Fate of the Nova Age: Conspiracies, Intrigues, and Secret Histories

A while ago I did a hack of Aeon Trinity for Fate Core. The hack was sufficient for my needs at the time and focused on what I was interested in within that setting. Namely it was a mix up of Star Wars, Babylon 5, and the Legion of Superheroes. Now I wish to take a crack at another game setting, one within the very same world of Aeon Trinity, Aberrant.

Fate Of Aeon Trinity
Part 1: Initial Idea and Pitch(whith some stuff about another project)
Part 2: Psi Skills
Part 3: Timeline Alterations and Stunts
Part 4: Aberrants
Part 5: Qin and Biotech
Part 6: Chromatics
Part 7: Daredevils
Part 8: Coalition
Part 9: Ship Combat

Aberrant was set about a hundred years prior to Aeon Trinity. It focused as much on Aberrants(or Novas as they are called) as Trinity focused on Psions. Basically it was attempting to be a superhero game, without being a superhero game. I really loved many parts of the setting, and I despised other parts. So with all that in mind I started a hack for Wild Talents. However that came to nothing, for a few reasons, mostly because I kept too close to the original material. So I am going to hack it again, this time for Fate Core. Hopefully something interesting will come forth.

Aberrant at its core was not a superhero game. It was a Conspiracy, Intrigue, and Secret History game. This was not directly spelled out in the setting or rules. In fact there was little spelled out in the fiction or rules in regards to how one is supposed to play a group of Aberrants. It always made running the game a bit tricky for me. The players would come in with vastly different ideas as to what the game was supposed to be about. I say that it is about Intrigue, Mystery and Secret history because of how the adventures and adventure hooks were laid out. Most were about those things to one extent or another. In fact most were about conspiracies. So really it is a conspiracy game, but those other two have a fairly large share of adventure material, so I keep those as well. I also keep them as I love Planetary by Warren Ellis, and Aberrant is a game where you play Planetary.  It is true. The game focuses around secret cabals of powerful individuals who control the world, who rewrite history to fit their worldview. It is about exposing those dark cabals to the light and changing things. You could play a game of it like the JLA, the Avengers, Storm Watch, or the Authority as well, but that is for a different day.

On to the secret history of the world and the powers that control it.

So for a secret history to work we need both secrets and history. The history is pretty well worked out in my head. Basically I would like to cut out useful chunks of history and then color them with Aeon Continuum goodness. So take your favorite piece of history and add in some weirdness and then set the remnants of that weirdness in the current world of Aberrant and let the players go investigate.

Secrets
There are a lot of things that can be used as secrets to go into your secret history. There are aliens, secret societies, lost worlds, and singular events of great importance or interest.

Aliens
Within the Trinity universe there are several Alien species. Some are Appropriate for this and some would take some explaining to get them to earth.
Doyen
Masters of Biotechnology, Psi, and the Sub-quantum universe the Doyen are in a never ending fight with the Zeps. The Doyen prefer to use proxies and lateral tactics rather than directly fight. They prefer it if their enemies never even know they exist. They are non-corporeal entities that require a host to utilize much of their psychic power. There current favorites are the Qin. They have crafted the Qin to be their greatest weapons against the Zeps. Doyen crafted ships could have crashed on earth at any time period, or the Doyen could have meddled with human genetics at one time or another, leading to psychic phenomena and such during any of the time frames. If they did have a ship crash it could have had a working Prometheus Chamber. Perhaps their ships require intelligent biological beings to act as the various parts of the ship. The gunner would be a master telekinetic, the engineer would be a teleporter, the comms officer would be a telepath, and so on. Maybe the ship just wants to go home and it begins "recruiting" earthlings to be those parts it needs. They get phenomenal Psychic powers, but are now psychically part of the ships crew.
Zeps
Masters of Hard Tech, individual evolution, and the Quantum universe the Zeps are the polar opposite of the Doyen. They are extremophiles and dwell in gas giants. They have the ability to trigger and control beneficial mutation. Given enough information and enough time, they can develop any Aberrant super power. They have been fighting a war with the Doyen forever. They are physically imposing and each is a unique looking creature. A crashed Zep ship could be a fantastic set up, perhaps deep in the Mariana Trench...or something. Perhaps they meddled with human genetics at some point. Maybe they are the reason humans can even become Novas. Perhaps a group of Zeps is planning on using humanity as soldiers in their never-ending war with the Doyen. Maybe they are even walking among us, using their strange abilities to alter their shape to appear as human. Are they able to breed with humans? Is this where Novas come from? Or maybe they are studying the Nova phenomenon and trying to figure out how a bunch of monkeys can do what the Zeps can do.
Qin
The Qin are the subject species of the Doyen. they worship the Doyen like gods. Any plot involving the Doyen could easily involve the Qin as well. They are telepathic slugs who use biotech to make armored suits to use. They are masters of large and small unit tactics, as they use there telepathy to be a type of Gestalt entity during a fight. All of their minds are one. On a one on one basis they can read minds and communicate with any mind. This makes them dangerous, and useful tools for the doyen.
Coalition
A race that gains power through forcible taking of genetic material and mineral resources of planets. They travel in massive generation ships at slower than light speeds. they are the locusts of the universe. their could be a crashed ship, or one of the secret cabals ruling the world could be in cahoots with them. Perhaps sabotaging earths defenses and space programs. Perhaps they have an outpost on one of the moons of saturn or some such. They make a great black hat for the series. They could also work as a ticking clock. You must discover their plot and defeat it, before they arrive and wipe out mankind.

Lost Worlds
The Aeon Continuum has quite a few lost worlds and wondrous secret places. Discovery of them could be the focus of a session or a whole Campaign.

Ape City
Sometime ago(how far back will alter the narrative a bit) something genetically altered a few thousand Gorillas in africa. Whoever or whatever did this increased their intelligence to equal(maybe even exceed) the minds of Men. These Gorillas forged a society that quickly split. One Society Hated the outside world of Man and went into exile. they are Xenophobic and Decadent. They have great sciences and technologies and are hidden from the eyes of man by these technologies. The other society of Apes was peaceful and outgoing, they too developed great sciences and technologies, but they sought to become part of the larger world. they knew that mankind was not ready to meet them and they wait for the day they can reveal themselves to the world. Possible plots here involve the heroes finding the ruins of one(or both) of the cultures and piecing together what happened. Perhaps there is a war going on between the two societies and the heroes stumble into it. Maybe they run across a gorilla fugitive from the Xenophobic Apes and they must decide what to do about it.

Aspects: Secret Societies of Apes
Aspects: Are you a good Ape, or a bad Ape?

Hollow Earth
Beneath the earth there are ancient tunnels that lead to the center of the earth. there the two intelligent races fight for supremacy over a primal paradise. Great prehistoric beasts walk the land and crystals power an artificial sun at the heart f the earth. This is a campaign set piece all on its own. You could run a one shot here, but the reality is, this would probably work best as the focus for a whole campaign. What are these crystals? Can they be harvested? Replicated? Should they? What of the various people who dwell in the land, what should be done about them? What other secrets are down here? And what are these massive airships doing in these great caverns? There are a few crazy newspaper clippings that can be found about some Baron attacking New York with hot air balloons. There is an old Journal by a man known as Zorbo. Most of it is ranting about the environment and the need to leave the earth, but in it are also clues to finding the hidden paths to the Hollow Earth.

Aspect: Ancient Worlds Beneath the Ground
Aspect: Crystal Powered Artificial Suns

Ruins of Old Mars
Mars was never inhabited. the first NASA sponsored Novas proved that beyond a shadow of a doubt. There is nothing more than microbes living on the planet, now or in the past. There are no bones. there are no plants. there are no animals. there never were...and yet there are the ruins. On Mars there are three cities, designed for beings completely dissimilar from man. All the dating methods devised shows them to be no more than a hundred years old, yet there is no life in them. there are no signs of life in them. By all accounts, not one living thing ever existed within the cities. It is as if a bunch of aliens built three cities and left without ever using them. Needless to say, even knowing about the ruins is a secret of the highest order. This would be used for a space going game, if you were using the Daedalus Group or something of the like. Who made the ruins? for what purpose? why did the build a city and not live there? Where did they come from? Will they come back?

Aspect: Evidence of Life among the Lifeless rocks
Aspect: Buried secrets of the Builders

The Forbidden Plateau
There exists a plateau in south america that no satellite can see. You cannot land a plane or helicopter on it. Once on it you cannot leave. There exist many land routes to it, each is dangerous and deadly and impossible to find again once you have gotten out. The Plateau is a hole in time. It is linked to several eras and collects the detritus of the time stream. Ancient Lizard-men from 65 million years ago are fighting a war with the forces of the Ninth Legion. Cave men and dinosaurs, Mayans and people from the future, All have fallen into the trap of the Plateau. the number of people who have escaped it with their lives can be counted on one hand. Now that Novas exist, perhaps the plateau can be understood and explored. Maybe even it could be used to some effect or another. This is basically the land of the lost meets the lost world meets the savage land, using some sort of Telluric/quantum/sub-quantum effect.

Aspect: A Tear in Time and Space
Aspect: Everything is a threat

Monster Island
Back in the fifties something happened in the Pacific ocean. Either some natural Phenomenon occurred or a device of some sort was set off. the result of this was an infusion of Giant monsters throughout the Pacific. It took a transnational naval force fifteen years to coral the monsters onto a single uninhabited island in the south pacific. the monsters appear to be nearly invulnerable and immortal. they do not breed and they do not die. the scientists and soldiers who have been monitoring the Island for the last several decades are constantly coming up with new ways to contain the beasts. If one got loose in a major metropolitan area there is no telling how great the destruction would be. Who or what Caused these creatures? If it was natural, why did it happen then and not since or prior? If it was man made, why hasn't it been used, or threatened to be used since? What can stop these creature should they escape?

Aspect: Impossible Beasts of utter destruction
Aspect: Catastrophic House of Cards

Here is how I see this working. First comes the Event. This is something that happens in the world that is strange and worthy of investigating. It could be Sliders death, the Sao Paolo bombing, the formation of the Terragen, or anything really. You start out an investigation into an event. Then you add in one of the Agencies or Aliens. Then you put that on Frappe, and strain all the goodness out. Hell you could take several events and put them together with several of the aliens or Agencies. the Lost Worlds do not have to be used, I see them more as potential events or campaign hooks.

This is what I have so far. Next post will be on the various organizations and secret societies as well as character creation.

Part 2: Reworking the Character Creation rules
Part 3: Gear Rues and Campaign Frameworks
Part 4: Actual Play of the game

FATEsy Heartbreaker:Exploration et al

This is not a complete idea yet. Basically I am trying to build a framework for exploration and long distance travel in Fate. I would like to be able to model The Hobbit andThe Lord Of The Rings with Fate. Most of those books were just traveling from one location to another. In fact I would like to be able to model some of my favorite Sci Fi as well which are often just long trips to somewhere where the adventure is happening. As this is a rough idea I would welcome any thoughts as to how it could be improved. so without further run up, here is the basic idea.

Exploration and travel have a goal. A person, place, or thing you are seeking out. All the rolls involved in exploration lead up to the goal, but are not about attaining the goal. The goal is the adventure proper. The exploration is how one gets to the goal. Attaining the goal is another thing all together.

H'okay, so we have a goal, now what? Exploration is like an extended challenge scene, with successes and failures creating situations to play through. The number of rolls and the difficulties of the rolls varies depending on what you are doing. The number of rolls should equal a minimum of the number of characters involved. The difficulties should start equal to the highest skill rating of the characters involved. Increase the difficulty by two for every other character involved. Increase the difficulty by two for each difficulty that has already been overcome(they stay the same if you fail to overcome a difficulty). This will lead to some very high difficulties, higher than most player can achieve without some help. Should the players wish, they can use stress to increase a roll. For every point of stress the player places on the character add a point to the result of the roll. Stress cannot be recovered as normal during a travel/exploration sequence. You must have a recovery scene in order to do this.

There are two ways of deciding on the travel, mapped and unmapped. When dealing with mapped exploration/travel you take a sheet of paper(a big sheet of butcher paper is my favorite, it handles crayon the best, true story) and mark down your start point at one side and your goal at the other. then fill in each major terrain based obstacle on the way. there are many types of terrain that could fit in an obstacle: Plains, Swamps, Mountains, lake/sea/ocean, hills, forest/jungle, something really out there. The idea is to fill in the map with a number of intervening terrains so that you can build the world as you explore/travel.

Example: You and your crew are heading to face a dragon in a lonely mountain lair far away. To get there you must find the hidden fortress of the elves in a series of hidden valleys, pass by the massive mountain chain, find a path through a massive and dangerous forest, before finally finding the secret entrance to the dragon's mountain lair on the other side of a lake.

Once you have your terrains marked out on the map the rolls begin(woot!). Should you fail a roll then a contest or conflict scene will be instigated. The players at the table must decide what failure means and what type of contest/conflict is appropriate for this scene. The GM should make the opposition difficult but not unsurpassable, In general I find the device on pg. 222(Fate Core) very useful for helping figure out what I need for a given scene. Once the scene is done the players must try and overcome the obstacle again(unless the GM feels as though the conflict/contest scene has solved that issue somehow), but at base difficulty.

Example: Our heroes made it through the mountains and have just barely fought off a savage attack by a bunch of giant spiders. Some of them are poisoned and all have at least one consequence. It has been a rough journey. They have failed at getting free of the forest(again) and have decided that getting captured by elves would be a great idea. The player of the Halfling Thief spends a fate point of fate on his aspect, "And Here's The Burglar!" and has remained free. They must now enter a contest with the elves to escape. It will be very tense as these are wood elves and they are really good at remaining vigilant. If only they had a ring of invisibility or some-such...

The GM can also compel a setting aspect to make the initial conditions of this scenes far worse, or to change the nature of the conflict or contest.

Example: Earlier in their adventures our party was just leaving their starting location, the halfling river communities. They were on their way to the hidden fortress of the elves to get the information they need to cross the mountains. As it is early days for our heroes they felt it was too early to spend all their fate to beat the first obstacle, they failed(ouch). After a brief discussion they think it would be fun to face down three river trolls who are run a toll service on the road(The Dwarven Fighter's player is a bit of pun man). The GM thinks that is fine, but then slides out a bunch of Fate points and says if they accept it they will start out captive, rather than a fight it will now be an attempt to hold off the Trolls until dawn(the GM is taking some liberties with Trolls here, but it sounds cool) the players accept, and now they must have a contest to hold the Trolls off until sunrise and the trolls will turn into stone.

Recovery scenes remove all stress from stress boxes and allow for rolls to recover consequences. However should your players choose to use a recovery scene all the remaining difficulties will increase by one for the Travel/exploration sequence. Also there will be an extra overcome roll in  the next terrain.

Example: Our heroes have made it through the mountains. The Gm made it a rough go, though. He split the party, the thief got compelled to go off on his own and ended up in a contest of wits(to the death!)with a monster in the deep caverns. In the end he wound up spending a fate point to get away(he created the advantage, "What have I got in my Pocket?" and then spent a Fate point to declare it was a magic ring he found. After a bit of haggling the GM agreed to this(he basically said that the player could have it if the GM could compel it in unspecified way). The others in the party had to fight thier way through a horde of goblins. They all made it out, and it would normally be time to move on to the next overcome roll, but the GM compelled the goblins hatred of dwarves and they gave chase with great wolves(because why not). They got away when the wizard spent his last fate point to invoke his aspect, "Agent of a higher power," to summon some eagles to rescue them. Now they are all battered and bruised, so they decide to have a recovery scene. THey come up with this hidden house of a shapeshifting druid named Bjorn who lives in the woods with his awesome animal friends. They then recover. After they must deal with a new obstacle, the river of forgetfulness. THey overcome it when a dwarf spends a consequence to make the difficulty(he fell in, so he forgot a bunch of stuff, major consequence). 

So that is what I have for the exploration/travel rules. I would love to hear what you think, as I know that this is incomplete. I think there needs to be something extra, or maybe something less? I don't know, all I know is that it is not where I want it yet.

FATEsy Heartbreaker: Dungeons Deep

Beginners Guide to Crawling The Dungeons

Dungeons in Fate Core are tricky things. On the surface they are relatively easy, and should you come from a long line of Dungeon crawling games then making one in Fate is about equivalent. But that would just be a standard adventure. what I would like to do is enhance the dungeon crawl with Fate. Utilize what makes both fun and create something that is the same, yet different.

So to do this I must use the things that Fate is known for. I must make the players have an active roll in the design of the dungeon. That to me is crucial. So I went with something inspired by the system used in +John Wick's Wilderness of Mirrors. Basically the players would have a series of rolls that the players can make to design the dungeon. These would basically be a series of research rolls to create advantage and establish the aspects for the dungeon. The players would need to spend Wealth to gain these rolls. Every roll they cannot afford would be an aspect that the GM would be able to make up. But enough generalization, lets get down to the step by step:

Step One: Decide How Big The Dungeon Will Be
Gather the group together and decide on how big you wish the dungeon to be. Each has its advantages and disadvantages. There are three basic sizes of Dungeon: The Micro Dungeon, The Dungeon, and The Mega Dungeon. the Micro Dungeon will take around one session to complete. The dungeon should take around three to four sessions to complete, and the mega Dungeon will take nine or more sessions.

Step Two: Make The Rolls You Can Make

Each type of dungeon will have a number of aspects that can be discovered by player research. Micro Dungeons have 4-6 aspects that can be discovered, Dungeons have between eight and 12, Mega dungeons have twenty or higher. To gain the roll a wealth point must be spent for each roll. Fate points cannot be spent to gain this information, but they can be spent to gain success on the roll. On a successful research roll the player gets to make up an answer to one of the following questions, regarding the dungeon. On a tie the player can make up the answer to the question, but the GM gets to make up the aspect. On a failure the GM gets to make up both the answer to the question and the aspect. Should the player succeed with style they get a free invoke of the aspect they have created. If the players have no wealth points to spend, or do not wish to spend more wealth, then treat the roll as a failure, but the GM gains a free invoke of the aspect he creates.

The Questions for every dungeon
Who made the dungeon?
What was the original purpose of the dungeon?
When was the dungeon created?
What protects the dungeon?
Who/what lives in the dungeon?
What is the dungeon's treasure?
What are the unique features of the dungeon?
What prevented previous people from exploring it?
What is a secret of the dungeon?
What is the history of the dungeon?

Each question can be answered more than once, provided the second answer makes some sort of sense.  You can even have answers that contradict each other. How these two contradictory things can both be true should be explored in play.

Step Three: Finishing It Up
At this point the players can step back, job well done. Now it is time for the GM to step in and finish up. Each dungeon type will have a number of attack defense skills rated at between 1 and four. Each of these represents a random encounter or a trap. They can be mixed in with regular encounters or dealt with on their own as a singular event. You also get a number of consequences and stress boxes for your use with random encounters/traps.  these are used to keep your wandering monster or trap going for more than just one attack/defense. There are(currently) three types of Wandering monsters: Skulkers, Brutes, and Aberrations. Any attack done without any stress tracks attached to it is a trap. This gets one attack on everything in the zone and then is unusable unless someone spends a turn creating advantage vs the trap's attack/defense skill.

Skulkers get to attack first, but cannot have more than two stress boxes. They can only target one creature at a time, but if you put a few of them in the conflict they can be bothersome.

Brutes must have more than three stress boxes and hit everything in the zone with their attacks.

Aberrations can be anything, but they have weird powers. Choose one, when you make an aberration:
Fire/poison/weird persistent attack: when you deal stress to a creature you can choose to do one less stress this round and have the creature take one stress per round from now on. That creature must make an overcome roll against the aberration's attack/defense skill to remove this effect.
Flying/teleporting/weird movement power: the aberration ignores terrain aspects that would get in the way of its movement. it can begin each turn in whichever zone it wishes.
Vampiric: When the aberration does a consequence to a creature it clears one of its stress boxes.
There are probably loads more, and there are a lot of wonky ideas I still have to try with this, but this give you the idea.

Micro Dungeons

4-6 aspects
one (+5) attack/defense, Two (+2) Attack/Defense, and Two (+1) attack/defense
Eight Stress boxes
One minor consequence, 1 moderate consequence, 1 sever consequence
GM can arrange the statted monsters as desired at least one statted monster per aspect of the dungeon

Dungeons

8-12 aspects
one (+4) attack/defense, one (+3) attack/defense, two (+2) attacks/defenses, three (+1) attacks/Defenses
16 stress boxes
3 minor consequences, 2 moderate consequences, 2 severe consequences

Mega Dungeons

20+ aspects
three (+4) attack Defense, Three (+3) attack/defense, four (+2) Attack/Defense, and six (+1) attack/defense
30 stress boxes
4 minor consequences, 4 moderate consequences, 3 severe consequences, and one extreme consequence

Once the size of the dungeon is picked the GM must also come up with standard monsters for the dungeon. There must be as many standard monsters as there are aspects for the dungeon. That does not mean they must all be separate though. You can place them all together or group them however you like. Each one of these monsters will gain the players one wealth point each should they overcome them in some way. The GM can also place wealth points worth of Magical Items and the like in place of wealth points direct.

So that is how I see dungeons being handled in my heartbreaker. Well, this is the roughed out version. I will continue to play around with the rules and see what I can come up with. I would love to hear your thoughts on this system. How do you think it will work? Are there any major flaws that i am missing here? Questions, concerns, comments, and critiques are welcome!

Shadow Legion: Pirates of Antares

+Ron Frazier, +Brian Boring, +Frank Falkenberg, and I got together to play a game of Shadow Legion...in July. Yeah, I know. I should have put this up months ago, but I was so busy working on Jadepunk, that I kind of got distracted and didn't post this up on my site. I will be adding in the remainder of the actual play recordings shortly. As I am nearing completion with my first draft of my materials for Jadepunk, I should have a bit more time to work on the website more. Which is good, as I have the outlines of about fourteen posts or so, that I have not had time to flesh out and finish.

In this session our, "Heroes," have decided to lay a trap for some pirates so that they may steal the pirates ship and thus gain entry into the Pirate clans and the High Tortuga, flagship of the pirate fleet. their plans go forward with the normal amount of deception and convolution.

Overall the game went well. there were very few major issues, aside form a couple of times when the players got so into coming up with plans they forgot to actually do anything. Aside from that though, all went well. Check out the recording if you don't believe me:

Omnis Mundi: City of Book, Addendum

As the Mystic center of human civilization for over three hundred miles in any direction there are many other kinds of magic user within the borders of Book than I listed in my previous post. They did not fit within much of what I was looking for in the post. I was going for the military aspects of the setting, so here are a bunch of things that did not quite fit into yesterdays post.

Conjurers
Master of Summoning, Binding, Warding, and Name magic. You can summon spirits, and at higher levels living beings. You can create magical wards and circles to hinder movement from zone to zone, as well as binding specific beings. You can be a conjurer simply by taking the Conjure skill. The Conjure skill can be used to make overcome rolls relating to gaining information on summoning circles and wards. You can also Create advantage relating to learning the True Names and summoning circles and wards.

Gaining True Names is very dangerous, if you have a single persons True Name you may summon and bind that person, create wards against them and even seal them in place. If you gain the true name of a Type or subtype of thing, you can do the same thing with any member of that type or subtype. There is, among the Conjurers, a myth. The myth of Logos, the true name of the universe. Many Conjurers seek it and with it ultimate power. Many other conjurers believe that it has already been found and spoken, that it was the cause of The End.

Conjure Stunts
Binding: You may use Conjure to make mental attacks and defenses when in conflict with a summoned being.
Warding: You may use Conjure to make an overcome action on a Zone border to create a mystical barrier against a specific True Name, Type, or Subtype. If you have a Type True Name the difficulty starts at +6, If you have the specific subtype the difficulty is +4, and if you have the True name of a specific being the difficulty is +2. Any shifts above the difficulty will count as a increase in difficulty to any action trying to go through the zone border from that specific True Name
Summoning: You may use Conjure to summon beings and items to an area you have prepared. Most conjurers will use this ability to pull in beings from beyond the Tear, and then bind them to the Conjurer's service. Some enterprising Conjurers have crafted small summoning circles on the palms of their hands in order to summon small tools or weapons when they need. Inanimate objects are a difficulty of +2 t summon. Complex machines are a +4.  To summon a being you must roll Conjure against the beings Will skill.
Sealing: This works like a Ward, but on one specific being rather than on a zone border. A being that is sealed increases the difficulty of any physical or mental action(you choose when you set the Seal whether physical or mental actions are sealed).


Types of Golem
Yesterday I introduced the concept of Golems and the Gahlmi who merge with them. However I did not name or give stats for any of the Golems. So here is my attempt to fix that. Here are the names and stats for the four major types of Golem in the Armies of Book. I am using the format of FAE for NPCs, because it works rather well, and is easy to read and use.
Fast Golems: The Keleritu
Aspects: Fast attack Golem; Quicksilver Construction
Good(+4) at: Moving at high speed, Razor hands, focus on the task given
Bad(-2) at: Any social actions, abstract thought
Stress: [1] [2]
Special: their claws count as massive damage weapons and they have a massive damage armor skin

Tough Golems: The Gruendel
Aspects: Large and Indomitable, Nearly indestructible 
Good(+4) at: Resisting attacks, Unstoppable will, Hammer hands, lifting heavy things, enduring
Bad(-2) at: Social interaction, abstract thought
Stress: [1] [2] [3] [4] extra minor consequence
Special: Hammer hands and skin are Massive damage capable

Strong Golems: The Viise
Aspects: Endless Strength, Plodding inevitability
Good(+4) at: Lifting things, hitting hard, breaking stuff, Perfect focus
Bad(-2) at: Social interaction, abstract thought
Stress: [1] [2] [3]
Special: Hands and skin Massive Damage

Long Range Golems: The Iakulae
Aspects: Shoulder Cannons, Every problem must be shot
Good(+4) at: Shooting, tracking targets, Ignore all distractions, staying on the task at hand
Bad(-2) at: Social interaction, doing anything outside of orders
Stress: [1] [2]
Special: Weapons and skin Massive Damage

Previous Omnis Mundi Writings
1. Basics of the Setting
2. Basics of Character Creation
3. Solutuhz, the Unbound City
4. Tasmania by +Tom Tyson
5. The City of Book

Omnis Mundi: The Sanctus Mysticum and the City of Book

The City of Book
Built upon the ruins of an ancient city around a massive stone cathedral, Book was named by the followers of the Pure One a semi mythical being said to have led humans to the city. It was built up during the dark days following The End. The people lived like any other group after The End, living in a constant state of fear and warfare with the outside world. A small human supremacist cult known as the Sanctus Mysticum began to gain power a hundred years ago. Now they control all aspects of Book Society. As a result the City of Book has become focused on Mysticism and military might. Their armies have been preparing for a war of extinction with the corrupted lands surrounding them. With the recent alliance with the city of Echasse, the war is going to come sooner rather than later.

Book's main feature is its libraries. The city it is built upon had three of the largest libraries in the world before The End. Much of the books were recovered in the early days of Book's history and placed in a single great Library. The Great Library of Book was one of the great wonders of the world. Until the Sanctus Mysticum took over. One of their first acts was to reduce access to the library. twenty years ago there was a fire. It is claimed that the library was destroyed. In reality the library was moved book by book to a secret location that only the highest level members of the Mysticum have access to. Knowledge is power, and in Book there is only one power.

Sanctus Mysticum
The Sanctus Mysticum sees itself as the saviors of humanity. two hundred years ago a prophet came out of the wasteland preaching the Supremacy of Man, a philosophy that has controlled the populace of Book more and more every year since. The faith and the city are ruled over by the Council of All Saints, a group of powerful magic users. Few know their identities, though all know their will. Within the city their primary tools are the Inquisitae, secret police and mind mages. They enforce the edicts of the Council and seek out any who would appose them. Outside of the city the Council's primary agents are the Sword Saints, unholy missionaries of the Supremacy of Man converting or killing as many as they can.

Armies of the Sanctus Mysticum
Sword Saints
Sword Saints are the most visible arm of the Sanctus Mysticum. They are the missionaries of hate and the foot soldiers of the cleansing fire. Their mission is to go out from Book into the corrupted lands and bring divine retribution on anything inhuman that deigns to abide in the world at large. Units of Sword Saints wander far and wide purging anything they deem inhuman or corrupted by inhuman ideologies. Because they travel out from the city, they are exposed to many other cultures and ideologies. This leads to the occasional defections,  which leads to the Inquisitae watching the Sword Saints far more closely than other citizens of Book.

The sword of a Sword Saint is a badge of office and the primary weapon in their fight against the impure. Formed from their will and ectoplasm summoned from their very soul this dread weapon is a channel for all of their mystical power. The sword forms from a black liquid or smoke that drips or leaks from their hands until it becomes a solid, metallic looking, black sword.

New Sword Saint Stunts
Soul Armor: you gain more control over you ectoplasm and can cover yourself in ectoplasmic armor. Your skin now counts as Massive Damage Armor.
Ectenic Force: You can use your ectoplasm to lift and move things. You may use your Will Skill in place of Might for lifting or carrying things at a distance.

Gahlmi
Also known as the unshaped, the Gahlmi have the unique ability to meld with a War Golem, combining the physical might of the Golem with the minds of Men. To become a Gahlmi you must have a high concept with Gahlmi in it also you must reduce your refresh by one. A Gahlmi can meld with a Golem, when you do this your physical attacks become Massive Damage, your skin becomes massive damage armor and you no longer need to breathe. You also gain a special ability depending on the type of Golem you meld with: a Fast golem, a Tough golem, a Long Range golem, or a Strong golem. Gahlmi can invoke their aspect to be physically superior to an obstacle or opponent. Gahlmi when melded are larger than normal humans, and have difficulty communicating, compel when these would be issues.

Golem Special Abilities
Fast: You can move an extra zone for free(normally two zones) when melded.
Tough: You gain an extra Minor consequence when melded.
Strong: When you are attempting to lift or break things when melded you may set one of your dice to a plus before the roll.
Long Range: When melded you have access to ranged weapons of the golem body. You have Massive Damage ranged weapons. once per scene you may do an extra two stress on a successful attack.

Inquisitae
The secret police of the Sanctus Mysticum, they are highly trained from a young age to be zealots for the cause. All of the, are Mind Mages of great power. Once they start investigating they will track their quarry until death. There are no innocents or guilty in their view, only the loyal and the disloyal. They have no pity, no remorse, and absolute authority when pursuing a heretic, criminal, or dissident.

• Mind Mage: Sometimes known as Psychics, Brainers, or Brain freaks, the mind mage is trained in the skills of reading and controlling the minds of others. To become a Mind Mage you must have an aspect relating to being a mind mage. This aspect can be invoked when reading or controlling minds and compelled when the sounds of the surrounding thoughts becomes overwhelming. You must also take the Mind Bending skill, which allows you to create advantage and attack(mental stress) relating to reading and controlling minds.
• Stunts for Mind Bending
• Deep Scan: When reading some one's mind you may make an overcome roll to find out information about that person.
• Unsubtle Power: You can choose to do physical stress rather than mental by manipulating the brain into thinking it is damaged.
• Mental Barriers: Use Mind Bending to defend against psychic attacks against your mind.

So there is the City of Book, one of the great threats of my little corner of Omnis Mundi. If you want to create your own part of the world, go right ahead, just give me a link in the comments so I can see what is what. Here is a listing of what has come before:

1. Omnis Mundi Basics

2. Character Basics

3. Tasmania by +Tom Tyson 

4. The Free Companies of Solutuhz

What its like

I do not know why I wrote this. I do not know what the point of it is. I am not asking for sympathy or anything like that. Mostly this is an attempt to get some thoughts out of my head. If it helps you understand me a little, fine. If it helps you understand someone you know, great. But that is not what I wrote this for. It is a bit all over the place, a little bit ranty, and a little meandery. Any way, here is what I wrote.

You want to know what it is like? What it feels like to be me? To be mad? Think it is cool to be crazy? Somehow crazy makes you free, yeah? Let me tell you what it is like. What it is to be mad. I will start like this. I will ask a question, and then give the answer I believe to be true.

Have you ever had a bad day? Been sad, afraid, alone? Then something happens, you talk to a friend, or family, you see a funny TV show, took a breath. Then the bad started to fade, just a little. It became a bad memory instead of a bad day. And, in time, the memory faded as well. It became just a dim recollection in a sea of other memories. It is not as though it never happened, but mostly you just don't have to think about it. It is a tiny scar, long healed over. Is that how it is? Because that is how it seems to me when I look at human behavior.

I want you to remember a bad moment in your life. Not the worst. Not that, but a bad one. You know the one. Feels bad, yeah? Remember what it felt like when it was fresh. Now, imagine you did not have the numbness of distance to help deal with this memory. Imagine if the feelings were always fresh. Now, I want you to think of how many bad memories you have. Imagine if all of of those feelings were fresh and new. Every day, every hour, every moment, you can feel the sorrow, the panic, and the loneliness. Imagine that for me. That is who I am.

I can feel it all, always. I still feel the hurt from when I was five and my cousin told me I was a horrible ugly person and she hated me. I feel that right now like it was new. When my first girl friend dumped me, I feel that. When my Drill Instructor screamed at me, when my home loan was denied, when my best friends father died, when the love of my life married someone else, when my niece died, I remember it all. It is always in my my heart, this sorrow.

Every day I work incredibly hard to distract myself. I read constantly, watch countless hours of television and movies, and listen to music. All of this I do so that I can shut out my thoughts, shut out my feelings, if only for a moment. The second I stop it all comes rushing back, fresh and new. Every bad day is sitting there like a hungry coyote, liking its chops waiting for me to slow down. So I can't slow down, I must find the next distraction before I start to fall apart. This causes me to look at the world in short terms rather than long term. Short term world view leads to mistakes, more bad days. It builds. Like a vortex of anguish, building with each mistake, each accident.

Crazy is not fun. Crazy is not freeing or a release of normal social mores. It is not something you want. Mental illness is a trap you can't get out of. Your behaviors become erratic as you try to deal with a world that is rapidly spinning out of control. The more you try and deal with things, the worse they seem to get. Nothing makes sense and people start avoiding you. I get it, you know, the avoidance. When you have a chronic mental condition it gets tiring on the people around you. They ask, why can't you be happy, normal, or whatever? And its not like I don't understand, I ask myself that question all the damn time. I wish I could just wish myself normal. The worst of it is that we are conditioned by TV to see mental illness in a lot of ways that are just horrid for true understanding. Having a problem does not make you superhuman, nor is it fun, nor can it be solved in an hour.

I am lucky, sad to say. I am functional most days. I can deal, most days. I can take care of myself. Most days. There are bad days. Days when I can't. Days when I shut down. Days when I can do nothing but sit in my room and cry. But that is not every day. I have known people, friends even, who are not functional. I cannot tell their stories. I do not live in the world they live in. I can only tell my story. I don't even know if it makes sense.