Magnificent Samurai Session 7

We had a session of Magnificent Samurai on Sunday August 21st.

Characters

Augustus Scitiori - dual-weapon master of shortswords
Catonio - a Catfolk Swashbuckler
Eliot de la Frau - A Saber-master and pirate.
Erland - a Jotun wrestler.
Markus - A Hobgoblin Paladin of the God of Chivalry.
Melek - a Nephilim greatswordsman
Tonokai - a Kazanjiman horse-archer

NPC Companions

Zui Shushu - A drunkard priest the party's hired as a healer

The Cave of the Enslaver of the Flames of the Hearth

Catonio got over his hairballs and the party traveled to the lair of the blue demon, the Enslaver of the Flames of the Hearth.  They arrived without any trouble on the way, and entered a short tunnel.  Near the entrance they found a glowing glyph carved into the floor and avoided it.  As they entered the midpoint, a digging device filled the tunnel behind them and moved forward.  As the fastest members of the group got near the end a Link went off and a Glue spell triggered, trapping Eliot and Melek.  Catonio, noting a gap between the digger and the ceiling, used Flying Leap and Acrobatics to squeeze through the gap and land on the back of the digger, facing a cigarette smoking Imp in the driver's seat and a pair of oxen on treadmills providing the motive force.  On his next turn, he stabbed at the Imp, who Blinked away from that, but who also didn't notice Catonio's Main-gauche in the off-hand and got skewered on the follow up (I roll direction randomly for Blink and he ended up in one of Catonio's other front hexes.)

The control panel was simple enough for an 8 IQ imp to understand, so Catonio had no problem figuring out how to stop the thing.  The party then found a secret door in the tunnel and entered a side chamber.

The Goblin Prisoner

The party saw a room packed with building and mechanical supplies, a big blackboard with plans for the digger on it, and a goblin trapped in a crow's cage.  He begged the party to get him out.  After some back-and-forth talking Catonio succeeded on Detect Lies and realized he was lying about something.  When this was found out, he grew to nine feet tall and summoned up a pack of three frog demons to attack the party.  The first party member to attack him discovered he was surrounded by an aura that drained their FP 2d per turn.  When he died, he exploded and did 6d FP to anyone within a couple of hexes, knocking several party members out.  This forced the party to rest for a couple of hours to get their energy back.

While they were down, Erland opened a chest in the room that they had been warned to leave alone and took a 12d Explosive Fireball to the face.  Ouch.  He went unconscious and the party healer dressed him down after bringing him back up.

The Final Battle

They found a key in the room, and went back to the tunnel and travelled to its end.  They found a magical field that could only be crossed one at a time with the key in hand (the key could also be passed back through.)  They found an angel in a Pentagram who looked exactly like Melek's grandmother.  They decided in short order she was a demon and Melek entered the Pentagram and cut her head off.

The party entered the room and a Darkness spell dropped.  The area just outside the room wasn't darkened, so they were able to retreat but Zui Shushu was murdered in the dark by someone saying "I hate priests."  Catonio tried to taunt the demon into attacking but just got the poor healer's head hurled at him in response.

After the Darkness fled, the party entered again, and advanced slowly.  Eliot leapt over an obstruction but smashed into it with his face (Flying Leap success but an Acrobatics critical failure.)  The party saw two Bearded Devils in the room and moved to engage.  While everyone else was doing this, Eliot noticed an altar below and used Power Blow and Breaking Blow to smash it.  This caused all the demon's spells to drop and prevented him from casting any further spells.  There had been two statues in the far corner.  Both were then shown to be illusory, with one of them being the blue demon.  His plan had been for the party to enter the room far from the exit, at which point he'd just murder them all in the dark.  This failing, he entered combat.

He was a tough opponent, bringing several party members below 0 HP and knocking Tonokai out.  Eliot found the demon's trophies hidden in the altar and started smashing them, doing damage to the demon with each one.  Catonio, though, was able to deliver the death blow and swore to make armor out of the demon's blue behind.  I let his player buy off the Enemy Disadvantage at half price for finishing the quest, and we ended there, with half the party reduced to less than 0 HP and a strange warning about mechanism-armed demons that had so far failed to materialize...

Thoughts on Adapting Published Magical Styles

Since the first publication of GURPS Thaumatology: Magical Styles there have been a number of styles published in Pyramid and other books, and many of those fit into my gameworld, though many need revising.  Here's are my thoughts on how to make them fit.  (I'll cover the styles from Dungeon Magic in another post.)

The Onyx Path

(GURPS Thaumatology: Magical Styles, p. 34)

This school fits right in with no mechanical adjustments needed.  The Onyx Path isn't good for PCs, in most cases, because it's essentially a College of Necromancy style.  As alluded to in my last post, Necromancy is considered a Dark Art in most civilized areas, and knowing spells from that college normally means a character qualifies for a -20 point Secret.  However, I did have one PC recently who knew the style, so it's not forbidden, it just normally comes with some serious complications.

Six Strengths of Siegecraft

(Pyramid #3/4: Magic on the Battlefield, p. 4)

The style of the Society of Siege Sorcerors, a group of mercenary mages, this one fits right in to my gameworld.  There are a number of established mercenary organizations running around, and lots of wars, so it makes perfect sense that there would be a company of "sell-spells" to go with the sell-swords.

Yellow Goblin Magic

(Pyramid #3/28: Thaumatology II, p. 11)

I use the Yrth version of goblins in my own gameworld, mostly because they were in GURPS Fantasy Folk.  Their spells and philosophy are a bit odd, even for goblins, but it works.  The notion of Colors as the major groupings of magic, instead of the College structure, is also one I find interesting.  I've seen the existing college structure as a fundamental aspect of magic, but it doesn't have to be the Only Truth, and it makes me think that maybe the college divisions could be more of a matter of habit and tradition.

Oa 

(Pyramid #3/43: Thaumatology III, p. 4)

"Wine Magic" is a great idea, but unfortunately for me Dionysus as a god isn't appropriate.  To use this style, I need to rewrite it a good bit and change Dionysus to another God of the Grapevine, and I've never written one up.  It's still a good style, so I'll do that the moment a player shows interest.  I have no real reason to put in the work otherwise.

The Way of the Keepers

(Pyramid #3/48: Secret Magic, p. 10)

This is a modern-day style, and there are some juicy bits to swipe, but I'd need to revise it a lot to get it to fit.   Plus, magic is anything but a secret in my gameworld. 

Perfecting Rites of the Shaded Woodlands

(Pyramid #3/68: Natural Magic, p. 8)

I don't use the Yrth-style Dark Elves any longer, so this style isn't an obvious fit, but I do have Druids who are themselves mages, and so I can certainly make it fit.  It would work as the signature style of a Druidic Crusader-type order (that's an idea worth thinking about.) The only other thing I should do with this one is add some spells from GURPS Magic: Plant Spells to its spell list.

Also, I've been considering writing up an Animal College and Plant College based set of styles for Druids, and this could work as the (or maybe a) Plant-style.

Bibliography

GURPS Thaumatology: Magical Styles by Sean Punch

Pyramid #3/4: Magic on the Battlefield, "The Society of Siege Sorcerors," by Sean Punch

Pyramid #3/28: Thaumatology II, "Yellow Goblin Magic," by Mark Gellis

Pyramid #3/43: Thaumatology III, "Adelphos Dionysos," by Sean Punch
Pyramid #3/48: Secret Magic, "The Way of the Keepers," by Michele Armellini

Pyramid #3/68: Natural Magic, "Magic of the Shaded Woodlands," by Paul Stefko

The Brotherhood of Mages

In my gameworld, there's a culture-wide mage's organization most legitimate mages are supposed to belong to, The Ancient and Just Order of the Brethren Magical. It's normally known as the Brotherhood of Mages or just "the Brotherhood" for short.The Brotherhood has official status and judicial authority over magical affairs in most nations of the West, but there are exceptions.

It's strictly limited to men, and the Brotherhood opposes the approval of female wizards in most cases. There are, of course, female mages anyway, but they usually qualify for a Social Stigma.

Members of the Brotherhood are required to wear Hat, Robe, and bear their Mystic Tool (wand, staff, or rod) at all times in public. A roll vs. Heraldry (Magical) can tell you what colleges a Brotherhood Mage knows when you see his regalia.  Their official rules are below, and it counts as a 10-point Code of Honor.  Mages fall under canon law rather than secular law in most cases, so a member in good standing can buy Legal Immunity at the 5-point level.

As far as PCs are concerned, I think about half of the mages that have been played are official members.  For all the rules and legal standing, it's not usually that difficult for a clever PC to avoid them unless he's using Necromancy, which is a big no-no in any case in the civilzed West.

The Law of the Brotherhood

1. You shall not attempt to disguise who you are. Wear the Hat and the Robe, and carry the Staff(a) that are the symbols of your office.
2. You shall not use magic to rule.
3. You shall not cast spells upon others without their assent(b) except in defense. When requested by the proper authorities, claims of defense shall be judged by the Brotherhood using spells of truth. Attempting to resist such spells shall be taken as proof of guilt.
4. You shall not attempt to cast any spell forbidden by the Brotherhood.(c)
5. You shall not attempt to cast any spell forbidden by the authorities of the land you currently occupy.(d)
6. You shall obey your superiors in the Brotherhood in all good things.
7. You shall fight Necromancy when you encounter it, or shall report it to the Brotherhood if you find yourself unable to fight it.

(a) Staff, wand, or rod as appropriate for the Wizard in question.(b) "Assent" is normally interpreted broadly. For example, anyone who steps foot into your home or place of business is considered to have assented.(c) Licenses for forbideen spells are available to members in good standing.(d) Being licensed for a spell by the Brotherhood is good enough for local law as well.

Magnificent Samurai Session 6

Magnificent Samurai was yesterday.  It's been a busy couple of months, so I didn't post logs of two sessions.  If I posted a recap now, I think they'd be kind of incoherent, so I'll just skip Session 4 and 5 and move on to yesterday's Session 6.

Gortak's player has dropped out of the campaign, so we have seven characters now.

Characters

• Augustus Scitiori - dual-weapon master of shortswords
• Eliot de la Frau - A Saber-master and pirate.
• Erland - a Jotun wrestler.
• Markus - A Hobgoblin Paladin of the God of Chivalry.
• Melek - a Nephilim greatswordsman
• Tonokai - a Kazanjiman horse-archer

NPC Companions

• Zui Shushu - A drunkard priest the party's hired as a healer

Not Present

• Catonio - a Catfolk Swashbuckler

The Hidden Kingdom

The party has located the Hidden Kingdom of Prester John, a missionary from the West who's occupied a mountain valley with a small force.  They had planned an assault on the Enslaver of the Flames of the Hearth, a demon from the West who is lately active in the Jade Empire and was the actual six-fingered man who killed Catonio's parents. Sadly, Catonio came down with a bad case of hairballs and had to get some bed rest (his player missed the session, and I'm not about to run his personal quest without him.)  Asking around the city, they found out that the Serpent Folk had a local outpost that Prester John wanted removed, so they struck out for that, instead.

The Ambush in the Woods and the Outpost

The party scouted out the area near the outpost, but they ran right into a strong patrol of Sepent Folk (a race based on the Yuan-ti from D&D if you're curious.)  I had the party and the NPCs roll a Quick Contest of Tactics to determine position, and unfortunately Augustus rolled an 18.  So, the fight started with the party out of position and their priest surrounded, alone, by a knot of enemies.  

However, this is an all-fighters game, so EVERYONE (but the NPC) has Combat Reflexes, and surprise is essentially something that happens to other people.  A short fight ensued, Augustus was the victim of an enemy's critical success on a Strike Blind in the first round of combat, and a couple of PCs took some damage, but the enemies were still wrecked.  Surrounded by four warriors, Zui Shushu managed to fall prone but still totally avoid damage through some lucky rolls and All-Out Defenses.

The party discovered that the enemy spellcaster wore an amulet with an icon of a two-headed monkey, which Markus identified as a symbol of Demogorgon, making these Serpent Folk obvious demon worshippers.

Eliot Interrogated one of the survivors with Erland providing complementary Intimidation, so the party was able to discover that the outpost, hidden in a cave, had three surface entries, a locked gate to the Underdark, and a air vent above.  The party blocked off all the exits, closed off the vent, and set a smoky fire to drive the Serpent Folk into an ambush.

When 250+ point warriors get the total drop on their foes, bad stuff happens to those foes quickly.  The fight ended with no PC taking more than two actions, and the survivors submitted.

In the cave, the party discovered a shrine to Demogorgon, which Melek smashed.  They also found an elaborate amulet to Demogorgon, consisting of a silver necklace and carnelian cameo.  Melek grabbed this to smash it (Impulsiveness strikes again!) but was turned into a statue for his pains, due to a Delay and Flesh to Stone.  I gave the underlying spell a big bonus to represent the anger of the demon prince.  Luckily, there was a cart in the cave so the party was able to take the poor half-angel with them, instead of leaving him to be smashed...

My Notes

This ended up being a short session, but the fights were engaging, even if they were totally one-sided.  That's OK; PC plans should work out from time to time.  Melek failed an Impulsiveness self-control roll three times in this session, which caused some funny results.

Around the Blogs: Point Costs

There have been a few posts on point costs in GURPS over the past couple of days:

Ravens n' Pennies: Back to the Drawing Board
Mailanka's Musings: On the Cost of Advantages
Let's GURPS: "Fair Pricing"

My Take

I doubt it's possible to come up with a universal notion of what a point's worth and have it be meaningful.  A point to a spellcaster using the standard magic system is another spell or a potentially valuable Perk (Reduced Footprint, for example,) to a fighter it's a Combat Perk, or it's 1/4 the way to another skill level in his primary skill, and so on.  It varies, not only from character to character, but from group to group, and even from campaign to campaign with the same group.  I think that means there's always a subjective element to any GURPS Advantage pricing.

My Example: Far-Caster

On my post about Magical Advantages, I listed Far-Caster at 30 points, which gives spells that normally take the Regular penalty for range (-1/yard) the Range penalty instead.  This is an advantage I cribbed from an edition of Rolemaster (the one with all the Companions) that I wrote up for a campaign that started in 1995.  I have been tweaking the cost of this advantage for literally 20 years, and I don't even know for sure that I've got the cost I want yet.

It started out that being a Threshold-caster was 25 points, and being a Far-Caster was another 25 points.  At this point some Sorcerers were Far-Casters, but not all of them.  After a couple of campaigns, it became clear to me that being a Threshold caster wasn't really much of an advantage over a FP based Mage I reduced the cost for Threshold casting to 10 points, then later eliminated it.  I changed the cost for Far-Caster to 20 points, at which point all Threshold-users were Far-Casters.  I increased the cost of Far-Caster back to 25, then to 30, and yet all Sorcerers are still Far-Casters.  That's probably got more to do with a question of utility vs. raw power in this particular case, but I think it demonstrates that pricing something in GURPS is an art, not a science, and it's not always easy.

What About Balance?

I think that's another very subjective thing.  The two important bits for me are that a well-made PC feels valuable and capable at least some of the time, and isn't casually overshadowed by another character who isn't focused on the same things.  That can actually be an issue in GURPS; since you need a high IQ to play an effective Mage, a few points in social skills could accidentally make you better than the party face with at least some social stuff.  There's obviously more to it than just raw skills, such as Charisma, Cultural Familarities, and other social Advantages for a start, but when a point in Diplomacy gets you a 12 without even trying hard there's a certain inherent problem with the balance.

For me that's not a really big issue, but I'd be lying if I tried to pretend it didn't exist.  A GURPS GM really has to be careful of this sort of thing, and free with advice on how to spend points wisely even for experienced players.  A social monster, properly built, will talk circles around Mr Diplomacy 12, and will be a valuable contributor to the group.  Given the right situations, his points will feel well-spent and just as worth it as another spell for the mage.

Magnificent Samurai: Session 3

Magnificent Samurai was last Sunday but I just finished the log.

Characters

• Augustus Scitiori - A former centurion, and a dual-weapon master of shortswords.
• Catonio, a Catfolk Swashbuckler searching for the Six Fingered Man who killed his parents.
• Eliot de la Frau - A Saber-master and pirate.
• Erland - a Jotun wrestler.
• Markus - A Hobgoblin Paladin of the God of Chivalry.
• Melek - a Nephilim (half-angel) greatswordsman and user of Imbuements.
• Tonokai - a Kazanjiman horse-archer (but not technically a Samurai as she has no Status.)

• Gortak, a Jotun master of the Greatsword.

Rumors Abound

The party spent a week asking around to gather information to see what was going on in the area.  They also wanted to head to the village where a strange murder had occurred and check out what was going on. 

They picked up the following rumors:

• The treasury at Yellow Lotus Abbey wasn't found by the bandits who destroyed it so there should still be some valuable stuff there.
• The local Governor, Lord Mao Haoren, is missing after going off with the Imperial Loyalist Army about three years ago.  No one knows if he's dead or not, and his wife, Lady Mao Dihuang is running things unofficially until he gets back or is replaced.

Travelling to the Abbey and a Detour

So, the party decided to head out for the abbey and see what was left there.  They first decided to travel to Long Pines, the village mentioned by farmers in Session One where a strange murder was committed.  They questioned several villagers, and found that the farmer had been confined to his home until a magistrate was present so he could be tried.  The consensus seemed to be that it was strange that he'd murdered her, as he had seemed normal till this happened.  Some of the farmers even thought the woman could have been a fox spirit, but no one seemed to think she was beautiful enough for that.

The party's hired Priestess was asked, and she thought it sounded more like a case of possession, and that the victim could have been one of the Serpent People from the Underworld, as they have a bad reputation and are said to sometimes replace victims on the surface for unclear reasons.

The party had the Priestess exorcise the murderer, and a blue-skinned demon popped out.  On his turn, he summoned three Vrocks and combat was on.  No one in the party had Demon Lore, so they couldn't aim for vitals or other weak points that weren't obvious (limbs, the neck, etc.)  They all turned out to be resistant to normal weapons, but not immune, so the party was able to win after a bit of a slog.  No PCs were killed, though a couple suffered Major Wounds and a Vrock's Screech stunned a few of them for a couple of turns.  When the blue demon died, it uttered a phrase in the ear of Markus: "Muu Shidten."  Locals said it sounded like a Meng name but no one was familiar with it.

After the victory, the party headed to the murdered woman's original home (she had been a remarried widow and had held her deceased husband's home and land.)  They found a hole, three feet in diameter, heading downwards with a sulfurous smell coming from it.  They warned the villagers to fill in the hole and were rewarded for their troubles with a feast in their honor and a place to stay the night.

They heard the following during the party:

• Xinghong, the Scarlet Wizard, one of the two local magical movers and shakers, is offering a $4,000 reward for his missing scrying orb, and any interested parties should inquire at his tower.
• Imperial Loyalist forces are expected to be moving into the area in the next six months.

The next day out, the party was ambushed by a large number of strange Ant-men, but the party seemed to be faster on the ground so they fled and avoided a fight (a strange coincidence I'm posting this now since Dungeon Fantastic just had a post on fleeing.)  They then met a travelling Alchemist, Liulang Zhe, and they bought most of his healing potions and asked about the local area. He warned them that:

• Yellow Lotus Abbey is haunted by the ghosts of the slaughtered nuns and is very dangerous for the unprepared.
• He also knew a basic version of the legends of Muu Shidten: he was an evil Meng wizard who lived for two hundred years and had vampires for servants.  When he finally died he was buried in a mausoleum just the other side of the mountains on the Meng Plateau.  One of the merchant's grandmothers had been Meng and told him the stories.

They asked the Priestess if she could deal with spirits, and she said she could probably put Affect Spirits on the weapon of one party member without taxing her resources too much.  Any more than that and she might not be able to heal much in combat.  She wasn't sure they could be flat-out Exorcised since as the unlamented dead, they probably had a right to be there.

The Scarlet Wizard Xinghong

The party decided to take a detour to the pagoda of the Scarlet Wizard, to see if he could provide them with anything that could affect spirits, as well as check on his job offer.  Xinghong informed them that one of his apprentices had stolen his six inch scrying crystal and fled to the provincial capital of Shoudu, about a month's travel upriver.  He offered to Create Gate to the city to speed their journey there if they agreed to the mission.

They asked him who might be interested in buying his orb there, and he admitted that he had originally been a member of the Shoudou Mage's Association, but had a nasty argument with two of the other leaders of the group which ended with him Mindlessness-ing one of them and using Shapeshift Other (Toad) on the other and leaving the city in disgrace.  Either of them would probably pay fairly well just to embarrass him.

Shoudou

Arriving in Shoudou, the party were warned by the gate guards to immediately travel to a lodging house and store their weapons and armor, as the city was under martial law.  They also had to bribe the guards to get a civic travel pass, but it was fairly cheap, only 1 silver a person ($20.)  Augustus spent some unfruitful time in the Magistrate's Quarter later trying to get a provincial travel pass, but it proved too expensive for the moment ($1000 a person.)

The party did some searching for a few days until they narrowed down that the fled apprentice was staying in the Foreign Quarter, and traveling to the Magistrate's Quarter to meet a contact to sell the orb.  There were only three bridges crossing the bridges from the Foreign Quarter on her most likely travel path, so the party split up into teams to cover them (only three party members bought Observation so it worked out just right.)  

This almost ended in disaster, as two-of-three of the team consisting of Markus, Melek, and Gortak have Impulsiveness, and they just happen to be the Giant and the Half-angel who glows like a torch.  The goal was to steer her to the other two groups, as Catonio and Eliot both had good skill levels in Shadowing and Stealth.  When they spotted her, The Terrible Duo started moving towards her, and so she turned and fled back into the crowd.

They tried again the next day, made the decision to use the twosome to steer her in the direction they wanted, and luckily spotted her again.  They herded her to the bridge where Catonio and Eliot were waiting and they were able to follow her to where she met her contact.  They overhead her arguing about money, and she left without concluding the deal.  It was pretty obvious from her body language that she was getting desperate, so Eliot decided to sneak into her apartment that night and see if the orb was there.  He used a Potion of Invisibility that the party had looted from the bandits and extracted the orb.

My Notes

It took the group a good week in the city to track the girl down and finish the mission.  Their skill levels as a group of fighters were a bit low for the task at hand, but they managed fairly well (Eliot's player even made a joke about how "Future me is so good at this adventure.")  I rolled 2d for the number of days till she sold the orb, and I had a d12 sitting next to me I was using to countdown the days until the sale was made and they ended with three days to spare.  Had the girl sold it, the group would have had to fight a group of mages to get it so it's just as well for them they succeeded.

Post edited 6/13 at 8:00 pm: I forgot an important point so I edited the post to put it in.  I also rearranged the rumors a bit.

Artifacts: The Bronze Arrow

The Black Arrow of Zumzack style I wrote up was inspired by a former PC from a while back, Zumzack son of Grimzak.  Zumzack was a Goblin fighter-mage who focused on the Movement college (I think he had one-college only Magery).  His main focus was on Flight and Hawk Flight, though he also used Haste and Great Haste a lot.  During the campaign, he found The Bronze Arrow, an artifact-level arrow, and used with Winged Knife to great effect from then on.

The Bronze Arrow

This is an arrow fashioned entirely from bronze-like metal, though it's much tougher than ordinary bronze.  It counts as Very Fine, in addition to being enchanted with both Accuracy and Puissance 3.  It's also Loyal and has Quick-draw.  It's greatest benefit is that it's immune to any magic not performed by its current owner.  Missile Shield, Reflect Missile, and the like fail, any magical DR doesn't count against it, a target can Blink away, but Phase fails, and so forth.

Stats when launched with Winged Knife:

Weapon	Damage	Acc	Range	Wt	RoF	Shots	Cost	ST	Bulk	Notes
Bronze Arrow	1d+7 imp	4	20/40	0.2	1	1	-	-	-1	[1]

[1]: Base damage is calculated as if fired from a Longbow.


Cost:  As with all Artifacts, effectively priceless.  An owner was offered twenty pounds of gold ($400,000) for it once but the offer was refused.  The last known owner was Rupert the Otyugh Mage.
Component spells: Known: Accuracy, Loyalty, Puissance, Quick-draw.  Suspected: Shatterproof, Magic Immunity (?).  It appears unmarred despite decades of constant use so it may be able to repair itself.