read to tell them of their surroundings. They have Scanning Sense (Sonar).
• Sensory Spines 2 [10]: The sensory spines of the Dwenoren also have the ability to sense air currents and vibrations in the air to read their surroundings. They have Vibration Sense. 

Disadvantages:

• Blindness [-50]: The Dwenoren are completely eyeless and have no means of conventional vision. They have Blindness. 
• Sexless [-1]: The Dwenoren have no sexes nor do they reproduce sexually. They have Sexless. 
• Unusual Biochemistry [-5]: The Dwenoren are inhuman creatures and their physiology is very different from normal races like the Uncout and reacts differently to drugs and chemicals sometimes. They have Unusual Biochemistry. 

Suggestions

Advantages: Acute Senses (increases levels), Damage Resistance (increase levels), Temperature Tolerance (increase levels).

Skills: Dwenoren society is a society ruled by the merchant class and dwen of learning, so their society places a lot of emphasis on the economy and money making while also holding science and technology in high regard. They also still have a few warrior traditions from earlier eras of their race, though those are regarded as somewhat silly by other Dwenoren. Skills dealing with theses aspects would be appropriate for a Dwenoren of Whurent to possess.

Racial Template: Children of Volung

So I am going to start listing all The Known World GURPS racial templates here on the blog for shits and giggles. These aren't going to be lengthy posts that take hours to write or read, so I'll just be posting them one a day till they're done. One thing I dislike about the way GURPS does racial templates is that they just write out the statistics with a brief paragraph long description of the race. So you have a suite of abilities that make the race, but no real description of what and how they do it. To be fair, most racial templates are dwarf, dragon, elf, etc and they are well known enough that we don't really have to think too hard about why the dwarf template has the detect advatange tied to gold and minerals. One thing I also do not care for in GURPS is that a lot of racial templates tend to have skills added into them as well. Pathfinder does the same thing, but I've never cared for it. Your race shouldn't really determine your skills or skill bonuses, that's really more of a background thing and should be up to the player. Yes, fine, most elves use bows and live in forests and should have some skill based experience with both, but that sort of thing shouldn't be mandatory. It should be optional dependent upon your background. For instance, all elves in Pathfinder have weapon familiarity with some bows and swords and any weapon with elven in the title. Ok, fine, that makes sense for elves raised with elves in elven kingdoms. What about the elf slave living in some distant country with no contact with other elves? How would they learn about elven weapons and gain familiarity with them? Hmm? Doesn't make sense. Ah well, just a bit of picking of nits I guess. Anyway, Children of Volung. 

Children of Volung Racial Template

44 points

Attribute Modifiers: ST+2 [18] (Large -10%), HT+2 [20]

Secondary Characteristics: SM +1

Advantages:

• Hardy Constitution 1 [3]: Children of Volung have a hardy constitution and are resistant to disease. They have Resistance: Disease (+3 x1/3).
• Hardy Constitution 2 [5]: Children of Volung have a hardy constitution and are resistant to poison. They have Resistance: Poison (+3 x1/3).
• Immortal [15]: The Children of Volung are immortal and do not die of old age or weakness. They have Unaging. 
• Northern Blood 1 [8]: Children of Volung hail from the far north where winds can freeze flesh with ease and are resistant to the effects of deadly cold. They have Damage Resistance 2 (Limited: Cold -20%).
• Northern Blood 2 [1]: Children of Volung are comfortable at much lower temperatures due to the icy conditions of their homeland. They have Temperature Tolerance 1 (Cold)
• Plated Skeleton [3]: Children of Volung have plates of bone like scale mail beneath the skin of their chest, making it more difficult to injure them. They have Damage Resistance 2 (Semi-Ablative -20%, Tough Skin -40%, Partial: Torso -10%).
• Sharp Teeth [1]: The mouths of the Children of Volung are filled with needle-like teeth. They have Teeth (Sharp Teeth).

Disadvantages:

• Berserk [-10]: The rage and ferocity of the Children of Volung are well known and they have a long history of extreme violence with little, if any provocation. They have Berserk (Self Control Roll: 12). 
• Bloodlust [-10]: The Children of Volung are a warrior race and have little sympathy for enemies, they see no purpose in leaving a foe alive to fight another day, and if they do, their berserk rage often weakens the logic. They have Bloodlust (Self Control Roll 12).
• Callous [-5]: The Children of Volung have little empathy for other races and little room in their hearts for softer emotions. They have Callous.
• Unusual Biochemistry [-5]: The Children of Volung are inhuman creatures and their physiology is very different from normal races like the Uncout and reacts differently to drugs and chemicals sometimes. They have Unusual Biochemistry. 

Suggestions

Advantages: Damage Resistance (increase the levels in either type), Fearlessness, Hard to Kill, Hard to Subdue, High Pain Threshold. 

Disadvantages: Berserk (increase or decrease the self control roll, or add the battle rage modifier), Bloodlust (increase or decrease the self control roll). 

Skills: Volungshemle society places a strong emphasis on martial traditions, so skills dealing with warfare and weaponry would be in keeping with the nation's traditions. 

So that is the Children of Volung. Normally GURPS racial templates don't have a suggestions area, but I felt that since I know the world and races better than my players, it might give them a better place to start when building characters. 

Comparing this version of the Children of Volung to that in the campaign book, we lose a few things. The first is that there is no Charisma or equivalent stat in GURPS, so we lose that penalty. We also lose Bloodthirsty Mien, which isn't too big of a deal, just buy the Intimidation skill. Cornered Fury doesn't have a real nice analog in GURPS that I've found, but the ability of the Berserk disadvantage to keep you fighting with relentless ferocity to -5xHP covers that ability. 

Like I said, this is just something I am doing for shits and giggles, not really intending to switch from Pathfinder to GURPS any time in the remotely near future, perhaps for the next campaign though. 

Cartoons

So I kind of had this silly idea for a campaign setting the other day. It has a little bit to do with the whole concept of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen thing I've been intermittently discussing here as well, but only as a kind of inspiration. The gist of it is to basically create a campaign world based around a bunch of 80s cartoons like Transformers, Care Bears, Gummi Bears, the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon, He-Man, Thundercats, Silverhawks, and so on.

Now, to make it entertaining for a group of late twenty-somethings/early thirty-somethings I'd use the cartoons as the base idea, rather than copying it perfectly. For instance, the Care Bears might be an empire of humanoid ursines or wearbears gifted with the use of magic or something living in a bunch of floating cities. The Gummi Bears might be similar, but more geared towards alchemy. With cartoons like the Silverhawks and Thunder Cats, I would likely leave them as technologically advanced aliens that had crash landed on the planet long ago and gone native or some such. With the Transformers, I'm not sure as to what I would do beyond make them kind of steampunkish warforged type creatures. I don't know what they would transform into though.

This type of campaign idea wouldn't require too much work for the majority of it. I mean, with He-Man, the DnD cartoon, and Thunder Cats there is already a lot of fantasy to the cartoons themselves. The Silverhawks wouldn't necessarily fit into it though, unless we want to make them some manner of silver skinned flying warforged.  The Dungeons and Dragons cartoon obviously fits in perfectly with such a world and it would likely be the main continent with the other cartoon areas being nearby smaller continents or islands or some such.

I dunno, these are just the initial ideas, I'd probably have to do more research. The bad guys from the cartoon the Inhumanoids seems like they might have some fun potential to act as underground evil guys. Like I said, this is just a bare bones campaign idea that might be some silly fun in the vein of a League of Extraordinary Gentlemen campaign. 

Anno 2070

So I purchased this game called Anno 2070 on Steam the other day, about a week before this posts to the blog. I am pretty much obsessed with it. I played it for eight hours straight the other day. Every two hours or so a little notification in the game pops up to say "Hey, you sure you don't want to take a break?" or something to that effect. They get increasingly more amusing the longer you play. Its a nice touch and a clear sign they knew how addictive of a game you had. The game is set in the year 2070 and humanity has taken to the massive ocean, as climate change and pollution and whatnot have melted all of the ice everywhere and drowned the world, leaving lots of islands all over the place. 

I am a big fan of the RTS genre, I like getting resources and building units and such. Anno 2070 is built in the vein of that, but it is a lot more complex than your standard "build a barracks and but footmen" style RTS. The production chains are a lot more complex and rely on a variety of resources. Actually, let me start with the factions. There are three. 

There are the environmentalists, the tycoons, and the technologists. Each faction needs different resources to grow their population to rake in taxes to pay for their industry, and the whole game is set up on islands, not continents. Each island has a set number of resources available. The environmentalists like tea and health food. So to meet their requirements for stuff to drink you need to build tea farms, which can only be farmed on an island with a tea resource (each island has three agricultural resources and the ability to be seeded with a fourth one if you purchase the seeds). Health food requires vegetables and rice. The tycoons like booze, which needs rice to farm, and convenience food, which needs meat and flavoring. Flavoring can only be farmed from an island with a vegetables resource and meat comes from beef farms, which can be built anywhere. It gets more complex, the tech faction likes algae based food that can only be farmed from undersea plateaus. Only rarely do you find an island that naturally has two resources that synchronize with one another (like rice and vegetables) and if you use your fourth open resource spot there will always be something else you don't have. Plus, each island has mineral resources like copper, sand, coal, iron ore, uranium, and so on with only a limited amount of nodes it can be mined from. To make pasta you need wheat and a river slot to put a mill, but river nodes are also used for gold mining and sand collection. Sand is also used for computer parts or glass creation. So it gets pretty complex and irritating trying to balance what resources you need with what resources you have available and what nodes you have open. 

You have to establish pretty extensive trade routes to keep your islands supplied appropriately. Your technologies and the resource collection factories and farms you can build are unlocked by upgrading your population. Upgrading your population also increases your tax income. However, your population needs to be 80% satisfied with six total categories to increase the population, so you need those supply lines. As your population increases more categories that need satisfaction are added, you start at two with just food and drink. You can force your population to upgrade by just building a shit ton of dwelling areas, but that just increases the amount of demand in your populations in the long run, which will net you income but make the next population upgrade more difficult to achieve because no one is fully satisfied with everything. You also have to worry about actually getting the resources to your people, so you have to have a bunch of warehouses built all over to actually hold everything you collect. It is all collected in one unified warehouse, but each warehouse has two or more transport robots that actually have to wander out across your island taking goods from point at to point be. This can make it a pain in the ass to make tools when your tool factory is on one side of the island and your iron smelter is on the other and there is a long ass road between the two. It find it easiest to just build way more warehouses than you need, increases your storage space, adds more transports, and ensures most of your production facilities are near enough to a warehouse that delivery and pick up are nice and quick. 

You can also trade with other factions by selling surplus to them or purchasing stuff you need from their trading ships, but that can get expensive if you have a serious need. Additionally, if a population stays unsatisfied below a certain point for a certain amount of time, people just up and leave, which leaves you with no tax income to collect. Your factories and resource gathering sites are all automated, so you don't need people to run them, but they do have maintenance costs and electricity requirements. So you have to pay to keep shit running and you have to keep a functional electrical grid running. If you put too many demands on the electrical grid, your factories run at a slower production rate. There is also an ecobalance to manage, if you pollute with a bunch of factories it impacts the satisfaction or your citizens and causes your agriculture resources to produce at a slower rate. However, if you have a positive ecobalance, it increases the rate of production for your farms and such. I'm not sure if you get a bonus to factory production facilities if your electrical grid has a positive balance. You can also find islands with nuclear waste or special eco devices that inflict massive penalties or bonuses on your ecobalance. Fires, crimes, and diseases can also break out in your population centers as well and reduce your population, destroy buildings, or reduce population satisfaction. 

Long story short, it is a really complex game that is very fun. I love tweaking the system and attempting to set up the perfect supply chain, that rarely happens however, heh. I've had a lot of "one more hour, one more hour, one more, oh shit it's five a.m., well, one more hour" situations crop up while playing it. It is a fun game for me, there is plenty of complexity and entertainment value to be gained from it. You can build military units, but they're mostly ships and submarines and a few air units. I haven't played around with fleet battles too much, just kind of sticking to playing with the economy. There are also quest givers among the other factions. They also sell special devices to improve a unit or collect a resource you otherwise can't, seeds for different resources, and upgrades to afix to your warehouses that improve certain production rates or reduce maintenance costs on that island. The quests can involve fetch and carry or destroying a unit, or running around on the bottom of the ocean with  a sub using searchlights to find sunken tech. 

Its a fun and involving game. I like it. 

Writing Nonsense

I've recently kind of taken a lackluster stab at trying to re-write my story about the Nel and Keroen Skathos. There isn't a real strong purpose or intent to this post, it'll kind of just be me meandering and wondering and talking to myself about my story.

One of the things that frustrates me the most about my writing is that it is so haphazardly done. The one truly complete story I've written was written in essentially three parts with one or more years separating each chunk of the work. I wrote the earliest beginnings almost right out of high school, the middle chunk perhaps five years ago, and the final I'd say third of it maybe three years ago or so. I'm bad with the passage of time, so these times may be off. The writing fluctuates a bit not only in quality, but in intent. As I get older, like we all do, things change in importance to us and our mental state changes with it. We have different values and goals and likes and dislikes. We're constantly evolving. Sometimes when I reread earlier and middle sections of the book it seems almost as if another person wrote it and not me. I just run into these phases where I feel the urge to write and create all the time, and then I get these phases where I just don't give a fuck, which leads to big gaps in working on the story. These phases are what tell me that I could likely never make it as any sort of "professional" writer with deadlines and such. 

Additionally, the earlier sections of the story are based very lightly on the mythology of faeries and the Tuatha De Danann. Loria was once called Danu, Braldenon was once called Balor, Aubernach used to be Oberon, Grenaldeen used to be Avalon, and so on. So there are chunks of it where all the names have been changed but it still has that facet of the myths and legends to it. Back when Keroen was Cromm and Braldenon was Balor, it made a lot of sense (sort of) for Balor to have the Evil Eye. In folklore and myth Balor was called Balor Evil Eye or some such and he was a giant that had two dudes riding his back that had a crane that opened up his eye and laid waste to everything before him. With Braldenon, it's just some power he has. Now that I think of it, I'm not even sure he has an evil eye power in the context of the story's mythology anymore. I kind of went into a slash and burn phase when I decided to change all the names and places to stuff of my own devising to throw it into Hekinoe. 

I like the name changes and the place changes and making the story my own. It's a good thing. So many tales have been told and recorded and written and whatnot through the various media available to us that is hard not to step on anyone's toes these days. The story isn't by any means unique, but I like that it is now mine and not some mish mash of stuff from Jim Butcher's version of the Fey and some helpings of my own take on folklore. It's mine, I made it. Aubernach isn't the version of Oberon from Gargoyles anymore, he's mine. I made him the self-centered, tricksie little shit he is. Nostathon isn't some Fey version of Death anymore, he is the caretaker of The White Halls of Oblivion and the shepherd of all fallen Nel ensuring that they find peace and rest in his halls when they are cut down. 

As much as I like the story, I feel it is weak and inconsistent. The title makes little sense, The Last Blade. It made sort of sense when the Feronel were still called The Court of Blades and Keroen was the last of them at the end of the story. That's not as much of a spoiler as you'd think. I didn't think it was a particularly witty or descriptive title in the first place when I came up with it, it was meant to be there as a placeholder that kind of fit until I could think of something better and I just never seemed to get around to it or devote any mental energy to that idea because it kind of worked. After the revision though, it made absolutely no sense and Shawn said so many a time. 

The prologue has Nostathon sitting beneath the red sun of The Nightmare Lands trying to see the future because it whispers to him of death for his people. He stares at the sun and suffers and bleeds, only gaining a vague idea of what is coming. So he retreats to a timeless place only he can go (wtf?) to sit and plot and ponder. Over the course of the book, his plotting and pondering never amount to anything. He didn't plot anything or plan anything that occurred in the story. All he does is wander around behind the scenes verbally sparring with Aubernach and Contuck and periodically crossing paths with Keroen so Keroen has someone to talk at when I need to give him a monologue. 

The prologue and first chapter are kind of irritating because they kind of information overload a reader. There is no skillful presentation of knowledge. They just spam a bunch of names and kingdoms and different kinds of Nel so you know all the players and races with explanations of relationship and physical appearance and capabilities in just a few paragraphs. It is a snarled mess of information. There's no finesse to the process, just a sledgehammer of information. I mean, this isn't a normal fantasy story where you have elves and dwarves and orcs and the reader has a bunch of preconceived notions of those races and how to relate that information to the context they are spoken of in the book or to fill in the gaps when they are just spoken of by name. This is a book where the main characters are a dead immortal that can turn into a crow thing with insect eyes and feathers of insect chitin (I won't lie, there is a possibility I based this on the deep crow), a sleepy immortal that regularly culls the entire race for shits and giggles, a drunk immortal made of fire and light clothed in flesh, and an immortal made of clay that uses a club. There isn't the ability to say the word Nel or lastborn and have an unspoken agreement between writer and reader that says something like, "We're both nerds, we've heard of Lord of the Rings, this is an elf and you and I both know elves are foresty, have pointy ears, and are usually good with bows."

Although, to be fair, I haven't read a fantasy book that actually had an elf or dwarf or orc in it in...shit, over a year at least, and I read a lot of fucking fantasy novels. Though, I did just read a sci-fi novel series a month or so ago that had the Tuatha De Danann in it. Hmm, the A Land Fit For Heroes series did kind of have elves in them, but not elf elves, more like dimension hopping aliens that had elfy aspects to them and weren't called elves. I dunno, fuck elves. They had "dwarves" too, but they were more like a race that used geothermal energy to hop from planet to planet and made really tough metalwork. They were also black, so we're not channeling much more than "we live underground and mine shit" if we want to say they were kind of dwarves. 

Now, this meandering monologue about my writing brings me to a frequent question. I don't intend to try and get the book published or self publish, so what is the point of rewriting any portion of it for shits and giggles? I honestly can't say why, beyond I feel like it. I've thought about it for over two months now, since well before I wrote out that little Inconsistencies Continued thing on here. I feel like creating something, so I do. It's the same reason I act on some harebrained idea like making a castle fortress thing out of lava in Minecraft and spend an hour digging and plotting out the dimensions of the ground floor and spend a good forty-five minutes setting up the perfect lever controlled redstone circuit to operate the pistons that open up the floor above a pit of lava to drop enemies into before starting on the walls of the place. I'm fucking nuts and when I really truly get the urge to create something, I get all fucking autistic focused and ocd obsessive about it and do it, even if I can't come up with a reason why I should. 

So it has been a few days since I wrote the above portion there. I've rewritten the prologue and the first little bit of the first chapter of the story. I renamed it The Fading King, which while more appropriate than The Last Blade, I'm still not sure it fits or I really truly like it. Like The Last Blade once did, The Fading King works for now as a placeholder. 

The prologue is fundamentally the same, Nostathon attempts to get a glimmer of the future because he feels prophecy scratching at the rotted remains of his brain. So, with the power of his sleeping brothers, he goes and stares at the red sun of The Nightmare Lands and tries to perceive the future. Just like the original, he gets a few hints at what the future holds for the Nel but no clear data, so he resolves to be vigilant, rather than retreating somewhere to plot and plan like he does in the original. 

That's another flaw with the original story, there are way too many convoluted deaths for the Nel. The don't age or anything, but they can be killed. They can also Fade. When killed, they can opt to be reincarnated as the undead Sokarnel and lose all memories of life. If they refuse that option, they can rest in peaceful slumber in The White Halls of Oblivion. Ok, that's not really that many, but in the original prologue Nostathon does a lot of muttering to himself about fleeing beyond life and death and occupying some timeless realm of death that only he can access, and I have no idea what that is. The Nightmare Lands are kind of the underworld of the Nel, at least it is where the Sokarnel reside. But Nostathon states there is some other realm he can travel to beyond that, a realm that is outside of space, time, life, and death. This other realm is sort of intermittently hinted at and used once or twice, but never really defined, explained, or fleshed out beyond "I can do this because I'm dead and stuff."

I dunno, like I've said, I like the story. I've edited and re-edited it quite a few times but it just seems like there are so many flaws and quirks that need to be fixed and altered to make it decent. I don't know if my rewriting represents an actual dedicated effort, but we'll see I guess. 

I Can't Decide Whether I Hate Myself Or Anno 2070

Huh, probably should have posted something here today. Whoops. Wednesday...probably.