MCC - New Mutation - Machiavellian Mind

Machiavellian Mind

You see other residents of the world as pawns and possess the ability to convince, cajole, or intimidate them into doing what you want.

Type: Passive
Range: N/A
Duration: Permanent
Save: None

General:  The mutant is unnaturally persuasive.

Manifestation Roll 1d4: (1) The mutant’s eyes are deep set and piercing; (2) The mutant’s body tall and thin allowing them to look down on their peers; (3) The mutant’s hair is strangely wispy and looks like a dead animal sitting atop their head; (4) The mutant’s skin is a strange orange tone.

Check Results

• 1 Failure, mutation replaced by defect.
• 2-11 Failure, mutation results in cosmetic change only; the mutant steeples their fingers when they think.
• 12-13 The mutant’s Personality score is increased by +1.
• 14-17 The mutant’s Personality score is increased by +2.
• 18-19 The mutant’s Personality score is increased by +3.
• 20-23 The mutant’s Personality score is increased by +4; the mutant may roll an additional 1d3 when attempting to convince or persuade another sentient, including non-Patron Artificial Intelligences (includes AI Recognition rolls).  
• 24-27 The mutant’s Personality score is increased by +6; the mutant may roll an additional 1d5 when attempting to convince or persuade another sentient, including non-Patron Artificial Intelligences (includes AI Recognition rolls).  
• 28-29 The mutant’s Personality score is increased by +7; the mutant may roll an additional 1d6 when attempting to convince or persuade another sentient, including non-Patron Artificial Intelligences (includes AI Recognition rolls).  
• 30-31 The mutant’s Personality score is increased by +8; the mutant may roll an additional 1d7 when attempting to convince or persuade another sentient, including all Artificial Intelligences and Patron AI (includes AI Recognition rolls).  
• 32+ The mutant’s Personality score is increased by +9; the mutant may roll an additional 1d8 when attempting to convince or persuade another sentient, including all Artificial Intelligences and Patron AI (includes AI Recognition rolls).  

The Alphabet of Outer Beings - Y is for Yeoman

Author's Note: When I started this project on somewhat of an unplanned whim earlier this year I created a list of topic ideas and was able to get about 25 of the letters. Y, was the holdout. I wracked my brain, and even talked with a bunch of folks at Gary Con about what a good "Y is for..." would be that wouldn't also get overly specific (such as Yog-sothoth, or Yellow Sign). Ultimately I figured "That's December Marc's problem," since I had a whole lot of other letters, all with good ideas already lined up. As the letters tick-tocked by and this became less a "that could be fun" and more a "I can really do something cool if I finish this" I started to sweat that maybe "Y is for..." would be my downfall. I'm therefore doubly pleased to not only have a great idea for Y but to present it early to you all (strike while the iron is hot and all that), and let some other letter be the final post of this series. 

Y is for Yeoman

Yeoman are the servants and attendants of clergy, wizards, nobles, and kings. They are the faithful servants who go nearly unseen, and often unrecognized. Some may be born into their station, others sold into it, and still others chosen for the great honor of service. Regardless these men, women, and children are often in the room when great and powerful people do important things, but their names are seldom recorded for posterity.

Table Y1: Yeoman Origins (roll 1d6)
Yeoman are brought into their service in a number of ways and often their origins are very specific to the station they serve.

1. Orphans - The yeoman are ophans, taken from the local orphanages between a certain age (often 10-12 years old) to serve. They may or may not considered slaves.
2. Volunteers - The yeoman are volunteers who serve at thier will, often for defined terms of 1, 3, 5, or 10 years at a time.
3. Slaves - The yeoman are simple slaves, bought into service with their freedom revoked. 
4. Chosen - The yeoman are chosen to serve, with service often being considered a great honor. Unlike volunteers, above, the yeoman are chosen from the population, and may not wish to serve.
5. Tithed - The yeoman are part of a tithe owed to the church or patron, chosen by the people, and given, either as slaves or as defined term laborers, to the service of the clergy or wizards.
6. Matrons (only post-menopausal women may serve)

Table Y2: Yeoman Requirements (roll 1d10)

Not all yeoman are created the same. Many religions or wizardly patrons require that only a certain type of individual serve as yeoman. 

1. Virgins (often also a specific sex)
2. Eunuchs 
3. Children (not older than post-pubescent, once yeoman age out of service they often join the ranks of the clergy or sorcerous acolytes)
4. Blind (or blinded after being brought into service) 
5. Mute (or rendered mute after being brought into service)
6. Deaf (or rendered deaf after being brought into service)
7. Specific Sex (male, female, intersex, etc)
8. Physical Appearance (eye color, hair color, subjective attractiveness, etc) (often also a specific sex)
9. Natural Ability (intellect, psionic power, physical fitness, etc)
10. Roll again twice and combine

Table Y3: Yeoman Duties (roll 2d4)

Yeoman are sometimes given to a particular service, apart from the general housekeeping and other such work executed by more common servants.

• 2: Sexual Services (the yeomen are required to perform sexual services in addition to, or in place of, other work)
• 3: Inner Circle (the yeomen are the sole servants of the highest ranking clergy or wizards only)
• 4-6: Standard duties, the yeomen act as general purpose servants for their masters.
• 7: Translators (yeoman is fluent in at least 1d4 additional spoken languages)
• 8: Scribes (yeoman is literate in at least 1d4 languages)

MCC Mighty Deeds of Artifacts (Glowburn Episode 16)

For my 2nd episode of Glowburn as an official co-host I proposed a rules modification. For completeness sake I present it here for those who may want to review.

Might Deeds of Artifacts

• Yes, that’s right, Mighty Deeds … of Artifacts! I think I’m actually going to test bed this in my monthly game, but the idea is that a Sentinel using an artifact already gets a bonus die, I’m not seeing any downside to allowing them to declare a Mighty Deed that uses that artifact (e.g. a ricochet shot with a gauzer pistol, or trying to melt a lock with a laser rifle). Just like in DCC a 3+ result on the Sentinel’s artifact die would declare success of the deed in some degree. 
• It’s simple enough I think, and will help Sentinel’s shine so long as they are using artifacts (which also will incentivize them to use artifacts).
• So the basics here are:
• The deed must be related to an artifact weapon or armor used by the sentinel!
• The Sentinel's Artifact die must come up a 3+ for the deed to happen!
• The attack (or other action) must also succeed!
• The Artifact die does not add to damage (unlike a Warrior's deed die) this is expected to be offset by the higher damage output of artifact weapons.

That's about that. I'm going to try this in my monthly campaign and we'll see how well it works.