Cthulhu Rules

I’m pretty much a gaming whore.  I love games.  However, as life has moved on and things have demanded my attention more and more like a responsible job and children I find myself less willing to learn new ones.  I used to buy games fully knowing I would never play them but now I at least want usable stuff from them.  In the last year I’ve bought Cthulhu Tech and Trail of Cthulhu for example for these purposes.  I really want the Call of Cthulhu 6th edition hardback too.  (See a theme?)

Oh, and I love some Cthulhu in my D&D and World of Darkness.  The fact that most Cthulhian gaming is as much pulp as Lovecraft doesn’t bother me in the least though I think I try to inject a bit more Lovecraft than is often the default.  Anyway, before this becomes a Cthulhu gaming blog (which has merit in it’s own right) I want to mention Pathfinder.

My lack of posting the last two weeks is mostly because the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game hardback came in the mail to me.  And yes, I love it.  It is everything that World of Darkness isn’t to me, a polar opposite and one of the few games along with Shadowrun and World of Darkness that I’m willing to invest in for gaming right now.  See, despite my fan boy like willingness to buy virtually everything with WoD on it my slavish devotion has limits.  I’m looking for boundaries in games at this point.  For example, Shadowrun.  I have in the hardbacks I now own for Shadowrun 4th edition everything I feel like I want to run Shadowrun and frankly I’m not particularly interested in buying any more.  I’m looking for something much the same in Pathfinder.  I have a love for D&D that isn’t rationale but based on childhood pleasures and to me Paizo’s Pathfinder is D&D in spirit far more than the actual D&D 4th Edition is.  This isn’t to slam 4th Edition.  I think its a fine game.  Its just not a game I’m personally interested in though if I had buddies that wanted to play I’d be glad to make a character and I’m sure I would enjoy playing with them.  WW has managed to continue to put out books that interest me in having them be part of a my ‘core’ collection.  A very large core at this point.

So, I am working on a blog for Pathfinder support tentatively called Paths in the Sand.  It will chronicle my obsession with mythic arabian fantasy gaming and I may make some world building project similar to Khallam for it.  I need to check terms of use again but I may need to get Paizo’s approval before using any branding elements and so on.  They have a community license.  I will post the link here when I’m ready and I will be back with more WoD posts very soon including some ideas for Cthulhu in the World of Darkness.

Progenitor (4 point merit)
Prerequisites: Vampire, Blood Potency 4

Effect: Some kindred are unsatisfied creating childer that will suffer the ravages of being babes among the wolves.  Indeed, legends are filled with stories of those who are embraced and not only are suffused with the power of the undead but are more powerful than their peers by virtue of being the childer of an elder.  Indeed, some elders do know how to pass on the thickness of their kindred vitae to childer.  Indeed, some take pride in this talent as they are appalled by the idea that all are created equal.  Some childer of elders are even given special accord rightly or not under the assumption that they might have some of this power.  Still, the increased vitae given by this power is significant but the lack of practical knowledge of the requiem and lack of disciplines to accompany it usually means that a progeny may get themselves into proportionate trouble.

Vampire created beyond Blood Potency 2 get increasingly rare so while a Blood Potency 5 neonate is possible with this power it is nearly unheard of due not only to the risk but the rarity of vampires powerful enough to do it.

The Progenitor talent allows for the creation of progeny of Blood Potencies 2, 3, 4 or 5 rather than 1.  Each blood potency requires a sire of a Blood Potency at least twice that they are creating, the investment of six points of vitae into the thickening of the childe’s per point of childe’s Blood Potency beyond the first, one dot of will power per point of Blood Potency and one aggravated wound per  point of Blood Potency beyond 1. So, for example, if an elder wants to create a childer with a Blood Potency of 3, this would require that the elder have Blood Potency 6, invest 12 points of Vitae, sacrifice 3 willpower dots and suffer 2 aggravated wounds.
The creation of such childer is dangerous to the elder but also can bring them great prestige.

Domains where this talent is known often have laws forbidding its use without the Prince’s explicit approval.  The knowledge of this talent is uncommon even among elders and is only in common knowledge at all in larger Ordo Dracul and Invictus domains.

The art above is from www.jasonchanart.com – I ran across his site while browsing Google images.  The cropped version here is a actually a wonderful larger piece.  Go check out his art and his prints for sale.

First, my thanks to Howlin, a poster on the White Wolf forums who posted his Coil of Progeny which I used as the basis of mine very closely.  His ideas were very close to my own (scarily so) and his write up was very strong.  So, why re-invent what has already been well made?  The Coil of Progeny you will see below has seen changes but not to ‘fix’ it but reflect what I wanted differently from it and limit to only four ranks.

In Khallam, Byron is the only master of this coil and even lower ranks are closely protected knowledge.  They are not secret at all, in fact knowledge of this coil grants great rank and puts kindred in a perilous position.  Dragons should never withhold knowledge of a coil but they do routinely.  That is the nature of the danse macabre.  If a Dragon exhibits knowledge of this coil others will also assume that they have a relationship with Byron.

First Tier: Will of the Blood
The vampire may create and maintain Ghouls without spending willpower.  Ghouls created by the vampire must still spend willpower to maintain themselves, but the vampire can maintain them with a mere thought, and no expenditure beyond the Ghoul’s blood requirements.

[no changes other than fixing spelling]

Second Tier: Strengthen the Bloodline
If the vampire is a member of a bloodline, he may optionally chose to embrace his childe directly into the bloodline, rather than the childe needing to willfully activate the bloodline at blood potency 2 with a willpower dot expenditure.

[no changes other than fixing spelling]

Third Tier: Infectious Soul
Reduces the cost of performing the Embrace from a willpower dot to a willpower point.

[no changes other than fixing spelling]

Fourth Tier: Beyond Clan
Vampire may embrace his Childer into any clan who’s blood he committed diablerie on recently enough that the death would still show on his aura (it doesn’t have to show if they have the ability to hide it, it simply has to be in that time frame].  Further, the effects of his blood in creating ghouls or mandragora can be likewise be revectored to work as though the vampire were a member of that clan (changing what is “in clan” for a ghoul, or what specific effects mandrake lacroma produces).  Such childer however often show an aptitude for joining bloodlines or developing disciplines that have affinities for their sire’s true clan.  So, for example, a a Gangrel who uses this power to create a Ventrue childer might find that the Ventrue has an affinity for joining the Adrestoi bloodline or developing the Protean discipline.

[I fixed spelling and changed the rule for cross clan embrace from 'blood he has tasted' to the verbiage involving diablerie and added the last two sentences.]

Neverwhere.  City of Lost Children.  Diadem.  Perdido Street Station.  Buffy.

These are the things I’m thinking about as my wife brings me a cup of espresso and my almost three year old hangs onto my arm and Max and Ruby plays on the TV.

I’ve been pondering Justin Achilli’s post about his idea for a World of Darkness setting called Diadem.  Influences are things like Neverwhere, the City of Lost Children and Perdido Street Station.  And it brings what I’ve been doing with Khallam into doubt.  To be honest those things are strengths of mine, especially settings like the City of Lost Children where the absurd is sharp and thick like maple syrup on an antique knife.  And a setting like Perdido Street Station’s New Crobuzon … oh yeah.

But, this is a role playing game.  Its not literature.  The underworld of Neverwhere can have convienences that players would question too far, New Crobozun only has to have the streets the author knows the characters will walk down and the City of Lost Children doesn’t have the one player who breaks the poetic mood.  Still, I’m good at building mood and improvising is a definite strenth.

But more fundamental perhaps is the problem of expectation.  One reason I’ve never strayed far from the ‘our world on the surface’ standard of the WoD is that unlike characters players have to make choices that are their’s and aren’t part of that world, they need something to go on, some set of expected standards.  Sure, many role playing games throw these out the window but one reason I like the WoD is that they are there – you can empathize and put yourself in that scenario.

But, what about Buffy?  I love the prom night episode where it becomes clear that despite all the normal attempts of people to ignore the wierdness of the world that they really know what is going on.  Perhaps some element of that, a hidden type of City of Lost Children feeling, hidden, but close enough that people know something is wrong.  Hunters become inevitable there I think, something I’ve stayed away from in Khallam mostly because its hard to imagine Byron tolerating them.  Unless they could be made useful.  But that would be a dangerous game.

I definitely have more thinking to do.

http://www.justinachilli.com/blog/2009/7/9/world-of-darkness-diadem.html

I’m tempted to copy the whole thing here just in case anything were to happen to his blog.  I don’t think WW would produce this book as it doesn’t seem to fit into the cosmos they’re building but they should.

Malkav vs. Malkov

About five years ago White Wolf took a game premise (that you play the monster) that they had built over over a long time in the World of Darkness and rebooted it.  When the Vampire : the Requiem came out one of the first things on every pair of lips (or typed at the keyboard was) who made the cut.  The Ventrue, Nosferatu, and Gangrel were still clans.  They were joined by the Daeva (Toreador like but broader in concept) and Mekhet (new but could incorporate a number of older ideas).  The Toreador themselves showed up as a bloodline in the back showing a narrower interpretation of the Daeva as well as the Brujah (surprisingly ignored for their oWoD popularity) and the Malkovians.

Not Malkavians, but Malkovians.

The shit storm erupted.

I was there throwing shit myself.

So, what the fuck matters about an o instead of an a?

Well, it turns out that many of us had an irrational fondness for our dear clan Malkavian and although the new Ventrue Malkovian bloodline had all the signature disciplines and were loons they lacked the flavor and the name.  And gamers of all stripes should know that there is power in a name.  Years later they made up for it and the Malkavians returned in the Ventrue clanbook Lords Over the Damned.

When we didn’t have Malkavians in the nWoD but I had embraced the new setting I had decided to have a mental patient in the local asylum, a kindred, who insisted he was a Malkavian, not Malkovian and strangely had abilities no one had seen before (Dementiation).  Now, I don’t mind houseruling against the canon but try to keep it sparse because I think published materials should, in general, be a common ground of agreement between Storyteller and player with the understanding that the Storyteller sets some boundaries such as the inclusion of optional bloodlines from supplements and the like.  However, having a single Malkavian that claimed the whole universe ended and then he woke up here and has Demnetation … well, that’s not adding but rather just pointless when they added it all back in.

I’m not complaining mind you.  I like having it back in.  And I will be adding some characters to take advantage of it.  Still, its odd that its taken me this long to get around to it.  Tegen is a Ventrue and one of the three leaders of Khallam and frankly madness is central to the nWoD in a way that it wasn’t to the oWoD.  In the oWoD a few were not just insane but bat shit loco.  The Malkavians.  The Black Spiral Dancers.  Did anyone really try to do the understated madman trying to control his madness in the old World of Darkness?  Not many.  They exalted in the extremes of madness and White Wolf responded with things like Broken Time and the Malkavian Madness Network.  The Network is in a way even eluded to in Lords Over the Damned.

And while a fun idea before I’m looking even more now to integrating that same material with the new Malkavians.  They are quite literally a crack in the mirror of the nWoD facing the oWoD and I like that … a broken mirror.

And the Ventrue are mad fuckers.  Madness is core now thanks to the humanity and derangements system.  Any vampire with a bit of bad luck can be a riddled mess of neurotic behaviors.  Ventrue even more likely so.  And Malkovians?

Ah, so.

Well, Malkovians have been a bit ignored thanks to White Wolf ‘fixing’ things with the Malkavians.  But that’s how a broken mirror is, it’s cracks can twist around.  I’m looking forward to bringing the Malkovians back now.  Are they or aren’t they?  Surely, someone in the world has noticed the odd coincidents of names though the text ignores it.

So, I’ll part with this while I plan for Tegen and his fellow Ventrue of Khallam (or at least the upper crust).  I ditched the Malkovian bloodline weakness in V:tR in favor of the Julii clan one in Requiem for Rome.  Why?  Because combined with the Ventrue clan weakness is further presses that idea of the blood succumbing to madness and the connection between madness and lost humanity.  And furthering the Ventrue connection to the Julii fits in perfectly for my idea of their history – which will be central to an NPC as well of course.

This post requires the Reliquaries book to make sense of.  You are warned.

Thirty Silver Coins

Somewhere someone finds an old coin.  It may be a clear Roman silver denarius.  It may be a tarnished and blackened disc that is barely recognizable as metal.  Regardless the coin is oddly cold to the touch, as if it had just been removed from a freezer.  Despite that it feels comfortable as if something had just slipped loose from their mind, something bothering them.  And then the voice appears.  Rough or kind, sly or direct, it varies with the coin but consistent.  Each coin is different.  The legend is that Judas Iscariot betrayed his brethern and fled with thirty silver coins.  he died alone in a field, his guts exploded and his coins scattered as they fell.  Some say he rose himself damned, while his coins were gathered by a magician who bound thirty damned souls or thirty fallen angels into them.  Others laugh at this.  Thirty?  How many have really been seen?  A dozen at most?  Well, some are held by the church.  The arguments can persist for hours as obscure texts are cited and references made to odd cults.  And the arguments are fairly friendly, a recurring thing among antiquarians familiar with the dark items of the world.  They don’t laugh if they find one though.

The entities in the silver coins may or may not be angels but they are creatures of pure intellect, bound to the coins and unable to effect the world around them except through the will of their owner.  Once touched with the skin the coin may speak to the owner through a psychic link by implanting a part of its own consciousness in the mind and brain of its owner.  After that the consciousness has all of its victim’s lifetime to teach them, to convince them to take up the coin and invite in the full awareness of that entity.  What follows are two separate sets of power.  One is for a coin that has been touched, where the entity is trying to corrupt the wielder.  Alone that is a powerful artifact.  Most who have touched a coin can hope for nothing more than by pure will power to ignore the voice, the voice of an ancient tempter who knows human nature and its variants well.  Time tends to favor the one who knows how to manipulate virtue as well as vice and blurs the line.

Reward Temptation – This power has no chance of failure with the coin, it always succeeds with the coin’s awareness bolstering the wielde’rs though an exceptional success only occurs on the wielder’s own roll.  The degeneration that this encourages certainly helps when they eventually succumb and fully take up the coin.  And the coin does deliver power though it may not fully explain the cost.

Soul Inheritance – This power offers much of the intangible temptation to the coin holder as it allows them great skill in one area.  Which category of skills can be boosted depends upon the coin, not the wielder and most are mental though a few are social or physical.  Ultimately, those can increase physical skills are the least dangerous and mental the most.  Many of the coins can teach very obscure magical knowledge if mental skills are their forte through their bonuses.  Many coin holders have gained skills as sorcerers, alchemists, body thieves, skin changers and more.  Unsurprisingly for those who value their own self above all else they often seek a way for immortality quickly.

Is the voice of the coin a damned magician, an ifreet or a fallen angel?  Answers have varied but all those listed are skilled liars and they may not even know themselves.  It is rumored that a soul fully corrupted by the coin becomes one with it, knows all its secrets and bound to join it before death.  Such a soul if redeemed would know how to destroy it but by then they do not want redemption.  Only a wielder who out of virtue willingly abandons the coin can be free it of it and although cases have been documented they are also rare and none fully corrupted have.  No established magic can destroy the coins though legends claim that each does have a bane.

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This entry was inspired by the Order of the Blackened Denarius from The Dresden Files.  However, I took the coins in a different direction and was inspired to make them a more subtle bit of shadow in the world, an enabler rather than being raw vibrant power unlike those Harry Dresden has to face.

The Hombyr Index (relic rating 4)

Durability 1, Size 2, Structure 2

Description: This massive tome, measures larger than an unabridged dictionary at 50 square centimeters on each side and nearly 25 centimeters thick.  The binding and paper are those typical of 19th century professional book making and the cover is cured deer leather.  Although the pages are obviously worn and old, bearing numerous markings of smudged fingers, exposure to light, even a few scratches and rubbed ink the pages are not brittle, everything is legible, and the binding is strong.  It’s language is English and someone with experience might notice some conventions that betray 19th century scholarship.  The title page reads, in the same text as the rest of the book, “An Index of Specialized Bibliographic and Cartographic Materials of the Special Collections Library of the University of London with Notations and Additions.”  The verso gives a publication date of 1878, no publisher and lists “Robert Hombyr” as the editor.

Background: According to legend the Hombyr Index was compiled by a librarian at the University of London in the mid 19th century who was a member of many occult societies.  The librarian built an index of many obscure occult works along with summaries and notations to aid in his research.  He also left open pages and long blank spaces to add more notes as he worked after having it printed.  His last act before he died was to type it himself on a type writer he had built specifically to the task with many odd keys to accommodate the specials sigils he sometimes needed.  According to legend he even attended art classes to develop the skill to do any needed illustrations himself.  He then learned how to bind the book himself and left additional space left for someone else to add to it.  He died within weeks peacefully in his sleep from no obvious source but stress from a handful of chronic ailments and age (he was 78) were cited.

The book was left to the the special collections library who added it to the ready reference shelf.  Within a few years the book had disappeared and next appeared in the 1910s in New York City.  From there it has shown up twice more.  It has been sold, stolen and inherited.  Every owner has expanded it and it always seems to have more room and oddly over time each owner’s hand writing slowly evolves to almost exactly match the odd typewriter strikes of the original work.  Many have noted that small tears and ink spills that impair the text seem to repair themselves over time.  The more morbid believe that it may take a price from its owner to keep itself healthy.  Certainly many owners have complained of odd allergies and aches after coming into possession of the tome.

Storytelling: The Hombyr Index is not a grotesque boon of power.  If anything it’s power is actually fairly subtle in that it simply aids in research but is exhausting to use.  However, demand for it is broad from mages researching rotes to vampires researching wyrm nests to changelings seeking a keeper’s bane to werewolves seeking understanding of the borderlands – knowledge is power.  A current owner isn’t necessarily a mystic though.  The book could have been inherited less interested in its mystic value than its fiscal worth or perhaps is unaware entirely.  Among mystic circles its value multiplies with the resources of those who own it, meaning that it is even more valuable to someone who has amassed a great library than a neonate.  This means that a powerful mage or leader of an occult community could have a lot to gain from taking it or coming to a complimentary arrangement with a younger member of the community.

Effect: Enhance Research, Wits + Academics.

The Hombyr Index is a useful compliment to any other research materials just as any added index is but a bit more.  Oddly no matter how obscure the work, the language, or publication the Index has entries for it.  Even new books are somehow in it.  As a result it has the effect of doubling the bonus of any related research materials.  Effectively any library that grants a bonus to a supernatural or magical research roll is doubled to a maximum of +4 by someone using the Hombyr Index.  This does not aid in the researching of new rotes, blood sorceries or other magics but at the Storyteller’s discretion may give half the bonus rounded up based on aiding in related research if not the magic itself.  Even magical tomes are indexed in the Hombyr Index though most of the writers did not understand the magical principles and thus there are many more omissions and failures there.  Additionally, use of the Index will cut any extended time research rolls in half that primarily use bibliographic or cartographic data as their basis.  Many maps are cited as well and in the last thirty years possessors have begun adding electronic notations citing databases and web sites as well as the traditional serials and monographs.

Cost: 2 Willpower + 2 Bashing Damage.  The index is a massive and obscure work though very useful and it takes intense concentration (willpower) to use it.  This intense concentration does in fact cause its own physical stress to match the mental stress.

If the book is ever damaged it will drain health from its owner to repair itself, the damage manifesting as odd allergic attacks and arthritic pains.  Some less careful owners find this to be a greater problem than others do.

Here Jim is in all his mechanical glory.  I used material from Savage and Macabre, Ancient Mysteries, The Rage, Armory, Armory Reload, Shadows of Mexico, Vampire the Requiem and World of Darkness to build this character.  Aside from the issue of a character undergoing cyclical torpor to keep his blood potency down and maintain his humanity it was also interesting to build a combat monster with restraint, who had once been a shaman and who fought like a werewolf as that was who he learned combat from.

If I have time I will post about his spirit totem and a later version of what Jim might look like if he recruits a new pack, has the benefits of a totem (currently Eyes Among the Stars is withholding his favor until Jim accomplishes some tasks) and the pack tactics that could come from that.  But I’m going to do some new posts first with some other ideas.

For more info look in these posts as well:
About Jim http://khallam.heyokastudios.net/?p=157
History http://khallam.heyokastudios.net/?p=146
Dire-Wolf Devotion http://khallam.heyokastudios.net/?p=160

Vampire Stat Template

Clan: Gangrel
Bloodline: Dead Wolves
Covenant: none
Embrace: ?
Apparent Age: 22

Mental: Intelligence 3, Wits 4, Resolve 5
Physical: Strength 5, Dexterity 5, Stamina 5
Social: Presence 2, Manipulation 2, Composure 4

Mental Skills: Academics 1, Investigation (Dreams) 2, Medicine 2, Occult (Spirits, Werewolves) 4, Science 1
Physical Skills: Athletics (Running) 4, Brawl (Claws) 5, Drive 1, Stealth (Darkness) 5, Survival (Tracking) 4
Social Skills: Animal Ken (Birds, Wolves) 2, Expression (Oration) 3, Intimidation 3, Persuasion (Negotiate) 2, Socialize 2, Subterfuge (Hiding Emotions) 3

Merits: English 2, Spanish 2, Status City 3, Brawling Dodge, Combat Style (Talon and Fang) 5, Combat Style (Evasive Striking) 5, Tenacious Consciousness, Swarm Mind (Rat), Swarm Mind (Bat)

Willpower: 9
Humanity: 4
Virtue: Fortitude
Vice: Lust (for enacting the sensations of his life)
Health: 10
Initiative: 9
Defense: 4
Speed: 15
Size: 5

Blood Potency: 4
Vitae/per Turn: 13/2
Disciplines: Auspex 5, Celerity 3, Vigor 4, Animalism 4, Sublunario 4 [all moon phases], Resilience 5, Protean 5 [2: water, wood, natural stone, processed stone, natural soil; 4: wolf, bat, rat, raven, coyote, owl]
Devotions: Gargoyle’s Watch, Languar’s Denial, Wolf-Man, Dire-Wolf, Instantaneous Transformation, Partial Transformation

Dire Wolf (Protean 4 [wolf form], Resilience 2, Vigor 2)

Jim staged a guerrilla war against werewolves for centuries.  In full war form his strategy was simple – avoid them, and let their rage run out.  However, very often the wolves fought in urshul form with no human society to encourage them to stay in humanoid form.  Jim’s solution was simple – he countered by developing a discipline that built on his Protean’s wolf form to give himself a counter part to an urshul form.

Cost: 1 Vitae (in addition to the base cost for Protean 4, so 2 Vitae total)
Dice Pool: no roll necessary
Action: Instant

The cost of Dire Wolf can be spent in 1 round or spread out over several if the vampire can not spend 2 vitae in a single round but it also prolongs the transformation.  The Dire Wolf form lasts for a full scene and interacts with other disciplines and devotions just as Protean 4 would.  The Dire Wolf is usually one size larger than the vampire themselves (size 7 total) and will gain two extra temporary health boxes in addition to three bonus perception dice, +1 lethal bite attack, a +1 lethal claws attack, may make a bite attack without grappling a foe and doubles the character’s speed.  In the modern nights however this form is obviously unnatural and the vampire does not have a lupine’s advantage of lunacy to protect it from random onlookers.

Kindred interested in surviving are recommended to also activate any vigor, resilience and any celerity they have if they are battling werewolves.

This power costs 24 experience points to learn.