The Alphabet of Outer Beings - L is for Legends

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L is for Legends

Many are the legends and myths that surround powerful beings. These may be part of a Deity's religion or the rumor's surrounding a Patron's mortal life. Some such may be true, others patently false, and still others couched in such doublespeak that the truth is forever concealed. Some may be consider apocryphal despite their truth while others are embraced despite their falsehood. Below are 20 random legends that can be applied to any Outer Being or even used for other power creatures. For any given legend roll a d6, if the result is odd the legend is false, if even it is true.

Table L1: Random Legends (roll 1d20)

1. The outer being gained the power and position by slaying another of their kind whose name is now lost to the winds of time.
2. The most powerful mortal agent of the outer being is actually empowered by a fragment of its essence. 
3. The outer being once slew a powerful dragon and freed an entire country from it's evil. 
4. The outer being has many children by mortals who all stand to inherit the being's power should they perish. 
5. Somewhere out in the world there exists a weapon forged expressly to kill the outer being. 
6. The outer being has created many powerful weapons to be used by champions of the being's alignment and cast them throughout the world. 
7. The outer being is a false being, a charlatan who uses the power of their worshipers or followers to further itself without having any true power of its own.
8. The outer being is lying about its alignment and motives.
9. An entire race of demi-humans exists because of a curse from the outer being.
10. The outer being is the sole survivor of a faction of outer being's who were destroyed ages ago. 
11. The outer being was once more powerful but through unknown means has lost some of its former power.
12. A great and powerful empire lies buried in the west with a deep connection to the outer being.
13. The outer being's aide is taxing and only through their followers and worshipers are they able to maintain their ties to the mortal realms. 
14. The outer being is dying, and its followers are insufficient to do more than slow its death.
15. The outer being sacrificed the lion's share of its power creating a powerful (roll 1d6) 
1. creature 
2. weapon
3. magical spell 
4. seal on a prison
5. artifact of power
6. other (judge's discretion)
16. An avatar of the outer being will be born to a mortal family when the next celestial alignment occurs. 
17. The outer being is waging a war against an ideological opposite and uses the power gained from worshipers/followers to fuel that conflict.
18. The outer being is the warden of a prison for powerful entities beyond knowing.
19. Unlike others of its kind the outer being lives in the mortal realms and hides itself with powerful magics or remote locations.
20. The outer being was born a mortal marked for greatness who fulfilled an ancient prophecy and gained their immeasurable power.

Nuts & Bolts #153 - Hacking the Cypher System - Nightbane

Nightbane is not a game that a lot of folks know. I've mentioned it in the past. It's an older game from Palladium Books that I first picked up in college back in 1996 (a fact that I know because I found the receipt in the back of the book last night). I've long since given up on Palladium's house system because I just find it to be too much, and as a result a lot of the games I played when I started gaming have sat on bookshelves and waited for their turn to come back around again. Always I would see them and want to play but every time I tried the rules stopped me cold.

When the Cypher System Rulebook came out a couple of years back I really started to look at Cypher as a way to bring back Nightbane for myself and my friends. The focus changing aspects of The Strange had shown me that there a way forward, but I still couldn't quite break the problem of the core characters, the titular nightbane. Nightbane are supernatural shapeshifters. The have a human facade and a monstrous morphus. The facade form is just human, no powers, no abilities beyond that of a normal non-heroic person, but the morphus is a powerhouse.

Thankfully Unmasked came along and gave me the final piece of the puzzle. A duality for form can exist no just by replacing a part of the character's sentence as in The Strange, but by omitting it entirely. The teens in Unmasked are given only a few pool points and a descriptor. Their masked alter egos gain not only a full character sentence but shifts as well. My eyes were opened and I knew, at last, how to make the nightbane work.

I started my players with a descriptor and an occupation, a Hideous Gravedigger, a Perceptive Electrician, and a Creative Tech Consultant. These were the human guises of the players, the as yet unaware of their true nature nightbane player characters. Each character started with 5 points in each pool, modified by their descriptor as appropriate, and that was it. This is less than the teens in Unmasked, and may seem harsh, but Nightbane is, in part, a horror game and the mortal facade form needs to feel weak and vulnerable.

Their morphus forms however gained not just a type and descriptor, becoming a Hideous Warrior who Rages, a Perceptive Explorer who is Sworn to the Seal*, and a Creative Adept who Needs no Weapons, but they also gained shifts, assigned by me, based on the appearance of their twisted and monstrous nightbane morphuses. These we determined the old fashioned way, using the tables in the original RPG's book.

*Sworn to the Seal is a rename of Sworn to the Crown, but this character is loyal to the US Government instead.

Getting back to my gaming past proved a wonderful experience and CYpher proved more than equal to the task of taking an old Palladium Books game and breathing new life into it for my friends and I, much in the same way that it had for Palladium's After the Bomb at Gen Con 2017 when I ran Furry Road.

The Alphabet of Outer Beings - B is for Boons

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B is for Boons

Deities provide many boons for their followers in the form of blessings, spells, and other divine gifts. Patrons often reward their followers with knowledge and understanding. Occasionally a patron may make a more direct hand in the affairs of their mortal followers however and provide direct assistance. These boons may come at after a great deed or labor is performed or be bestowed prior to the vassal embarking upon a notable quest for their patron. The boon lasts until such time as the patron deems the vassal no longer worthy, or as noted.

Table B1: Supernatural Boons (roll 1d20)

1. Blessing of the Dragon's Blood (gain +1 AC)
2. Gift of Hermes (gain +30' movement per round)
3. Favor of Charon (may automatically succeed at a "roll the body" check one time)
4. Gift of Zeus (increase all lightning damage dice +1d)
5. Blessing of Horus (gain a +1 to Will saves)
6. Gift of Aphrodite (gain +1 Personality)
7. Blessing of Fortune (gain +1 Luck)
8. Gift of Athena (gain +1 to Intelligence) 
9. Blessing of the Crone (gain +1 to spell checks)
10. Gift of Hades (increase all cold damage dice +1d)
11. Blessing of Cthulhu (gain a cumulative 1% chance to spontaneously resurrect from death for every 100 years dead)
12. Gift of Mars (gain +1 to attack rolls)
13. Blessing of Osiris (gain +1 to Fortitude saves)
14. Gift of Hephaestus (increase all fire damage dice +1d)
15. Blessing of Achilles (gain +1 to Reflex saves)
16. Gift of Poseidon (may breathe under water for 1 turn per level per day) 
17. Blessing of Merlin (immune to surprise attacks) 
18. Gift of Artemis (gain +1d on ranged attack rolls) 
19. Twist the Strands of Fate (once per day re-roll a die roll)
20. Gift of Aesculapius (gain a +1 to all HP recovery rolls)