Hope you didn't fall for my April Fools.
I'll keep the news brief. These days I'm working hard on some school stuff. I've got several projects that I am working on, most significant ones being a tabletop RPG system of my own, and a series of short stories that would take place in the world of Runehack. These stories will get their own tag so that it's easy to tell them apart from my regular posts.
I've got several ideas for the articles that I could post on this blog, but all of them lacked that spark I felt when writing most of my other articles, so I didn't get back to finishing them.
I do also have plans for 5e homebrews, but I don't know when will I manage to publish those. I did manage to publish another version of Sealed Horror, but judging by the feedback I received, it's still not complete.
Here's an overview of my homebrews up until now ever since Golden King Monk, excluding older versions of already updated brews. The list is organized in the order of newest to oldest.
Sealed Horror, a sorcerous origin
Minimus Magus, a fighter archetype
Monstrous Lord, a ranger archetype
The Backstabbing Friend, a magical item
Circle of the Blood Alchemy, a druidic circle
Rod of Fifth Glyph Chastising, a magical rod
Jánošík's Infamous Treasures, a set of magical items
Way of the Rubber, a monastic way
Path of the Organist, a barbaric path
Warp Sniper, a fighter archetype
Appliancebjörn, a sorcerous origin
Apologies for the inactivity on the blog. Have a nice day!
Wednesday, April 3, 2019
Monday, April 1, 2019
Theory: Is this show actually about a post-scarcity society?? (also goodbye homebrewing)
It has been done. Today, I released by Magnum Opus. The greatest 5e homebrew to ever see the light of day. I can do no more but bask in my glory, as I move on to more superior forms of activity. Like making complicated theories about animated shows for my own entertainment and upvotes on /r/fantheories.
HELLO INTERNET, WELCOME TO ANIME THEORY!
You know, ever since my young years, there's been this one show that I used to follow where a couple of cool characters wordlessly did funny stuff. And lately, these memories have resurfaced. I looked them up on youtube, and sure enough they're there. Seeing them though made me ask so many questions...- What are they?
- Where are they?
- Are they the only ones?
- When are they?
All of these questions and much more will be answered in today's article. So sit back, bring popcorn, and let's see where this goes.
Saturday, March 2, 2019
Alter Time rune and Epoch Engine
The world of Runehack has got two runes that mirror each other in an interesting way - Detection and Illusion. For every visual illusion such as a chair, there is some rune to detect it. For every sound produced by a rune, there is also a rune to detect it. This goes for all senses. But... does this work for the time too? How would that look? After all, time depends heavily on how you sense it. Time seems to flow super slow while in a doctor's waiting room, and super fast when you're having a blast. Time itself doesn't change though, your perception does. And you can definitely set up a rune to activate when the detection rune detects that five minutes have passed since activation.
The rune scheme called "Alter Time" lets us change this rate. At its simplest form, you need to spend one hour in drawing this complex rune. Doing so will seemingly slow everything around you down to go two times slower for one minute. Your rate of traveling through time is 2 sps. The rune can also be drawn in an exactly opposite way, letting you experience 0.5 sps, seemingly making everything around you two times as fast.
As soon as the spell stops working, your body reacts to being forced to move at the speed unusual to you as your muscles stiffen. In D&D terms, think of this as a reduction to the Dexterity score.
Question is - can we cast this spell so that we get higher or lower rates? Of course we can! But that also comes at a cost. For every added second (or smaller fraction), the length of time needed to draw this rune is multiplied by 10. So for 3 sps (or 1/3 sps), you need 10 hours, 100 hours for 4 sps, 1000 hours for 5 sps. As you can imagine, slowing time beyond 8 sps is not humanly possible (though let's admit it, it would be really cool). Especially since these runes have to be drawn continuously - you can't take breaks from magic. But... humanity is crafty, it keeps coming up with ways to break the world at all times.
The Epoch Engine units are afterward rented out to important people when they are about to find themselves in extremely important or dangerous situations where they can't afford a failure. The price depends on the size of its inscribed time rune. When something goes awry, an Epoch Engine unit will activate its spell, and do everything it can within the next minute to protect the person it was hired to protect. Due to it perceiving time at 5-8 sps, it is much faster and much more capable of preventing threats, and thus it makes for an effective bodyguard. Sure the attackers who put this important person in danger could expect that, but the VIP can always just rent more of these robots. Once its job is done, it is moved back to the Cabal Neuron facility, where it rests, and draws the time rune once more to be ready for the future.
Runehack now has robots that can be hired to protect a person by slowing their perception of outside time. That's pretty cool. I wonder what'll come next. Thank you for reading, and have a nice day!
Alter Time
Illusions of time are about as complicated to fully comprehend as the majority of uses for Encryption rune. What would that even mean? Could you travel in time? Well yes, but actually not really. The truth is, all of us are time travelers, traveling through time at the rate of 1 sps, one second per second.The rune scheme called "Alter Time" lets us change this rate. At its simplest form, you need to spend one hour in drawing this complex rune. Doing so will seemingly slow everything around you down to go two times slower for one minute. Your rate of traveling through time is 2 sps. The rune can also be drawn in an exactly opposite way, letting you experience 0.5 sps, seemingly making everything around you two times as fast.
As soon as the spell stops working, your body reacts to being forced to move at the speed unusual to you as your muscles stiffen. In D&D terms, think of this as a reduction to the Dexterity score.
Question is - can we cast this spell so that we get higher or lower rates? Of course we can! But that also comes at a cost. For every added second (or smaller fraction), the length of time needed to draw this rune is multiplied by 10. So for 3 sps (or 1/3 sps), you need 10 hours, 100 hours for 4 sps, 1000 hours for 5 sps. As you can imagine, slowing time beyond 8 sps is not humanly possible (though let's admit it, it would be really cool). Especially since these runes have to be drawn continuously - you can't take breaks from magic. But... humanity is crafty, it keeps coming up with ways to break the world at all times.
Epoch Engine
Cabal Neuron, one of the organizations that rule the world of Runehack, and the largest producer of autonomous devices such as driverless vehicles and runebots, also creates special runebots named Epoch Engine. When an Epoch Engine unit is built, the first task it gets is to move into a specific area within the building and start drawing a rune of time illusion. This rune is drawn for anywhere from 3 days to even as much as 114 years. | ||
| May or may not come preprogrammed with the 3 Laws of Asimov? Actually, they'd be detrimental to their job, so probably not. Robot Head 112417, by Aaron de Leon |
The Epoch Engine units are afterward rented out to important people when they are about to find themselves in extremely important or dangerous situations where they can't afford a failure. The price depends on the size of its inscribed time rune. When something goes awry, an Epoch Engine unit will activate its spell, and do everything it can within the next minute to protect the person it was hired to protect. Due to it perceiving time at 5-8 sps, it is much faster and much more capable of preventing threats, and thus it makes for an effective bodyguard. Sure the attackers who put this important person in danger could expect that, but the VIP can always just rent more of these robots. Once its job is done, it is moved back to the Cabal Neuron facility, where it rests, and draws the time rune once more to be ready for the future.
Runehack now has robots that can be hired to protect a person by slowing their perception of outside time. That's pretty cool. I wonder what'll come next. Thank you for reading, and have a nice day!
Wednesday, January 30, 2019
How to do low magic?
Happy late New Year, everyone! Sorry for no posts, real life has a way of keeping me busy, but I should be slowly getting back on my tracks now.
During the last few months, I've been pondering how to do low magic settings properly in D&D 5th Edition. I've seen several attempts, but I was not satisfied, because they were not done in the way I wanted. And then it hit me - there is no single low magic. Thus, we got a problem with definitions. So I decided to team up with the Grisly Eye Games to set some terms, accidentally finding out how to do low magic 5th edition D&D settings in the process of doing that.
There are four main types of low magic in the fantasy worlds:
There is a relatively simple way to do a low power magic setting, and that would be to limit, how many caster levels can the players get. Of course, divide half-caster levels by two and third-caster levels by three while counting. The rest of the levels have to be gained in non-caster class, such as monk, fighter, rogue, or barbarian.
When limiting the number of levels, consider what's the maximum caster level you want your players to gain. Depending on this level, different spell slots will be available to the players. If I were to limit the level of magic but still grant my players spell slots, I would most probably allow 10 caster levels. The 9th level is the moment at which the player gains some interesting spells, such as actual resurrections (that are not too strong and come with drawbacks), geas and modify memory, limited long-range teleportation, and several wall spells. I feel like these are still strong enough to be considered master-level magics by some standards. As for why 10th level and not 9th, some of the caster classes like warlock and wizard gain a subclass feature at 10th level, meaning that it could make for an interesting "caster capstone" of sorts.
How would this be possible is rather easy - set conditions for when a player gets to play someone magical. One good example would be Grisly Eye Games' method of Unique Backgrounds, which are backgrounds that lack a Feature, have an additional Unique Flaw, and let the player play as a race or class normally not allowed in a game. Another example could be gaining the magical powers through a quest, or the magical powers coming at a cost, such as being pursued publicly in a world where magic is forbidden.
One good thing about Low Possibility Magic is the potential to improve worldbuilding using this magic. Imagine magical elevators that are possible thanks to the telekinesis, or cancellation of lotteries/raffles due to divination magic. The fewer magic there is, the more manageable it is, and the easier it is to include in the worldbuilding. Which is rather difficult with over 400 spells that the 5th edition of Dungeons and Dragons has right now.
The solution to this is to limit which spells the players can and can't pick. Possibly even limit which classes players can pick. Or races. Mainly because this type of magic is all about limitations and how one can use a few things for many situations.
There are several ways to do this type, but before I go on with that, a fair warning. Players may not like it when their magic doesn't work - whether it's just them expending a spell slot for nothing, or them getting hurt in the process, or their teammates getting hurt in the process and getting angry at the player. This type of low magic should be used with caution, for - just like the magic itself - it can have unpredictable results and may be risky.
So what does one do to make this work? Well, the answer is simple. Roll tables! If I had to call them anything better, I would call them "meta-spells". You can fill these tables with anything - you cast your spell, nothing happens, you conjure an evil monster, you cast maybe a wrong but similar spell or a portal to another dimension opens, ... anything you wish. They can also be of any size you are comfortable with - from d4 to d100, possibly even more or less. Not every cell needs to be different, and if you want your world to work that way, include in some way a possibility to affect the results depending on the caster's level. The easiest way to do that would be to add the caster level to the result and have the table organized from the worst results to the best.
During the last few months, I've been pondering how to do low magic settings properly in D&D 5th Edition. I've seen several attempts, but I was not satisfied, because they were not done in the way I wanted. And then it hit me - there is no single low magic. Thus, we got a problem with definitions. So I decided to team up with the Grisly Eye Games to set some terms, accidentally finding out how to do low magic 5th edition D&D settings in the process of doing that.
There are four main types of low magic in the fantasy worlds:
- low power magic
- low frequency magic
- low possibility magic
- low reliability magic
Low Power Magic
Low power magic is the type of magic that can't do things that are too powerful. It's one of my preferred types of magic, where grand things such as conjuring a fortress or summoning demons (depending on how low the author wants to keep the magic) are simply not possible.There is a relatively simple way to do a low power magic setting, and that would be to limit, how many caster levels can the players get. Of course, divide half-caster levels by two and third-caster levels by three while counting. The rest of the levels have to be gained in non-caster class, such as monk, fighter, rogue, or barbarian.
When limiting the number of levels, consider what's the maximum caster level you want your players to gain. Depending on this level, different spell slots will be available to the players. If I were to limit the level of magic but still grant my players spell slots, I would most probably allow 10 caster levels. The 9th level is the moment at which the player gains some interesting spells, such as actual resurrections (that are not too strong and come with drawbacks), geas and modify memory, limited long-range teleportation, and several wall spells. I feel like these are still strong enough to be considered master-level magics by some standards. As for why 10th level and not 9th, some of the caster classes like warlock and wizard gain a subclass feature at 10th level, meaning that it could make for an interesting "caster capstone" of sorts.
Low Frequency Magic
The most common of the low magic setting types I've seen, the low frequency magic aims to limit how regularly does one meet with magic. This could be like the Shire in Lord of the Rings, where it's an event when Gandalf comes around, or like the muggle world in Harry Potter (think the beginning of the first movie, before Harry gets to the Diagonal Alley or Hogwarts). There is a charm to this type of low magic - it makes the magic rare, and mysterious. You either don't know when you're talking to a mage, or everyone knows.How would this be possible is rather easy - set conditions for when a player gets to play someone magical. One good example would be Grisly Eye Games' method of Unique Backgrounds, which are backgrounds that lack a Feature, have an additional Unique Flaw, and let the player play as a race or class normally not allowed in a game. Another example could be gaining the magical powers through a quest, or the magical powers coming at a cost, such as being pursued publicly in a world where magic is forbidden.
Low Possibility Magic
Low Possibility Magic setting is a world, where magic can only be used for a few things. Some examples of this in the popular media would be the Death Note, where the Death Note can essentially only be used to kill people, determine how they die, and control the circumstances of their death (and see the gods of death, but that's not too important now is it), or Avatar the Last Airbender, where magic can be used to control one of the four elements - air, water, fire, earth - and do some other things that I don't think I should mention here.One good thing about Low Possibility Magic is the potential to improve worldbuilding using this magic. Imagine magical elevators that are possible thanks to the telekinesis, or cancellation of lotteries/raffles due to divination magic. The fewer magic there is, the more manageable it is, and the easier it is to include in the worldbuilding. Which is rather difficult with over 400 spells that the 5th edition of Dungeons and Dragons has right now.
The solution to this is to limit which spells the players can and can't pick. Possibly even limit which classes players can pick. Or races. Mainly because this type of magic is all about limitations and how one can use a few things for many situations.
Low Reliability Magic
Last but not least, we have the low reliability magic world. Whether it's just magic that can just fizzle out and not work, or magic that has a chance to open a dimensional rift to the xeno hellscapes, this magic is simply not as well documented as the standard 5e's magic, where when you do a thing, it happens for sure.There are several ways to do this type, but before I go on with that, a fair warning. Players may not like it when their magic doesn't work - whether it's just them expending a spell slot for nothing, or them getting hurt in the process, or their teammates getting hurt in the process and getting angry at the player. This type of low magic should be used with caution, for - just like the magic itself - it can have unpredictable results and may be risky.
So what does one do to make this work? Well, the answer is simple. Roll tables! If I had to call them anything better, I would call them "meta-spells". You can fill these tables with anything - you cast your spell, nothing happens, you conjure an evil monster, you cast maybe a wrong but similar spell or a portal to another dimension opens, ... anything you wish. They can also be of any size you are comfortable with - from d4 to d100, possibly even more or less. Not every cell needs to be different, and if you want your world to work that way, include in some way a possibility to affect the results depending on the caster's level. The easiest way to do that would be to add the caster level to the result and have the table organized from the worst results to the best.
Combined Low Magics
To finish off this article, I'll present the ways in which I'd implement combinations of these low magic types.- Low Power Magic + Low Frequency Magic. The players have to fulfill special conditions to be able to gain caster levels or play as magical races, but they can only gain a certain amount of caster levels, having to multiclass into a nonmagical class for the rest. This is especially good for worlds, where the magic is significant because it's scarce (think Lord of the Rings).
- Low Power Magic + Low Possibility Magic. The players can only gain a certain amount of caster levels, and they have a limited selection of spells. This is especially good for the worlds, where the magic is supposed to be rather obscure and not too useful.
- Low Power Magic + Low Reliability Magic. The players can only gain a certain amount of caster levels, and the magic they use is not even deterministic anyway.
- Low Frequency Magic + Low Possibility Magic. The players must fulfill special conditions for the magic and they have a limited selection of magical options.
- Low Frequency Magic + Low Reliability Magic. The players must fulfill special conditions for the magic options, and the magic they use can have random outcomes.
- Low Possibility Magic + Low Reliability Magic. Only a few spells are known to the people, and even those can have unpredictable outcomes. If combined with high power magic, this could make for an interesting setting where the magic is forbidden because of the risks connected to it.
Monday, November 5, 2018
Runehack
Imagine for a moment a world where the runic magic is possible. It's a classic in fantasy, the kind of magic you have to write down and give a bit of magic to in order to make it work. Let's limit ourselves to four kinds of runes: illusory runes that produce phenomena like sights and sounds (to the point where it can cause harm), divination runes that can find out stuff by themselves, movement runes that can move objects and creatures around (or even teleport them), and runes that can hide information by covering it with ciphers.
Now, imagine that you'd discover new kinds of runes, ones that can send out magic by themselves upon receiving some stimulus. Like for example, seeing the red color, or hearing the sound of a ringing bell, or when the person who this rune is drawn on goes through an intense emotion.
Now, imagine that you could also combine multiple stimuli, and have multiple effects attached to them too. Maybe this rune activates only when you're touching it and when you say a command word, and it shoots a ray of light accompanied by the celestial choir.
And now, try to picture someone piecing these runes together in an intricate way to make... a calculator. However, due to this being the first magical calculator, the runes fill pages of books, that fill shelves of a bookshelves, and these bookshelves fill out a room. Where to next?
Well, someone else who's smart realizes something at that point. They realize that you can minimize the runes, and have them still keep their magical efficiency. You could make them smaller and smaller, reducing room into a bookshelf, a bookshelf into a shelf, a shelf into a book, a book into a single page, and a page into a single playing card that can fit into your pocket.
Meanwhile, someone else who's smart and somewhere else in the world wanted to connect two of these calculators together. Once they did, they tried to connect a third one. And a fourth one. They thought long and hard, and realized that maybe... they should come up with a network that could be joined by any of these elaborate calculators.
And once that happens, you have a fantasy setting, where people carry around books as computers and laptops, cards in their pockets like smartphones, and connect to the internet. This is a vision I had for the setting that I call Runehack. More details on that sometime in the future.
Thank you for reading, and have a nice day!
Now, imagine that you'd discover new kinds of runes, ones that can send out magic by themselves upon receiving some stimulus. Like for example, seeing the red color, or hearing the sound of a ringing bell, or when the person who this rune is drawn on goes through an intense emotion.
Now, imagine that you could also combine multiple stimuli, and have multiple effects attached to them too. Maybe this rune activates only when you're touching it and when you say a command word, and it shoots a ray of light accompanied by the celestial choir.
And now, try to picture someone piecing these runes together in an intricate way to make... a calculator. However, due to this being the first magical calculator, the runes fill pages of books, that fill shelves of a bookshelves, and these bookshelves fill out a room. Where to next?
Well, someone else who's smart realizes something at that point. They realize that you can minimize the runes, and have them still keep their magical efficiency. You could make them smaller and smaller, reducing room into a bookshelf, a bookshelf into a shelf, a shelf into a book, a book into a single page, and a page into a single playing card that can fit into your pocket.
Meanwhile, someone else who's smart and somewhere else in the world wanted to connect two of these calculators together. Once they did, they tried to connect a third one. And a fourth one. They thought long and hard, and realized that maybe... they should come up with a network that could be joined by any of these elaborate calculators.
And once that happens, you have a fantasy setting, where people carry around books as computers and laptops, cards in their pockets like smartphones, and connect to the internet. This is a vision I had for the setting that I call Runehack. More details on that sometime in the future.
Thank you for reading, and have a nice day!
Thursday, October 18, 2018
CoFS:A Hardcover Release Celebration!
Good day everyone!
As some of you might have heard, Compendium of Forgotten Secrets: Awakening has been released and is getting printed, as well as sent out, as I write this. Not to Europe yet, sadly, but soon I'll have my own hardcover. Until then, I figured that I could celebrate by making an archetype of my own inspired partially by the book, and by some Greek mythology.
Anyway, if I had to say what my least favorite of these patrons are, I always like to answer with "the ones I've read the least about". Seriously, they're well written and flexible enough to fit into any world I've ever ran with minimal changes, including Ethernet of Keys. Some of my personal most liked patrons would have to be:
- The Keeper of the Depths, a lovecraftian sea horror that invades the dreams and grants its followers forbidden knowledge;
- The Fallen Exile, a literal star that fell in love, and I guess one could say it fell from sky because of love too;
- The Shadowcat, the first ever nightmare that feeds on other nightmares, and can manipulate the powers of luck;
And the one who inspired my monk archetype...
There is something I can tell you though. How many of you have heard of the king Midas? You know, the Greek legend, the king who turned things into gold with nothing but a touch? Alright. I figured that it would be cool if the king owned up to his curse, and made good use of it. You know, like certain other cursed royalties, hint hint. If his powers work only through touch though, he may as well throw away weapons. Hell, the armor will be made of gold, so he doesn't need that either. The best way to make use of his power is through martial arts.
This is roughly how I came up with the concept behind the Way of the Golden King. He was greedy, he got cursed, the unseen forces (that may or may not be Currency Conspiracy) gave him an offer, and now he's got his own monastery where he teaches his monks how to turn things into gold. Okay, maybe not real gold since this is players we're talking about, just false gold.
Way of the Golden King PDF
Thank you for reading! Make sure to check out the Compendium, even the abridged version could give you an impression of what's inside. Alternatively, you can find GenuineBeliever on Reddit, Twitter, Discord and Facebook! But since I don't want to leave you with a barrage of links, I'll have to do with just one.
Webpage of Genuine Fantasy Press
This promotion was not paid in any way, I just wanted to make sure my readers see this. Thank you for reading, and have a nice day!
As some of you might have heard, Compendium of Forgotten Secrets: Awakening has been released and is getting printed, as well as sent out, as I write this. Not to Europe yet, sadly, but soon I'll have my own hardcover. Until then, I figured that I could celebrate by making an archetype of my own inspired partially by the book, and by some Greek mythology.
What's there to like about CoFS:A?
Alright, let me start the answer to this question with another question - who here played Skyrim? I know I did. How about Oblivion, its sequel? Morrowind? Any other Elder Scrolls game? Well anyway, these games share several things in common, mainly the setting. Within the setting, you have lots of various beings - some are mere mortals, some are gods, some are chicken protected by the law apparently, judging by how many times the guards have chased me because of them. But... my favorite beings would have to be the Daedric Princes. I always liked the idea of beings that are on the power level of gods, but not really divine... and how close could they get with the mortals. Bestowing them with artifacts, having them do quests for them, telling them things, but also fighting each other and making alliances. The Compendium I'm talking about is all about a bunch of these beings, except they're called Alrisen instead of Daedric Princes. But I can see through their guises. Sheogorath, you won't fool me again!Anyway, if I had to say what my least favorite of these patrons are, I always like to answer with "the ones I've read the least about". Seriously, they're well written and flexible enough to fit into any world I've ever ran with minimal changes, including Ethernet of Keys. Some of my personal most liked patrons would have to be:
- The Keeper of the Depths, a lovecraftian sea horror that invades the dreams and grants its followers forbidden knowledge;
- The Fallen Exile, a literal star that fell in love, and I guess one could say it fell from sky because of love too;
- The Shadowcat, the first ever nightmare that feeds on other nightmares, and can manipulate the powers of luck;
And the one who inspired my monk archetype...
Currency Conspiracy and Way of the Golden King
Who wants to get rich? Everyone who does raise your hand. Good, the conspiracy has taken note of you, you can lower your hands now. Actually, the currency conspiracy cabal is responsible for you wanting to get rich. They're responsible for money being as widespread as it is. But I shouldn't tell you much more, or else they'll notice me.There is something I can tell you though. How many of you have heard of the king Midas? You know, the Greek legend, the king who turned things into gold with nothing but a touch? Alright. I figured that it would be cool if the king owned up to his curse, and made good use of it. You know, like certain other cursed royalties, hint hint. If his powers work only through touch though, he may as well throw away weapons. Hell, the armor will be made of gold, so he doesn't need that either. The best way to make use of his power is through martial arts.
This is roughly how I came up with the concept behind the Way of the Golden King. He was greedy, he got cursed, the unseen forces (that may or may not be Currency Conspiracy) gave him an offer, and now he's got his own monastery where he teaches his monks how to turn things into gold. Okay, maybe not real gold since this is players we're talking about, just false gold.
Way of the Golden King PDF
Thank you for reading! Make sure to check out the Compendium, even the abridged version could give you an impression of what's inside. Alternatively, you can find GenuineBeliever on Reddit, Twitter, Discord and Facebook! But since I don't want to leave you with a barrage of links, I'll have to do with just one.
Webpage of Genuine Fantasy Press
This promotion was not paid in any way, I just wanted to make sure my readers see this. Thank you for reading, and have a nice day!
Sunday, October 14, 2018
Chained Realms
Cosmology can be a hard thing to figure out. After-all, it is not my first time trying to structure it. Sometimes, one wants something really complicated and open to new additions. Other times, one might want to go as simple as possible. Opinions can change over time, and the Great Wheel doesn't seem like the best option every time. Looking into previous editions, it's clear that World Axis has been an inspiration to me here, though I found a way to make it my own. Let's see how can I keep all of my ramblings about my own cosmology organized, shall we?
Ether is everything spiritual - the soul. But also the light and darkness. This material can be found in the afterlife planes such as Heavens, Hells, but also in the Material Plane and its echoes, and as one would expect, in the Ethereal Plane, sometimes called Ether.
Aether is what one would think of as elements - fire, water, earth, air, electricity, and their combinations. It is also what mind is made out of. It can be found in the Elemental planes, but also in the Material Plane and its echoes, as well as the Dreamscape.
From this, one could picture how the planes look. It's pretty much a Venn diagram, with the circles representing ether and aether, intersection being Material Plane and its echoes, borders of intersections being Ethereal Plane and Dreamscape, and the nonintersecting parts of these big circles being afterlife and elemental planes respectively.
Then there is the space outside of this venn diagram, place outside of the cosmology, the Far Realms. Which are not part of this cosmology, it's just a nice term for "everything else". I have already talked enough about Far Realms, so I won't say much on that topic here.
When you light a branch on fire using a spark produced with a pair of stones in any of the planes in the intersection (let's say Feywild for this example), here's what happens - the spark, and the wood that's consumed travels through the Dreamscape into their respective elemental planes, to be replaced with fire and ashes. These are brought back through the Dreamscape into the Feywild. That's how the cycle of material goes.
Similarly, when someone dies, their soul travels through the Ether and into the afterlife their soul belongs to. Through the Ether the soul comes back and is reused when someone is born. Again, this is a topic I talked about in another article. Any changes or additions to that will be stated here.
The last bit of information about the ether and aether themselves is that their sum total stays the same at all times, and one can't be turned into the other. Picture this kind of like the first law of thermodynamics, except that there are two types of energy that both have unchanging amounts.
Now then, it's time to get into specifics and talk about the planes themselves! I'll start from the outskirts and then get to the Material Plane and its echoes, you'll see why later.
Then there are mixtures of elements with light and darkness. These would mostly be found in the Prime planes, but of course there can be exceptions.
The last two kinds of matter that can be found in the elemental planes are mind and the aether itself. Mind doesn't mesh well with the elements. Aether doesn't mesh with elements either, because it's all of them and none of them at the same time. It's usually described as thin, silk-like bright strings.
Of course, if the DM wishes to structure the combinations of elements in a different way, add or remove elements, or even if they want to make up completely different elements just for fun, they are free to do so. There could in theory even be an infinite number of elemental planes, making the Elemental Chaos into a space ripe for exploration.
Afterlife planes work in a much similar way. All elemental mixing that occurs in relation to this plane has been described above already however, so this part will be much shorter. When one encounters an angel, it's a being literally made of pure light imbued with a soul. Heaven too is made of pure light. Still, afterlife planes have space for adding more and more planes for exploration - be it from the Great Wheel (Ysgard, Limbo, Acheron, ...), or planes of your own making based on what kind of treatment one deserves. Maybe there's even space for the planes of luck and misfortune that were included in my previous iteration of the cosmology.
Picture standing on a glass ceiling. You can see everything underneath you (the Core), but can't really interact with it. Your interactions are limited to what's on top of the ceiling (the Border). When one travels through Ether or Dreamscape into a different plane with their body, their soul, their mind, and their equipment intact, this is kind of what's happening. You're accessing the Border Ether, or Border Dreamscape. You can observe what's within the Core, though you can't really affect it. and you can access the Core only by the purest abstract thing body has of corresponding element - the soul for Ether, the mind for Dreamscape. Getting anything more inside and outside of that would take magics of power greater than Wish itself.
One implication of these planes being required for moving around their matter is the existence of genies. I've mentioned previously in the article about souls that when someone dies in the Elemental Planes, their soul is stuck there. It gathers the ether, and eventually becomes a genie. Great thing about this is that the same logic could now be applied to the Afterlife Planes! If you die on the Afterlife Planes, your mind is stuck there. Eventually, it gathers light and/or darkness, and becomes its own being, ... which I haven't named yet. Alternatively, if you leave behind a piece of your equipment, like your teapot for example (which is of course made of aether), it eventually attracts ether, and becomes alive. Animated teapot, now where did I hear of that before...
So far simple enough, right? Well, here's another thing that made me mildly unhappy - try to imagine the elemental plane of fire. What is it made of? Of course, fire is present, but what else is there? Maybe... the ground to stand on is made of hot rocks? Maybe the air is filled with smoke and stuff? Maybe even lakes of lava. All of that... is starting to sound less and less like fire. So, my way of solving it is simple: It's not just fire, it's all the elements, but mixed with fire.
How about a practical example? Picture the Elemental Plane of Fire being made out of smoke, magma, fire, plasma, and steam, possibly even radiance and ash. Now that sounds like something that could actually exist instead of just fire. Lakes of plasma and lava, air that's filled with steam and smoke, grounds covered with ashes and burning... things that resemble plants but are not plants... You get the idea.
Or how about the Elemental Plane of Earth being made of sand, earth, magma, magnets, wood, minerals and dust? Picture the sandy shifting sea, moving up and down like a liquid. Picture the earth that's got minerals here and there, and even some naturally magnetic metals. Picture wooden underground structures, and lava lakes, again!
How about we take this to whole another level? What if you could transform Feywild and Shadowfell into a more whimsical and more scary place? I hear no objections, so let's do it!
First and foremost, we will have to define how the Feywild and Shadowfell fit into the cosmology. I'll keep that simple, and say that they are Material Plane, but with a little bit of light and darkness added - light for Feywild, darkness for Shadowfell. Now, having those affect the entire planes could be dangerous, so I will come up with natural phenomenons to explain them - storms! Lightstorms in Feywild, and darkstorms in Shadowfell (work in progress names).
When a part of the Feywild is struck by lightstorm, you see bits of light falling from the shining clouds above. Everything that's rained on gets altered a little by them, for some amount of time. The fires turn into lightshows of color (radiance), the air carries sounds in a much more effective manner, making everything louder and more intense (thunder), the earth beneath you literally turns into precious stuff (mineral), the water turns into slime that's possibly alive (ooze, of course), and when a lightning strikes, you see it as a falling star flying down in a path that resembles lightning (spark).
For Shadowfell, the darkstorms turn the already shady place into an even worse one. The earth beneath you crumbles and feels dusty, any fires turn to ashes instantly, the water turns to poison, there is a lack of air (just... try to ignore the physics here, please), and during the storms, instead of lightnings the world is enveloped in a moment of absolute darkness and silence.
And if you run out of ether and aether? Well, you could always come up with another kind of primordial matter. I already got two in store, but don't tell my players. It's a secret.
The possibilities are endless, which is why this kind of multiverse makes me very excited as a creator. Maybe one day I'll make a cosmology that's better than this one, but until then... I'm fine with this one.
The Two Cycles of Chained Realms
The foundation of my cosmology lies in the fact that there are only two types of matter - ether and aether. These are two most basic materials you could split everything physical, and some nonphysical things too, into.Ether is everything spiritual - the soul. But also the light and darkness. This material can be found in the afterlife planes such as Heavens, Hells, but also in the Material Plane and its echoes, and as one would expect, in the Ethereal Plane, sometimes called Ether.
Aether is what one would think of as elements - fire, water, earth, air, electricity, and their combinations. It is also what mind is made out of. It can be found in the Elemental planes, but also in the Material Plane and its echoes, as well as the Dreamscape.
 |
| Drawn by yours truly. |
From this, one could picture how the planes look. It's pretty much a Venn diagram, with the circles representing ether and aether, intersection being Material Plane and its echoes, borders of intersections being Ethereal Plane and Dreamscape, and the nonintersecting parts of these big circles being afterlife and elemental planes respectively.
Then there is the space outside of this venn diagram, place outside of the cosmology, the Far Realms. Which are not part of this cosmology, it's just a nice term for "everything else". I have already talked enough about Far Realms, so I won't say much on that topic here.
When you light a branch on fire using a spark produced with a pair of stones in any of the planes in the intersection (let's say Feywild for this example), here's what happens - the spark, and the wood that's consumed travels through the Dreamscape into their respective elemental planes, to be replaced with fire and ashes. These are brought back through the Dreamscape into the Feywild. That's how the cycle of material goes.
Similarly, when someone dies, their soul travels through the Ether and into the afterlife their soul belongs to. Through the Ether the soul comes back and is reused when someone is born. Again, this is a topic I talked about in another article. Any changes or additions to that will be stated here.
The last bit of information about the ether and aether themselves is that their sum total stays the same at all times, and one can't be turned into the other. Picture this kind of like the first law of thermodynamics, except that there are two types of energy that both have unchanging amounts.
Now then, it's time to get into specifics and talk about the planes themselves! I'll start from the outskirts and then get to the Material Plane and its echoes, you'll see why later.
Elemental Planes and Afterlife Planes
Also called Elemental Planes. We all know what to expect here, right? Planes that are filled with water, fire, earth, but also other things. Well, I made some changes to how elements mix, because I wanted lightning to be an element of its own, and for any elements to mix, at least in somewhat sensible way.
Air
|
Earth
|
Fire
|
Lightning
|
Water
| |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Air | - | Sand | Smoke | Sound | Ice |
| Earth | Sand | - | Magma | Magnet | Wood |
| Fire | Smoke | Magma | - | Plasma | Steam |
| Lightning | Sound | Magnet | Plasma | - | Storm |
| Water | Ice | Wood | Steam | Storm | - |
Then there are mixtures of elements with light and darkness. These would mostly be found in the Prime planes, but of course there can be exceptions.
Light
|
Darkness
| |
|---|---|---|
| Air | Thunder | Vacuum |
| Earth | Mineral | Dust |
| Fire | Radiance | Ash |
| Lightning | Spark | Silence |
| Water | Ooze | Poison |
The last two kinds of matter that can be found in the elemental planes are mind and the aether itself. Mind doesn't mesh well with the elements. Aether doesn't mesh with elements either, because it's all of them and none of them at the same time. It's usually described as thin, silk-like bright strings.
Of course, if the DM wishes to structure the combinations of elements in a different way, add or remove elements, or even if they want to make up completely different elements just for fun, they are free to do so. There could in theory even be an infinite number of elemental planes, making the Elemental Chaos into a space ripe for exploration.
Afterlife planes work in a much similar way. All elemental mixing that occurs in relation to this plane has been described above already however, so this part will be much shorter. When one encounters an angel, it's a being literally made of pure light imbued with a soul. Heaven too is made of pure light. Still, afterlife planes have space for adding more and more planes for exploration - be it from the Great Wheel (Ysgard, Limbo, Acheron, ...), or planes of your own making based on what kind of treatment one deserves. Maybe there's even space for the planes of luck and misfortune that were included in my previous iteration of the cosmology.
Ether and Dreamscape
Transitive planes are used for traversing planes. Well, sort-of. They do also have things within them, but those things aren't that easily accessible. Which is why we differ between the Border and Core, sometimes called Deep regions.Picture standing on a glass ceiling. You can see everything underneath you (the Core), but can't really interact with it. Your interactions are limited to what's on top of the ceiling (the Border). When one travels through Ether or Dreamscape into a different plane with their body, their soul, their mind, and their equipment intact, this is kind of what's happening. You're accessing the Border Ether, or Border Dreamscape. You can observe what's within the Core, though you can't really affect it. and you can access the Core only by the purest abstract thing body has of corresponding element - the soul for Ether, the mind for Dreamscape. Getting anything more inside and outside of that would take magics of power greater than Wish itself.
One implication of these planes being required for moving around their matter is the existence of genies. I've mentioned previously in the article about souls that when someone dies in the Elemental Planes, their soul is stuck there. It gathers the ether, and eventually becomes a genie. Great thing about this is that the same logic could now be applied to the Afterlife Planes! If you die on the Afterlife Planes, your mind is stuck there. Eventually, it gathers light and/or darkness, and becomes its own being, ... which I haven't named yet. Alternatively, if you leave behind a piece of your equipment, like your teapot for example (which is of course made of aether), it eventually attracts ether, and becomes alive. Animated teapot, now where did I hear of that before...
Prime Planes
These are the planes in the intersection of ether and aether. Most familiar of these to majority of players is of course the Material Plane, but its echoes belong here too. Feywild, Shadowfell, and anything else one could make up. Or not. this depends on the DM - if they wish to go with a simpler model, they can freely omit the echoes and keep just the Material Plane. Or they might also exclude that one too. That could make for an interesting world. |
| Something something hot topic, something something heated discussion. Original image is the concept art from Rift |
So far simple enough, right? Well, here's another thing that made me mildly unhappy - try to imagine the elemental plane of fire. What is it made of? Of course, fire is present, but what else is there? Maybe... the ground to stand on is made of hot rocks? Maybe the air is filled with smoke and stuff? Maybe even lakes of lava. All of that... is starting to sound less and less like fire. So, my way of solving it is simple: It's not just fire, it's all the elements, but mixed with fire.
Elemental Plane
|
Air
|
Earth
|
Fire
|
Lightning
|
Water
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Air | Air | Sand | Smoke | Sound | Ice |
| Earth | Sand | Earth | Magma | Magnet | Wood |
| Fire | Smoke | Magma | Fire | Plasma | Steam |
| Lightning | Sound | Magnet | Plasma | Lightning | Storm |
| Water | Ice | Wood | Steam | Storm | Water |
| Light | Thunder | Mineral | Radiance | Spark | Ooze |
| Darkness | Vacuum | Dust | Ash | Silence | Poison |
How about a practical example? Picture the Elemental Plane of Fire being made out of smoke, magma, fire, plasma, and steam, possibly even radiance and ash. Now that sounds like something that could actually exist instead of just fire. Lakes of plasma and lava, air that's filled with steam and smoke, grounds covered with ashes and burning... things that resemble plants but are not plants... You get the idea.
Or how about the Elemental Plane of Earth being made of sand, earth, magma, magnets, wood, minerals and dust? Picture the sandy shifting sea, moving up and down like a liquid. Picture the earth that's got minerals here and there, and even some naturally magnetic metals. Picture wooden underground structures, and lava lakes, again!
How about we take this to whole another level? What if you could transform Feywild and Shadowfell into a more whimsical and more scary place? I hear no objections, so let's do it!
First and foremost, we will have to define how the Feywild and Shadowfell fit into the cosmology. I'll keep that simple, and say that they are Material Plane, but with a little bit of light and darkness added - light for Feywild, darkness for Shadowfell. Now, having those affect the entire planes could be dangerous, so I will come up with natural phenomenons to explain them - storms! Lightstorms in Feywild, and darkstorms in Shadowfell (work in progress names).
When a part of the Feywild is struck by lightstorm, you see bits of light falling from the shining clouds above. Everything that's rained on gets altered a little by them, for some amount of time. The fires turn into lightshows of color (radiance), the air carries sounds in a much more effective manner, making everything louder and more intense (thunder), the earth beneath you literally turns into precious stuff (mineral), the water turns into slime that's possibly alive (ooze, of course), and when a lightning strikes, you see it as a falling star flying down in a path that resembles lightning (spark).
For Shadowfell, the darkstorms turn the already shady place into an even worse one. The earth beneath you crumbles and feels dusty, any fires turn to ashes instantly, the water turns to poison, there is a lack of air (just... try to ignore the physics here, please), and during the storms, instead of lightnings the world is enveloped in a moment of absolute darkness and silence.
Epilogue
What makes me the most excited about all of this is that it's got a lot of potential for expanding. We can start with basic 5 elements described above, the Heaven, the Hell, Material Plane and two of its echoes, two transitive planes and Far Realms. But when we need it, we could make a hellish afterlife that's a huge prison like Carceri, a two-sided heaven like Bytopia, the Elemental Plane of Bears or even the Grigori, Material Plane's echo where time is much faster and beasts rule...And if you run out of ether and aether? Well, you could always come up with another kind of primordial matter. I already got two in store, but don't tell my players. It's a secret.
The possibilities are endless, which is why this kind of multiverse makes me very excited as a creator. Maybe one day I'll make a cosmology that's better than this one, but until then... I'm fine with this one.
 |
| Who knows how many materials are there... Image via BBC, I think. |
Tuesday, August 28, 2018
Faceless, my variant of changelings
Howdy, everyone!
This has been one busy summer. I started to work on several homebrews and several articles, but I didn't have time nor energy to finish any of them, up until now.
PDF Link
GMBinder Link
Faceless are my reimagining of Eberron's changelings. The key difference between the faceless and changelings is that changelings are half-dopplegangers, while faceless are a planetouched race, influenced by the Far Realms. In other words, they are to Far Realms what Tieflings are to lower planes of existence. I renamed them into faceless only recently due to WotC making Eberron into a proper official setting in 5e, so expect me to every now and then call my faceless changelings.
I also carefully constructed several racial feats for the faceless. My design philosophy while making this race and its feats was to give race's main ability lots of limitations, which could be avoided through feats. You can transform only into humanoids, except for when you achieve beastly, plant-like or object shapes with feats. You can't turn into something that doesn't have two legs and two arms, except for when you get the Beastly Forms feat.
In the future, I plan to write up a whole mini setting populated with faceless, a city called Masq. I already have some of the things written down, since I planned to do the whole project all at once, but it'll take me some time to finish. There will be stat blocks, magic items, and more things if I manage to make more things up.
Some other projects of mine include: rework of my old cosmology model, for which the article is nearly finished; designing hard magic system for D&D; possibly reworking one of the minimalistic RPG systems I've seen into something I could use when I'm too lazy to introduce people to 5e fully; wriitng up Worldwar minigame rules article here; and generator of the entire world's history I guess.
Yep, it's a lot. I don't know when and how will I finish all these things, but I guess I should do it one by one.
Thank you for your patience, sorry for the summer break, and have I want to wish you a nice day!
This has been one busy summer. I started to work on several homebrews and several articles, but I didn't have time nor energy to finish any of them, up until now.
Behold, the faceless!
 |
| Carnival by Julia Zhuravleva Pictured here: Not an Eberron changeling. |
PDF Link
GMBinder Link
Faceless are my reimagining of Eberron's changelings. The key difference between the faceless and changelings is that changelings are half-dopplegangers, while faceless are a planetouched race, influenced by the Far Realms. In other words, they are to Far Realms what Tieflings are to lower planes of existence. I renamed them into faceless only recently due to WotC making Eberron into a proper official setting in 5e, so expect me to every now and then call my faceless changelings.
I also carefully constructed several racial feats for the faceless. My design philosophy while making this race and its feats was to give race's main ability lots of limitations, which could be avoided through feats. You can transform only into humanoids, except for when you achieve beastly, plant-like or object shapes with feats. You can't turn into something that doesn't have two legs and two arms, except for when you get the Beastly Forms feat.
In the future, I plan to write up a whole mini setting populated with faceless, a city called Masq. I already have some of the things written down, since I planned to do the whole project all at once, but it'll take me some time to finish. There will be stat blocks, magic items, and more things if I manage to make more things up.
Some other projects of mine include: rework of my old cosmology model, for which the article is nearly finished; designing hard magic system for D&D; possibly reworking one of the minimalistic RPG systems I've seen into something I could use when I'm too lazy to introduce people to 5e fully; wriitng up Worldwar minigame rules article here; and generator of the entire world's history I guess.
Yep, it's a lot. I don't know when and how will I finish all these things, but I guess I should do it one by one.
Thank you for your patience, sorry for the summer break, and have I want to wish you a nice day!
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