Interlude: Game Content

[sythyry]

Interlude: Game Content

Nendrai Friend (-3 Disadvantage): You are friends with a nendrai, in a situation which obliges you to have frequent contact with the nendrai. If there is trouble or turmoil in your life for some other reason, and your friend finds out about it, she will try to help you, and then you have much more trouble and turmoil. (She cannot understand that the trouble she has caused is actually troublesome.) However, you can occasionally get useful magic from her. (Many people on Strayway have this.)

Child Adventurer (+4 Advantage): You were involved in harsh adventures as a young child. You have picked up 5×d8 experience points in each of the following: Cley Base, Magic Resistance, Brawling, Claws and Teeth, Crushing Weapons, Thrown Weapons, Life Base, all athletics skills, Empathy, Etiquette, Friendliness, Guile, General Knowledge, Languages, Natural Science, and Social Knowledge. (All the kids now have this.)

Child Victim (-5 Disadvantage): You were killed repeated as a child, and it was one of the formative experience of your life. You will suffer lifetime fears about the means of your death, interpreted broadly, and will suffer Trouble 3 if you are confronted with in the future. (Quendry will fear magical weapons.) You will suffer hideous and sticky nightmares for the rest of your life, which cause you Trouble 2 for d6 hours after you wake up each morning. However, you did gain 60 experience in Life Base. (Quendry and Ochirion can take this.)

Office Worker (+2 Advantage): You have worked for several years as an accountant, scribe, secretary, or some other such office worker, and done so with an adventurer's eye. You have learned: Bargain (30 exp), Etiquette (30 exp), Friendliness (20 exp), Guile (30 exp), Interrogate (20 exp), Intimidate (20 exp), General Knowledge (30 exp), History and Literature (10 exp), Judge Value (30 exp), Languages (10 exp), Law (30 exp), Social Knowledge (30 exp). (Zascalle used this to great effect.)

Despised (-5 Disadvantage): Something that is overwhelmingly important to you, and is broadly known, is despised and hated by most primes; e.g., perhaps you are known to be transaffectionate in a city which does not like such things. Roll three botch dice on any social interaction with a normal person who knows about you. A single botch indicates indicates insults and contempt, probably unintentional. A double botch indicates disgust; a -5 penalty on most social rolls, and the interaction will go poorly. A triple botch is a social disaster: the encounter goes as poorly as possible, and you somehow make a particular, though probably short-term, enemy of the person you encountered. (A revealed Dark Secret can turn into Despised.) (All of the Strayway crew in Eigrach has this -- even the cisaffectionate ones.)

Adventurer True Love (+4 Advantage): You and one or more other PCs (all of whom must take this Advantage) are true loves; far and away the most important people in each others' lifes. You have a Broad Circumstantial Bonus, giving you a +1 bonus on all s20 rolls made when trying to assist, rescue, impress, or please each other. However, when flirting with anyone other than a True Love, roll two botch dice for ensuing disasters. (Yerenthax and Jyondre have this.)

Sorcerer's Assistant (+3 Advantage): You have worked for several years as a sorcerer's assistant. You did some magic, but more supplying cley, laboratory organization, dealing with customers, background research, and other assorted things. Experience in Cley Base (30), Concentration (20), Magic Resistance (5 × d8), Magic Theory (30), Meditation (30), Bargain (20), Empathy(10), Etiquette (20), Interrogate (10), Intimidate (10), God's Tongue (10), General Knowledge (10), Natural Science (10), and ten other magical arts and skills (5 each). You have 12 complexity-5 spells and 6 complexity-10 spells, mostly specialized or even whimsical ones that particularly useful adventuring. (Phaniet has this).

Anything else from Sythyry's Vacation you'd like to see described in game terms?

Comments

[stormydragon.livejournal.com]

Based on the disasters so far, having a Nendrai friend seems WAY more than a -3 disadvantage. Although this does raise a question I have about Vae.

Vae's portrayal seems completely out of line with the description of Nendrai in the manual. Is Vae unusual for a nendrai because she's really young? Or have nendrai bein completely retconned?

Also, you might want to change 'Office Worker' to 'Clerical Worker' since they don't usually work in offices in the modern sense of the term.

[kensan-oni.livejournal.com]

I think the Nerandi is undercost. I'd peg it at -4.

... I'd like the reciepe for... Poofalops? Porfalops? It's been so long I forgot their name! Ah!!!! I want more pastry...

I'm also horribly curious to know if the Couch has any stats...

[stormydragon.livejournal.com]

Oh, also: game mechanics for the crystallization magic used in the construction of the Strayaway.

[kensan-oni.livejournal.com]

.... OMG! THE WEDDING! (I).(I)

We've been horribly distracted from the True Love Doom for some time!

[stryck.livejournal.com]

Poptaloops?

[kensan-oni.livejournal.com]

Yes! Thank you!

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Vae's a new-model nendrai (N. lachrymosa); the one in the manual is a classical one. (N. magus I believe.) Oixe is different new-model species, though I can't remember the name. The newer models are distinctly improved, from their creatrix's point of view.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Poptaloops are little buns (small hot-cross buns, or even challah rolls) with a dot of sweet bean paste on the top.

I don't have couch stats.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

It hasn't really crystallized yet...

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Lithia and Treacle-Eyes' wedding? It's coming up soon. There will be a currently-unexpected guest. And doom, or, maybe not.

[kris-schnee.livejournal.com]

More generally, a simple set of skyboat/vehicle construction rules would be interesting. I remember in one adventure with terrycloth we spent an inordinate amount of time trying to use magic to fill the swimming pool on the skyboat the party was supposed to be using for an adventure. "Do Orren build skyboats? Do the same Orren finish them as start them?"

Hmm...

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

Why is "Nendrai Friend" only -3 as a Disadvantage?

Deafness is -10, and it's not fatal, and it leaves a person able to live a fairly normal life. Being around Vae is frequently fatal, and the closer a friend she is, the less normal she makes someone's life. I could see handing out -3 to everyone on Strayway who isn't particularly close, since they'll get caught in the nimbus, but I'd expect several of the main characters to have something stronger and poor Sythyry is probably getting more than 10 points of disadvantage out of that relationship. Especially if you count the mayhem caused by departing crew who have decided that getting far from the nendrai is their top priority. I suppose a Disadvantage could be lowered if it's escapable, but well, Sythyry still hasn't gotten away from Vae and I'm not all that confident about other people's ability to depart from her presence effectively.

Re: Hmm...

[shurhaian.livejournal.com]

Nendrai Friend is only -3 for probably the same reason Shifter Hybrid is +7. It may have its quota of doom and then some, but from an adventurer's point of view it has some MAJOR fringe benefits. In the case of a shifter hybrid, those benefits are substantial, especially for a mage - that's at least two Verbs that will have a substantial knack; any other magical traits of the species; physical traits of the form of the moment, and some ability to change at will, though not to resist it for too long; and a species and a half's worth of starting experience. In the case of a helpful nendrai, yes, the nendrai may try to help you and royally botch it, but they may also try to help you and succeed.

It may be disastrous for your social life, but as an adventurer, it has some definite pluses.

Re: Hmm...

[kris-schnee.livejournal.com]

Hmm. In game terms, what has Sythyry gotten from Vae? I remember Sythyry getting some protective spells similar to primes' bound spells, which may or may not count against the bound-spells limit. Even if they do, they can be more complex than even Sythyry could cast, and that's pretty useful. And there's the "defense grid" aspect of Vae being able to horribly slaughter enemies. ("Sleeth Friend" is worth negative points despite the usefulness of having a Sleeth at your side, right?) Oh, and Vae once gave Sythyry an ordinary-to-us but fairly valuable extradimensional spade.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Outside the scope of this weekend! We do have some in the Aradrueia non-supplement, which we really ought to figure out how to do something with ... keep bugging us about it!

Re: Hmm...

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Disads get costs that reflect how good or bad they are for player-characters doing player-character sorts of things, not how good or bad they are for the person having them. For example, Zi Ri immortality is a +0 Advantage -- however nifty it is for the immortal, it is pretty much useless in the few months or years of a typical campaign.

Nendrai Friend has some serious gaming advantages. You do get powerful spells now and then, and sometimes they can be pretty helpful. When you learn to manipulate your nendrai properly, you can get other advantages, like using her to intimidate powerful monsters even when she's not around. You do get experience for nendrai encounters on a regular basis -- I should add that to the description -- though I would expect most of them to happen during gameplay so you'd get experience for them anyways.

Sythyry's relationship with Vae is more than the regular Nendrai Friend at this point, though that's how it started out.

Re: Hmm...

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Sleeth Friend is worth negative points because: (1) it's a good way to have the Sleeth care at all about the party; (2) there is a social stigma from being associated with a Sleeth in many cases.

In game terms, Sythyry has gotten insanely high magic skill scores from having constant nendrai encounters. (Admittedly, a PC would have much higher scores from gaming out all 81×123 nendrai encounters!) Sythyry occasionally gets useful magic from her. She makes a tremendously imposing guardian, as she did during the encounter with the philosophers and nycathath on the inistella on the way down. In the early days, Sythyry didn't but could have gotten quite a bit of money from trading with her. Plus a degree of fame and honor in Vheshrame for protecting the city from her, using her as a weapon of delicious and nutritious war against Oorah Thrassen, etc.

(I was going to say that zie got a quick teleport to Srineia, but that opened up the universe to the horrible thing from outside -- a perfect example of the Nendrai Friend disad in action!)


A clever PC would surely exploit the situation far more effectively that Sythyry did, I think.

Re: Hmm...

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Just so!

Re: Hmm...

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

>>You do get experience for nendrai encounters on a regular basis -- I should add that to the description -- though I would expect most of them to happen during gameplay so you'd get experience for them anyways. <<

Adding that would certainly help clarity. *ponder* You might also simply point out that "Nendrai Friend" has advantageous and disadvantageous effects, and -3 is typically what's left after working that equation.

>>Sythyry's relationship with Vae is more than the regular Nendrai Friend at this point, though that's how it started out.<<

Mentioning this would also help.

[mmsword.livejournal.com]

Would Office Worker and Sorcerer's Apprentice be similar to other occupation-based advantages in that you can take them multiple times, representing many years spent doing that job?

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Yup. Child Adventurer, probably not.

Re: Hmm...

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Many of our ads and disads are like that, with favorable and unfavorable aspects.

Well, I did note that most of the Strayway crew has this disad now.

[heavenscalyx.livejournal.com]

-100 Mooshed with Locador Demon

You feel great! But you look weird. And are weird. And maybe you're not even Prime any more. And are you still yourself? Will you become more the demon and less yourself? Will you start talking to yourself? Will you live forever? Will you find yourself simultaneously existing everywhere at once? Will you go mad?

Only the GM knows.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

[GM gives you 6s6 bonus experience for a perfect description!]

[mmsword.livejournal.com]

Though it does pair nicely with Self Taught Mage.

Recipe: Poptaloops

[mmsword.livejournal.com]

Random notes: I do most of my baking by weight, though I know most folks still use volumetric at home, so I'll be including both in this. This will be more hot cross bun-like than challah like. Please note that the volume based measures are estimated and prone to rounding errors.

Random Terran Stab at Poptaloops:

Pastry
3 3/4 cups / 500g pastry flour plus additional for dusting
4 tbsp / 45g cold butter
3 1/2 tbsp/ 45g sugar
1 tsp / 5g salt
1 tsp / 4g ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp / 1g ground allspice
1/4 tsp / 1g grated nutmeg
1 1/2 tsp / 8g fast-action dried yeast
1 egg
1 cup, 2 tbsp / 275ml milk
Oil, for greasing

Glaze
4 tbsp / 60 ml milk
2 tbsp / 26 g sugar

Topping
6 ounces / 170g small red beans (azuki beans)
3 cups / 710ml water
1/2 cup / 125g packed dark brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp / 8ml vegetable oil

The day before you bake bake your poptaloops:
Wash your beans, discarding any broken ones. Place in a bowl and cover beans with cold water, to soak over night.

The day of baking:
Sift the flour into a large bowl. Cut butter into the flour until it resembles fine crumbs/coarse sand. Stir in sugar, salt, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg and yeast. In another bowl, beat the egg while slowly adding the milk until well incorporated. Mix this with the dry ingredients slowly, until you you have a soft, pliable dough. Knead for five minutes then return it to the bowl, covering the dough with either a damp towel or oiled plastic wrap as your technology permits. Let rise in a warm place for an hour.

While you're waiting for your dough to rise, now's a good time to make your bean paste. Drain and discard the water from your beans then place them in a pot. Pour 3 cups / 710 ml of cold water over them and bring to a boil. Let boil for an hour, then drain and discard the water.

Back to pastry. Take your dough out of the bowl and onto a well floured surface. Punch the dough down then spread it out, cutting into 24 equal sized pieces. Roll pieces into neat little balls before placing on 2 oiled baking sheets with a good bit of room around each ball. Cover sheets with damp towels/ oiled plastic wrap and let rest for half an hour.

Now's a good time to preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit/ 200 degrees Celsius. It is also a good time to finish your bean paste. Take drained beans and blend/mash/otherwise make them into paste shaped. Slowly add your brown sugar while doing this until everything is combined. Take your oil and add to a medium sauce pan over medium heat. Add your bean paste to the sauce pan, stirring, for three or four minutes, until all excess water is cooked out of the paste and it is truly paste-like. Set aside.

One more thing, while you're waiting on your buns to rise. Your glaze. Mix the sugar and milk into a small sauce pan over low heat until all of the sugar is dissolved. Raise the temperature to medium heat and bring to a boil for two or three minutes, until it forms a simple syrup. Set aside and keep warm

Remove the towel/plastic wrap from your buns and put the trays into the oven, baking the buns for 15 minutes or until golden brown. Brush glaze over the buns while still hot, then top with a dot of bean paste each. Let cool then enjoy.

[shurhaian.livejournal.com]

Better not roll a one on those stress dice! Botching an experience roll seems like a Very Bad Thing to me...

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Nah, no botch dice there.

Re: Recipe: Poptaloops

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

That sounds delicious and accurate! If anyone makes it, let me know how it goes!

[stormydragon.livejournal.com]

Two more experience advantages suggested by the story:

Enchanter (like very expensive) - Worked for a number of years as a professional enchanter.

Skyboat Pilot - Worked for a number of years as a skyboat pilot.

Not sure what the relevant adds would be. BTW, all the skyboats we've seen (including the one in Marriage of Insect) seem to be capable of being running by only one or two people. Is that normal, or do they usually have larger crews (and I'm talking about the people required to run it, not any guards required to defend it).

[terrana.livejournal.com]

How do you work out what a good cost for each of these is, anyway? That's something I've always had problems with when people have suggested new (dis)advantages to me.

[kris-schnee.livejournal.com]

Let me know if you need editing for that.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

The experience advantages go by comparison to other advantages -- comparable amounts of exp in very useful skills (like lifebase), or somewhat more exp in less useful skills.

[zeeth_kyrah]

Navigator, Pilot, Architect (perhaps).

The Navigator knows how to get where you're going. The Pilot knows how to steer whatever guides the boat. The Architect or Shipwright knows how to organize the vehicle and repair it.

Personally, I'd be a fan of a skyboat with manipulator arms and an access like a mouth, with some sort of dumbwaiter or elevator in there.

Hmm... now I'm designing a skyboat. This could be fun.