Fantasy
Adventures in the dying world of Rom'Myr
An
OSR setting using the Magic World role playing game rules
Dying Earth is a subgenre of science fiction, fantasy, or science fantasy which takes place in the far future at either the end of life on Earth, or other Earth-like planets. The End of Time when the laws of the universe themselves fail is also a common trope. Themes of world-weariness, innocence (wounded or otherwise), idealism, entropy, (permanent) exhaustion/depletion of many or all resources (such as soil nutrients), and the hope of renewal tend to predominate.
I started this campaign setting with BFRPG in mind, but I want to have a setting to use with the d100 rules of Magic World so I am in the process of adapting the setting. Here I jigger the Character Creation rules of Magic World to fit my conception. This post will then be followed with a post outlining how the magic system works in the game. When I build up setting details suitable for use by the GM I will post them as well, but I work in fits and starts so don't hold your breath on any of this.
Only
human characters may be chosen for race. The available human racial
identities are Rom'Myr, and the Fir'Bax.
Rom’Myr
humans are citizens of the Blue Borderlands, the farthest province
east in the realm of The Trackless Empire. Sandwiched between the
Cold Heath and the Groaning Mountains on the shores of the Inland
Sea. The
Rom'Myr of the Blue Borderlands trade for Bolfian Silk from the
non-human desert nomads known as the Strangled.
The
land of Fir'Bax
lies north of the Blue Borderlands. Uncouth barbarians, the
elaborately tattooed Fir'Bax
scratch a living from the small arable land surrounding the high
peaks of the Yani'Hor, the Groaning Mountains. They are extremely
xenophobic and war incessantly with the Strangled. This small
barbarian kingdom also resent the encroaching Rom'Myrians into their
wilderness domain.
Turn
to page 20-21 of the Magic World
core
rule book and follow “A Guide to Creating your Adventurer”.
Below
are listed (if any) changes to this standard procedure as they occur
in the process.
Step
1: Names & Characteristics No
changes.
Step
2: Characteristic Rolls No
changes.
Step
3: Derived Characteristics No
changes. Please note Human Move is 8, not 10. This is a typo in the
rule book.
Step
4: Age and Experience Any
PC choosing the Shaman
occupation rolls 17+5d6 for starting age, otherwise no changes.
Step
5: Magic Adventurers
must have POW 16 or higher to be able to use magic. How the magic
system works in Rom'Myr
is
detailed in its own chapter.
Step
6: Culture and Species Only
human can be chosen for PC species. All Culture options are
available.
Step
7: Skill Category Modifiers No
changes.
Step
8: There
appears to be no step eight so this
is probably a good time to assign your starting Allegiance (page
28-33).
Step
9: Occupation and Skills All
Occupation and skills are available and
you are free to build your character as you like. Just keep in mind
you will be fitting
your character into one of seven Character
Classes.
These seven classes are; Assassin, Barbarian, Druid, Jester, Paladin, Ranger and Thief. The significance of these classes are detailed in their
own chapter.
Step
10: Starting Money and Equipment No
changes. I recommend you add Thomas Wiegel's a Wretched Catalogue for
more equipment choices than what is offered in the Magic
World core
rule book. Just convert the cost in silver to cost in bronze.
1.1
Character
Class Rules:
All
the classes are available to any new PC. All but the Assassin,
Barbarian and Thief class have the ability to learn and or acquire
magic per the included magic rules if they have a POW 16 or greater.
Each particular Class may have additional limitations which are
outlined below;
All
Barbarian
PC's must be
Fir'Bax. Only the Band
and
Tribe cultures
are available to this Class. Any
of the available Occupations
listed for these Cultures are
available.
Jester
PC's should consider themselves more as traveling monk/scholars as
opposed to being a kept clown for royalty. The Jester PC may be
either human race (Fir'Bax/Rom'Myr).
If Fir'Bax is chosen as race only the Band
and Tribe
cultures are available. Rom'Myr racial identity does not limit choice
of Culture. They are limited to the following Occupations:
Astrologer, Begger, Crafter (Tribal), Diplomat, Lost/Forgotten, Minor
Noble, Nomad, Peasant/Farmer,
Physician/Apothecary, Sailor,
Scribe, Shaman/Priest/Cultist,
Slave (Freed or Escaped), Small Trader, Sorcerer, Thief,
Troubadour/Entertainer.
The
Druid is
a wild shamans roaming the dying lands of Rom'Myr. A
Druid must be
Fir'Bax. Only the Band
and
Tribe cultures
are available to this Class. Any
of the available Occupations
listed for these Cultures are
available plus Astrologer, and
Sorcerer.
The
Ranger,
civilized cousin
to the Druids
must be of Rom'Myer descent.
Rom'Myr racial identity does not limit
choice of Culture. The Ranger is
limited to the following Occupations:
Bandit, Craftperson, Crafter
(Tribal), Fisher, Hunter, Lost/Forgotten, Nomad, Peasant/Farmer,
Slave (Freed or Escaped), Small Trader, Tax/Rent Collector.
Assassins
are highly trained guild specialists.
They owe their skills to an established
order or institution. They must be Rom'Myr and must take the State
culture.
The Occupations available
to the Assassin are; Bandit,
Hunter, Minor Noble, Paid Assassin, Cultist.
Thieves
are your most common of adventuring rogues found
within the Blue Borderlands. They
can be either Fir'Bax or Rom'Myr. If they choose Fir'Bax they are
limited to the Band
and Tribal culture.
All the Occupations of
these cultures are available, except replace Shaman
with
Thief. Rom'Myrian
identity requires the State
culture
to be chosen. They
are limited to the following Occupations:
Bandit, Beggar, Craftsperson,
Lost/Forgotten, Sailor, Slave
(Freed or Escaped), Thief.
A
Paladin
is a PC who has picked up the sword in defense of some aspect of the
lost past. The
Paladin can only be a Rom'Myr human and
of the State culture.
The
Occupations available
to the Paladin
are; Mercenary/Bodyguard,
Minor Noble, Slave (Freed or Escaped), Soldier/Guard/Watchman.
2.
Orders and Institutions:
Most
of the PC Classes are bound to some type of esoteric religion or
ageless cult which claim some form of legitimacy through ancient
ideas lost to the unimaginable past eons of Rom’Myr. None of these
confer any mechanical benefit for the new PC, but is used to
embellish this dying earth with some of the player’s ideas. Of
course the Game Master can decide to create orders and institutions
which do confer mechanical benefits for the PC as they see fit.
There
is a wide discrepancy
in intent and capability of the organizations
of men in the world of Rom'Myr. Whether battle hardened mercenary
corp, horrid murder cult, or starving street thugs the
one galvanizing feature of orders in Rom'Myr is the expectation of
complete obedience.
Fir’Baxian
Battle Cults; there is no better
inspiration for your own barbarian battle cult than Red Moon Medican
Show's Vacant Ritual Assembly Issue #4. Furious Gods (found on pgs
15-18) is a must read! These pages will
be drawn on to demonstrate the magic system of the Druid as well as
some of the “gifts” a Barbarian may receive from their Battle
Cult.
Pagan
Religions; below are names to spur the imagination when creating
your worlds and player's religious orders.
Tix-ka-tix,
The Returner, The Patient One, The Slumbering Pharoh (Petty Godsp.171).
Mespilus,
god of medlar trees and their fruit (Petty Gods p.109).
Esoteric
Schools suitable for any character class;
Dlarafis,
Augazor, Trani, Children of the Sacrificed, Sect of the Son, Chosen
Ones of Tranquility, Band of the Studied, Followers of Vranis, Faith
of Drysm, Congregation of Kousha.
3.
Languages;
Dun-Harad
is the language of the Trackless Empire. Marude is the language the
Fir'Bax speak. Sahrashin is spoken by the dark skinned Ahenti.
Torbarel is the language of The Strangled.
The
Other Language
skill is limited at character creation to these four languages. As
the PC's explore the world of Rom'Myr they may come across other
languages and PC's may attempt to learn these through the regular
rules for
Training and
Experience (pages
51-53).
4.
Combat Skills:
The
only “House Rule” I like to add to the rules for Combat Skills is
in regard to thrown weapons. Instead of committing an additional
skill to the particular thrown weapon the PC
can assign their Throw
skill as their chance to hit with any thrown weapon. This makes
putting points into Throw
more valuable then having to split points between Throw
and
an additional Weapon Skill. I
take that back, I have an additional house rule; boost the Base % for
Crossbows to 35%. No one needs a skill in Crossbow to shoot these
weapons at the Base %.
5.
Combat: This
piece of crunch only applies to PC's. If an attack throw results in a
fumble roll a 1d20 on the following Confirm
Fumble Roll
table.
This will either minimize or exaggerate the rolled fumble. Feel free
to ignore this step if you don't like this rule.
1
: You really messed up this time! Roll twice on Fumble table.
2
– 10: Roll on Fumble table as normal.
20:
Recover! Reroll to hit.
6.
Magic Rules: these will make up the body of the next post!
Interrogation,
Intimidation and Persuasion are character interactions you can
resolve with a “Dice
Action”. The AV/EV* and
OV/RV* for a PC are already known. The Infl/Aura and Infl/Spirit of
the NPC is determined by the Gamemaster. When the GM does this,
either on the fly or prepped ahead of time, they are essentially
setting a difficulty target number which needs to be hit. When the
Players and the GM wish to roll for results to decide the outcome of these three types
of character interactions they are resolved the same way everything else is in the game; with the Action Table and the Results
Table. 
What
about the other way around? What happens if a villain or any other
NPC tries to use Character Interaction against one of the Players?
Myself I try not to force the PC to do anything. Other gamers are
more comfortable making the PC briefly restricted by puppet strings,
and do it well. I philosophically try and tie my hands so it is the
PC's themselves deciding whether the villain is bluffing or should
they cut and run from a dangerous and uncertain situation. These
rules for BoH kinda go half way. The PC can be bound to failed
opposed and resistance rolls, but they can also spend Hero Points to
ignore the effects.
