Mutant Violence

 

(Eastman and Laird for TMNT&OS)

Someone once told me that while the action in MitN was good, the character creation was slow.

And I reflected on how TMNT&OS was also a bit of a pain to make characters, and neither really fitted a vision of fast mutant action.

So I tried mixing TMNT&OS with Luke Gearing's Violence to make it a bit more speedy. It ended up being Violence with mutnats, rather than Violence attached to TMNT&OS, but I sort of like it.

https://lukegearing.blot.im/violence#ref-1L37

 

Mutant Violence

A mutant has four points split between Animal/Man.

Every point on Man is a Competencies and every point on Animal is a Trait from the species entry in TMNT&OS. Every point of Animal is -1 to DV for social interactions with humans.

The five mutant shapes are also reflected by the five possible states of mutant. So, no Human Features needed and not BIO-E either.

Extra Attacks from Species Traits is Advantage.

 

(One more stage than TMNT&OS depicted)

Now for something contradictory to Violence.

Major Characters have 4 Plot Points which can reverse a Downed state. Named NPCs have 2 and likewise have only 2 points to split between Animal/Man.

Optional Melee Table

Martial Arts for a mutant-style game increases Fist bonus by 1 as if a shield. Natural Weapons simulated by damage; D4 = Dagger, D6 = short sword etc, but count as Fists for Weapon vs.

 

A random roll got me Alpha the Killer Hamster

Trained by the military to kill, he escaped with $100,000 of 1980s money in weapons and equipment. His flight or fight response is all outta flight.

Rating 2/2 Plot 4 Social Penalty -2

Trait – Claws

Trait – Digging

Competency – Driving

Competency - Squad Automatic Weapon

Melee +4, +2 From Claws +2 Training

M60 machine gun

Garish Van

 

Modified Melee Procedure. Trained (3) Claws attack as Short Sword and defend as Fist

Mutants After the Bomb

I was thinking about I've been posting a bit about Mutants in the Now and trying to understand why it doesn't always click for me. A big part of it was it was a detailed building minigame before the tactical game. A legacy of trying to streamline and make workk Palldium's scattershot approach to D&D-derived game design. Not that Eric Wujick couldn't design games, he was probally the best at Palladium.

While both games are crunchy and I appreciate MitN splitting off the tedium of statting each foe as if they were a player character. MitN just lacks that sort of old school spontaneity, of randomly rolling a weird character and choosing three or four animal and human traits becuase your options were limited and on the sheet. Of a distingive image oppossum with a machinegun .Imagining that weird thing spraying bullets and rolling a fistfull of dice as damage. MitN is very methodical and probally a game less likely to just snap in half or end up a dead end.

Unless one plays a giant cockroach with the Pursuit Predator style, that was busted.

Eastman and Laird's drawing of a mutant opposeum they made for the game.

There just doesn't seem to be much distinctiveness between foes. A few animal traits, a martial arts style and some cinematic powers are just attached to a featureless block when players characters are heavily defined by their choice of species and origin through the "discounts" that come from that. In the form of natural and favourable abilities, skills and styles.

The text in it's replica printing press font can make it a bit hard to read dense text too. It blurs sometimes, which isn't good when finding one rule among many.

But it's still pretty good as a basis. Which let me tinker around with trying to reinvent the classic TMNT&OS setting, After the Bomb. Later the sole setting when the license for TMNT lapsed.

Game idea

(map from Gamm World 2E, 44km scale hexes)

It's been 20 years After the Bomb. The ruins and surrounds of Vegaz are home to about 5000 people, 4500 of them mutants. While they are theoretically divided into 4 great tribes, in practice they are split into gangs of 3 to 12. These gangs are called upon for various tasks, particularly in scouting, trading with distant cities/societies or fending off various semi-mutant wildlife and Cryptic Alliances which wish to twist the wastes in their own image.

Why are there mutants?

GOO-P can change and regenerate tissue to an enormous extent, it was the medicine of last resort used in burn and anti-radiation treatments. It's believed that it was also in the weapons used in the Bomb as Poison-Storms swept the lands, mutating creatures. Children of Zandig are zoo and farm animals, sprayed down with GOO-P as a safety precaution during the Bomb or picked up on the trek east. The Wild Bunch are native species of the Mojave Desert and Kalifornya. The New Scum were those feral animals and urban pests already living in Vegaz and the Dammed are those human and nearly human engineers who keep the Hoover Dam running.

In my idea, the GOO-P was tested in sterile conditions and so there was no different species DNA to mix together, so it either caused massive health collapse or regenerated all damaged tissue.

That and Proteus lied about their accidental mutations of lab animals.

What's the problems?

Inter-gang squabbles are constant in the ruins, the human engineers who live at Hoover Dam need new parts and hostile wildlife/semi-feral mutants are always a concern. As mutants age, the question of children and their forms take prominence. And with all the gasoline having run out, expeditions go by muscle and hard to gather ethanol. The world of the Vegaz people has shrunk down to the valley and they are isolated.

Random Wild Mutant Concept, Monsters and NPCs only

1) Animal-Intelligence, No obvious mutations, might not be mutated at all

2) Animal-Intelligence, Refund Half GOO-P and purchase Wild Mutations

3) Animal-Intelligence, Refund Half GOO-P and purchase Psionic Powers

4) Animal-Intelligence, Refund Half GOO-P and purchase SR

5) Animal-Intelligence, Refund Half GOO-P and purchase 1 Wild Mutation, 1 Psionic Powers and the rest on SR

6) Above Animal-Intelligence, Refund Half GOO-P and purchase Human features

7) Above Animal-Intelligence, Purchase no Human features

8) Above Animal-Intelligence, Refund Half GOO-P and purchase equal amounts of Human features and Psionic Powers

9) Above Animal-Intelligence, Refund Half GOO-P and purchase equal amounts of Human features and Wild Mutations

10) Above Animal-Intelligence, Refund all GOO-P, purchase Human features to maximum and then buy species traits

New Species for FFG Star Wars

All these species were made with a 130 XP base and somewhat toned down to fit the FFG ethos in how species should be balanced. Since I am not very imaginative, this mostly comes down to Setback and Boost dice.

The nominal setting for all these species is a backwater part of the Mid-Rim called the Charnel Sectors by the locals and unofficially the Inner Sector and the Outer Sector by the Imperials. The official names is too boring and unused to be mentioned. The Outer Sector forms a thick crescent around half of the blob of the Inner Sector and both have a level of civilisation and violence more associated with Outer-Rim dives. No trade route goes through the sectors and the Imperial garrison settles for just extracting taxes and playing the locals against each other, which is easy to do. Moff Mon doesn’t even live in the sector but spends his time with his paramount, the Moff of the next sector over. The Inner Sector is home to numerous bombed-out or ecologically damaged worlds and is home to the species stolen from SLA Industries. The Outer Sector is a bit more liveable and home to the species from Mass Effect. Some other species were scattered around wherever I wanted them to be.

I tried to include altered background for each race but it wasn’t any good. In truth, each one of these has been redited to be more in line with the one or two trait ethos I mentioned in my last FFG species post.

Asari

Presence 3 Brawn 1

WT 9 ST 11

1 Rank in Charm

Starting XP 105

Empath: The species removes 2 setback dice from all social skill checks they make. When an Asari uses the Coercion skill to inflict strain on a target, they suffer strain equal to half the amount they inflict.

(I like this original concept art more)

Batarian

Cunning 3 Presence 1

WT10 ST10

1 Rank in Coercion

Starting XP 100

Distracting eyes: Batarians add one setback to any Charm, Deception or Negotiation check targeting them, unless that check is made by another Batarian. Once per session, they may choose to upgrade that skill check instead.

Drell

Willpower 3 Presence 1

WT 10 ST 10

1 Rank in Perception

Starting XP 100

Memnii: Drell possess eidetic memories and often imprint significant events in their life as unfading memories. Once per game session, a Drell may form a new memnis that encompasses one scene or encounter. At any time, a Drell may perfectly recall any memnis that has been formed or witnessed, or share it with another Drell or a Force-sensitive character. 5

Desert Dwellers: Drell may remove 1 setback die from penalties imposed by hot or dry environments. They add 1 setback die to checks made in high humidity environments

(Fanart)

(Frankly any of the concept art works)

Elcor

Brawn 3 Agility 1

WT 14 ST 9

1 Rank in Cool

Starting XP 90

High-Gravity Adaption: Stemming from a planet with 4g of surface gravity, elcor may remove two setback dice imposed by high-gravity environments.

Emotional Statement: Elcor have such flat affect in their voices that they preface statements with the emotion behind it; this makes them very poor at deception. Any roll such as Deception that requires the Elcor to be vocally deceptive, upgrade the difficulty by 1.

Hanar

Brawn 1 Willpower 3

WT 8 ST 11

1 Rank in Deception

Starting XP 90

Hover: Hanar start with a custom-Hover harness that lets them move out of water. When hovering, Hanar do not have to spend extra manoeuvres navigating difficult terrain, but otherwise function as a normal walking character.

Amphibious: Hanar can breathe underwater without penalty and never suffer movement penalties for traveling through water.

Stranded: While not submerged in water, a Hanar adds one setback to all Brawn-based checks.

Native Hanar

Not integrated into non-aquatic society, the Hover trait is replaced with the following:

Natural Poison: When making a Brawl check, a Hanar can spend 3 advantage to inflict the Immobilized condition onto the target.

Tentacles: A Hanar's Brawl and Melee attack gain the Ensnare 1 item quality.

Krogan

3 Brawn 1 Cunning

WT 12 ST 8

1 Rank in Resilience or Survival

Starting XP 90

Redundant Body Systems: Decrease the difficulty to heal any Critical Injuries a Krogan is suffering from by one (Hard becomes Average, Average becomes Easy, and so on)

Body Plates: Gain 1 Rank of the Durable Talent

Protheans

Willpower 3 Presence 1

WT 10 ST 11

1 Rank in Vigilance

XP 100

Feeling the Echoes: If a Prothean makes physical contact with another living being, they can spend 2 Strain to gain 1 Boost for the next skill roll involving the target.

I decided that the Protheans in a Star Wars context would have been around with the Zeffo and the Rakata. The previous galactic age of Force-sensetive empires.

(Choose your favourite face)

Quarian

Intellect 3 Willpower 1

WT 10 ST 10

1 Rank in Mechanics

Starting XP 100

Compromised Immunity: Quarians possess a weakened immune system and thusly have to wear environment suits in order to avoid potential life threatening illness. A Quarian that does not have, or has a punctured enviro-suit, reduces their WT and ST by 1.

Solid Repairs: The character repairs +1 hull trauma per rank of Solid Repairs whenever he repairs a starship or vehicle.

Starting Gear: Quarians begin the game with a custom enviro-suit, which counts as ‘Vacuum Sealed heavy clothing’. This requires no hardpoint and in standard atmosphere has no operation time limit. This attachment cannot be removed. If the character acquires no armor or clothing at the start of the game, they still start with the same narrative effects of that attachment.

Salarian

Brawn 1 Intellect 3

WT 9 ST 11

1 Rank in any Knowledge skill

Starting XP 100

Fast Metabolism: Members of the species recover twice as fast from the effects of poisons and toxins as humans. They also require a huge amount of sustenance (food, fuel, etc.) each day; if they are unable to meet this requirement, they become disoriented until they can satiate themselves. When attempting to recover from Critical Injuries they add 1 Boost to Resilience checks they make.

Tireless: The species does not sleep or require similar periods of downtime. This is largely narrative, but it also means that the species does not add setback dice to checks or suffer other consequences of going for extended periods without rest.

Low-Light Vision: Salarians gain 1 Boost die to see in darkness.

Turian

WT 10 ST 11

1 Rank in Discipline

Starting XP 95

Reflective Carapace: Turians have an evolved resistance to radiation, granting them 1 Boost Die to Resilience checks made to resist the effects of radiation.

Talons: When a Turian makes Brawl check to deal damage to an opponent, he deals +1 damage and has a critical rating of 3.

Expatriate Turian

Some Turian who grow up outside the harsh radiation of their home world do not develop a thick metallic carapace, remove the trait; Reflective Carapace and add 5 XP.

          

 

                                                                                                                                                        

Volus

Cunning 3 Willpower 1

WT 11 ST 10

1 Rank of Negotiation

Starting Experience: 90 XP

Ammonia Breathers: Volus evolved to breathe in an ammonia-rich atmosphere, and traditional nitrogen-oxygen mixes are poisonous to them. Volus start the game with an ammonia respirator, and treat oxygen as a dangerous atmosphere with Rating 8.

Environmental Adaption: Volus may remove 2 setback dice imposed by high gravity environments.

Vorcha

Agility 3 Presence 1

WT 12 ST 9

1 Rank in Survival

Starting XP 90

Regeneration: Whenever a Vorcha would recover one or more wounds from natural rest of recuperation, he recovers one additional wound. He does not recover one additional wound when receiving first aid or medical treatment from another character, or when using a medpack. Vorcha can regrow lost limbs as well, though it usually takes at least a month before the limb is usable.

Rapid Adaption: When exposed to an adverse environment, Vorcha may suffer 2 strain to remove setback dice imposed by that environment. In doing so, they lose any previous benefit gained by this feature.

Fearsome: Vorcha add 1 setback to Charm, Leadership, and Negotiation checks they make, but they add 1 boost die to Coercion checks they make. This does not apply when interacting with other Vorcha.

(Bsically Trandoshan plus extras)

Yahg

Brawn 3 Willpower 1

WT 12 ST 9

1 rank in Perception

Starting XP 90

Rapid Learning: When rolling an untrained skill, Yahg may suffer 2 strain to remove setback dice imposed by that skill. In doing so, they lose any previous benefit gained by this feature.

Miscellaneous Grab Bag

This was going to be a musing on how the conversion of Cyberpunk 2020 to  Vampires the Masquerade from White Wolf Magazine didn’t work. But I have misplaced the notes I wrote at least a year ago about the issue. So here’s the short version:

Vampire the Masquerade like all Old World of Darkness games has modifiers to the roll and modifiers to the target number. And somethings adding and subtracting whole dice. These all do weird things to the percentage hance to succeed and when they adapted Cyberpunk 2020. There was no consistency to work backwards from in how modifiers were adapted.

I still haven’t figured out how to convert old school Shadowrun magic into a Cyberpunk-appropriate form.

 Now I need more content, so here is a grab bag of recent ideas.

Someone once said ACKS/II doesn’t address the pain points of actual using all the merchant, castle construction and hireling rules. Otherwise being nigh the same as OSE or B/X but with more rolling for things that rarely come up. So, I whipped a quick cost idea for B/X and OSE.

If you want to buy/hire something that might not be assumed. Roll 1d6 for a small settlement, 2 for a medium and 3 for a large. Take the highest number.

1-2 Not this week

3-4 Half the amount or twice the cost

5-6 sure

Selling things, do the same rolling process. The profit is whatever margin you as the DM cares to make it. They'll stop buying when you've sold a number of goods/bundles/standardised measurements equal to the roll.

1-2 Half the listed profit

3-4 Normal listed profit

5-6 Half the listed profit again

 

Having problems integrating Dolmenwood into a wider Old Schools Essentials map/Basic-Expert map. Simply because it'sa river flowing north to south, not something many rivers in the real world Celtic regions do. It’s throwing off my internal geography, though I did think for a moment to place it as a sort of Rhone River, but Brythonic Celtic and Gaulish Celtic were quite different things. I did see a good interpretation of it on a fantasy version of Ireland. But that still required some replumbing of the geography.

 

Some more fictional mutant species. Though portrayed as turtle-like originally, the Cha’thrang has a shell growth and fusing wholly unlike any turtle. Being layered alkaline layers and anchored, rather than part of the skeleton. Carnivores are still so much easier to make mutants. As the system is by a chain of adaptions, based on D&D.

Unknown

Brown Chathrang

SR 11 Enhance DET PRE END

GOO-P: +20

Basic: Otherworldly (Athas), Carnivore, Quadrupedal

Major: Defensive Posture (5), Shell (15), Stable (5), Toxin (10) (Alkaline, treat as Lead-Acid +2) (Roping +10)

Minor: Beak (Hooked) Camouflage (Desert), Claws: Digging, Communal, Heat Tolerance, Infrasonic Hearing, Specialised Predator (Flying Animals)

Never Let Up: (Shell +1): Add +END to Reposition Manoeuvres made against targets with inflicted Statuses

Unknown

Green Chathrang

SR 10 Enhance AFF PRE END

GOO-P: +25

Basic: Otherworldly (Athas), Carnivore, Quadrupedal

Major: Defensive Posture (5), Shell (15), Spines (15) (Darts +3), Stable (5), Toxin (10) (Alkaline, treat as Lead-Acid +2) (Roping +10)

Minor: Camouflage (Desert), Claws: Digging, Communal, Heat Tolerance, Infrasonic Hearing, Specialised Predator (Flying Animals), Teeth (Slaying)

FLAK Battery (Spine: Darts +1): When making a Range: Strike attack, add +1 up to AFF per additional ally making a Ranged Strike this round.

40K System – Vito

Paranoid religious capital

Vito is the system, and Vito Secundus is the planet, second rock from the orange star. A Shrine World, Vito Secundus has the distinction of being crowned the de facto head of the subsector.

Some 2000 years ago, the sector core was wracked by a heresy which proclaimed the time was right for the Emperor’s return. Imperial authority should be devolved to divinely inspired and fundamentally local Judges. Governors and minor Bishops on developed worlds who felt the best was being siphoned off. The subsector was too new to run out of growth and the two millennia old Civilized World of Vito Secundus was the origin of Bishop Nefarius Porpus, who resolutely preached against heresy in the halls of the Ecclesiarchy.

When the time came for a crusade, after pleading from a much-boycotted synod. The martyred bishop was elevated to a saint and Vito Secundus was diverted from it’s future as a Hive World. Since then, many of its citizens have developed the dogma and the ecstasies to become valued members of the Adeptus Ministorum or even minor saints themselves.

Since then, Vito has amounted to a lead weight on the subsector. More imports than a civilized world, with its greater population of 15,000,000,000. Especially office supplies and constant physical reports on the moral health of the sub-sector. It throngs with pilgrims and as such its economy remains local and insular.

Since the advent of WAAGH!! Gadzmax, the Archbishoip has become fearful of external threats. The chaos wrecked in the sub-sector threatens to teether it over the edge. The venal other worlds lack moral fortitude. Belonging to some other lesser sect or consumed by their own issues. The wider sector is still reeling from the orks’ path and the Archbishop is privy to reports from across the galaxy. The sheer scale of the problems is clear and has given rise to nihilism, to let the rot wither away and a new dawn come.

So, Vito stockpiles, filling vast caverns with machine parts, foodstuffs and promethium. It promises sheltered harbors for Charterist Captains, threatened by increasingly irritated demands from other systems to stop the outflow.

This paranoia is starting to seep downwards as admonishments to the flock to observe for deviances, especially among the pilgrims who come from unknown worlds, bathed in unknown lights. Setting up increasing dissatisfaction with the priests of those pilgrim communities which have settled.

Pilgrim neighborhoods or whole cities have always been a sore spot, since popular imagination assumes pilgrims will leave eventually, even though it takes several decades to cycle to and from.

Though increasing self-isolated, Vito does possess a rudimentary extraction economy. The Belters have been neglected for some 2500 years and the tribes trade among themselves or to the planet. Vito is self-sufficient in promethium, with the Tech-Priests operating refineries around Vito-Aqua, the last planet and gas giant. Vito even used to export promethium until the arrival of the orks on Ajax. The resumption of which is a key concern for the other planets.

The local variation of the Four Holy Ministries sect holds the conditions on Vito-Aqua to be a physical embodiment of hell itself, or at least an understanding of the punishing parts of the Warp. Convicts are sent there to be transformed into servitors and much fear is ascribed to it. The conditions are hellish but no more than normal for the galaxy. The Tech-Priests complain they are being demonized or associated with evil iconography.

In order to bolster the system against both internal and external threats, the Archbishop has invited the space marine chapter, The Fire Unicorns to rebase to airless and molten Vito Primus. The Fire Unicorns are normally based on the former Mining World Ajax and many long to recapture their home world. Furthermore, the Fire Unicorns are an Iron Hand successor chapter and do not mesh with the Imperial Cult. The Archbishop has promised they can recruit from among the Belters. The Belters have not been informed.

Inspired by the crusade which cleansed the wider sector, Vito Secundus has long cultivated its own holy warriors. But given the distance to ship girls off to the sector core where the orders reside, it has turned to the fringe. Rapturous eunuch cults are long prospered, seeking their “future martyrdom” as Saint Porpus achieved in full. Though remaining functional and influential within the bureaucracy. Mindful of an adverse sector synod that eunuchs under arms are still men. Female hustreks possess the same loophole and are assumed to be even more devoted to the Ecclesiarchy and the Archbishop than Sisters must be.

While there are bands of eunuch warriors, they must remain outside the structure and so naturally form their own semi-sanctioned militias with their own authority. Leading to occasional clashes when local priests and organisations become intertwined with their radical influence.

Making Mothership Maps

Mothership is fundamentally a work of Anti-Canon. That is there is no fixed setting except for what is in the text for any given product and it is up to the Warden to chain it together into their own setting. However, enough products link back on each other to create a semi-canon. Mostly referencing off the official modules produced by Tuesday Knight Games.

To make a map from this requires two ways, one more in depth than the other. The first step is a close reading of the module to find out what assumption it makes; what other planets or background elements are referred to and how it implies they fit together (i.e. is something portrayed as isolated or distant). Beyond that, is when you dig through the author(s) blog(s) or Discord comments and see what else they have created or even one-off comments about some home game that might link two published modules together.

Easiest is when the author adds their own map. Then it becomes a matter of sticking it somewhere or sticking modules around it. Like any analytical study, this separates into lumpers and splitters.

Lumpers assume that with the vast scale between planetary systems and sectors, many modules can occur within the same system, hidden among the rings of gas giants and asteroids. The most prime, if not Mothership example being Columbia Game’s High Colonies. Splitters have modules and scenarios scattered in their own systems, potentially up to one for each.

A common way of lumping things together is to do it by author. If all of Tuesday Knight Games modules are about exploring a small section of space, then each author could be exploring their own. If there are multiple authors though, that’s a great excuse for a link, or you just have to make a choice between separating them out.

Blogs can be tricky. A reference might be to a home game, changed for release or discarded as a thought. Or their own changes not reflected in the modules but put in themselves and if you just blindly copy, then your connections won’t make sense. You are doing the equivalent of rehashing twice.

 

Let’s look at a few of my worked examples

This one was made by cramming modules whenever I felt like they should fit, including non-Mothership ones and eventually by the method listed above. It’s a total mess of distances and regions, the only consistent thing is trying to keep four systems per cluster, like in the sample ones from the Warden operations Manual. But even then, that is listed as just an average. I won't even try and list all the systema dn modules, the map has been on hold until more infomation about a critical area droips via Kickstarter. And at least one has gone dark.

Now let's see a simpler map, made by a closer reading of some actually published modules and a in-depth reading of the blogs of the authors.

This is a composite of several maps. Dug up from the Mothership Discord is a few old maps from Sean McCoy, one of the creators of Mothership, which formed the basis for the published modules. The author Mysteryspice, then took a few references from TKG's Dissident Whispers and built another area with new published modules, called Kappa Tauri. That was pulled from both Discord and blog.

Anodyne is another 3rd party publishing group, which pulled seevral non-associated 3rd party modules into a single cohesive map calle the Third Sector. While it doesn't innately link to their own Inferno Trilogy, the option is left to the Warden. Hull Breach by the same connects by the simple fact that I asked if it did and got a possible location.

On a side note, I normally pop Anodyne's Picket Line Tango over in the Third Sector's Alpha-Omega system.

So the map is really the following, stiched together:

Now for the wider area, we get a little fuzzier. There is a lot of promised Mothership material which may never come to pass. Endlessly promised, churning through Kickstarters and being delayed or abandoned. Most of it is one-shots, with a few really big pieces or collaborations. All this can be perrused for links and combined. To a certain extent, the deliberte anti-canon means imagination must be needed and for many, imagination is all that is needed.

You can see here that some areas link when they give no indication in the text that they do. That can be because the authors have published side-products that assume they must be close by, or 3rd-Party products which create links. Like how Space Penguin Ink's Distress Signals adds several links between Tuesday Knight Game's area and Silver Arm Game's Mani system.
With the assumption of hidden or proprietary jump routes, you are feel to link up however you want as new infomation comes to light. But building a universe out of parts that are already there helps string things along naturally and gives the players a cohesive space to play. nd not just a series of disconnected scenarios.

The benefit of anti-canon is that any approach, not just what I outlined works.

Worldbuild24 - Arodia Anthropology

Anthropology

Crabmen – Native to the Blue Reefs in the Bay of Moray. They were forced to seek refuge within the Topaz Islands and The Yellow City by the Squidmen and their kraken gods. Besides serving as menial labor with their rock-crushing claws and broader bodies, they have also carved out niches selling their magically preserved art, a great sin. Otherwise, they fight for sport, coin and entertainment. They are either lazy or calm and do not perish of age. But grow until they cannot support themselves.[i]

Deva – Some Angels loved the Earth too much to leave when the Dawn War ended, and the Primal Ban was placed upon the Gods. They choose to leave the Gods service and reincarnate as a form of adult Aasimar. Patterned in bands of light and dark. Though those who fall reincarnate as rakshasa eventually. Many appear in sacred Nefelus.[ii]

Elephant Demon – A fiendish cult which started in the city of Runggara Ban in the last century and spread to many in the Hundred Kingdoms. This cult is greatly feared in battle and has brought great success and converts in turning back enemies, particularly the Midani of Zakhara, the sultanates and Afyal. It is henotheistic and claims the God has devoured all the local gods and will do so to the world. Likewise human sacrifices have their limbs broken and are thrown in a pit shaped like a mouth to die. It is hideous. Such a god is either Gruumsh or Asmodeus.[iii]

Dwarf, Crystal – The Eastern Empire of Deep Darkness is no more, as is the norm for Dwarves. From the ruined citadels beneath the Mountains of the Moon, they now range the Oligarchies and adjoining regions. They are said to be worse tempered than normal dwarves. Forming small and embittered clans, closed to outsiders lest they lose what remains of their culture. This is due to the primacy of their finely made yet grotesque crystal masks. Cut from increasingly scarce deposits in surface caves and only removed with family or other dwarves. They are rumored to have lost their dwarvish sight.[iv]

Elven Attitudes, For – There is a diverse discourse regarding Elven merchants within Arodia society. The Elven Merchant Fleets have been trading with Arodia since before recorded history and they have never sought to conquer or preach as the Midani have done since being united by The Enlighteed Faith. The elves have a superficially similar Elven Caste System and being long-lived, fair and graceful, are among the Holy People. They fight pirates on the seas and in doing so have kept the spice route to the Thousand Thousand Islands open. They also show a keen interest in traditional religious and cultural knowledge.

Elven Attitudes, Against – There are many reasons for the people of Arodia to dislike Elves. If Arodia is the purest land, then the Elves are impure outsiders who are merely ancient and wise. Elves monopolize the best trade routes and deal with their Adventine factors and great fleets. The elves have the gall to insist they remember with their superior cultural records and lives. That once the continent was home to advanced civilizations associated with their lower Varna and untouchables who the Pure People ground beneath their Animal Nomad wagons. Accusing them of ancient hypocrisy about their own religion.

Elves, Marsh – The people of the Yellow Plant Empire continue to thrive. Not quite Elves and not quite dryads, the marsh elves are pulled from the waterlogged soil as mandrakes, become charming, four-armed, and vivacious before becoming immobile trees in age. Their carefree lives in the river forest of Lamarakh serves a vital function in Yoon-Suin. Living on boats and skiffs, lashed flotillas when convenient. They ae middlemen for trade across the Purple Lands. Seen as an exotic curiosity in The Yellow City, their language is unsolvable and unpronounceable. They greatly favour the scented cigarettes they call kojo from the city.[v]

Hanu – A race of zoomorphic Humanoids, intelligent and talking monkeys. In some parts of northern and western Arodia they are called Varana, though that may represent tribes in Láhág who they share a home with. They are certainly the same as the Zomia people, the Shanxiao. It is possible they are the same as the Laksaman in the Thousand Thousand Isles, but those share a Fey heritage with the rest of the Animal-Headed People. Certainly, the name hanu is used there. They occasionally display animalistic behaviors when their blood is up or attention wanders.[vi]

Lamarakhi – The boat people and tribes of the river forest of Lamarakh and the River of Gods. They display all the same quirks as the Marsh Elves in their language and smoking, However, they do not become trees but instead have all brothers marry the same woman, and have no other wives, as a boat cannot be split between sons. Some tribes are head-hunters who raid the Hundred Kingdoms for cattle or man flesh. Most eat the fruit and fish of the river-forest. They possess more wealth than any king but have nothing to spend it on, wearing it as trinkets.[vii]

Mountains of the Moon, Nomads of the – Though the Oligarchies hold the southern slopes and Sughd keeps the passes free from Yak-Men. The interior of the Mountains of the Moon is home to a great many tribes of Animal Nomads and Humanoids on the fridge plateau and valleys of the Zomia. Here the Ogres and Idra have their origin, and many remain. The yak and horse riders war in neighboring Xinjiang and into the Jiang Hu. Unless one seeks to impress upon their courts, the only succor is in the fortified monasteries which provide more civilized instruction. And they rule their high valley fiefs jealously.

Pure People – The social system of most of Arodia rates the people into four varna based on their purity to an idealized form and manner, signifying their karma. Certain ancestries have a natural advantage in this, based on their innate grace, beauty, and celestial origin. Though being foreign naturally cancels this out. Elves are graceful and blessed with long lives, Half-Elves only less so, Dwarves have age and skill though they lack beauty. But those with the best karma are Aasimar, and Deva in particular, since they are both reincarnations and native. Monstrous races in return have bad karma.[viii]

Slugmen – Those who built The Yellow City out of the ruins of Degringolade. It is unknown if they were always there, but the city is their birthright, and they are the sole property-owners. Ancient authority and a massive trade in narcotics have made them materialistic, effete and pompons. No slugman would not be seen without fancy outfits and eunuch slaves, but no Humanoid people who have survived so long are weak. They value knowledge above all pursuits and are great patrons of institutions of exploration and exploitation.[ix]

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[i] See Adventures In Yoon Suin For 5E, p.6

[ii] See 4E Player's Handbook 2, p.8

[iii] See Yoon-Suin, the Purple Land p.16

[iv] See Adventures In Yoon Suin For 5E, p.6

[v] See Adventures In Yoon Suin For 5E, p.5

[vi] See Sword of Wuxia pp.6-7

[vii] See Yoon-Suin, the Purple Land p.11

[viii] Obviously inspired by the real-life Hindu caste system, with some of the weird fantasy racial baggage of the OSR RPG Arrows of Indra

[ix] See Adventures In Yoon Suin For 5E, p.7