Getting Players Invested, Among Other Things

One of the problems we run into as GMs is getting players invested. I think I’ve touched on this idea before, but after talking to some of the folks I game with, I think I’m going to devote an actual full post to some of my thoughts on this.

There are two sides to this. The first are the players that have a hard time getting invested, that have a hard time role-playing and a hard time taking the spotlight or growing to care for their character and the world around them. The other side are the players that are way super cool with role-playing and getting invested and talking. The ones that are too invested, too ready to care and jump into the spotlight and stay there monopolizing it. Both types of player present problems, but only in certain circumstances.  

I’m going to take the second side of this first, because it’s the easiest one to solve. You’ve got a player that always takes the  forefront of the situation. Whether that’s via planning, role-playing, whatever. They’re loud, they’re proud, and they’re always going to take the forefront, because it’s fun for them. In certain groups and while playing certain characters, that’s fine. If the other players have no problem with this player taking the limelight and doing all the talking and stuff, that’s fine. If the player is role-playing a talkative and energetic character that likes to be the center of attention, that’s fine too. But if we’re talking a player that constantly takes the forefront of the group, even in situations where they shouldn’t, like when an NPC is talking to a different character for a specific purpose, or when the player is playing  a character whose background and stats don’t really reflect the type of character that would jump into the forefront, we have have a problem. If the other players in the group want to be in the limelight occasionally, if they want to make decisions and do the talking, if they’re the ones with the talkative center of attention type characters, then we have a problem.

There’s only one real solution, and it is not subtle. Ask them to stop taking over the party. The player may not even be aware of the problem, they could just be doing what comes naturally and might not see it as steamrolling over the other players and their characters. Give them the benefit of the doubt and take them aside and in  private, say “Hey, you’re kind of making everything about you and you’re not giving the other players a chance to interact and make decisions and do things.” It’ll be awkward and awful and you won’t enjoy it, but it’s the only real practical solution. You can try the in game route of NPCs getting irritated with the particular character for their behavior, but that’s passive aggressive and the player will probably interpret it as the NPC disliking their behavior, rather than you the GM saying “Hey, listen, you’re great, I love having you in my game, but you’re steamrolling everyone in the group and making everything about you, can you like dial everything back like maybe ten or twenty percent? Give everyone else the chance to talk as their characters and make decisions as their characters.” Like I said, they might not even realize they’re doing it. They might think they’re taking on the star role because no one else wants to. Talk it out, it’s almost always the best solution.

Let’s change gears here.

Getting players invested and getting them to role-play, can be tricky, but it can be easy sometimes. I have two players, Jason and Eric. They both love to game and they love to take part in the story and take a chance at stepping outside of themselves into another role. They naturally want to know more about the world around them and interact with it. They’re curious and interested and easy to get going. Hell, I’ve set up RP emails where they just go back and forth for thousands of words at a time with no intervention at all from me. Those kinds of players can be taxing at times, but they’re a blessing and a good GM should always appreciate them. Their excitement and investment can often drag more reluctant role-players into the campaign world. It should go without saying, but you should never ignore those sort of self-motivated role-players. Just because they are comfortable role-playing and are already invested in the campaign and your game world doesn’t mean you don’t have to keep an eye on them and make sure they’re staying invested and having fun.

So what do you do when you aren’t blessed with self-motivated players like Jason and Eric?

The first thing you need to do is figure out if the player wants to be more invested. I’ve gamed on and off with a guy since around high school. He’s not part of what I think of as my core group, but he’s someone I’ve often invited to game with me. He doesn’t care to interact with NPCs beyond what is absolutely necessary, he doesn’t care about being invested in stories, and if his character dies, he’ll just roll a new one. He sees the story of the campaign and the particular adventure as important, but only as a framing device for the game. He wants to play the game, but the game and its mechanics are what is important to him. The best way I can describe it is that he acts like he’s playing an action RPG like Diablo. He’s there to play the game, but there are no real decisions he needs to, or wants to make outside of class, race, and what gear he wears. That’s his playstyle. He’s never going to be invested in a particular NPC or story or want to role-play. Any attempts made to make him more invested or to get him to step into the limelight of an adventure or situation would fall flat or just be awkward because it’s not his thing and he doesn’t want it to be his thing. It’s not my job as the GM to make it his thing either. If you have this type of player in your group, your job as the GM is to determine how butthurt you’ll be when he doesn’t marvel at the amazing narratives you craft. If you’re ok with a player like this being in your group and not really getting turgid while he listens to you ramble on telling your stories and plots and talking as NPCs, cool, if you’re not, don’t invite them into the group.

The next thing is figuring out why the players play. This actually goes hand in hand with finding out if the player wants to be more invested. So figure out these two things together. Some people play only because their friends play. Others because they love combat. Others because they constantly fucking seek to derail the campaign completely by making pacts with every fucking incomprehensible supernatural entity beyond the realm of time and space that they can get to return their calls. Some look at DnD like it’s a choose your own adventure book and they couldn’t get enough of those things when they were growing up. They want to be part of a story and interact with that story and determine its course. Others just want to experience the fun of acting and to pretend to be someone else. Others just like combat or doing cool things with characters and stuff. There’s a wide range of player types that I’m not going to define here. Google it. Someone almost certainly has compiled a list of player archetypes.

Now, some reasons players have for being at the table may limit your ability to get them to give a shit. Some may make it impossible, like my player from the previous paragraph. The easiest next step is to find out why they aren’t invested. Do they not like the story? Do they not like the things you make them do? Do they feel like a particular player hogs the limelight? Are they inexperienced with DnD so they feel like they’re out of their depth or are missing all the references when you talk about illithid and cranium rats and dual scimitar wielding drow and the Hand and Eye of Vecna? The simplest way to do this is to ask them what they want out of the game and if something you’re doing is keeping them from really getting into things.

I had a player, Cary, that ragequit during a session. It was a hostage situation and Cary was using his psion Donovan to dialogue some of the fanatics/terrorists into releasing their hostages. Cary’s psion was almost purely a telepath, but he also had extensive skill points put into Bluff and Diplomacy. He was trying to use those skills to resolve a situation, and I stonewalled him. As I had many times during the scenarios of the campaign. I didn’t know it at the time, but Cary felt very frustrated by my DMing because it seemed like all I would let him do was fling energy bolts and blasts at foes when he had designed a character around talking to people to get them to do things. Cary was a role-player, he knew the rules, he was tolerant of my extensive house rules, but I was running a game that punished his character choices because I didn’t understand what kind of character he was playing. When he played a telepath, I assumed that he wanted to blast things with psionics and control minds with psionics. He wanted to actually talk people into doing things. My being unaware of what he wanted out of the game, and not taking the time to ask him what he wanted, and designing scenarios that he felt punished his character choices detracted from his enjoyment of the game and his ability to really get into it.

Part of getting players invested is understanding what they want to do with their characters. After Cary and I had a heart to heart and I apologized for my shit GMing, I started to include instances where Cary could use dialogue to do things in scenarios, just like I would include things for other characters to do with their skills like Stealth and Perception and Disable Device. I don’t think we ever reach a perfect balance, because Cary and I had different views on what you can achieve with dialogue skills (they’re not magic, so all of their effects are weaker than the weakest enchantment/charm spells), but I think we reached an understanding that I was making an effort and he and Donovan became a big component of doing things later in the campaign.

I have another player, Jeremy, one of my oldest friends. Jeremy has gamed with me in almost every campaign, but Jeremy is a gamer that games because his friends are gaming. He has never had an encyclopedic knowledge of the game, which is fine, because that’s the GMs job. He has never really devoted a lot of time to backgrounds or interacting with NPCs. He’s happy to play and laugh and joke around and be there with us, and we want him there and like having him there with us. He’s a good guy.

The Rebellion Arc is the only campaign I’ve ever really gotten Jeremy invested in. It took work and it was worth it. It involved a heist, a friendship, and the American cinema classic Road House starring Patrick Swayze. The campaign started out with the characters in prison. There’s a prison break and the characters managed to escape as well. The players end up heading to a city known as Hell where Jeremy’s character D’alton Braun had originally lived. He had been in the process of pulling of a bank heist when he was caught and sent to the prison they were all in. The group discusses it and figures they can go to Hell and finish out D’alton’s heist and hang out in his rowe’dhaus (::wink::), which is a word that means secret basement in wretchtongue. The players pull off the bank heist successfully and make off with a ridiculous sum of money for first level characters, like 20,000+ gold pieces in value, and the rest of the campaign goes from there.

I forget how it exactly goes, but Jeremy and I were hanging out or talking one day and we came up with the idea for a heist in DnD. We were probably talking about the film Heat or maybe Dane Cook’s jokes about doing a heist and “Where’s the van? Where is the fucking van?” or something of that nature. From that simple bit of joking around we get the second session of The Rebellion Arc, which kicks off the entirety of the rest of the campaign. We establish from that that Jeremy’s character is from Hell, it’s his ancestral home. So Jeremy spends all this time coming up with maps of the Braun family mansion and stuff. Many NPCs we run into over the course of the campaign while bumming around Hell are known to D’alton, people he knows from his childhood and time in the youth gangs running the streets. Like the Van Bur’yen Boys. Which is a Seinfeld reference, which is another thing Jeremy and I enjoy. I think. Jeremy likes Seinfeld, right?

The campaign is about Jeremy/D’alton, even if it isn’t directly so. He’s not the chosen one, but he’s constantly involved in the things that are going on. The players are hiding out in his secret fort, later living in his family mansion. Later they fix an election that gets his childhood sweetheart elected. All these little things are tying the campaign to Jeremy/D’alton, but he’s not being made to be the leader or take on a role he doesn’t want to. He’s invested because there are all these references he enjoys and because all these things are tied to him and his character, but the spotlight isn’t beating down on him and making him sweat, because that’s not something he’d enjoy.

I reinforced this investment by creating a vulnerable character that Jeremy could befriend and help and defend, and later be defended by. Spineplate/Kethranmeer. By creating Spineplate/Kethranmeer and having D’alton help him get hands, I translated the friendship Jeremy and I have into the game. It wasn’t that he and I were friends and were hanging out, it was that we were hanging out in the game. The two characters had each other’s back and that sort of thing. It just kind of reinforced the fact that Jeremy was involved as a player. Even if a scenario wasn’t directly about something related to D’alton or something that interested Jeremy, Kethranmeer was there to speak to D’alton and draw Jeremy more into the role of D’alton.

I was able to get Jeremy invested by giving the group scenarios Jeremy helped me come up with the idea for, by adding a bunch of references he would get and enjoy, by making things tie into his character and forcing him to create additional background material for that character to help flesh out the character and his ties to the world. That’s a good tactic you can use to get players invested, by crafting whole scenarios and campaign arcs based around what they want to do. You have to be careful about it, because it can backfire and you have to make sure you’re not forcing the limelight on someone who doesn’t want it and that you’re not focusing the entirety of the campaign on one player and ignoring the rest.

In the Orcunraytrel Arc Lance expressed a desire to do a few things in the world and since his character Eran was a Sereth I planned on involving a few Sereth specific quests in the campaign due to some plots I had hanging around Orcunraytrel related to the Sereth race. I think Lance and I had different expectations about how these things would be resolved. I assumed he would be more proactive and pursue them and bring them to the party’s attention, and I think he assumed I would handle them in a more traditional way of giving the group quests and directing them to resolve them by making scenarios for them. So when Lance and his character Eran never really pursued those quests and plot hooks, and then he and the group were basically punished for not doing so by events progressing while they weren’t paying attention to them, I think Lance ended up feeling a little alienated and put off, which certainly didn’t help him remain invested in the campaign, his character, and the game world. So putting character/player specific things into play can backfire on you.

Again, make sure your player and you have the same expectations about how things are going to go. You don’t have to sit down with them and say, “I plan to do these specific things to draw you into my campaign world and to get you more invested in the campaign.” That kind of spoils things. Just be subtle about it and speak in generalities. One of the things I do to prepare myself for involving elements of character’s background in a campaign is to create a questionnaire document that I have players answer. Just a bunch of seemingly random, and sometimes actually random, questions about them and their characters and what they want out of the campaign and that sort of thing. If you find that you have players that want to be more involved and invested and occupy the limelight, these sorts of broad questions about characters and their backgrounds can give you some good ideas about how to do that in the story. It also makes the players think about their characters a little bit more than just choosing race and class. Any time a player is thinking about their character, they’re getting a little bit more comfortable with stepping into and thinking like the character and a little bit closer to it, which is going to make them just a little bit more invested in it.

This isn’t really a comprehensive guide to getting players more invested in the campaign and their character and getting them to role-play. I can only speak in generalities and from personal experience, and my experiences are going to be different from those of others and what has worked for me in the past might never work for a different group. I only have one real rule about getting players invested and getting them to role-play, and that is to talk to your players.

If you talk to your players directly and actually communicate, you’re going to be able to figure something out. Some people are never going to get invested or role-play. Some people want to, but they’re just not comfortable with it, so you need to help them by easing them into it and showing them the table is a judgement free zone and no one is going to nut tap them for role-playing the “wrong” way. If your players get along with each other and trust each other not to mock them and they’re genuinely there to enjoy and participate in the story and you’re taking them on adventures they enjoy, the investment in the campaign and the role-playing are going to happen. Eventually. Probably. No guarantees. Sorry. If you’re having them do things they don’t enjoy, if people are uncomfortable, or they’re only there to win the scenario, it’s never going to happen.

So, talk to your players. Find out why they come to the table. Find out if they are invested in the campaign, find out if they want to role-play. If they do, why aren’t they/don’t they now? Is it your fault? Is it there’s? How can you help? Would they be comfortable if they were forced into the limelight?

I could keep going I think, but I think you get the gist. Just talk to your players.

The Myth of the OP Player/Build/Etc

One of the things I'm doing to get back into blogging is going back and finding unfinished drafts of posts and seeing if there are any I want to finish. This one was originally started on 12/27/2013.

One of the things you run into a lot with RPGs is min/maxers. The guy who tweaks every little thing to finagle the maximum amount of whatever out of the rules. This problem is a lot worse in point buy systems like GURPS because the nature of the game allows for a lot more customization than a rigid, class based system like Pathfinder or DnD. You can only min/max so much in Pathfinder core rules, mostly just in terms of ability score, as there aren't any sacrifices you can make anywhere to boost something else up. 5th Edition is even less min/maxable. It's actually kind of impressive how little you can actually tweak your character to secure advantages.

There's nothing intrinsically wrong with min/maxing and trying to make your character awesome. That's the point of these games on some level, to be badass. To leave bodies on the floor in your wake. To be awesome and more competent than everyone else. That's what player characters do, or at least try to. Now, it's one thing to find sweet feat combinations, and completely another to play a Fighter with an Intelligence of 7 and a highly boosted Strength or Constitution and then come up with really well thought out tactics and plots. Mental retardation is a real thing, and I'm not making light of it, but there is a reason we don't put people with IQs of 50 or 60 in charge of armies and groups of soldiers. I only take issue with min/maxing when it gets ridiculous and ignores my background material or the character is a collection of stats and not an actual character.

Players often try to find complimentary feats and class abilities and racial abilities to leverage the most power against their foes. Power in this context is a general term for the character's schtick. Karrak's power is shooting things. Donovan's is talking to things, and Karl's is magic and shooting things (with magic). Eran's power is obviously master debating in the woods, while shooting way better than everyone else, and being sneaky. 

Often, you'll hear someone say "that is so over powered," usually as an exclamation indicating they are pissed and feel it is unfair, or an exclamation indicating they think they are brilliant little fucks for coming up with it. Now the problem with finding something over powered and thinking it is unstoppable is that it often ignores a few things about the nature of the game.  

The first thing it ignores is that experience  (I use the word experience here as a catch all term for advancement) should only be rewarded if there is a challenge in the scenario. If a group is consistently walking through encounters, or a certain type of encounter (combat, social, trap, etc) without taking damage (and not because of crafty tactics during the fight or brilliant plans for getting around the encounters), if there's no risk in a situation, why should they get rewarded? That's the whole point of leveling/advancement systems. As you overcome challenges, you get better at things. If there's no challenge to anything, you shouldn't be getting better, because you've plateaued and aren't challenging yourself. It seems pretty straightforward to me. So fine, you're monstrously powerful. Cool. Prepare to be stuck at level three for the rest of the campaign. 

The second thing it ignores is the GM. Assuming something is OP/unstoppable/makes you invincible ignores the fact that the challenges a party faces are not random meaningless situations (assuming your GM isn't a fucktwit). They are built by a thinking creature that typically has a much better understanding of the game as a whole than the players. We're ten levels into the campaign and Eric still can't figure out where to find the cost breakdown for adding new spells to his spellbook. Lance thought for some reason that armor class is  calculated differently for animal companions so his wolf companion had an AC of 7, despite AC starting at a base of 10 and his wolf having +2 worth of natural armor and a Dexterity of 17 and the Dodge feat. I'm not saying this to poke fun at them or to indicate they are big dumb heads. I forgot how Craft skills function last night. Nobody is perfect. However, the nature of the GM's job demands that he know the system of the rules better than the players. Which means, quite literally, anything you can do, he can do better and also that you're probably doing it wrong. Cary used to blast me constantly with OP builds of Pathfinder characters, generally they were solid and functional for what he designed them for, but at least a solid 25% of them completely failed due to him not really understanding relevant rules or even being aware of rules.

Obviously I only deconstructed those failures for him about 50% of the time. You never know when it'll be useful to completely break a player's build and knock their sense of special snowflake entitlement down a peg. 

Thirdly, players are arrogant useless fucks that are predisposed to think that they are brilliant and crafty little fucks that can pull a fast one on the GM. I kid. What I mean is that people, myself included, are predisposed to think they are brilliant and cunning. Unless they are so full of self loathing that they GM Pathfinder games to punish themselves. So yeah, when you find a little bit of synergy you never noticed before, you assume no one else has, and that you've won everything forever. The problem is that these little synergies typically only apply to one aspect of the game. 

Cary and I were just talking about mythic characters and he explained a build to me where an attack has to do over 80 damage to him before he can start taking damage. Which is pretty impressive if someone shoots or stabs Donovan. But what about hold person or phantasmal killer? Finger of death? What about poisons that deal ability score damage? What about negative levels? What about non-combat situations? What about a Fighter that has the feats that lets him stun or daze on a successful attack roll? Will this stuff function if he is unconscious and the Fighter performs a coup de grace? What if he is submerged in water due to a trap and begins drowning? So yes, assuming it works like he thinks it does, his build does possess a power level of over 9000. But it only applies to a small piece of the game, direct damage. If direct damage is the only thing you're leveraging against your players to challenge them in a campaign, you fucked up.

The fourth thing OP builds ignore is the world around them. In this instance, the world around them can be the environment, foes, NPCs, etc. Fine, you've got a combat monster character with  power level of over 9000 thousand. What happens when your goal is to get information from an NPC rather than curb stomp them until their insides squirt out their butthole? What happens when your NPCs have a better understanding of tactical combat than your player's combat monster collection of stats?

In my current 5th Edition group, there is a belief that archery is overpowered, which I don't agree with. The example is the Fighter archery fighting style, which confers +2 to ranged attack rolls. This combined with an archery feat that confers -5 to ranged attack rolls and +10 to damage creates a pretty deadly archer. There's also a feat that ignores all cover except full. 

Ok. That is impressive. You might even call it OP. But guess what? It is completely negated by stepping behind something. Unless the archer has a decent amount of elevation, you can completely negate the archer's power by sitting down on the ground behind a waist high wall. This relates to my fourth point because NPCs are intelligent. Even animals are going to either try to eat the face off the deadly archer, or run the fuck away from him. More intelligent enemies are going to utilize cover. Players kind of tend to see the NPCs populating the world around them as bland and faceless. They forget that any tactic or thing they can do can likely be done by the citizens of the world around them to some degree. My point here is that if something doesn't work, the foes of the players are going to try something else.

I dunno, I'm kind of all over the place here and there's a little bit of overlap between my four points. The ultimate point of this post is that creating an OP build is kind of a myth in my opinion. You might be able to be good at one single aspect of the game (combat, talking, etc), but that's about it. It also doesn't necessarily make you unstoppable in that area either, because there is more to the game than high damage or hit points or AC in combat or high skill bonuses in non-combat situations. There are always going to be impossible tasks that you can't succeed at, there are always going to be lies too unbelievable (whether due to the outrageousness of the claim or because the NPC has information the player does not). If you the GM are doing it right, the game is varied and interesting and not guaranteed to play to the player's strengths at all times and characters that specialize to an extreme degree to get that extra edge are going to suffer. 

Running Campaigns

One of the things I do is game every other Saturday with some guys that I know through a guy through work. At this point I consider them friends, so I game with a group of friends every other Saturday. We currently play 5th Edition DnD. There are two DMs in this group: Kyle and Kevin. They've both run a few campaigns and one shots and such in the time I've been gaming with them, which is probably approaching a year or so now. With the crashing and burning of my Pathfinder campaign, I've been kind of wanting to show my appreciation for them by DMing something for the group. Kind of give them both a break and get myself back into the role of running games. Something relatively short, definitely not a three year long campaign, but something more than a one shot or multi-session dungeon.

I also want to run it as a sort of palette cleanser after the Pathfinder campaign. Not because it left a bad taste in my mouth. I liked that campaign and am curious how it would have all ended (which is now up to Eric to decide). What I mean is that I've been running campaigns for the same group of friends, for the most part, for 21 years and ran a campaign for three years with guys who were adjacent to that group of friends. Shawn was part of that original group and he introduced me to Lance, who introduced me to Jason, who introduced me to Cary. I've grown accustomed to these guys and their friends and their various idiosyncrasies. I feel like it would be beneficial for me as a GM to run things for a different group of people. A group of people that grew up on different games and versions of DnD than we did. Doing the same things over and over again and running games geared towards the same set of expectations and whatnot leads to stagnation. Because of the my experience as a GM and because of my experience with my core group of players, I've very rarely had to plan any alternative routes for task completion in my scenarios over the past three years. I almost instinctively know what they're going to do, how to get them to do what I want, and what is going to interest and bore them. This isn't a criticism of any of us. We're all just accustomed to each other's tastes and quirks. For the most part.

This is more about me expanding my horizons and seeing what other people have to say about me as a GM and what they have to say about Hekinoe. I dunno. These guys are cool. I think it'd be fun to plop them down in Hekinoe and see what they do with it. So I've decided to do this. The first step is figuring out what I want to do. The first step of that is determining system.

My heart always flies like an arrow to GURPS for representing Hekinoe, but that's not exactly ethical in my opinion. I don't really feel right demanding they all buy new books and stuff, especially when both of the core GURPS books are fifty bucks each. I also don't really feel right giving them all free pdfs because I like GURPS and want to support the game. Anyway, long story short: I've opted to go with 5th Edition for this campaign, but significantly modified. As I've said many a time before, various versions of DnD don't really work with Hekinoe, also DnD is stupid.

So the main point of this post is to establish how much I need to modify 5th Edition to fit it into Hekinoe. Just like other 3.X Edition versions of Hekinoe, some things will get handwaved because game. I want to tweak it to make it fit, but I don't really want to overdo it. So we need to first establish a little bit about this continent I plan on setting this campaign on and how it different from The Known World and go from there into modification of rules and mechanics.

The first difference is that it will have its own set of races, and there will only be four races. The Buillon, the Gobeneru, the Halflings, and Humans. The Gobeneru are of the Goebleen/Ethryll/Hulderfolk lineage and Humans will be the same type of stock as Uncout, so there will be some familiar/common races. The second difference is that magic is more stable and does not cause mutations and magic items don't eventually explode when used. However, magic is also weaker. Because background, this continent will have the lowest risk of misfire of any of the continents in Hekinoe. The third difference is that the tech level of this continent is more along the lines of normal DnD, rather than the Wild West era technology of The Known World or the Iron Age era technology of Orcunraytrel. Steel is a thing, but guns and steam engines are not. This continent also has no Elduman, so there are no psionics on it.

So how is this continent different from DnD? This question kind of shows what the necessary modifications to 5th Edition's rules will be. This will keep me from going hog wild and doing things like converting armor to damage reduction, making massive reductions in hit points to everything, etc, etc, etc. There will be plenty of modifications. No need to add more nonsense onto what has to be there. There's a fine line between needing to modify a system and needing to use a completely different system. If I just end up hacking apart 5th Edition to be more GURPS like, rather than to fit Hekinoe, it might be more appropriate to use GURPS in the first place.

Anyway, Hekinoe is different from the core DnD world described in the Player's Handbook. Let's talk about that.

Races. Hekinoe has no Dwarves, Elves, Orcs, etc, etc, etc. It's all my own races. You could, like Lance, be an idiot and say that the Sereth and Vyanth are just Elves because pointed ears (nevermind that they're actually an offshoot of Uncout, but whatever) or that Greenskin Abraxens are Orcs, but that's not true. Some of the races of Hekinoe resemble common DnD races, and that may be intentional on my part, but they are not those races. What this means is that I need to stat up the Buillon, Gobeneru, Halflings, and Humans. Not too difficult. It's actually be pretty easy to make them work, Buillon will be a modified Goliath race, Gobeneru will be a modified Halfling or Goblin race, Humans will be Humans. Halflings will actually be something I have to write up from scratch.

No gods. Hekinoe has a decent share of powerful supernatural entities. Primarily members of the Nel race, but there are others. However, these are not gods in the traditional sense. Gods, in DnD, are creatures powered by the faith of their followers, they have ideologies they want followed, they exist on planes that are fairly mutable to their whims, and command legions of planar entities like angels or demons. They are also to a certain extent omnipotent and omniscient, at least in areas related directly to their followers and their areas of control. The supernatural entities of Hekinoe have none of these capabilities. It may seem like they do, but they do not. This means Cleric, Druid, and Paladin are outright gone from the class options. Ranger may stay, but will lose its spellcasting abilities. Can't have divine magic without divine creatures to give the characters magic.

No planes. Hekinoe has no planar cosmology. The only plane is the real world. This means several things. Spells involving planar travel need to be modified or removed. Spells that pull things from other planes need to be altered or removed. Creatures native to other planes, such as angels and demons, do not exist in Hekinoe. There are small sort of demiplanes that I for some reason decided to call adjacent realms, places like The Shadowwlands, the Hound's midnight forest, Nel holdings, and various little sorcerous apartment complexes built by various hermit beard wearing Wizards. Mostly this amounts to some spell alteration and a little bit of outright removal.

Magic. Magic is going to be a big sticking point and will require heavy modification. In Hekinoe there are three types of magic type stuff: magic, the psionics of the Elduman, and the Gifts of the Nel. Each of them have their own unique rules. The two present in this 5th Edition campaign will be magic and Gifts. Magic in Hekinoe is an external energy source that spellcasters shape through symbolic incantations, gestures, and raw willpower. It's a large and chaotic energy source separated from, but always seeking entry into, the physical world. I've described sorcerous energy as an endless sea of power shaped like a funnel with a magic user at the bottom of the funnel. Gifts are an internal energy source, they're the lifeforce of a Nel. Both are powerful, but both have some a variety of limitations and restrictions on their use.

In DnD, magic is an internal force, otherwise the Wizard ability known as arcane replenishment could not exist. How else could you replenish arcane energy to restore spell slots if it didn't come from within you? It's also an external energy source? Or something. It's super dumb. None of the rules about magic mean anything in DnD. How do Clerics gain more spells per day if they don't do stuff that furthers their deity's goals or rise in their church hierarchy if the power comes from their god and not them? Clerics, as non divine beings, have no divine energy. It comes from elsewhere. Their level and ability scores should have no impact on their spells, as all that power comes from their god. Anyway.

Basically we have three magic classes: Sorcerer, Warlock, and Wizard. Warlocks make pacts with Nel for power, Sorcerer's can only be the Halfling race because they use Gifts from an ancestor who was invested with Gifts by a Nel, and Wizards cast spells using the ambient magical energy from the world around them. The first problem here is casting ability scores. Warlocks use Charisma, and they get their power from a patron they persuade or make a deal with to gain it, so Charisma is fine for them. Since Sorcerer's use internal magic energy that is at least partially their lifeforce, they use Constitution instead of Charisma (which is idiotic even in normal DnD). Wizards do learn certain forms of spells and incantations, but spellcasting in Hekinoe is more about forcing the energy of magic into a certain shape with your willpower, so Wizards use Wisdom instead of Intelligence.

Because there are no Old Ones, demons, or fey in Hekinoe, Warlocks will need a different set of pacts and stuff. Since magic is much less narrowly focused in Hekinoe than in DnD, we'll need to modify spell lists to incorporate all the spells that don't directly reference divine might into the spell selections for the classes. The spells that directly reference divine might will need to go or be altered to fit the Warlock list. Because Sorcerers have bloodlines and traits related to their ancestors who were shaped by the Nel that gave them power, we'll need a different set of sorcerous origins for sorcerers. Wizards will also need some specialty options for Druid and Bard type stuff to go along with their options for specialty school. 

So that's kind of the broad strokes about what I'll need to be doing for this 5th Edition campaign. I may or may not get into the mechanical modifications to magic on the blog here. We'll see. 

GURPS Fuck Psionics

So our next step in hashing out sorcery, psionics, Gifts, and the Nel is to hash out psionics. Shocking.

In my previous attempts, I've basically tried to duplicate Pathfinder psionics with a bit of modification to fit them with the version of Hekinoe that exists in my head. That's fine, but it's not exactly true to the source material. There is very little practical difference between sorcery and psionics in Pathfinder. They each have their quirks, but for the most part they can do precisely the same kinds of things with relatively minor tweaks (like not having to pay 25k gold for material components for psionic wish).

So what are psionics? Psionics are mental arts  that can influence the physical world that are directed by the willpower of a creature and fueled by its mental energy.

This means that when based off of an attribute, the psionic character uses his Will for psionic powers.

Let's also establish who can be a psionic character. Psionics are a racial ability in Hekinoe, not a class every Tom, Dick, and Fell Human can take levels in like in Pathfinder. Elduman,because Elduman. They are the original psionic creatures and anything using psionics on Hekinoe is at least partially related to them, regardless of how thin the ties are.  Elduman descended Uncout, because they have a small crystalline organ in their brains that is one of the few traits they share with their Elduman forefathers. This organ allows them to psionic. The Rankethlek are psionic because they are a sort of mental construct shaped like the remnants of the Soulless/Fallen they are transformed from that is given shape and potency by the lightning heart within them. If that sounds nonsensical or like bullshit, congratulations, you can read. Moving along. Some Fallen (those that take an Unusual Background) can also use psionics.

In non-Pathfinder Hekinoe there are four ways psionics interact with the world around psionic characters: esp, psychokinesis, telepathy, and biokinesis.

Biokinesis is the name for the ability of psionic characters to influence their body with their mental energy. They can use their psionic power to heal themselves, augment their physical strength, and so on. Biokinesis is restricted to Elduman and Elduman descended Uncout. This is because the Elduman can use their psionic energy, which is essentially their lifeforce, to alter and augment their crystalline psionic flesh, rearranging it to suit their needs. At least temporarily. Elduman descended Uncout are capable of biokinesis, but they are much more limited. Unlike the Elduman, the flesh, blood, and bones and such of the Elduman descended Uncout are not innately psionic (aside from the organ in their brain) so they lack some of the functionality that the Elduman possess. Mainly the ability to shift and alter their flesh. 

That's right, Elduman are pseudo-shapeshifters. Didn't know that? Huh. That's weird. You would think that would be common knowledge or something. Anyway.

Elduman descended Uncout can still augment their bodies, but they do it in a much more limited way. They can amp up their strength by turning off the restrictions in our bodies that keep us from snapping our own bones when we use brute force, they can dump a bunch of adrenaline to increase reaction speed, they can cause their lungs to hyperoxegenate blood so they can exert themselves for longer without breathing, etc, etc. Fallen and Rankethlek have no ability to use biokinesis because they are unliving creatures.

Esp is extra-sensory perception. This is the ability of psionic creatures to expand their senses and consciousness. To set their mental energy bouncing around the world to see what their eyes cannot, etc. It also incorporates things like sensing other living beings, having a sixth sense ability to dodge, and that sort of thing. It cannot predict the future or see the past. I am kinda unsure how to implement it right now. There are a few ways that work, but I don't know which one to settle on beyond the Detect and Clairsentience advantages. I also envision esp having a lot of passive effects like Enhanced Block or Combat Reflexes, rather than ones that are activated on the fly. Since esp is a purely mental psionic ability (mostly), all the previously listed psionic creatures can utilize to the same degree.

Psychokinesis is basically using psionic energy to influence matter and the world around you. You can create a wall of telekinetic force or bind your crystalline flesh together with telekinetic energy to make it harder to penetrate, stab with a telekinetic dagger, paralyze by wrapping bands of telekinetic force around someone, or give a person the equivalent of a hyper fast hyper strong rug burn by dragging telekinetic force across their body. Psychokinesis is also the place where teleportation type effects sit. Psychokinesis can be used by all of the psionic races except Fallen.

Teleportation effects are only usable by Elduman. Teleportation effects are also not instantaneous when used long range. Elduman are the only psionic race that can teleport because they are the only race that possesses a psionically energized body at every level. Every molecule of pale faux-skin, crystalline dermis, and liquid crystal blood is psionically charged. This is what allows Elduman to so drastically alter their physical capabilities with biokinesis, their bodies are as psionic as their minds are.

Elduman teleportation effect involve temporarily separating their physical molecules (which hurts, mind you, and in a very bad way), flinging them in a direction with telekinesis, and then reconstituting them (which hurts, but in a good way). Technically speaking, teleportation effects are a combination of psychokinesis and biokinesis.

Telepathy is mind to mind interface and whatnot. It represents anything involving mental communication or tricking the mind of another creature into doing something. With telepathy psionic characters can paralyze by poking the target's brain and telling it to halt all movement, they can communicate, they can convince you that you're dying of suffocation, they can convince your heart to stop, probe minds for secrets, make a slave of you, etc, etc, etc. Like esp and psychokinesis, telepathy can be used by all of the psionic races.

So looking at that, you'll see that there's no ability to fling fireballs and lightning bolts. Which is intentional. Don't get me wrong, you can grab lightning or fire (assuming you grab fuel for it too) with telekinetic hands and fling it at someone, but it has to already exist in the environment (thus requiring the Environmental limitation). The goal here is not to make psionics more limited than sorcery, though that ends up being the result. At least partially.

My ultimate goal here is to make them different. Psionics is going to end up more limited, but I want it to heavily surpass sorcery in certain areas, mainly telepathy type stuff. It's going to be tricky, but we'll see what we can do here.

So the first step is to talk about what kind of modifier psionics are. In regular GURPS psionic limitations are -10% modifiers. This value assumes that there are effects and technology that can impede or prevent the use of psionics. The same goes for sorcery. In Hekinoe there isn't any technology or chemical that really prevents the use of sorcery or psionics (aside from blackstone). Sorcery gets to keep its -10% value because of all the misfire shit. Psionic limitations in GURPS are only worth -5% to the cost of an advantage because there is no equivalent to misfires for them and no technology that fucks with them (aside from blackstone, which isn't really tech and is on the rare side). Psionics also has the benefit of working in the middle of the fucking ocean.

There are also four talents related to psionics: Biokinesis Talent, ESP Talent, Psychokinesis Talent, and the Telepathy Talent, each costing 5 character points per level and having a maximum level of 4 (with ancient Elduman able to purchase a 5th level). Talents apply a +1 bonus per level to effective skill levels with things related to the talent. So every psionic power will have one of the following limitations: Biokinesis, ESP, Psychokinesis, or Telepathy, all as a -5% modifier.

For complex powers, when applicable (which is subject to GM approval), you may apply multiple psionic limitations, but their combined value cannot exceed -10%. You may add the appropriate Talent modifiers to the power as well, but add the total bonus from your talents together and divide by how many talents are involved and round up to get the bonus. So a telepathic power that incorporates elements of esp would have a ESP/Telepathy, -10% limitation and would add ESP Talent 2 and Telepathy Talent 3 when appropriate, but you would use (2+5)/2 for a Talent modifier of 3. Wee, math!

I plan on allowing the use of the alternative powers rule. So you could conceivably lump all of your psychokinetic powers together and pay the full cost for the most expensive and 1/5 of the cost for the rest. That's pretty good for reducing costs, but it does pose certain risks. It restricts you to using only one of the abilities at a time and forces you to take a ready maneuver to switch between modes. It also means that if one is disabled, all are. I don't see it being a universally taken option, but it can be of benefit in some instances and I leave it up to the player.

Psionics is something that comes purely from your mind, so all psionic characters must purchase an Energy Reserve (Psionics) of at least 1. This represents the base energy necessary to power psionic abilities.

All active uses of psionic power, like when you use a mental blast to stun foes or probe a target's mind, or manifest a shield of telekinetic force, etc requires an expenditure of the psionic character's mental energy. So they all (probably) have the Costs 1 ER, -5% limitation. This means you have to spend one ER to activate the power for each use or 1 minute duration, depending on the nature of the ability. Because Elduman are the perfect integration of psionic crystalline flesh and psionic energy, they have the option of applying the Costs FP, -10% limitation (which still allows you to use ER to pay for the ability) or the Costs HP, -20% limitation. Elduman descended Uncout may apply the Costs FP, -10% or Costs HP, -20% limitation to their Biokinesis abilities to reflect the fact that they are using psionics to augment their body and push it beyond its normal capabilities, causing increased strain on their physiology.

Just as a random note, there is a way to make an Innate Attack do a variable number of damage dice that increases based on the ER/FP/HP expenditure in GURPS Power on page 101.

Another modifier psionic abilities must have is the Low Signature enhancement. All abilities are assumed to have some sort of sensory effect that is as noticeable as the sound of a gunshot or the muzzle flash of one. Psionic abilities are almost purely mental and when used the only sign is a barely seen shimmer similar to a heat haze in the air. Because there is no act of throwing or cursing or wiggling fingers to direct psionic powers, if the use of the Innate Attack skill is needed, it uses the Gaze variant, replacing DX with Will as the controlling attribute. Low Signature does not have any effect on a target's ability to defend against an attack or effect, it merely means that the nature of the attack is harder to notice.

Alright, so there are a few tweaks for each race due to their unique natures. I know I've mentioned a few of the racial options already, but I'm going to hash out a few more.

One ability shared by all psionic characters is the ability to detect and analyze psionics. This is done using the Detect advantage. Psionics are considered an occasional substance (sorcery is common and Gifts are rare, fyi). It would also have the ESP, -5% limitation and Costs 1 ER, -5% limitation. As psionic characters grow in power they could modify it to be more discerning and could learn to detect other sorts of things like sentient minds, living creatures, metals, etc.

Elduman

Elduman have access to all four types of psionics. Elduman are also the only psionic characters that can use psychokinesis to teleport.

As previously mentioned, when applying limitations to activated abilities, Elduman may apply Costs ER, -5%, Costs FP, -10% (which may also be activated by paying ER), or Costs HP, -20% to those abilities. I supposed you could in theory apply all three to the same ability, meaning it would take 1 ER, 1 FP, and 1 HP to activate, but you'd get a -35% to the cost. So maybe it's worth it? Pro-Tip: It's totally not.

Elduman are sort of solar powered so they can have Regeneration of any strength with the ER Only or FP Only (not both, but they could buy it once for their Energy Reserve and once for their FP) limitation for +0% and the Accessibility: Only In Direct Sunlight, -10% limitation. Normally, ER and FP heals by 1 every 10 minutes (every 5 minutes for FP if you have the Fit advantage). So taking Regeneration (Regular) with these limitations would cost 23 points and would restore an additional ER once an hour for a total of 7 ER restored each hour.

Elduman Descended Uncout

Elduman descended Uncout have access to a more limited form of biokinesis, a more limited form of esp, psychokinesis, and telepathy.

As previously stated, the more limited form of biokinesis that Elduman descended Uncout have does not allow them to manipulate their bodies the way it does Elduman. Elduman can bind their crystalline flesh and faux skin together to resist damage, but their descendants cannot. In theory, Elduman can use their psionic energies to fuel rapid muscle and bone growth to increase their size and strength, their descendants could not.

What Elduman descended Uncout could do is buy Damage Reduction with the semi-ablative or ablative limitation and a temporary disadvantage like Ham-Fisted or Numb to simulate their psionic abilities turning off their pain receptors and that sort of thing. What they could do is fire off all of the adrenaline in their bodies at once and override the biological restraints on their muscles to hit with greater force and move faster to dodge blows better. 

Elduman descended Uncout also have a more limited form of esp than Elduman. They are basically restricted to using the crystalline chunk of their brain to process information quicker. So they can't displace their senses with Clairsentience. They can augment their reaction times with psionic versions of things like Danger Sense, Enhanced Defenses and Combat Reflexes though. They can also augment their preexisting senses with advantages like Acute Senses and other sense based advantages.

As previously mentioned, Elduman descended Uncout may apply Costs ER, -5%, Costs FP, -10% (which may also be activated by paying ER), or Costs HP, -20% to their biokinesis abilities.

Fallen

Fallen do not normally have access to psionics, but can purchase an Unusual Background at character creation to gain access to them.

Fallen do not have access to biokinesis or psychokinesis. This is because they are dead things with no functioning biology and the crystalline material of their bodies is inert in terms of psionic energy. They do not possess psychokinesis because the innate talents of psionics that Fallen possessed prior to being transformed by The Bleak Tyrant burnt themselves out during the transformation from Elduman to Fallen. As the essence of the Elduman was bound irrevocably to existence, their psionic talents sort of fused their bodies together to maintain their physical presence and allow them to retain their physical body. Without this extinguishing of their psychokinetic abilities, the bodies of the Fallen would have crumbled instantly to bluish crystal dust and they would have become incorporeal spirit creatures. Which is the eventual fate of all Fallen.

Fallen may purchase a version of the Leech advantage. This version of the Leech advantage only functions against sentient creatures and has the Malediction 1, +100%; Ranged, +40%; Steal IQ, +300%; Reduced Range: 1/5, -20%; Telepathy, -5%; Only Heals ER, -20%. The cost comes out to 124 points for level 1 + 20 points/level. Super expensive. But also super fucking cool. They can literally eat your mind to fuel their psionic abilities.

Fallen, being undead creatures, have no FP. So to use psionics, they must have an Energy Reserve (Psionics). They, unlike the Elduman, may apply the Special Recharge: Leech, -70% limitation to their Energy Reserve, reducing the cost of their Energy Reserve to 1 character point per point of ER. Woo! This restricts it to being recharged only by the use of their Leech ability though, so it may or may not be worth it. Probably not. That version of Leech is super expensive.

Rankethlek

Rankethlek, being creatures of unliving metal, do not have access to biokinesis. They also must use an Energy Reserve to power their powers, so any activated abilities need the Costs ER, -5% limitation.

Rankethlek only have one unique ability. They can use their psychokinesis to wield electricity themed psionic powers. To do so, such a power must have the Environmental: Only When Electricity Is Already Present, +0% limitation. This is a zero value limitation because the lightning heart of the Rankethlek is always present wherever they are. They would be dead if it weren't. Such lightning powers may have the Costs HP, -20% limitation applied to them. This is used to reflect that the Rankethlek is fueling the power with the equivalent of their lifeforce and is possibly damaging their lightning heart by putting abnormal stress on it. It isn't mandatory, but it's an option.

So that's pretty much psionics and stuff, or at least the rough draft of this version of psionics. I still need to hash out a thing or two about esp nonsense, but I'm sure that will be quickly resolved.

There's one issue left to figure out, how to make psionics better at something than sorcery and to determine what that should be. How to make them better though. Should it be something innate, or an option. Oh. Cary is going to like this. Maybe. Probably. Hehe.

Psionic characters that achieve a talent level of 4 or higher with psionic powers may apply the Cosmic limitation to some of those powers. So an Elduman with Psychokinetic Talent 4 could apply Cosmic (No Active Defense Roll, +300%) to simulate telekinetic strikes moving at the speed of thought and not allowing targets to dodge them. If you wanted to be nasty, you could throw on Cosmic (Ignore DR, +300%) as well. You could also apply Cosmic (Irresistible Attack, +300%) to Mind Control, so it wouldn't be protected from by Mind Shield. All kinds of nasty and unstoppable options.

GURPS Hekinoe Psionics tl;dr

• The Known World psionic races are Elduman, Elduman descended Uncout, Fallen, and Rankethlek.
• Psionics breaks down into four types: biokinesis (manipulation of the psionic character's body), extra sensory perception (using psionics to gain sensory input normally unavailable to the character), psychokinesis (using telekinetic force to interact with the physical world), and telepathy (using the psionic character's mind to affect or communicate with the minds of others). 
• Psionic abilities are directed by willpower and use Will as their controlling attribute when appropriate. When an Innate Attack is needed for a power, it uses the Gaze version but replaces DX with Will as the controlling attribute. 
• Each type of psionics has an associated talent that costs 5 points/level. Maximum level for normal characters is 4, ancient Elduman can possess up to 5 levels of each talent. 
• Psionic modifiers are -5% limitations, not 10% like in the GURPS Basic Set. Multiple psionic modifiers may be applied to a power, with GM approval, but the total limitation value cannot exceed -10%. Talent bonuses apply as normal, but add the value of the Talents together and divide the result by the number of applied talents and then round up for the applied modifier. 
• Psionic abilities with the same type limitation (esp, psychokinesis, etc) may be folded together as alternative abilities (GURPS Powers pg. 11) if the player wishes to do so.
• Psionic characters must have an Energy Reserve (Psionics) advantage of at least 1. 
• Most psionic powers will have the Costs ER, -5% limitation. Elduman may instead apply the Costs FP, -10%, or Costs HP, -20% limitation to their abilities. Elduman descended Uncout may apply Costs FP and Costs HP to their biokinesis abilities to reflect that they are pushing their bodies beyond their normal capabilities and it hurts and stuff.
• Unless it would be patently ridiculous (whatever that means), psionic powers must have the Low Signature enhancement. 
• Detecting psionics is done with Detect (Occasional: Psionics; ESP, -5%; Costs 1 ER/minute, -5%) [9]
• Psionics cannot interact directly with sorcery. Psionics could be used to detect fire and by extension sorcerously created fire, but not sorcery or sorcerous fire specifically. Psionics could protect from fire damage and by extension fire spell damage, but not specifically from fire damage from spells. 
• Each of the psionic races has some unique things they can do that nobody else psionic can. Hekinoe, now with 200% more unique snowflakery for players!
• At Talent level 4, a psionic character may apply certain versions of the Cosmic limitation to certain psionic abilities with GM permission and for the normal character point cost. 

Edit After The Effect: Yeah, Cary was right. There is a financial cost for using reality revision (psionic wish). Whoops. Evidently I only read the discipline, casting time, display, etc statblock and didn't actually ever reading the description of the power. Whoopsie. 

Donovan Yells At Nel (Incomplete)

So this was something I was working on months ago, during an RP where Donovan was yelling at Nel. I got this really amusing image of Donovan hosting a talk show, and this is what came of it. I found it slightly amusing, but I could never really go anywhere in my head with it. But here it is:

Donovan sits on a well upholstered leather chair, its empty twin next to him. The Elduman sits with his legs crossed. He stands. He's wearing a nicely cut grey suit, sapphire cufflinks at his wrists matching his unblinking eyes. Behind him in blocky white letters across a large field of blue is "Let's Talk"

An easy smile crosses his face and he leans towards us.

"Hey," he says.

After a pause, "I'm glad you could join us today. We have a special guest."

He holds a hand up, palm facing us and says, "Which isn't to say that all our guests aren't special. But our guest today is a good friend of mine, one I've known for years, one who's personal story I've been a part of. One I'm proud to be able to give this chance to have his time to speak."

Donovan begins clapping and says, "Fellow Talkers, let's have a round of applause for my friend Eran Jenevan."

::cue off screen clapping track::

Eran steps towards Donovan and wraps his overly numerous digits around Donovan's hand. Donovan places his free hand over the Sereth's and his own and gives it a good strong shake, a pleasant smile beaming on his face. He then gestures at the two chairs and the friends sit.

The Sereth is dressed in a rumpled black suit, he runs his fingers between his neck and collar and there's a slight sheen of sweat on his brow. As we zoom in on he and Donovan, we see burn scars across most of his exposed skin. Eran shifts in his seat several times until Donovan places a pale hand on his knee.

"Hey. I'm glad you could join me today. Thank you for having the courage to share your story with us all today."

Eran clears his throat and mutters mostly to his chest, "Uh, no problem, is there uh water. I'd really like some water."

Donovan moves his hand to Eran's chin and raises the Sereth's head so he's looking forward instead of down at the floor.

"It's ok. You're ok," now looking at us he says, "we're all ok."

::cue off camera clapping track::

Eran's cat eyes flick from Donovan to us and back to Donovan.

He says, "Yeah, ok. Sure. I'm ok. Yeah."

Donovan pats Eran's knee and then clasps his hands in his lap and says, "We sure had some times together, didn't we?"

Eran nods, "Yeah. Some stuff. Things. There were wolves. Undead. Demons. Nobody ever wanted to uh go after the last two and stuff."

Donovan continues, slightly interrupting Eran, "But today isn't about us, it's about you Eran."

He pauses before saying, "Eran, I want you to tell me about the black pyramid."

Eran gulps audibly and says to his chest, "Uh, there were some pirates, one had scars. Uh, two were twins. No one could keep their names straight. Not even, uh, that one guy we don't ever talk about."

Donovan puts a finger to Eran's lips.

"I know it's hard. But we're here for you. You are strong and independent and this is your time."

Eran's eyes zero in on the Elduman's finger on his lips. The Elduman grins apologetically and clasps his hands in his lap again.

"There were uh Sereth bodies all over the place. Old bodies with bows and arrows and stuff. There were ones with guns. Long rifles, newer models and older and stuff. It was weird."

Donovan looks at us, "I can imagine your shock. No one but the pirates knew of Orcunraytrel and you come upon Sereth that had been dead for decades. How did it make you feel? Here."

Donovan faces Eran now and taps a pale finger to the Sereth's chest.

Eran's eyes flick down to his chest as Donovan slowly, almost reluctantly removes his finger and returns the hand to his lap. 

Eran says, "Uhhh..."

Donovan smiles a blinding smile and gives a friendly nod.

"It was uh weird, yeah. Weird."

He gives a nod, looking for confirmation from Donovan. The Elduman nods.

"Weird. But I uh didn't really pay much attention to it. There were illusions, and a trap. Yeah the trap. A wall came flying at me for no reason I could figure out an uh..."

He trails off.

Donovan pipes up, "And Karl..."

"Oh, yeah, it uh knocked Karl into some lava. He was upset about that."

Donovan looks at us and say, "I can understand that, but you were dealing with unfathomable things. How could he expect you to watch your footing while trying to process the presence of your people in Orcunraytrel?"

"Yeah. Sure. That uh yeah, never came up."

Donovan nods several times and Eran does the same, remaining silent as he does so.

"And then..." says the Elduman.

"Oh, well yeah, we killed some shadow statue thing and found this pool of glowing water and then we found a big metal coffin with someone inside and then we killed those twins and then we left."

"What happened then?"

"Well, Gob and uh Karl went all crazy about the writing on the pyramid and stuff. I guess it was kinda like the language the Sereth and Vyanth used before they separated into two races. I didn't even know that was a thing."

"How could you be expected to? These are things from the distant past, and your simple race doesn't write anything down, they just keep oral histories. You couldn't be expected to understand what was to come next."

"Uh yeah. That. I guess uh Gob and Karl uh figured out that the writing was a list of dead and there was more writing. It was like a challenge to Sereth to come and free someone important or something."

Donovan lays a hand on Eran's knee, "Did you suspect then that it was the Briar King within the pyramid?"

Eran shakes his head, "No."

"Go on."

"Well, uh, we uh went in and we opened up the coffin and we found this guy, Andorian. A Nel."

Donovan nods and hisses out, "Yes. A Nel. Then?"

"Well uh, he thanked us for freeing him and stuff and said he was one of the Briar Kings and offered everyone boons. He did stuff to uh you and Karl and made Karrak immortal or something, which we never proved. So you know, for all uh Karrak knows, he's not immortal. No one ever checked. I offered, like thirty times, but he would never let me check."

"We're you shocked or surprised at all? This knowledge of a second Briar King, one who is alive and in front of you no less, on top of discovering your people had been coming to Orcunraytrel for decades. You had to be reeling? Revelation after revelation."

"Nope."

Donovan nods to and leans forward in his seat and takes on a classic thinker's pose as he gazes unblinkingly at Eran. 

"Eran, did Andorian grant you a boon?"

"Uh yeah. He even offered one to Gob."

"What was your boon Eran?"

"I uh told him to go tell my family I was uh ok and stuff."

"Did he have a problem with that?"

"Uh no, not then."

"Not then. Indeed."

"Yeah..."

"Are you ok, Eran? Are you ready to continue?"

"Uh yeah."

"Good," the Elduman puts a hand on Eran's knee, "I want you to stop if it gets to be too much. Ok?"

"Uh yeah."

Donovan sits back in his chair and steeples his fingers before asking, "What happened when you got back to the fort?"

Eran gulps audibly and says, "Well, uh, the Andorian guy kept showing up at the tower."

Donovan smiles sadly, "Eran, you're safe here, this is your time. You can say as much as you want."

Eran mumbles something towards his chest.

"Eran. This. Is. Your. Time. You have the power here. You have the power to face him and all he did to you. You can throw open all the doors, expose everything to the light of day. Or you can leave them as they are. Hidden. Your pain behind locked doors with only you to bear it. We only go as far as you want, Eran. You're in control here. You say what you want to say today."

Eran mumbles more at his chest.

"But say it to our friends."

Eran's cat eyes flick vaguely towards us and then back to Donovan.

"He followed me. Everywhere. He kept asking questions about me, the Sereth, Orcunraytrel. He had so many questions. He wanted to know about what the Sereth had been up to for the past few thousand years. He asked about supernatural creatures in Orcunraytrel."

"Why?"

"I uh couldn't ever figure it out. I mean, why would I know more than him? He'd been there for thousands of years, and we never knew shit about anything. We kept killing Asosans for money and stuff. And boars in the woods. I think. I didn't know anything about supernatural entities. I'm a hunter."

"What was he expecting from you? Did he ever say?"

"He said he wanted my help finding Evandor."

"The other Briar King?"

Eran nods, "Yeah, uh, he said Evandor and he were the Briar Kings. He said Evandor would have followed him to Orcunraytrel when they abandoned the Sereth. He said Evandor liked to play games with mortals and uh he would be hanging around, playing games with them, and uh pretending to be a supernatural creature."

"Would it be safe to say you were stressed out by all the attention Andorian was giving you?"

Eran nods.

Donovan's eyes a brimming with compassion as he reaches out a hand and grips Eran's hand tightly, "Was his attention unwanted?"

Eran's eyes brim with unshed tears as he nods.

"How did you cope with it?"

Eran clears his throat and says, "I uh began uh master debating. Maybe three or four times a day, usually while I was out on patrol, but sometimes in the tower when everyone was asleep. Or awake. Whenever really."

Donovan squeezes Eran's hand and asks, "Did Andorian watch you while you did?"

Eran lets out a sob and nods.