Jadepunk Playmat, Pt. II - Zoneside

Today, we are looking at the Zoneside of the Jadepunk playmat. Earlier this week, we took a look at the Cityside of the Jadepunk playmat. The playmat is available from the Reroll Store for $10 plus $6 shipping.

The Zoneside of the laminated playmat gives you a dry erase space in which to create zone maps for action scenes. The Zoneside of the playmat is setting-neutral: you can use it with any Fate game. The playmat offers an open space for zone creation, rather than superimposing a grid of hexes or squares as do most playmats designed for conventional RPGs. This is in line with the Fate system preference for abstraction with respect to space and movement.

We gave the playmat a test drive on Thursday night, as Bob ran the second half of our Pilgrims of the Flying Temple playtest. The adventure took place in a forest, in the caves below a giant tree, and inside the giant tree itself. Our use of the map was a bit whimsical, and traced our itinerary through the forest adventure, with situational/environmental aspects being recorded along the way.

Later this weekend, I'll post a more tactical use of the playmat over on my Fate of Tekumel blog.

In the upper right hand side of the playmat, there is a box labelled "Situational Aspects". Since this was the second half of an adventure that happened 3-4 weeks ago, I used that box to record the names of the NPCs.

The action started with the PCs chasing a dog named Ulf. We had been sent to a village outside the forest because of a letter from a village girl called Molly. She had requested our help, because all of the village's animals had disappeared. Once we discovered Molly's dog Ulf deep in the forest, we followed the dog into a branching tunnel complex under the giant tree in the center of the forest.

Next to the sketch of branching caves, I wrote down one of the important environmental aspects that Bob put out there for players: Luminescent Moss. As we went in deeper, we encountered an underground river. All of us went in the drink, chasing the dog.

As you can see from the detail shot below, the river has one of Bob's signature aspects:

The river was swift, and some of us were NOT good swimmers. That led to a number of Approach rolls, as one PC attempted to avoid drowning, while a few of us struggled to catch-up with the others.

Over several rounds of Approaches rolls, Bob used the lower left hand box on the playmat (designed for recording Boosts) to make hash marks for each player's relative progress moving down the underground river. The fewer X's you had, the farther ahead you had gone; the more X's you had, the further you had fallen behind in swimming, stalactite swinging, or walking on water.

Yes, that's right. Walking on water. My character decided that since he knew how to walk on treetops, it should be easy to walk on water. The trick is to keep moving, so you don't sink! He grabbed a stalactite, kicked off his wet shoes, and began walking on water. Stunt creation on the fly!

Eventually we made it out of the cave, and found ourselves back right outside the giant tree at the center of the forest.

We climbed the tree, eventually found an opening, and went inside. There were ant-folk. We communicated with them by making "antenna gestures" with our hands. Eventually we encountered the blobular sapling creature living in a pool of sap.

We negotiated - get ready for it - a Tree-Tee, and brought it back to the villagers outside the forest so that they could sign it.

The villagers promised to treat the animals better, and eventually some of the animals returned!

***

Our first experience with the Jadepunk playmat was very fun. Sure, we didn't use it for tactical play in a single zone, as much as to represent the succession of scenes where the action took place. So we used the playmat as a set of linked scene maps. I think that is a legitimate use of the artifact.

The two boxes on the right side of the playmat were not used exactly as intended. Instead, the GM found a new use for each box which supported play in that specific adventure. I think it adds value to the playmat design that a GM can make versatile use of these small compartments.

Finally, a couple of words about the physical quality of the playmat are in order. In my original review of the Cityside of the map, I commented that I would have preferred a rolled mat, as opposed to a folded one. I have since heard back from the playmat's designer that they experimented with a rolled format. It didn't work too well, as the rolled mat kept trying roll up on the game table. I can tell you that in a 2.5 hour session, the fact that the mat had been folded made no difference for play. 

No less importantly, I want to underscore how erasable the playmat is. One dry napkin was totally sufficient to remove all traces of dry erase marker from the playmat. Reuse is everything with a playmat, and this one is a very good value. 

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.

Jadepunk Playmat, Pt. I - Cityside

Last week, we ordered the Jadepunk RPG playmat from the Reroll Store. It cost $10 plus $6 for shipping. It arrived in three days, remarkably fast when you consider how long some gaming vendors make you wait before they even take your parcel to the post office!

The playmat has two sides. One side is a map of Kausao City, the default setting of the Jadepunk RPG. That's what I am looking at today.

The playmat is laminated so that you can use dry erase markers with it. The city map has a few key locations that are labelled, but most of the map is designed for on-the-fly specification of locations used in the scenario. So we have a city resource that is closer to Vornheim than to Ptolus. This works well with Fate's collaborative and on-the-fly approach to setting creation, although there is nothing to prevent a GM from specifying setting details by fiat, as I have done in the photo above.

On the top left side of the map we filled-in two Scenario Aspects:

• Find the Meteor Hammer
• Pursued by the Red Jade Swallowers

Boom! We have a scenario!

Now we link the scenario to the map! You can click on the photo above to enlarge the map. For the scenario, I have marked three locations on the Kausao City map:

• The primary location is the Nighthammer District (circled in blue), a borrowing from the city of Nexus in Exalted. This district is where the city's iron and steel are made. On the left side of the playmat, Nighthammer's aspects are listed:
• Many forges
• Smoke
• The sound of hammers
• A discoverable clue location, "Ling last seen here" is circled in rust colored ink on the lower end of the map. The location is known as The Red Garden. It's aspects are:
• Smugglers trade here
• Rough trade (it's close to the docks and people so inclined come here to pick up stevedores)
• Pickpockets
• A discoverable clue location, RJS haven? noted at the top of the map in red. The Red Jade Swallowers are a secret society which is trying to steal a Red Jade artifact, the Red Blood Cloud Meteor Hammer.

Now we link back to some important Faces (NPCs) of Kausao City that will be featured in the scenario.

Apprentice Ling

• Portrayal: Apprentice Smith
• Need: Sell the Hammer
• Secret: On the Run

Master Chen

• Portrayal: Master Smith
• Need: Recover the Hammer
• Secret: Promised the Hammer to two different customers

Mao Yang

• Portrayal: Ling's Lover
• Need: Find Ling
• Secret: I have the money to start a new life with Ling

Debt Collector Yao

• Portrayal: Collect what is owed
• Need: Wants Yang for Himself
• Secret: The Red Jade Society have my daughter

So, a macguffin, a love triangle, and a man who made too many promises.

Then we have our mysterious villain:

Mystery Vang

• Portrayal: Boss of the Red Jade Swallowers
• Need: The Meteor Hammer
• Secret: ?

***

Conclusions: If you are playing Jadepunk, the city-side alone is worth $10. It is easy to use it to create adventures on the fly. The map is color-coded to show the major nations' turf in Kausao city, but there is plenty of neutral territory that the GM can use as they see fit. In fact most of the map works that way.  

My only critical feedback is that I would have been willing to pay even more to get the map without folds, rolled-up in a tube. I just prefer maps that lay perfectly flat. I might not have bought the product if I had known it was folded, but in practice that turned out not to bother me too much when I used it.

We are doing the second half of our Pilgrims of the Flying Temple playtest tonight, so we'll see if the GM wants to use the other side of the map, which offers a Zone Map.   

Imperial Cult Shrines

Vibia Sabina

Imperial Cult Shrines are one of the most important and ubiquitous symbols of the Empire's unity. Every inhabited system in the Empire has an Imperial Cult Shrine; most systems have many. Each particular shrine is dedicated to an Imperial Sovereign - but never to the living, reigning one at the time the shrine was built. Each shrine calls to mind an act or deed of that ruler - for the good, or for the bad. Each shrine teaches a lesson.

Shrines dedicated to the Imperial Sovereigns of the Early Period commemorate their glorious deeds in founding the Empire: abolishing all manners of slavery and involuntary servitude, overthrowing the numerous tyrannies found under a thousand suns, and banishing a panoply of shameful, ignorant, and superstitious practices. These shrines are places of glory and wonder. Many were built upon the ruins of the ancien regimes torn down by the Empire's founders.

The hallmark of the Imperial Sovereigns of the Middle Period was the practice of seclusion. Their shrines are quiet, often solemn places, suitable for meditation, introspection, and philosophical study and reflection. The shrines of the Middle Period are often also pilgrimage sites, as visions and apparitions of Imperial Sovereigns are common in these locations. The Middle Shrines are doorways to the Empire's past, present, future - including to the Empire's myriad alternities.

The shrines of the Latter Period are gaudy and self-aggrandizing. The Empire's expansion continues ever-onward, and the Imperial Sovereigns of the Latter Period continue to hold back the Terrible Night looming in the Core. Many of the Latter Period shrines are built directly on top of shrines from earlier ages. No more the shrines of the Early and Middle Periods, which sometimes expressed subtle or not-so-subtle critique of a past ruler. The shrines of this period sing the Latter Empire's songs too loudly. Perhaps the Imperial Sovereigns now fear the inevitable too much.

Aspects

General:

• Symbols of the Empire's unity
• Calls to mind an act or deed
• Each shrine teaches a lesson

Early Period:

• Commemorate the founding of the Empire
• Places of glory and wonder
• Built upon the ruins of ancien regimes

Middle Period:

• Quiet, solemn places
• Visions and apparitions
• Doorways to the Empire's past, present, future

Latter Period:

• Gaudy and self-aggrandizing
• Built directly on top of shrines from earlier ages
• A fear of the inevitable

Legions Of The Imperial Sovereign II

Spindle Art by Juan Ochoa

The Predecessors are Legions that existed in some form prior to the foundation of the Empire. Armed companies, rebel armies, standing armies of conquered realms, religious orders - each of the Predecessors can trace its roots to turbulent times and places in the distant galactic past.


Legio XIII The Legion That Sorrows Failed: Ancient, cursed and disbanded for unknown reasons in the Empire's Middle Period; their standard is preserved in an ostensorium on a lunar shrine orbiting a dead planet.

Legio XIV Lanterns of the Star-Silk Road: Protect interstellar trade routes and trade stations throughout the Empire and beyond; incredibly wealthy wheelers and dealers.

Legio XV Adjuster of Attitudes: Sometimes called the "Knee-Breakers", this ancient order of reprisal-artists, assassins, and thugs has always been used to suppress rebellious tributaries.

Legio XVI Banishers of Gloom: The discoverers of the Spindles long before humans took to the stars, the first Banishers served as the legendary jump-gate scouts of the Sun-King of Amarna. Today their descendants are charged with scouring and cleansing dead worlds and space hulks of insidious threats.

Legio XVII Red Principalities: Assembled from the multitude of fighting men and women from the Red Martian city-states. Light infantry (sword and radium pistol) their members are uniformly attractive, and popular with the court. More than a few astute members of their ranks have risen from being the lover of a court functionary to occupy the throne as an Imperial Sovereign.

Legio XVIII Greensworn Hordes: Assembled from the multitude of Green Martian hordes, the Greensworn are born in special hatcheries within Imperial Cult shrines. They are raised and trained by Green Martian warrior-priestesses of the Imperial Cult. Light cavalry (lance and radium rifle) as well as light infantry (Imperial Cult shrine guards); religious fanatics.

Legio XIX The Tripods: Tripod war machine pilots - primarily Old Martians, with a smattering of other tentacular races. Never to be deployed with the XVII and XVIII. Siege experts, combat engineers, and expert terraformers. Raconteurs; excellent if perverse occupation forces.

Legio XX Ares Panzerai: Ageless bishonen/bishoju, these Mobile Suit pilots are genetic supersoldiers from the Red Planet's human warrior clans. Many subunits, each with their own clan, planetary, and lunar sigils. Usually deployed in subunits, as the Panzerai are fractious, quarrelsome, and prone to duels.

Legio XXI Union Guard: Originally a Republican Guard unit of the long-vanquished Maltruskan Union, this all-Maltruskan military formation was re-established by the Banisher Pontiff and empowered by treaty to protect Maltruskan worlds and settlements. Heavy mobile infantry; two Hierophant-class Battle Carriers and other assorted naval vessels equipped for travel to and from the pocket universes where Maltruskan worlds are protected by Excommunication.

Legio XXII Sodality of the Lens: A female-only mystical order established in the galactic core millennia ago, this multispecies formation long ago fled the core and established Sacred Offices throughout Known Space. Members of the order who operate within the Empire are considered members of Legio XXII, although they do not report to the Imperial Sovereign and have no battle standard. Members often operate as singletons and/or in small special contact units.

Legio XXIII Nexialist Service Corps: This all-Nexialist unit has never lost a battle, but they haven't won too many, either. During the Nexialist Revolt their ranks were divided - some stayed in their quarters, while others sided with the Nexialist Communes. Light infantry, potent combat psychics. Not trusted; kept out of the way of the serious legions - except when an Imperial Sovereign wants to thin out the Nexialists' ranks. Then, they're thrown into the thick of battle. Needless to say, no standard.

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...

Lucifer Unboxed

Lucifer of the IL Series

The most humanoid of the original Cylons, the IL series served as the Cylon empire's first military commanders and planetary governors. They weren't particularly well-liked by anyone, including by others their own kind. The IL's are ambitious, duplicitous, manipulative, sarcastic, and given to sartorial excess. These traits, combined with their epicene character, made them perfect villains for their era.

They're resilient, the ILs. They play the long game. ILs know how to dig-in and stay unnoticed until the opportune moment arrives when a rival makes a stupid move. They also know how to sneak away and start again elsewhere.

Due to the iterative and cyclic nature of Cylon civilization, many of the ILs have branched out, well beyond the boundaries of their original civilization. Some have leaped forward in time; others have gone backwards. More than a few have even stepped sideways, passing through the boundaries between universes, to resume their personal empire-building somewhere else.

At least one IL series is a General in the Legions of the Imperial Sovereign. A few are said to be operatives of Omega House. Paradoxically, at least one IL is living out an apparently quiet retirement in the R.U.R. Workers-State.

Their spacetime wanderings continue, and their ambitions keep pace. The ILs are an expressive totality of the itinerant nature of Cylonic civilization, as well as of the Cylon's Imperious Leader principle.

There is always one sure sign that an IL is about to make a move. Before undertaking a new scheme, an IL will unbox a number of old Centurions and drones.

After all, it's hard to be a leader with no followers.

OGL MECHANICS

The IL Series
Manipulative Android Satraps

ASPECTS:

• High Concept: Flamboyant and manipulative android commanders
• Trouble: Pride cometh before the fall
• Aspect: Named after a devil for a reason
• Aspect: Too clever by half
• Aspect: Never suffer fools gladly

APPROACHES:

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

STUNTS:

• By Your Command: Take +2 to Flashy Approach to persuade any cyborg to follow you. 
• Enemy of My Enemy: In any Scene involving social interaction, you may gain a deep insight into the interests or motivations of another character in the scene. 
• Sartorial Delight: Once per Scene, you may pull a concealed device or object (other than a weapon) from within your colorful and ample robes. The device/object is immediately useful to your character in some way.
• Two Brains: Take a +2 to your Clever Approach to Create an Advantage resulting from focused brainpower. 

REFRESH: 2