Mask V mask I: Kasper and Dot

In Mask v mask i take historical, theatrical, mythological or religious masks from real life and twist them into monsters/items/traps/NPC's for use in RPG's.

I classify my masks as follows:
Peasants-  these masks, while sometimes combative foes, primarily function as puzzles and sources of frustration.  Most peasant masks take time to grow into threats but they all spread some chaos or break some social norm.
Masters- these masks often have the ability to dominate or control minions.  It is these minions that present the primary threat in most cases as most Master masks are themselves weak or even helpless in a fight.  That said any master mask can be reasoned with or tricked and does not always have to be the foil to the PC's party.
Disasters- These Masks present broad and far reaching threats and energies. Containing elemental or divine energies they sport wild and uncontrolable powers. These masks are often hidden in dungeons, locked away in towers, or kept in sealed reliquaries and function like traps and fearful magic items.  A disaster mask can change the wold and is almost always best left untouched.
Nobles- These are the masks of tragedy and humanity, nobility and pain.  Where disaster masks contain primal energies or forces, the noble masks contain all that is human presented as the superhuman.  These are the masks you are most likely to face in a physical confrontation.  There is often a strong connection between a Noble mask and a disaster mask of some kind and it is not uncommon  for noble masks to be encountered in groups or families.




Mask Monster #1                                         The Kasper Mask                  Classification: peasant mask

MASK SUMMERY: cannot be injured, escapes all confinement after 24 hours, treat as a lvl 1 fighter (in the system of your choice) in combat, Does not outright murder.  good to use as a long term threat to a stedding that the PC's frequent. 

BIO: The Kasper is a black mask with heavy lines and large eyes which is often attached to a stiff hat piece.   The face is usually heavily lined is sometimes covered with warts and always has a hooked nose like that of a chicken's beak.  

A Kasper is a mask containing the soul of a poor, ugly, angry, depressed man or women. that is drawn to poor, ugly, angry, depressed men and woman.  There is an old folk tale that saysthat Kasper was a real man once long ago.

They say that he original Kasper was beaten as a child for no other reason then he was ugly. They say when he was a young man he was often tied up in the village square and people threw things at him just for fun.  Folk tales tell of how he could never keep a job for long and how his wife married him by accident before killing herself. Whatever the legend they all agree that the original Kasper had many children but no way to feed them. It is said Kasper cared for his children above all eles because they were all just as horrid, ugly and lonely as kasper himself.  Bitter and lonely Kasper wanted the world to feel as depressed as he has always felt so he became a teller of unfunny jokes that had gruesome endings and a prankster.  He could never resist alcohol and was permanently drunk.  Kasper made the lives of everyone he met a living hell and he would laugh at them as they suffered.  It is not known how the original Kasper died but it is belived the villagers in his town tried to kill him one night.  All the legends differ, some say they tried to hang him, some say they drowned him, or beat him or starved him or stabbed him or all of the above.  But every legend agrees that the whole while the town worked to kill him he just spat insults and cursed them and laughed; and when they were done with the deed all that was left of Kasper was a black mask.

A kasper mask, for there may be more than one, no one can be sure, is drawn towards the downtrodden, the homeless, the people who the world has completely crushed but the Mask will only come to those who have children, especially those with too many or particularly un-cared for children. Often a person will find the Kasper mask on the very worst day of their lives.  That is why the Kasper mask is usually found floating in rivers under bridges, where suicides so often fling themselves.  Once a person places the kasper mask on their face they become Kasper and take on his personality completely

wearing the mask:  a person wearing The Kasper mask forgets who they were before wearing it immediately.  The only thing the wearer will remember are the names and faces of those who have wronged him and the faces of his children.  The wearer of The Kasper is immune to all damage (though he feels every wound, verbal and physical, ten fold) and can escape any imprisonment after one full day.  While this makes the Kasper fearless he actually deals very little damage and is not a fighter (treat as a first lvl fighter in your system of choice).  Kasper can usually be found sleeping in chicken coops or feeding pidgins and he will always seek out alcohol.  Additionally he will take great care of his children (or the children of the person wearing the mask).  A Kasper will spend all his free time trying to destroy people who are happy or rich (especially those who wronged the person who wears the mask).  He will start with pranks and bad jokes and your PC's may find this amusing. But as time goes on he will grow more cruel and a kind of bad luck will fall on the town or city he lives in.  He will drown puppies, salt fields, beat people unconscious in their beds (and then of course serve them breakfast) and chop off fingers and all the while he will smile and sing to himself.  A Kasper who has been allowed to run wild too long will grow very dark indeed though he will not murder people unless he is made very mad.  When a Kasper kills it is always by tricking his victim into killing himself or by causing accidents.  Most people will have no idea that the Kasper is the cause of the bad luck and only the very perceptive will notice that The Kasper is even wearing a mask, they will just recognize him as Kasper.

A Kasper brooding

Beating a Kasper: if you cant kill him or hurt him or trap him what do you do about him?  The only weakness of  Kasper is the man who is wearing the kasper mask.  If the PC's can  figure out who it is behind the mask they can beat him by forcing him to confront his old life somehow.  Tricking a Kasper to injure his own children will make the Kasper very sad and kill themselves (often by hurling themselves off bridges).  Rarely people have managed to appeal to a Kasper, convincing him that his old life had some value (think Its a Wonderful Life).  The final and most gruesome way to defeat a Kasper is to beat him at his own game.  for instance, if a Kasper is systematically ruining the lives of all the bosses at a local factory and the PC's murder the bosses then the Kasper will lose his motivation and sometimes remove the mask and become themselves again.  The most famous example of this was the town of Ardis which had suffered so long from the deeds of Kasper that the whole town made a suiside pact just to spite him. Of course sometimes if a Kasper has been around a very long time he will decide it is so much fun causing chaos that he wont stop even if the people he was taking vengeance on are dead.

BITS AND BODS THINGS TO KNOW:  The mask will detect as magic.  The mask sizes to fit it's wearer. The mask cannot be enchanted.  The mask itself is made of hardened leather and can be chopped up, burned, dissolved ect. as leather could be, but it will reconstitute in about 24 hours.  The mask, when not being worn can easily be held in a box a safe or a vault and cannot escape confinement if not being worn.  an animal, like a monkey a squirrl or an elephant can under no circumstances wear the mask... that would be silly. Shamans or priests who try to free the soul trapped within the mask (when no one is wearing it) have a 75% chance to fail and at the same time develop awful boils all over their face which will almost surely never heal.  If the mask isnt being worn while a shamen or preist attempts to exersise the mask's spirit then they have  50% chance of sucsess but failure duplicates the mask.


to Finnish things off a very indecent (and poorly constructed) insult chart for kick-starting Kasper's bad humor.  (i made this for use in a session it aint great but it worked, make a better one if you dont like it lol)

1	Your mother	Sucked chunky pudding	Out of the divot in	(The) Trashcan!
2	Your father	Smelled like the drippings	Behind the bakers	(The) Outhouse!
3	Your sister	Kissed my dog’s ass	While (he/she/they/it) humped	The whorehouse
4	Your brother	Pissed from (his/her/their) mouth in shock	When you were born in	A pigsty
5	Your family	Summoned demons	(to) have an orgy in	The Public square
6	Your ugly face	Killed the midwife	(While) breastfeeding in (your/a)	My ASS!
7	Your cock (or indecent body part of choice)	Will be floppy and useless	After I finish beating you (with/in)	(in) A Dead rabbit!
8	Your ass!	Makes prettier babies than you	Every time you sneeze in	(Your) right hand
9	Everyone	Will make me puke (until)	(on) the day I sleep soundly	In HELL!
10	The whole lot of you	Should Fuck off	Evertime you see me in	(The) street!

MASK #2                                              THE DOT MASK                               Classification: Master

a terrible picture i drew a long time ago 

MASK SUMMERY: The mask of the medical quack.  DC 12 willpower check to avoid believing whatever he tells you after a minuet of conversation.  Treat as a lvl 3 cleric in your system of choice except that all healing spells have a 50% chance to deal damage and all damage spells have a 50% chance to heal.  The Dot never wears any armor but his enormous fat and bulky body gives him protection as if he was wearing full plate.  Any spells dealing with divine guidance or invocation of a deity instead invoke obscure medical texts that may or may not exist. The Dot is immune to poison. OPTIONAL:  going along with the bizar medical demands of the Dot mask have a 50% chance of actually curing what ails you. (roll for the success only after you make up a wonderfully bizarre "cure" and the player has chosen to accept it)

BIO: A Dot is a red or rust orange mask with a bulbous nose and squinty eyes which is sometimes found with a pair of glasses built into it.  A Dot mask only ever covers the wearer's forehead and nose.   Often, in mediveil fantasy settings, PC groups will be used to seeing doctors wearing plague masks and may not realize that this doctor wears an enchanted mask. 

It is common knowledge among all people that a Dot mask is filled with the soul of a physician blessed with infinite wisdom.  In actuality a Dot is filled with the soul of a gluttonous and compulsive lair.  It is not uncommon that great doctors, seeking the knowledge they believe the mask to contain, will seek out and don the mask.  The events that follow the donning of a Dot mask often echo through out history.  The black plagues in the city of Dras Nock, the endless famine of Vir, the ten thousand thousand blind children of Lorothigh, the Endless debate of Plumb and the Filibuster of Emperor Tong all count as part of the Dot's legacy.  

The true identity of the soul or energy contained within a Dot mask is a mystery that will likely never be solved due to the masks seeming inability to tell truth from fiction.  What is known, or rather believed, is that the mask genuinely wishes to help people but is prevented from doing so by it's complete ignorance and unbelievably twisted view of reality. Besides a Dot's misguided helpful nature the mask is also possessed of an incredible hunger which has lead some scholars to conjecture that it contains a spirit from a theorized elemental plain of food.  This is of course a stupid theory and may in fact be a supposition suggested by the wearer of a Dot mask at some point in the past.  The mask itself is often drawn to universities, cities of great culture, or lands afflicted by pestilence and nations famous for excellent cuisine. 

WEARING THE MASK:  Placing the Dot mask onto your face has three immediate effects.  First, the wearer becomes absolutely sure that everything he thinks and says it true.  Second, everyone who the wearer speaks to for more than a minuet (DC 12 will check) becomes convinced that everything the wearer says and does is correct and reasonable.  Third, the wearer becomes enormously and perpetually hungry.  The wearer still knows who they are and retains all the knowledge and skill he or she originally possessed though these skills degrade as time passes and the wearer "improves" his skills.  

These three aspects of the mask, though simple, combine to cause a surprisingly incredible amount of chaos.  The events that follow the donning of a Dot mask often proceed as follows:

A kind and well meaning person will seek out the Dot mask, the mask of the great physician, believing that it will gift them with infinite wisdom and medical skill and allow them to help others. This kind and sincere person places the mask on his face and becomes quite hungry.  Eventually this kind hearted person will attempt to assist someone else who is in need and the powers of the Dot mask will kick in.  The wearer will believe that whatever notion he first comes up with will be the solution to the problem and the unfortunate in need will likewise believe so.   If the patent is lucky they will walk away with leeches on their gentiles, a prescription to lick toads or some other ridiculous and ineffectual remedy but many unfortunates have endured bizarre surgeries, doses of cyanide or pointless amputations.  (if you want to make the Dot a less horrible doctor you could give all of his cures a 50% chance of improbable success,)  After supplying his services a Dot will always ask for payment in the form of food. In time Dots can become physicians or advisers to kings and generals, offering their wisdom in areas that arnt strictly  medical and thereby spreading large scale strangeness.  Many of the strange cures known by village doctors, old house wives or traveling physicians may have been learned or passed down from a Dot.

Most wearers of the Dot mask grow incredibly fat very fast and barely manage to waddle around town dispensing cures.  In their lifetimes the wearers of dot mask are rarely killed or assaulted as everyone assumes them to be a decent and knowledgeable fellow. Most wearers of the Dot mask die, happily, after eating far to much or succumbing to heart attacks at which point the mask useualy disappears via mysterious means.

BEATING THE MASK: Fighting the wearer of a dot mask in one on one combat is rarely a dangerous en-devour.  He functions as a lvl 3 cleric (in your system of choice) and can be killed.  He wears no armor but his fat blubbery body counts like a suit of full plate.  All of his cleric spells that do damage have a 50% chance to instead heal and likewise for his healing spells.  He is immune to all poisons.

The real threat presented by a Dot is in the hordes of loyal patents or the Dot's Patron.  If the Dot has managed to fool a king, mayor or other person of power and influence then that person will do everything in his power to defend his rotund servant.  Some Dot's set themselves up in universities and command thousands of deluded medical students.  In any event the people closest to the Dot will come to his defence in the event of ouright agression.

For this reason many people have engaged in stealth campaigns to assassinate the wearer of the Dot mask.  These assassinations are oft successful except when the assassins attempt to poison the Dot's food, as the Dot is immune to poison and rotten food.  A wearer of the Dot mask was once challenged to a debate by a legendary philosopher who managed to trick the Dot  (through clever wordplay) that the Dot was in-fact lieing, which caused the Dot to experienced a mental breakdown as he paradoxically believed his own assertion that he was a lier and therefore was was not telling the truth about the fact that he was a liar when he said so.  This caused the mask to fall off the wearer who never trusted in his own judgement from that day onward.  It is possible to dispel magic from those who have spoken with a Dot mask and thereby remove the glamour that caused them tio belive the Dot.  Mobs of so awakened ex-patents will often swarm and destroy the wearer of a Dot.  Others have lured a Dot with the promise of a banquet or basket of chicken and so trapped him in cages or prisons sealing him away from society.  Others have cast spells of permanent silence on the wearer of a dot mask to prevent him from influencing others, though this only works if the Dot cannot also write.
If the Dot is unable to consume at least 6 full meals a day then he will die of extreme depression. This food requirement makes traveling Dot's rare and the wearers useualy stay in cities.

BITS AND BODS THINGS TO KNOW:
The Dot mask detects as magic.   The mask sizes to fit it's wearer. The mask cannot be enchanted.  The mask itself is made of hardened leather and can be chopped up, burned, dissolved ect. as leather could be, but it will reconstitute in about 24 hours.  The mask, when not being worn can easily be held in a box a safe or a vault and cannot escape confinement if not being worn.  an animal, like a monkey a squirrl or an elephant can under no circumstances wear the mask... that would be silly. The mask cannot be remved from a face once it has been worn, however the mask on ocassion falls off if the wearer is struck with guilt cofusion or some powerful magics somehow.  The mask vanishes when it is removed or the wearer dies.  If a PC dons the mask then they gain the ability to be believed by anyone they speak to and any cures the player prescribes have a 50% chance of success or otherwise cause more damage. (at the GM's option he may gain a number of cleric spells equal to his lvl when he donned the mask) The power that the mask offers a PC is complicated however by the fact that the player must consume any edible foodstuff he encounters and must eat 6 meals a day or die immediately at sunset, the player wearing the dot mask also loses the ability to dodge or charge (due to getting really fat).

and a table of unlikely cures for use by the absent minded Dot which will hopefully find his way into your next session.

1	bite the	leeches	Generally everywhere on your person	Every hour
2	Eat/drink the	Blood of a recently stillborn yak	In your navel	Every other hour
3	Rub the	Smothered and freshly plucked hens	On your face	Every time you hear a dog bark
4	Place the	Eyeballs of a white rat	In your rectum	Whenever the moon shines on a cloudless night
5	Burn the	Milk of a lactating widow	In the fireplace	Once a month
6	Bathe in the	Milk of a lactating shrew	In your nasal cavity	When you become stricken with wanderlust
7	brew the	Thistle stew	Under your bed	Only when the pain is greatest
8	Dance with the	Head of a goat	In the bathroom	On Mondays
9	Copulate with the	Chin of a freshly shaven man	In the alleyway behind the brothel	At lunchtime and before prayers
10	Sleep beside the	Broom Handel and doorknob	On the belly of a pregnant woman	Twice a week

                        

Until next time this has been Mask v mask!

P.S. both these masks are based off of commedia del arte comedic masks.  Kasper is based off of Pulchinella, and Dot is based off of Dottore.  Wikipedia them if you are curious about them.

A Wretched Joanna pt. 4

(As part of character creation in Rogue Trader each character chooses a career path, this includes home-world, primary motivations, what jobs they have had, why they chose to explore the stars ect.  this basically encourages players to write back-stories for their characters.  this group went wild with back-stories. the players never read each other's back-stories. only i read them all and they had invented some very similar things in their pasts... I tell you this so you will understand the madness that was the second session becuase some players reacted rather... strongly to things...)

SESSION 2!

Fennick describes going into warp.  He says that there is a brass servitor (zombie-robot-cyborg-butler) that has a giant red button on it's back, pressing this button send the ship into the warp.  Fennick describes his captain's throne and gives a speech before slamming his fist into the giant button...

The Joanna slips into the yawning maw of the warp hopefully heading for the independent outpost known as Footfall. All the windows are bolted shut, security is tripled and in the holy engineering bay thousands of tech priests burn incense and chant the 95 rights of maintenance from page 276 of the blessed tome "Fusion plant operator's manual 2nd edition". Maccabeus, the ships missionary, encourages sinful crew-members to burn themselves alive in-front of the ship's auto-temple, intending to keep the fiery pier burning until the ship exits the warp. Fennick locks himself in his quarters with his autobiography and a pistol.  Everyone holds their breath, because just outside the hull of the ship, held at bay only by the protective energies of the geller feild, writhes the viscous un-reality of the warp.  Any moment deamons could tear through the hull. Even a momentary power failure could cause the geller feild to fail and the ship's innards could become an Escher painting, a horror of non euclidean geometry.  The ships thousand year old machinery strains and hundreds of crew die simply attempting to avert complete mechanical failure.  The halls echo with fearful voices mumbling prayers.

Chronarch sends me a private message (PM) through roll20 (the program we use to play together) "I am not sure about this guy playing the captain, i feel like he is going to do something rash.  can chronarch, while no one is watching, disable that servator with the red button on his back? i dont want anyone randomly throwing us ino warp for lols."    a tech use roll later it is done and no one is the wiser.

The Navigator Gabriel Uhl, the only crew member able to look into the warp and not go instantly mad,  guides the ship through the chaotic currents.  I tell him that he feels something familiar clawing at the back of his mind just to freak him out.

perhaps Uhl was distracted by this (or perhaps he simply has awful luck and cant roll dice to save his life) because he totally failed every navigation roll and the journey quickly took a bad turn.  The players groaned as I joyously opened the lovely navigation error charts.  On the third day the Joanna slammed into a pocket of warp turbulence and the entire crew became plagued with nightmares and madness.  I told them all that they felt a nasty demonic kind of dejavu and  Maccabeus threw more crew on the fire as moral dropped into dangerous levels (78%/99%).

  On the sixth day Gabriel steered the ship into a reef of spectral hatred and the shadows aboard the vessel sprang to life crawling into the machinery of the life sustainer.  Maccabeus lead priests with incense and flamethrowers to purge the systems and succeeded, at the cost of losing the life sustainer plant entirely. The combat was short and sweet.  Fire kills everything  the rogue trader.

 On the ninth day, as the ship filled with bad air, and crew suffocated in their sleep, Gabriel Uhl attempted to accelerate there journey by catching a strong warp current.  This endevour resulted in a time dilation.  Everyone of the crew experienced a day worth of time every second.  Men, who took minuets to suffocate experienced years of agony.  It took hours to stake a single step.  Weeks passed in the time it took to sip water from a cup.  Needless to say moral plummeted further still as the crew found themselves prisoners in their own skin.

Finaly it came time to translate out of the warp into real space. Uhl rolls and fails again.  The players start talking about the characters they will replace these with when they die, as i joyously open the book to the "inaccurate warp translation" table.  A couple rolls later and the Joanna pops into reality in the middle of nowhere, hanging in the empty space between worlds.  The players are relived, they might have appeared inside a sun or deep in an alien ocean.  this was just nowhere.



Fennick, who has just left his quarters for the frst time orders the auger array to scan the area.  a couple excellent rolls later i say

"there is nothing for billions of kilometers in any direction except a small transport 200km off the port bow"

Then:
-Fennick asks for a telescope and looks through it at the ship.  it is very far off but i describe what he can see. "it looks like a small black transport"
-Fennick's player says "I stand at the window and i dont move"  then PM's (private messages) me and asks "is it what i think it is?"
- i say nothing
- maccabeus: what is it captain?
- "The ship turns slightly in your direction" i say as i PM Gabriel uhl and say "you  hallucinate an old man in a row boat whenever you look in the direction of the small ship"
- gabriel uhl screams "guys we gotta run!"
- maccabeus: what is going on!
- Fennick: continues to stair then asks "when will it be close enough for me to see hull markings"
- 10 Kilometers i say
- Gabriel still yelling: "guys turn around right now we are fucked!  so fucked! run!"
- Chronarch: "what the hell did i miss??"
- |Gabriel argues with everyone demanding that they run,  fennick stares waiting for it to get closer
- I move the token closer
- Maccabeus: we are like 3 times the size whats the deal
- Gabriel UHL: I cant tell you just run!!
- I move the token closer
- Chronarch: should i be readying the ship's weapons?
- closer
- Fennick stares
-100km i tell them the class of the ship
- 70km Chronarch attempts to hail them
-50km i tell gabriel Uhl in a PM that he can see the old man in the boat smiling
- 20km Maccabeus uses the sensors to scan for life. gets one reading that says zero life signs and one that says 200,000 life signs
- Maccabeus PM's me and asks "is this what i think it is?"
-i say nothing
-10km.
-Fennick rolls a scrutiny test and is able to examine the ship.   i say "it is what you think it is fennick, Gabriel you see the whites of his eyes.  could you both roll fear 4 checks

now a fear test can ruin a character, drive him mad, make him pass out, commit suicide, die of a heart attack ect.  a fear 4 test is mega bad and when they hear this chronarch and maccabeus freak out

-Fennick fails his fear test but still doesn't do to bad, the fear chart says he must run away from the source of the fear and he cant stop until it is gone he cannot fight it
- gabriel also fails, he gains tons of insanity points and also must run away
- Fennick orders the ship to turn around and run,
- Gabriel Uhl begins strapping himself into the navigator's chair and yelling into a brass tube that they have to go back into the warp
- Maccabeus argues that they can fight the ship but no one listens, as he looks out at the black ship he sees a giant eye blink somewhere on the hull of the strange vessle and he rolls a fear test
- maccabeus succeeds and keeps pressing for a violent solution
- chonarch runs down into engineering and manages to succeed some very dangerous rolls to boost speed
- the black ship gains on them
- Space combat starts, piloting rolls, tech use rolls, tons of engineering rolls, a couple broadsides later
- the black ship gains
- Moment of truth arrives. the black ship will have them in boarding range next round
- Fennick runs across the bridge to the brass servator and slams his fist into the button that would plunge the ship back into the screaming vortex of the warp and away from the vessel that pursues them
- "Nothing happens" i say.  and the players say what?!?! what do you mean?!?!
- chronarch remebers that he disabled the servator so that this would never happen
- they have one action left before the ship makes contact
- one clutch tech use test by chronarch re-enables the servator and the wretched Joanna gets sucked into the warp.

we end the session with the description of the black ship hanging in the blackness of space, the camera zooming out slowly while the voice of an old man whispers a nursery rhyme about three blind mice.  the black ship dispersal in a red flash.

END OF SESSION

home-brew DW Classes Pt.1

I love a ton of systems but the most enjoyably hack-able system I have played with has been Dungeon world.  The 11 year old me that sat around drawing my own pokemon cards in pencil loves that system.  "Tyrana-submarine-amon-Rex! use fire bubble torpedo!"

Imagination is super effective!

Dungeon World has a really active community on G+ and you can find a bunch of cool free home-brew stuff to bolt into your campaign as well as people to play with and test the stuff you make.  The Dungeon World system is just elegant enough in it's simplicity that in a few hours you can make a balanced custom class from a simple idea with some practice.  I suggest sticking to the core classes until you really get the system though. The system also happens to be complex and structured enough that you can offer incredible power to players without destroying game balance.  It is not nearly as dense as systems like D&D, so it wont appeal to everyone and though i really enjoy it there are a lot of things that dungeon world just cant do.

My favorite aspect of the character classes/playbook in Dungeon World is that the class moves and abilities don't all ways demand a roll. The playbooks, at their best, naturally create the atmosphere of the class they represent.  If you choose the barbarian playbook then you are encouraged by the rules and your abilities to act like a barbarian and the GM is encouraged to fill the campaign with things that a barbarian can interact with.  The presence of you character in a situation changes the situation somehow simply through the possibilities that exist in the individual character sheets.

This class I made is a decent example of that, though; I think it needs another pass to be perfect but who cares about that!!

This is first attempt at a Knight Class/Playbook
(i am no expert with bloggs or pdf's but you should be able to see both pages; and you should be able to download it if you want to. I will also add that it needs a bit of work to be really presentable.  I just made it for my own use)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1jzGZXV-azBSDFNNklieE9pYk0/view?usp=sharing


I borrowed some inspiration from an unfinished Knight playbook I found on the inter-webs so cheers to that guy/gal

When making this class I really wanted something that felt knightly as opposed to just a fighter or a paladin.  So i asked myself what is a knight.  What makes a guy with a sword more than himself, what makes him a knight?

- a horse
- honor
- a quest, a mission, a code of behavior
- lots of armor
- a lord

I looked at this list and I saw all the things that the stock paladin class has. the paladin has a patron and a code and lots of armor and a quest.  The paladin has all these things but he doesn't feel like a knight all the time at least not in Dungeon world.  In fact in most systems a paladin feels sorta like judge dredd or captain america; the class is lawful and good but not exactly knightly.

So i took another stab at my list of knightly things
- a horse (this is a must)
- romance
- standing alone against the odds
- tournaments
-rescues and escapes
- duels
- lost causes

this seemed better and it is what i used to make the above playbook.  his horse is important for him as both a method for dealing damage, escaping bad situations, solving non combat problems and generally interacting with the world.  This seemed important because you aren't a knight (in the classic European military sense) unless you are mounted.

The class has many moves that let him risk his own death to protect or control a fight. This seems appropriate, for every knight that slays a dragon there are ten that get eaten first.

He has some abilities that synergies and simulate combat in a tournament setting.  These lend some interesting ideas to combat.  where other players are trying to deal damage a high lvl knight is trying to knock people down and charge around the battlefield, basically acting like a knight.

The class is aslo full of moves that open up the knight to big weaknesses that a GM can use creatively against the knight.  The class has tons of utility and tanking skills as well as the ability to deal huge single taget damage at the start of a combat so it was inportant to give him many weaknesses.  He is clumsy in his armour.  His horse dosnt fit in dungeons.  His chosen Order can sereously restrict his ability to act.  useing Yeild has a powerful ingame effect but restricts the player. he takes increaced damage from falling to the ground.  All these things encourage the player to decide when to act and how, carefully planing.  Then, when he does act, the player has the ability to be swift and decicive... like a knight.

So far i have seen 3 player use this class and enjoyed it. Though two died and one looks like he will be strangled by an ogre next session.

cheers

A Wretched Joanna Pt. 3

In the last post we left the triumphant party blaring the Tale of their exploits into space, blocking all communication with their hymn casters.

We left the half ruined ship, the Wretched Joanna, gently orbiting the Imperial colony, and burgeoning Hive world, of Odeon as an ork vessel exploded on the surface of the moon.

We left a crew exhausted and a ship spent.  Yet for all their dramatic flair, they have no prize and no profit to show for it. Yet, their hymn casters play on.. and on.... and on.  The Captain, Fennick, has suddenly developed gubernatorial dreams and believes that this is his opportunity to ingratiate himself with the populous.  Chronarch, unsure of the effectiveness of such a blunt political strategy, advises the crew that perhaps blocking all communications in a system is not the best way to assure good will.  The Missionary on the other hand is quite content with the current situation, after a number of lore checks, he is quite aware that the planet Odeon is recovering from a recent ork invasion and that news of a destroyed ork ship is likely being taken well.

The navigator on the other hand locks himself in his quarters and, having developed a mutation that allows him to see in the dark, orders all lights removed from his section of the ship.  Crew busy themselves tying guide ropes along bulkheads as six whole decks are plunged into a permanent blackness.  A blackness in which Gabriel Uhl alone can see, a darkness which, like his soul, conceals many secrets.

As the Navigator plots mutiny and chaos, through whispers, PM's and secret rolls sent to the GM, a trio of imperial Navy sword frigates move into a parallel orbit with the Joanna.  If the three military vessels were attempting to hail the Joanna those hails were jammed by the thundering music of the Joanna's hym casters which obstinently play on.

Chronarch the tech priest, seeing this as a sure sign of approaching catastrophe, moves quickly.  Using a combination of the ship's docking lights, carful piloting and the missionary’s military lore a message is sent to the to the navy frigates inviting them to send representatives to the Joanna.

A return message is sent and a lonely shuttle slowly kreeps across the enormous space separating the lead frigate from the Joanna.  Fennick is ecstatic.  A Navy officer would be boarding his ship!  An impression must be made.  Orders are given command checks rolled and 30 minutes later as the shuttle doors open and the furious admiral, flanked by heavily armed marines, enters the bay he is greeted by a spectacle.

Every Servo skull and cherub on the ship is in the hanger bay.  Each flying in complex mathematical patterns dragging bolts of fabric through the air, all conducted by chronarch.  Fennick has had the contents of his Trophy room emptied into a pile on the hanger floor and he stands atop it as a painter furiously paints his portrait.  The remaining arms men of the Joanna lead military drills lead by Maccabeus the missionary and Gabriel Uhl broods in a corner quietly drinking tea.  The crew attempts to use the spectacle to intimidate and charm the Navy officer and there rolls  blow it out of the water.

They avoided was would have proved to be a vicious combat both in space and on the deck.  Learning that their greatest weapon was being filthy rich and cleaver than anyone eles.  Threats, warnings, dinners, compliments and gifts are exchanged and the mollified admiral leaves as the hym casters finally shut down. 

In the following weeks Fennick, Chronarch, Uhl, and Maccabeus pay for repairs, run recruitment drives, rub elbows with nobility.  All the while exploring the lone hive city on planet Odeon.  During this time the recent history of Odeon is revealed:

Odeon was recently attacked by a large ork fleet.  The fighting was fierce but the Imperial Navy were luckily in the area and managed to drive off the large part of the enemy force… However during the chaos of the planet-side invasion the planetary Governor "Pinkham Plex" became convinced that the planet was doomed.  He took his personal guard and used them to loot the homes of all the planetary nobility.  He then, under the guise of supplying protection, striped the cathedral of odeon of it’s holy relics.  He then robbed the local navigator house, taking the only charts of a newly discovered series of warp routes.  Finally the governor used his hand print to deactivate the planetary defense network and used the resulting opening to escape the system in his personal Yaught "the steward of Plenty" which happened to also be the planetary palace.

Further, independent investigation by the crew reveals that a number of planetary forces are in competition to find the missing governor of the planet

Chronarch discovers that the local Head Magos "Veneratus Valintinian Spool"wants the Governor’s hand so he can reactivate the planetary defence network. He cares not for the well being of the governor or his loot.  Another ork attack looms however so time is a factor.

Magos "Veneratus Valintinian Spool"

Gabriel Uhl, negotiates terms with the navigator house for the return of their charts, with assurances that Pinkham would see justice.

head of the navigator house

Maccabeus speaks with the Bishop "Roice Von Braun" and guarantees him that Pinkham would be returned whole and healthy along with the furnishings of the cathedral by the feast of the Emperor’s ascension  which is in 2 months time.

Bishop "Roice Von Braun"

Fennick allows his crew to investigate and search for clues as to the likely location of Pinkham Plex and instead focuses on the political state of the planet.  Obviously upon hearing that the planetary governor is missing and a traitor, Fenninck becomes certain that he will soon rule a planet.  He looks up the person currently running the planet and sets up a meeting.  The current leader of the planet?  Administrator Sarah Siss.

-         Fennick sets up a meeting in her office in the administratum spire of the hive, decide on a quiet meeting over tea.

-         Fennick gathers every arms-man he can, all the bridge crew the other players (who have to stop their investigations into Pinkham to come) and 50+ scribes

-         This massive retinue fills every one of the Wretched Joanna’s 4 lighters and 2 cargo haulers

-         200-300 people arrive in the lobby of the Administratum building

-         200-300 people squeeze down a hallway just wide enough for two people to squeeze past each other.

-         The party arrives at the office of Sarah Siss, the door opens and we see that she is not only unimpressed but she is ready to break someone’s neck

-         Fennick declares his undying love for her

-         Threats, yelling, debate, negotiations, dialog, lots of rolls later…

-         The crew has discovered that the council of Odeon will elect, as governor, the person who can capture Pinkham Plex,

-         The crew cheer as they dream of capturing him and becoming a governor…

-         Fennick instantly signs a contract to deliver Pinkham alive and in perfect physical condition to Sarah Siss who will claim she caught him and become governor. 

-    Fennick agrees to take no credit and to deliver Plex before the election (which is on the feast of the Emporor's asention in 2 months) on the condition that Sarah Siss will go on a date with him… and pay him some money.

-         The crew shake thier heads

-         Fennick makes a number of failed passes at Siss. And she tells him to get out.

-         Then 1 hour passes as 200-300 people file back out the hallway, of course Fennick and the party end up stuck in Siss’s office for 30 minuets as the back of the line waits for the front to start moving

-         AWKWARD…

Fennick anxious to capture Pinkham Plex, and aware of the two month deadline, decides that luck is better than information and upon returning to the ship orders the crew to drop all investigations and prepare for immediate departure.  The crew look at the map and decide they will begin their serch in Footfall.

Before they leave the Gabriel Uhl opens a vox com to the navigator house he had been negotiateing with and, on an open frequency, tells them that they aregoing to go and hunt for Pinkham on footfall.  Uhl mentions the reward the crew has been offered, the contracts, everything.  (it has been debated at my table for months how intentional this act was).  Immediately after sending the message three Rogue traders break orbit, head for the edge of the system and go into warp. 

The endeavour to capture a man hiding in the expanse, that was on a two month timer, at this moment, became a four way race to achieve the impossible.

This first endeavour of the Wretched Joanna would become known as:

THE PINKHAM COMPLEX

With that we ended our first of many game sessions.  Pt.4 of this tale will begin with session two.  (I think I will try to do this more point form but the first session had a lot of social interaction in it)