Transcendence Character Game Mechanics

Transcendence

Generic Starting Notes

Uses the Shrikeian System. Everyone gets some number CP.

Currently need to finish: non-mortal stat bonuses, magic, gifts, advantages, disadvantages.

Stats

Stats go from 1 to 10. I was going to make a "goes to 11" joke but probably not.

Magery: Although heroes generally cannot access world-shattering magics like the gods, many can access these gifts. From enhancement of physical attributes, to controlling flora and fauna, to summoning fireballs or deadly laser beams, magery is a powerful support ability which enhances your character's abilities. Magery is the best stat because it can heavily enhance your ability to perform just about any sort of mundane action.

Finesse: All the physical potential in the world doesn't mean much if you can't effectively apply it to situations. Whereas someone with high physical is a good brawler, the finesse attribute controls the hero's ability to effectively use their physical gifts, or lack thereof. A frail ancient wuxia master with a powersword is still a force to be reckoned with due to his very high Finesse attribute, even if his physical is low. Finesse also covers certain actions which require physical speed but precision and training as well, such as piloting. Finesse is the best stat and you should max it out because it heavily governs how well you can hit targets and how much pain you inflict in ranged combat.

Physical: Physical determines the character's physical and athletic prowess. A high physical character can fell a tree in a single blow, bull through stone walls, outrun cheetahs, and other powerful feats of aspect. Physical is the best stat because having it at a high level prevents you from dying and it lets you move fast and hit hard.

Education: A highly educated hero knows things. Considering that you're going to be adventuring in exotic locales with man-eating squirrels and carnivorous vines and the occasional ancient laser death automaton, being a student of history and the sciences may be useful in varying situations. Education is the best stat because it is critical for maintaining your bendybeam-shooting laser spear, remembering what the antidote was to world-serpent venom, or figuring out a proper prayer to the gods to rescue you from your inevitable fate.

Wits: The ability to think on your feet is also critical for a hero. Wits is useful for improvisational plans and also reaction. Wits is the best stat because it makes your hero less vulnerable to things such as illusion-weaving, allows your hero to react and act far faster mentally, and also is necessary to ensure quickly improvised plans go off without a hitch, which is important as no battleplan survives contact with the enemy.

Charisma: Heroes are heroic because people look up to them. The higher your Charisma, the more people will be willing to hear your epic tale without going "man, that guy/girl was a jerk" at the end. Charisma also affects your effectiveness in leadership, your ability to persuade others to do what you want, and the favor of the gods. Charisma is the best stat because it heavily enhances your leadership and increases your ability to find fame, and a hero must be able to lead by example as well as inspire via his tales.

Specialties

You may also buy Specialties, which are substats giving you additional strengths in one field. Each specialty is bought as per regular stats cost and adds during the appropriate situation. In especially appropriate situations, Specialties may add even more points to the stat. There are also a number of particularly important or common stats that are (almost) always bought as specialties. They are detailed below.

Respect

The respect of those who have heard your tales and your reputation is a critical element of a hero's story. Respect is roughly equivalent to MRW's conspiracy stat, although it's significantly more obvious in nature than Conspiracy is. You're loudly proclaiming how awesome you are, and people are agreeing, rather than using military rank or unofficial connections.

Legend

The legend of a hero spreads far and wide. Legend is bought as any other stat but costs double to purchase every point. What Legend does is give a pool of points which can be spent for various effects, such as rerolls, automatic critical successes, staving off death, and so on. Legend is intertwined with fate, and those who are blessed with legend are also beneficiaries of fate, whose fickle hand more often than not favors them. But the grace of fate is not limitless.

Gifts and Curses

Heroes are assisted via magical gifts as well, such as artifacts, blessings, followers, augmentation, and so on. Gifts can be bought with CP. Gifts give varying bonuses and cool fluff effects. Curses are basically character or other disadvantages, or liabilities such as a looming dark fate or something.

Fiefdom

Your fiefdom is the amount of stuff you actually rule over. This is also used for your rating to see what kinds of cool things you have.

Fiefdom Size

0 (Nothing): You own a patch of dirt in the ground if at that.

Small Town: You rule over a small town on a planet somewhere as a local governor with at most a thousand souls. You have some degree of tax revenues and in times of need can raise a local militia of poorly-trained mooks with limited equipment perhaps a hundred strong. An alternative would be a platoon of trained soldiers loyal to you.

Large Town: You rule over a large town on a planet somewhere. It has a population around ten thousand, with its own police force in the hundreds and a local militia of poorly-trained reservists, and makes a sizable amount of tax revenue. Alternatively, a more martial character may invest in a company (~150-200 men) of trained soldiers with heavy weapons and a handful of vehicles, or a patrol craft with a crew of a dozen and cramped quarters.

Small City: You rule over either a small city or a region consisting of several towns. The population which swears allegiance to you or a puppet of yours consists of almost a hundred thousand people, and can support a professional military force of a few hundred men as well as the militias you could previously levy. As an alternative, a character may have a battalion of soldiers, with organic armor and some avatar support, or a single light ship such as a frigate.

Large City: You either control a large and prosperous city approaching the 1 million mark population-wise, or a large region with dozens of towns which add up to a similar level of prosperity. Such a fiefdom can support a professional military force of a thousand men with a handful of heavier weapons such as avatars, a temporary militia tens of thousands strong, and has sufficient tax revenue for any purpose you desire. An alternative would be to have a light combatant and a few patrol craft, or a single medium combatant such as a cruiser.

Metropolis: you rule over a metropolis of millions which can support military or paramilitary forces in the thousands, or a sizable chunk of a continent with multiple cities. As an alternative, you can have a small fleet of mixed light and medium ships or a single heavy ship such as a battleship or avatar carrier.

Province: As a provincial ruler, you rule an entire continent of a planet-around ten million souls, and can levy a professional military force of tens of thousands of men. In times of dire emergency, at the cost of economic destabilization, you can levy a militia of a million men or more, but only for brief periods of time. Your province likely has a handful of orbital defense ships it can use, although most will be "coastal" craft, small and lightly armed to deter raiders and space monsters. An alternative martial equivalence would be an entire carrier or battleship strike group, a single heavy combatant escorted by several medium and light warships.

Planet: You have a fiefdom consisting of an entire planet which you govern. Even though the planet may be unimportant, a planet is truly enormous. In terms of men and materiel you can access, you have the tax revenues of a hundred million, a PDF consisting of a hundred thousands men with moderate quality equipment or a smaller force with better equipment, and have access to a sizable trading fleet plus a small system defense fleet of patrol craft and a few frigates. As an alternative, more martial form of fiefdom, you can have an entire naval group with multiple heavy combatants, plus integrated marines consisting of tens of thousands of soldiers.

Followers

Followers are the non-heroic hangers on a character has to access for worship, favors, and whatnot. Followers are guys you use for less adventurery tasks like helping you to conquer a planet or digging for ruins or stuff. You can, in fact, buy multiple follower groups. Unlike the guys gained from Fiefdom, Followers are less vulnerable to ignominious deaths and have their own Legend to some extent, even if it is an extension of yours.

Number

0 (I'm so ronery)

1 (Companion): You have one NPC buddy who you can play yourself. This NPC buddy

2-5 (Attendants)

Quality

Quality of followers makes them more or less capable overall. This is a cost multiplier to your number of followers that determines how good/bad your dudes are. Note that these stats are given as final, i.e. after-points-are-spent, attributes and generally doesn't apply to magery.

Extras (half cost): Extras are green soldiers, green scholars, and so on. Extras average 2 in all primary attributes save their area of expertise, where they possess a 3. Extras have perhaps one specialty in a relevant area (like Education (Medicine) or Finesse (Rifles)).

Veterans (normal cost): Veterans are high-quality examples of their trade. Veteran soldiers, scholars, and physicians all know the tricks the newbies don't, and are generally of much higher quality. Veterans average 3 in all their primary attributes, with a single 4 in one area and a handful of specialties related to their field.

Elites (two times cost): Your dudes are pretty hardcore. They can give mortal adventurers pause and cut through their lessers like a scythe through wheat. (average stats 4 with plenty of specialties, a 5 in one area)

Lesser heroes (four times cost): Lesser heroes are often supernaturally blessed, more machine than man, or otherwise enhanced to the point where they can hold their own. Their average stats are 5 with one 6 in their focus, and they have a broad spread of specialties.

Greater heroes (eight times cost): Greater heroes are essentially equivalent to the PCs in every way, with only slight inferiority. A greater hero is generally built via CP rather than being arbitrarily assigned rough attributes. It is not expected for anyone to have more than handful of them.

Merits

Divine Fire: The spark of godhood burns slowly in you. Eventually, you may be elevated to demigodhood... or perhaps even godhood. A heroic mortal with this ability has no Magery limit.

Races

Races will generally use one generic template and then have individual modifiers above and beyond that for variants. Most will have minimum stat requirements as well. Some races might be fairly similar. A Valkyrie could be a slightly modified Asura for example, so on and so forth.

Barbarians

Barbarians are unmodified mortals and generally not fit to be player characters. Barbarians start with -1 to all attributes and are limited to a maximum Magery of 1.

Mortal

A heroic mortal may not have the divine gifts or augmentations of the others, but makes up for it via sheer balls. Anyone who advances to becoming a hero with no divine blood is clearly blessed, and starts with +2 Legend and 5 CP of Gifts. However a mortal gains no stat bonuses.

Mortals have a maximum Magery of 2 without some a gift allowing them greater access.

Note that as part-mortals, all Scions gain the mortal bonuses of their chosen origin path.

Gotarling

A starfaring people, the Gotarlings of Midgard are excellent shipwrights, traders, and pilots.

Gotarlings gain +1 Education (Starship Maintenance) and +1 Finesse (Piloting).

Alternatively, a Gotarling trader may have +1 Charisma ,+1 Charisma (Dealmaking), and +1 Education (Foreign Cultures) but -1 Physical, representing those who have plied the starlanes for so long that the extended exposure to shipboard environments has atrophied their strength and endurance.

Dorian

Favored of the Hellenic gods, the Dorians pride themselves on their superior academies and the learning of their citizens. Dorians gain +1 Education.

Spartans are infamous amongst the Dorians, men and women who live only to drill and fight, neglecting other components of their education. Spartans have +1 Finesse, +1 Physical, and +1 Charisma (YELLING REALLY LOUDLY), but -1 Charisma. This template is representative of most warrior cultures as well and most societies have a version of it.

Akkadian

The Akkadians have excellent healers and fleshsculptors, and therefore their citizenry are healthy and vibrant, beyond even the norm of other mortals. Furthermore, their culture highly emphasizes enhancing personal attractiveness and an appreciation of the arts. However, due to their decadence, but few of them take up the sword as a result. Akkadians gain +1 Charisma (Overwhelming Beauty) and +1 Education (Arts) and +1 Physical, but -1 Finesse.

Kosalan

The Kosalans live under the watchful eye of the Rigvedic deities, who seek to emphasize their harmony with the universe, emphasizing a flexible and sharp mind. Kosalans gain +1 Wits.

A handful of Untouchables claw themselves up to heroic ability via sheer spunk and talent. These men and women have -1 Education due to their lack of formalized education but +1 to either Physical or Wits, +1 Physical (Enduring Hardship), and a +1 Specialty (Chosen Field) in any area as long as it makes sense.

Elves

The Alfar light-elves, tall and beautiful, are charismatic and graceful demigods who can easily convince even the most stubborn mortal of his argument's correctness.

The Svartalfr dark-elves, short, strong, and tough, are expert craftsmen who run many of the nanofactories of Midgard, producing war materiel and fine artifacts.

Devas

Divine beings which regulate the passing of natural phenomenon, Devas are powerful semi-divine beings with powerful magics, necessary to regulate and alter the passings of natural phenomena. As divine beings made of god-stuff rather than flesh and blood, they are also beautiful and capable in all areas.

Asuras

The Asuras regulate the passing of moral and social phenomenon in the empire of Kosala. To do this, they must be capable of disguising themselves to monitor societies and judge them impartially.

Scion

The half-blooded children of gods and goddesses, Scions gain many of their ancestor's gifts. Scions gain heavy bonuses which are also reasonably flexible, but should not be as good at specialization as the other divine races.

Forgeborn

Found under various names, they range from the warrior Einherjar to combat or social automata to spirit-guides sent to guide the righteous on the proper path. They may be automata, or resurrected dead. No matter what, they were created with a purpose and are designed to fill it. Those few who gain the spark necessary to become rulers of their own fate may too, become heroes.

However, they cannot, under any circumstances, possess Magery higher than 0.

Callings

Callings are what your character does for a living, like fighting, trading, and whatnot. You get to choose one.

Magic

Everyone who has Magery can access magic. Magic is bought in a handful of categories.