Category: Houses of the Blooded

Part One: Introduction

Chapter 1: Shanri & the Ven
Chapter 2: System Basics
Chapter 3: Making a Character

Part Two: The Great Game

Chapter 4: Taking Risks
Chapter 5: Virtues
Chapter 6: Aspects
Chapter 7: Wagers
Chapter 8: Violence
Chapter 9: Manners

Part Three: The Visible World

Chapter 10: Seasons
Chapter 11: Domain
Chapter 12: Orks

Part Four: The Invisible World

Chapter 13: The Sorcerer-Kings
Chapter 14: Artifacts
Chapter 15: Suaven
Chapter 16: Relics

Part Five: Secrets

Chapter 17: Players
Chapter 18: Game Masters

When I watched Neil Peart’s A Work in Progress, he talked about his approach to writing drum parts for songs. Alex and Geddy bring him musical structures–more like sketches–complete with a drum machine part. Then, Neil throws everything he has at it, filling the song with every trick he’s got. As the process goes, he whittles the bits down until he has a structure he’s happy with.

Throw in everything, then boil it down.

It surprised me to learn that because Neil’s approach is pretty much exactly how I design game mechanics. I throw all the mechanics I’ve got in my head into the game, then during playtest, I slowly remove the parts that just don’t work. Boiling it down.

During playtest, I watch how the players approach the game. I watch for mechanics they use and mechanics they don’t use. The ones that they remember to use are the ones that are fun. The ones they forget to use are the ones that aren’t. Those are the first to go.

Then, I watch how people use the mechanics. For example, last Friday’s playtest showed me the “Duty” Motivation/Passion/whatever was too easy to abuse. The definition could stretch all over all the other M/P/w’s. So, I re-thought the idea, and decided that not only should Duty get ditched, but Motivations/Passions/whatevers should, too.

Loyalties? Nobody used them. What’s more, the question kept arising, “So, it’s like an aspect, but different.”

In fact, a lot of mechanics came out that way. Like an aspect, but different.

Time and time again, the players kept coming back to aspects. They’re fun, easy to understand, and cool.

Steam pouring over the pot lid now. My glasses steam as I look in.

Virtues remain. I made them mandatory, so players are always using them, but the same comment keeps coming back. “I like the fact that I can’t have all of them.” I do, too.

Virtues and aspects. And the Provinces. We had a ball with Provinces.

1. What is your game about?
2. How does it do that?
3. What behaviors does it reward?
4. Why is that fun?
   

Damn him, that Sorensen! I’ll get him. And his little dog Magnus, too!

The ven revere two kinds of “patron saints.” The first, minor suaven, or household spirits, are family members who have passed into Solace but are only revered by family members or a small number of ven. These suaven bestow minor blessings, omens and prophecies to those who remember them. Major suaven, otherwise known as jivalaven, are revered all across Shanri. Temples and shrines dedicated in their names stand on every island.

Your character can devote himself to one or more of these suaven, winning their favor and blessings. Your devotion to a suaven is measured in ranks–just like everything else on your character sheet. If you revere a suaven, you are said to have Devotion to that suaven.

Minor Suaven
As a beginning character, you have 3 points to spend on Devotions to minor suaven. The higher your Devotion, the more attuned you are to that suaven. You may spend all your points on a single suaven, or you can spread them over one, two or even three.

Like our own patron saints, the ven associate the suaven with a particular attribute. Just as Saint Jude is “the patron saint of lost causes,” so is Althana Steele the suaven of desperate measures. Athana is not the only patron saint of desperate measures — there’s a lot of them–but everyone has a favorite.

Knowing a suaven teaches you details of that suaven’s life. The more you learn, the more you know how to communicate with a suaven in his dreaming state. You learn symbols associated with that suaven, surround yourself with those symbols, and further attune yourself to her slumbering mind.

For the purposes of character creation, you can create your own minor suaven. All you need is:

a) Name: this is what you call your patron saint
b) Attribution: what is your patron saint the patron saint of?
c) Symbol: you need a symbol for each rank of Devotion

For example, for one of her minor suaven, Shara chooses a beloved aunt, Ysaelda. She was a kind of surrogate mother for Shara, teaching her everything Shara’s mother wanted her to know, kind of a dowager duchess from those little books she loved to read. When she passed into Solace, Aunt Ysaelda left Shara the secret of her mother’s journals.

The first thing I need to make Aunty Ysaelda one of Shara’s suaven is a name. Okay, I got that.

Next, I’ll need an attribution. Just what does Shara associate most with her aunt? Ahah! I’ve got it. “Discreet affairs.” Even into her later years, Auntie Ysaelda was always surrounded by charming men hoping to win her favor. No-one ever knew about her dalliances. She kept those absolutely secret. So, for Shara, Aunty Ysaelda is the patron saint of discreet affairs. Making them and keeping them.

Finally, I need a symbol for each rank of Devotion. I’m giving Aunty two of Shara’s three Devotion points, so I need two symbols to associate with her. After thinking about it for a while, I remember how much Ysaelda loved lilies. White lilies to be exact. So, for Shara, one symbol of her beloved aunt is white lillies. For the second, I think a particular kind of wine. Blackberry wine is a favorite of mine, so let’s make it a favorite of Ysaelda’s, too. These two things are the most powerful reminders for Shara when she thinks of her aunt. When she visits Ysaelda’s shrine, she always remembers to bring white lilies and a glass of blackberry wine.

Now, if you show your suaven the proper respect, reverence and adoration (like bringing wine and flowers to their shrines), the suaven return your kindness with blessings. A blessing is a bestowment of bonus dice for risks that involve the suaven’s attribution. In other words, if Shara is confronted with the truth of a discreet affair, she can call upon Auntie Ysaelda’s blessing and get bonus dice to protect the identity of that affair.

In order to get those bonus dice, you have to spend a point of Style. Spend a Style and you get a number of bonus dice equal to your Devotion rank.

For example, a jealous wife confronts Shara about one of her…

… hey wait a minute. Cliche. Shara is anything but cliche. Let’s start that again.

For example, a jealous husband (there ya go) confronts Shara about one of her discreet affairs. He demands she tell the truth of the matter. Shara, always following her good Aunty’s example (and trying to play off her reputation), denies everything. Does she tell a convincing lie? Does the husband believe her?

This is a contested Cunning risk.

Both Shara and the husband must make Cunning rolls, hoping to beat the other’s total. Shara calls upon her aunt’s spirit to guide her. I spend a Style and add two bonus dice (equal to Shara’s Devotion to her suaven, Ysealda) to my roll.

That’s how it works.

You can have a suaven of swords, a suaven of bridges, a suaven of gardening, a suaven of just about anything. You may not have a suaven of “winning rolls.” That would be lame. I spend a Style and tag you with “Lame.”

These are the rules for lesser suaven. The rules for greater suaven come later.

From the weekend, after a big violent fight scene, the following rules changes are in effect.

1) You may not invoke more than one aspect, tag more than one aspect and compell more than one aspect for a single risk. That is, you may only invoke one aspect, tag one aspect, and compel one aspect per risk. That means you can utilize up to three aspects per risk.

For example, Shara finds herself in a duel. She cannot invoke more than one aspect, tag more than one aspect or compell more than one aspect. That’s a total of three aspects she can work with. She could invoke two aspects here–both being appropriate to the risk–but she cannot use more than one. Likewise, she knows two of her opponent’s aspects that she could tag for this duel, but for this risk, she can only tag one. If an aspect was appropriate for compelling–like “bad temper” or “unsure”–she could also compell it, but she could only compell one.

2) Tagging or compelling another character’s aspect costs one Style Point. Give the character that Style Point. By the way, you may compell your own aspects. The GM will give you a Style point for doing so.

3) Style points may no longer be used to increase the number of dice you roll. They can only be used for specific purposes:

a) Tagging and compelling aspects
b) Gaining “blessing dice” through a suaven
c) Other things we’ll talk about later

4) Suaven now provide “blessing dice.” You can spend a Style point to activate that blessing. Most suaven give a bonus to a specific kind of risk. Fencing, flirting, hunting, etc. More on the suaven later.

These changes significantly lower the number of dice you can get for a risk. That’s a good thing. During the fight scene, one player was rolling 25 dice. That’s a bit too much for a starting character.

More changes later.

I need a character sheet in the book that’s written “in the native ven.”
Players can bank Style in it. ‘Cause they’re that cool.

Aw yeah.

Note: I only have five Passions listed below. I’m looking for the sixth. And the write-ups aren’t done yet. Still working on good, hard examples. The book will include a Virtue+Passion example for each combination.

____

The ven are moved by passion. The burning of desire is a welcome pain. This is the engine, the energy that feeds their hearts. 

Your character has Passions. Without them, she will find risk difficult to take. Or, just more difficult. But each ven’s heart is different: different desires, different Passions. You must ask yourself: what does my character want most?

Listed below are the six Passions that drive the ven. You may pick five. The last does not inspire you. Whenever you take a risk, you may add a number of dice to your pool equal to your Passion.

Like Virtues, you may choose one Passion at rank 4, two at rank 3, two at rank 2 and the last you gain no ranks at all.

Of course, the ven are fickle things and their hearts change over time. Each Year, you may change your Passions as you see fit.

I was unhappy with it. Very unhappy. It didn’t fit. I hate passive elements. Constitution, Endurance, Fortitude. All these things are passive. The other traits are active.

Here’s how it looks on paper.

Falcon’s Fortitude
Fortitude represents your character’s physical stamina and endurance. Whenever you engage in drawn out physical tasks, your Fortitude determines how long you last before you give out.

If you choose Fortitude as one of your Traits…
… your character is a powerful workhorse. You can take long treks without a break, hold up heavy weights for minutes and stay awake for days on end.

If you do not choose Fortitude…
… your character cannot perform long, arduous tasks. You don’t have any midnight oil to burn and you can’t ride a horse for more than a few miles before you need to get your hands on some ice.

Passive. Dull. Boring. Everything the ven are not supposed to be.

I was talking about something else with

latentblue

 when she tipped me on to something. She mentioned Batman Begins. The scene in the prison. “You’re practice.”

Batman–Frank Miller’s Dark Knight–has Fortitude. He won’t give up. Not ever. But just making Fortitude a passive trait isn’t enough. In that scene, Bruce Wayne digs deep into his soul and pulls out his Fortitude.

But how to invoke Fortitude without busting the other Virtues? Using Fortitude instead of Prowess, instead of Strength. Instead of Cunning. That isn’t the right direction.

Fortitude isn’t passive, but I can’t figure out a way to make it active without trumping the other Virtues. Because then, it isn’t a Virtue anymore. It’s a different mechanic.

Stuck. I’ll sleep on it.

“Drives” is the word I’m using now. It will probably change. “Drive” has too much of a modern connotation. It makes me think of cars. And the Rush song.

mmmmm. Rush.

Anyway, here they are, replacing Skills.

Ambition
Duty
Reputation
Revenge
Romance
Truth

Add your ranks in a Drive when it is appropriate. You assign a value to each Drive. For example, for “Revenge,” Shara assigns “The man who murdered my mother.” For Truth I assign, “Discovering who murdered my mother.” For Reputation, I assign, “Wickedest Woman in the World.” For Ambition, I assign, “Rescuing my father’s Barony from poverty. For Romance, I assign, “Valin Burghe.” And for Duty, I assign, “Protecting my father’s reputation.”

Whenever I’m taking action that leads me toward those…

*epiphany*

Whenever I’m taking action that leads me toward my DESIRES, I get bonus dice equal to that Desire.

Ahah. There we go.

Ditch Desires from your character sheet, too. Or, at least, replace them with the five words above.

Any other Desires would also be cool.

We have a rule around these parts. If you can’t roll dice, you fail. Just fail. If you’re taking a contested risk (that’s a risk against another character) and you can’t roll any dice, they succeed and you fail. They get to use all their wagers and you get nothing.

Now, let’s talk about murder.

If you successfully get the drop on someone, if you gain surprise, if your Revenge roll is higher than their Revenge roll, they have no idea what’s about to happen and… they get no dice.

None.

That means you get to put all of yours into wagers.

Remember when we said a Wound 5 was debilitating enough to knock you off your feet and make you completely incapable of defending yourself?

No dice.

See, I’m sick to fucking death of catching someone off their guard in an RPG and getting something as lame as double or triple damage. Or even quadruple damage.

No. If I have a knife and that person doesn’t know I’m there, and I put that knife through their throat, that person fucking dies. Dead-dead-dead.

Not ten hit points. Not thirty wounds. Not two wound ranks. Bullshit.

Dead. Dead. Dead.

That’s the Murder Rule. Catch someone off-guard and they can’t use any dice.

The only kind of dice they can spend is Style Dice. And even then, maybe not. But Style dice are the out. And you can only blow five of those in one roll. But for this… if you miss a Revenge roll and someone’s coming up on you with a long knife… sorry, that’s the game, my friend.

I’m thinking about ditching Skills.

Skills like The Sword, Art, and Bureaucracy really only ever link up with one Virtue (Prowess, Beauty, and Cunning). Not only that, but they seem to be nothing more than just extensions of those Virtues. That makes them more like aspects… and perhaps they should be.

On the other hand, Skills like Revenge and Romance are more like motivations. The reason your character does something. I can see Strength + Revenge just as easily as I can see Cunning + Romance.

And so, instead of Skills, we’ll have “Motivations.” Revenge and Romance are the first two. I’d like to have at least five. But, what else does a ven really need?