The Mugai

An excerpt from a traveler's journal through which the lore of the game will be detailed.

Wasteland Savages

As I write of the Mugai it should be said that these savages do not recognize the proper gods that watch over the people of the lands of Kestor. No, the Mugai pay homage to effigies of carved stone, wood, and bone made in the image of the great flying metal beasts from the time of the magics of metal and light. These erect, looming totems wreathed in flame, indicative of the fire borne from the wings and tails of these great beasts, sway creepily as the Mugai dance around them calling out to their evil metal gods. Yes, it should be said that the Mugai have deified the beasts of metal that took to the skies on that fateful day, the day that the true gods visited their vengeance on man with those dark seeds.

The nomadic Mugai wander the shifting sands to the east and the Kryschere wastes still further east. A Mugai is often tall, masked, wrapped in fabrics and skins light in color, to protect them from the beating sun and the winds that whip sand across the flesh. When the masks are removed their leathery faces are thoroughly tattooed with lines that ring the mouth and eyes. They will often have large smooth stones stretching holes in their cheeks and a shaven head, save a single strip of hair kept in a braid that they never cut and wrap about their neck area. They fight with shields and simple bone tipped spears. Their wizards can call forth the elements of nature to burn men alive. Their shaman channel the spirits of the long dead beasts granting them great strength and even wield a great metal stave that will breath fire and spit metal, though this is exceedingly rare.

The Mugai are said to make a trek to the lands holy to their blasphemous beliefs in the Kryschere wastes, once a year, where they claim that their gods grant them gifts of metal and light, the weapons of old, and even the lore known as Tek to the peoples of Sansal and Raizt. Yes, it should be said the the strange men of Sansal and Raizt, who’s cities rest on the far side of the shifting sands make trades to the Mugai and maintain cordial relations with them.

The Mugai are known for their use of human sacrifice and other dark rituals of killing and improper conduct, on this I will say no more. They are not to be trusted, they are to be killed, for they are beyond reform in the eyes of the Great Temple. I Sir Pieter Smith, Keeper of Lores, will personally pay 2 coins to the man who brings me the head of a Mugai that has the seed of the god’s vengeance active. The head to be kept on display at the Great Temple’s Hall of Sins and Reckoning, so that it may stare hungrily as it gnashes teeth and writhes in vain, until the day it finally expires and shall be cast into the furnace. I shall make good on my offer of 2 coins until the day the seed of the gods vengeance takes me and I too gnash in the Hall of Sins and Reckoning.

Instant NPCs.

        In the midst of playtesting there reaches a point where you don't focus on any story. Instead you sort of plow through random encounters that create a certain feel you are looking for, so that you can test the specific mechanic it question. In an attempt to expedite that random encounters and keep them interesting, I made a random NPC generator. Now I'm sure there are countless versions of these floating around, just sharing mine.

Instant NPCs

Get 1 of each die (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12) and roll it, arrange it in order from smallest die to largest die, and make up a story. When you take notes it is easy just to write the 5 numbers that define an NPC so you can easily jump back into the character. Also these tables are by no means set in stone, so get creative.

d4	d6	d8	d10	d12
Thin	Very Short	Attractive	Deceitful	Lustful	1
Average	Short	Ugly	Honest	Gluttonous	2
Muscular	Average	Long Hair	Cowardly	Greedy	3
Fat	Average	Short Hair	Brave	Lazy	4
	Tall	Poor	Shy	Envious	5
	Very Tall	Wealthy	Out Going	Hot Headed	6
		Foreign	Paranoid	Proud	7
		Scared	Trusting	Cynical	8
			Kind	Crazy	9
			Cruel	Imbecile	10
				Humble	11
				Zealous	12

A few example rolls:

Fat, Average, Scared, Paranoid, and Lustful: So I imagine the players have walked into a tavern and are looking for a lead. They come across this NPC who is fat, of average height and scared. His eyes dart around the room analyzing people, lingering uncomfortably long on the females. It turns out he is an official from a neighboring city with an over indulgent streak a mile wide. One day in a drunken stooper he groped the lords wife and propositioned her. She pulled out her dagger and slashed his cheek wide open before going to find her husband and tell of the man’s vulgar display. This man now fears for his life, worried that he may be found and punished for his transgressions.

Thin, Average, Short Hair, Deceitful, and Crazy: They decide to look for other leads. The party comes across a very thin woman with a head that has been freshly shaved bald, a few specks of dried blood dot her scalp. She has a strange and erratic tick as she gives them the evil eye. When asked who she is, she replies “I am the lady of this land and you will address me as such, dog or worm … dog”. Okay, so maybe we should keep looking. “WORM”

Thin, Very Tall, Ugly, Cowardly, Envious: As the party moves on they come across a very tall man, his long gaunt face hanging behind his hawkish deviate nose. As the party approaches he seems to attempt to withdraw into the robes that already threaten to swallow his narrow frame. It seems as though he wants something from the party as he has watched them since they entered the pub. Side Quest! This guy is going to attempt to lure them back to his house and give them sleeping drugs dissolved in mead. When they awaken he will announce that now they can all be companions, forever, as the party now resides in his caged basement. This guy is lonely, very lonely and desired their camaraderie, he just doesn't know how to do it right.

Grappling.

        I have been working on finalizing the grappling system. I'm a big fan of grappling and have always been a little frustrated at the lack of options in the typical RPG.

        The best way to neutralize an opponent that has range on you, is to grapple them. That's not to say that entering a grapple should be easy, but I do like having it as a viable and detrimental option. 

        Bringing weapons into a grapple really allows you to let the short range weapons shine, daggers and knives a made for such attacks. While the larger weapons that rely on inertia are much less useful when out of their element.

        So many options, human shields, snapping necks, dislocation, or choking the opponent out in silence. 

Inspirational healing, how do you play it?

       How do you justify inspirational healing? I was playing D&D last night and someone suffered a broken leg, no problem, the bard used an inspiring word on them.

       I understand the idea of inspirational healing, to inspire someone to fight on in the face of adversity in spite of their wounds, but in the context of major physical wounds, it always feels wrong.

       How do you play such healing in D&D? What system handles such a style of healing better?

Trying to make a single boss fight dynamic.

      Had a fun idea the other day as I was designing a playtest encounter. I wanted to plug in a big bad, but I wanted to avoid that initiative order anomaly that causes non dynamic battles. I had just encountered it in a Tuesday game I play in, the entire party attacks, then the boss guy attacks. 

         Due to the flow of combat, the solo boss did not feel very dynamic to me and it was even a hydra. Sure the boss could perform multiple attacks, but they all happen at initiative X. Sure he had reactionary attacks, but we took care not to trigger them. So the fight had a certain lopsidedness to it.

         Then I had a nostalgic moment, I remembered the final battle from the old SNES side-scroller "King of Dragons". The boss was a giant red dragon that would attack with his head from one side of the screen and his hand would attempt to grab you from the other side. I would fight the head of the red dragon and my little brother would keep the hand off me. A simple tactic, but if my brother died it sucked for me.

                 That got me thinking, a head on one initiative, a tail on another, then maybe hands could create that dynamic feel from a single boss monster I was looking for. If a dynamic fight isn't enough, there is the glorious moment when you cut the dragon's tail off and turn it into an epic sword like you were playing Dark Souls .... lol

Economy in a post apocalypse.

      Justifying bullet shortage and building a game economy at the same time. There is the possibility for as much economic depth as you like.

         I wanted bullets to be controlled so there would not be an awkward attempt to balanced the gun with the sword. Guns are still available but balance through limited use.

An excerpt from the economy section:

The Economy

The economy is built on the back of minted plastic coins representing stores of rare properly jacketed bullets and to a lesser degree salvaged metal. As the old society waged massive wars and fought off hordes of zombie in it’s death throws, vanishingly few amounts of proper bullets made it to the new era. Now the bullets are coveted by lords as treasures of the past and stockpiled, even those who look down on tech cannot refute the value of an unspent shell on the open market.

Bullets playing such a huge roll in the economy had incredible impact on the use of these munitions. If a lord was to shoot a bullet it only served to appreciate the value of all other bullets, including those of rival lords. So bullet usage was abruptly halted in large scale.

Manufacturing Bullets

The manufacture of bullets is not a technological impossibility in this era, however it is a crime punishable by death. The manufacturing of bullets would debase all currency and serve as a backward tax on all other lords, giving the manufactured incredible power and wealth. The edge in military effectiveness is almost an afterthought in the context of economic power.

This does not mean that there are not individuals out there attempting to manufacture bullets, but it is a risky business on any scale.

Bullet Legality

It is illegal to carry properly jacketed bullets without a license and they are confiscated on sight without reimbursement. Bullets may be turned in willfully at the bullet vault of any lord and receive a coin equivalent in payment.

Gun powder and shot can be manufactured separately for use in less effective musket style weapons without legal implication.

Currency Value

The plastic coins used as currency start at a set value only for a point of reference. During the flow of the game inflation, deflation, fiduciary media, and currency wars are all possible, causing the value of the plastic coins to vary widely depending on the scenario. Where as a dagger may cost 1 coin in the starting economy, heavy inflation could easily drive it’s cost to well over 10 coins if things got out of control.

• Bar: 1000 coins being it’s value, these plastic bars, stamped with a lord’s insignia, are used for large purchases. They are often referred to as “slabs” or “grands” .
• Coin: the coins are the most common currency. Being made from recycled plastics they often take a dark gray or black color leading to their slang reference of “darks” or “blots”.
• Bit: 1/8 of a coin’s value, bits are most commonly pie shaped pieces of a cut up coin. Some of the lords have taken to minting smaller coins and calling them “minis” tho many nicknames for the coins persist such as “Sixes”, “bits”, and “Cut Coin”.

Morality in an RPG, should your actions carry weight?

       Players kill. Sometimes players are quite barbaric, if we can't eat it, sell it or mate with it ... we kill it.

     As a GM I like to have players find out they've killed someone important or that someone they assumed was bad, wasn't. Little things like that help put a damper on "kill first ask questions later" tactics, but I'm curious about other systems or home brews that codify a moral compass.

        Do you think a method of measuring a character's moral compass adds to a game? If so how should it impact things, simply be a reference point for RP or have measurable effects?