Collaborations

The last couple of months have seen some important collaborations here at FATE SF. One of these was a contribution to the  +Christopher Helton's Philippines Relief Package which is part of one of One Bookshelf's typhoon relief packages, purchasable here. If you purchase the package, you'll find a way to access some bonus content here at FATE SF.

Logo courtesy of Hereticwerks

A second collaboration, hosted at FATE SF, is a cross-blog community project called From the Zones. This project is inspired by the classic Soviet-era SF novel Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, and the movie STALKER, by Andrei Tarkovsky. This is an ongoing project, so you can contribute a post whenever you'd like to do so!

+Alexander Osias just made a stunningly original contribution, bringing the Fading Suns RPG universe together with Roadside Picnic. His contribution is called Fading Zones.

Logo courtesy of Hereticwerks

Finally, late November/early-December has seen a new round of posts on a few different blogs for +John Stater's cross-blog shared world-building collaboration, Kepler-22B. That project was inspired by the discovery of the first superearth, Kepler-22B. I did a post recently that followed-up on my contribution to the Philippines Relief Package by building a future interstellar setting with roots in Sector I-5 of Kepler-22B, the part of the planet which I am developing.

That post was followed by new posts for Sector T3 of Kepler-22B over at Hereticwerks, and for Sector V3 over at Porky's Expanse.

I am enjoying each of these collaborations, which are spaces where people have contributed based on their individual muse, gifts, and interests, usually at their own pace. It's also easy to see many avenues for crossing over and playing off each other's ideas in interesting and creative ways.

The Chonak-Chonak Of The Sultanate

Osborneoddities

Imagine a demonic, bug-eyed, fang-mouthed ape-head, waddling around on four nasty clawed legs. That's a Chonak-Chonak. They were originally discovered by the Yrkoon Corporation (a front for the Conjuangco crime syndicate) during their incursion into Sector I-5 of Kepler-22B. Yrkoon Corporation found a horde of some 300 Chonak-Chonak in Hex 117.73 stripping the immediate area of all life forms they could get in their mouths: plants, animals, fungi, and less-describables.

Part of Sector I-5 of Kepler-22B

What they saw made the Yrkies nervous. It made their trigger fingers itchy. The Yrkies instinctively turned their mechs' gattling guns on the Chonak-Chonak horde, chopping them into beefsteak tartar. Then they collected tissue samples (which were everywhere) and handed them over to the corporation's professional cloners. A few months later, the Yrkoon Corporation had a new product line. Hundreds of freshly grown Chonak-Chonak babies were ready for training as shock troops. This was just the beginning of the Yrkoon Corporation's exploitation of the resources on Kepler-22B.

Today these creatures are the elite shock troops of the Sultanate of Managdao. The Sultanate deploys them in drop barges to assault worlds that have not paid their tribute, or even worse, are in open rebellion against the Sultanate. Once a few thousand of these troops have been deployed planetside - often in specially designed powered armor suits - rebellious and wayward worlds are quick to capitulate. Since the Chonak-Chonak are poorly disciplined at the best of times, and rather prone to going rogue after deployment, the Sultanate keeps their terror troops juiced on and addicted to the Obedience Drug to keep them loyal and in line.

The Chonak-Chonak's head is about a meter in diameter, and it is supported by four impossibly thin chicken-legs. There's no arms on their "heads": just a fanged maw in the middle of a huge monkey-like face. For high-tech combat, the Chonak-Chonak will be issued battle frame exoskeleton with mounted weapons, or a suit of powered armor. Their weapon of choice is a microwave blaster which blows apart their targets from the inside, sending chunks of smoking meat and gristle in all directions. These battle frames/exoskeletons and weapons always have "off switches" that can be activated remotely, as the Chonak-Chonak are never very good at discriminating friends from foes.

It is important to underscore that the Chonak-Chonak have a second "mouth" on the bottom side of its "head" (i.e., facing the ground). This is actually a cloaca-mouth allowing the Chonak-Chonak to feed by squatting as well as to excrete wastes and reproductive secretions. Chonak-Chonak will excrete prodigious amounts of this gunky excreta when they need to make a retreat before a more powerful adversary or (in the wild) from bigger, tougher predators. The discharge creates a mass of runny, smelly, sticky goo which can readily snare their pursuers. The goo is difficult to see on the ground, since it runs grey-brown-black-green in color.

The goo doesn't bother the Chonak-Chonak at all; in fact, they wallow in it. It creates a sort of black laquer armor which provides additional protection against fire and energy-emitting weapons (many life forms on Kepler-22B have energy emitting defenses, so this is a very adaptive feature for a life form on the super-Earth.)

OGL MECHANICS

Chonak-Chonak 
Alien Tiyanakoid Species (inimical)

ASPECTS:

• High Concept: The Sultanate's bestial shock troops
• Trouble: Addicted to the Obedience Drug
• Aspect: Fanged monkey demon head on four legs
• Aspect: Friend? Foe? What are those?
• Aspect: Hands and weapons cost extra

APPROACHES:

• Careful: 0
• Clever: +1
• Flashy: +2
• Forceful: +3
• Quick: +2
• Sneaky: +1

STUNTS:

• Combat Exoskeleton: Battle frame can carry one or more weapons or manipulator arms (first functionality (i.e., grip, winch, jumpjets, copter harness, or blast) is free; each additional functionality costs another point of refresh). Take a +2 to Attack Approach when using microwave blaster.
• Battle Honk: The Conak-Chonak unleash a deafening battle-honk which is terrifying to their adversaries. Take a +2 to Flashy Approach to make a mental/morale Attack with their fearsome honk. 
• Goo Lacquer Armor: Take +2 to Defend against fire or energy weapons.
• Sticky Discharge: The Chonak-Chonak may release a runny, sticky discharge from its cloaca-mouth that creates a messy situation Aspect in the Zone where it is released. Take +2 to Flashy Approach to Create an Advantage in the Zone which creates a barrier to movement. (Typically, the situation Aspect created is something like: Sticky, smelly, gunk which creates a +2 to difficulty for non-Chonak-Chonak to maneuver in or move through a Zone.)

REFRESH: 2

Relief

The Bituin Commonwealth

Logo courtesy of Hereticwerks

The Bituin Commonwealth traces its origins to the Bituin Expedition to the world of Kepler 22-B. The worlds that are part of the Commonwealth today descended from the various Filipino colonies established in Sector I-5 of that world. After the establishment of the initial colonies in Sector I-5, additional waves of colonists arrived from a range of Southeast Asian groups, including Malay, Thai, and Lao settlers. All of these groups were part of the secondary and tertiary expansions from the Filipino colonies in Sector I-5 which went on to settle six additional worlds. And so on...

The resulting Bituin Commonwealth is a loose confederation of systems. The Commonwealth has six core systems that are tied together by a series of slipknot connections into a single Cluster. Each core system has numerous tributary or affiliated systems - some 60 systems at last count - each connected to a core system by either a slipknot or via hyperdrive.

Like any galactic polity, the worlds of the Bituin Commonwealth today have a mix of human, alien, and machine intelligences as their citizens. Among the most common aliens are the Balanggtik, who are among the best independent star pilots in this region of space, and a vast variety of temperamental and often dangerous Tangalid subspecies.

No single sociopolitical system prevails, but several distinct tendencies can be identified in the Commonwealth's disparate star-archipelago of worlds:

• Left-leaning and communitarian worlds (some authoritarian, others democratic) that trace their political roots to the original settlers of New Manila Bay. These are generally friendly toward the Empire and conduct a fair amount of direct trade with Imperial  worlds; 
• The panoply of neo-Islamic star systems under the extremely fragile "rule" of the Sultanate of Managdao. The Sultanate often hires Comet Barbarians (Green, of course) as mercenary forces to keep some degree of coherence and order among its usually fractious and often warring worlds;
• An anarchic mix of systems dominated by the pirate fleets of the Cojuangco crime syndicate and their local affiliates, lackeys, and compradors;
• The Cordillera Star Confederation, a loose sub-confederation of worlds settled by various indigenous groups from across Southeast Asia and the Philippines Archipelago. These worlds fiercely defend their independence and resist interference in their affairs by the other worlds of the Bituin Confederation.

OGL MECHANICS

The Bituin Commonwealth

An interstellar Extra

ASPECTS:

• High Concept: A Filipino Star Archipelago
• Trouble: A Commonwealth torn by many competing interests
• Aspect: Six Core Worlds tightly bound
• Aspect: Trade relations with the Empire
• Aspect: Sometimes too close to the Wild space of the Periphery

SKILLS:

• Great (+4): Resources - the Commonwealth's worlds are resource abundant
• Good (+3): Burglary - significant criminal operations occur within the Commonwealth
• Fair (+2): Rapport - many disparate worlds and cultures means skill with diplomacy
• Average (+1): Fight - the Commonwealth can muster armed forces for planetary defense

STUNTS:

• Good at Alliances: The Commonwealth may bring a new ally (political, military, economic) to the table once per session by spending 1 FP.
• Hire Mercenaries: The Commonwealth may increase its Fight in any session for one scene by +2 by spending 1 FP to hire mercenaries. Such forces often create problems soon after they provide help.
• Pirate Fleets: The Commonwealth may use Burglary rather than Shoot to Attack/Defend against fleets from other interstellar states.

REFRESH: 3


Relief.

The Bananggtik Remix

I have remixed a FATE SF monster - an original SF creature based on Filipino mythology - for +Christopher Helton's OSR-based Philippines Relief Package. You can get it here. This is the third of One Bookshelf's Philippines relief bundles.

Fate fans will want to know that the bundle includes some great Fate games as well:  Nova Praxis and Strands of Fate!

For my submission, I remixed and converted a creature from  to the fine OSR-based X-plorers RPG system. X-plorers is an uber-flexible d20-based SF RPG. I am fortunate to have both the whitebox edition of  X-plorers as well as Brave Halfling's updated folio edition.

I had a good experience at Con of the North 2013 playing in a game run by +Jay Exonauts!

We have created bonus content for people who choose to purchase the Philippines Relief Package. Purchasers of the Philippines Relief Package will find directions to my bonus content in the entry for the Balanggtik monster in the relief package.

The first bonus content is already available. There will be more published over Thanksgiving week!

Pinoy SF&F - Tkblng and Tn'gal

Part of Mythspace: Lift Off by Koi Carreon and Paolo Chikiamco

This is the first bonus entry for in support of the Philippines flood relief bundle. There will be more entries backtimed and scattered around the FATE SF blog over the week of Thanksgiving 2013.

Rocket Kapre is a great place to look for information on all sorts of science fiction, fantasy, horror, and speculative literature, comics and media created by Filipino artists. Here you can see a science fictional version of two Filipino mythological creatures, the Manananggal and the Tikbalang. 

My Balanggtik is of course inspired by the latter mythological creature.


Relief