Planetouched Races - Some Awesome, Some Not So Much

One of the main elements of the Planescape setting is (funnily enough) the Planes. It's also well known that they can influence people, and change them in unexpected ways, or otherwise suffuse their substance into a living being. These beings are referred to as the Planetouched, and are a fairly common sight on the streets of Sigil.

Genasi

Touched (possibly innapropriately) by the Inner Planes, the Genasi have the power of raw elements flowing through their blood.

Fire Genasi are your bog-standard "man with a flaming head". Fairly uninspiring, I feel. They're quick to anger, passionate, etc. So why not mix it up a little and have one who is more about cold fury and rage, less a naked flame and more a blue-hot flamethrower? They also have some minor fire-based abilities (like fire-affecting, or even a version of the Burning Hands spell) - in Risus, you can stretch these to be as varied as you want (say, you can affect fires, or shoot fire, or walk unharmed through an inferno) - whatever you and the GM agree is appropriate (no, there isn't a "Nuclear Holocaust" setting on your personal flamethrower!). Good for hot-blooded Warrior characters, and can make some very thematically-focused Fire Wizards (though something like Sorcerer, with the whole "magic in the blood" feel might be more appropriate

Water Genasi are also a bit hard to pin down - appropriately enough, for an element which flows and adapts. Not much exciting here, sadly. I tend to see them as just as passionate as Fire, slightly tempered by a nicer nature. But when the chips are down, you could face a torrent of pain. "Flexible" would be a good word for them - in fact, in the standard D&D race lineup, where Dwarves are Earth-like, Elves are Air, etc. I see humanity as closest to Water - not just adaptable and mutable, but prone to quick change, and never safe to predict. Awesome Monks, fair warriors, might make an interesting Wizard...

Air are a personal favourite - they are flighty, artistic, philosophical... another recurring NPC of mine is Sadia Windstrider, a warrior-poet with an acrobatic combat style. Most of the cliches you would use for Elves are a great fit for the Wind Dukes. Good as more skill-based characters, rather than straight up Warriors - thieves, Bards, maybe the odd Cleric.

Earth Genasi are big, ponderous, and stoic. Again, pretty much normal-height Dwarves - they make good Warriors and Defenders, being tough as nails and strong as oxen. They would also make for interesting lawyers - a well-thought defense, which might take hours to formulate, and an unshakeable nature make them surprisingly handy in planned-out social situations.

The Good, The Bad, and The Not-So Ugly
Then you have Tieflings and Aasimar - descendants of Devils/Demons and Angels, respectively. They are very generic in their stance - Aasimar are happy, beautiful, shiny people, and Tieflings are sullen, cloven-footed and horned folk. I think I'd keep these generic models as distant relatives of other Celestial/Fiendish entities - so, a Half-Fiends great great grandson, for example. I'd much rather see some variety based on the particular Planar Being in the bloodline - so, you have Planetar Aasimar, with a slight greenish hue and a warrior bent, or an Ice Devil Tiefling, with blueish skin and odd, insectoid features. Of course, each of these would require a lot of conversoin work and balancing to be done in D&D - but one of the joys of Risus is that they would be as useful as you wanted (having Planetar Aasimar as a cliche might give you an advantage when talking to Celestials or superstitious common folk, make you a kind and gentle person or a righteous holy warrior, give you a commonly-attributed ability of Planetars - but for the love of the Gods, not Gate).

Pretty much pick an interesting Celestial or Fiend, and run through what you want out of the deal with the GM. Simple.

Lawful, Neutral, And Chaotic Planetouched
So, here you have the Zenthyri (beings descended from pure Law), who are surprisingly interesting - they are Lawful to a tee, and might seem aloof and uninterested to most. But they are simply very good at controlling their emotions, to the point that, when faced in battle, they maintain a "tranquil fury" that is terrifying. They also give some great roleplay options - while they are a natural fit as Guvnors, imagine a Zenthyri Sensate - wanting to experience everything, and recording and studying each sensation, making notes and comparisons.

"Well, that Burning Hands spell did hurt, but it was nothing like the Fireball last week... I'd say a 3.8 pain rating, as opposed to the 7.9 Fireball..."

You ever wanted to play a blue Vulcan, they're your guys.

Chaonds are those poor sods touched by Chaos - misshapen, dour, and altogether mad. Very useful as NPCs, they make for great not-evil bad guys, or as suspicious characters who turn out to be not as evil as they seem... as characters, they sadly have a tendancy to be picked by what the internet terms as the "lolrandom" player - the guy who takes Chaotic Neutral as an alignment, then makes a character who could kiss you or punch your baby - you'll never know till it's too late. Can be good, but I'd keep an eye on it...

But then, we have the Rilmani. Those touched by Neutrality.

Sadly, yes, they look pretty much like these guys - faces like runny cheese, no specific tone of voice or action... Seriously, why bother? Again, much better as NPCs, maybe as perfectly neutral judges in contests or, in the rare case of a Lawful Neutral one, a perfect Guvnor to track down your player's resident lawbreakers. Really, dull enough that they kinda slip into the background (and as such, perfect NPCs!).

Next, the Para- and Quasi-Elemental Genasi - Obscure and Weird, here we come!

Unknown Armies: Help The Sheep-Shagger

Inspired by this video (NSFW, kinda).

"I swear to God, dude, she was a chick before!"

A close personal friend has been caught in a... compromising situation with a sheep. He protests that he remembers finding a beautiful young woman in a field, being seduced by her beauty and charm, and making love to her out under the stars.

Security footage from the farm shows a very different story...

In the UA-niverse, lycanthropy is... weird. There are people who turn into animals, yes - but it's not a curse or a natural mutation. It's caused by demons - free-floating, evil spirits who like to possess the living to interact with the world once more.

Should a demon, through choice, accident, or the design of some weirdo Adept possess an animal, it has to lose a few things to "fit" inside its mind. Things like higher mental functions. Should it then possess a human, you have a person who, most of the time, is a person - but, when the possessing demon comes to the fore, they become an animal, like the shape-shifters of myth and legend.

Now, reality doesn't like these lycanthropes - so much so, it selectively re-writes itself to cover their existence. So, when the possessed is a human, they are and always have been a human - and no-ones gonna debate that, that would be stupid. When they're an animal, same deal - they are and always have been an animal. Until they change back, then it's time for another reality-overwrite.

This can lead to such moments as seeing a seagull fly over head, then, a few hours later, wonder why the fuck some guy was flying naked over you when you went to the shops. Until he's a seagull again, by which point you may rest easy and forget all about it.

Your friend has been caught out by one of these lycanthropes - a woman, desperate for some real human affection, who sadly only your friend remembers as a woman (hey, reality can't catch all the problems).

Keep an eye on the tape - if you time it just right, you can watch it and see her as a woman... but do you really want to have to watch a tape of a dude shagging a sheep a couple of times a day to try and prove his story? Of course you do, otherwise you wouldn't be playing Unknown Armies...
Can you get to the bottom of the mystery, and get your friend off from his beastiality charges?

PaperMunda: I Am Too Poor To Afford Minis

So, I've been eyeing up Games Workshop's Necromunda - a skirmish game, where players take charge of rival gangs in a Hive City (equal parts Tokyo, Mogadishu, and BioDome) - a huge, contained city, with the top layers inhabited by the rich and powerful, the middle layers by the common man, and the Underhive inherited by the gangs and criminals, where there is little to no law, save that passed down by blade and bullet. Under that, there's the very dregs of society - mutants, xenos, and heretics.

Instead of having a set army list, like other GW games, your gang can grow, learn new skills, and become better fighters - so, with enough battles survived, you can take a wet-behind-the-ears teenager with a stick and turn him into a heavily armed professional warrior, or even the Leader of your gang - like I said, assuming he survives.

It also makes for faster games than your average wargame - no huge armies, little paperwork and equipment-swapping, and rules designed to keep gangs to a maximum of about 10-12 models. While it's designed as a campaign game, gaining experience over multiple battles and improving your gang, it's just as easy to set a credits limit, maybe add a set amount of advances (those extra skills you earn) for each model to bump things up a little, and run a quick one-off game for fun.

But, like a lot of GW games, it requires miniatures - and as the originals are hard to find/expensive, I had been looking at proxies that I could use instead. Then something else hit me - I have no time to build, paint, and customise minis, and I have a severe dislike of small, fiddly things - which minis are, mostly.

Then I lucked out and found some cool post-apocalyptic paper miniatures from One Monk Miniatures - they're nice, flavourful, and easily modified (even in GIMP!).

But, they're just not quite right - and try as I might, I can't find cool minis to sub in for a lot of the factions without some big modifications, and I guess I want minis that can be changed to fit equipment layouts, etc.
So I've decided to sketch up a couple of my own.

I want to have a few unique units for each gang - maybe 3 Juves, 3 Gangers, 2 Heavies, and 2 Leaders for each. Between weapon swaps and simple recolours, it should be easy enough to have a unique-looking gang. I also want a run of modular weapons - one to add to any figure, with a small amount of skill in MSPaint. Keeps thing easy, makes it quick and fun to do. I'll make sure I have a Ganger posed for Pistols, Close-Combat, and two-handed weapons - and a similar layout for Leaders. Heavies will be continually armed with two-handed Heavy weapons (what, you give yours a pistol?).

After some time, I'll probably work on some Bounty Hunters - but then again, One Monk's got some awesome unique characters who would fit just nice.

I've taken a lot of the weapon patterns/designs from the Rogue Trader Core Rulebook (the armoury section is just fantastic), having stats for all the Necromunda weapons, and technical sketches for most of them. The Weapons Reference sheet will be the first thing up (once I have a scanner!).

Another thing that makes Necromunda a bit different is the focus on terrain - whereas in large-scale battles, fiddly terrain is a nuisance, and gets in the way of engagements, in Necromunda terrain is expected to have multiple levels, places to hide, things to climb - in part to add a lot of tactical depth to a small-scale game, and also to remove some of the winning power of firearms. Wide open areas make excellent shooting ranges, so the gang with the longest range guns will win - not that much fun. Whereas with terrain to duck behind, cover to fire from, etc. you can really add a new dimension to the game, and also keep hand-to-hand combat a viable strategy (and, of course, meaning you can punt folk off tall buildings - always fun!). So, while still in the planning stages, I'm looking at cheap and easy to store paper terrain. I'd love something like this, but I've never tried building it before...

Current plan is unpainted terrain, all cardboard and sticky-back plastic - Blue Peter style!

Or, of course, there's always (always) Army Men. And Pringles tubes.

Valerian's Reach - A City To Be Used

So, inspired by reading through Dyson Logos' amazing maps and geomoprhs, I want to create a city. I've wanted to run a "Thieves Guild" game for a while, and I almost got one going before real-life interjected. So I wanted a city that could handle (Non-Modern) Urban Fantasy, for a game more focused on politics, inter-faction battles and the occasional bit of cat-burglary. I also want something I can easily drop into any number of campaigns with very little tweaking (I know, I don't ask for much). I'll start with a brief overview of the main groups within the city, and build it up from there.

To start, Valerian's Reach was a small port town beside a large ocean. But local Princes granted areas of land around the town to various Nobles and Barons, so a fair amount of trade lines and caravans were set up. Over time, Valerian's Reach grew out from its humble beginnings, eventually enveloping the Noble lands and making them part of the city proper. Now, it's the main trade area of the country, and is always growing.

Due to the influence of a few corrupt Nobles, the city has slowly descended into lawlessness - the black market is so thriving, it practically outpaces normal trade in the area. And while each Noble family ensures that their "lands" are kept pristine and well-guarded, they need someone to do their dirty work within the city - while some have their own street-gangs and mercenary bands, some need other assistance - enter the Thieves.

As with most large cities, Guilds have popped up to ensure fair treatment and a share of resources amongst those in similar professions - the Guilds of Sailors, Merchants, and Smiths are particularly well represented due to connections to various Noble Houses. However, some of the other gangs, sick of the sheer brutality and scheming of the Noble houses, banded together to form an unofficial Guild of Thieves. It's pretty much an open secret - the Guard knows about their existence, and by extension, so does the local government, but they're too valuable to keep down - mainly through their use as tools of the Noble Houses, and for the amount of information they hold on everyone in the city. A few well-placed communications to other cities, and they'd be at under siege for years, for crimes against trade, religion and decency.

The Thieves are mainly after their own goals - mostly, the accumulation of wealth and power, hopefully enough to outpace the Nobles and make the Port their own. Some are even double agents, working for the Guild under the cover of some minor retainer within a Noble House. Any who are found by their employer are often executed, or at least excommunicated and branded as Thieves. Take a note - if you see someone with a Thieves Brand, they're probably not very good at it.

As mentioned, the Black Market of Valerian's Reach pretty much holds the city together - it underpins all transactions, and account for something like 90% of the city's holdings. From slaves to assassins to necromantic ritual components, if it's not welcome in other places, you can buy it here - for the right price, of course.


Races

Unlike most places in Delraith, which are segregated by race/origin, Valerian's Reach is highly mixed and cosmopolitan. Most of the population is human - from areas around the continent, and further afield (like the Southern Reaches, the Western Plains, and even a few who claim to come from somewhere referred to as "The Pole States"). There are few Elves or Dwarves - those who live here are outcasts from their own race, trying to find a place to fit in, frequently dropping to criminal activity as a result. More 'civilised' goblinoids, like Hobgoblins and the less-warlike Orcish tribes, are fairly common - mostly as private guards and mercenaries (House Cassimere is known for having an entire Hobgoblin tribe on retainer). Halflings, cropping up wherever there are humans, are a regular enough sight. Less common, but more noticeable, are the black-skinned Drow - outcast Elves who talk rarely of their past, their origin, or of their kin. Many take the opportunity to become bandits, raiders and pirates - their great dark ships cutting a fair sight on any horizon. There are also a number of individuals from more unusual races - like Thraka, the Half-Ogre guard (used in large battles/riots, more like a walking artillery piece than a true Guard), K'ski'f, Illithid Black Market Merchant/Loanshark (you really don't want to get behind on your payments... or ask where he gets his stuff), and Saris Windstrider, an Air Genasi warrior-poet who resides with House Belladonna.

Noble Houses

House Cassimere (The House of War, The Armourers) are a House built on bloodshed and battle - many of the armies and adventurers of Delraith are supplied from the forges of Cassimere, regardless of allegiance. Those with the greatest coin are friends of the House - indeed, it is relatively easy to get anything made for you in the Iron Citadel so long as your money is right. The Head of House is a position filled democratically (much like the head of any big business), rather than through family lines.

House Belladonna (The Wenches, The Courtesans, The House of Diplomats) are mostly known for their use of politics and subtle manipulations to get what they want. Most of their most prominent members are women, but a small core of men are around for use when dealing with some of the more "traditional" Houses. Many a Bard or entertainer throughout DelraithDrow (and due to their natural enmity, they are careful not to work with each other), Halflings, and a few Goliath Stone-Speakers (storytellers, passing down oral history and great deeds through song). There are a few members who are either kept under wraps or disguised for their own sake (like the changeling Annah, who has several civilian identities, and acts as a spy when necessary, or uses her natural shape shifting gifts to be a very popular handmaiden).

House Sharn (The Black House, The Merchants of Death) originally started as a cabal of necromancers - but have expanded out to become one of the forefront producers of magic items and spell components in the city. If you need anything magical, or dark, or disgusting, you want an agent of Sharn. While necromancy was their main focus previously, more and more practitioners of other magics flock to their banner, forming something of a Magocracy within the House - those with the most knowledge of the Arcane become the new leaders. While there is no small amount of nepotism in who is chosen, anyone can apply and challenge the current Head of House, so long as they can prove themselves in test of sorcerous might. Due to the leaders having more magic-sense than business-sense, many hire up outcasts from House Nisseer, or pinch them before they can join, to shore up the holes in their business strategy. Rumour has it some of the higher-ups are actually Undead, such as Vampires and Liches (or it could just be that Valin The Charming is really hot, and old Ressigar does look skeletal under the right light...)

House Nisseer (The Traders, The Mercantile House) are a collective of traders, merchants, and craftsmen - they supply the essentials to Valerian's Reach. Many of the black market routes were originally set up by members of this house, even though they are now owned by others (though many still pay some small share back to the House). They hold charge of large swathes of The Docks, tithing those who come to trade to ensure "safe passage and guaranteed peace to trade". Some even claim they have trade links that stretch beyond this world - and having K'Liv, the unnaturally tall, blue-grey tinted trader in their ranks (actually a Mercane) helps to fuel the speculation that they might have some links to the Planes Beyond (what can I say, I like having an option for Planescape!).

Fashions and Customs

There are few temples within the walls of Valerian's Reach - few self-respecting Gods would want anything to do with such a hive of scum and villainy. But, some persist - Addrig, Minor Deity of Thieves, Gamblers and Scoundrels has quite the following, her temple being almost as large as a Nobilite mansion. It's also a favoured meeting place for Thieves Guild members (after all, there they are just parishioners - and the Nobles haven't yet got the power to ban religion). There is also a small temple to Varily, God of Truth and Valour - a missionary place, dedicated to helping those few honest folk who still make their home in The Reach.

Most weeks, there will be a minor celebration - from racial ones (like Winterfast, the Halfling coming-of-age parties where, each winter, those who turn 14 need to abstain from food for a month, barring what they can catch themselves - and should they succeed, the taverns will be full of Halfling families and friends looking to feed them back up), to religious (Addrig's Day, where worshippers play games and engage in acts of daring and games of chance).

While its cosmopolitan nature is shown in the dress sense of its peoples, there is still a standard "Reach look" - normally, darkened leathers or cotton, heavy cloaks (to keep out the worst of the coastal winds), and heavy hoods (to keep out the worst of the Guard's stares). Standard "thief/rogue/bad guy" clothing, if you will. Those of Noble birth are frequently seen wearing ostentatious displays of their wealth - fine silks (a favourite is the Phase Spider silks often touted by Drow merchants, known for its many and varied colours and magically-reactive sheen), jewellery of gold and gems, and the odd magical adornment (for example, many of the House Belladonna girls are seen with items that can create small illusions, such as changing their hair colour or skin tone, to subtly adjust themselves to be most attractive to a given client, and the bizarrely well-kept facial hair of the men of Cassimere is tempered with a combination of depilatory cremes, magically-enhanced razors, and the odd touch of magic). Many Thieves looking to disguise themselves (or to throw off the scent of the Guards) will take on such adornments, pretending to be wealthy eccentric Nobles to distract from their true intentions.

Next up (when I get scanner access) will be a map, a few important NPCs, and some more Noble Houses.

Agents of K.I.C.K. - The Next Generation

Wanky Vampires, Furry Werewolves and other Creatures of Night(club) have banded together and kidnapped the President of the United States.

Are you bad enough dudes/ladies/aliens/Man-Bear-Pigs to rescue him?

Yep, it's that time agin - K.I.C.K. is back in buisness, and we're starting small - saving the US President from the forces of the supernatural.

With any luck, the game will go ahead this Friday - more info when I get a list of players!

Also, is it ManBearPigs or MenBearPigs? Answers on a postcard, please.