#StayAtHome: Starting "Electric Bastionland"

Art by Alec Sorensen

I'm not sure that's a Dachshund being walked on a leash near the upper right corner. It may have too many legs, and appears to have neck frills. But you should expect the unexpected in Chris McDowall's  Electric Bastionland.

That creature may not even be from Earth.

Bastion is the only important city left on Earth: a New Crobuzon; a Nexus: the Infinite City; an Everway all piled up with junk deposited by the winds that buffet the Angel of History.

Humanity had long gone to the stars, and it has been a long, long time since we have fallen back to Earth.

It's entirely possible that the being on the other end of the leash isn't from Earth either.

Now that I have a PDF of the successor RPG to Into the Odd, I'm really pumped to have an opportunity to sit down and read it: as a prelude to running it. So I have put down Numenera for a little while again.

I had to work on a grant proposal all weekend, so I didn't get any reading done, but this will be one of my #StayAtHome reads in April!

Troika

Erik creates a character

Troika is an unpredictable, fast paced, rules-light, multiplanar RPG inspired by old-school British fantasy. Think Warhammer (FRP and 40K), Fighting Fantasy, and Dragon Warriors. Think Moorcock, not Tolkien. New Crobuzon, not King's Landing. It's the brainchild of Daniel Sell and Jeremy Duncan.

I just finished running a two session game of Troika. It was a lot of fun, especially the second session, when I got a better sense of how to handle NPCs. Small differences in Skill level can be quite significant in combat.

Character generation is quick. There are three stats: (general) Skill, Stamina (which functions as hit points), and Luck (which decrements). There are also Advanced (i.e., specific) Skills and Spells, which function similarly to Skills in terms of  dice rolls.

The game uses a 2D6 die roll mechanic. You try to roll equal to or under the sum of your Skill + Advanced Skill (or Spell) when you are not in combat or direct competition with someone else. During combat and competition, Skills (and targeted Spells) are successful when you roll higher than your opponent.  Casting reduces Stamina, as does damage from weapons, which can also be quite variable.

The system has two killer apps. One is character generation. After generating your three core stats, you roll a D66 (i.e., two D6's, with the first die representing the 10-60, and the second die representing 1-6). The number you roll specifies your character Background, which can be anything from Cacogen (a "hideous" alien, a la Gene Wolfe's Shadow of the Torturer series), to a Chaos Champion, to a Gremlin Catcher, to a Golden Barge Pilot (think baroque 40K starships, or the starships with solar sails in Wolfe's Urth of the New Sun) - and many other Backgrounds.

The Backgrounds are evocative, and help define and give directionality to the setting and the activities of the player characters. As well as the evocative descriptions, Backgrounds also provide Advanced Skills and possessions/equipment. For instance, the Gremlin Catcher gets a "small but vicious dog".

Here's a sample character:

Jay's Cacogen

The other killer app is the game's unique approach to initiative. Each PC puts two dice of the same color in the GM's dice bag. (You need a pair of D6's of a unique color for each PC at the table.) Each NPC has an Initiative score, and the GM puts that many dice in the bag to represent each NPC. Initiative is determined by pulling dice from the bag. One additional die of a unique color is also placed in the bag as a turn-end counter. If your die is pulled, you have initiative. Most rolls are contested, and if the defender has the higher roll, then the "defender" can deal damage, even when they don't have initiative. A round ends as soon as the turn-end counter is pulled, which can happen at any time. The initiative system is therefore quite unpredictable, since adversaries (or PCs) may keep initiative for a few successive die pulls , and a round may end at any time with a pull of the turn-end die.

In tonight's two-hour session, players encountered and healed a fungal space-narwhal that had been wounded by an adamantine space-harpoon; the Chaos Champion faced off against a Mind Sloth inside a secret Chaos shrine hidden within a golden barge - shown here using a paper miniature created by Evlyn Moreau:

Paper miniature by Evlyn Moreau

 And, the Golden Barge Pilot faced off against a fearsome Mumbling Bird who was trying to steal the dead-captain's portolan; the creature is shown below:

This was a really fun, trippy game!  I look forward to running Troika again at a convention or at our game table in the near future. Be sure to check out the Troika Kickstarter if this kind of old-new weird sounds like your cuppa java!

Non-Stock

Yochlol by Tony DiTerlizzi

I was admiring Tony DiTerlizzi's beautiful illustrations in the Planescape monster books the other day and had the realization that Planescape is a setting where you don't need elves, dwarves, and orcs. There are numerous other races that are weirder and more interesting. And for that matter, the humans in this setting are pretty interesting, too. I don't see how you could live in and/or visit Sigil and be anything but interesting.

As I was reading the books, I came across a number of things that could be readily ported over to Everway and Otherway - particularly the latter, as there is more room for monstrous races the further you get from the human-centric realms close to Everway. But still, no need for elves, dwarves, and orcs among the non-humans.

Which got me thinking about the numerous monsters showcased over at Hereticwerks. Not an elf or a dwarf in sight, which is not surprising, since Hereticwerks takes far more inspiration from the 19th Century fantastic and horrific than from Tolkien.

While searching for images of the Hlyss, I came upon this post over at Old School Heretic (another blog by the creator of Hereticwerks). It's an essay written over three years ago that has some interesting things to say about the originality, or rather the lack thereof, in the fantasy mainstream in gaming. The phrase "fantasy mainstream in gaming" is not a term used in the original post. I am using it here because my feeling is that a lack of originality in fantasy creation is not exclusively a problem for the OSR. It is really a problem for the entire field of fantasy gaming, with a few exceptions, which are noted in the essay.

And check out the illustration that accompanies the Old School Heretic post. It's a creature I want to know more about. We need more of creatures like it.

The Aleph Pylons

http://reflectionsonfilmandtelevision.blogspot.com/
2012_10_07_archive.html

The Aleph Pylons mark the extremities of The Rust Gate's ancient empire. These structures marked the spheres that were home to the outermost gates radiating outward from the ancient city-state. Most of these structures stand to this day. Only a few have ever fallen; they are almost impossible to pull down.

Sometimes a solitary pylon, sometimes a complex of pylons. Many of the singletons are roughly triangular golden metal shafts some fifteen or twenty hands tall. Some have diamond-shaped doorways, apparently sealed forever, since the emissaries of Aleph are long-gone. Others are conical towers of smooth adobe. These could easily shelter an entire company of warriors, but they have no windows or doors.

The Aleph Pylons sit on the site of ancient gates.  These gates preceded the empire of the Rust Gate. They stopped working when the pylons were built. In the few cases where the pylons have tumbled or been torn down, the surrounding lands have become poisoned with a strange radiance. Gates this close to the Deep Horizon often discharge such energies when they are used.

Rust Gate's Fortunes

http://talesoftheink.blogspot.com/
2011/12/jon-40.html

The city-state of Rust Gate, also known as Aleph is introduced impressionistically here, and  its rise and near fall were described yesterday, here. Today's post share's the city-state's Fortunes.

The Realm of Rust Gate

• Virtue: The Dragon - Cunning. The city-state has survived as long as it has by hook and by crook, and with a great deal of magical cunning, including necromancy.

• Fault: Law, Reversed - Treachery. The Emperor and Court are divided against each other, which makes it very difficult to control the remaining peasants and the city folk, not to mention outside adversaries such as the Trolls.

• Fate: The Cockatrice - Corruption vs. Recovery. Can the Emperor and Court turn back from the abyss and reform themselves in some manner, possibly adopting some of the democratic and self-renewing traditions of the Trolls? Or will Aleph succumb to a decline so deep and old that it finally self-destructs, or provokes the Trolls to destroy it?

The Rust Gate's Rise and Near Fall

Photo by Ying Feng Johannsson

The realm of Rust Gate lies perilously close to the Deep Horizon. Its people, who call themselves The Aleph, once made their realm the capital of a multi-world empire. That was thousands of years ago, and the Empire is now long gone.

The Empire's furthest reaches were demarcated by The Aleph Pylons. Most of these were pulled down centuries ago during the Prairie Fire Rebellions, which initiated the so-called Headlong Tumble and the Empire's decline. The Aleph lost hundreds of worlds during the Tumble, but still managed to hold on to dozens by diplomacy, bribes, seduction, treachery, necromancy and elementalism, and in a few cases, brute force.

The invasion of the Trolls did the rest. The Trolls came from Beyond the Deep Horizon, and liberated numerous Aleph worlds. Finally, the Trolls reached the center-world of Aleph's wicked Empire. They  surrounded that corrupt, dying Empire with Good Government.

The Trolls reduced the Aleph Empire to a single ancient shambolic walled city-state, a virtual Tower Realm all but surrounded by the Troll-state. Many peasants in the immediate vicinity of Rust Gate have fled to the Troll Republic. Only the most docile stayed behind to work the land for the city. Still others have declared themselves rebels and freeholders, and have sought alliances with the Troll Republic to maintain their autonomy. The city responds with terrorism and necromancy. As a result, most of the land required to feed the city has now gone fallow.

Within the city, Rust Gate's half-starved populace and nobility are subject to the unceasing intrigues and whims of the city-state's decadent Emperor and Court. The city's elites have recently hit upon intermarriage with the Troll Republic's ministers, emissaries, and high merchant families as a way of buying some security against outright invasion.

These Troll Marriages are welcomed by the Troll families, because through these arrangements, the Troll Republic gains access to some of the well-fortified and closely guarded Tower Gates within the city-state. The gates offer the Trolls new prospects for trade and conquest - new avenues down which to spread their republican ideals.

That Old-New Janus Face

"Janus V", 2009, 72" x 72", encaustic on wood panel

It is time to begin preparing for 2013. I have decided to start the new year for The Everwayan blog with some fresh inspiration from the Fortune Deck. 

The Fortune Deck cards are:

• Law, Reversed - Treachery
• Autumn, Reversed - Want
• The Creator, Reversed - Abandonment

I also drew an RPG Inspiration Card as well:

• Chains - Captivity
• Event: Challenge authority
• Trait: Determined
• Quirk: Many piercings 

OK, so not a very chipper reading, but it is what it is. It is quite appropriate for the perfectly symmetrical image in the asymmetrical frame at the top of the post.

So clearly some kind of trouble is afoot in the multiverse. Does it involve Everway? How about Otherway? Time will tell.

A Bag Of Nuts and Seeds...

...of many varieties. Among these nuts and seeds are a few Gate Tree seeds. The seeds are hundreds of years old. Nevertheless, someone who is sensitive to Water and Earth can feel the vital energies at work inside them. The seeds still have the potential to connect to many different worlds.

http://gliving.com/
dirty-minded-gardener-promotes-safe-seeds/

There are also many smaller seeds with a bit of a rainbow pattern to them. These are called Pattern Seeds. When poured onto a flat surface like a plate, they will spontaneously re-assemble into complex geometric patterns. These can be used to read the overall energies of a particular world - its strengths, weaknesses, and potentialities. If planted, they will each germinate and grow into a novel species that reflects the strength, weakness, or destiny of the land where they take root.

Many other nuts and seeds can be found within the seed bag. Edible nuts and seeds of all sorts, as well as the Ourboros-like, poisonous Centipede Seeds.

All the seeds and nuts except the Gate Tree seeds will replenish themselves during spherewalking, allowing the traveler a source of food while on the road between worlds.

The Itinerary Of The Blue Khan...

Carl Cheng, Santa Monica Art Tool (1988)
http://we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/
2010/08/the-map-as-art-contemporary-ar.php#.UKHEiOSw8TY

...tracing his spherepath through the realms he destroyed. The Blue Khan came from Beyond the Deep Horizon. When settlers from the First City made their journey toward Otherway, they found the ruins of a number of recently destroyed realms along their way. These realms had been conquered, looted, and subsequently uprooted and erased by the Blue Khan.

A frequent metaphor for The Blue Khan's itinerary of annihilation among the spheres is the "roll over": his armies completely rolled over and erased numerous realms. In some cases, the ruins are still visible, and indeed some religious pilgrims seek out these worlds as sites to found monasteries and centers of meditation. Potent wizards also seek them out in an effort to catch Radiance left behind by the Blue Khan, his creatures, and his armies.

Still other realms are completely missing: the ancient gates leading to these realms no longer work, and these worlds are lost forever. However, impressions of them linger ghost-like here and there. For example, traces of them can be found in the small roller-charms called the Itineraries of the Blue Khan. These are miniatures of the larger vehicle-drawn rollers that the Blue Khan's armies used to crush and flatten the cities of his enemies. 

The large rollers took an impression of the realm they destroyed. They took into themselves the history and geography of those realms. The large roller's records could be transferred to smaller roller-charms, as well as "printed" as it were on large sandy areas. However, once one of these terrible roller weapons went through a gate, the information pressed under and impressed onto its great crushing wheel (as shown in the picture, above) was erased for all time. 

The good news is that the small roller-charms are persistent records that can be used to make maps on sand tables, or to print record strips on long rolls of paper. The ghost impressions formed by the roller-charms are our best record of many of the now-lost realms, and of the gatepaths between these realms and others. As such, they are highly prized by scholars seeking understanding of lost connections between worlds, as well as by certain vengeful hunters searching for any trace of the Blue Khan and his armies. 

Reports that a series of these roller-charms can also be assembled into a Gate Generator have not been confirmed.

The Gate House

"The Castle" by Viktor Titov
http://iririv.deviantart.com/favourites/#/d2aufxx

The Gate House lies in the foothills of the Inland Rise, three day's walk West from the City of Otherway. Also known as the Castle Kingdom, the Gate House has a sovereign of its own, because it preexists Otherway: mthe Gate House was built in ancient times by the Unknown Architects, the first people native to this world.

The Gate House sits on a weak point that connects Otherway's world to the Radiance of the Deep Horizon. The entire Castle Kingdom is a prison. It's walls were purpose-built by the Unknown Architects using sacred geometries. Its very structure creates numerous dimensional sink holes and cellae designed to capture and contain the inimical beings from Beyond. These beings materialize through the weak point and then find that they can go no further into the world.

Of course, the Radiance these beings bring still needs to go somewhere. The walls of the Gate House slowly drain Radiance, channeling it through the Castle Kingdom's miles and miles of stone. This bleed manifests as various new Arcana whose glowing sigils can be seen thoughout the Gate House.

An army of Copyists and Visiting Scholars catalogs these representations of the sublime. The finest are assembled into divinatory decks, each one unique.

Eventually even the most energetic cella grows cold. At that point, the chamber is opened and the bones of a god are harvested to make relics.

Others in Otherway

"Battle Krishna" by Nisachar
http://nisachar.deviantart.com/#/d56b9rm

There are no "standard fantasy races" (whatever that means) in Otherway. There are of course many, many kinds of humans from cultures and worlds beyond counting. There are also beings from Beyond who resemble monsters, humans, demons, angels, and gods.

Many of these beings have blue skin. Many also have halos of various kinds. Not all are saints or angels. Many are demons or beings that convey unspeakable enlightened glories from Beyond the Deep Horizon.

More than a few are imprisoned in the Gate House.

The Sultan's Gate

Virginia Frances Sterrett
http://cizgilimasallar.blogspot.com/2011/09/
virginia-frances-sterrett-arabian.html

The Embassy Tower is surrounded by a cast iron fence. It is three men tall. The fence rose from the ground just hours before the Embassy Tower did. The main path to the Tower grounds is ungated.

But directly behind this open path, on the opposite side of the Tower, there is a tall ornate gate of the same design as the fence.

This is The Sultan's Gate.

Touch the gate. Push it. There is no locking mechanism, and yet it remains shut. A closer look reveals two lesser gates on either side of The Sultan's Gate. They are hiding in plain sight. These two are also fixed shut.

One lesser gate leads Below to The Demon Sultan's caverns. The other leads Between, opening on a grave-narrow twisting path between the worlds - a stumbledown path with a thousand branches and dead falls.

The center gate leads to the Beyond. It is the only gate that has never been re-opened. Clever hands and minds have successfully opened the Gate Below and the Gate Between. But no one yet has opened the Gate Beyond.

People do try. An entire clan of assassins waits and watches for them.

Monstrous Mondays: The Demon Sultan

Virginia Frances Sterrett
http://cizgilimasallar.blogspot.com/2011/09/
virginia-frances-sterrett-arabian.html

An exiled potentate from Beyond, The Demon Sultan was the first ambassador to take up residence in the city of Otherway. The Demon Sultan dwells deep in the caverns below the city's Embassy Tower, which rose from the ground in a single day and night after his arrival. Within his caverns, The Demon Sultan engages in fine dining with the occasional visitor and sharpens his nails on the roots of Gate Trees.

His name is a nonsense word from one of the multitude of languages in the Beyond. Quite unpronounceable by mortals, The Demon Sultan's name has been said to sounds like a fever blister or the din of a thousand love-smitten wasps spurned by a Ruk. You won't hear these sounds when you approach his caverns though. Your feet will be making too much noise of their own. Crunch, crunch, crunch your feet will go when you approach his caverns: a carpet of insect exoskeletons crushes under your as you approach His Excellency Below.

A few visitors to his caverns have struck strong bargains with The Demon Sultan. Among the great families of Otherway, you can tell these people from the bluish cast of their skin. It is said that the demon's blood runs in these families' veins, and that as a result of this, their diets and appetites have become rather eccentric. During his annual month of fasting, The Demon Sultan will take up residence in one or more of their homes.

Visitors to Otherway are cautioned to buy one of the simple protective amulets sold in Otherway's Gate Market. Without some form of protection, The Demon Sultan can spell you into his caverns and then proceed to feast on your flesh. Many travelers dismissive of the local customs have found themselves lost forever in precisely this way. Most Otherwayans take no chances; they have a midwife tattoo protective charms on their children as soon as they are born.

What is Otherway?

http://webecoist.momtastic.com/2008/09/07/
17-amazing-examples-of-fractals-in-nature/

Otherway is a new place on the tree of worlds, a new setting for multiworld, multiversal fantasy adventure. Use it with Everway if you like, or Amber Diceless, Planescape, or something else such as Nexus: the Infinite City.

And Otherway will also be a game system.

Over the next couple of months, I am going to choose a system to use with Otherway. There are several different options I am considering:

• A retroclone based on a beloved multisphere fantasy RPG
• The FATE system - either using Legends of Anglerre as a platform or the forthcoming FATE Core
• Over the Edge's WaRP system
• An OGL iteration of Basic Role Playing

If you have an idea for a good OGL system, please drop me a line in the comments!

Names in Otherway

http://www.sairamtour.com/uzbekistan/
uz_05_02.html

The naming traditions of the city of Otherway diverge from those of the first city. While the common Tree Tongue spoken on many worlds is still used by most people here in Otherway, the many worlds that connect to Otherway through the Gate Trees have their own languages and naming traditions. Those traditions, too, have taken root in Otherway.

Within the city, you will hear many different languages spoken. Naming traditions are also different than in the first city. An Otherwayan of first city lineage may have a name derived from the Tree Tongue, or a name that mixes words of the Tree Tongue with those of another language.

Family names in Otherway are also distinct from those in the first city. After the One Hundred Gate Journey, people formed new families and chose new names to signify those new families. These new family names help to anchor the travelers in their new city.

And the diversity of those names raises another question: was there only a single "first city"? Or was there more than one? First cities like islands in a great delta, competing with one another for the memory of Otherwayans.

The City of Otherway

The City of Otherway was founded by scholars, students, and adventurers from the families and visitors to the first city. Otherway was the end of their One Hundred Gate Journey. One hundred worlds out from the first city, far closer to the infinity of the Deep Horizon, the travelers ended their great journey, and built a new city - a city younger, more vital, and more open than the first one.

The travelers intermarried with the people of this new world, and formed new families according to their desires - some matriarchal as in the first city, some patriarchal like those in many of the worlds they traversed.

The  people of Otherway planted one hundred and one Gate Tree seeds in the lands surrounding their new city. They went nowhere else for a century, building their city and tending their seedlings. The Gate Trees grew deep roots between lands near and far, and its branches extended into different worlds.

The Gate Trees were the Seed Lords' last gift to the people of the first city, and their first of many gifts to the people of the new city. For the trees opened a new infinity of worlds for the people of Otherway. Travelers went forward to explore again, and returned home with many new gifts and discoveries for the people of Otherway.

The Gate Trees

The Seed Lords planted the first Gate Trees. They sowed them in rain-filled footsteps of a Giant who roamed the worlds at the dawn of time. Gate Trees are still alive today, and are thus extremely old. But very few Gate Trees today produce viable seeds. If you see saplings near the trunk of one of these trees, water them and tend them well.

Photo c. 2012 by John Everett Till

When you first see a Gate Tree, look at its trunk. The bark is like a map. It tells the story of the Earth in which it has grown, and the diversity of lands that the tree's roots reach through the Earth in which it grows. It also tells the story of the skies into which it reaches, and of the worlds beyond its branches.

Photo c. 2012 John Everett Till

Next, read the fault lines in the bark. The tree will show you a way to get inside of it. Put your hands inside the gap and push your way inside and through to the roots and branches. Its roots drink deep from the waters of the lands far and wide within the world where it was planted. The Gate Tree's leaves sway with the breezes of the worlds that the Giant never reached.

Photo c. 2012 John Everett Till

A Gate Tree's branches fork into numerous worldpaths, reaching up toward the stars. The broader the branch, the safer and more well-traveled the worldpath. The narrower the branch, the less frequently traveled and the more perilous the journey will be for you. Be brave. Climbing the Tree Gates is never an easy path, but it is a sure way to find adventure.

Find the heart of the tree, and you can create a path to Otherway.