Young Centurions

I had to pull out of the recent Fate More Kickstarter, due to the first in a series of massive car repairs this Winter/Spring. This week, a slew of new Evil Hat releases hit The Source, and I grabbed them all! No more fear of missing out!

The new game Young Champions is particularly welcome. The game is set in the Spirit of the Century RPG universe.  And SOTC was my first brush with Fate. In fact, it was love at first sight!

I may have run the first open game of SOTC in Minnesota. That demo game years ago at The Source drew my friend Chad, who created a Jungle Lord (transplanted to NYC), as well one of the only Hollow Earth Expedition RPG fans in town, who played a Doc Savage type, complete with labs and domicile in the Empire State Building!

The action featured a fight on a Zeppelin in the skies over NYC. Like so many subsequent Zeppelin fights in my SOTC and HEX games, it did not end well for the Zeppelin! I think in this case, a wrench being used as a weapon hit a metal ladder frame within the airship's canvas shell. Sparks were drawn, and leaky gas cells ignited. Things like this happen, ALL-THE-TIME, in Spirit of the Century.

From there, I never went back! I've run many convention scenarios set in the SOTC universe, ranging all over the Earth and onto Mars. We've had Moorcockian Eternal Champions and villains in our games too, including the Ulric and Ulrika twins (my own creations), Count Zenith, and Jumping Jack Flash. But by Fate Core standards, SOTC has a bit heavier frame than I really need for a good pulp action Fate game, so it is good to see Young Centurions deliver the pulp using the lighter chassis that Fate Accelerated Edition provides.

And this isn't simply a retread of the 1930s SOTC setting, but instead features the young heroes of 1910 earlier in their career. I haven't read through the rules yet (just got 'em) but the cover and interior art are just outstanding, so I want to call that out today. Look at the diversity of heroes - and vehicles - on the cover. (Tractors don't get nearly enough love.)

And look at the heroes on the back cover:

Finally, I'll point to my new favorite character right here:

Given that my initials are JET, I'd say this is a perfect character.

Penny Dreadful Tarot Deck

The Back of the Penny Dreadful Tarot Cards

They looked great on TV.

Right? I am always a sucker for cool tarot cards for use in RPGs.

Or maybe they just look better when used by Eva Green. In any case, the Penny Dreadful Tarot Cards are a standard 78 tarot card deck. No artist is credited with the design. There is one additional card with instructions for using the deck, and one card with the Showtime logo on both sides. The deck itself is $14.95. If you want to pay $49.95, you can get the cards with a wooden box, a velveteen bag, and an instruction booklet.

Here is a sample of what the cards look like:

The cards are simple line drawings, which really pop out on the TV screen. But the designs are much less striking off screen. The line detail on some of the minor arcana (like the King of Cups) is a bit too dense; it is hard to see all of the images clearly. The art on some of the major arcana, such as The Lovers (a signature image for the TV series) looks unfinished when you have it in your hand.

Then there is the question of whether the cards "look" very Victorian. I'd say not. The artist is no Beardsley here. And the trump for The Hermit... begs a historical question. The image's concept is great - a deep sea fish is a fresh and intriguing metaphor for The Hermit. But I doubt that the Victorians even knew these deep sea creatures existed.

The Chariot as depicted above is also a unique interpretation. Quite erotic in fact, which is fairly unusual for this card.

The cards from the show also lacked the unnecessary Penny Dreadful branding that has been placed on the top and bottom of the card backs in the version of the deck for sale to the public. I really wish they had left that detail out.  It reduced the deck's utility for gaming.

So are these cards gameable? You could use them in a Victorian game, particularly if 1) you were emphasizing erotic themes, and/or 2) your players like the show. For a horror-based Victorian RPG, I'll be holding on to my copy of George Highham's Wormweird Tarot. That dark and very unique deck was published by Eos as an unofficial companion for their Unhallowed Metropolis RPG in 2008. It would be nice to have a tailor-made deck for Cubicle 7's wonderful Victoriana RPG. It could be organized along the game's Moorcockian Law vs. Chaos cosmology, also incorporating some of the setting's class themes, beastmen, and steamtech.

I'd also love to see a Victorian and/or steampunk version of the Deck of Fate.

But in the meantime, we will always have the Ryder-Waite deck.

Deck Of Fridays 25: A Simple Mistake

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Thermal_exhaust_port

Welcome back to DECK OF FRIDAYS, our not-so-weekly feature here at FATE SF! Each week (more or less) since the release of the Deck of Fate, we have made a draw from the Deck of Fate, RPG Inspiration Cards, or another Aspect-generative randomizer. Then we do something interesting with it, using the Aspect as inspiration for a campaign or scenario seed, a situation, scene, location, NPC, thingie, etc.

This week's draw from the Deck of Fate is a card with the aspect A Simple Mistake. There's a certain amount of metaphor at work in this one so it may or may not work well for your gaming table.

***

A Table of Simple (or not so simple) Mistakes 
(or B-b-b-lunders)

 Roll 4DF or draw a card from the Deck of Fate, and consult the appropriate outcome corresponding to the numerical result on the left. 

• +4: "Listen, if you were to rescue her, the reward would be..."

• +3: "Uh, uh...negative, negative. We have a reactor leak here now."

• +2: "These aren't the droids you're looking for."

• +1: "Now witness the power of this armed and fully operational battle station."

•  0:  "It is obvious to even the simpleminded that Lokai is of an inferior breed."

• -1: "Never. I'll never turn to the Dark Side."

• -2: "Evacuate? In our moment of triumph? I think you overestimate their chances."

• -3: "Don't worry, it's a slam dunk."

• -4: "Cardassian* forces will not have a combat mission - we will not get dragged into another protracted war."**

*Or Klingon, or Romulan, or Sardaukar - or American.

**Actual quote is: "American forces will not have a combat mission - we will not get dragged into another ground war in Iraq."

Deck Of Fridays 24: Made Up For It

Starchild with Stylus

Welcome back to DECK OF FRIDAYS, our weekly feature here at FATE SF! Each week (more or less) since the release of the Deck of Fate, we have made a draw from the Deck of Fate, RPG Inspiration Cards, or another Aspect-generative randomizer. Then we do something interesting with it, using the Aspect as inspiration for a campaign or scenario seed, a situation, scene, location, NPC, thingie, etc.

This week's draw from the Deck of Fate is a card with the aspect Made Up For It. The card has a value of zero, so my guess is that the original intent behind this Aspect was "equivalence" or "a wash". But zero really isn't that exciting a standpoint, so let's get creative. Let's assume this is actually about appearance.

As in, "You're made up for it."  Here's a 4DF table of SF cosmetics and beauty supplies.

***

Essential SFnal Beauty Supplies Table

Every starport's Essential Beauty Supply franchise has just what you need. The very thing to get your face on. Or get it off. Stretch out that sagging integument. Swap out that old keratin for something with a bit more pizzaz.  Roll 4DF or draw a card from the Deck of Fate, and consult the appropriate outcome corresponding to the numerical result on the left.

• -4: Envizion (TM). It's expensive. The ultimate anti-aging product, the Envizion chemical peel uses proprietary alien enzymes to dissolve and reshape wayward flesh. It is injected subdermally. Then you just wait - a few hours or a few days, depending on your physiology - and meditate.(But don't fall asleep.) Imagine the face or body you want to have. Usually that is what you get. Indefinitely.  Side effects, which can be avoided or minimized by retaining a licensed Envizion meditation coach, include Doppelganger Syndrome, in which the user begins to resemble a celebrity from the Signal - and Spiders from Mars Syndrome, which is just plain bad. 

• -3: Stylus (TM). These wand-like programmable fabricator-applicators use triple effector beams* to apply cosmetics flawlessly. They can also be configured to custom print and apply nails. A favorite tool of assassins, the Stylus can produce nails and lip gloss with a range of toxic and hallucinatory affects.  

• -2: COMpact (TM). This small programmable beauty kit includes a mirror, a nanofabricator, and a convenient reservoir for balms, creams, and serums. Visit any world with Signal, and the COMpact immediately hooks into the vine and downloads the latest data on cosmetic trends. Select preferences displayed over the "mirror" touchscreen, and then the nanofabricator sets to work producing the cosmetic options of your choice. A variety of applicator extensions are also available for this kit.

• -1:  Freshwig (TM), Hair that Doesn't Fight You! The ultimate in reflexive personal defense, Freshwig comes in many varieties, textures, and colors. But the one thing that all Fleshwig have in common is that they won't give YOUR head a bad hair day. Your remote-controlled weaponized wig will keep you safe anywhere! No more worries about papparazzi, aggressive fans, or kidnappers! The monofilaments of the Freshwig cap read your thoughts, making it easy to trigger a range of effects, from piercing locks of hair to tentacular grasping strands, to the release of toxins.  

•  0:  Spray-on-Face (TM), the Perfect Disguise (TM) for alien or human, living or dead. Sold in packets roughly the diameter of burrito wraps, each SoF is a 1 cm thick layer of programmable flesh. It can be shaped, textured, and colorized to make radical changes in facial features. Each application works for 24 hours - and more if you feed it. But don't wear one too long.

• +1: Animate (TM), roll-on depilatory jellies. You'll be scaly for a few days (all over), as body hair, horns, and scales just flake off. But they're gone forever. 

• +2: Reanimate (TM), programmable keratinizing jelly. Add a new layer of hair, horns, or scales in the colors and textures of your choice. 

• +3: Sign Vine (TM), the Living Extensions that keep you connected.**  These hair extensions look like dreads, but they are plants that form symbiotic relationships with hair follicles. They range in color from rust red to dark green to brown and sustain themselves through photosynthesis. No one with Sign Vine is ever truly alone, because via scalp induction, the vine connect the user to the local Signal. 

• +4: BounzTatz (TM). Popularized by spacers, these "living tattoos" range from animated flesh glyphs to three dimensional biological graft creatures.*** Want a parrot or a monkey on your shoulder - permanently? BounzTatz brings it.

*Iain M. Banks just keeps on giving.

**Inspired by Nnedi Okorafor's Zahrah the Windseeker.

***Inspired by Samuel R. Delaney's Nova and Babel-17.

Deck Of Fridays 23: Left In The Dark

Morlocks in George Pal's The Time Machine (1960)

Welcome back to DECK OF FRIDAYS, our weekly feature here at FATE SF! Each week (more or less) since the release of the Deck of Fate, we have made a draw from the Deck of Fate, RPG Inspiration Cards, or another Aspect-generative randomizer. Then we do something interesting with it, using the Aspect as inspiration for a campaign or scenario seed, a situation, scene, location, NPC, thingie, etc.

This week's draw from the Deck of Fate is a card with the Aspect: Left in the Dark. In English, that's a commonly used colloquial expression that denotes not knowing what's going on, often due to the conscious agency of someone who is in the know. But we're interpreting it more literally today.

At first I thought of poor Gollum.

Then I remembered the Morlocks.

***

For the Morlocks, being left in the dark is a rite of passage. Sooner or later, every Morlock youth is drugged, rendered unconscious, and then abandoned in the underworld. In the cold and the dark. They're alone, with no food or water. 

Those who survive, make their way back to their band.  They gain a true name, a mate, and the beginnings of social status: a key to a machine, locker, or room in the underworld. Morlocks who don't survive, well, sooner or later their bones get discovered when someone trips on them in the Dark Galleries. Those bones get kicked swiftly into a dark corner to be forgotten. Or they are quickly claimed, pocketed, and later carved into fetishes and weapons.

But there's another way that Morlocks get Left in the Dark. All Morlocks love the things below, but their kind are also driven by a deterritorializing impulse. Bands move on, seeking new living spaces and places to labor freely by crossing the narrow dark spaces between the worlds. New machines. New galleries and rooms to conquer and explore. 

Now-useless keys soon become charms and wards.

At first, the Morlocks moved about in time and space using the Visitor's time machine. Later, they found similar machines created by others. The Morlocks spread to still more worlds. The machine tenders thrived wherever they found galleries to explore and machinery to tend underground.

In time, the Morlocks found other ways to squeeze between the worlds. There are passages in the dark, gates that open onto branching tunnels walled by absolute darkness. Shamans take the lead; the rest of the clan follows. Morlocks traverse these tunnels by forming chains of hands. Some even use real chains to bind one to the next. No one wants to be lost forever, blind in the dark. 

But on every such journey, someone stumbles and loses hold of their fellows. Or a link in the chain breaks, as if of its own accord. Those whose chains break lose their way; they cannot see in this dark between worlds. They find themselves alone, in a pocket of darkness. 

They quail, brood, and curse that darkness.

And the darkness curses them back. 

Those left in these dark interstices grow strange. They grow strange: their bodies change in gross and subtle ways. Their minds change. They hunger and thirst, alone in the dark. 

They become perverse desiring engines, seeking to transform others.

Those left in the dark When others pass, they extend a foot to trip other feet. They bite and break the chain tying one traveler to the destiny of another. 

Misery loves company. Mutation abhors a vacuum. 

Deck of Fridays 22: Treacherous Terrain

Welcome back to DECK OF FRIDAYS, our weekly feature here at FATE SF! Each week (more or less) since the release of the Deck of Fate, we have made a draw from the Deck of Fate, RPG Inspiration Cards, or another Aspect-generative randomizer. Then we do something interesting with it, using the Aspect as inspiration for a campaign or scenario seed, a situation, scene, location, NPC, thingie, etc.

This week's draw from the Deck of Fate is a card with the Aspect: Treacherous Terrain. It calls to mind the hostile nature of The Green Worlds, planets where plants and insects have a mind of their own; a mind which is hostilely disposed toward humans. Here is a 4DF encounter table based on this treacherous terrain.

***
Green Worlds Encounter Table

You are in the jungle. What do you encounter?  Roll 4DF or draw a card from the Deck of Fate, and consult the encounter corresponding to the numerical result on the left.

• -4: The earth suddenly opens up and down you go. This is a pit trap set by a giant arthropod. 

• -3: A clicking, a buzzing, a humming. An arthropod army is on the move. A human settlement is in danger.

• -2: That rustling sound. A flash of  bright color in the jungle. Stripes. You are being stalked by a feral orchid predator.

• -1:  The air smells sweet, redolent of one of the plant masters' toxic or hallucinogenic gases. A Peyotl on a litter borne by human slaves can't be far away from that smell.

•  0: A party of well-armed Saguaro and their human porter-slaves. 

• +1: The massive fronds of a giant carnivorous fern reach out to wrap up your limbs.

• +2: Vines guard the entrance to an ancient temple, cave, or ruin. There is no breeze, but that doesn't stop the vines from twitching.

• +3: You are suddenly surrounded by a band of hostile, ape-like creatures or anthropomorphs: humans who have degenerated into a bestial state.

• +4: It's a big thick beanstalk, and it goes up and up

Deck of Fridays 21: Neutral Zones

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Neutral_Zone_Incursion

Welcome back to DECK OF FRIDAYS, our weekly feature here at FATE SF! Each week (more or less) since the release of the Deck of Fate, we have made a draw from the Deck of Fate, RPG Inspiration Cards, or another Aspect-generative randomizer. Then we do something interesting with it, using the Aspect as inspiration for a campaign or scenario seed, a situation, scene, location, NPC, thingie, etc.

This week's draw from the Deck of Fate is a card with the Aspect: Neutral Discovery. It calls to mind the concept of Neutral Zones. So without further ado, we have a brief quote from the 17th Imperial Sovereign, who is known as the The Shadow Cast By All Suns.

***

Nature abhors a Neutral Zone. All Neutral Zones are semi-permeable, riddled with slipknots, and layered upon with the positive and negative enumerations of hyperspace. The most fleeting of political boundaries, all such zones of exclusion eventually collapse inward upon themselves. 

Each one is a potent symbol of Defeat, of a battle or war that has been lost: a "partial victory" in the parlance of today's generals and political consultants.

Indeed, the Neutral Zones are a plague upon the body politic of our Empire. Such zones are a hindrance to advance of the Imperial Extents, and to the march of justice and friendship among the worlds. Within Our Body, they are vacuoles formed to contain an irritant, sanctuaries for inimical species and rogue Minds. Such spaces invariably become havens for pirates, privateers, smugglers, and slavers, and places of unwitting and deadly discoveries. 

Beyond Our Body, they are the space of non-confrontation with greater enemies: a haven for espionage and covert fleet maneuvers, planetary bush wars, fraught discoveries, the birthplace of pocket empires and border kingdoms, and initiatives toward diplomacy and collaboration. 

Each Neutral Zone also gives us pause for reflection, even as it halts our Fleets and Legions. An ancient Earth philosopher once wrote that an Empire's advance necessitates a hollowing at its center. An Empire produces its own negation. As we incorporate the barbarians beyond our Neutral Zones, what indeed becomes of us?

Transmigration

Zina Deretsky's photo of fast spinning Altair

Transmigration (Planar, Cost, Per Scenario, Permanent, Requires three other Planar spells): A favorite spell of Imperial Messengers, special retainers, and emissaries, this casting is also known as the Magpie Bridge. Transmigration hurls the caster's mind across the stars to a willing fleshy receptacle on Altair III, the Imperial Throneworld. Many variants of this spell exist, each specifying a particular stellar destination. In this case, the star of Altair must be visible to the caster's naked eye at the time the spell is cast.

The caster's mind rises into space as if borne on the wings of an eagle. From orbit, the soul transitions into hyperspace. The mind rises through the positive enumerations of hyperspace, finally reaching its crowning enumeration. The soul then travels for an indeterminate period, and often endures a series of tests* until finally reaching its point of arrival, Altair III.

The mind then descends to the Golden Sphere. It inhabits a willing and waiting Receptor, one of the psychically receptive special members of Legio XII Golden Eagle of Amarna, the legion of personal bodyguards who attend the Imperial Sovereign at all times. Receptors are shirtless; at the moment of Arrival, one will drop to their knees. The Golden Eagle tattoo on the legionary's back and shoulders will begin to glow and flutter, as if its wings are flapping. As the glow subsides, the Receptor may begin speaking in tongues, as the mind makes its way through the language centers of the Receptor's brain. Shortly thereafter, the mind takes complete control of the Receptor's body, until the spell is lifted.

See also Protection Of The Body In Transmigration, and The Sa Amulet as an example of a protective device.

*The GM may draw cards from the Deck of Fate to determine the nature of these tests, which may then be roleplayed with the involvement of the other players as various kinds of allies and adversaries.

Deck Of Fridays 20: Top Of The World

Welcome to the 20th episode of DECK OF FRIDAYS, our weekly feature here at FATE SF! Each week since the release of the print edition of the Deck of Fate*, we have made a draw from the Deck of Fate, RPG Inspiration Cards, or another Aspect-generative randomizer. Then we do something interesting with it, using the Aspect as inspiration for a campaign or scenario seed, a situation, scene, location, NPC, thingie, etc.

This week's draw from the Deck of Fate is a card with the Aspect: Top of the World, a card with a +3 value. This seems appropriate for celebrating our 20th post in the series!

Top of the World makes me think of space elevators which are often colloquially referred to in SF as beanstalks. So today we have a table on Beanstalks that you can use to flesh out one or more details of a setting which includes one.

***
Jack's Table

Roll 4DF and consult the corresponding result below.

• -4: Monsters (Horta, Dholes, deviant Morlocks, rogue 'bots, etc.) are gnawing at the beanstalk's roots

• -3: The beanstalk is ruined and abandoned, and has fallen into a tangle planetside

• -2: A literal Tower of Babel, the beanstalk's populations are culturally and linguistically balkanized and frequently in conflict with each other 

• -1: Jim Crow to the stars - the beanstalk's amenities (transport tubes, hotel and dining spaces, etc.) are segregated according to some discriminatory scheme (humans vs. uplifts and robots, for example)

•  0: The beanstalk is ruined and abandoned, but still upright - and ready for exploration and plunder

• +1: A typical beanstalk: a spaceport at the apex, a commercial-industrial city at the base

• +2: The beanstalk is the hub of a thriving interplanetary or interstellar civilization 

• +3: The beanstalk has numerous zones/rings of habitation, baroquely stratified with ascending tech levels (low at the base, astonishingly high at the apex)**

• +4: Gods (Vorlonic aliens, transhumans, etc.) live at the apex, and lord over all below

*With some exceptions.

**As in Alastair Reynolds' Terminal City.

Deck of Fridays 19: Clear Path

Welcome back to DECK OF FRIDAYS, our weekly feature here at FATE SF. We make a draw from the Deck of Fate, RPG Inspiration Cards, or another Aspect-generative randomizer. Then we do something interesting with it, using the Aspect as inspiration for a campaign or scenario seed, a situation, scene, location, NPC, thingie, etc.

This week's draw from the Deck of Fate is a card with the Aspect: Clear Path, a card with a 0 value. A scenario seed comes to mind.

***

It was a tough punching through the orbital sentries around Piranesi VII. There were thousands of them orbiting this dead world, waiting for intruders. We used dropships loaded with green troops to get their attention, while the carrier and its three escorts picked off the satellites. 

Clear path. 

We were happy that the three dropships with veteran troops made it down there. Of course, each dropship was sent to different points planetside. The mission was simple: find out if this planet had any inhabitants - really, anything of worth.

The atmosphere appeared to be breathable, but we kept our helmets on. We're not Omega House for sure, but we're not just stupid grunts either. Well-armed, we disembarked, and started our surveys and sweeps.

The entire planetary surface was a built environment. Ruins everywhere. Below that surface were galleries, stairways, more layers of structure. Lots of open space. Clear paths in all directions. 

Too many of them, in fact. The pings on deep radar show that this is a shellworld. Some of the deeper layers are still pressurized. They have exotic atmospheres, and things down there are moving.

We're going to be here for a while. 

Deck of Fridays 18: Are You Kidding Me

Welcome back to DECK OF FRIDAYS, our weekly feature here at FATE SF. We make a draw from the Deck of Fate, RPG Inspiration Cards, or another Aspect-generative randomizer. Then we do something interesting with it, using the Aspect as inspiration for a campaign or scenario seed, a situation, scene, location, NPC, thingie, etc.

This week's draw from the Deck of Fate is a card with the Aspect: Are You Kidding Me, a card with a -2 value. Perhaps a situation with an unexpectedly bad outcome.

In this case, something is wrong with your starship. Really wrong.

***
Starship Mishaps Table

Roll 4DF and consult the corresponding result below.

• -4: The stardrive ejected - too bad you're still in hyperspace

• -3: The stardrive imploded - welcome to your own personal singularity

• -2: Out of phase - that's right, your ship is partly here, and partly, well, elsethere. Pick the alien dimension of your choice.

• -1: Misjump, misjump, misjump - there's one happening about every 33 minutes

•  0: Radiation leaks. Water leaks. Atmosphere leaks. Take your pick. It may be more than one

• +1: No shields, no deflectors, no sensors

• +2: KACHANG! - Crashlanding below decks. Or crashlaunch. Take your pick, and choose a location such as a fighter bay, shuttle bay, or drone retrieval system.

• +3: Thunk-thunk-thunk. Did all the escape pods just launch?

• +4: Your ship's computer didn't have an attitude before, but it sure does now. And it just tried to kill someone

Deck Of Fridays 17: Didn't See You Coming

Welcome back to DECK OF FRIDAYS, our weekly feature here at FATE SF. We make a draw from the Deck of Fate, RPG Inspiration Cards, or another Aspect-generative randomizer. Then we do something interesting with it, using the Aspect as inspiration for a campaign or scenario seed, a situation, scene, location, NPC, thingie, etc.

This week's draw from the Deck of Fate is a card with the Aspect: Didn't See You Coming Point, a card with a +1 value. So, an element of surprise or distraction creates mildly favorable circumstances for someone who seeks to act first and/or evade detection.

Perhaps the PCs are approaching a checkpoint, roadblock, or security station. Here is a 4DF table of reasons why the person responsible for spotting your approach failed to do so!

***

Didn't See You Coming, the Table

Roll 4DF and consult the corresponding result below.

• -4: I am so not high
• -3: Sooooo sleepy
• -2: Kinda busy flirting right now
• -1: Distracted by communications (e.g., texting, VR, comms, phone, etc.)
•  0: Oh, I'm just too busy noticing everything to have noticed you
• +1: Wow, that person over there is really attractive
• +2: You were not the person (droid, alien, etc.) I was looking for
• +3: Busy with a real emergency
• +4: You have a sympathizer or secret admirer*

*They really DID see you coming but they are on your side!

Visitation Of The House Of Knives

"Trials of the Hero Twins" by Diego Rivera

The House of Knives (center top in the illustration above) is one of the places of torture in the Mayan Underworld of Xibalba.   In this place of testing, intelligent obsidian knives fly in every direction, thirsting for the flesh of all who enter this place where heroes are tested.

Those sorcerers who have earned the favor of the Lords of Xibalba or Lord Tezcatlipoca may learn the spell for summoning one or more of these demonic blades into our world.  But only the most favored and corrupt sorcerers learn the spell Visitation of the House of Knives. This spell brings the deadly House into our realm for a time; it has caused the slaughter of many.

Visitation of the House of Knives (Planar, Cost, Per Scenario, Persistent, Requires Call Knife Point and at least one gate spell, Corrupting): The caster rolls Flashy/CHA +2 to summon the House of Knives. Such castings can only be attempted on a planet during nighttime or an eclipse. If the summoning is successful, part or all of the current Scene is enclosed by stone walls on all sides.

The size of the chamber is determined by the results of the roll. A result of one shift produces quite a small chamber; anything in the same zone as the caster is enclosed. Two shifts produces an enclosed space of 2 zones. Three shifts produces an enclosed space of three zones, the maximum size of the House of Knives.

The chamber is plunged into darkness unless a preexisting light source is present. It is filled with an intelligent swarm of flying obsidian knives, which Attack all present (with the exception of the sorcerer and those under their protection) with a roll of 4DF +2 each turn.

The House of Knives has the following aspects:

• Flying obsidian knives!
• A stone chamber with no source of light
• No apparent exit

Such magic is a major infraction, doing 2 points of Corruption stress to the caster.

Because the knives are intelligent, a clever hero may attempt to bargain with them. The knives thirst for the flesh of both the living and the dead. If approached with an offer, the GM should draw a card from the Deck of Fate. If the card drawn reveals a favorable aspect, the knives will pause after their first attack to negotiate.

If normal ants, Napoleon ants, or other ant-like intelligent species are present, their collectivity may be bargained with for help against the knives. Such species of diggers and tunnelers frequently have their own conflicts with the meddlesome and diseased subterranean Lords of Xibalba, and the smallest of their kind are usually immune to the knives' attacks.

Deck Of Fridays 16: On Point

The Terrible Lords of Xibalba

Welcome back to DECK OF FRIDAYS, our weekly feature here at FATE SF. We make a draw from the Deck of Fate, RPG Inspiration Cards, or another Aspect-generative randomizer. Then we do something interesting with it, using the Aspect as inspiration for a campaign or scenario seed, a situation, scene, location, NPC, thingie, etc.

This week's draw from the Deck of Fate is a card with the Aspect: On Point. Today we're casting a deadly spell, a sharp-edged mirror knife made of the darkest glass: Call Knife Point.

***

Call Knife Point (Evocation/Planar, Cost, Per Scene, Persistent, Corrupting): Deep within the Underworld of Xibalba lies the place known as the House of Knives. It's where the Hero Twins were tested, a place where obsidian knives hurl through the air in all directions. Demonic knives tear the living into ribbons of bloody flesh. 

The Lords of Xibalba teach the spell Call Knife Point to priests or sorcerers who please them in some way. Lord Tezcatlipoca also knows this spell; Lord Smoking Mirror teaches this spell to mortals who strike the right bargain. Both the Lords of Xibalba and Lord Tezcatlipoca favor those who sow the kind of chaos and terror which the House of Knives brings to its guests. 

The spell Call Knife Point summons forth into our world one of the obsidian flying daggers from the House of Knives. This spell can only be cast at night, or when the caster is in the Underworld. (It can also be cast in the depths of space, as long as the summoner does not face a nearby sun.)  A living demonic shard of volcanic glass from the Underworld, the Knife Point does the bidding of its summoner for one Scene. The dagger obeys the conscious thoughts of its caster. It can fly across up to three Zones per turn to strike a target of the caster's choice.

The summoner rolls CHA to call the Knife Point. If they Succeed with Style on the roll, two Knife Points appear rather than one.

Each turn, the Knife Point may attack a target of the caster's choice. The Knife Point Attacks using the caster's CHA vs. the target's DEX; shifts scored cause Physical Stress.

If a Knife Point Takes Out at least one individual, or inflicts at least one Consequence on a target during the Scene, the caster may dispel it no later than the end of that Scene.

However, should a Knife Point fail to draw blood in the Scene, the GM should draw a card from the Deck of Fate, and select the most appropriate aspect on the card to determine what the Knife Point does next.

Unquenched Knife Points frequently turn on their summoners, as the Lords of Xibalba enjoy the irony inherent in such predicaments. Such blades may also seek to escape the location where they were summoned in order to explore, and search for new prey.

Loved ones of the summoner are particularly choice targets for Knife Points. Such a loose blade remains an active threat until the sun rises - or indefinitely in a dark place such as the Underworld or the lower decks of a space hulk.

Deck of Fridays 15: Charged Up

Welcome back to DECK OF FRIDAYS, our weekly feature here at FATE SF. We make a draw from the Deck of Fate, RPG Inspiration Cards, or another Aspect-generative randomizer. Then we do something interesting with it, using the Aspect as inspiration for a campaign or scenario seed, a situation, scene, location, NPC, thingie, etc.

This week's draw from the Deck of Fate is a card with the Aspect: Charged Up. Today we're sharing a Nexialist spell, designed for all those times when, well, something's Out of Juice.

***

Blasters, beamswords, tablets, personal shields: it's terrible when our handheld devices lose charge, flicker out, and die. It always happens at the most inopportune times. This is why the Nexialists believe in always being prepared. Back-up weapons, extra battery packs, charging cords. 

But there are always those times when you are just plain Out of Juice: there's no nearby power source. Or it's one of those interminable Yangs vs. Kohms battles, and you've exhausted every weapon and battery on the advancing hordes. 

Time for a recharge the Nexialist way:

Nexial's Living Battery (Evocation, Cost, Per Scene, Persistent): This Nexialist formula is used to sacrifice some of the caster's life energy as fuel for a small technological device. The caster rolls CHA to Create an Advantage by replacing an existing temporary aspect on a device such as Out of Juice with a new temporary aspect such as Temporarily Charged. This aspect lasts for one Scene. 

While most commonly used in battle, the formula has other applications. For example, archaeologists often use it to infuse energy into long powered-down ancient devices in order to awaken them. This often has unforeseen consequences as many of the devices of the ancients were self-aware, and can be distrustful or even vindictive toward those who disturb their dreams...

Ringworld Reloaded Tonight

During the day on Sunday we are doing our prep for tonight's Ringworld Reloaded game at Con of the North. The game runs from 6-10 PM, so we will be prepping this morning and afternoon, and driving over to the con around 5 PM. For prep, I am focusing on reading the old Chaosium Ringworld RPG first; it's an elegant package.

If I have time this afternoon, I'll dig a little deeper into Sarah Newton's Fate Core masterpiece, the new edition of Mindjammer. I plan to have people build their characters using the Aspects and Skills framework from Mindjammer.

On Friday and Saturday, I ran 12 hours of roleplaying programming at the con. Players seemed to have fun in all the games, and we had a particularly good experience last night with my first run in the world of Trey Causey's Weird Adventures pulp adventures setting, using Fate Freeport Companion mechanics. More on all the events during the week.

Tonight's game is going to be an "on-the-fly" experience. I had to compress a lot of prep work for my five events at the con due to life, so my games have been a mix of high-level prep and on-the-fly GMing.

I told a friend a couple days ago about the creeping desperation I was feeling about how little prep time I had left, and he had some great advice: "Con-prep is one of those things that we all over-stress. Just relax and have stuff on-hand to facilitate improvisation."  In other words, don't just stage the scene for the players, stage it for yourself as GM!  Have things available you can draw upon!

I have found the Deck of Fate to be one of those great tools to facilitate on-the-fly GMing, and RPG Inspiration Cards are another great resource with aspect-like signifiers, weather conditions, directions, and terrain.

We have a cool little SF movie prop lined-up for tonight as well. 

Con of the North Begins

No Deck of Fridays today, because today we're actually using the Deck of Fate at the gaming table!  It's the first day of Con of the North in the Twin Cities, the largest gaming convention in the Upper Midwest.  Today we are running six hours of Ubiquity Space: 1889 content, and a two hour Fate Freeport session. 

We have quite a cast of characters for Space: 1889, including a:

• Gunslinging French anarchist with a penchant for Verne and anti-colonialism
• Vengeful German armaments inventor
• Venusian lizard man scout
• Itinerant Martian aristocrat-scholar
• Ambitious Lao Prince/Princess from Vientiane
• Skillful but very superstitious Hmong hunter
• British Big Game Hunter
• Ruritanian etherflyer pilot
• Intriguing British adventuress from the Ladies Speculative Society  

Should be fun.

Deck Of Fridays 14: Just Plain Cursed

Welcome back to DECK OF FRIDAYS, our weekly feature here at FATE SF. We make a draw from the Deck of Fate, RPG Inspiration Cards, or another Aspect-generative randomizer. Then we do something interesting with it, using the Aspect as inspiration for a campaign or scenario seed, a situation, scene, location, NPC, thingie, etc.

This week's draw from the Deck of Fate is a card with the Aspect: Just Plain Cursed. So, another random draw from the deck with a pretty negative (-3) result!

***

Bottled trouble, so to speak. It's hiding right there in plain sight. The sign by the door says simply "Botanica." They say it used to be an apothecary's shop. But now it sells mundane magical supplies: herbs, folk medicines, candles, incense, holy cards, figurines of saints, a few self-help books on the power of prayer - and bottled waters.

There are several little displays of water-filled bottles around the store. The displays catch they eye; they're colorful. Each bottle has a label with the name of the natural source of water from which its contents were collected. Most of the labels are still legible, although several are quite old and rather indecipherable. Some are smeared, blurred. A few are written in a script that seems alive with quick motion, like a centipede's legs.

None of the bottles has a price tag. The owner says: "They're all special. Make me an offer."

Expect to haggle. It's a high stakes game.

Because these water bottles aren't the kind you drink.

Oh, no. You use this water to make a space sacred. Put a bottle in a window and let the sun will shine through the water. Sprinkle it on friends as a blessing.

The waters come from different sources. Local rivers, streams, ponds, lakes. Some come from farther afield: the Finger Lakes. The Amazon. The Nile. The Ganges. Lake Nyos. Places you've never heard of.

Most are completely innocuous. But mixed in with the safe ones are bottled waters that are just pain cursed.

Frackwater. Medusa's tears. Devil's bongwater. Snake well water. Roaches' spit. Ice water from cannibal glaciers. Plasma squeezed from pus-filled wounds. Water from a baptismal font where someone took a bloody leak. Farm creek runoff. One of the colored theosophical bottles of General Maximiliano Hernandez Martinez.

You'll pay dearly for one of these bottles. Their owner went to a lot of effort to collect them. She promises they'll put a hurt on someone. You'll see.

OGL MECHANICS

Each water bottle is a one-use potion. The potion's target is affected by drinking some or all of the water in the bottle. Even a drop or two is sufficient to produce an effect. 

The potion causes a Moderate or Severe Consequence depending on the nature of the potion. Consequences may be either Physical or Mental, and can only be removed through magical healing. A Heal or Purify spell may remove any of these Consequences. 

(N.B., some of the lesser Healing spells (Cure Light Wounds, Cure Moderate Wounds, Cure Serious Wounds), only remove a Physical Consequence, or reduce its severity.)  

Deck Of Fridays 13: No Way Out

http://sepha.deviantart.com/art/The-Lament-Configuration-39597789

Welcome back to DECK OF FRIDAYS, our weekly feature here at FATE SF. We make a draw from the Deck of Fate, RPG Inspiration Cards, or another Aspect-generative randomizer. Then we do something interesting with it, using the Aspect as inspiration for a campaign or scenario seed, a situation, scene, location, NPC, thingie, etc.

This week's draw from the Deck of Fate is a card with the Aspect: No Way Out. That is a pretty negative sounding Aspect (and the card it's on is valued as a -3 on a 4DF roll), but we have something special in mind for it. Anime fans may recall a certain maze trap spell used in Doomed Megalopolis. That anime was one of the first ones I ever watched, and the spell has stuck with me for almost 20 years. So it's time to put it on paper.

The spell is called a Kimon Tonkou, and its historical inspiration is described in detail here. We'll provide a brief overview. The Kimon Tonkou is derived from the Chinese Taoist divination practice called Qimen Dunjia, or Strange Demon Gate Escaping Technique. Although the spell has had different attributes and effects at different times, for our purposes, it is a spell which traps a demon in a pattern-trap, allowing the caster to escape via teleportation.

It's a very useful spell. There's No Way Out for the demon, while the spell is in effect. But the caster has a ready means of escape.

What follows is a version of the Kimon Tonkou for FATE SF's Galactic Grimoire using the Fate Freeport Companion's excellent mechanics for creating discrete spells.

***

Strange Demon Gate Escaping Technique (Divination/Planes, Cost, Scene, Once Per Scenario, Requires one Divination or Planar spell, and one Evocation spell): This spell is used to trap a demon. It is most useful when the caster is aware of the demon's imminent arrival. Strange Demon Gate Escaping Technique is frequently used to interrupt rituals used to summon demons, diverting they into a prearranged pattern-trap. 

Once the demon is within the trap: 

• A Banish spell may be used to dispel the demon, and/or
• The caster may teleport away to safety to a location of their choice

The spell's ritual begins with the preparation and placement of a pattern-trap. The trap is created by forming a pattern of stones, gems, tiles, or other materials. It must be placed within a few zones of where the demon is likely to materialize. The caster traces a particular path through the pattern; this action "charges" the labyrinth with a pattern of energy with many confusing eddies and flows. The shifting currents of energy constrain the demon's attempts to escape the pattern-trap. 

Once the demon materializes, it is diverted into the pattern-trap and must puzzle its way through to the trap's exit. As soon as the demon materializes in the trap, the caster may either teleport away to a specific location of their choice, or tarry a bit to first cast Banish.

When the caster teleports away, the demon will not be able to perceive the location to which they have teleported. The demon is thereafter unable to perceive the caster or divine their location until the two are again within physical proximity of each other (i.e., within the same zone). Observers outside the pattern-trap have no such restrictions. 

Pattern-traps can also be placed near an interdimensional gate or Nexus Point to capture a creature as it exits the portal. With this use of the spell, any creature passing through the portal is captured by the pattern-trap and must similarly figure its way out.

The spell is discharged at the end of the scene; in most cases, the demon will then be able to exit the pattern-trap.

There are potent variants of Strange Demon Gate Escaping Technique which use Evocation to manifest a pattern-trap at the moment the demon materializes. These traps take the form of three-dimensional puzzles with moving segments. Because of their uncanny similarity to the much smaller Lemarchand's Box, some scholars believe that these manifested pattern-traps are the inverse form or negative image of Lemarchand's demon-gate key puzzle boxes.  

Deck of Fridays 12: Betrayed

Welcome back to DECK OF FRIDAYS, our weekly feature here at FATE SF. We make a draw from the Deck of Fate,RPG Inspiration Cards, or another Aspect-generative randomizer. Then we do something interesting with it, using the Aspect as inspiration for a campaign or scenario seed, a situation, scene, location, NPC, thingie, etc.

This week's draw from the Deck of Fate is a card with the Aspect: Betrayed. This is a pretty good fit thematically with one of the novels I am reading right now, Cherie Priest's Boneshaker. It's the book that kicked off the second wave of steampunk back in 2009. It's a very gritty novel, not particularly "light" or giddy steampunk - not the good clean fun divorced from the hierarchy and mayhem of 19th Century capitalism that so many steampunk aficionados are content with today.

The world of Boneshaker is filled with the consequences of betrayal: the lingering war with the traitorous South, racism and nativism in the supposedly free North and Northwest, women's oppression, and environmental destruction wrought by careless and callous inventors and industrialists.

So, a scenario seed on the theme of betrayal, inspired by Boneshaker.

***

Your husband the genius inventor was responsible for thousands of deaths; thank God he's dead. He left you to raise a kid on your own: a good kid, but one who's looking for answers. Too bad the answers he wants are all about his father. 

You had to change your last name to get away from your husband's horrible reputation. Not everyone gets to destroy a city with one of their inventions. Not everyone turns thousands of people into zombies in an industrial accident. 

The kid's taken off looking for answers. He headed right for the ruins of the city. Right on the other side of that Wall. You know, the Wall that keeps the zombies and the poison gas inside the ruins and away from the living city.

So you followed him in. You want to find him and save him before the gas or the zombies get him. Or cannibals. Or slavers. There are lots of possibilities in the ruins. There are people still living there, and a lot of them are worse than the zombies.

Although now that your over the Wall you've found some people who aren't too bad. They're helping you try to find your son. But the rumors! Everyone thinks the mysterious ever-masked Doctor who lives in the ruins is one and the same person as your deceased husband.

Supposedly deceased. Because if he were still alive, and had just abandoned you and the kid - well, that would be a betrayal.  Better that the zombies get their hands on him than you do.