RPG Resources

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ADVENTURE: RETURN THE SLABS

This adventure is intended as a one-off and can be freely inserted as an interstitial adventure or run as a standalone game. There is the assumption of 3-6 players, though slight modifications can be made to run it with only two or more than six. The nature of this game heavily relies on it being played in-person, or with accommodations being made to inform other players of when their fellows are getting secret information (but not the information itself, of course). Tell players when you start that any cards you hand out are to remain secret unless you explicitly state otherwise. THE GOAL This adventure hinges on secrets within the party and the party instinctively not trusting one another. Even if they do trust one another, the end goal is not immediately clear. When the party finds the Slabs, their goal becomes "return the slabs to their respective statues". Until they do so, they suffer the curses each Slab imparts. THE SETUP Here are some suggestions for what could happen to open this adventure:

The party is staying at an inn or halfway house and hears a fight in the room next door or the common area.

The party happens upon a dig, tomb, or other hidden ancient place that has been recently unearthed or opened. (If this scenario is picked, it may be that the Statues are actually in this location - the slabs have to have been removed from them)

The party is called by one of the victims (see immediately below) to act as bodyguards for a valuable treasure that the hiring victim is convinced will lead to his fellows trying to kill him for it.

The adventurers have to come across a rather grisly scene of another set of adventurers, researchers, or archeologists that have killed one another. The number of bodies is unimportant and the natures of their death are flavor text, but it is clear from a rudimentary examination that they all managed to kill one another. What really happened is that the Harm Slab managed to play upon the dead group's paranoia and they killed one another over possession of the slabs.

When the party searches the room, they all manage to independently find a small Slab - small enough to fit in one's palm - that looks valuable. Determine who gets which Slab either according to your GM instincts or decide randomly. Six slabs are suggested, only the first two are required. For more intrigue, you may choose to allow some characters to have more than one Slab or some characters to lack a Slab entirely. When party members find these, give them a note card that has the text corresponding to the Slab below. THE SLABS Generally, the slabs are about 6 x 8 x 0.5 inches, and made out of heavy, valuable metals. They are also encrusted with a variety of gems that enhance their value. For each slab, any appraisal places their value at about 1,000 to 2,000gp each. Checking the slabs for a magical presence reveals nothing, as they are old enough that they are in tune with magical background noise. When a party member picks up a slab, hand them this note card:

"THIS IS A SECRET ITEM. You have found a small Slab that appears somewhat valuable. While you relish the find, a sudden, instinctive thought enters your mind: 'This mustn't fall into the wrong hands.' Perhaps the other party members would have it out for you if they knew you had this..."

THE PROBLEM The deal is that the slabs are cursed, as described below. Each curse affects the party member holding it the most, although each Slab can "reach out" and affect other party members that do not possess this slab. It is your job as GM in this adventure to fuck with the party's respect and trust of one another - in-game, of course - in order to play up the effects of the slabs. The only two slabs you must use are the HARM and HARMONY slabs. The other ones are optional, and it is recommended you assign one Slab to each adventurer based on that character's personality.

HARM: This Slab causes outbursts of violence in those nearby, even if they are not aware of the Slab's presence. Tempers flare, bystanders become aggressive, and simple chats can quickly become hostile confrontations. To play this slab's actions, randomly slip party members note cards like the following when appropriate:

It looks like X has unbuckled his scabbard. Why are they so keen to draw blades among us?

You realize X could have an ulterior motive: Have they found out about your slab? Are they resentful for not sharing the wealth? It looks like they're getting ready to ambush you at the nearest opportune moment.

Almost too late, you realize X has a hidden weapon readied and means to strike you down!

HARMONY: This Slab is the unifying force for the other slabs, and actively works to return them to the Statues. This Slab should be played sporadically when you need to nudge the party towards deducing the goal of the adventure. To play this slab's actions, randomly slip party members note cards like the following when appropriate:

Surely there is a peaceable way to resolve this confrontation.

You don't feel like yourself. What's causing these strange feelings?

Something is wrong here. Everyone is at each other's throats even if it's not overt, but why?

CREED: This Slab causes ideological rigor. When party members disagree with one another, especially on what course of action to take, slip both party members notes telling them that they are correct in their line of thinking. This disagreement can readily invoke the HARM slab.

GREED: This Slab enhances the greed of party members and causes kleptomania. When playing this slab's effects, slip notes to party members describing "loot" they find lying around any civilized area they may travel through. In actuality, this "loot" is other people's property, but is ambiguous enough that it appears to be lost or otherwise up for grabs.

RUST: This Slab degrades equipment. At random opportune moments, slip players notes saying that pieces of their gear have broken, that some of their items have gone missing, or tell them item spontaneously fail to function when they try to use them. This can readily play into the HARM slab, as you can pin the blame for the degradation on other party member's sabotage.

DUST: This Slab degrades the party physically. The nominal use for this is to spontaneously poison party members, but you can use disease, charms or other mind-altering effects, or other things that affect the mind or body's function. This can readily play into the HARM slab, as you can pin the blame for all but one of the party members being poisoned on the only unpoisoned member. Slip party members cards when they feel the negative effects of this slab.

REND: This Slab actively causes NPCs of all kinds - monsters, bounty hunters, criminals, guards, vigilantes, rangers, wanderers - to mistakenly recognize the party as a hated group of foes. This leads to intense, direct confrontations, as opposed to the in-group turmoil caused by the HARM slab. It causes encounters that are sudden enough that the party hardly has a chance to explain themselves - not that they are even believed - and often lands the party in more trouble. After all, if guards mistake the party for criminals and the party fights back or flees, are they not guilty of at least that resistance?

FRIEND: This Slab causes NPCs to befriend the party. Unfortunately, it is the wrong kind of friends: monster, mobsters, righteous paladins (if the party is chaotic or evil), etc. - NPCs that are in complete opposition to the party's moral compass and goals. This isn't an intrinsically bad thing, except that other NPCs may see these new associations as proof of the party's true nature. Additionally, these "friends" will often cite the party as associates, masterminds of dastardly plans, or give them praise as scoundrels or do-gooders to screw with their reputation.

THE DISTRACTION Always assume the players are going to catch on that the cards are relevant to the plot of this adventure. As such, you can play up paranoia and throw off deductive reasoning by introducing junk cards. Here are some examples you can give out at random:

Look at the GM and raise your eyebrows.

Roll 3 d20s, and note down the results on this card. DO NOT TELL ANYONE OF THIS.

Everyone is probably out to get you.

Fold this card in half and place it under your character sheet. DENY THIS EXISTS TO ANYONE WHO ASKS.

Did you notice anything the last time someone got up from the table?

Get up from the table and leave the room in the next sixty seconds. Then, throw this note card in the trash. DENY EVER HAVING RECEIVED THIS.

Chuckle knowingly to yourself.

Crumple this card up and leave it visible in front of you. DO NOT LET ANYONE TOUCH THIS.

The player to your left's last note card had your name on it. Why would that be?

The player to your right is getting awfully suspicious of you. Why would that be?

Scratch & Sniff this card discreetly. DENY THAT THIS OCCURED.

Get out a spare character sheet and casually start rolling a new character. If anyone asks why you are doing this, only reply "No reason." When you are done, give this to the GM. (GM, when you get this, nod knowingly).

Yawn four times in the next minute. ACCUSE ANYONE WHO POINTS THIS OUT OF CAUSING THE PARTY'S PROBLEMS.

In the next minute, tell the party you have received a divine revelation about the current situation. State that you know what you're doing, and gain a +2 to your next d20 roll.

Make some kind of repetitive but quiet noise until someone mentions it to you. VEHEMENTLY DENY THIS OCCURED.

Write a note back to the GM containing your favorite flavor(s) of ice cream.

THE STATUES Eventually, through their own research, the HARMONY slab, or the help of an NPC, the party should figure out they need to return the slabs to the statues they were originally removed from. You should present one final challenge for the party in that the slabs have to be returned to the right statues. If they get something wrong, immediately invoke some of the slab's effects or summon monsters of Lawful demeanor to "set things right." Whether this means punching the party to death or helping them is up to you. Each statue should espouse the slab it goes with. An example HARM statue is made out of stone swords or other weapons, while a HARMONY statue could be similar to a blind lady justice. You make make these associations as obvious as you want, but making them more vague can increase the tension of this last task. When they get the slabs replaced correctly, they feel a collective weight lift off their shoulders, and may go about their uncursed lives, perhaps richer in experience than material wealth.

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RPG Dice Mechanic Systems

This is a list of the types of dice systems I’ve seen in the wild, as a study in variety. The titles for the mechanic systems were made up by me on the spot and should not be taken as authoritative.

Roll-over / Roll-under

Examples: D&D, D20 systems This is the most widely known system, given its roots in D&D. You have a standard dice for most abilities (usually the d20), where you roll [d20 + positive or negative modifiers] and compare it to a target number (DC, Difficulty Class, etc.) to see whether you succeed or not.

Percentile

Examples: Eclipse Phase, Warhammer 40k RPG This is a variant of Roll-over / Roll-under that uses d100 rolled against a target number. With a larger range, you can start tweaking the results: If you roll doubles (66, 77, 88 etc.) it’s a critical – whether it’s a critical success or critical failure depends on whether you beat the target number or not. If you exceed or miss the target number by some margin (say, 30 – rolling 65 when the target number is 35) you get an Exceptional success or failure, which may not be as good as a critical, but gets you a better or worse result.

Fudge

Examples: FATE Core, Dresden Files This is a system based on having skills at a set number and then rolling a number of “fudge dice”, adding them to the set number, and comparing that to the target number. An individual fudge die has three equally possible outcomes: +, 0, and -. You roll a certain number of fudge dice, add them together: a 4dF roll of + + 0 – becomes +1. As an example if you have a skill of 4 in Firearms, and your 4dF roll is +1, your result is 5 – compare that to the target number to see if you succeeded.

Pools – Total

Examples: Shadowrun This system uses a pool of dice that increases as aptitude increases. 4d6 is a more skilled character than 3d6. You add the dice and the total result is compared to a target number, possibly with additional modifiers. Modifiers might be static (-5 to result) or reduce the pool you can use (-1 die from pool).

Pools – Successes

Examples: World of Darkness, Burning Wheel This system also uses pools, but only counts some results as successes. World of Darkness, for example, uses d10s and treats 8–9–10 as successes. You get a pool of dice that grows with your aptitude, so a 6d10 character is going to have more successes on average (and a higher possible success count) than a 3d10 character. 10s are often treated as "exploding," where it counts as one success and you get to roll that dice again as long as 10 keeps coming up. The target number is actually a number of successes, where 1 is often "succesful" and 5+ successes is a critical success, or you just need to roll more successes than your opponent to beat them.

Skill Dice Scaling

Examples: Ironclaw This is essentially Roll-over / Roll-under, but instead of a modifier to your roll, your die changes. An unskilled character rolls 1d4s. A skilled character can roll 1d12. A very skill character rolls 1d12 + 1d4 or even higher. Compare the result of the roll, possibly with additional modifiers, to a target number.

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System Spotlight: Eclipse Phase

Eclipse Phase is an RPG system set in a high-tech future where Earth has fallen to the TITANs, a Skynet-esque collective of AIs that hit a technological singularity and wiped humanity off the planet, and then vanished. To quote the official site,

Players take part in a cross-faction secret network dubbed Firewall that is dedicated to counteracting "existential risks" — threats to the existence of transhumanity, whether they be biowar plagues, self-replicating nanoswarms, nuclear proliferation, terrorists with WMDs, net-breaking computer attacks, rogue AIs, alien encounters, or anything else that could drive an already decimated transhumanity to extinction.

Mechanics

Mechanically, the game runs on d100 with a few twists. You're always rolling to get under a target number (lower target number = harder task), with a few additional effects:

Critical hits occur whenever you roll doubles. 11, 22, 33, etc. Whether this is a critical success or a critical failure depends on if it's above or below the target number.

The Margin of Success or Margin of Failure (MoS/MoF) is important, especially in competitive tasks between two characters. It is the difference between the target number and what you rolled. For example, if the target is 45, and you roll 30, your Margin of Success (as you rolled lower, it succeeds) is 15.

Exceptional Successes and Exceptional Failures occur when the MoS or MoF is greater than 30, respectively.

This leads the game to being a bit heavier in the average calcuations a player has to perform per roll, but leads to interesting effects. If a player is disguised and an NPC guard is trying to see through said disguise, the guard's MoS for a Perception roll has to be greater than the player's MoS when they rolled to disguise themselves. This is intuitive, and adds an interesting dynamic to contested rolls.

Content

There's plenty to be had here, with six books and an adventure (Glory) out now: The Core book; Sunward and Rimward, covering the inner and outer solar system in great detail; Gatecrashing, which covers more exotic locations outside the solar system; and Panopticon and Transhuman, covering the technology and standard of living in the game world, as well as adding new player options.

Caveats

As a GM, the only gripe I personally have with the setting is that it's harder than, say, Pathfinder or D&D due to the ubiquitous nature of technology. Cameras and other sensors are omnipresent, which adds a layer of complexity to the mechanics of running a campaign. It's a learning curve, not necessarily something inherently heavy inside the game system. Additionally, newer players may be overwhelmed at the character options and the distinction between your ego (mind) and morph (body), and it may be hard to gauge what skills are important for their character.

Availability

The books themselves are very affordable (averaging $30 on Amazon at the time of writing), and are very high-quality, with a plethora of art and a rich setting. If you're okay with PDFs, they're also licensed under Creative Commons, and thus freely available at a number of places online, foremost of which is Rob Boyle's blog: http://robboyle.wordpress.com/eclipse-phase-pdfs/ The only book I haven't seen available in this way yet is the newest one, Transhuman; however this will likely change soon.

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Character Development Resources

These are what I give out as optional aids for new character background development (not just new players). All of these are pick-and-choose, not necessarily worksheets to be filled out. Of course, sometimes that's fun.

Character Archetypes http://www.listology.com/list/character-archetypes This is a list of archetypes that you can fit (or shoehorn) any character into. For character creation, starting with one of these archetypes as a high-level concept can give you a great starting point.

Character Background Ideas http://www.hurva.org/Docs/campaign/characters/background.html This is a general list of things to help iron out your character's physical description, personality, background, ethics, and motivation.

Ash’s Guide to RPG Personality & Background http://rpg.ashami.com/ This one is the most complex of the three, even going as far as to offer rolling tables for specific motivations, traits, habits, and disorders. It goes into the most detail, and helps you flesh out your character with much more specific details than the other two resources listed here.