Armageddon by Tasoth

Witchcraft

So, since it looks like I'll start reviewing Armageddon tomorrow, I want to take a post to kind of set it up. And mostly because I'm an unrepentant Eden Studios fanboy.

Armageddon is set in near future of the Witchcraft setting (check it out, it's free. . And that's what this post will be about.

Witchcraft itself is a modern Occult/Horror game. Players get the option to play Mundanes or Gifted, and if you either have Mystery Codex or Abomination Codex, supernaturals. Mundanes are just normal (albeit heroic) humans while Gifted are those with magic powers. The magic systems in the corebook are Evocations, Seer powers, Necromancy and Miracles, which I'll go into more details in the book. These breakdown into Covenants, which are groups of people that have a shared philosophy, and in the initial book, a specific spell system. What's neat is each system is completely different mechanically from the others.

Evocations are similar to Mage magic in that you buy the base evocation and you can do what you want as long as you can pump the Essence into it. They differ in that there is no pips, so you can drop a fireball on a city if you spend enough time doing a big ritual and gathering Essence. The Covenants linked to evocations are the Wicce and the Rosicrucians. One sees magic is a gift and they should use it to take care of the world, the other sees it as just another tool to use for self advancement.

If you have Pulp Zombies for AFMbE, you have the rules for Seer powers under Mentalism. Seer powers are pretty much psychic abilities and just work when you want them to. There's more, but I'll cover that in the review. The seer Covenant is The Cabal of Psyche and they're hunted by The Combine, and we'll get to them.

Necromancy is not the standard D&D 'I defile these corpses' type of magic. It's more in line with ancient necromancy in which the medium works with the dead to get things done. The Covenant here is The Twilight Order.

Miracles are used by the Inspired, and The Sentinels are the associated Covenant. It's all faith-based, but not Abrahamic religion based. Anyone with strong faith in some form of divinity can call down miracles. This is also the metaphysical system included in AFMbE, but their inclusion in a deadworld is completely up to the GM.

Threats in Witchcraft range from the typical ghosts, vampires, things that go bump in the night to The Relentless Dead, The Combine and Mad Gods. Relentless Dead are undead WMDs, nigh unkillable and able to comeback from pretty much anything. The Combine is named after the organization from One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest and they are a human conspiracy that is up to no good and quite skilled at keeping people out of their business. Mad Gods are creatures of god-like power from outside our reality, which is based off the Kabbalist Tree of Knowledge. We are in Malkuth, the Creator is in Kether, the sephira between contain everything from Fae, the Dead, Gods and Angels. In Armageddon, The Combine and Mad Gods are pretty much important plot wise.


Have some of my crappy art.

This above? That's is a potential Armageddon PC group. It contains an Atlantean, a Seraphim, a Templar and a Pariah, the last two which aren't in the core book. And while this is playable, it'd be so unfun because the power-level on the Seraphim is ridiculously high. But you could use it if everyone is running the right template.

So why Armageddon? Well, because reading the C-Tech reviews just made me think 'C.J. Carella did existential doom against Lovecraftian horrors better.' Setting wise, mankind starts off boned but isn't in it too deep. There's no half-dozen Outer God/Great Old One cults that are hacking away at an impotent and corrupt government. And while The Army of Revelations is busy kicking the shit out of everyone, there's enough going against them that players can pull out a win.

There's also the play level. Want to play a group of low power magicians and humans chasing down Church of Revelations fifth column in the free territories? Can do. Want to replicate the Maquis and Polish Resistance of WW2 of evading Soul Police during the day and fucking shit up at night in the conquered territories? Completely possible. Want mid-tier Nephilim, Avatars, Kerubim and Gifted to fight for Central and South America in an Alliance bid to push the AoR off its doorstep? Done. Plan on launching Operation ABRAHAMMER and leading Seraphim, Inheritors and Magicians of world shatter power on an assault of the Middle East and be the stone that breaks three continents worth of AoR troops against your resistance? Shit, easy. So yeah, you can scale campaign level on this thing and run horror or action games.

Also, if the thread is interested, I will supply a few drawings per review since I'm not going to scan images from the book. I know I'm not R.K. Post and the other such artists that Eden Studios got to do art for the book, but I am willing to break up the walls of text.

Let's do this for Freedom, Mom's Apple Pie and reality's continued existence!

I'm in the final proof reading of the review and I have to upload the drawings I did, but Armageddon review part the first is inbound. I didn't make it through all of Chapter two, but I'll cover what I left out in the next segment.



EDIT

Armageddon: The End Times review part 1.
Let's do this for Freedom, Mom's Apple Pie and reality's continued existence!

Opening fiction is about a group our narrator is apart of sneaking up the beach in occupied France and setting up a laser designator to guide a cruise missile strike against a sub manufacturing site for the Church of Revelations. Henry, the narrator, used to be a tanker until an AoR tank turned his Challenger 2 into a flaming wreck, he crawled out a charred mess and walked out of a the hospital a week later perfectly fine. A psychic in his team feels a group of mooks charging their position in the night and Henry climbs down to face him. We find out that his mum wasn't exactly faithful with his dad and Henry hulks the fuck out, showing that he is the offspring of a War god and exactly what that entails. Think Space Marine.

We get an intro, that sets up the setting. Leviathan is an Outsider that the Creator hurled out of reality at the beginning of time and he's back for vengeance. He's leading an all out war against reality across the sephiroth and using converts both human and metaphysical. His goal is to get enough converts to his faith that he can fully manifest, at which point reality is boned. And he's doing it through forced conversion through Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas. But it's not easy, as the United Nations and Resistance groups face off against him even where the power of the Church of Revelations is strongest, and games set in Armageddon are about the fight to stop the end of the world.


I did this because Little Fears got to me. So, here's a monster saving children. I fucked up a bit on it.

So, the world is currently at war. All of Europe, the Middle East, South America and parts of Asia are currently under control of the Church of Revelations. They're lead by the Apostle (called Dark Apostle by those not hoodwinked by him) and they have some pretty fine military technology. He's also capable of gross feats of magical ability and CoR members who have given most of themselves to Leviathan are becoming monsters. The Dark Apostle executed the Pope on live TV with a pistol to drive the point home that the world is fucked. Nukes were ineffective because they never went off and no one knows if this is because someone fucked with them with magic or the Creator itself stopped it. The supernatural happens, ghost, vampires, sorcerers and angels all are experienced.

The supernatural has existed since time immemorial and has always been a giant power struggle. And throughout history, there have been events of great physical and spiritual conflict called Reckonings. There have been a few big ones, and this is the biggest. The lead up to it saw the number of Gifted increase as well as a rapid growth in the number of supernaturals that even mundanes couldn't ignore. Even turns out the period around WW1 and WW2 was a massive war fought by human sorcerers against a massive threat to reality. Precedents.

Pretty much every religion got it right. There was one supreme Creator entity, but there have been gods, faeries, angels, saints and holy men that are legit for any belief system. Reality is structured like a tree and there are ten sephira (eleven if you count the space in-between). They're all different, and some people believe that our Tree of Knowledge is just one of many all connected at Kether (the top and potentially where the Creator dwells). The book covers five of the more important sephira.

Binah is the sephira of knowledge. It is a state of energy and extremes, the home of elementals and angels. It is not particularly friendly to humans.

Geburah is the sephira of severity and abode of the dead. There's a dark reflection of our world present, and various afterlifes. Lucifer and the devils are stuck here, and as a twist, he either purifies souls of their sins or makes them into monsters. Death also dwells here, and everything is terrified of it.

Kether is where the Creator is said to dwell, but the angels haven't ever been able to find it. When a human is done living, they go here and their souls are never seen again. One of my favorite fan theories is that humans that make it here are drafted into the Creator's army and they launch invasions into neighboring realities.

Netzach is a mythic realm and home of the various world pantheons. Aesir, Olympians, members of the Jade Court, Atzlan, you name it, it's here. Everything is huge and potent here and, like Binah, not a place humans thrive in.

Yesod is the sephira of the moon and home to mythic races: fae, dryads, centaurs, etc. Pushed out by humans, old gods and the angels, they used to live on earth and remember what we did to them. They are also crossing over into Malkuth (our sephira) in large numbers now that the war is underway.

Humans aren't unique snow flakes. The universe has countless worlds, the universe has had countless precursors to humans. They've all just gone wrong somehow and we're the latest in the grand experiment. We all have a Divine Spark that lets us work magic and miracles, the greatest amongst us are able to check angels. We also evolve, so over time, we will improve, change and become something more grand. This has lead to various responses from higher powers, from love, to hate to outright attempts of controlling the human race. But it should be noted, with time all of the higher beings have come to resemble humans more and more.

The Gods and Angels are descendants of the Sephyr, living tools used by the Creator to make reality. The Sephyr split into the Seraphim and Titans. The Seraphim came to embody the spirit and worked for the Creator while the Titans reflected components of reality. At some point, the Creator disappeared, the angels warred amongst themselves, Leviathan try to break through and got squashed by The Flood and the angels went looking for the Creator. When they came back, they kick the Titans out of Malkuth and have operated how they think their master would have them.

Immortals have always been around and have no link to angels and old gods aside from animosity. They've been various banes and conspiracies through history and what they're up to during the war is up in the air. One of the groups counted amongst the True Immortals are the Atlanteans, and we'll get to them later.

Mad Gods are from outside Creation, are anathema to its existence and do not get along with anything, from entities originating in the sephiroth to other Mad Gods. From demons, to angels and the dragons and gods in between, they all share the rule that you don't traffic with the Mad Gods. Which is impressive, since the demons are intent on bringing down Creation in flames and the we know next to nothing about dragons other than they are compared to angels and don't deal with Mad Gods. We also get another short info drop about Leviathan. He is the first Mad God to attempt to get into reality, was expelled by the Creator, was worshiped by Ultima Thule and the Nazis reawakened its interest in reality. Neat.

The Church of Revelations is both successful cult and potent war machine. They front magic, advanced technology and fanatic loyalty in their pursuit of world domination. As a religion, it's got components of both Abrahamic and Buddhist philosophy only with a focus on hurtful self-gratification and obeying the rigid hierarchy that they set up. Leviathan always answers prayers and those who don't convert are hunted down and killed. For, you see, when the only humans left are those who belong to the Church, Leviathan will manifest and destroy reality.


Leviathan is content to let vampires behave as the monsters they are and not punish them. Not surprisingly, there are a large number of vampires in service to Leviathan.

Believers are those that belong to the Church. Leviathan talks to them, makes them offers of what they want. The offers are always tainted, and the listener knows this, but they still take it. Once they accept, they're more or less Leviathan's and the gifts start rolling in, often at the expense of others. They also gain a mark on their hand or head that is described as looking disquietingly similar to the international symbol for hurricanes. This opens up latent magic abilities in those who haven't acquired them yet. Believers are fanatically and will do anything in service to the Church.

HISTORY! Turns out, the 00s feature a financial crisis that smacks the world economy in Armageddon. Turn of the century also marks a shit ton of supernatural events happening, from unexplained deaths to recorded supernatural phenomenon. Up to this point, no one really believed magic was real, and then all this shit started happening, so hate crimes broke out against supposed mystics and religious minorities through out Europe and the US. The governments of the world also noticed that most of the people doing this were born starting around the 80s, and were putting plans in motion. The major Covenants from Witchcraft put an end to it all but making contact, in secret, and offering aid for concessions. So shit got started.

It only snowballs, as organized white supremacist execution squads start stalking the US and release a tape of their manifesto. The economy is in the shitter, minorities are being executed for being minorities and now magic and monsters are loose in the world. Cities exploded into riots. Thousands die, and the cities respond by walling off the ghettos, trapping the poor and minorities in them. An extreme Republican party and well-to-do politicos fought hard and held up the laws that let them do this until the US was at war, and no one batted an eye.

Ya' know, the more I read the setting, the more prophetic it seems.

In twenty oh eight, one million people die in Munich, Germany and only one man is left alive. This former soldier, Johann Goering, proclaims this as a sign of the end times and those who wish to survive must come to believe in 'The True God'. A year later, Berlin tried to take Goering into custody. The CoR resisted and The Apostle showed his gifts from Leviathan to the world. Within six months, Germany was under control of the Church, by 2010, France and Britain were mobilizing for war and Russia tried to but was beset with internal conflicts. In April of two oh one one, Army of Revelations stealth bombers struck the US and Britain, sinking US air craft carriers and doing more damage to an already economically crippled US. German armored divisions and infantry that seemed to manifest from nowhere cripple NATO forces throughout Europe. Less than a week later, France attempted a nuclear option and the devices failed to go off. This was true with every nuclear device in the world.

Six months from the initial bombing day, France fell to the Church. Within two, Spain, Poland and Italy. Rome erupted as the AoR marched on it as host of angels called Ten Thousand descending from Binah.

They were decimated by the technology and arcane power of the Church on live TV. Catholics watched as the Apostle executed the Pope.

But all was not lost. As the Army of Revelations turned towards the sea to invade Britain and Scandinavia, vast storms erupted over the seas.

Odin and the Aesir threw down the gauntlet.

Turkey, Vietnam and Argentina willfully join the Church and open up new fronts. Greece becomes a battleground as the Olympians take to the fields of battle to meet their foe. The world reels as realization that their enemy is more entrenched and possesses a greater reach sinks in. For the first time in two centuries, America has an enemy on its doorstep and capable of bringing it to its knees.

The advance is checked at Texas. Massive devastation ensues across the southwest. Mexico ceases to exist as a cohesive country.

The time is 2017. South America and Europe belong to the enemy. Asia, the Middle East and America are under threat. The enemy is well armed, backed by eldritch horrors and will die before stopping their mad plan.

What will you do to save existence?


Odin is my co-pilot.

The Now

As we left off last time, it was a general overview that lead to the 'Now' of Armageddon. We're going to start with an info dump on what is happening at the start of play.

We get some estimates of CoR control. Europe and South America are completely under CoR control, with the Middle East roughly divided in half and a third of Asia under their boot. Everyone is trying to rearm and redeploy while keeping the other side in check.

Info dump on the United States . Leading up to the start of the game, the US Armed Forces have had to deal with rearmament without a base of infrastructure, threats ranging form CoR and supernatural horrors and religious fanatics trying to secede in the face of the end times. The president leading into the 2011 AoR bombing raids stepped down and the current president since then has been a former marine and the first female president. She has held the union together, takes a hardline stance with secessionists and terrorist and uses magic assets to their fullest. Life continues on in the nation, with most people carrying on their daily lives with just a wee bit more spirituality. Unless you're poor. Then you are stuck in the ghettos setup by the security act and are locked in with supernatural monsters. So fuck the poor. Also, apparently areas of the midwest are home to roving gangs of bandits. Fuck the midwest as well. On on interesting note, the Native Americans have largely been divorced from the larger affairs in the United States. Sure, they still send troops, but they are staying on the rez and quiet. Oh, and Native American sites of magic power are growing stronger. The Native Americans are going to fuck you. The US military is swelling as weapons are being produced and volunteers (Yes, there is no draft. Yet.) are enlisting everyday. There is also an independent command unifying soldiers with supernaturals of all ilk.

In the Americas, US Marines, Venezuelan and Brazilian armed forces are the only thing keeping a chunk of Brazil free of the CoR. Native Americans in the jungles of the Amazon are waging their own war with mystic force and spirits of the jungle. Also, the Quebecois are being dick bags and their secessionist movement has been co-opted by the CoR. Dicks.


An Avatar of Hou Yi attempts to stop the pursuit of a Shaitan.

In Asia, CoR control stretches from India to parts of China and no modern army exists on the continent. The CoR has also crippled or destroyed many of the governing bodies outright as the war started. But it's cool, as damn near everyone is resisting the Church. Guerillas are active everywhere and are getting support from the free nations. Traditional secret societies raise hell throughout occupied china, as well as mystic ones like the Storm Dragons, who use supernatural kung-fu to beat monsters to death.

Now I want to see Feng Shui used for this.

In Europe, only the UK, Northern Europe and bits of Russia remain free, and only thanks to the gods of the Norse, Ireland, and Britain. The fey are also flooding into the forests of Europe to take up the fight, and that means there might just be dragons in The Black Forest. Resistance movements are also prevalent in Europe as they are in Asia, but face more of a challenge as they are literally in the Dark Apostle's backyard.

When the AoR came thundering out of Turkey, took Iraq and Syria, it was a coalition of Persians, Muslims, Jews and Christians that held the line and stopped them where they are. And to top it off, an army of angels dropped out of Heaven and started fighting alongside everyone. This has resulted, not surprisingly, in everyone putting aside their differences in belief because the angels don't pick sides and fight for everyone. Well, most people put them aside.

And the chapter finishes out with what Armageddon is about and how you can play either a heroic character or a selfish anti-hero.

Chapter fiction! A kerubim (we'll get to them eventually) is reborn into the world amid after-the-Battle-of-Paris Paris. It's still bombed out and broken 6 years after it all went down. He meets up with his contact and they go join up with the rest of their cell. It's a pair of mundanes, a Seer and a Fallen Seraphim. Strange bedfellows indeed.

Now it's time for Chargen, mother fuckers! So, Unisystem chargen is a point buy system with attributes, skills, qualities and drawbacks. Drawbacks obviously give you points back for buying more stuff. There are eight components to characters. They are:

Concept
Type
Association
Attributes
Qualities and Drawbacks
Skills
Metaphysics
Possessions

Alliance: This is the alliance of the old covenants of Witchcraft with the mundanes of the world.
Heavenly Host: The angels that have saddled up and come to malkuth.
Infernal Legion: The demons and their servants straight from the Pit in Geburah. They're fighting for reality, too.
Lodge of the Undying: Atlanteans, immortal lesser supernaturals and Gifted who have managed to arrest their aging. They're a wildcard in the war as they really aren't united in whether to punch Leviathan and the Church in the face or not.
Lone Wolves: Solitaires from Witchcraft, unaffiliated from White Wolf games. They do their own shit, and it may or may not synergize with the war effort.
Pantheons: The titans, their get and avatars. This is where you'd find Zeus, Odin and such.
Watchers: Serpahim and Titans that slipped away from their respective sides along time ago and came to Earth to help mankind climb back up to where they were before the angels nuked the Earth the first time Leviathan showed up. Both the Pantheons and Heavenly Host have a hard-on for taking them out.

Strength: Determines hand to hand damage, carrying capacity, physical condition and health.
Dexterity: Coordination, agility and grace. This is a biggy as throwing and shooting rely on this stat.
Constitution: Health, disease and fatigue resistance. Used in determining fatigue points and health.
Intelligence: The ability to learn, integrate data and find connections. This isn't a level of education (that's skills), but how fast your mind works.
Perception: The five senses and how fast an individual picks up on things. Important for Gifted, detectives and people that rely on reading details.
Willpower: Force of will, the ability to resist tempation and important for Gifted as it is a primary attribute for casting.

Divine Inspiration: You work miracles and, depending on how strong your faith is, use prayer as a weapon against your enemies or to aid allies.
Magical Invocations: These are your spells. They're kind of like Mage's spheres, but don't have ranks in it. You buy one, you can cast stronger spells based on how much essence you dump into it.
Necromancy: Not your standard D&D and fantasy fare. Mediums in Armageddon/Witchcraft actually work alongside spirits of the dead and can manifest ectoplasm to interact with them.
Primal Powers: This is what Gods and those linked to them use. Requires an Aspect that the God/Avatar represents.
The Sight: Psychic abilities. Have an art and a strength, which reflect ability and outright strength of the effect.
Supernatural Attributes: Some of the things that go bump in the night or descend from heaven as wheels of fire can spend metaphysics points to boost their attributes.
Spirit Patrons: Make a bargain with an entity, gain powers as long as you uphold your end of the deal. This was introduced in Abomination Codex to help reflect the introduction of a Voodoo based Covenant.
Theophanies: Not only do angels get to throw around celestial fire and dick with probability, they get metaphysics that up their powers even more.

Chargen

If a Bliss Stage inspired system is really being made, I would love to help with it, especially a relationship system.

I also can't help but love SLA Industries' setting, even though it is so nineties it hurts. Same with the art.

*****

This post is chargen! Woooo!

Since no one gave any suggestions, I figured I'd do a detailed chargen of all the character types at the heroic tier. These are the same character types available in Witchcraft, so I'm not too terrible worried about covering them.

The first character is going to be based off the Seeker of Knowledge concept. He is someone who feels a strong sense of family and community ties, and is trying to learn as much as he can about the Church members to combat him. Because I like being pretentious, lets make him a first generation American born Indonesian. His older brother and younger sister both joined the marines once they could, but he went to college to get an education and came back to help his family. Given he's a minority, that most likely means he or his family are in one of the walled off ghettos. This guy is going to be a Kolchak type character.

Since he is a mundane, he is an 80 point build. He gets 25 points for attributes, 20 for qualities (10 more in drawbacks) and 35 in skills. Before we spend points, we get to pick an Association. I felt Lone Wolf would have been appropriate, but the special it grants is of no use. Given the next two characters are going to be a part of the Watchers, let's make him a member. Since he is mundane, he gets a +2 to resist any power that controls his mind.

So attribute buying has come up. Attribute points are a 1 for 1 cost until you go over five, then it is 3 per level. Seeing as how the character concept is more of a detective than a monster puncher, I'm going to drop 6 of the 25 points into Strength, Constitution and Dexterity, giving each 2 points. As for mental traits, dropping 4 each into Perception, Intelligence and Willpower gives us someone who is way above the norm in means of noticing things, analytical ability and straight up resisting mental strain, magic and temptation. So far, that's 18 points. For seven points, let's bump his str, per and int up by one and his con and dex by two.

So far, this is the character.

Concept: Seeker of Knowledge
Type: Mundane

Str 3	per 5
Dex 4	Int 5
Con 4	Wil 4

Concept: Seeker of Knowledge
Type: Mundane

Str 3	per 5
Dex 4	Int 5
Con 4	Wil 4

LP: 38 EP: 38 Speed: 16/8 Essence: 25

Concept: Seeker of Knowledge
Type: Mundane

Str 3	per 5
Dex 4	Int 5
Con 4	Wil 4

LP: 53 EP: 38 Speed: 16/8 Essence: 25

Qualities
-Charisma 3
-Contact (Police) 3
-Contact (Street gang) 3
-Fast Reaction Time
-Hard to Kill 5
-Photographic Memory
-Situational Awareness
-Nerves of Steel
-Acute Sense (Sight)

Drawbacks
-Minority
-Honorable 2
-Reckless

Concept: Seeker of Knowledge
Type: Mundane

Str 3	per 5
Dex 4	Int 5
Con 4	Wil 4

LP: 53 EP: 38 Speed: 16/8 Essence: 25

Qualities
-Charisma 3
-Contact (Police) 3
-Contact (Street gang) 3
-Fast Reaction Time
-Hard to Kill 5
-Photographic Memory
-Situational Awareness
-Nerves of Steel
-Acute Sense (Sight)

Drawbacks
-Minority
-Honorable 2
-Reckless

Skills
-Brawling 3
-Dodge 3
-Firearm (Handgun) 3
-Notice 3
-Questioning 3
-Research/Investigation 3
-Science (Chemistry) 4
-Smooth Talking 3
-Streetwise 3
-Surveillance 3

Name: Tony Suhurto
Concept: Seeker of Knowledge
Type: Mundane
Association: The Watchers (+2 to resisting mental effects)

Str 3	per 5
Dex 4	Int 5
Con 4	Wil 4

LP: 53 EP: 38 Speed: 16/8 Essence: 25

Qualities
-Charisma 3
-Contact (Police) 3
-Contact (Street gang) 3
-Fast Reaction Time
-Hard to Kill 5
-Photographic Memory
-Situational Awareness
-Nerves of Steel
-Acute Sense (Sight)

Drawbacks
-Minority
-Honorable 2
-Reckless

Skills
-Brawling 3
-Dodge 3
-Firearm (Handgun) 3
-Notice 3
-Questioning 3
-Research/Investigation 3
-Science (Chemistry) 4
-Smooth Talking 3
-Streetwise 3
-Surveillance 3

Gear:
-.45 pistol 	D8x4	7-10	1/1
-Class 1 Armor	D6+7 	4/2
-Camera
-Notepad and pencil
-Forensics gear

Character 2

Alright, time for char two.

We're going to make a Lesser Supernatural this time. They get 15 points for attributes, 15 for qualities (10 from drawbacks), 25 points for skills and 25 points for metaphysics. Let's begin.

Our Supernatural is based on the Warrior concept. She kicks ass, takes names and thrives in the fires of battle. She may be relatively normal in between sessions of bloodshed, but her life is only complete with a weapon in hand and enemies in front of her. She's also a Watcher, so that means she is out to elevate humanity back to something impressive.

Now, when you drift outside of a bog standard human, the stat maxes change and most supernaturals get a stat bonus, which is in a table format in the attribute section of chargen. For kerubim, all physical stats have a max of 9 and mental six. Strength and Constitution get a +3, Dexterity a +2 and Perception and Willpower a +1. Breaking up the fifteen points, this is what our character looks like.

Concept: Warrior
Type: Lesser Supernatural
Association: The Watchers

Str 5	per 4
Dex 5	Int 3
Con 5	Wil 4

Concept: Warrior
Type: Lesser Supernatural
Association: The Watchers

Str 5	per 4	
Dex 5	Int 3
Con 5	Wil 4

LP: 100 EP: 100 Speed: 20/10 Essence: 65

Concept: Warrior
Type: Lesser Supernatural
Association: The Watchers

Str 5	per 4	
Dex 5	Int 3
Con 5	Wil 4

LP: 100 EP: 100 Speed: 20/10 Essence: 65

Qualities
-Kerubim

Drawbacks
-Minority
-Adversary (Anders)
-Cruel
-Humorless
-Zealot
-Secret (Warrior Angel)

Concept: Warrior
Type: Lesser Supernatural
Association: The Watchers

Str 5	per 4	
Dex 5	Int 3
Con 5	Wil 4

LP: 100 EP: 100 Speed: 20/10 Essence: 65

Qualities
-Kerubim

Drawbacks
-Minority
-Adversary (Anders)
-Cruel
-Humorless
-Zealot
-Secret (Warrior Angel)

Skills
Acrobatics 2
Driving (Cars) 2
Escapism 2
Guns (Assault Rifle) 2
Hand Weapon (Spear) 2
Humanities (History) 2
Intimidation 2
Martial Arts 2
Notice 2
Tracking 2

Name: Emily
Concept: Warrior
Type: Lesser Supernatural
Association: The Watchers

Str 5	per 4	
Dex 5	Int 3
Con 5	Wil 4

LP: 100 EP: 100 Speed: 20/10 Essence: 65

Qualities
-Kerubim

Drawbacks
-Minority
-Adversary (Anders)
-Cruel
-Humorless
-Zealot
-Secret (Warrior Angel)

Metaphysics
-Battler
-Concealer
-Theophany 4

Gear:
-Spear
-Car
-Apartment

Characters, The Final

Last character from the Heroic tier before we move on. We've covered Lesser Supernatural and Mundane, so this entry is for The Gifted.

First step: concept. This character is going to be based off the Forsaken concept. She's an individual society wants nothing to do with and lives on the fringe. Contact between her and the normal people tend to be hostile exchanged because of what she is. This means she's most likely living on the streets and destitute.

Character type is Gifted. They are built with 15 points of attributes, 10 points of qualities (10 in drawbacks), 25 for skills and 30 for metaphysics. We also have to eat the point cost of the supernatural quality Gift off the bat. It's five points, so in truth, we have 25 points for metaphysics. So far, Lesser Supernatural has more points for Qualities and the same (after purchase of Gift) 25 for metaphysics. Mundanes start with 10 more points for attributes over both, have 10/5 more quality points than gifted/lesser supernaturals, and 10 more points for skills over both the other character types.

As before, she's a member of The Watchers, and this nets her a free level of a metaphysical ability when we get to it. Looking ahead to the metaphysics chapter, there is no one attribute that really stands out as being important for what I have in mind. Lets throw four points into Perception, three in Willpower and drop two into the four other stats. That's all the points for attributes spent, and gives us this:

Concept: Forsaken
Type: Gifted
Association: The Watchers

Attributes:
Str 2	Per 4
Dex 2	Int 2
Con 2	Wil 3

Concept: Forsaken
Type: Gifted
Association: The Watchers

Attributes:
Str 2	Per 4
Dex 2	Int 2
Con 2	Wil 3

LP: 26 EP: 26 Essence: 15 Speed: 8 mph/4 yrd/s

Concept: Forsaken
Type: Gifted
Association: The Watchers

Attributes:
Str 2	Per 4
Dex 2	Int 2
Con 2	Wil 3

LP: 35 EP: 26 Essence: 37 Speed: 8 mph/4 yrd/s

Qualities:
Artistic Talent (Painting)
Essence Channeling 3
Good Luck
Hard to Skill 3
Increased Essence Pool 2
Natural Toughness
Situational Awareness

Drawbacks:
Covetous (Greed) 1
Recurring Nightmares
Resources -4

Concept: Forsaken
Type: Gifted
Association: The Watchers

Attributes:
Str 2	Per 4
Dex 2	Int 2
Con 2	Wil 3

LP: 35 EP: 26 Essence: 37 Speed: 8 mph/4 yrd/s

Qualities:
Artistic Talent (Painting)
Essence Channeling 3
Good Luck
Hard to Skill 3
Increased Essence Pool 2
Natural Toughness
Situational Awareness

Drawbacks:
Covetous (Greed) 1
Recurring Nightmares
Resources -4

Skills:
Acting 3
Cheating 3
Dodge 1
Fine Arts 2
Gambling 3
Occult Knowledge 2
Seduction 3
Smooth Talking 3

Concept: Forsaken
Type: Gifted
Association: The Watchers

Attributes:
Str 2	Per 4
Dex 2	Int 2
Con 2	Wil 3

LP: 35 EP: 26 Essence: 37 Speed: 8 mph/4 yrd/s

Qualities:
Artistic Talent (Painting)
Essence Channeling 5
Good Luck
Hard to Skill 3
Increased Essence Pool 2
Natural Toughness
Situational Awareness

Drawbacks:
Covetous (Greed) 1
Recurring Nightmares
Resources -4

Skills:
Acting 3
Cheating 3
Dodge 1
Fine Arts 2
Gambling 3
Occult Knowledge 2
Seduction 3
Smooth Talking 3

Metaphysics:
Necromancy 3
Death Vessel 5
Death Lordship 1

Name: Delphi Hausman
Concept: Forsaken
Type: Gifted
Association: The Watchers

Attributes:
Str 2	Per 4
Dex 2	Int 2
Con 2	Wil 3

LP: 35 EP: 26 Essence: 37 Speed: 8 mph/4 yrd/s

Qualities:
Artistic Talent (Painting)
Essence Channeling 5
Good Luck
Hard to Skill 3
Increased Essence Pool 2
Natural Toughness
Situational Awareness

Drawbacks:
Covetous (Greed) 1
Recurring Nightmares
Resources -4

Skills:
Acting 3
Cheating 3
Dodge 1
Fine Arts 2
Gambling 3
Occult Knowledge 2
Seduction 3
Smooth Talking 3

Metaphysics:
Necromancy 3
Death Vessel 5
Death Lordship 1

Gear:
Clothes
Pack
Sleeping Bag
First Aid Kit

He Made an Ape

I think what gets me about Chi-Chian is it tries to force being weird. I think this is where it goes wrong. You should just let weirdness unfold instead of trying to jam shit in until it fits.

Also, update!

*****

Name: Justice Mask
Concept: Champion
Type: Supernatural
Association: 

Str   13(+8)	Per 5
Con 8(+3)	Int  5
Dex 7(+2)	Wil 5

LP: 109 EP: 83 Essence: 88	Speed: 30 mph/ 15 yrd/s (on all fours)/ 15 mph/7.5 yrd/s (on two legs) 

Qualities
Face
Giant
Gift
Good Luck 4
[s]Human[/s] Gorilla Suplex Machine
Hard to Kill 4
Heat Channeling 7
High Flyer
Hoss
Increased Essence Pool 9
Jump 5
Natural Gorilla
Nerves of Steel

Drawbacks
Adversary (Army of Revelations) 6
Honorable 3
Negative Buoyancy
Obsessed (Drive the monsters into the mat!)
Partial Biped
Resources (Miserable)

Skills
Acrobatics 5
Acting 1
Brawling 5
Climbing 2
First Aid 3
Instruction 2
Martial Arts 5
Myth and Legend (Aztec Demon Busting) 3
Survival (desert) 2
Weight Lifting 2

Drop Kick 5 d4 x 15
Pile Driver 5 d6 x 14
Power Bomb 5 d4 x 14
Northern Lights Suplex 5 d4 x 14
Frog Splash 5 d4 x 14
Clothesline 5 d4 x 14
DDT 5 d6 x 14
450 Splash 5 d4 x 14

The Rules

As a measure, in the time it took me to finish this, I have:
-Finished the DRYH hack I started when Kult was reviewed.
-Written 20+ pages of a D&D demake.
-Moved my brother into his house.
-Baked 1250 scones in under twenty four hours.
-Sold fifty the following day.
-And a slew of other stuff.

So here is what I've been putting off.

*****

While long overdue, it's time for...

Armageddon: The End Times review part I've forgotten. The Rules.

Opening fluff! It's about a tank commander in South America. We get first mention of the Holy Fist, which are the fuck off huge tanks the Churchies roll around in. Turns out, a M1A2 is more than capable of putting a round through one, although they tend not to explode. Also, AoR assaults often get accompanying air cover from Lovecraftian horrors. But it's cool, miniguns shred the shit out of them. Eventually, the allied forces get overrun and they fall back to a secondary point. Wooo!

I'm not going to post everything from the text, but I'll cover the mechanics and lingo unleashed in this chapter and the first new word is Chronicler ! Just what Armageddon chooses to call the DM. Also, next section is advice that you don't need to roll for everything and gives a break down of things you should just let happen: talking (unless the character is being muted), everyday actions that anyone can do, and traveling. And advice that dice should only be thrown when the outcome is in question.

Dice! You only need four types: ten sided (most important), eight, six and four, and how they are denoted (d#). Ten sided are used in Task/Test determination and damage dealing, and you can substitute 2d6-2 is you need to. The other three are used for damage determination. Simple! More advice that you should avoid rolling for everything and watch for players who fall into that habit. And the book flat out states that you can and should fudge rolls if the roll does more harm than good. There are two side bars on these two pages: one that gives advice how to use just d10s and use of the damage listed in parentheses on the weapons table and the second deals with using cards or storytelling to play as optional rules. I always thought this part was neat.

Alright, so all challenges in Unisystem are resolved by rolling d10 with anything nine or higher being a success. There are two types of events where you roll: Tasks and Tests. Tasks are d10+attribute+skill and any modifiers. Tests come in Simple and Difficult. Simple Tests are d10+2xAttribute where as difficult is just d10+Attribute. The example we're given for the difference between these two is lifting something with your whole body and lifting something with one hand. I presume that one handed one is hauling it over your head or with it being of a considerable weight.

Determining what attribute to use in a given instance breaks down pretty much how you expect it. No surprises here. Unskilled Tasks eat a penalty of a minimum -2 and can never get over a decent result on a roll, and really complex skills (surgery and the ilk) face -6 and up or outright failure if you don't have the training. Resisted Rolls follow the same as basic Tests or Tasks only if both parties fail, no one gets anything done.


Best of Friends, Al Hudud ash Shamaliyah defense line- Fall 2016

These dice are exploding. On a roll of ten, roll again, subtract five. If at five or below, you add nothing to the roll. If you roll another ten, you add five and roll again. This goes on as long as you roll tens. If you roll a one, you pretty much do the exact same thing only with 1-4 getting you a -5 through -1 and above five a 1 on the roll. So, as you can see, you can do spectacular things with a little bit of good or bad luck.

Back to back tables, one small, one large. The small one is the modifiers table. The large one is the outcome table. Here are the modifiers.

• Routine: No roll required.
  
• Easy: +5 or more to the roll.
  
• Moderate: +3 to +4 to the roll.
  
• Average: +1 to +2 on the roll.
  
• Challenging: This is where most combat rolls fall. No modifier.
  
• Difficult: -1 to -2 on the roll.
  
• Very Difficult: -3 to -5 on the roll.
  
• Heroic: -6 to -9 to the roll.
  
• Near Impossible: -10 or worse.
  

• 9-10 Adequate: You did a thing! Base level of success
  
• 11-12 Decent: You did above average. Social bonus to future rolls is +1, decrease time to do something complex by 10%.
  
• 13-14 Good: Congrats, you've done something noticeable.
  
• 15-16 Very Good: Uh, better than the above. Notable as this is where extra damage on attacks starts to roll in, and higher point based characters are regularly going to hit around here on low rolls.
  
• 17-20 Excellent: Needed to save your grades in high school while using a time traveling phone booth to collect famous historical figures. Not really, but I'm running out of things to say.
  
• 21-23 Extraordinary: Uh, well, this is extraordinary. If you've been keeping track, all complex tasks are done in half their time, social bonus for future rolls against characters in a similar situation are at +5 and damage is at +3 damage before multipliers.
  
• 24+ Mind Boggling: Every three above twenty three is a success level and social/damage bonuses go up by one per level.
  

Tools

Been putting this thing off for a while. Alright, so here comes the

Armageddon Review: This poster is a huge Tool.

Or the section on tools. Not super exciting, so finding the energy to read it was a bit tough.

Opening fiction! Set in Saudi Arabia, it's a short blurb from an American officer's viewpoint. He's astounded that Israelis, Muslims and Christians are fighting together as a cohesive and ass kicking unit when they were at each others' throats just ten years earlier. Enter Israeli officer who says its because the Jews have been to the same rodeo that the Church is running once before (hint: it was the holocaust) and everyone else is getting a taste. Also, everyone stomped the radical elements out of their societies when shit hit the fan in the Middle East and realized they all believed in the same God. And then angels soar overhead bearing flaming swords and heading for the battle in the distance.


Goblin Hussars are thing you could do with a clever GM or a Book of Yesod. Since there is no Book of Yesod, pray for a clever GM.

The introduction is a breakdown of the mechanical bits items possess. They have a description, a range which is a measure of yards/meters that a weapon is considered at point-blank/close/medium/long/extreme range, damage which is how hard they hit, cap which is ammo capacity and given as a range, encumbrance value which measures weight and bulk as a Imperial/Metric and cost .

Weapon types! Melee weapons are more common in the End Times because angels, gods and superhuman types go nuts with them. They use dex and the appropriate fighting skill. A pair of rules state that any melee weapon being used two handed counts as str+1 for damage calculations and any stabbing or slashing damage that makes it through armor is doubled. This last one is going to pop back up and is another reason why a shoot out in the Unisystem is nasty business.

Ranged weapons are not statted for realistic detail and if you don't like that, Mr.Carella says you can fill it in to be more exact. Some rules for different bullet types, and two of three types double or triple damage that make it through armor while the third halves any armor value between it and the target.

Explosives are interesting. They're more abstract than in real life and come with three range bands: ground zero, general effect and maximum range. Ground zero is where you catch the full concussive effect and fragments, general effect is where you are more likely to be injured by shrapnel and maximum range is the point where the ability to cause casualties rapidly drops off. Of note is that standard armor only counts half its value at ground zero of an explosion. Rockets and missiles do not have the range bands and instead divide armor value by a set number before doing damage.

Armor has an armor value, which is a number/die with a multiplier and value added to it. It's rolled whenever you take a hit and subtracted from damage. There is also an encumbrance value just like weapons, and wearing two different kinds of armor is actually not really that beneficial.

That's kind of it for the rules. There are a bunch of descriptions for items through out and I'm going to cherry pick the more interesting/unique ones for the setting.

• Katana : Just because it's goony as fuck. Does as much as a bastard sword for half the encumbrance value. Costs two and a half times as much though.
  
• Chainsaw : Does as much as the katana but has ten times the EV. Only reason to use this is for flavor.
  
• M16A4 : Not only does it get future sights that let it fire around corners, but it gets wicked awesome AP ammo.
  
• HAR-19 : I hate to reference something from another setting, but it works really well. Ever hear of how a bolter from 40k operates? Yeah, pretty much that. Gets the benefits of AP ammo and normal ammo damage doubling. So if your GM tosses you one of these, prepare to run into a huge mass of nasty in the near future.
  
• US Combat Armor/AoR Battledress : To further the 40k references, this is stormtrooper armor. Armored body suit, heavy armor over arms and legs, environmental seal and super durable. I figure the AoR looks more malevolent, probably has skulls all over it.
  
• Holy Fist Heavy Tank : The AoR's mainline tank. Double turreted with enough armor and weaponry to engage and survive against anything short of a mythic level character. Also only present in limited numbers.
  

Associations for You and Me

Hellas would be good for portraying it if you know the Vedic myths appropriately. The entire chargen system is designed to end with you creating a character in the vein of Perseus, Achilles or other Greek heroes at the start of their myth cycles. A big chunk of the character chapter is just tables and tables to rule on or choose from to build your character's backstory. Plus it is set in the future, so you can have your table's myth span the planets.

I'm just going to edit this in here.

****

No excuses, mostly laziness is responsible for the lateness of this post.

Armageddon the End Times: Associations for you and me. Part 1

This is going to be one big info bomb as most of the mechanics for the various factions was taken care of back in chargen. So put on your comfy pants, it's story time!

Opening fiction! Some Churchies attempt to strong arm the narrator into giving up his arms smuggling operation in Thailand to them. The drugs, women and arms he smuggles is more valuable than the price they're offering, so he gets them off guard and then hulks out, revealing he is actually a fallen angel and opens the floodgates of a beatdown. Shit dies, monsters lament and the story ends with the narrator setting out to find who set him up.

Brief blurb about how you either fight against or for the Mad Gods as neutrality just gets you merced. It also lays out that these are just the six biggest associations in the world at the time of the game. There are others in the Witchcraft supplements that I can go over later if there is any interest.


A mundane soldier, a Seer and a Canadian werebear. Why is the werebear Canadian? It just strikes me as the logical place for one to come from.

Alliance

The biggest organization for the good guys, it is a melting pot of everything in the setting and its sole purpose is to put boots to Church of Revelation asses. Founded by the Archangel Michele when she started linking up with groups that wanted to save the world. Odin then found out, thought it was the bee's knees and joined in with the Aesir in tow. To round out the the 'Wow' factor, a powerful human ghost joined.

He claims to be Ben Franklin.

The Alliance currently knows the most about what is happening in the occupied territories (concentration camps, inhuman metamorphosis, the works), Leviathan and the Church. Their primary goal is to keep Big L from making it into reality. They do this by supporting the free countries, resistance movements, info gathering, ass beatings and recruitment.

The Alliance itself isn't really a monolithic organization, more like something you join while working with your original group. They have a large volume of links to both mundane and metaphysical information and they use this to maximum effect. People who work for the Alliance and no one else get shipped around the world as part of team. They operate as cells with very little knowledge of anything outside their group, thus minimizing danger if they get comprised or taken down.

The war has changed it, though, creating logistic problems as its size grows as well as allowing individuals within it to try and gain personal power. Which is a problem given the whole reality ending entity trying to break in bit that is going on. Many of the agents in the field are also becoming callous and apathetic when it comes to taking action, leading to people getting caught in the cross fire. This is a bad thing for many reasons.

The section on Allies and Enemies is huge. It literally contains every Covenant released for Witchcraft plus the Associations from the book. I'll nail some highlights.

• The Combine: The original big bad from Witchcraft, it is every conspiracy theory rolled into one and stripped of anything overly magical. The rise of the Church of Revelations destroyed it, but a few remnants exist and they're helping in the fight against Armageddon.
  
• Rosicrucians: The group of magicians that see magic as a tool for personal growth and advancement. They helped the Alliance initially, but once they found out they were working with the Infernal Legion, they threw up the double birds and bailed.
  

• Ethereals : Effectively mystic automatons. They lack free will.
  
• Kerubim : Former humans that somehow attained angelhood. Lowest rung of the true angels.
  
• Elder Kerubim : In charge of the kerubim, they only answer to Greater Seraphim and the Council of Four.
  
• Seraphim : Those angels that descended from the Sephyr.
  
• Greater Seraphim : The heavy hitters and commanders among the seraphim.
  
• Archangels : Greater seraphim that are more like the Sephyr than others. Lose their power when they descend to Earth.
  
• Council of Four : The four Archangels in charge of this all. In truth, Gabriel runs the show.
  

• Gabriel : The cunning leader of the Heavenly Host. Identifies as male and Lucifer says he is the one that came up with ideas behind The Flood and extermination of mankind.
  
• Uriel : The angel of fire and retribution and with a temper to match. It was his plan and his action that loosed ten thousand angels over Rome.
  
• Raphael : Hangs out with kerubim and focuses on making the world better and battling its ills.
  
• Michel : She is personally responsible for Lucifer and the rebels being cast out and the formation of the alliance once she discovered what Gabriel had done.
  
• Sophia : The angel of wisdom and Gabriel's choice to replace Michele because she was quiet and withdrawn. Since being brought into the Council of Four, she challenges Gabriel's decisions.
  
• Azrael : Angel of death and keeps to himself. He can go toe-to-toe with either Gabe or Lucifer if he wanted.
  
• Barakiel : Angel of lightning that strode across the sky, trading lightning bolts with Zeus, Thor and their like during the Celestial War. :blackmetal101:
  

• Fiends : Are the bottom rung. They're big, dumb and mean.
  
• Qliphonim : The damned who are given a chance to serve instead of suffering. Huge assholes.
  
• Elder Qliphonim : If the qliphonim are assholes, these guys are planets comprised of assholes. Many of the best manipulators in hell are elder qliphonim.
  
• Fallen : Those angels that backed Lucifer. Tend to be powered by negative emotions and wear alien forms.
  
• Demon Lords : Skilled fallen that hold positions of importance and power.
  
• Dark Archangels : Fallen archangels. There are actually more archangels in the Pit than in Binah.
  
• Hierophants : The fallen version of the Council of Four, only with more than four. They run shit because Lucifer lets them and only because of that.
  
• Lucifer : The big man. Runs everything in the Pit of Abaddon and no one really knows much about his motivations currently.
  

The End Times Factions Part Deux