The Alphabet of Outer Beings - S is for Sacrifices

I've been listening to the early episodes of the Spellburn podcast and in the 10th episode as they discussed clerics, it was noted how little information was given over to the various gods other than the one or two who are also magical patrons. One of the hosts made a comment about how an A to Z for gods, in the vein of the Dungeon Alphabet or the Monster Alphabet by Goodman Games would be a great resource in such a situation. This got me thinking and ... well here's my first stab at an entry for "The Sponsor Alphabet"... *record scratch* ... nope, we're calling it The Alphabet of Outer Beings now (thanks to Daniel Bishop for a better title).

S is for Sacrifice

Gods and patrons demand service and sacrifice from their worshipers and followers. For most patrons this comes in the form of services rendered from their wizardly supplicants. For gods and deities this may take any number of forms for their clerics, priests, clergy, and faithful. A god of harvest may demand a burnt offering of the first harvest's finest each year. A god of war may demand the blood of a warrior, perhaps from the ranks of the faithful, or perhaps from a prisoner of war. Not to be outdone a sorcerous patron may require a sacrifice other than services.

Start by rolling on table 1 and follow the instructions thereafter. Gamemasters may opt not to roll if they choose or get a result that wildly differs from the expectation for the god or patron but I recommend considering these odd results as possible alternate orthodoxies or an historic apocryphal practice that is no longer in favor.

Table S1: Method of Sacrifice (roll 1d4)

1. Burnt Offering - A creature or object must be offered up and immolated as sacrifice to the higher power. Roll on Table S2: Type of Offering.
2. Blood Sacrifice - A living creature must be slaughtered, possibly with attendant consumption of the corpse by the priest or supplicant. Roll 1d3:
1. move to Table S3: Humanoids
2. move to Table S4: Animals
3. move to Table S4: Animals
3. Service - A humanoid must be given over to the service of the god or patron. The duration of such a service may be long enough to execute a specific task or a lifelong service from the individual, or any duration between. Roll on Table S3: Humanoids 
4. Donation - A donation of property or wealth to the god's priests or directly to a patron, or another of the patron's followers. Roll 1d3: 
1. Livestock, roll 1d4 on Table S4
2. Crops, move to Table S5
3. Wealth, move to Table S6

Table S2: Type of Offering (roll 1d4)

1. Humanoid - move to Table S3
2. Animal - move to Table S4
3. Agriculture - move to Table S5
4. Wealth - move to Table S6

Table S3: Humanoids (roll 1d10 and then move to Table S7)

1. Human
2. Elf
3. Dwarf
4. Halfling
5. Monstrous Humanoid (as appropriate for setting; Goblin, Orc, Lizardman, etc)
6. Any humanoid
7. Any female
8. Any male
9. Child; roll 1d8 on this table for type
10. Multiple; roll 1d10 again to determine but add +1 sacrifice (this result is cumulative)

Table S4: Animals (roll 1d12 and then move to Table S7)

1. Sheep
2. Goat
3. Chicken
4. Cow or Bull
5. Snake
6. Bear
7. Feline (small)
8. Feline (large)
9. Dog
10. Wolf (or other wild canine)
11. Any animal
12. Animal Young; roll 1d10 on this table for type and 1d3 for number

Table S5: Agriculture (roll 1d6 to determine type and 1d4 to determine quantity and then move to Table S7)

1. S5a: Types
1. Grains
2. Vegetables
3. Berries
4. Fruits
5. Honey
6. Herbs 
2. S5b: Quantity
1. Handful
2. Sackful
3. Bushel
4. Barrel

Table S6: Wealth (roll 1d8 and then move to Table S7)

1. Coinage
2. Cut Jewels
3. Raw gemstones
4. Base metals
5. Textiles
6. Pottery
7. Painted artwork
8. Other crafted goods (swords, books, woven baskets, etc.)

Table S7: Frequency of Sacrifice
For Lawful deities roll 1d10 on this table 1d3 times to establish their regular sacrificial requirements. For Chaotic deities roll 1d10 to determine the timing of the next sacrifice and then roll again afterward to determine the next and so forth. For Neutral deities and Patrons roll 1d10 once. 

1. Daily
2. Nightly
3. Weekly
4. Fortnightly
5. Monthly 
6. Yearly
7. At the Solstice
8. On a specific date relevant to the god or patron
9. Seasonal 
10. Non-regular, the god or patron may demand sacrifice at any time 

Nuts & Bolts #146 - Hacking the Cypher System - Blowing Up Advancement

The magic number is Sixteen right? Or is it? Four EXP per advancement. Yes, that's correct. Four advancements to gain the next Tier. Yes. No. Maybe.

I've been running a Cypher System game set in Freeport since this summer. We try to play weekly, but it's working out more like 2x per month right now because we are at minimum group size (IMO, 3 players and a GM is minimum, I know some folks will run for fewer PCs, but for me 3 is the bare minimum). The players are all somewhere in the midst of Tier 2 right now. They are pretty capable. They can combat like the best of them. They have some cool toys. They even have some strengths in certain kinds of tasks.

The more we play though, the more I am seeing that the characters are pretty threadbare for skills. This is the first time I'm really running into this in Cypher and I think it's because I've been making an effort to really throw in a variety of applicable skills. Lore: Local Knowledge helps when churning the rumor mill, or knowing current events. Lore: Magic for all those useful instances of "what the heck is going on"? Jumping, climbing, sneaking, speaking, running, tracking, and observing. Heck, even cooking has come up.

Sometimes the players have the skills they need sometimes they don't. The Cypher System isn't a super skill heavy game system the way other systems can be. There's no barrier to entry for tasks based on skill. If you aren't trained in locating secret doors or navigating that just means it'll be tougher for you. This works well and I wouldn't change that aspect of the system, but one thing I do thing I want to change is the acquisition of skill training.

And in the process I'm going to change the advancement process for my game. Possibly for all my games henceforth.

At the moment Advancements include: Effort, Pools, Edge, and Skill. BUT there's the option to ditch one Advancement for one of a number of other options. Note that while this is commonly thought to replace the Skill it can replace ANY of the "core four" Advancements. Also note that the list of options is different depending on the book you're using. Numenera (pg. 112) allows for a Type ability, while the Cypher System Rulebook (pg. 223) and The Strange (pg. 124) do not. Maybe this is a change Monte made after getting more time with the system, or maybe it was a matter of layout space and not wanting drift onto the next page (since all three of those pages are also the last of their respective chapters).

I mentioned to my group that I was going to change this last option. Instead of allowing it as a replacement for the standard four, I'm going to add it as a new Advancement entirely. Edge, Effort, Pools, Skill, and "Training". Personally I prefer the Numenera allowance of an extra Type ability so "Training" will be either, a recovery bonus, an armor penalty reduction, or a new Type Ability. This would also be a prime place to place "Guild training" for character's who join organizations that grant special abilities.

This has two immediate effects on character advancement of course. The first and most obvious is that characters now have to buy 5 Advancements before they tier up. They also will always gain training in a skill, the most commonly replaced Advancement, as a result of this. However there is a derived effect that may not be initially obvious. Each Tier get's a little longer. It now takes 20 EXP to tier up rather than 16 EXP. That means that Tier 6 is a minimum of 100 EXP away rather than 80 EXP. This may help some of you to run longer campaigns (I see people asking about that from time to time).

What's the in-game impact? Well, the direct impact is that character's will be even stronger late in the game. They'll either have more Type abilities to draw on, or they will have much more powerful Recovery rolls, or be able to wear the heaviest of armor without care. They'll also have more skills in all likelihood. Is this a problem? It could be. I have never GMed a game for Tier 6 PCs. I've never even played in a game past the Tier 4/5 tipping point.

Maybe it's a terrible idea.

I would imagine that in a Gods of the Fall game it would have barely any impact on the PCs who with shifts and Divine Cyphers will certainly be absurdly capable at Tier 6 already. On the other hand it'll make PCs in a "grim n gritty" game too strong. They'll have too much power.

Which is why I think I'd be OK doing the opposite for such games and having only 3 Advancements per Tier (or even 2 if you were planning an intentionally short campaign). If you wanted to give the players less power make them have to choose between their gains because they simply cannot do everything. You can alter the cost of Advancements as well. A game where players have to spend 8 EXP for an Advancement but gain a tier after only two Advancements is still 16 EXP per Tier, but results in weaker characters. I suspect that this would actually run longer as a campaign as well because the players will have more EXP available during games as they need to bank more. This will mean that they will more often have the ability to re-roll or reject a GMI, and need to choose which is more important in the moment; all of which will probably help to build the risk-reward balance that a "gritty" campaign style needs.

Lastly (because this is already a long and rambly post), if you decide to run with fewer Advancements per Tier that cost more EXP each, you can also start to play with either/or choices. Effort OR Edge but buying one locks you out of the other for that Tier, for instance. This will further drive the players to make critical choices and have limited resources. I'd suggest a pairing of Skill/Effort and Pools/Edge personally, but you may have different ideas. In a gritty style game I'd probably do away with the optional armor training and recovery roll Advancement awards entirely to help keep the game firmly grounded.

I'm sure there's other ways that a GM could tweak the Advancement and Tier mechanics to suit their game. I've heard of people charging EXP for Divine Shifts in Gods of the Fall, and I could imagine using EXP mechanics for Companion upgrades in Predation. Advancement is just another type of Long-Term Benefit so perhaps in certain games a GM may require players to buy one of those for Advancement (I could see needing wealth or a home in a Birthright-esque game for instance). Hmm, now that gives me other ideas for Gods of the Fall ... but that'll need to wait for another column.

MCC Recap - A Door Too Far

This week I ran the second third (I think) of A Fallen Star for All with a ragtag band of seekers trying to breach the uncovered ancient stronghold.

• +Craig McCullough as Tarn the Rover
• +Alex Perucchini  as Flik-flak the Sentinel
• +andrew lyon  as Sinclair the Mutant (Chitinous armor)
• +Paul Go  Agutter the Healer
• +Forrest Aguirre as Piertramp the Setntinel
• We also have +James Walls as Cypher the Shaman of ACHROMA, but he couldn't make this session...

Spoilers for the first bit of A Fallen Star for All ahead...

New player! New character! +Forrest Aguirre (a.k.a. the other host of Glowburn) joined the group this session (I'm Judge to the stars now I guess) as Piertramp the Sentinel. I started play off by filling him in on the lead up events of the starfall and explained that he was with a group calling itself the Tribe of the Golden Frog, but had been separated during an attack. He found himself weaponless and approaching a patch of strange jungle that seemed untouched by the apocalypse of the starfall. Within he could see the forms of two beast-things being apparently consumed by the plants, and one of them had a huge bone club! Piertramp risked an approach so that he could arm himself, and was rewarding with a two-handed greatclub doing d12 damage! He also grabbed a strange fruit from the jungle before escaping its entangling vines.

Meanwhile the others, now with the mutant Sinclair in tow, had left the ancient structures behind and were making for the starfall crater where helpful artifacts could be found.I informed Andy that Sinclair could not remember how he got to the buildings but that he had been separated from his group, the Tribe of the Golden Frog, in an attack. This had the effect that I hoped when the group met up with Piertramp and made the meeting go a little more quickly (and with less bloodshed, although a PVP TPK could have been hilarious). Sinclair made a snack of the strange fruit that Piertramp had found, and then tried to get some more with Flik-Flak's help. The two of them came away empty handed however as the carnivorous jungle was more than a match.

Opting to go around the strange plants the group ran into a strange creature. Short with soot dirty white fur and long ears it saw them and retreated carefully. They attempted to talk with it but it seemed unwilling to entreat. Further attempts were put off by the sighting of a pair of beast-things at the rim of the crater. Approaching carefully the group found the pair at the opening of a damage structure of the ancients uncovered by the fallen star.

Combat ensued with the group quickly wiping the two creatures out in a single round but not before their champion could emerge from the ruins. With a swipe of its mighty axe the champion downed Tarn but was easily dispatched by the group while Agutter set about to save Tarn's life. Exploring the interior of the cave with a makeshift torch the group found a number of artifacts but decided not to take the time to study them and instead moved on, crossing the crater by circumnavigating the rim to a second exposed structure.

Within this space they found a strange metal door that was extremely difficult to open because Cypher was zoned out communing with ACHROMA. When the group finally levered the door open they found a dark shaft leading downward, the walls of which were studded with strange ovoid pods. Prying a couple open they found a pair of flame retardant suits and a strange sphere. Agutter tried to get another pod open but fell into the shaft and luckily grabbed hold of the pod to arrest their fall. (Aside: AGutter's player Paul couldn't settle on a male or female pronoun and so we determined that Agutter is apparently genderfluid).

While hanging in the shaft Agutter opened another pod and released a hostile robot that attacked them. The others, clustered around the door above attacked with bows and spears and Gauzer pistols until Piertramp smashed the robot with a one-handed swing of his mighty club while hanging onto the doorway with his other hand (a 14 on a d14 attack roll!). The falling robot impacted with something about 20 feet below (30 feet below the doorway) and Agutter decided to try and climb out of the shaft but slipped (again) and fell (again) taking some damage (2d6 but I rolled low) when they landed in in a heap on the remains of the robot. Investigating Agutter found that this was a machine, apparently capable of navigating the shaft up and down. It was lacking power but used C-cells and grabbing one from the Medi-pack Agutter was able to power the lift and get back to the rest of the party. Now they had a way down into the structure, and planned to see what they could find within...


Least shocking thing we learned about MCC:

• A good swing with a d12 damage weapon will really cut short a combat. 

Most interesting behavioral change:

• Apparently the time and possible detrimental effects of artifacts checks are making the group more cautious. They are careful to clear away from the artifact in question, and generally try to parallel path artifact checks between characters to save in-game time.

Most Clutch moment(s):

• Forrest's new Sentinel, Piertramp was a machine. With his d12 bone greatclub he critted against a beast-thing champion (d12+d8 damage, OUCH!). He also managed a 14 on a d14 when one-hand swinging his club while dangling into an open elevator shaft. 

Interesting (to me) Rules Adjudications:

• Piertramp wanted to lean into an elevator shaft and one-handed swing his bone club at an enemy (using the other hand to hold on to the doorway). Two dice steps down seemed appropriate. 
• Agutter lost their grip twice while climbing. I allowed a luck check to grab hold of the wall after falling 10' rather than a simple plummet to near certain death. I still inflicted 1d6 damage for the 10' of fall though in the form of wrenched muscles in arms and shoulders. 

In Memoriam: 

• none, but we had a couple of close calls