World of Synnibarr by Zereth

World Summary

posted by Zereth Original SA post

Welcome to..

_{Image taken from the WTF D&D article on Synnibarr}

I'm sure you've all heard of Synnibarr by now.

Raccons, Talking. Raven c.s. McCracken himself. But you haven't really experienced it like I have.

Let's start with the back cover.

Ah, where to start.

No, seriously, where do I fucking start? The fact that Synnibarr is MARS ? The fact that it implies that this game won't "limit your imagination" or your character's abilities with its four separate ways of making a character, most of which have weird ass restrictions on them? "The specific for characters to engineer and create their own" assorted shit, which has very, very little rules backing it up?

"If you have imagined or dreamt it, you can live it within The World of Synnibarr. " As we'll see, this is grossly inaccurate. This is not a generic system by any means.

By the way, as page iv states, "This book is not intended to foster any belief in the occult." So don't start beliving in magic and faeries, guys.

The book itself opens with "Introduction & Welcome", with a quote from... somebody? stating "Into imagination's fury I plunge thee. Ride the storm and ye shall be enriched." It then gives a history of how the gameworld came to be.

In short, some jackass named Aridius was born, and he was so fucking awesome at magic he became a god (Specifically of Hope and Command). Eventually he wandered the "vast universe and the 100 dimensions" and found Earth, and converted its inhabitants to his worship, and made Jesus. At least that's what I'm getting out of this.

And after watching Jesus do his thing for a bit, Aridius was summoned by the "Father of All" becuase the powers of Darkness, with the aid of the God of Time, were attacking from the "dread dimensions of Shadarkeem ¹ ". The footnote then states that Shadarkeem is the birth dimension, singular, of the gods, and only Venderant Nalaberong works there, so gods turn into mortals if they go there. More on Venderant Nalaberong later.

The Gods of Light then locked everybody up in Shadarkeem in "a temporal suspension", leaving the demigods to run shit. This made a bunch of suns blow up becuase they were chumps. Scientists noticed this and didn't know what the fuck, but figured out where the "stellar storm" was going and warned planets in its path, including Earth, who had recently found Jesus. He was in the Amazon the whole time, apparently. They decided he was a god, prayed to him to save them. He couldnt' teleport them to saftey, though, so he turned Mars into a giant starship instead . Specifically, he hollowed it out, making it double the volume of earth (Yes, volume, not diameter. I'm not how this worked), turned the "excess matter" into vegetations and oceans, inside and out, and embedded the "organic electronic control network" for the environment and gravity in the 30-mile thick shell. Thus was created the Worldship Synnibarr. Also he put some engines and shit in it, and rested for three months.

According to legend he made it like this so people would stop fighting over territory when he teleported them to it without their nukes.

Then he teleported over all the animals, and picked 400 men and women to be ADVENTUERERS. With special powers and abilities! Each class was different, yet depended on each other for survival! So that's why this game has classes.

BUT WAIT! Radiation and aliens might fuck shit up! So he encased it in a "Werestorm". Which has nothing to do with lycanthropes. The "Were-" prefix shows up a lot, and NEVER has anything to do with lycanthropes or therianthropism. I don't think the game has any, in fact. The game doesn't mention what a Werestorm does at this point, of course. Then he rested for three months.

And now, he actually teleported people to it, mostly inside, and fiddled with people's minds to implant the suggestion "Work together". Then he went to sleep for 30,000 years.

Now, with only 2 months left before Sol blew up, it was time to leave! Except wait, a "child was born whose heart was as black as hell itself". A Mutant! With a capital M. She was born, then 15 minutes later she was an adult, and for some reason she went to the fusion reactor powering the engine and tried to eat its power, and blew up, irradiating the interior of the worldship and killing everything inside it except for 1500 humans near a tunnel to the surface. They went to the Terra Isles, and then another Mutant showed up, ran back to the controls, and repaired the reactor just in time . So the crippled worldship limped away.

During the trip, the radiation shields or something weren't working right, so some gamma radiation mixed with the other radiation and shit from the damaged reactor and drives and out popped the first drake, the paradrake. Somehow. And then it was found by an Alchemist, who then made a bunch more kinds of drakes and hydras, wanting a sweet army, but he did it TOO WELL and they turned on him. So then, the biggest and baddest of the hydras, the Midnight Sunstone Hydras, stole his knowledge and granted the other hydras and drakes intelligence and established a social order, which lasted for a while before the drakes went "fuck this shit" and rebelled, and there's still fighting going on to this day.

There have been conquering attempts six times, two by aliens, once by evil mages and alchemists, and three by Dark Lords and great evil powers. Fortunately there are ADVENTURES to hit them until they stop!

5000 years ago, the place finished its journey and has spent the time orbiting the Planet of Peace without incident.

Sometime within the last 18,000 years, a plague wiped out most of civilization by making people stupid, but it's since been cured, and a couple places still have records.

And that brings us to now!

If this didn't make much sense, good, I got it across perfectly.

Next time: The Glossary! Which contains important mechanical information not duplicated anywhere else in the book.

The Glossary

posted by Zereth Original SA post

Oh no. It's much more stupid.

In fact, I'll get to the glossary RIGHT NOW! Except the glossary does not mention werestorms, werewinds, or weremen.

The World of Synnibarr, Part 2: The Glossary

Immediately after the origin story and a boring timeline comes the glossary, full of all kinds of information, including a few mechanically important things you don't find anywhere else! I won't be going over most of this now because it'll come up later, but some of it is hilarious.

For one thing, one of the first entries is "10ths". Which is damage reduction! See, 1 10th means you divide (usually only physical and energy) damage you take by 10, two by 100, etc. The most you can have inherently is 4, and another 4 from worn armor (which has its own hitpoints and gets damaged and I'll go over that later.)

And initiative is called "Advantage" because why not.

Alchemy is "a force within the Centiverse similar to technology but more akin to magic", and is not in fact about magical chemistry and potions and turning materials into other materials much of the time, but has a lot more energy beams and shit, becuase this is Synnibarr.

Aura is your alignment, basically, but might change based on your mood.

Death is defined here (Yyou die at negative 1000 "life points", which may seem like a lot but is nothing in this system), and I can't remember if this turns up again in the combat chapter, so I'm putting it in.

EGs are "electrons in gravimetric suspension", and one of them is equal to 10,000 kilowatt-hours. This is how most portable shit is powered in the World of Synnibarr for some reason, although if you take it to a place where 'high technology" doesnt' work for a while it'll break.

The GM is called Fate, and PCs can do something called a "Fate Roll" which is not seemingly related to the GM being Fate, but is instead a roll on percentile dice. It is basically saving throws, only there's a shitload of categories.

"Midnight Sunstone" is one of the hardest substances "that can exist", and is a crystalline metal found near midnight sunstone creatures, and is used to generate "Midnight Sunstone Energy", "Also known as Pure Psionics". Which is a "blue-black beam with a pure white light at its core".

"Organic Electronics" are like electronics, only they use protein molecules instead of integrated circuts, and also use synapses and neurons to sort of think or something. You need to use these instead of conventional electronics if you want to generate magic or shit, but you can also do normal electronics stuff at half the power drain and 10% of the size.

The Powers: These are various types of weird-ass magic, and include Magic, Psionics, Earthpower, Alchemy, Mutations, Chi, with special categories for Venderant Nalaberong, Pure Psionics, and God Power. However, they only work in the presence of Caprenium Radiation, which is caused by the combination of caprium and technentium. But fortunately those are omnipresent! But their effect might be drowned out by other types of raidaiton so powers might not work in some places. This isn't mentioned in the glossary, but "Werewinds" and "Werestorms" are one of the ways of nullifying most Powers.

There's a combat move called "Sacrifice", which is, uh. Attacking a guy first instead of dodging. I don't know why it's called "sacrifice".

And now, king shit of fuck mountain of important mechanical non-duplicated information, Venderant Nalaberong.

Venderant Nalaberong is "the strongerst force in the Centiverse", which cannot be affected by any other type of power, including God Power (which is what gods use, if you couldn't tell from its strange arcane name). Also known as "The Tounge". It's a "Special form of pure magic practiced by only a few", and is the language the elder gods used to make the Centiverse. "This language cannot be spoken or written by anyone unskilled in its use." Remember that, it's going to come up later. You learn it by trying to read an example and making an Ego Roll, which you can't repeat unless you manage to improve your character's intelligence by some means. (Ego is the use of your Intelligence and your Wisdom, but raising your Wisdom doesn't let you make another roll like Int does for some reason.) Once you learn it, you become a spellcaster in Venderant Nalaberong, which means you can cast pre-existing types of spells only with VN backing it up, which means only other VN-backed things can stop them. How do you make ego rolls, you may ask?

YOU DON'T.

That's right. I've read this book cover to cover multiple times and never found any rules for either ego rolls or general stat rolls. Nobody can ever learn Venderant Nalaberong, ever.

Join me next time for a 9-page example of play!

Character Creation, part 1

posted by Zereth Original SA post

It's time once again for The World of Synnibarr!

Part 3: The Example of Play
A Mage Warrior, a Ninja, and a Chameleon Drake recuse an Elvome or something, and also lose their ship becuase they lost the unnecessarily complicated coin flip.

Part 4: Character Creation
I'm going to be stepping through this and actually creating a character myself, using physical dice. And keeping track of the number of times I have to roll dice, and the number of choices I get to make.

First step is generating my "Basic Charactersitics". I roll 7 20-sided dice.
I get results of 14, 14, 7, 6, 5, 2, and 1. (7 rolls)
Now I reroll anything under 8 until I have seven results equal to or greater than 8.
So that's another 5 rolls, resulting in 12, 12, 8, 19, and 13. (12 rolls)
I now discard the two lowest results (12 and 8), and roll until I have a result better than the highest one I dropped.
I roll an 18 first try, for 13 total rolls, and stats of 19, 18, 14, 14, 13, 12.

Now I must choose which of the four separate methods of proceeding I use:

• Traditional: I roll on the table of classes three times, rerolling any I don't meet the stat requirements for, and then picking one of the three.
  
• Basic Races: I choose from Aquarian, Dwarf, Elf, Gnome, Human, Weremen, and Winged Warriors, and then have them enter one of the Alchemist, Archer, Mage Warrior, Gnome, Shaman, Ninja, Shadow Master, and Tiger guilds. I get some of the abilities from each, based on how they're classified and it's all kinda confusing.
  
• Non-Classed Adventurer: I determine my "Starting skill points", which only happens for this and the next option, by adding my basic characteristics together and doubling the result. In this case, I would have 180 skill points to spend. I then either choose or randomly roll to be a dwarf, elf, gnome, or human. I may now spend the remaining points on skills, mutations, and cybernetics.
  
• Variant Races: I generate the points as in the previous step, only I then choose off the table of various monsters I can be, some of which are ridiculously awesome and some of which are pretty lame. Several of the guild races are also on this list, generally massively overpriced. I can actually afford to be an Ice Lott, which is one of the actual reasons you'd want to use this.
  

However, I am goign to use the Traditional method, becuase it's unnecessarily stupid, and was also the only one in first edition. So, three more rolls (16), resulting in 9, 13, and 15, for... Gnome (requirement: one stat 14+), Psielf, (20, 19, 19, 18), and Shadow Warrior (18, 18, 16). I only qualify for Gnome, so that's another two rolls (18), of 16 and 20, for Shaman (17, 17), and Winged Warrior (anything).

I can now choose (1 choice) between being a Gnome, a Shaman, or a Winged Warrior. I don't feel like messing with spellcasting right now, so I choose to be a Winged Warrior. I must now assign my ability scores, and apply the class bonuses (+1d6x10 strength, +3 agility).

I choose (2) to place my stats a follows: Constitution 14, Strength 13, Agility 19, Dexterity 18, Intelligence 14, Wisdom 12. I roll(19) a 4 for strength bonus, giving me a final Strength of 53 and Agility 22. My Ego is the sum of Intelligenc and Wisdom, 26.

I now roll(20) for random mutations, the chance of which is 5% becuase I'm not a Mutant or Bio Syntha Cyborg. I roll a 23, so I don't have any random mutations. Now I roll for random psionics, and the table informs me that becuase my intelligence is between 10 and 16, I have a 5% chance. A result of 42 means I do not have random psionics.

Now I go note down all the shit I get from my stats! Having an agility of 22 or 23 means I get an Advantage(init) Bonus of +1.5, and two attacks per turn, meaning I act on combat segments 6 and 11. A Dexterity of 18 gives me a further +1 Advantage, for total +2.5, a Shot Bonus of +4(to-hit, rolled on d100), a Dodge Bonus of +10, and a Surprise Adjustment of -7. My base dodge is twice my agility plus the Dodge Bonus, for a normal dodge of 54, and a Beam Attack Dodge of 75% of this, or 40.5. My block score is equal to my dodge.

My 54 Strength means my maximum lift is 3,700 pounds, and when I hit with a weapon, I add 10 points of damage to its base dice, and then multiply the result by 19. High strength is really good. I'm goign to go out of order and consult chapter 12 here for the throwing objects chart, which indicates I can throw a 370 pound object at 243 miles per hour a distance of 6,660 feet, and the object will take its weight in pounds in damage, modified by the value on the strength chart in mph it was moving. 240 is x85 damage, so this hypothetical 370 pound object would take 31,450 damage (before damage reduction) when it hit something over a mile away.

My wisdom of between 8 and 14 gives me a 30% chance to locate traps. My constitution of 14 gives me +140 Life Points, of which I have 1d6*100, and I roll(21) a 1, giving me a total of 240 life points. I am flimsy as hell. I also have a bunch of base Fate rolls, but I'll get to those later in another update.

My Ego of 24 gives me +2% Fate bonus verses Magic, Psionics, and Earthpower, and non Reaction Adjustment (which makes people like me more). I now roll (22) for my current Ego Flux, getting a result of 31, indicating that my Personality is "Good+", although this isn't explained. Once I reach level 25, I need to re-roll this.

I now note down my base surprise scores, which are fixed off a table based on my class. I also apply my dexterity-based surprise class adjustment.

I now have to roll for my physical appearance! I am a (22) 1d6=3, Female; (23) 1d6=4, Indian; with (24) 1d6=5, Silver hair; (25) 1d8=3, Gray eyes; who is (26) 1d100=84, Left handed; (27) 48+6d6=74 inches tall, with a wingspan of 148 inches because I'm a Winged Warrior, who weighs (28)1d6*10+90=120 pounds, and I am 1d6=4 of average appearance. I am (29) 18+(1d4-1)=19 years old, and will die of old age at 85.

I now roll (30) for my starting social status and (31) resulting money! I roll a 45, indicating I am of Normal status, giving me 1d20*1000 starting $. I have $10,000 starting cash.

I now choose (3) my Aura, which is basically alignment. I choose the Neutral alignment of Green becuase it's slight on the "good" side, resulting in one of the only auras which doesn't have draconian behavior limitations and/or make you a psychopath.

I now read the section on Karma, which boils down to act according to your alignment or the GM will screw you, and if you do really well you get a point which can give you +2 to all abilities on your next character. Also, "Both types of karma are kept track of by Fate and the player and do not pass from one referee's campaign to another without express consent." Implying that characters might do so without express consent.

And now, I need to go find my class description and copy down all the shit I get! First I get "skills for all Guild-Trained Adventurers", which consists of "Balancing and Juggling; Climbing; Combat, Dodging and Blocking; Combat, Hand-Held Weapons; Combat, Hand-to-Hand; Combat, Projectile and Throwing Weapons; Computer Operation; Cooking; Detect Traps and Secret Doors; Fishing; Math, Basic; Medical, First Aid; Navigation, Air; Navigation, Land; Navigation, Water; Piloting, Boats; Reading; Running; Sewing; Survival, Wilderness; Swimming, Basic; Weaving ; Wood Carving; Writing".

As a Winged Warrior specifically, my Natural Abilities are Enhanced Senses, giving me "enhanced" sight and hearing with no explanation of what that means, double visual range compared to a human and 20% bonus on surprise rolls (which I think is separate from my base surprise class for some unclear reason); two inherent 10ths of damage reduction; 50% resistance to magic, psionics, and earthpower; +5% on my dodge when flying; "Two steel-hard feathers I can use as weapons", which do 1d8*100 modified by strength adjustment (I think these are part of my wings, but it doesn't specify), and the additional skills of Acting, Comedian, and Hunting. My Basic Abilities are... oop. (32 rolls) a 50% chance of having a "master mutation". I roll a 36, so I do! I'll get to that later. I also have Psionic Tracking, at a 50%+1% per level chance, with unlimited range, which allows me to lock on to up to five "things" at a time, as long as I do so within five days of having last seen it. I also have a permanent Cloak of Mist in my skin, as per the third-level Mage Warrior spell Cloak of Mist. This means I am invisible to clairvoyance, crystal balls, sense-life forms, enhanced awareness, detect danger, and locate person or object spells, from people of equal or lower level.

I also have special Winged Warrior abilities! I roll (33) a d4 to see how many I have, and get a 3, indicating I have 1. (A roll of 1 or 4 gives me 2, while 2 or 3 gives me 1. ) I then roll (34) for both of them (35) randomly, getting results 1 and 2, Quickness and Super-Strength. Quickness takes... 1/4th attack to use, can costs 1 Con Point per turn, and gives me +10% dodge, +1 attack/turn, and +1 Advantage, while Super Strength takes the same time, costs 2 con points per turn, and adds 200 strength, plus 10 per level after 5th, to my strength score while in use, letting me throw things even farther away.

Now, back to that Master Mutations. Mutations come in lesser, Master, and Major, increasing level of awesomeness. I roll (36) to find what I have, getting a result of 92: Tricancellation! This lets me either create a beam, or make a flat 10-foot diameter shield, which will "cancel any of the three powers stated in the next paragraph when the beam strikes a person or monster". Or I can shoot it at a spot, creating a 20-foot plus 10 foot per level sphere which will nullify am area, and a bunch of fiddly shit about levels of "the spellcaster" ( ) and using more Con points and blah blah blah. It will cancel magic, psionics, earthpower, chi, mutations, alchemy, or "energy", but only three at once, which I specify when I make the beam or shield.

I now get to choose (4) how to spend my whopping 10 skill points. Because I am tryign to make Synnibarr look bad, I learn Motion Picture Direction and Cryptography for 5 skill points each. Except then when I check what my base chance of success at them is (my ego score, for a whopping 24% on cryptography, and ego +10 for motion picture directing), I find that I need to know Linguistics, Math, Basic, Reading, and Writing for Cryptography, and I don't know Linguistics, and Cinematography, Holography, Math, Basic, Photography, Reading, and Writing for Motion Picture directing. So instead I learn Landscaping (2 points, 65%+5% per extra skill point), Massaging (2 points, Ego score +20%, +25% per extra skill point), Mime (2 points, Ego +35%+1 per skill point),Glass blowing (2 points, 60%+5% per extra point), and Combat, Grappling (2 points, Dex + Agility, also gives me +1 to Strength) so I can actually grab people to throw them over the horizon.

I can now choose (5) how to spend my starting cash to equip myself, but I'll handle that later. I made a whole 5 choices, and rolled to randomly determine 36 fucking things during character generation.

But wait! What if we DID choose to be an Ice Lott instead? Well, we'd spend 140 of our 180 skill points on it, and gain: +1d6* 100 Strength, +2 agility, +1 dex, and 50%+15/level resistance to alchemy, psionics, and mutations, flat out immunity to Earthpower, gain 5 skill points per level after fourth, and learn all non-martial-art combat skills, Ambush, Concealment, Disguise, Impersonation, Infiltration, Moving Silently, Reading, Swimming, Basic, and Writing, the Major Mutation Thermal Kinetic(only for cold modes), the Master Mutations Metamorph and Control Body Molecules, and "Freeze instantly with touch". Metamorph lets us turn into somebody else, or heal ourselves completely, and Control Body Molecules lets us do shit like turn our hands into keys or give ourselves 3 10ths (out of maximum 4) of protection. Thermal Kinetic (cousin to Energy Kinetic, Environmental Kinetic, Gravity Kinetic, Hyperkinetic, Major Temporal Kinetic, Mass Molecule Kinetic, and Sonic Kinetic) will, in this case, let us lower the temperature in an area, fire and ice bolt which freezes somebody solid, meaning thy either die if they fail their Metabolic Shock roll, or go into suspended animation if they succeed, and we can make it a wide beam to hit multiple people at once, and make an ice shield with 3 million life points. We can't buy a lot more with our remaining 40 skill points, but we could take some "Recessive Mutations" to get more skill points. Things like Acrophobia, being blind, claustrophobic, and so on.

Tune in next time, for More character creation! Featuring the complete bullshit Immortal Born option!

Character Creation, part 2

posted by Zereth Original SA post

Ah, that's to determine the age of Winged Warriors specifically . Other guilds/races/etc start at various different ages. Plus 1d4-1, in all cases. Also, classes which MIGHT leanr spells add 7 years to their age if they did.

Okay then!

The World of Synnibarr, Part 4.5: Auras and Draconian Behavior Limitations

Thdere's nine auras, divided into three groups of three, "Good", "Neutral", and "Evil". Good consits of Gold, Silver, and Blue, Neutral Green, Violet, and Amber, and Evil Gray, Red, and Scarlet.

Gold: "Fanatically good. Hates and seeks to destroy all evil and semievil creatures, including their closest friends if may they show even the slightest tendency toward evil. They are the ultimate force for good."

Silver: "Doer of good. Hates evil but will not necessarily slay evildoers. Usually a silver aura will endeavor to stop and capture evildoers but not at the risk of a hostage's life. In this situation, silvers will not hesitate to do all they can to save the innocent."

Blue: "Heroes. They work to reform evildoers. They will not take another's life under any circumstance, not even to save themselves.They always attempt to perform rescues and will subdue and capture their quarry rather than kill them."

Green: "These characters have a tendency for the good but they also have a mischievous streak that allows them complete freedom. They will never perform evil acts except under provocation or extreme pressure."

Violet: "Totally neutral. These characters do as they wish and are concerned only with themselves. They will not perform good or evil acts unless it is necessary and not threatening to their own plans."

Amber: "A person with a tendency for mischief, who does not care for others unless they are close friends. They do not value their enemies' lives at all."

Gray: "Villain. An evildoer with a marginal respect for life. They do not kill needlessly, but will prey upon others for survival."

Red: "Evildoer. Villains( ) who tend to use killing as a way to win a conflict. However, they prefer their greatest enemies to be subdued and to grovel at their feet. They perform evil with pleasure. Still, they do not arbitrarily waste innocent lives- Unless their victim is good-natured. They will attempt to slay until they run the risk of defeat, whereupon they will cease their aggressions and retreat."

Scarlet: "A fiend. The ultimate evil. A character with this aura will actively seek out and destroy good or semigood creatures, taking extreme pleasure in slaying the innocent. These beings will turn on even their closest associates at the first sign of weakness."

Even the neutral ones are oddly restrictive.

Character Creation, part 3

posted by Zereth Original SA post

The World of Synnibarr: Part Five, More Character Generation

There's some other wrinkles to character generation. For example, if we'd had 235 skill points for the Variant Races option (requiring rolling an average of 19.583repeating for our attributes) we could afford to be a Priest of Berava!

What does this get us, you ask? It gives us a big fucking list of skills, best grade spellcasting in magic or earthpower, our choice of "Ninja or Tiger abilities learned as the traditional class" (so we're basically one of those, only better, and I think this includes duplicates of a lot of skills. The effects of this are unclear), and some excellent stat bonuses.

How excellent? While we don't get any con bonus to fuel our spellcasting and special abilities, we get +5 to agility, +3 to dexterity, +3 to intelligence, and +4 to Wisdom. Pretty nice, but not crazy.

Oh, and we get +400-900 to Strength. Note that the maximum allowed to non-Immortals is 1000. Let's assume we had 20 strength and rolled a 6 on the 1d6, giving us 920 strength. x440 damage adjustment and 160,000 pound max lift. This allows us to throw 1,600 pound objects 4,554 mph up to 316,800 feet away, or some 60 miles. Given the way the throwing chart works, we can't throw a human-sized object much farther or faster, but that's enough already. I can't find a reference to what Synnibarr's size or mass are to determine escape velocity, but the various machinery mentioned in the background is messing with that anyway.

Let's take a detour to the monster chapter to check out what a Priest of Berava is. "These people live solitary lives, devoted to their personal gardens on top of the Plateau of the Seven Springs. Occasionally they will leave to pursue their destinies, dressed in saffron robes. They are normal humans ( ), weighing from 150 to 300 pounds, and bearing the mark of their order (a small star surrounding the right eye)."

Apparently they're ridiculously awesome kung-fu monks, taken to ridiculous extremes. Although in their native environment the effects of the Center of the World mean they're a lot weaker. But if you're already under the cap imposed by that you don't get any weaker.


Surprisingly enough, this is NOT the most complete bullshit thing you can do with character generation! If you happen to roll five natural twenties on your stats, you can be an Immortal Born! Congragulations, you're HALF GOD. You get +10-100 strength, +2 to everything else, one natural 10th, and Eternal Sustenance, allowing them to survive without air, food, water, in space, and up to 500 degree heat. It's unclear what power source this uses, as it's available as a fourth-level Mage Warrior spell and a mutation, or if they need to spend Con points to use it or not. They also get TWO CLASSES. Assuming you rolled a 17.5 or higher on your sixth stat, you can make one of them a Priest of Berava and use your other on something else, or make use of the Non-Classed Adventurer option to pick up a bunch of skills you normally wouldn't be able to afford, like the ability to make your own spells and shit. You get the better of all the various stat bonuses and surprise classes and so on of your two classes, except life points, which you roll both and add together. The downside is that you have to split your Gaming Points (xp) between your classes evenly. When they die, they can come back in another body, losing any accumulated gaming points from the adventure they died on and 1d6 levels. This takes two weeks. But with the complete fucking bullshit options you can easily afford with the skill points you'll have from meeting the qualifications, why would you?

Tune in next time for Information on the classes!

Classes: Alchemist

posted by Zereth Original SA post

I've been slacking off long enough. Time for more Synnibarr!

The World of Synnibarr, Part Whatever This Is I Can't Be Assed To Check: Detailed class info part 1: Alchemists

So I went over general character creation, with an example, earlier. Now it's time for detailed breakdowns of the classes!

Alchemists are trained in a secret location, where they wont' see the outside world for 27 years, which a little math and the starting age chart indicates they're taken at age 11.

This secret location is a pocket dimension inside the Alchemists Guild Hall , where they get modified to produce Starfire, and then practice their asses off to control it, and also get the lesser mutation Analyzer. Checking the Mutations chapter, this lets you, with a 50% success rate which doesn't change based on any factors whatsoever, comprehend, operate, understand, and with the proper materials, duplicate any "electronic or technological" device. But not organic electronics.

The Alchemists also have "preserved the knowledge of Old Earth in special tomes recording the sciences", and view creating technology as a religion. And science "is a pure and provable faith". Which they rabidly guard and keep from outsiders.

They are also taught special alchemy studies, which I will go into more detail on later, and when they graduate they are given a bag of holding. Which is good becuase they'll need somewhere to keep all the spheres full of random ass shit they need for their special studies. It can carry up to 200 pounds of shit, as long as you can fit it through the "7 inches wide" mouth. (Circular? Who knows.) But anything living, including organic electronics, put in it will die (if this includes the alchemist's hand is not specified), and enchanted items, potions, and scrolls can't be put int.

They also get taught how to create technological items, which they have the tools for in their bag. "The larger tools are contained in mist crystals created by their teachers." Mist crystals are not mentioned by name elsewhere, but I think this refers to the "Transmute Matter into Mist" alchemist study, which I'll get to later.

"All Alchemists are religiously loyal to the Guild. They will perform any task given to them, even at the risk of their own lives." It mentions that this may make them not a good fit for adventuring parties, but offers no advice for dealing with this.

And then we get the Three Laws of Robotics Being an Alchemist.

Law 1: "No knowledge of the faith shall be given to non-Alchemists, nor through inaction shall you allow such to happen."
Law 2: "No non-Alchemist or engineer shall make any form of technology, nor shall they be allowed to posses the books or the machinery regarding their creation. Any such items found in the possession of unauthorized persons shall be returned to the Alchemist's Guild in accordance with the law. Violation is punishable by 'mind-wipe'."
Law 3: "No alchemist, through action or inaction, shall break or allow any other Alchemist to break laws 1 or 2, nor shall they allow rumors of such incidents to go without investigating. It is the duty of the Alchemist to keep the secrets of the faith hidden from the eyes of the world."

Although the Adeptus Mechanicus Alchemist's Guild will give somebody training and licensing if they do manage to learn how to make shit, taking a year, costing a cool million dollars, but it requires and Ego score of 48 and has only a 60% chance of success.

On to their actual abilities!
Their Natural Abilities consist of: 1d10*1000 extra cash, and a 20% discount for buying chemicals and equipment with starting cash. They also learn, on top of the previously mentioned Skills For All Guild-Trained Adventurers, Biology; Botany; Chemistry; Electronics, Basic and Repair; Glass Blowing; Math, Advanced; Mechanics, Basic; Mineralogy; Physics; And Science.

Their "Basic Abilities" consist of: The Analyzer mutation; The Alchemist's Bag; Star Bolt, letting them shoot alchemy energy at dudes, 1/day/level, or for 0.5 con points, for an amount scaling with level and is uses in many alchemy studies; Starfire Shield, which can be used 1/day/level or for .5 con points, and blocks Alchemy, Physical, and Energy attacks for an amount scaling with level, and they get Special ALCHEMY STUDIES! Level 1 alchemists get 1d4 Lesser Studies, plus 1 per point of Int over 21, and get one more at 2nd, 4th, 6th, and 8th levels. They get one greater study at 10th, 13th, 16th, and 19th level, and at 20th, one Master Study. Every 5 levels thereafter they get one more study of any category the player wants.

At 20th level, Alchemists get one free Engineering skill, including all prerequisite they don't know yet, but will still have to spend skill points to level them up. I'll be going into this in ore detail in a later post.

Now on to the studies themselves, which are off in chapter 10!
There are 13 Lesser Studies.

The first is Alchemist Armor , costing $61 in materials, which uses a "pinch of diamond, sunstone, and fire pearl crushed into a powder and mixed into a 1-inch diameter wax ball". The alchemist uses a star bolt or a con point (which, since you can generate a star bolt for 0.5 con points even if out of free casts that day, seems pointless) and give you some armor which protects against earthpower, chi, and physical damage at a rate which scales based on level. And also gives you +2 init, 1 extra attack, triple strength, and Shadow Vision as per the first level Mage Warrior spell. Why? Because this is fucking Synnibarr, that's why.

The second is Ball Lightning , costing $50, which is created by using a star bolt to vaporize a "in-inch diameter sphere filled with powdered shock vine, electric eagle gland, and neck-gland extract from a storm drake". It generates a ball of lightning which you can make move around, hit a guy for some damage which scales after 9th level, and can also be used to recharge batteries or as a light source.

Third is Bolts of Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. These are free! These are generated by opening a portal to the relevant elemental plane, which you do with a Star Bolt(are you seeing a pattern here) and saying the name of the element you want in Venderant Nalaberong. The four types of wait a minute what?

Speaking Venderant Nalaberong is not on the list of things Alchemists get, and as you may remember, the rules you need to use for learning it don't exist . So here's a study you can't ever use! WHOOPS!

Anyway, the four types create "5 tons of earth" which you can't hit people with becuase you can't use it, make 300mph winds which can tornado people around or lift 7 tons, Burn people, and create up to 2,500 gallons of water, or create "pure water" which is a powerful acid, 1 gallon plus 1 per five levels.

The fourth is Cotnrol Size , costing $10, which lets you make things up to five times larger or 1/10th of the size, and "weight is affected in the same manner". It's not clear if it means height or volume. To do this, an Alchemist mixes Starfire with an Alchemy Water Bolt... which they can't, becuase they cant' speak Venderant Nalaberong... and chants a special phrase... in Venderant Nalaberong. Also if you somehow overcome the inability to ever learn Venderant Nalaberong, stacking the effect three times to shrink something will make it implode into nothingness.

The fifth is Create Potions , which lets you make a special liquid which can absorb any type of various power into it and then drink it later for the effect! The materials cost $20,000 per potion, and require a $100,000 set of bowls, but you get those free when you learn it. The actual mixture requires you to mix powdered scales (type unclear), a pinch of mage tree bark, a quart of sunstone drake blood, and an... alchemy water bolt. Once you fail to produce the required water bolt because you can't speak Venderant Nalaberong, the next step is to summon an air elemental to contain the smoking and glowing mixture in its bowl and lift it into the air so you can shoot it with a Star Bolt. Then you go mix a gram of fur drake fur, some white pearl dust, and a... _{water bolt} ... in a special kettle which you have to go to the Guild to use, and mix it into the first bowl and cook it at night with Ball Lightning. Did I mention that you roll randomly for these and could quite easily get this study at first level without any of these other studies needed to perform it, even without the VN issue? Just checking. You have to do this at night because the "solar winds can cause the mixture to jell instead of liquefy", becuase apparently Synnibarr lacks a Van Allen belt to protect it, and you have a blank potion! What you do now is fire a spell or mutation into it 10 times, then draw 1 ounce of blood from the guy who just did this and mix it in, and you've got a POTION! Drink it and for 12 hours, you can cast it! Drink a second one and your insides explode and you die, no save! Or you can split it up into 10 parts and make lesser potions, which last for 1 minute plus 1 minute per level of the potion's creator, and you can use up to 4 of them, and they ahve charges instead of just giving you the power.

Sixth we have Ether Bolt , costing $100, which can knock people out or do shitty damage, and you make by firing a star bolt through a glass sphere containing the "essence of a lesser ether elemental".

Seventh we have the Eye of Alchemy , costing $5,000 ($4,900 of which is the reusable bowl), which uses a mixture of powdered glass, copper flakes, the eye of a rat, and some powdered flying root vaporized in a silver bowl by a star bolt, to make an eye which can float and pass through walls you can see through! It came "move at the speed of thought", although must be moving slowly to actually see shit. 5 inches across, and glows green, until 40th level when it's invisible. You can also see auras, magic, psionics, earthpower, and alchemy with it if you keep it within 5 feet.

Eighth we have Lesser Elemental Summoning , allowing you to summon lesser Air, Earth, Ether, Fire, or Water elementals, using $1 air sphere, a rock, a $2 vacuum sphere, a fire, or a small bottle of water respectively! You learn one when you get the ability, and every three levels after that you roll another until you get them all. The actual summoning requires the component and saying the Elemental's name in... Venderant Nalaberong. They're honestly pretty boring.

Ninth we have Mist of Force , costing $100, which lets you create a mist which "is a type of visible telekinesis", letting you manipulate shit in a 10 foot cube at max. You make it by Starbolting a pinch of earth and diamond dust, mixed with a drop of... an alchemy water bolt.

Tenth is Shield , costing $100, which gives you a shield against various things, but not all at once. IF can be used to block shit if "the pellet" is in hand when you're attacked, but otherwise you have to fish it out and can't do that. Pellet of what you say? The description doesn't mention it!

Eleventh is Transmute Matter into Mist , costing $5. It makes a small crystal sphere which you can braek onto an object, which will then turn the object into mist (don't worry, you get to choose, it won't blow up in your face) and suck it into the sphere which will reform. It's 4 inches accross and 4 ounces, so this is a good way to store large or heavy objects, up to 20 pounds per levle of the creator, although this can be enhanced in certain ways. You an buy empty ones form the Guild for $15. Doens't work on living things, including organic electronics, or other crystals. You make it by mixing a small burst of Starfire and... a water bolt... inside "a shield", and heat it with Ball Lightning, and you've got your sphere! Wait doesn't Ball Lightning cost $50? Huh.

Twelfth is Transmute Self Into Air , costing $25, which turns the user into air, letting them fly 70MPH and lift up to 300 pounds of stuff on top of themselves, and can't be affected by any spell other than Cancellation or those that affect air. You can use this to dodge shit. You can turn back whenever yo uwant but then it's over. Material components: Mistberry powder, combined with a pellet of giant armored bee wax and a... water bolt... and starbolted.

Thirteenth is Winds of Enforcement , costing $500, which doubles the power of any effect, spell, or mutation when used once, increasing the multiplier by 1 (so x3, x4, etc) each time you use it. It costs 3 con points plus a star bolt. The example says "4 constitution points put into a Winds of Enforcement will amplify a spell's power three times (up to a maximum of 10)." But it costs a base 3 points? You make it out of a special powder made from earth egg, mage tree bark, sunstone, moonstone, fire pearl, and nova quartz, which you starbolt a pinch of.

So, out of 13 Lesser Alchemist Studies, you can actually perform 4 and a half of them, counting Shield's pellet of :?: as the half. Even ignoring the VN issues, you're quite likely to end up with abilities you require the help of another alchemist to make the materials to use! Let's move on to the 6 Greater Alchemy Studies, shall we?

First is Alchemist Ambrosia , costing $1.01 million. When you drink it, you are cured of all diseases, poisons, wounds, restores strength and constitution and psionic points, and get the effects of Eternal Sustenance for 24 hours. But the first effects only happen at initial application. You can also bring people back to life if you administer it within 1 minute of death, giving you 1/4th of your HP and such. You make it out of 25 gallons of heal spring melon juice, 25 gallons of distilled blood orange juice, and... a pure water bolt. Then you leave it out in the sun for five days, then boil the greenish liquid down to 1 gallon, then add equal parts of gold, silver, and earth, then starbolt it up and grind it to powder. Now, toss this into a Ball Lightning, and say a... special phrase in Venderant Nalaberong. You then have to catch the tiny golden rain in a bowl and add sunstone dust, and now you have 5 doses of this shit. You get 10 doses when you learn it. Make them count, becuase you can't actually make this.

Second is Binding , which costs $1000. Simple Binding lets you bind an object or creature with "100 pounds of force per the spellcaster's level". You can either make them stuck, or allowed to roam a 100-foot-per-level (square? cubic? who knows) area. Of course, getting ridiculous strength can be relatively easy. Lesser binding costs more Con and holds at 10 tons of force, plus 1 per level after 10th. You can also bind in their powers! Or make it a cube which will bind somethign which comes into contact with it. Greater binding is how you make lesser enchanted items, and can be used to permanently bind an elemental to an item or area. The material components are

Third is Cloud Carry , costing $6,000, which lets five dudes ride a sweet-ass red cloud around, as long as the alchemist knows where he's going, and is created with powdered Tesseract Twig and mage tree back in a hollow giant clam pearl which is starbolted. At 20th level you can add a phaze drake scale and two extra star bolts to travel through up to five dimensions per use!

Fourth is Create Creature , which costs $26,500 and allows you to clone somebody from 3% of their body over two months. Or create mixed breeds. It requires a bunch of specific tools and a... Water. Bolt. After a long, detailed, and uninteresting process, including putting in 2 ounces of your blood per day and... Alchemist's Ambrosia, which does NOT produce enough per MILLION DOLLAR BATCH to last for 2 months at 3 drops per day for $10,000 for the materials, you have your own pet abomination, under your control! You can also put your creature in a mist crystal if you want.

Fifth is Reflect and Amplify , costing $1200, which lets you reflect anything, including a 50% chance to reflect Venderant Nalaberong if you've over 35th level, is reflected and does double damage, unless it's one of a various number of specific shit. It's made out of a gram of earth rot and 2 ounces of gold dust, in a 2 inch silver ball, and then you starbolt it and... Say a word in Venderant Nalaberong.

Sixth is Werewinds ! Oh boy, time to learn what the FUCK these are! It costs a million for the gold tub and slab, and $310,000 for the scales, horn, and blood. It comes in three types, the Banishing Werewind, which banshies shit to Limbo, the Disintegrating Werewind, which disintegrates shit, and the Nullifying Werewind, which cancels all forms of power and abilities except chi, Venderant Nalaberong, and God Power. Bio-Syntha Cyborgs shut down. In order to make nay of these, you need Werewind Sand, which you make out of a pound of silver dust, a cup of... water bolt... and suspend it in a whirlwind until mixed. Get the dust with your preferred air manipulation ability, then take 40 ounces of cave demon blood, some powdered scarlet drake bone, and a... pure water bolt. Mix them until they dissolve into a gas, and mix it in the whirlwind with the first mixture over a gold basin 5 feet wide, 5 feet long, and 1 foot thick. (Depth/capacity unclear.) Shoot this shit with two star bolts and a Ball Lightning, and you'll get a tiny storm of Blue Rain you catch in the basin. You have 30 ounces of this! Take the amount you're going to use and cover the basin with a gold lid so it doesn't go bad, and be careful, because this shit is explosive! To actually make a werewind, mix 2 ounces of this shit and a starbolt, which will stabilize it instead of destroying it like it does all the fucking time in other studies. Now you add powdered null snake scale for a nullifying werewind, powder golden uniwolf horn for banishment, or mist drake blood for disintegrating, and mix it with powdered earth root and mage tree bark, and let dry. CONGRAGULATIONS, YOU HAVE WEREWIND SAND WASN'T THAT EASY?

Six studies, 1.5 useable, counting Binding's componets of as 0.5.

Finally, the MASTER STUDIES!

First, Summoning Elementals . Earth needs a $100,000 earth egg, Air "five breaths of a newborn baby caught in a glass jar", fire one flawless fire diamond costing $10,000, water an alchemy water bolt in a forgotten steel jar costing $7,000,000, and ether an ether sphere that costs $10,000. The acutal procedure is almost as long and boring as cloning things, so I'll just say it requires multiple Water Bolts and words in Venderant Nalaberong and move on. You learn each type of summoning as a separate study, bringing the total Master Alchemy Studies to 6.

The other Master Study is Transmutation Crystal , costing $11,000,000 for the large gemstone. You can use it to shoot shit with a beam which will turn things into other things, as long as you have a sample of what you want to make, or have studied it if it's a creature. "No sellable gems of metals can be made until Alchemist reaches 40th level". You make it with a pure diamond or ruby, put in a whirlwind and a Ball Lightning, and hten you fire... bolts of all five elements at once, along with three words in Venderant Nalaberong. Congratulations, you and your four buddies have failed to make a Transmutation Crystal becuase you can't do either of those because you can't speak Venderant Nalaberong.

2, or 6 depending on how you count them, Master Studies, none of which are useable. THE ALCHEMIST, EVERYBODY! GOOD NIGHT!

Next time: The Amazon!

Classes: Amazons

posted by Zereth Original SA post

The World of Synnibarr, Part Oh God This Is Going To Take Forever: Class detail: Amazons

Amazons are all female, and... according to a footnote on the Physical Appearance chart, "have a 30% chance of being very good-looking". How this interacts with the 1-6 chart you roll on is not specified. They are famed as the second organized exploratory force from Terra after the Dark Age.

They are totally awesome at all kinds of shit, becuase they start their training in the womb . Amazons can control the gender and physical appearance of children they conceive, becuase this is Synnibarr. "Usually they themselves have fair complexions, green or blue eyes, and blond or brunette hair", but this isn't reflected on those tables you roll on to generate this shit.

They're indispensable to any adventuring party, because they can pick locks . They are also sweet martial artists, but becuase their class strength bonus is only +10 they can't put out the really crazy damage. But with high enough Wisdom, they can learn to use Gnome spells, becoming a "Minor Practitioner of the Art in earthpower". (That's the crappiest spell progression.) I will not actually be going over spells here, but will when I get to an actual spellcasting-focused class.

Their Natural Abilities are:
The ability to detect astral forms, and SKILLS. So many skills. They gain, on top of the Skills For All Guild-Trained Adventurers (yes it says that every freaking time ): Astral Projection; Biology; Biology, Marine; Biology, Xeno-; Climbing Walls and Ceilings; Combat, Grappling; Combat, Martial Art Disarming; Combat, Martial Art Empty-Hand; Combat, Martial Art Throwing; Combat, Martial Art Weapons; Disarming Traps; Lockpicking, Advanced; Lockpicking, Basic; Meditation; and Nerve Pinch.

Their Basic abilities are:
Being A Minor Practitioner in the Art in earthpower if their wisdom is "higher than 19", so 20 or more.
The Gold and Red Hand , costing 1 con point for Gold and 1 con point per 1,000 pounds plus 1,000 pounds per level, which, for gold, heals 20% of the target's life points plus 20% per level after second, and red harms 20% + 20% per level after first, each up to 100%. So a fifth level Amazon can instantly drop somebody weighing up to 6,000 pounds to 0% life by touching them, if they fail their save. At tenth level, the Gold Hand can be used to resurrect somebody "if 90% of the body is intact". They can do this once per day per 10 levels.
Call Spirits , useable once per day per 3 levels, within 150 feet of the location of the remains, and lets you summon somebody's ghost for a friendly chat.
Banish Spirits , useable once per day per 3 levels, banishes a a spirit, some of which can resist, one per every 5 levels of the Amazon at a time.
Control Biochemistry , which is what they use to control their unborn babies and teach them, makes the harder to affect with poison (subtract the Amazon's level from the poison's level), and if the amazon is higher level then the poison, she can produce an antidote to its effects in her saliva . So the cure to being poisoned is making out with a hot amazon, apparently. In addition to this, it gives the the following abilities:

• Imitate Death, which does what it sounds like (for up to 72 hours, and "While doing so, she must not move.")
  
• Increased Strength and Reactions, which is useable once a day per 10 levels, lasts an hour, and lets them triple their strength up to 600, gain one 10th of damage protection, and two extra attacks.
  
• Telekinesis ( ) which, "like all telekinesis, is similar to having a giant 15-foot hand at your disposal".

They also get an Amazon Toolkit! Dont' lose it, because the cost for replacing it is " demotion by two levels, with loss of all special abilities that accompany them.[i]" so if you get bumped down a rank for some reason, you actually [i]lose your powers in Synnibarr. The kit includes a radar and sonar jammer, an ultrasound viewer which "can be used to see through any substance with a density of 17 or less", which we'll get to in Chapter 4: Substance Descriptions. (Spoiler: the highest listed Density is 3.330 pounds per cubic inch. The 1st edition amazon toolkit also refers to "Density" and has much the same material chart.), an "Electron Freezer", which... "will create electromagnetic pulses that will stop the flow of all electrons within 50 feet for up to 30 minutes", thus shutting down electronic defenses and computers as well as other stuff, but don't worry, it will stop energy weapons, but not Organic Electronics so I guess it doesn't just kill people. They also get a Cod Buster, which resembles a mini-calculator, which you can also use it as, but its main purpose is to "penetrate up to 1 foot of shielding and lock onto the troublesome microprocessor". Then it does that thing you've all seen in the movies where i runs through codes until it gets them all right, usually requiring 30 seconds per digit and handling up to 20 digits. 2 minutes per digit if it has alarms. And finally, magnetic and mechanical lockpicks.

They also roll on table 35 for the number of special studies they know (1d4: 1 and 4 gives you 2, 2 or 3 gives you one), and learn another one every three levels, rerolling duplicates.

Their special Amazon Studies are:
Chi Dim Mock , usable once per day per 2 levels, of for 1 con point, which does kinda lame, not strength adjusted damage, but becuase it's Chi, ignores armor, and does more damage the better they roll. If they roll over 100 (on a d100, so they'll need bonuses), it does 5x as much damage and requires the target to make a Metabolic Shock roll or die instantly.

Chi Shout , usable once per day per 3 levels or for 2 con points, which lets them shout out a white cone whch does damage or can make people unconscious (if they weigh less than 2 tons per level)

Create Chi Objects , useable once per day per 5 levels up to 10 times per day, which lets them make a shield, a rope, a key which can bused as a lockpick, 10 shuriken doing decent damage, or simple weapons doing 10 times normal damage but not getting strength bonuses, changing to a different formula at 5th and 20th level. It's unclear if it gets the usual chi "ignore armor" thing.

Fate Call , which gives you and/or your buddies a bonus on your saves (except vs Venderant Nalaberong, Pure Psionics, and God Power), +2 to init, and a shield against physical and chi. "It can also be used to reduce rolls as well for the same amount". If the secondary effects are reversed, go away, or still happens is not specified.

Mind's Hand and Eye , useable once per day per 2 levels, which greates a visible, green, glowing telekinetic field capable of lifting seven tons, which the amazon can see what they're doing with using a "special form of clairvoyance that functions even in the dark". It has a range of five miles.

Teleport Sphere , which will teleport people anywhere known by the amazon (within 200 miles per level), and there's a 20% chance of missing your destination "unless it is known or in plain sight". So you can only teleport to places you know, and if you try to teleport somewhere you don't know you have a 1 in 5 chance of getting lost. It can teleport the user and up to 1,500 pounds, as long as the stuff will fit in a 10 foot diameter sphere.

Ward of Cloaking , which hides Amazons from "The Orb of All-Seeing, Clairvoyance, Sense Life Forms, or any type of distance locator." It requires total concentration to maintain the 10-foot daimeter + 0.5 foot/level sphere, and "the slightest disturbance will require them to roll psychic shock vs breaking their concentration". Also it drops if they attack.

and finally, Ward of Control , which works only on creatures with an ego above 10, and give the target any one-sentence command (if they fail their save), including killing themselves.

Next time, Aquamans Aquarians!

Classes: Aquarians

posted by Zereth Original SA post

World of Synnibarr, Part God Damn This Book Is 477 Pages : Aquamans. I mean Aquarians.

You're Aquaman. Turn in next time when-Oh you want details? Okay fine.

Aquarians are blue-green skinned humans that live underwater, although they can stay out of water as long as they like. They were discovered a mere 5,000 years ago, and claim to have been created by Aridius to protect the Terra Isles!

They live in a city deep below the Mushroom Spires. Hang on while I look up what the hell those are. (I said I'd read the whole book multiple times, I didn't say I remembered all of it.) Get a sandwich or something.

Okay, Chapter 7: Lands and Worlds indicates they are... mushroom-shaped islands, with the cap being about 1 mile above sea level, and are up to 200 miles wide at the top. The 37-island achipelago is about 1,360 miles long and 1,223 miles wide. So the Aquamans have a city somewhere under this mess, which by the world map looks to be at least a few hundred miles away form the Terra Isles. Becuase if you were created to protect something you obviously want to live where you can't rapidly get to it.

Anyway, they were discovered when they beat the sea drake king, after suffering 90% casualties, with his own sword when some Aquarian lady called Tendenka broke free, stole it, sand shanked him. And then they moved to their current home somewhere under the Mushroom Spires, under the protection of the "nearby" Terra. Spoiler: The main method of long-distance travel is wind-powered sailing ships.

So after doing this they traveled to Terra to go "hey look what we did", and now there's an 8-day long annual holiday about this shit.

They breathe water with their lungs, and have a psionic ability to manipulate oxygen they can use to let other people breathe underwater, or suffocate dudes with by stealing the oxygen from their bloodstream. They can also telepathically speak with sea life, and also hypnotize them. Theyve got sonar. If they're smart enough they can also be spellcasters!

Their Natural Abilties are:
Heat Vulnerability, making them take double damage from fire and all forms of energy attacks, one inherent 10th of damage protection, and they also get the Swimming, Advanced skill on top of Skills For All Guild-Trained Adventureres.

Their Basic Abilities are:
A 50% chance of one Master Mutation , which I will go into detail on when we get to mutants.
If their Int is 20 or higher, they're a Minor Practitioner In The Art in magic .
They have Telepathy With Sea Creatures which can also be used like the Lesser Mutation "Hypnosis" on aquatic creatures with an Ego of 15 or less.
Sonar gives them 360-degree vision and +10% dodge underwater
Oxygen Manipulation lets them provide air for free to 3 people up to ta total of 1 ton, with one additional person and 500 additional pounds per level, and take a surprisingly long time to kill people by sucking all their oxygen directly out of their bloodstream .

They also get SPECIAL ADAPTATIONS, rolling 1d4 on a chart identical to the Amazon studies chart except it says "Aquarian Adaptions" over it instead of "Amazon Studies". The column which tells you many you get even refers to them as "Studies".

You then roll 1d8 to determine which adapatations you get! The 8 are:
Claws , which lets you do... "10 to 600" life points, breaking the usual "1dx * 100/1000/whatever" formula. I'm not sure where to find a 60-sided die. These claws come out of your forearms and extend 7 inches past the first, letting you be Aquwovlerineman. They also secrete a 10th level poison, plus one level for every 2 levels of the Aquarian, and yes it puts it in that order. You can choose if you kill or just put to sleep your target and are immune to your own poison.

Electricity Generator , which lets you be an electric eel, and also recharge batteries.

Poison Spines , which let you fire poison darts out of your forearms 1,000 feet underwater or 100 feet above water, and are armor piercing. And homing. They will chase your target for up to 8 sets, or 40 turns, attacking them 3 times per turn. They only last one set in the air but can "crawl for up to 35 feet and jump 10 feet vertically". However, they only have 10 HP and 2 10ths damage protection, so they're pretty easy to kill if you hit. If they do manage to hit and penetrate, their venom "robs victims of their will, whereupon they cease all voluntary behaviors and do not move unless directed."

Sonic Glider , which lets you shoot a sonic beam at people which "appears as a white bolt of light", and can stun people on top of the damage. It ALSO lets you create a "manta-raylike membrane" which lets you swim at twice normal speed, which I think is passive. And also fly, at half the speed they swim. (If it means before or after doubling it for this effect is unclear.) The membrane, which stretches between your wrists and waist and the rest of your body between, lets you fly by vibrating, and you can even hover. This makes a humming sound, but not underwater.

Super Strength , which on top Aquarians have the best strength bonus in the normal classes outside of Giants (+10-60), increases your Strength by 20 points per level. If you get it twice, that's 40 points per level! But only up to 600, unless you have 3 10ths inherent damage proteciton, in which case you can get up to 800. 1000 with 4!

Telepathy , which lets you make an anti-psionics shield anywhere within 5 miles, make people pass out, use "ego disruption" which "stops the victim's mind from functioning for 1 hour after being attacked", with no clarification for what this means in rules terms, and also actually communicate with people and perform mind-scans.

Two 10ths Damage Protection , giving you a total of 3 10ths. 4 if you roll it twice, becuase you're not allowed to have more than that inherently.

And finally One Extra Adaptation , becuase "roll again twice" was too complicated or something. "A total of three adaptations may be obtained with this roll."

And there you have it: Aquaman, Synnibarr Style. Tune in next time for Archers !

Classes: Archers

posted by Zereth Original SA post

World of Synnibarr, Part Oh God I Am Going To Be Doing This Until The Day I Die: Archers!

Archers shoot things. With bows. Also, painters for some reason. No, really, "Most are artists as well as warriors, their steady hands working surely with brushes and pigment." They don't get any sort of skill for this, though, becuase there don't seem to be any art skills in the skill list.

They train in the Terra Isles' deepest forest, the "Redwood Shadow". Here they learn to shoot normal bows and arrows, and also magic arrows. They practice a specialized form of earthpower to make magic arrows and shit! Otherwise they're human.

They are "fearless and quick to come to the aid of those in danger". For example, some demigod was once fucking up a town, so 20 nearby Archers went to go stop him, and did! Only 7 of them survived, but they totally beat his ass.

They are also compulsive gamblers! Preferred poison is card games, but lacking that they'll bet on fucking anything, as the story about an archer betting ten million fucking dollars on a single wrestling match between two giants shows. (The length of the match, 16 hours, was recorded, but not if he won or lost.)

They also have a fucking awesome museum, including works of art more than 49,000 years old! It's in Flechington, made out of 20 3-story tall buildings, and a full tour is 4 days long. All archers are licensed to acquire shit for it.

Their Natural Abilities are:
+25% to hit with bows, and only bows. (Again, rolls are on a d100.)
They get, in addition to Skill For All Guild-Trained Adventures: Ambush; Archery; Concealment; Gambling; and Sniping.

Their Basic Abilties are:
Create Matter , as the second-level earthpower spell, which they can perform once per day per level, to make bows, or arrows. Or anything else they fucking want , as long s they don't make money with it. (The wording implies that they physically can't make money rather than it being against the tenets of the Archers' Guild or something.)

Spellcasting : If their wisdom is at least 20, they become first-level Minor Practitioners in the Art in earthpower at 15th level, going up by 1/level thereafter.

They can also shoot SPECIAL ARROWS! They learn all these standard arrows at the beginning of their careers:
Earthpower Arrow lets them shoot a magic arrow, with or without a physical arrow in it, for some okay damage plus the physical arrow damage. This costs nothing.

Entangle Arrow costs a con point and also doesn't require an actual arrow, but instead of extra damage it "will hold 10 ton of pressure plus an additional 1 ton per level, encircling up to a 10-foot diameter sphere. It will enclose and hold but not squeeze."

Grappling Arrow costs nothing, and CAN be used with an actual arrow but it's kinda pointless, becuase it shoots a magic grapple line which can hold 1,000 pounds plus 500 per level so don't waste an arrow. It can't be cut, and can contract at up to 30mph, letting you move up quickly, or just grab something from across the room without getting up.

Arrow of Annihilation is somehow acquired at the start of the Archer's career AND fifth level, costs 2 con points, and will utterly annihilate anything weighing under 5 tons plus 1 ton per level of the archer (so 10 tons when you get it at 5th level when your career starts) if it fails its save. If it's bigger than that, it does a good chunk of damage. You can't combine this with other arrow types, so I guess you could shoot an Earthpower Entangle Grappling Arrow?

They also learn SPECIAL ARCHER ARROWS. Randomly. Because this is fucking Synnibarr, you almost never get to choose anything. They learn two to start, plus another one every 3 levels. Oh, here's the rules on multiple magic arrow types. When you draw your bow, you can place up to 4 enchantments on the arrow at once, other than Annihilation and Nullificiation which can only be by themselves. You can in fact place the same enchantment on it up to 4 times for up to 4x the effect, so if you don't want special effects there's no reason to not just go for 4x Earthpower Arrow, becuase it's free. You also can't reflect special arrows becuase the enchantment is attached to a physical object, but on the other hand if you stop the arrow you stop the enchantment for free.

The types are:
Hunter Arrow , costing 0.5 con points, which makes it homing. It'll follow the target for 1 Set (5 rounds), attacking on segments 5, 10, and 15. Fire and forget! Breaking the arrow stops this, although if you do you're considered to have been hit with whatever other enchantment shit is on the arrow.

Invisible Arrow , costing 0.5 con points, which does damage like Earthpower Arrow, except it's invisible . Also it then informs us that it does normal earthpower arrow damage on top of saying so in the Damage entry for the power.

Nullification Arrow , which stops the victim from using "any three power types (choose from magic, psionics, earthpower, mutations, chi, energy, and alchemy)" for one set. Specified when you enchant the arrow. You CAN combine it with itself, though, so you can nullify up to 12 of those... six types. You can also use it to take down shields or "special attacks", although it doesn't explain how to do the attacks thing. You can ALSO just draw the arrow and stand there and it makes a 5-foot diameter shield in front of you, using up the arrow. It also does no damage becuase the arrow itself is used up in the process. Somehow.

Phazed Arrow , which "will pass through any defense that does not stop a phazed attack". You can only combine this with one other type of arrow at a time (but can presumably stack that other arrow up to 3x.)

Retrieval Arrow , which will grab something up to 300 pounds plus 100 pounds per level, and bring it back at up to 300 mph. In case you wanted to be Scorpion as well as Green Arrow.

Sight Arrow , which has a range of ten miles, lets you see through the arrow after you shoot it. You can also make it stop and hover for up to 5 rounds. Does no damage and can't be combined with anything other than Invisible Arrow.

Silent Exploding Arrow , which explodes. Silently. 20 foot "area" effect.

Stunning Arrow . Fail your save, you're stunned for 5 minutes, as long as you're under 300 pounds plus 100 pounds per level, unless the shooter is 15th level or higher in which case the sky's the limit on weight.

Next time, Bio Syntha Cyborgs . As a note, most class breakdowns are 1-2 pages, not counting any "see chapter 10 for further powers" shit. BSCs are a bit over 4, becuase they're actually composed of 4 sub-classes, three of which have "see chapter 10" stuff going on.

Weight in Synnibar

posted by Zereth Original SA post

Always happy to clarify something!

Synnibar Supplement: Weights

Okay, weight chart.
Dwarf/Gnomes weigh 50-100 lbs (1d6*10+40)
Giants weigh 1-3 tons (1d6/2 round up)
Elves weigh 30-80 lbs (1d6*10+20)
Winged Warriors weigh 100-150 lbs (1d6*10+90)
All Other classes weigh 151-250 lbs (1d100+150)
And Variant Races should consult their monster descriptions in chapter 17.

And let's check some shit in Chapter 17 picked at more or less random. Alentiens are... uh, made out of psionics so they don't have a listed weight. Alligator, Giant weight 1000 to 2000 pounds. Buzzard, Mutant Hatchet weight 50-100. Combra, Giant Titanium weight 1 to 6 tons. Death Porters weight 10 tons. Various types of dragons generally weight 5 to 10 tons. Grizzly, Giant Flying weight 2500 to 6500 pounds. Grizzly, Giant Sunstone weigh a whopping 100 to 200 tons, while non-giant sunstone grizzlies weight only 1-4 tons. Monkey, Spider weigh 10 pounds. Mosquito, Giant Mutated Desert weigh 2 to 6 ounces. Otter, Giant Sea weight 6 tons. Roarcarp maws weight 1 to 4 tons, and their dragons weight 100 to 400 pounds and each maw might have up to 5 dragons. Scarlet Insectivoids weight 1000 to 1200 pounds. Spider, Giant Titanium weigh 1 ton. Tuch's Phazed Plauge Beast weigh 1500 pounds. Uniwolf, Golden weigh 300 to 700 pounds. Wolverine, Black Titanium weigh 1 to 2 tons. Wraith, Temporal Were- are incorporeal spirits and lack weight. And Zombies are a virus that infects bodies so I guess there is kinda sort of undead.

Classes: Bio Syntha Cyborgs

posted by Zereth Original SA post

Man. I sort of want to play Magical Burst now, but only if all the players are required to randomly roll their characters and stick with the first thing they get.

And that's a nice look at just how half-assed FATAL is.

And now, time for more Synnibarr!

The World of Synnibarr, Part And Then After The Adventurer's Guide I Have More Shit To Do: Bio Syntha Cyborgs

Bio Syntha Cyborgs are one of the weirder things you can be, mechanically. They are, according to the description, "artificial reproductions of humans, down to their synthetic DNA. Technically, a Bio Syntha Cyborg (B.S.C.) is a biosynthetic cybernetic organism, which exactly mimics man and machine combinations." Well, that's clear as mud. You have to roll three 20s on your base stats to qualify for being a BSC, making them pretty hard to get at.

They live off "a form of energy engineered specifically for organic electronic organisms". You can use it to power your flashlight but can't use the flashlight's batteries to power your BSC.

They can also eat and drink food, gaining 150 EGs per 1% of their body mass they eat! Their maximum storage is 500 EGs, and one EG is equal to 10,000 kilowatt-hours. And BSCs do not get their own entry on the weight chart, so they weigh the generic 151-250 pounds. Somebody else can do the math to figure out how efficient they are at converting food into energy, I'm curious but lazy.

They have synthetic skin and artificial blue blood. Their bones are made of "a glasslike substance that is stronger than hadrathium", and their organs are designed to give them their cool shit.

They were originally created by the worldship's computers for defense and repair of the surface, but 50,000 years ago an explosion erased the memories of the computers that program them. Checking the timeline indicates this happened almost as soon as the Worldship Synnibarr was created so they've just been kinda wandering around at loose ends since then, I guess.

They are grown in the BSC Guild Hall by machines, yep, as old as the Worldship. Then once they're assembled they go train.

There's also somewhere inside the hollow center, a SECOND factory making BSCs. Omni BSCs. They have all four of the BSC adaptations, and a black circle tattoo on their right palm. But they're unstable and created to do evil and you can't play them no shut up steve .

As machines, they don't actually have a constitution score, but for "the purpose of Fate rolls" they're treated as having one of 20. They do have Ego scores, though, so they can go to the psychic plane, but "will exist only as phantoms or ghosts". They also can't be mind-read or hypnotized.

They do have auras, but you can't detect them unless you're using God Power or Venderant Nalaberong.

Their stored electricity creates an "artifical lfie force, which is the basis of their power." So clearly they can't use ordinary electricity but special Organic Electronics feed electricity. (all organic electronics use this, in fact). Their life force CAN be sensed by normal means though.

They can't be possessed, nerve pinched, power transferred, or have powers transferred TO them(with the specific Power Transfer spell), are immune to normal diseases, poisons, and chemicals "including Pisha Adreemus and Alchemist Ambrosia", which I think means they can't use any of the immediate healing options that aren't spell/power based. Also they can't use potions. And becuase they don't "metabolize substances as normal organic life does", they can't learn Venderant Nalaberong until they become immortal. I... don't know what those two have to do with each other, but while I'm on the topic, they also can't be Immortal Born. Presumably becuase they don't have parents.

Speaking of not having parents, this is why BSCs don't have any starting money! However though doing odd jobs during their training, they start with some clothes and $300 starting money! consistency

Also this is where it actually mentions the "must roll 3 20s thing" in their writeup. (It's also on the chart you roll to determine which three classes you can choose between.)

All four types of BSCs share the following abilities, which aren't listed as Basic or Natural, which means things can get confusing under some circumstances.

They have Natural Healing thanks to their "natural picoborgs" (read: nanomachines) which repair 100 life points per day. So an almost dead first level BSC will heal much faster than a half-dead high level BSC. Or they can just find a friendly Amazon of 6th level or higher to poke them and heal them to full instantly. Hang on while I look up healing rules. ... Okay, everybody else naturally heals 50 hp per day, we've covered amazons, and... first level users of Earthpower appear to get a 1-con-point spell which will completely heal you, restore severed body parts INCLUDING THE HEAD (but not the mind, you need another spell for that) and bring back the dead if you get to them within 4 sets. Heal Spring Melons are cheap and have a 100% chance of being in stock, and will fully heal you once per day. (what happens if you use one more often is not specified). A character with the Medical, Physician skill treating somebody will restore an extra 20 life points per day (or you can spend $50 to buy a heal spring melon and recover in a single day), and "can raise a patient by 1,000 life points, even if the patient is in the negative". No time taken or limitations on when and how often you can do this is specified.

Okay, disgression over, they also have System Shutdown sintead of Metabolic Shock, which is... significantly worse than somebody with 20 con, but it goes up per level to, at max level, be... equal to somebody with 21-25 con, which you can't get without being Immortal. (step one: be level 50.)

They get Computer Interfacing , which lets them "transmit and receive with any computer by touch". Not control though, they just don't need to use the monitor and keyboard. The chance to do this is 40% + 1%/level, and if successful, it takes one turn per megabyte to scan! blazing speed

Next is Computer Domination , which lets them control computers. Success chance is 10% + 1% per level, and takes minimum of 1 minutes if possible at all.

The Synnibarr Continental Effects are that they don't shut down on the Dark Continent, but their powers are still limited as mentioned in the description of it in Chapter 7. In the Center of the World, they can only use basic abilities, plus radar and impact thrusters. Remember how I said it wasn't clear what kind of abilities these are here? And abilities under 3rd level can be used at double cost.

They also have Sonic and Magnetic Sensitivity , which means sonic and magnetic attacks mean they have to roll vs System Shutdown or fall over for one set.

They have Vision Modes ; Normal, Infrared, Micro down to electron level, and Macro up to 25x magnification ("10,000 miles" visual range, apparently).

They have Radar , costing 50 EGs per hour, with a 1 mile radius, which gives them +25% to hit, +10% dodge, +5% beam attack dodge, and reduce surprise rolls by 25%. It's normal radar too. Until they reach 25th level at which point it becomes millimeter wave radar, letting them get detailed information on textures of things rather than just "there's a thing here".

Their Acoustic Synthesizer lets them play back sounds they've heard, and throw their "voice" up to 100 feet (at least I think that's what "project it as far" means) at up to 140 decibels. Doing it at max volume drains 0.5 egs/hour.

Their Power systems, as I but not the book mentioned, store up to 500 EGs, "and keep another 50 EGs in reserve", which I think is supposed to be what they use to run their actual life process but it isn't mentioned. They can store an additional 10 EGs every time they level up, up to a maximum of 1,000. They regain 1 EG per hour in direct sunlight, and can drain a willing donor of once con point to restore 25 EGs. They're also allowed to participate in the "Pooling Power" option, presumably at the same rate, as when they need to power things with con points they spend 25 EGs per con point to do so.

Their Life Statistics indicate that they recover from system shutdown in 1d6 minutes, which happens any time a human would fail a metabolic shock roll, apparently instead of whatever would happen to the human. They can stand up to 150 degree ambient heat, and "the coldness of the Arctic" (temperature not specified). If hit within 3 attacks by both extremes of temperature though they shut down. Electron control can also make them shut down. Siphoning their energy will make them completely shut down, which is not specified but sounds like death. They will also shut down if they try and exceed their maximum storage limit for power, or use mroe than 500 EGs at the same time on any defensive action or attack. Reconstruction spells will restore their lost life points (which I think is the "Repair objects" spell to go with Heal's "repair people"), and Mystic Restoration will restore their memory if you get to them within 1 hour, otherwise you're out one BSC.

They also learn skills 4 times as fast as listed for training times in the skill chapter!

There are four "Adaptations" for BSCs, which you roll a 1d4 to randomly determine! You also have a 10% chance of having a second adaptation, but NO MORE THAN THAT NO STEVE YOU CAN'T BE AN OMNI BSC STOP ASKING. If you have two, you're basically double-classed and have to split your XP. The four types are Generator, Genetec, Infiltrator, and Warrior.

The Generator is a spellcaster, which rolls 1d6 to choose between Magic, Psionics, and Earthpower off the table. They spend EGs at a rate of 25 per con point or 15 Psi points to power their spells. They're Pure Practitioners of the Art, the best type of spellcaster who gets the most spells and spell slots. I'm still not going into spell lists yet, wait until a class which is only a spellcaster. This is the only thing a Generator gets on top of standard BSC abilities! They do however get decent HP, 1d8 as opposed to most pure spellcasters 1d4. Better than Ninjas and Amazons, in fact, who get 1d6.

The Genetec uses mutations! They can store up to 1 Major, 2 Masters, and 4 Lesser mutations in their memory at once, and roll for starting mutations as mutants do. I don't think any of the possible results will actually fill all those slots. They get more as they level up, learning 4 lessers at 10th level, one Master at 25th, and one Major at 40th. They don't get recessives. (physical mutations are not mentioned, so I guess they can learn how to have claws.)

They have a "large footlocker-shaped device" that they can store mutations in that they can't keep in their active memory. It's known as the "ID". Which is apparently not an acronym, as that's the only name we get. Don't use magic to shrink it or anything or it'll break, and has a 75% chance of erasing itself if you teleport it, losing everything. And leave it alone for 5 minutes after moving it or there's a 30% chance it'll erase itself when you turn it on. It can store one major, two masters, and six lesser mutations.

The Genetec can swap shit with the ID, taking 10 minutes to swap majors, 5 minutes for masters, and 1 per minute for lessers. They have a 45% chance to learn any mutation which hits them and they survive the effects of, so I guess they're Blue Mages. They can also copy mutations from other Genetecs or Organic Electronic Devices if they're unconscious or nonfunctional. But apparently not if they're conscious and willing, and you have to break an organic electronics device producing a mutation effect to learn it. Doing this means they have to interface with the thing's main computer, making it take 10 attacks plus the earlier listed time. This blows bog standard mutants the hell out of the water, especially since it's easier for a BSC to replenish their EGs than a non-robot to replenish their con points. Again, I will go over the mutation lists when we actually get to Mutants.

Infiltrators have one 10th of damage protection like the Warrior does.

They are basically the ninja robots, which makes their existence a little confusing if they're supposed to be a repair force. Except this is the first time BSCs being just repairbots is mentioned, and it's not like the Generator or Genetec abilities are particularly repair-focused either. Anyway, "Ben 'Digger' Chenchen", a well-known archeologist, has proposed the theory that the BSCs were intended for not just repair (with magic and random-ass mutations), but also for DEFENSE! or an expendable workforce. Except the Alchemists are suppressing this. The BSC guild itself is all "iunno" on the subject.

Infiltrators use CHI. But not any other classes' chi shit, just their own, which only Infiltrator BSCs can learn. (The Amazons, Ninjas, and Tigers have some overlap in their ability lists.)

They get, in addition to Skills For All Guild-Trained Adventurers: Combat, Grappling; Combat, Martial Art Disarming; Combat, Martial Art Empty-Hand; Disarming, Traps; Lockpicking, Advanced; and Lockpicking, Basic.

Their Basic Abilities are:
Lockbuster , which a chance to open locks, giving various chances and times according to Table 41. The chances increase by 1% per level, and time decreases by 10% every 10 levels. They're better at tech-based stuff, except handprint/retina IDs and voice combinations (unless they can just use their Acoustic Synthesizer to replay it, in which case it's automatic.)

Jammer lets them become jam to any form of sensing ability "magic or otherwise", and also be unable to use communication consisting telepathy, radio, tracer, or "Tiger's Tooth". In a one-mile radius. Apparently it works much like a wide-range Cloak of Mist spell. But it doens't disable Spell Traps or Security spells.

They also get SPECIAL ABILITES! They get 3 first level abilities to start, and a new one every 3 levels, and a 10th level ability at level 10 and every 10 levles afterwards. TO CHAPTER 10!

Their first level abilities are:
Chem Dart lets them shoot a dart made out of chi energy, contianing either a hypnotic drug made by the BSC, as the psi spell Hypnosis, or they can store up to 10 CC or three different chemicals in their arm, which they need to obtain normally.

Chi Dim Mock (I thought they didn't share abilities with other chi-using classes? ) we went over during the Amazon writeup.

Holofield is a holographic illusion which can disguise up to 5 dudes within 100 feet in directly line of sight of the BSC. Visual only. "A cyborg can manipulate the Holofield as though it were real. However, this requires total concentration." I'm not sure what that means.

Manruki Gesauri (spelled like that in the book) does... lowish damage, modified by strength, and can also be used as a grappling hook out to 100 feet and pulling with 1 ton of force. Or stick with 1 ton of force.

Nullgrappler is a "grappling hook type device" which "ensnares its target in a force field" that will nullify the basic powers (not Venderant Nalaberong or God POwer, but the others.) It will hold up to 10 tons, plus 1 ton per 10 extra EGs, abd the cable is a special form of plastic with 50,000 life poitns and requiring 500 strength to break. Its use as an actual grapple is not mentioned.

and Tracer , which lets you slap a magic disc on anything you want that you and only you can see, and you can sense it even through pelleum walls or a Cloak of Mist, up to 10,000 miles away. It'll adhere to anything, and msut be attached to somethign to work, and you can have up to 2 at once.

Their 10th level abilities are:
Bo Staff lets them make a staff, which stuns people.

Defense Field lets them make a 10-foot disk within 100 feet, or a sphere if they concentrate which they can't move. It protects against any two of the basic powers at once, chosen when you make it.

Stealth Mode This lets them turn themselves and up to three other dudes invisible, and pass through Security spells and Spell Traps. And also makes them intangible enough to fool motion snesors, but not to pass through objects. It breaks if you attack.

Sai (Which is listed after Stealth Mode on the table for randomly choosing them, but before in the actual descriptions) lets them kae a pair of sai, which does decent damage, and may be used to throw, fading out and reappearing in the BSC's hand if they miss, used to block (as long as their life points hold out), and can be used to "subduel" your target, causing them to roll psychic shock or fall unconcious. although you have to be 15th level to affect drakes and hydras with this.

Trojan Horse lets you affect yourself and up to 5 other creatures with a combined weight of 3 tons or less, and turn you and your buds into "any type of common object they wish". Your weight and mass matches the object, and you dont' emit a life force, aura, or electronic emissions, and can't move or speak, but can see and hear. The Shaman Song, Song of Sensing, can still find you but only detects a small lfie force. You can talk to each other, however. The smallest you can go is a silver dollar, and the largest is a tank.

and Willforce , a, uh... ninja ability.. seriously what happened to not overlapping here? lets you break down your target's will. If you combine it with Telepathy (a ninja ability, which specifically only lets them communicate with other Ninja) you can make them obey one complete paragraph of instructions! But no extreme shit like "kill yourself". Unless you're 35th level, in which case go nuts. It lasts until their make their save, which they do once per day per five levels after the initial one, at which point they break free and stop being controlled. It does not have any listed effects for use without Telepathy, which Infiltrators don't get.

And finally, we have Warrior BSCs. They get that 10th the Infiltrator section mentioned. They also get Combat, Advanced Weapons on top of the usual skills.

They get a bunch of shit.

Advantage Enhancement allows them to spend EGs on boosting their init, up to +8.5. It lasts a set, then you have to pay again.

Armor Enhancement lets them spend energy on adding up to 3 10ths. This lasts an hour.

Attack Enhancement lets them spend energy on increasing their attacks per turn, up to 10. Lasts a set.

Defense Field is like the Infiltrator ability, only they get it at level 1.

Dodge Enhancement lets them boost their dodge, lasting a set, up to the maximum allowed for their current category (mortal/immortal/demigod/god).

Impact Thrusters and Cocoon Field lets them fly, at 1 EG per MPH up to 500 MPH (which since this ISN'T an attack or defense will not cause shutdown), and carry up to 5,000 pounds with them. They can also spend more energy to provide a breathable atmosphere inside the 10-foot diameter force field they use to carry this shit. It only has 100 life points though, so you'll need something else for reentry.

Lightning Bolts lets them shoot lightning bolts. Damage is kinda low, but you can dump up to 499 EGs into it for doing more damage. (500 means you hit that shutdown thing.)

Sensors lets you detect energy levels (how many EGs and "whether the power is pure power or normal"), the basic powers, life force, and the level of an active power. They can determine if a life force they're looking at is plant, mammal, reptile, bird, or insect. (no "other" for the weird shit is listed.) As well as how big it is, down to honeybee size.

Strength Enhancement lets them boost their strength, up to a max of 1000 (which would cost 500 EG from 0) for an hour.

They also got SWEET AS WEAPONS they can create out of thin air!
They can make Mundane Weapons , which have to be simple, non-mechanical weapons before 40th level, and do normal damage for the weapon and pierce one 10th plus one per 15 levels. They can also make non-weapon things like a lasso to catch a falling buddy, except it takes three attacks to make one so unless you've got a lot of attacks per round good luck getting them in time. And at 40th level, I guess you can make guns and shit? The weapons vanish when you let go.

The Sonic Blaster lets them create a sound gun with 500 foot range which makes people fall asleep if they fail their metabolic shock. Given that BSCs already do this when hit with a sonic attack, it's unclear what happens. Do they have to save twice?

At 20th level, they can make a Big Gun , which has a 5 mile range, 1 mile for the grenade launcher, and does pretty good damage, and cuts through two 10ths. It's attached to the BSC by a 3-foot cable, and is a "miniature matter accelerator with a gravity loop and an inertia dampener." The grenade has a 20-foot blast radius. You can't dual-wield them. Wording of the description implies that "Big Gun" is its proper name, as it's always capitalized like that.

At 40th level, they get the Midnight Sunstone Bazooka . Really, the Midnight Sunstone Bazooka . It does... about the same damage as the Big Gun, but I think the fact that it's Midnight Sunstone Energy means it ignores all armor and most types of shield. It's 3 feet long, 5 inches in diameter, flat black in color, and connected by a similar cable as the Big Gun.

And that's all four types of BSC! Next time: Chameleon Drakes !

Classes: Chameleon Drakes

posted by Zereth Original SA post

World of Synnibarr, Part Enjoy The Lack Of Fluff While It Lasts, The Adventurer's Guide Is Full Of It: Chameleon Drakes

Some people claim Space Jesus created mutant drakes to bridge the gap between humans and drakes, the two dominant species round these parts.

Legend states that "a harem of nine human females was transmorphed into female drakes of normal size and shape." Okay you know what I said about Synnibarr not having creepy shit in it? I guess it does have a bit, I just wasn't remembering it. So they had reptile sex and laid a bunch of eggs, 50 of them actually surviving to hatch. And out came MUTANT DRAKES! The boy drakes were obviously kinda pissed, and the secretly human females obviously weren't explaining the weird kinky transformation fetish shit going on.

So, time passed, and the mutant drakes didn't get any bigger. In fear of disease, "they" (the mutant drakes? the parents?) went to see the king, a thermal drake named Xentrevakk, who assigned a fur drake named Realtsager, "who was the most knowledgeable in the Art", whatever that is, to go check out the kids.

So, after the battery of tests, both magical and "the great Art of medicine" so I guess the Art means you graduated med school, Realtsager came to the conclusion that these kids were in fact totally awesome. He'd figured out what was going on, but kept it on the down low so the dads wouldn't kill them because of "the primary rule" (of what is not specified) of "keep the race pure and thriving". Apparently because he's a nice guy?

Or maybe becuase he thought they were hot. No, really: "Realtsager considered these young drakes to be the most beautiful ever born". But even he had ingrained prejudices against non-drakes or something, so he came up with a PLAN.

Of sending them off to boarding school. A "special school where their differences could be studied and where they could learn to use their powers." Mutants learning about their powers in a special school, hm... sounds familiar.

Anyway, the school was located at Professor Xavier's mansion some islands between the Terra Isles and the Enchanted Continent, before the Purging (that human/drake war thing back in the backstory). The mutant drakes sided with humans despite the fact that they built huge ass robots to attack them with unnecessary collateral damage , and the school moved to the Terra Isles, about 150 miles away from Terra City itself.

Over the centuries, the mutant drake adventurers ceased to exist.

Next time: Dwarves!






Sorry no I'm kidding. They evolved into Chameleon Drakes instead, with the power to transform into their various ancestor drake species and shit. Explaining why we were just reading about Mutant Drakes.

They're humanoid lizard dudes. Five fingers, five toes, long tail, two wings (With a note to look up Flight Classes in Chapter 12, indicating they're in the most maneuverable category, and the rules for flying with wings indicate they fly at a rate based on their Strenght, and given they get +10-40 strength, they'll fly at 52 MPH at the absolute minimum of 18 strength, and at maximum (without other bonuses) 60 strength they'll fly at a max speed of 150 MPH. Cruising speed is 25% of their max speed.) and a snout "vaguely resembling an alligators". They don't have any problems pronouncing human speech, though. (I'd say language but other than Venderant Nalaberong which yes I am goign to type in full every time, I don't remember any language rules.)

There's also some shit about a specific chameleon mutant drake who's gotten up to Immortal status named Maximillion (no, Firefox, not Maximillian), who was one of the first hatched mutant drakes. He teaches at the guild occasionally. So I guess they didn't cease to exist like the book said earlier.

Anyway, Chameleon Drake Natural Abilities consit off:
Natural weapons, claw, tail, and bite. Claws being the weakest, and bites being the strongest. Comparable to mundane melee weapons except you can't make them out of special materials for armor-piercing properties so why bother.
25% + 1% per level resistance to magic and psionics.
One 10th of damage protections.
Enhanced senses, including night vision, scent tracking, double visual range compared to a human, and 20% bonus on surprise rolls.
Tracking by smell at 40% plus 1% per level success rate, by scent.
They also get the Moving Silently skill on top of the SFAGTA.

Their Basic Abilities are:
A Hypnotic Stare , as the lesser mutation Hypnosis.
The ability to Change Form which oh god damn, an entire column of text before we get to the forms. At least it's the only thing left in the class. Okay, duration is "permanent", so I guess once they change there isn't a timer, and they can use it once per day per 2 levels, up to 10 times a day.

It changes their body, but not their gear or anything. The Sunstone Drake form's strength bonus (+100 to 400, which at 2 mph per point of strength after the chart ends at 25 lets them fly at an additional 200 to 800 MPH out of a max of 1000) is rolled only once when the character is created.

Any mutations, enhancements, or other such modifications apply to all forms a Chameleon Drake transforms into, although if a form you use already has a mutation, it'll temporarily overwrite your mutations to keep you under the limits.

They have to pick one spellcasting type to learn when they start their career, and can choose another every 20 levels, but start at level 1 in it then. They can turn into spellcasting drake types for types they don't know, but won't have any spells to use. They're Partial Practitioners, the middle of the road type. (Which, note, doesn't affect the power of their spells, or how much they cost, or anything, just how many they learn and how many they can memorize at once.)

And then we get a final note that they don't change size or shape, just appearance of their exterior, based on the drake type, and that their breath attacks are beams unless otherwise stated.

The drake types are:
Argium Drakes , which breath Flames of Earth (as the third-levle Earthpower spell), for 1 con point per use, and learn Earthpower spells.

Dark Drakes , who died out in the Great War With The Drakes, which may or may not be the civil war thing I was talking about earlier but I don't care enough to check. They were slow to breed and reluctant to fight for the king and I don't know why we're supposed to care about that. They are the NINJA drakes. They have black skin and eyes. They get one first-level ninja ability every three levels and one fifth level ability every 10 levels. Their fangs can cut through two 10ths (I guess that's why you bother), and have poison equal to the level of the drake. Each dose affects 300 pounds plus 50 pounds per level, and you get 10 doses a day. They also have the Eyes of Death ability which makes people roll a save or take damage of "Cerebral hemorrhage".

Fur Drakes cast Mage Warrior spells, and their saliva has a 60% chance of healing any infection.

Mist Drakes are the psionic drakes. They also get free 50-foot telepathy. They don't get any other Shadow Master shit, just spells and the telepathy.

Moon Drakes are cold-elemental drakes. They have the cold modes of the major mutation Thermal Kinetic, breathe magic-based Ice Bolts(as per the 3rd level Mage Warrior spell Bolts of Frost and Fire) rather than Ice Lightning like acutal Moon Drakes do, are immune to cold, and take double damage from fire and energy.

Sunstone Drakes get +100-400 strength, 4 10ths of damage protection, and their natural weapons cut through 4 10ths. They also breath Psi Bolts for 0.5 con points, as per the minor psionic Shadow Master ability.

Sonic Drakes have the mutation Sonic Kinetic, and are specified as not getting the constitution drain discount actual Mutant class adventures do. But Moon and Thermal drakes do not have that note, so I guess they do get it.

Thermal Drakes are the fire drakes. They get the mutation Major Thermal Kinetic, heat modes only. (No, not the major mutation Thermal Kinetic, it's phrased like that in the book.) They can also breathe a magic fire bolt, for standard low-level damage phasing to bigger damage at 20th level. 1 con point, or 3 for a wide beam. It manifests itself as a beam of orange fire, surprising nobody.

Were Drakes , another extinct real drake species. They have grey skin and white manes from their head down to the middle of their backs. They breathe Disintegration and Nullifying Werewinds, Star Bolts, and Stafire. This works pretty much the same as the alchemist abilities, so I guess in theory, aside form the class system staring blankly at you if you suggest it, a chameleon drake could use alchemy studies if they learned how.

Next time: Dwarves !

Classes: Dwarves

posted by Zereth Original SA post

World of Synnibarr, Part Okay Fine, Now We're Both Happy: Dwarves!

Dwarves are short. And warriors as fierce as the Ninja! In fact, being tiny can make them so fast they're unstoppable .

They live all over the world, and are excellent miners, weapon makers, and jewelers! Except the PCs. Their main population center is in somewhere called the World Veins, in a hidden city named Jewel becuase they are as creative as a box of rocks I guess. Their monarchs, Tracdill and Macerdia (don't ask me which is the king and which is the queen), are over 500 years old and live there.

They also love to party! Which at a dwarf party means getting drunk and fighting and then when you're too tired and/or drunk to fight, telling stories about fighting, which given that this comes AFTER the getting drunk and beating each other up are probably not very coherent.

They are also the LANGUAGE MASTERS of Synnibarr! So they've got lots of stories, and also have sweet-ass libraries, even including stuff from the Dark Age! Which has a footnote explaining what it was in case you didn't read the backstory I guess.

They are also good at etiquette and shit in various cultures becuase of their language abilities. Specific examples are when hanging out with plant dudes, not mentioning mutant gophers and only eating meat, not vegetable matter. Always gotta be a good guest and/or host!

They are also good at using any weapons and also climbing mountains, and darkvision!

They can speak any form of language, even sign language, becuase of psionics. See or hear a language and they remember it and can speak it forever! (except Venderant Nalaberong.)

They also get a sweet magic hammer!

Their Natural Abilities are:
+1 to init becuase they're short.
Darkvision.
Being able to jump an extra 10 feet up and 15 feet horizontally.
And they get in addition to SFAGTA; Anthropology, Exterior; Climbing Walls and Ceilings; and History. But not anything about jewelcrafting or making weapons. If you want those you have to scrounge up skill points for them like anybody else.

Their Basic Abilities are:
The ability to Speak Languages , which is psionic based and wait didn't they already explain this?
Uncommon Proficiency , which means they don't need to buy weapon skills becuase they can use literally any weapon ever even if they're completely alien never before seen shit. They also get +50% to hit!
Resistances to two randomly chosen of the powers off a table, with another one every 15 levels, starting at 25% and increasing 1% every level.
And a Dwarf Hammer , which is made out of forgotten steel alloy and mage tree wood, and will only work for the dwarf it was made for! It can return after being thrown once per day per level from up to 1,000 feet, pulling with a force of 10,000 pounds, and traveling at 50 feet per segment. (Of which there are 15 per round, I believe.) It does magic damage (so it ignores armor) on top of its physical damage (decent weapon level, and modified by strength). They can also spend 2 con points to do... an additional amount of magic damage modified by strength, I think? It's a little confusing, but this won't work when thrown. It can also shoot Hexbolts (as per the Mage Warrior spell), and create Armor of Mist and Brilliant Defender as per the Mage Warrior spells, and at 10th level it can do Enhanced Brilliant Defender. It's 12 to 14 inches long, and the head is 6 inches long, 3.5 wide, and 3 inches high. If you lose it, cough up two levels for another one!

They also get two Special Abilities out of four. Rolled randomly, of course, this is Synnibarr! They are:
Quickness , letting them spend con points on a per-turn basis to add 10% dodge, one attack, and +1 init.
Phazed Invisibility , letting the dwarf spend 3 con points per set to make them and up to two other guys invisible, and has "similar characteristics to" the Master Mutation Plane Phaze.
Super Strength which adds 100 to 2000 to the dwarf's strength. Permanently. The maximum it can add to the dwarf's strength is 440 but even if you roll max on two times having rolled it twice, you can't get that much.
And Tesseract , which lets them teleport 300 feet plus 30 per level, fast enough to use it as a dodge. Tesseract will come up more, and it seems to mean "short-range fast-use teleportation" whenever it does.

And that's dwarves! Next time: Giants!

Classes: Giants

posted by Zereth Original SA post

World of Synnibarr, Part Holy Shit That Central Casting Character I Rolled Up Is Nuts, You Guys: Giants!

Giants were the first race to leave the Terra Isles! They looked at the werestorm around them and were all "pff that's pussy shit" when everybody else was all "oh shit we're gonna die if we go anywhere" and sailed off into it to explore the sea! This has since become the only safe and reliable form of transportation on Synnibarr, becuase seriously, would YOU attack a 1000-foot long ship with two or three hundred giants on board?

So they set up shop on the Forbidden Continent and started setting up shipping routes.

They have MANY POWERS. Like "being up to 16 feet tall" and "buff as hell". And skin like awesome armor.

They can also shrink themselves and other shit. They can become up to 50% shorter, which may or may not shrink their stuff too. They can sense auras in up to 50 feet evne if the thing with the aura is invisible. Some even cast earthpower spells!

They study at a secret port only known to them, going there at a young age and learning the ropes (literally, in this case) for 20 years. They learn the "Art" of sailing boats, ships, and airships. This takes 15 years, and the next 5 years are spent studying killin' shit, then it's off to Terra to go perform XP-gaining activities so they can level up. No, really, that's their stated motivation for going adventuring: to level up. Here they study the "finer Arts".

Giants also have a flying ship they've developed! Which is good becuase otherwise the training for airships would go to waste. They're not as safe or big as water ships for obvious reasons, and are called "air sailors".

Air sailors are made out of wood, are 60 feet long, and have a hollow, airtight hull. Which is filled with gas! They split water into oxygen and hydrogen by pouring it over imperfect fire diamonds, which they pump into a storage chamber. They use this oxygen to breathe! It's airtight, even under vaccum conditions, but it can't manuver without air and wind.

They cost $5000 if you're a Giant, and can carry five giants at wind speed! If you're not a giant, it costs $12,000, including flying lessons.

Their Natural Abilities are, in addition to getting +100-600 strength when assigning attributes:
Sense Aura , letting them sense auras in 50 feet. No power base, they just do.
Two 10ths Damage Protection : They tough.
Hand to Hand Damage : Punches from them do the same damage as a large waraxe and kicks do the same damage as a halberd, and those are the most damaging melee weapons. I forget if you can buy larger than normal melee weapons to give them some point in using them before they can afford exotic material weapons for armor-piercing.
They also get, in addition to SFAGTA, Carpentry and Shipwright. They are not any better at piloting boats than anybody else with the same stats. EDIT: They also don't actually get the Piloting, Airships skill! WHOOPS!

Their Basic Abilities are:
Spellcasting in Earthpower if their Wisdom is 19 or higher. They're Minor Practitioners, the crappiest type.
Shrink Size , which lets them shrink themselves or other things. They can shrink themselves up to half their height, stopping wherever they want, and also shrink inorganic items, but not Organic Electronics. Limit on this is not listed. Electronics stop working while small. This doesn't make things any lighter, just let Giants fit through doors and shit. You can't make shit bigger unless you already made it smaller.

And that's Giants! Next time: Gnomes . The first pure spellcaster. (And after that, Mage Warriors, the SECOND pure spellcaster.)

Classes: Gnomes

posted by Zereth Original SA post

World of Synnibarr, Part HERE COME THE FUCKING SPELLS: Gnomes!

I am going to quote the first sentence in full. "Gnomes are born wherever Gnomes are born, usually during winter." Very... tautological. They are PEACE LOVING and MISCHEVIOUS.

They have a LOVE OF PLANTS and ANIMALS and can SPEAK ANIMAL LANGUAGES. They also CAST EARTHPOWER SPELLS. Earthpower spells are the "very essences of the plants and creatures of the universe". Gnomes tap into this "infinite power source" to cast shit.

They DON'T BREED THAT MUCH. Gnome women have 2 or 3 children total. They LIVE UNDER TREES.

They are MOSTLY VEGETARIANS becuase PLANTS DON'T MIND BEING EATEN.

Gnomes ARE NOT VERY INTERESTING okay enough of that, they love music and sculpture. All Gnomes learn to sing and play at least one instrument becuase they record their histories in songs.

Gnomes are also good at TOY MAKING becuase they LIVE WITH SANTA everything in Synnibarr needs extra shit piled on. Every "Darkmonth" they go "shit lets be santa" and go deliver at least two gifts to every kid they know. All kinds, apparently, examples being musical instruments, tools, and "usually a bottle of crystalberry wine for the parents".

There are two types of gnomes: the toymaking signing statue appreciators, and the 1 in 10,000 who can actually cast earthpower and become adventurers. The rest just kinda sit around making toys and singing and living in root systems for all their days becuase they're hobbits or something.

Gnomes train at Gnome School! But before they go to the Adventurer Capital of the World (Terra, to be clear), they also learn shit from their parents, like wilderness survival and basic fighting skills. And also three animal languages, one of hwich is usually for somethign they can ride. All gnomes are expert trackers, and can see in the dark!

Gnomes live to about 250-300 years of age. (Due to the wording of the age chart, all PC gnomes will, barring violent or other untimely death or artifical life extension, live to be exactly 300) When they reach the fresh young age of 50, they go to Gnome School at Terranand learn to cast spells for 10 years.

The only reason they're even remotely threatening or useful as adventurers (They get 2d10*10 HP, compared to everybody else' xdy*100, making them incredibly flimsy, and have the shittiest stat bonuses of any of the guilds) comes from Earthpower spells, which the book again informs us is generated by life itself. This obviously means it's mostly defensive or scrying.

Their Natural Abilities are getting +1 init and +10% dodge becuase they're teeny, having enhanced sight, smell, and hearing for double visual range and 20% bonus to surprise rolls, and darkvision.
The skills they get in addition to the SFAGTA are Detect Spell Traps, Moving Silently, Singing, and Tracking. None of the 192 skills in Synnibarr are related to playing musical instruments.

Their Basic Abilities are getting an Earth Root staff. Let's check out the entry for Root, Earth in the Monster chapter to see what this does! It is worth 0 XP because it's just a plant . Their roots make decent staffs, being about 3 feet long and weighing 2 pounds. Somebody with one can create the Blue Bolt and Earth Sphere Earthpower effects for 1 con point each, at a level of 1 plus 1 per extra con point. The reason Gnomes want them is so they can use them to store con poitns for later, though. 2 points per level, up to a max of 20. They can't give it to somebody else and let them use it, only they can get it, and they can only do this to one staff at a time.
They can also speak Animal Languages . Max of three. If they aren't full, they just mentally reach out while staring at a creature and bam, they can speak Dog or whatever. Un-learning languages is not mentioned, so pick carefully.

And last, they get SPELLS . 21 first level, 22 second, 18 third, 20 fourth, 20 fifth, 12 tenth, 10 fifteenth, 6 twentieth, 4 thirtieth, 5 fortieth, and finally 1 fiftieth level spell. ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-NINE SPELLS I HAVE TO GO OVER. God damn.

Let's get this show on the road. First level has Catch which is a magic trampoline for not dying on impact, Circle of Protection which is a shield which protects against physical and energy attacks, Cold Resistance 75% which gives you what it says on the label (a 75% chance of being unaffected by cold attacks, that is), Concentration Break which tries to make your victim lose their concentration and not remember what happens while you maintain the spell, Earth Shock which Instantly shocks the target with concussive force, causing 29 Nature damage and reducing melee and ranged attack speed by 20% for 8 sec, Earth Shout which knocks dudes in a wide-beam attack you want to fall unconscious unconscious and nobody else and you don't need to roll to hit, Earth Sphere which is a spherical shield vs magic, psi, and earthpower, Entangle Animation which makes the ground grab people, Heal which will completely heal a dude for cheap, even form death if you get there fast enough, but if they lost their head you don't get the mind back, Heat Resistance 75% , Invisiblity on you, other dudes, or objects and drops if you attack, Resistance to Earthpower 75% , Resistance to Magic 75% , Reveal Mundane Traps which makes traps glow red, Sense-Life Forms which lets you know where alive things are well enough to shoot them, Sense Magic and Earthpower which makes magic or earthpower glow red or blue respectively, Sense Psionics (yellow), Sneak Spell which lets you sneak past the various specific types of spell traps and alarms, Tunnel as per 1st level MW spell, Unlock Doors which just automatically unlocks all doors including magical locks, no save or anything, and finally Ward of Hiding which hides dudes in an area from everything but the Mk. 1 Eyeball.

21 down, 118 to go! ugh. I'll do that in like 10 minutes.

Earthpower Spell List 2

posted by Zereth Original SA post

Okay time for Second Level Earthpower Spells ! They are:
Amnesia as the 2nd level mage warrior spell, Cancellation of Earthpower which cancels earthpower based shit, Circle of Plant Defense which protects you against plants and prevents form from sensing you, Cloud of Lotus which makes people go to sleep, Create Matter which lets you make mundane shit that doesn't weigh much until you get some levels under your belt and you can't make cool shit like gold or dilithum crystals or whatever until 40th level, Ego Refreshment which restores "all normal wisdom and intelligence points, no matter how low they are", Guardian Angel which gives you bonus to defenses, Heal Disease , Heal Insanity , Hypnosis which hypnotizes up to three dudes (4 at 5th level and 5 at 10) and lets you tell them to do whatever except kill. themselves or fuck up their buddies, Levigation which lets you fly at 75mph, Neptune's Breath which lets you breathe and see and move and shit underwater down to 1,500 at which point you suddenly are affected by the pressure and temperature in full (but are fine at 1499 feet 11 inches), Night Blindness which inflicts normal blindness, Orb of Location which lets you find somethign you know about, or at 40% success rate with just a name, and it doesn't give a shit about leading you over pits or the like but won't make you go through a wall, Pit of Falling which makes a hole, and makes a nastier hole as you level up, Resistance to Poison 75% , Resitance to Chi 75% , Solidify Water which makes water solid (but NOT ice), Telekinesis , Vision Through Objects which lets you see through walls, and Ward of Warning which gives dudes in an area a bonus to surprise rolls and lets them know if somebody attacks them from within a mile. 22 more down, 96 to go.

Third level spells ARE: Argium Armor which protects against psi, energy, mutations, and physical until it runs out and also gives 1 attack per round plus 1 per 10 levels of the caster and you don't need to breathe, Argium Net which puts shit into stasis if it fails it save, Argium Sword which makes a bigass magic claymore and you can attack with the same action you summon it, or block things including Phazed and attack twice as much per turn, becoming a beam attack if this pushes you up to 10 per turn or set it to guard an area, Berrymoore's Vertigo which gives the victim a nasty inner ear condition for an hour, Blue Bolt which shoots a blue bolt to hurt things with, Control Emotions of All Creatures by which it means animals which you can make permanent if you take 5 minutes per animal, Control Plants which lets you either make plants grow (except the cool shit unless you're a God), and once it grows to full you can see what it sees if you're within 15 miles (nothing becuase most plants do not have visual sense organs) or let you control the actions of a plant for two hours (again not very useful under most circumstance), Earth Bolt which lets you spew out dirt, mud, sand, rock or whatever to cover people with and lock them in place, Flames of Earth to drain people's Con Points, Ice Bolt to shoot people with "an earthpower-created bolt of actual lqidui helium" , which will freeze people up to a weight, making them roll metabolic shock and if they succeed they're cryofrozen until they thaw (failure means death) or do damage if they're too heavy, Metamorph Self and Other which is polymorph, and refers us to the 4th level Mage Warriro spell Metamorph for what you can turn into, Minor Comet Summoning which create a comet for fairly good damage, and you can split it up to 4 targets for 1/4th damage each, Quiet which lets you silence an area and use it as a shield vs sonic attacks, Refreshment which lets you restore all Strength and Constitution points on a target up to twice per day, which you can cast on yourself if you still have the points to cast it left, Roots of Ruin which lets you summon roots to grab people and drain their strength and constitution, making them fall asleep until they starve to death (not dehydration, oddly) unless broken out, and it lasts UNTIL they are broken out, Solidify Air which lets you turn a chunk of air solid, which will asphyxiate anybody caught in it in three minutes if they have to breathe, and you can't move it without Telekensis, Sphere of Destruction which summons a sphere around somebody giving them 1 attack to attempt to counter it or tesseract out, after which they save or be annihilated. touching the sphere or trying to jump out does the same. Last is Surall's Location which lets you track shit real good. 20 more down, 76 to go. oh god what have I done to myself

Earthpower Spell List 3

posted by Zereth Original SA post

All right Fourth Level Spells !
Argium Circle will teleport some shit up to 100 miles + 50 miles per level away! Like most eleport effects it takes several attacks to cast. Binding "is the same as" the greater alchemy study except it's earthpower based and costs con instead of star bolt. Circle of Rainbow Light is a circular shield against two of the powers + energy, Cloak of Mist is like the 3rd level Mage Warrior spell, Control Size lets you shrink shit down to 1% of normal size and weight (square cube what now) or up to five times normal height and weight, Divining Symbol lets you scry on shit, Extra Spell Spell is amusingly named and works like the 2nd level Mage Warrior spell, Historic Link lets you conduct a seance, Leash lets you give somebody a command which they then have to try to complete or lose all init and save bonuses unless they're working on it, and you're allowed to use near impossible commands and "kill yourself" and the like is not excluded, "Luck" lets you... fuck with die rolls and shit, but don't use it more than three times per day or you'll get bad luck, Necromancer's Dance lets you temporarily reanimate the dead, as long as their soul is available, and command them, and if you feed them a mixture heal spring melon, blood orange juice, and mage tree bark or earth root powder ($5000/day) they'll last indefinitely, Mold Stone, Metal, Flesh, and Bone lets you do that, including shit like giving somebody flesh wings which work and merging two creatures but not crazy special metals, Scroll Spell as per the 4th level MW spell, Spell Storage as per the 5th level MW spell, Switch which lets you swap places with a dude, Teleport Trap which lets you trace teleports or hitch a ride on teleports or block them in an area for an hour but not actually do anything trap-like, Transform Self to Mist which lets you turn into mist and fly at 50 MPH and I think we've covered this somewhere else , Transcommunication which lets you telepathically talk to anything with a mind, including visual images suitable for teleport locations, Ward of Charm which gives people bonuses to hit, saves, and init as long as they stay in the area, and Ward of Weapons which temporarily enchants items to give a bonus to hit and block, and do earthpower damage instead of physical which means they ignore armor. 20 more down, 56 to go.

FIFTH LEVEL!
Argium Pit drops people into a pit and then teleports them into a pocket dimension which drains their strength and constitution and EGs, and you have to use interdimensional teleport effects to get out, Chi Enforcement lets you make Chi function in places it wouldn't as long as Earthpower works, Circle of Confinement lets you lcok a dude in, where they will be under the effects of Total Honestly, Eternal Sustenance, and Refreshment, and the sphere is unbreakable, but from outside it can be, and you can drag the sphere along with you after sealing a dude in it, Circle of Smoke which blocks telepathy, radio, and remote control, Cloak of Peace as per the 5th level Shaman Song, Control Gravity which lets you increase gravity by up to 500 Gs or reduce it to negative 500 Gs, letting you fling dudes miles into the air or crush them into a little ball, Focus which lets you double another magic, psi, earthpower, chi, or mutation effect. For double price you can double double it, for a tripling. You make a disc and you either fire the effect through it or slide it over the person doing it. Golden Sphere is another shield only this one stops phazed shit, Mass Apportation lets you teleport a bunc hof shit at once, Mass Cancellation of Earthpower does what you think it does, Mass Levitation is like levitation only multi-target, Mass Reconstruction fixes any object, from a computer to a small spacecraft to a BSC, as long as you have at least 10% of it left, but cutting osmething in half and casting this on both halves to get two of it doesn't work, Mutation Enforcement works like Chi only for mutations, Phantoms makes people either fight illusory mosnters they fear most OR if they fail their psychic shcok roll, pass out and have a 20% chance of going insane, Remove Enchantment disenchants shit and cant' be put in spell storage, Spell Haste is like the 15th level Mage Warrior spell, Spell Trap is like the 4th level MW spell, Telepathy w works like the 5th level psi spell, Tremor causes an earthquake, and Ward of Protection lets you make an invisible undetectable phazed shield which stops people basedo n their alignment class. 20 down, 36 to go. The end is in sight! And then I have to do Mage Warriors and psionics and shaman songs and oh god

Hahah yeah okay it paralyzes people.

But you have to fail your fate roll, and god roll, AND you get a single attack segment (which you may or may not get to act on, I don't remember how that shit works) to teleport out or coutnerspell it somehow!

Yeah balance is not this game's strong suit. At all.

Earthpower Spell List 4

posted by Zereth Original SA post

Okay, this should be the last fucking Earthpower Spells post.
Tenth Level! Yes, it skips levels 6-9. As thigns start thinning out here and getting
Argium Porthole lets you and the rest of your party go back in time up to 10,000 years, minimum 500. You stay there for 48 hours max, after which you ahve to go back or be forever lost in time. You can also move through space up to 100 miles per level of the spellcaster (minimum 1000 miles becuase this is a 10th level spell.) The porthole is 15 feet in diameter and lasts for one set.
Astral Transformation lets you turn your physical body into an "Astral or ghostlike" form, letting you fly at the speed of through, making you invisible and not detectable by life force, but you are by a bunch of listed abilities. Turn back before the spell runs out or your soul goes to the elemental plane and gets destroyed.
Dread-Lock Sphere lets you steal somebody's soul and stick it in a sphere floating next to you, and drain their constitution points, presumably to replenish your own or fuel spells. It lasts until you use up all their Con. you can have up to 5, and the only way to free a soul is by hitting the sphere with an Argium Sword. Bodies deprived of souls in this way fall unconscious and die after 72 hours. It is unclear what happens to the soul after you suck up all the tasty, tasty Con.
Mass Paralysis is a no-friendly-fire area effect paralysis spell.
Mist of Death is Cloudkill only it's also AOE friendly and you can move it around at up to 50 MPH within a 100 yard radius and it's only a 5-foot sphere and okay it's not very much like Cloudkill at all I guess.
Pillar lets you double(/triple/etc) Earthpower spells.
The Rope lets you throw a magic lasso which sends people to another dimension, where they're unconscious. You can stuff up to two people in there for up to 24 hours, as long as they don't exceed the weight limit.
Security Spell is basically the same as the 10th level mage warrior spell except it also has a Ward of Warning built in and swaps some Mage Warrior spells for similar Earthpower spells.
Siphon Sphere lets you drain people of psi points, spell slots, mutations, chi abilities, alchemy abilities, and enchanted items. Permanently. Some of each per turn as long as you have the con points to maintain it. It takes a Mystic Restoration spell to restore this lost shit.
Soul Tap lets you drain 5 con points form a victim per attack segment as long as you maintain it, which is a duration of "concentration". You can store up to 20 extra con points beyond your normal max, after which you explode .
Sphere of the Mists makes stuff in a spot undetectable by anything but the Mk. 1 Eyeball for a while.
Ward of Restoration works like Regrowth (which I don't think we've covered) except works on as little as 0.01% of the thing you want to restore, plus it also works on technology, including BSCs.

Fifteenth!
Argium Defender gives you and Argium Sword and Argium Armor, except now the sword blocks phazed attacks just fine. You can also summon it by itself instead of on you or a dude in which case it will fight for you, and you can see and talk through it and stuff.
Circle of Destruction is a 50 foot diameter circle + 1 per level over 15 that does damage of "Disintegration", selectively. It takes a while to cast, though.
Comet Summoning is like Lesser Comet Summoning but with bigger damage, can be split 10 times instead of 4, and if it misses you can have it try agian for up to a turn.
Great Argium Sphere lets you teleport "virtually anywhere" by which it means 1 con point per 100 miles, or 20 con points per "tarsec". Which refers us to Chapter 13, "Travel in Space".
Greater Enhancement of Abilities gives the target +100 to 400 strength, mutations drain half con (but this doesn't affect pure Mutants even if their class con discount for mutations isn't that good yet), and "any natural abilities will also be doubled in power". After it wears off you have to sleep for 16 hours out of the next 24, or you fall unconscious for 1d10 days.
Mass Banishment Sphere creates five spheres which banish shit to Limbo. So up to five targets.
Mass Heal , and well, let me quote it. "This spell does exaclty what its name indicates." Costs 1 con point per target in a 500 foot diamater circle, and you get to pick who you heal.
Mass Transmutation "enables a spellcaster to transform completely, anything living and nonliving alike, into something else." You can make whatever you want as long as you've seen it and aren't tryign to make precious gems or metals when under 40th level. (as usual, victims get a save.)
Pool of All Seeing lets you scry things in a range measured in parsecs, across dimensions and through Security spells. You can move the view at 10MPH, and anybody looking at the pool of water you cast it on can see and hear it. You can also talk into it and people at the other end hear!
Sphere of Sheba is basically the Major Mutation Environmental Kinetic, with different con costs.

Twentieth!
Bridge of Valhalla refers us to the 20th level Mage Warrior spell.
Death Lock is used to prevent a soul from reentering a body so they can't resurrect.
Greater earth Sphere is another shield spell, hitting most of the bases at once, but THIS one lets you attack out form inside it! Also it zaps people who touch it.
Major Temporal Suspension is Time Stop.
Werestorm lets you create up to 10 Werewinds in a cloud that you control, and you can spit them out as you like once you've cast it. They act like the Werestorm around Terra! You can also spend more con points for more winds if you want them.
Wereware costs a whopping 50 con points, and the max Con for mortals is 20, so you're goign to need to fill up your staff, have max con, AND have some extra con somehow to cast this shit. You can't put it in any potion or spell storage thing or such. It acts a a "self-perpetuating Spell Trap with limited intelligence and the ability to select the spells it will release." It drains Con from life force around it, able to stock up 20 per day. You can basically program it to use up to six spell effects on targets of your choosing under conditions etc etc. And it needs those 50 con points to stay active, PLUS the con points it spends to use the abilities. It can store up to 500 total.

Thirtieth !
Conjure Ministar lets you summon a tiny star, 1 to 10 feet in diameter as you choose, which does damage based on how big it is. Up to millions of life points at 6-10 feet. It can't come closer than 2 feet to the gorund, but you can control it within 1 mile. You can shoot a flare out of it to attack shit up to 10 times, after which it fades out. OR you can stick it 70 miles up in the air to sustain life, like normal sunlight. It lasts a week in this mode, UNLESS you cast it through a Wereware in which case it's permanent and just sits there being a life-sustaining orb and shit. Except constant sunlight is probably not good for most things.
Give Life of Earth, Sea, and Air lets you make an uninhabitable area habitable! Like an asteroid. Gotta make that Little Prince cosplay that bit more authentic, right? You need a five ounce sample of earth, water, and air to cast it, and if you want life you need seeds or samples of what you want to populate the area. It affests up to a 1 mile area plus 1/4th mile per level after 30, and lasts a year. Once you cast it, the place is hopping in 10 minutes, complete with teeny sun like Conjure Ministar and artificial atmosphere! Casting it through a Focus makes it 10 times as big and permanent.
Silver Pentacle is a shield which just stops everything except God Power straight up. And Venderant Nalaberong 50% of the time. (Except a Shielder Bolt, whatever that is.) It takes 4 attacks to cast though so you can't use it as a block. You can't move it, and it lasts as long as you concentrate.
Star Weird uses the power of the sun. Real one, not a Ministar. Sun has to be up and visible to use it. A disk appears 1 mile over the target, changing the color of the sun and doing one of three things. Blue nullifies all powers except god power and has a 50% success rate on Venderant Nalaberong. Also Organic Electronics and High Technology. (laser guns and shit, as opposed to shotguns and shit.) BSCs only have basic abilities in this. Lasts an hour, can be moved. Red stuns everything, every attack segment. White shits a "flair" of energy which does a large amount of damage, and can be used repeatedly.

Fortieth Level!
Curse holy shit this is a long one. It creats a semi-sentient curse which you can basically program all kinds of shit. Curse a bloodline to turn into wolves under the full moon, curse and object to give people Mummy Rot if they disturb the Pharaoh's tomb, whatever. Long-lasting curses cost staggering amounts of Con points, though: making somebody turn int a wolf under the full moon for the next sixty years of their life costs 1 con point per month for 720 con points total. If you're doing a bloodline thing, well. I have no idea how you're supposed to come up with this level of con points.
Greater Creation of Life lets you play god. Takes a solid week, working from dawn to dusk, and if you're interrupted it's ruined and you have to start all over. If you want to give your creature powers, you need samples from creatures that have those powers! And at least 10% of the body or bodies of whatever you want its general shape to be when done. After designing it as a player, and accumulating the bits, you make some rolls! 95% chance of it being ALLLIVVVEEE!, 95% chance of it coming out the right shape, and 90% chance of it getting the powers right. You can control it by thought at a range of up to a mile!
Greater Temporal Displacement "allows the spellcaster to completely change a one square mile area _{(the range says "1-mile diameter" which is NOT the same thing)} from its current time to 24 hours in the future or 10,000 years in the past."
Raise from Death lets you, as long as the body is at least 90% intact and in good working order, revive a dead dude, no longer how long they've been dead! Unless they fial their Metabolic Shock roll in which case NOPE.
Speak With Gods lets you speak with a god! You need to concentrate 16 hours a day for 6 full weeks, draining the 10 con poitn cost each day, after which the god is aware that you're calling them on the God Phone! They aren't required to pick up, but they are aware of how much of a pain in the ass this spell is to cast. The resulting conversation, if any, lasts as long as the spellcaster concentrates or until the god hangs up.

And finally, the Fiftieth Level spell! One of only two in the book.
Xandrew's Transferable Soul lets you take a soulless body, like if you used Dread Lock Sphere on it, and prepare it so it will attract your soul when you die. Don't put it on the other side of a werestorm or on the other side of the crust, that won't work. You can also put yourself in an inanimate object, which needs to have legs and arms to move and manipulate shit. In an inanimate body, you don't naturally regenerate Con, but other people can donate it or you can use any method of stealing it you like. Your old body's shit doesn't come along, just your skills, mind, memory, and level, you lose all your other powers. Which includes spellcasting. Maybe. Unless you bought spellcasting as a skill instead of a class feature. Iunno. You can use your new body's stuff, though. These use the body's level.

AND THAT'S GNOMES AND THEIR SPELLS! Ugh.

Next time, we do something less time consuming, hopefully! The next class up is... FUCK. Mage Warriors. For ANOTHER FUCKING SPELL LIST. God damn.

Classes: Mage Warriors

posted by Zereth Original SA post

Okay, I have come to a decision. Now it's time for
World of Synnibarr, Part So Many Spells And Abilities, God Damn: Mage Warriors!

Young mages study at the Mage Warrior Schoo wait what it has an actual name? Yes, they study at the Selen Academy of the Art! ("the Art" apparently means basically nothing in Synnibarr.) here they learn to focus the power of the Art through themselves for 30 years! And also learn about legends and shit, and have a 75% chance of knowing about a monster or plant and 35% about a weapons or enchanted item. Separately from having various botany and zoology skills.

Studying history, math, writing, plants, and monsters lasts 10 years after which they actually learn Magic! This takes 20 years.

Despite being named "Mage Warriors " they're just the first one. They do get the stock adventurer weapon skills but that's it.

Their Natural Abilities are:
Science Knowledge giving them a 35% chance of knowing about a bit of tech or science.
Their skills, in addition to the SFAGTA, are Astral Projection; Biology; Biology, Marine; Biology, Xeno-; Botany, in normal and Xeno; History; Detect Spell Traps; Science; And normal and xeno Zoology.

Their Basic Abilities are:
Detect Astral Forms which they can do out to 1/4th mile.
having a Mage Tree Staff which is like an Earth Root staff only with Armor of Mist and Brilliant Defender instead and useable by Mage Warriors and Shamans.
And of course, Spellcasting . They're Pure Practitioners, the best type.

And now, to go over their Spells! (I belive this qualifies as " VERY out of print and unavailable ", so I'm just going to give you this and go over a general outline of what's there and the really weird shit.


Mage Warriors get a first level spell of Translation despite the game, unless I'm forgetting something, lacking language rules. (The language section has a Linguistics and Linguistics, Xeno- skill, but nothing about actually learning languages ). As well a a couple attack spells, a couple defenses, a few sesnory things, and a mist that makes people fall asleep. Oh and a specialized spell for making a tunnel.

Second level has a spell to make a magic bridge, a temporary Bag of Holding, the amusingly named Extra Spell Spell which lets you memorize 10 more level of spells for a day. But don't use it twice or you have save vs both passing out and going insane, instead of it just not working , a haste spell, the Manacles of McCracken which hold dudes down, or to a wall, or just in midair, and can gag the use or be a blindfold too, with a strength of 500, a mind link spell which lets you spy on dudes without them knowing, and is permanent (you can only have up to half your ego score), Mystic Galleon or Magic Kite in a strange reversal of the usual "make a separate spell for everything" trend that lets you make a magic boat or a magic hang glider, non-mass Reconstruction (which isn't on the Earthpower list, but the mass version is), telepathy type spell, a Sphere of Blindness , Transanimation which is basically just animating objects, and Werewalk ! Which lets you walk on water, up walls, or jump 300 feet per step! You can even jump along on top of a jungle or such at 75MPH (scaling at higher levels)!

Third level gives us Acid Rain , which disintegrates shit and "is powerful and will burn regardless of invulnerability", and you can either make a pool which destroys a set amount and then vanish, or actual rain which will destroy way more over time, the fire/frost bolt spell I believe we've referenced before, Heal which is actually not quite as good as the Earthpower version but is still a full heal, an antidote spell, Inflict Wounds which just cuts the target's current HP in half, up to 3 dudes at once, Irresttable Vapors of Weakness which you can in fact resist just fine, Necromancer's Call and Leash which lets you summon a spirit to do shit if you jump through a shitload of hoops, letting you have a nice chat... Sorceror's Sphere of Absorption which lets you drain a dude's powers temporarily and lock them in the sphere for an hour, the oh-so-creatively named Super Strength Spell which gives you 20 strength per level of the spellcaster, which is kinda lame at low levels and will max you out at mortal strength from a 50th level caster, and Tesseract ! Yep, it's a shot range fast teleport you can use as a dodge and shit. Gotta see where you're going!

Fourth level includes Binding which is like the alchemy thing and lets you either bind dudes in place OR make enchanted objects, another, different Create Matter spell which doesn't let you make special metals or pure gems at all, but DOES apparently let you just mass produce gold even below 40th level, Hell Pit which lets you trap dudes in a pocket dimension, which is not described at all, a mass teleport and telekensis spell, Metamorph which oh man this one's a doozy, taking up a bit over a third of the page on its own. It lets you turn into shit, and at a hefty Con cost use the form's special abilities, but not big drakes, hyrdas, Lordsguards, and "the nonliving". Also you can't use abilities with levels higher than you. First through 9th levels, you can turn into mundane shit, at 10th level "less creatures", 20th "Greater"l, and 40th "major". Damage doesn't carry over when you revert, and you have to have seen or studied it to turn into thigns, at varying success rates. Don't stay transformed too long or you'll not want to go back! And then there's Phaze Shelter which lets you go rest in a pocket dimension for 15 minutes per level, Pillar which, uh, lets you double the duration of spells the ability to make scrolls, they ability to set spell traps, and the ability to talk to inanimate objects, animals, and plants.

Fifth has Astral Transmorph which lets you physically turn into an astral projection and fly around at tarwarp 10, but not while actually seeing where you're going. Matter transmutation, a mind shield spell, the Orb of All Seeing , the Pool of Nesare' and Speaking Pool of Nesare' which let you look at other places, or talk to other places, separately from each other, a spell which heals plants, Spell Storage to have pre-cast spells on hand, lasts 24 hours, and if you try to use more than two at once you have to save vs dying rather than it just failing becuase Synnibarr hates you.

Tenth has Mage Wind , which lets you... create magical wind, which will teleport shit. And also make you invisible before you teleport shit. Magnificent Deadly Rain lets you shoot magic bolts of black lightning which disintegrate shit, but does not involve rain, the Runes of Ramokk which let you use three different runes! You can either just cast them, or inscribe them on thigns as traps and load them up with con points! The Banishment Rune... um. That's odd, it doesn't say what it does. Guess it just wastes your con points! The Binding Rune acts like the Lesser Binding effect of the Binding spell, and the Protection Rune lets you use it as a shield, or inscribe it to use it as a shield and also make you and up to 3 other dudes invisible inside it and you can attack out with no penalty. They also get the Security Spell which covers more than a page and lets you protect areas in a lot of ways, Ta'set's Dark Thunderbolt which lets you shoot dudes, and is the "most efficient magical blast known", and no I'm not going to check if it actually is, fuck you, and Teleportation which has a misport chart! Minimum 5% chance unless you live in or spend a large portion of your time at the destination, and if you end up inside a solid object YOU DEAD. If your arm's inside a solid object, you lose your arm. Basically what I'm saying is don't use Teleport.

Fifteenth level spells have a gravity control spell, Deneb's Wind and Door which lets you travel back in time, but THIS one has warnings about paradoxes and shit unlike the Earthpower one which is all "sure whatever". Dread Lock Bolt is like the earthpower Dread Lock Sphere but you need an urn to store a dude's soul in and the body only last 48 hours instead of 72 for some reason. Also you can banish dudes to Limbo, Spell Haste lasts 6 hours, and lets you cast all your magic spells that you cast (but not out of spell storage, scrolls, etc), and costs nothing but 10 attacks to set up , so you should be rolling around in this all the fuckign time once you get it, Suspension which "will suspend movement down to the molecular level[/b] in a 500 foot diamater but you, as long as you concentrate. The game mechanic effects of this are not listed. Winds of Enforcement lets you buff the effects of spells, and costs... the inital drain of the spell per doubling/tripling/etc. Past 5, it has a chance of backlashing, starting at 20% and going up 10% each time after that, up to a max of 10. Effects of a backlash is not clear, and you roll for each on. However, remember how I said Spell haste costs nothing ? so, for 0 backlash chance, if you have both these spells, you can cast all your spells 10 times faster. 20 times if you go for the max 10 and risk the backlash. Wanna unload 5 Ta'set's Dark Thunderbolts on somebody in a single attack segment, when normally it takes 2 to cast one? GO NUTS! Also they get a spell that reflects the various powers.

Twentieth gets you Bolt of Annihilation , which cheaply lets you annihilate shit that fails its save, and for anotehr 2 con points you can hit their soul too, Bridge of Valhalla which lets you teleport up to 100,000 miles away across 10 dimensions, a cloning spell, Limbo's Irresistable Whirlpool which actually doesn't let you save against it unlike the last thing labeled irresistible, except you can teleport away or escape if you can fly more than 100,000 MPH so I guess it is pretty resistible, and ends bitches to Limbo "(forever)", Mage Crystal which lets you drain a dude's powers and such, permanently, like that earthpower spell only it's a crystal instead, Mystic Restoration which lets you FIX that previous spell, and basically anything else short of a dude being dead, and a time stop spell or something off the Shaman Song list.

Thirtieth gets you Crystal Eye which lets you... make a cyrstal eye that can cast a laundry list of shit 5 times each, and you can either control it or program it with an "artificial intelligence equivalent of 20 points" and set it loose. Mage Storm lets you summon a storm which will cast up to 3 Ta'set's Dark Thunderbolts for the base cost, which is less than the cost of 3 Thunderbolts cast normally so I guess it isn't the most efficient spell huh , Mass Apportation as per the fifth-level earthpower spell (at THIRTY ), and Star Gate has a range of 10 tarsecs.

Finally, Fortieth level has Flames of Visor which lets the spellcaster ask the GM a question. Seriously. "If Fate can answer her or she will, possibly in the form of a riddle." Takes 5 days, isn't affected by Spell haste. Power Transfer lets you steal a dude's powers and attribute bonuses and shit, which don't stack but just kinda get put alongside the existing ones, and there's a limit on how many times you can do it, and no way to undo it, so make it fucking count , raise dead, and Temporal Pool of Nesare' which acts like both the previous Pools, but also works across dimensions and time.

And that's Mage Warriors! Next time: Mutants!

Classes: Mutants

posted by Zereth Original SA post

World of Synnibarr, Part MORE LISTS: Mutants!

Mutants are descended from those guys who survived the explosion of the Womb(that city area inside the hollow center of the planet, if you remember), and they are a NEW RACE! Called Neosapiens, or Mutants! They "may be any type of human", and as a class have no particular traits other than "youthful enthusiasm".

School doesn't teach them a lot, just basic survival skills and simple math/reading/writing. Also, they are taught mountain climbing, hang gliding, scuba diving, and the piloting of most aircraft! More on this later.

Because they're young and such, their teachers teach them to be less like rowdy teenagers and make sure they can paint, dance, sing, and cook.

Most mutations are useful and don't alter their appearance, and their Lesser mutations are already active. Master and Major mutations they have to get trained at school to actually use.

Mutations are almost exclusively powered by Caprenium Radiation and thus can be nullified and cost Constitution points and such.

As Mutants level up, they get a discount on mutations! At 10th level, 25% off, 20th level 50, and 40th level they only pay one fourth of the normal price. They can also spend normal cost to get better effects out! In "some cases", with no indication of when it does or does not apply!

Their Natural Abilities are nothing, suck it.

Their Skills, in addition to the SFAGTA, are: Anthropology, Exterior; Bartering; Dancing; and Singing. Note the lack of any aircraft piloting skills, which are not in the SFAGTA. I'm not sure if scuba diving is Swimming, Basic or Swimming, Advanced, either.

Their Basic Abilities are having mutations! You roll on table 44 to have a various amount of mutations, from "the most mortals are allowed to in every category" to "2 lessers and 2 masters", the worst option. If they roll the same mutation twice (becuase of COURSE you don't get to choose anything this is Synnibarr), they can either have it twice or roll again. Two 50% resitances stack into on 75%, which I think is the maximum you're allowed as a mortal. You also can't have more than one Lesser Any.

Up to 10th level you can only use one at a time, 11-20 you can use two, 21-40 three, and from 41-50 four,and if you're an Immortal, up to 5. Spells and other abilities also count against this, but it doesn't count passives.

The "_____ Kinetic" line will also let you fly AND use one of the other modes of it at the same time, if applicable. These also don't fuck you up even if you get caught in splash damage from them.

All "Physical" mutations are always on, and can't be added or removed by genetic engineering, or count against the mutation limit. So you can't get yourself modified to have cat eyes for better night vision, but you CAN get yourself modified so you can shoot lasers out of your eyes. Only costs 25 million dollars!

Recessive mutations also don't count against the limit. If you roll a recessive or physical, you roll again, but keep it. Getting recessives removed costs 50 million! And Mr. McCracken seems to have learned genetics from the same place as Liquid Snake, becuase "Recessive" means "bad".

And now, the actual mutation list! First, the Lesser Mutations !
Lesser Any costs $250 mil to get engineered into you, can lets you switch between any non-physical Lesser mutation you like! Again, you can't have mroe than one, and also you roll to see what spells the "you're a spellcaster" mutations get you once and it always stays the same. But this doesn't apply to the next one, +10 to +100 strength , which costs 25 mil and does exactly what its name says. Not quite as good as just having the strength naturally becuase anti-Mutation effects can turn it off. For 30 mil, you can get +5 to any of the other stats except Con, which is 35 mil, 25 gets you +20% on surprise rolls, +25% to-hit, or one 10th.
The first recessive is Acrophobia , which makes you black out above 20 feet if you fail a metabolic shock roll. Altered Appearance is both physical and recessive, and it means you roll on table 162 to see how you're different, giving you options such as having a carapace (+500 HP, -10% dodge), steaming, being a chameleon, having fur, having no hair, having "roving eyes" which wander around your body, having unusual skin color, and several others. Analyzer costs 42 mil and we covered it back in the Alchemists, Blind makes you blind, but gives you Enhanced Hearing for free, Claustrophobia makes you go berserk if you're in a confined place for over 1 hour, and if you can't get out you go into a comba for 3 to 30 hours, Deaf gives Enhanced Sight free, Dwarfed means you're 1d4 feet shorter and get +1 init, Electricity Generator is physical and makes you an electric eel, Enhanced Hearing is physical and gives you a bonus to surprise and the ability to hear heartbeats from 10 feet away, Enhanced Smell is also phys and gives you an 80% chance to track by scent, Enhanced Vision is too and lets you see in the dark and twice as far, Epilepsy gives you, under "extreme stress and fatigue" a 62%-1% per level chance of going into a seziure and being unable to control your body or powers, Eternal Sustenance costs 25 mil and like the 4th level Mage Warrior spell, allows you to survive without oxygen, food, water, in the cold of space or up to 500 degree farenheit, for an hour, and also anybody in a 10-foot radius of you, but only 72 hours at a time max, Extra Arms is phys means you can attack with weapons twice as much, but not powers/spells, Force Field costs 40 mil and lets you produce a shield vs two of the powers at once, Frigiphobia makes you run away from cold at 62%-1%/level, Gills let you breathe fresh and salt water, Hemophiliac means you take triple damage from physical attacks and must roll fat vs bleeding to death, Hydrophobia means you won't touch or go near water at 62%etc, Hypnosis costs 30 mil and lets you hypnotize people with "equal or lower ego score and who is subject to chemical attacks" becuase it's pheromone based, Invisibility costs 40 mil and lets you turn invisible, Jumper is physical and means you can jump 50 feet straight up, and kick with okayish damage, at a fixed 50 strength score, Laser Vision costs 25 mil and lets you shoot lasers and also use them as a flashlight to see, Lesser Earthpower Generator and Lesser Magic Generator cost 100 mil each and let you cast 1 spell leach of first through fifth level, at fixed cost, Lesser Psionics Generator costs 150 mil and gives you three minor and two major psi abilities, with a con -> psi point conversion to which the mutant discount applies, Levitation costs 25 mil and lets you fly up to 60 mph, Minormorph costs 50 mil and lets you change your form to any of the lesser physical mutations and you can only have it twice, Photographic Memory is physical and gives you eidetic memory, and also 20% off the time to learn skills/level up, Poison Claws is physical and gives you claws with a 1d20+10 level poison, which do 100 to 300 damage plus strength and cut through 3 10ths, Poison Fangs don't cut through 10ths and do 10 to 100 plus strength damage, Pyrophobia makes you run away form fire at the stock chance, Resistance 50% mutations are available for 25 mil each in Alchemy, Chi, Earthpower, Energy, Magic, Mutations, Poison, and Psionics, Schizophrenic gives you 1d10 alternate personalities which you change to randomly and under stress at 60% minus 1% per level chance, Sense costs 25 mil and lets you sense magic, life force, and aurs in 100 feet, Shattershot costs 25 mil and lets you shoot a magic shotgun, Speak with plants costs 25 mil and... guess, Surface Adherence is physical and lets you be Spiderman, Tail With Poison Stinger is physical and does 10 to 60 plus str through 2 10ths andh as a random poison, Taller is phys and makes you 1d6 feet taller and gives +10 str per foot, Telekinesis costs 25 mil and gives you, uh, telekinesis, Tentacles (No Arms) replaces your arms with tentacles, Tesseract costs 50 mil and lets you do a fast 100-foot teleport, but you have a 50% chance of misporting if you cant' see where you're going (so dont' do that), Translator costs 25 mil and lets you translate any language once you hear it ( no language rules ), Wings is phys and gives wings, and X-Ray Vision costs 25 mil and and lets you see through things, and also give people radiation poisoning which can only be cured by the blood of a scarlet drake/hydra of a 25+ level heal spell, and does damage every hour until cured.

The Master Mutations are more interesting and don't have recessive or physical ones.
Absorber costs 240 mil and lets you touch people and drain their Strength and Constitution, and either shoot beams or use them as con points. Don't go over double normal or you explode . Alter Density costs 115 mil and lets you become intangible, which causes everybody within 10 feet to be itchy. You can also fly at 20 MPH while intangible. You can also shoot things with beams to do this to them, and re-tangibling things inside other things makes them explode at fairly low damage per pound of mixed matter. You can also increase density, giving 3 10ths, 10x weight, and 5x str.
Amphibian costs 100 mil and lets you shoot a sonic blast! Also breathe underwater, +10 str per level, 2 10ths, and enhanced hearing and vision as per the lesser mutations. Underwater mobility, no.
Become Energy costs 110 mil and lets you turn into your choice of thermal radiation, electricity, radio waves, x-rays, electromagnetic energy, microwaves, photons, or any other form of energy. You're immune to physical and energy damage while they do this, and visible or invisible at your choice. You can fly at the speed of light, but not while actually seeing what you're doing. It's easier to dodge beam and wide bema attacks, and you can enter electronic devices to control them, with ego + level % chance, possibly with a penalty for complex computers. Need an exposed wire or such to do it. Also you can shoot blasts of energy.
Bio Force costs 220 mil and lets you use two of the following modes: Bio Flight lets you fly up to 100 mph, Force Beam lets you shoot beams of force or restrain dudes, possibly in airtight containers, Invulnerability gives 3 10ths, Penetra Vision lets you see through things, Super Speed gives you a bonus to dodge and 10x speed up to 1,000, but this will hurt you form wind resistance unless you're also using invulnerability, and Super Strength gives you +10 str per level. Most of these modes only cost con to swtich.
Bio Syntha Steel costs 180 mil and lets you create and control organic titanium, which you can use to make armor or weapons, on yourself or others. The armor has 10 million life points and 4 10ths damage reduction and gives +10 to 100 strength plus 10 per level, and weapons do normal damage per the weapon type but cut through 1 10ths per 10 levels up to 4.. You can also control the weapons like you had Telekinesis. If not in contact with the mutant, the organic titanium rots after 48 hours.
Control Body Molecules costs 70 mil and lets you rearrange your molecules. You could turn your hand into a key! (actual example). You can give themselves 3 1oths, and 50 str per extra con point, and can also change 500 pounds plus 10 per level of other shit when you change, like your clothes so you don't rip them.
Control Size costs 75 mil and lets you grow up to 4x bigger or shrink to 1/10th your size, and you can use that to dodge. 4x size means 4x str and 2 10ths of protection, unless you already had that in which case tough cookies you don't get any protection. Being teeny gives you init and dodge bonuses. You can also shrink down to 2 inches, where you can't use powers, have 10% normal strength, and can levitate for some reason. You can also grow back to normal and do the same damage a martial arts punch would.
Disintegration Beam costs 100 mill and lets you disintegrate things.
Earthpower Generator costs 325 mil and lets you generate 3 spells each of 1st through 5th level. But not at fixed cost like Lesser.
Energy Cocoon costs 145 mil and lets you create an energy cocoon around yourself which lets you fly up to 714 mph, with riders, acts as a shield, and also shoot people with energy bolts.
Enhanced Strength and Agility costs 135 mil and gives you +10 dex, +10 agility, and +20-200 strength plus 5 per level.
Heal and Cause Pain costs 100 mil and lets you shoot a beam which causes pain which makes people pass out, and heal "damage amounting to a -1000 life points." ... So I guess it doesn't heal.
Hyperflight costs 170 mil and lets you fly for an hour at variable speed based on con drain. Also you get 3 10ths while it's active, and lets you survive in space. 0.5 con points lets you fly up to 60 mph, 20 lets you fly at light speed, and more than that requires you to be outside a star system, and lets you fly form parwarp 1 up to tarwarp 1 based on how many more con points you shove in., at 40 for tarwarp 1. Gonna need that higher-level discount.
Impact Beam costs 85 mil and lets you shoot a beam which impacts with 50 tons of force, which does 1 HP per pound of force hitting your target. This will also stop most falling or thrown objects.
Incendiary Blast costs 90 mil and lets you make things EXPLODE. Unless they weigh too much in which case they just take good damage. Also you can for cheaper just shoot things with damage beams, and also you get 2 10ths.
Invulnerability costs 500 mil and gives you 4 10ths. 2 10ths vs magic, psi, earthpower, chi, and alchemy, which is 2 more 10ths than pretty much anything else gives you against those. It also refers us to "nondamaging effects vs shields" for how this affects things which don't do raw damage.
Magic Generator costs 310 mil, and works like Earthpower Generator only for magic.
Matter Transformer costs 300 mil and lets you change inorganic matter into other inorganic matter. But not special substances or precious metals until 40th level.
Metamorph costs 350 mil and lets you polymorph yourself and others.
Molecular Disrupter costs 95 mil and lets you shoot beams that disrupt molecular cohesiveness, which... doesn't have mechanical effects listed, but if they're too heavy they take damage and roll metabolic shock vs death, and are stunned if they succeed. I think.
Night Lightning costs 140 mil and lets you turn into black lightning. It's a lot like Become Energy only you can't control computers and shit.
Nova Bolt costs 95 mil and lets you shoot things. With nova bolts. Kinda sucks compared to some Master Mutations which let you do things like fly at light speed AND shoot bolts AND be immune to physical and energy damage.
Paralysis Bolts costs 90 mil and lets you paralyze people.
Plane Phaze costs 275 mil and lets you turn intangible! Which makes people feel tingly. It's a lot like Alter Density only you're phazed instead which affects some things I guess.
Psionics Generator costs 350 mil and works like Earthpower Generator only for psi.
Radar costs 230 mil and has a 5 mil range, and a nice bonus to surprise and dodge, and +75% to hit. And you can only be surprised by things invisible to radar.
Regenerator costs 450 mil and lets you be Wolverine without the claws. Also +5 agility and you can use it on other people but that won't bring them back from the dead.
Sensor costs 100 mil and lets you sense magic and shit. And also turning invisible and projecting an image of themselves within 100 feet becuase this is fucking Synnibarr.
Sonic Wail costs 90 mil and lets you shout really loud for damage and also generate a sonic shield.
Stone Eyes costs 100 mil and lets you petrify shit. You can also depetrify shit you have previously petrified.
Super Speed costs 250 and gives you a dodge bonus and the ability to run 1250 MPH, and jump 200 feet up from a stop and 500 feet at full speed, and gives you 2 10ths. And for some con drain you get +3 attacks per turn.
Suspension costs 150 mil and lets you put shit in stasis with beams.
Telekinesis and Telepathy cost 200 mil each and are like the psionic abilites of the same name.
Teleporter costs 175 mil and lets you tesseract slightly farther than the Tesseract Lesser, plus also gives you Clairvoyance at the same range so you don't have to worry about misporting (at some more cost).
Transformer costs 200 mil and lets you be a robot in disguise turn living things into other living things.
Tricancellation costs 300 mil and lets you cancel 3 powers at once with a beam, or make a shield to cancel incoming attacks.
Ultrastrength costs 200 mil and gives you +500 strength + 10 per level. Also you can make an energy field around your fists which does 100 hp per level modified by strength. Because Synnibarr.
The table for randomly picking mutations also includes "Roll One Extra Master" and "Roll One Major Mutation".

The Major Mutations are where shit gets crazy. But you can only have one until you're the highest rank of godly thing so that's sort of like balance, I guess?
Any costs $8.9 billion and lets you swap around between any mutations you fucking feel like.
Control Earth, Stone, and Ores costs 350 mil and works on soil, stone, and solid rock. but not gems or metals(except in ore) or anything else. You can cover yourself in rock armor, which has 10ths and life points based on material properties, but you don't create it. You can lift and throw rocks and shit at people with your mind. You can shape rock and shit. Annnd see through metal, stone, and earth.
Energy Kinetic costs 450 mil and lets you control energy! You can drain energy, sucking up EGs and neutralizing energy attacks up to a point, shoot an energy blast, shoot a bigger energy blast which does over twice as much damage cfor twice the cost, fly and up to 300 MPH, put up a shield vs physical and energy attack, "manipulate energy" to... create shapes and shit, turn INTO energy for immunity to physical and energy, and turn others into energy for the same reason. Does NOT come with flying at light speed or controlling computers, though.
Environmental Kinetic costs 600 mil and lets you control the weather. You can control wind, create fog, create an atmosphere around you with... a radius of 1 mile per level, if I'm reading this right, create a vacuum, craete rain and snow and hail and a thunderstorm, and fly on the wind.
Gravity Kinetic costs 1 billion and lets you control gravity! You can increase and decrease weight in areas down to 10-foot chunks, and can evne use this to tear people apart with tidal forces if they don't evade or somehow stop it (no save), decrease a dude's weight, increase their weight, fly, make a gravity shield, and fold space to teleport. Up to a tarsec for 40 con.
Hyperkinetic costs 550 mil and lets you run up to 1000 mph for an hour for free, also giving you big dodge and surprise bonuses and 2 10ths, but only once per day, Hyperflight as per the Master mutation, and spend con points to add attacks for a set.
Major Bioforce costs 500 and gives all the Bioforce abilities at once.
Major Photon Kinetic is the only Photon Kinetic ability and costs 500, and lets you absorb sunlight to restore Con, fuck with light in the area however you want, make illusions, shoot lasers, blind people, fly, and generate a shield.
Major Temporal Kinetic costs 2 billion and "is one of the most powerful mutations in the game". It lets you slow time to make your enemies go at half speed, double your own speed, stop time, shoot an aging bolt, and use "Time Warp" to... travel through space.
Mass Molecule Kinetic costs 750 mil and lets you transmute things into other things for various con costs and range and time. As usual, no really good shit until 40th level.
Nightmare costs 450 mil and... gives you +5 wisdom and Int and makes you a first-level dream warrior. You can use it to make people fall unconscious, and... also force people to go to the psychic plane where you can mind-fight them. And also turn into a "Dreamstalker" to send people to the psychic plane thing. I don't remember how psychic plane dream shit combat works so I'm not sure how good this is, but I think it fucking sucks.
Nova costs 500 mil and lets you shoot a bolt, shoot a bigger bolt for more con, shoot a REALLY big bolt for even more, fly like Hyperflight, and put up a decent shield.
Null Void costs 650 mil and lets you nullify the shit out of things. You can make a dome which nullifies things and shoot a bolt which nullifies things. You can nullify magic, psi, mutations, earthpower, chi, energy, and alchemy, and for an extra con point you can nullify gravity .
Possession costs 700 mil and lets you shoot people with a beam and turn into a glowing spirit and go into them and control them. But you don't get any knowledge so if you don't know what powers they have and how to use them, you can't.
Reflector costs 650 mil and lets you reflect magic, psi, earthpower, energy, mutations, heat, cold, and Midnight Sunstone Energy, automatically. Although it does cost con. This means you can end up unconscious and out of con really fast.
Shielder costs 800 mil and lets you make a shield which protects against a lot of things, shoot people with a shitty bolt except it goes through anything the shield can stop just fine, and also make pillars and bridges and shit you can stand on.
Sonic Kinetic costs 500 mil and lets you... fly, control sound to see through things, ventriloquism and shit, or stop people casting spells, shoot a sonic blast, and make a sonic shield.
Thermal Kinetic costs 450, and lets you raise or lower temperature in an area, min -270 F and max 33 million F, shoot an Ice Bolt which freezes shit, killing them or if they save putting them in suspended animation, make an ice shield with a lot of, but fixed value, HP, shoot an fire beam for fire damage, do a wide-area ice bolt effect OR make things vaporize in a flash of heat, and... fly. At an unspecified speed.
Transferer costs 950, and lets you... steam people's abilities and powers and spells and shit for a minute.
Transporter costs 600 mil and lets you teleport or tesseract various ranges at various costs. Or shoot a beam which teleports other people. Max range for self + buddies teleport is 5 tarsecs.

And that's Mutants! Next time: Ninjas!

Classes: Ninjas

posted by Zereth Original SA post

Enough about terrible furry or hell-related stuff, it's time for more
World of Synnibarr, Part Fighting All The Time : Ninjas!

This one opens a little differently, with "The Ninja saying". Pretend the following is center-aligned, becuase I don't know how to do that:

Ours is the tradition of service
to those in need,
Strength to those in distress, and
protection for the meek.
We use the art of Ninjutsu and the
"Gift of Chi,"
To aid us in our fight.
We are the silent blade of the wheel,
In march with the forces of universe.
"Life and Death,"
We are the Ninja.
Invisible Warriors of the night.

Yyyyep.

So. They train for 22 years in a temple in Terra, leaving only at night for supervised stealth practice.

They also learn the Vulcan Nerve Pinch! Works on anything with A: a neck and B: a nerve system. Because it's not possible to have both but not have a setup which supports being Never Pinched, apparently.

They also learn to telepathically communicate with other Ninja. Thats, you know, a traditional ninja ability, right?

They also learn Shadow Vision(darkvision) and how to climb shit with climbing claws.
Also how to find and remove traps, and they get a rebranded Amazon toolkit.

They are also hard to surprise, can sense life, and can jump 15 feet up and 30 feet across on top of their normal jump scores. And they get the Moving Silently skills.

They are trained in the use of "the samurai sword, sai, shuriken, staff, bow, and other weapons", and get a grab-bag of mundane weapons of those specified types for free at graduation.

Also, they can brew and use poisons, based on their level! It costs 3x as much to buy outright as make and only Ninjas, Alchemists, Amazons, Psielves, chemists, and "assassins" can purchase it.

Seriously, that's their entire fluff writeup. Just wait until the Adventurer's Guide, you'll be praying to go back to this complete lack of flavor information.

Their Natural Abilities are that their melee no, it just says "weapon" attacks are considered Beam attacks for dodging purposes, that they get full dodge vs beam attacks up to 65%, and they can make poisons!

Their Skills on top of the SFAGTA are: Acrobatics; Biology in normal, Marine, and Xeno-; Climbing Walls and Ceilings; Combat, Grappling; Combat, Martial Art Disarming; Combat, Martial Art Empty-Hand; Combat, Martial Art Throwing; Combat, Martial Art Weapons; Disarming Traps; Lockpicking, Advanced; Lockpicking, Basic; Meditation; Moving Silently; and Nerve Pinch.

Their Basic Abilities are getting a Rebranded Amazon Toolkit , or possibly just straight up an Amazon toolkit as the text says "Ninjas receive the Amazon's Toolkit", Heightened Awareness which gives them a surprise bonus and lets them sense life forms within 30 feet, Shadow Vision which gives them 100' Darkvision, and Telepathy with other Ninjas in a range of 1 mile. And also with total concentration prevent their own thoughts from being read.

There is also the poison chart. a 1st level poison will take 45 minutes to affect 300 pounds, and do 10-60 damage per segment once it begins, over 3 sets. As there are 15 segments in a round and 5 rounds in a set, this will do 10-60*75, or a maximum of 4500 life points, with a minimum of 750. OR you could hit them a few times and kill them now instead of doing some damage in 45 minutes. At 5th level you can instead put people to sleep for 20 times the normal duration (5 sets at this point), and at 15th level they can make paralysis poisons for the same duration as sleep, which also has a debuff for an hour after that. (15th level onset duration is 3 minutes.) The highest level is 40th level poisons, which take effect in 5 segments, do 1000-8000 damage per segment, and last for 10 minutes. By which time your buddies are probably capable of flat-out annihilating targets and such, but you CAN buy this earlier, for a mere $1200 a dose.

They also learn Special Disciplines , staring with one first-level ability and gaining one more every 3 levels, learning Oil of Protection and one other at 3rd and one more every 15 levels, one fifth level at level 5 and one more every 5 levels, and one 10th at 10 and every 10 after that.

Their First Level Ninja Disciplines are:
Chi Dim Mock which we have already covered in the Amazon entry
Chi Invulnerability useable 1/day/level up to 20, which gives them two 10ths vs physical, energy, and chi attacks, and 10 points of Strength per level
Chi Force for 1 con point (2 for wide beam) which lets them shoot a beam which makes people fall asleep
Darkblade useable 1/day/level up to 20, which lets them make a sword which will drain 1/4th of the victim's constitution and strength per strike, and also do some damage, which starts going up by trivial amounts and also adds strength adjustment at level 5, or they can just use the non-lethal draining effect, and you can us it one turn at a time out of its duration to make it last longer. Also it is unbreakable so it makes a handy thing to block with.
Dark Shaft useable 1/day/level and comes with 5 arrows per use, and lets you make a chi bow. Doesn't add strength bonus.
Flying Foot lets you kick people really fast, for beam attack status and the same damage as a large waraxe, and for 2 con it can do chi damage to ignore most armor. Adjusted by strength.
Invisibility useable 1/day/level up to 20, and you CAN attack while invisible and stay that way a long as you don't use any powers or magic items, just mundane weapons "and their feet". So don't punch people or you'll become visible again, but kicking them is OK.
Uncommon Proficiency like the Dwarf ability, gives proficiency with literally every weapon ever including ones built for nonhuman physiology, and +50% to hit with weapons.

Their Third Level Disciplines are:
Oil of Protection is "the best-kept secret of the ninja guild", and will give the user 28% plus 1% per level resistance of magic, psi, earthpower, mutations, and alchemy when rubbed on the skin. Takes 15 minutes to make, and goes bad almost immediately. Ninjas can do it blindfolded, but know it by rote so they don't know how it works or anything. Costs $15 to make one does, and only works on living creatures.
Blowgun gives +50% to hit when using a blowgun, and lets you shoot chi darts out of a normal blowgun (which you need to provide yourself). Which are poisoned. They work as a poison of your level, with all choices and effects of that.
Divination is always on, and lets you find anybody you have a photo or good sketch of, even across dimensions or through Security spells, but it isn't Phazed.
Dragon Breath lets you, uh. Blind a dude, and also cut off sound, sonar, radar, and Shadow Vision. That's what dragons do, right?
Nanchaku is spelled funny and lets you make a "Nanchaku" you're already holding do more damage for a small con cost and hit twice with it in one attack, but only if they're in melee range.
Sai lets a ninja do more damage with sai for a small cost or the same damage as chi for a larger cost, and gives a passive bonus to hit, throw, and block with them. Requires a real one, and also mentions that they may have up to a 30 foot chain attached. Which doesn't seem right.
Staff lets staffs do more damage as per Sai and also gives a bonus to disarm
Stars of Night lets you throw shuriken for more damage and stun people, up to 3 per attack
The Hand lets you punch people at 20 foot range for extra damage, or also lift shit like you were over there. You can in fact use it to climb, or hold molten metals.

Their Fifth Level Disciplines are:
Astral Form which lets them become astral and blah blah speed of thought (tarwarp 10) blah blah blah.
Cloak of Mist Works like the third-level Mage Warrior spell, except the ninja can more and attack without it dropping
Create Chi Objects lets you make shit out of chi, like a shield, a rope, or shuriken, or simple weapons which huh have I gone over this before? It doesn't seem to be on anybody else's chi ability list... Oh well it's boring.
Ninja Tesseract lets them teleport in a puff of smoke. NINJA VANISH! You're also invisible for one turn after teleporting, or until you attack, which can help you surprise dudes. Once. It doesn't specify if it's per opponent, per group, per combat, or just ever.

Their Tenth Level Disciplines are:
Drain Life Force lets a ninja drain constitution points from somebody else (don't go over double or you EXPLODE), and then either use it to pool power or restore somebody else's. But they can't keep and use it.
Shadow lets a ninja turn into a shadow, making them immune to physical and energy and having a max load of 20 pounds. They can't fly or attack or use powers/abilities, but they can walk through walls, spell traps, werewares, and security spells.
Tuch Is named after the God of Ninja and either kills a dude straight up, or makes them fall unconscious for 48 hours if their fail their save.
Willforce we covered in Infiltators, only Ninjas actually get the Telepathy ability to do shit with it except wait that only works on other ninja . So it's an ability to brainwash other Ninja, and ONLY other Ninja, into doing shit for you.

And that's Ninjas! Next time: Psievlves !

Classes: Psielves

posted by Zereth Original SA post

World of Synnibarr, Part Over Half Done! ... With Classes: Psielves!

Psielves are born on the Enchanted COntinent near Emerald Downs, a city, where they grow up in the woods. They're smart and strong and fast. (They get +1-10 strength, which is as low as you can go without being a pure caster or something.)

Their training includes, because why not, telepathically speaking with plants and animals within 100 feet! This is totally useful for avoiding trouble because animals are known for their advanced abstract memories capable of telling you where shit is in a way you can understand.

They also learn how to find traps and secret passages and are cool at weapons and can pick basic locks and get tools for it. Plus they know how to use (but not make) poisons. (You smear it on your weapon while wearing non-porous gloves and then you shank somebody it's not hard, guys.)

Because they are quick and strong they can totally jump good. Also they are Spiderman.

They use all kinds of weapons. Yep, the book spent an entire one-sentence paragraph reiterating that for some reason.

They leave home at 75, young adulthood, and then they go to psionics school, "Tesarak's Psionic Academy", and drink something brewed pout of rare mushrooms. Which drives people who aren't latent psionics insane. It is unclear if all elves are latent psionics or what. This stuff is called "Psisha Adreemus", and is brewed from Psisha, derived from Psisheen Mushrooms.

Their Natural Abilities are getting +1 to init becuase they're short, a 60% plus 1/2% chance per level to detect traps and secret doors, and a jump of 20 feet up and 45 feet horizontally, unless their normal jumping score is better.

Also they can be Spiderman. Thought I was joking? Nope. Surface Adherence lets them stick to walls and shit with some kind of sticky glue they secrete, so I guess not QUITE like Spiderman. It'll support as much weight as they can lift, although it doesn't mention anything about the structural integrity of what they stick to.

Their Skills s are, in addition to the SFAGTA: Astral Projection; Lockpicking, Basic; Moving Silently; and Pickpocketing.

Their Basic Abilities are talking to plants and animals with their mind , Uncommon Proficiency like dwarves get so I guess it was worth telling us they use lots of weapons twice, and Psi Spells ! They are Partial Practitioners so I'm not going into psi spells yet.

They also get 1 or 2 (using the "1 or 4 = 2, 2 or 3=1" table I don't understand why exists) Special Abilities, and gain one more every 10 levels.

The Special Psielf Abilities are:
Elf Dagger which lets them create a dagger with psi energy that is poisoned with "psi poison" which lets the undetectably shank somebody and delay the onset of the poison for up to 24 hours. It does... decent damage, I think, I haven't done an exhaustive study of monster HP or anything. It'll kill most first-level adventurers and put the rest into negatives for sure, though, even if it rolls minimum damage on all ticks. And it does this multiplied by the psielve's level, so this is a pretty good assassination tool as long as your victim fails its save, I guess. Costs a small amount of con, obviously.
Elfin Mail creates magical armor out of psionics which gives two 10ths vs physical, energy, and chi, and has 100,000 life points per your level.
Elfin Shortsword costs a whopping 5 con to make a... sword which does decent damage, scaling per level, and you can also spend more con to either stun people or inflict them with the Total Honesty status effect, based on weight becuase god damn, Synnibarr is obsessed with only affecting things under a certain weight for some reason. Also if you let go it it vanishes, no matter how much of its 24 hour duration is left.
Elf Bow lets you pretend you're an Archer-class dude and enchant your arrows, only with psi instead of earthpower. The arrows will pass through all defenses or 10ths except God Power and Venderant Nalaberong-fueled shit. It does lowish damage plus strength bonus, which is apparently not physical. Presumably it's Psionic but it isn't specified. (Normal arrows do 100-2000 damage, modified by strength.)

And that's Psielves. Next time: Shadow Masters, the Pure Practitioners of the Art in Psionics! So more spell lists

Classes: Shadow Masters

posted by Zereth Original SA post

Okay, it's time for World of Synnibarr, Part MIND POWERS: Shadow Masters!

Shadow Masters are ALSO trained at Tesarak's Psionic Academy, starting between 5 and 6, and they require an Intelligence rating of at least 18 for admittance. I guess they hook kids up to the Stat-O-Matic and see what it prints out or something?

Once he gets in, time to drink that Psisha Adreemus stuff! Then, all the Shadow Masters in the school gather around to help the kid be not crazy. Without this, they would be lost in the "corridors of insanity that are within their own awakening minds" and would have their minds completely and irrevocably destroyed! (Actual rules for drinking Psisha Adreemus as a not-already-psi-using class: you go insane and this can be cured by the usual spell easily.)

Once this happens, it's time for TRAINING! Over 10 to 15 years.

As they level up, they learn new minor psi abilities. At 10th level, they can learn psi spells from their Shadow Master buddies telepathically! Or they can knock them unconscious and ransack their minds for them, but this takes an hour per spell and they have to stay down the whole time. (time for willing transfer: )

Doing this means the victim has to roll psychic shock for each spell or go insane, and if they do you can't get any more spells becuase they're insane and you have to save vs unconsciousness. You also need to be high enough level to learn it! And can look at their list and pick.

The max amount of psi points for a moral is 1000!

You get them back after sleeping for 6 hours, from eating a psisheen mushroom (100 points), drinking Psisha (100 points per teaspoon) or Psisha Adreemus (1000 points per teaspoon). All of these are either psisheen mushrooms or made out of them. You can do this once per day without fucking yourself up!

At 50th level, they learn Psionic Wish, "the most powerful spell available to any character class".

And that's it for the fluff!

Their Natural Abilities are +20% to hit.

Their Skills on top of the SFAGTA are Astral Projection and Detect Spell Traps!

Their Basic Abilities are:
Telepathy in 50 feet
Psychic Awareness which lets them detect any sort of mental probe or detection spell directed at them, at 20%+1% per level success rate. For remote viewing, they can stare the dude in the eye, and for mental shit they can tell where it's coming from if it's within 100 feet or the direction if farther.
They get Psionic Points to fuel their shit with! 2d100, or 3d100 if their Ego is 40+, and +1d100 every 3 levels. Minimum on any d100 is their Ego score, reroll if less.

And of course, they get Psi Spells! They learn Minor abilities at the start, and one or two Major (5th level) abilities if their Int is 23+, otherwise they have to wait until 5th level to get 5th level spells.

And now it is time for the Spell List ! Once again I will be going over the standout stuff and a general outline of what they get. Get that PDF if you want the complete crazy experience, including the odd distribution of probabilities for learning/finding spells.

First Level/Minor Psi Spells include a spell for cancelling magic AND earthpower at once, some detection spells, Ego Shield for all your mind shield needs, another one of those "not the expensive shit until 40th level" transmuations, a healing spell which costs 1 psi point per HP restored making it shitty as hell since the magic and earthpower ones give full heals for 1 con, which at standard exchange rates is 15 psi points, Hypnosis , an illusion spell with a maximum 85% chance of not looking like ass, Intellect Annihilation which does 3d6 Int damage making it probably the best 1st level psi attack spell against anything with a mind, a spell which gives you either photographic memory for 24 hours OR 200 bonus psi points for the same, and costs 50 but don't use it twice on a dude in a day otherwise a 70% chance of insanity instead of it just. not. WORKING. , Invisiblity , Paralysis Bolt , a Postcognition spell which lets you see decades back into the past from miles away from the event at a fairly steep cost, Psi Bolt for generic ass damage, Psi Cage , Psi Shield (vs physical, energy, mutations, alchemy, chi, and psi), Psionic Spray which shoots out a Psi Bolt, Paralysis Bolt, and Intellect Annihilation all at once at up to 3 different dudes, more sensory shit, Telekinesis available in Move Shit and Protect Shit modes except Protect Shit costs way too much compared to Psi Shield and Tactile Elekinesis mode which also gives you 360 degree vision becuase why not, Telespeak which lets you telepathically speak to anything wiht 10 or more Ego (which means average Int and Wis of 5) and keep the language forever if you use it for an hour (up to 100), and a Tesseract .

Fifth Level/Major abilities include Alter Density as per the Master Mutation (15 psi=1 con), some spells from other lists, Create Solid Illusion , Death Stare which lets you kill dudes if they fail a handful of saves by staring into their eyes, Disintegration Beam which costs exactly as much as Death Stare only without the "plus per level higher" thing(and if you're smart enough and roll it you can get this at level 1, remember), Empathic Control , non-minor Levitation , Location From Objects for doing your best "here's his clothes boy! Do you have the scent? Go find him!" act, Magnetic Control which lets you move ferrous shit, knock people out or fuck up electronics, fly, shoot a bolt which does damage or knockback, and put up a shield, Psionic Amplification , an anti-mutations psi and energy field, Pyrokinesis which lets you make a vaporization shield which destroys shit that touches it, melt and/or burn things, and "Spontaneous Combustion" which destroys things with a wave of blue energy , Scan Mind and Willforce which lets you scan people's minds and then also dominate people for as long as they keep failing saves, Telepathic Control which lets you make a dude do two physical actions against their wills (like draw their gun and shoot themself in the head as the book points out) as long as they're both within the 3 segment duration, Telepathic Ventriloquism which lets you make people say things, Telepathy (a lot of different things are named telepathy in this) which lets you alter memories, communicate, make illusions, set up a psi-telephone-system for you and your buddies for an hour, a psi scream to make people go unconscious, "teach simple concepts within seconds", but not Engineering or spells, but it's not clear how it works with other skills, "Psychic Lockpick" for bypassing mental defenses, a psi shield, mind scan, "Telepathic Hypnosis" which is complete different from the mutation version I guess, translate languages, and finally a Teleport spell, like the 10th level mage warrior spell.

Tenth Level abilities include Ego Beast which creates a tin yblue dragon which eats a victim's ego points (how this affects their Int or Wis is unclear), Interdimensional Space which lets you make a room 10 feet by 10 feet by 20 high, which will hold five people, and the door appears 10 feet above the ground so you have to fly or teleport in. It lasts up to 8 hours, so here's that "go rest in another dimension where nobody can get at me" spell! The Kintetics spell lets you use all the powers of the Major Mutations Energy, Mass Molecule, Sonic, Major Photon, and Thermal Kinetic at 25 psi points per con point exchange rate. Mass Solid Illusion and Mass Teleport are obvious, Planeport lets you travel across up to 5 dimensions, Psi Transformation lets you drain people's con and ego points to restore your psi points, and if you jump through some hoops you can make the link permanent. Or you can just use it to filter con points and turn them into psi points when pooling power without screwing up your buddies. Psi Slayer makes a summon which can go hit people for you and shit. Worm "creates a small wormlike field within the brain of a subject" which lets you "completely control a subject's thoughts and actions". You can even cast psi spells through them (out of your own points). And put pressure on their pain and pleasure centers with it. And see through their eyes. You can only actively control one dude per 10 levels at a time, but you can worm up as many dudes as you want, and give them orders and then go check on another Wormed dude.

Fifteenth Level spells include Mass Heal which is slightly less shitty than the psi heal as it does 1 psi point per 1% of a person's life points (per person), but it's still not a flat cost 100% heal so suck it, Porthole which lets you make a teleport gate, Psionic Invulnerability which gives you or a buddy 3 10ths, the ability to breathe without air, and +20 str per levle of the caster, Psionic Restoration which is like Mystic Restoration and means it's fairly trivial to fix up dudes who go insane (such as by drinking Psisha Adreemus and having a bad trip), and Psionic Web which makes a... psionic web. Which lets you grab people with it and shit, like webs do. Only psioniclly.

Twentieth Level spells include Mass Mind Control which lets you control a bunch of dudes at once, Possession like the mutation, Psi Trap which is like a Spell Trap, only with psi instead, Psionic Acceleration which works like Spell Haste, Psionic Nullification like the major mutation Null Void, and Starport which lets you travel tarsec-level distances with normal misport chances.

Thirtieth Level spells include Caprenium Silence which lets you turn off any three of magic, psi, earthpower, chi, mutations, alchemy, and energy in a 100-foot radius for a year , Impart Psionics makes a dude psionic so you can give them spells (but not as good as an actual psi-casting class), Power Transfer like the 40th level Mage Warrior spell, Psi Bank for storing an extra 5000 psi points (which they need to get somewhere, but fortunately it includes the ability to shoot beams at dudes to drain their psi points), Timeport which lets you teleport back in time a minimum of 500 years, for 48 hours, but not into the future. But not in space, so if you want to go to Old Earth you need to go find it and THEN timeport.

Fortieth Level spells include Alter Probabilites which lets you, for 450 psi points, affect all die rolls in the area "unless a victim is immune to time", by up to 20%, or +-2 for init. Precognition lets you make a quicksave for 500 psi points. Seriously, you look into the future by the GM running the game. For up to 5 minutes in-world time. he example informs us that you can view only up to 1 year in the future and you appanrelty have to be specific about where you're using it, becuase the example says if you want to know what happens when you go to the Dark Tower and fight Routh, if he's not gonna be there within the next year you wasted your psi points. Resurrection lets you bring dudes back from the dead, or also let you turn into a spirit for a bit and then go fly away and rebuild your body over there if you cast it in advance, or you can... turn a dude into a spirit if the spell "is used more than three times when a user dies". Sphere of Power Transformation lets you absorb attacks, and then shoot them back out as raw damage. attack type, range, and so on is not stated.

The sole Fiftieth Level Psi Spell is Wish . It costs 22500 psi points to cast, and takes 45 days to cast "at the minimum constitution drain".

You must spend at least 500 points a day on it, and the book suggest you spend 750 and 12 hours of concentration a day to cast it in only 30. You can get buddies to help, but you have to spend the exact same total amount each day and do the same shit.

In order to actually do it, you have to do the following:

• Write your wish on a piece of paper using 5 or less sentences
  
• It costs 22,500 psi points
  
• Spend the same amount each day, and do the same ritual which takes at least 2 hours
  
• Spend at least 500 per day
  
• The GM has to approve it
  
• And it has to not violate the limitations listed immediately afterward in the book.
  

The limitations are that it has to be for one, coherent "thing". A magic item which does multiple things or all your ability scores going up is considered "one thing", but not a magic item and a ton of diamonds. "Creative phrasing may help this, depending on whether Fate is inclined to be liberal or not". Example given is a spaceship and a ton of diamonds vs a spaceship CONTAINING a ton of diamonds. You also have to get the basic wish down in one short sentence, with the other 4 for shit like the component loadout of your ship, what KIND of diamonds, where it shows up, etc.

Oh, and also there's an 11 point list of other shit you can't do:

• You can't have more than 3 which directly affect you, goign up as you hit various post-mortal stages
  
• You can't wish to become and Immortal or a God (but "Demigod" is not specified for anybody looking for a loophole)
  
• You can't raise more than 10 levels (which given that various levels of immortality have levels attached I guess you can't loophole your way into demigodhood anyway)
  
• You can't exceed the Limitations in chapter 2 which I'll get to later
  
• You can't wish for infinite anything ("Forget it! It cannot be done.")
  
• You can't wish for more than the maximum amount of skills (up to the GM how many you can wish for at once and shit)
  
• Can't wish for more wishes
  
• Can't wish for more than 1 ton of "pure matter" or 1 ounce of any ""priceless" substance"
  
• Can't wish for Venderant Nalaberong, Pure Psionics, God Power, god items, or the ability to make spells without using engineering. You can however wish for God Power and god items if you cast the spell with God Power
  
• You can't wish to know something the GM doesn't
  
• And anything immune or resistant to Psi takes a 40% penalty when affected by this spell, and if they succeed they aren't affected. Titanite and Shadarkeem metal can't be affected ever.
  

The GM is also encouraged to fuck over players for poorly worded wishes. Also you can use a wish as a curse. The psi spell section then abruptly ends without explaining anything about that.

And that's Shadow Masters! Next time: Shadow Warriors!

Classes: Shadow Warriors

posted by Zereth Original SA post

World of Synnibarr, Part I Don't Even Care What Part My Updates Are, Ettin: Shadow Warriors!

Shadow Warriors are one of two classes made by another: In this case, the Shadow Masters.

They were made about 45k years ago by some awesome Shadow masters working under the Shadow Knight(also a Shadow Master).

He was the only Shadow Master who knew genetic engineering, so he was tapped to make some new dudes.

He started with a human an buffed them up on the physical stats, plus Enhanced Wareness.

Then he also built in the ability to produce the "Sound Saber".

Also tracking abilities, magic/earthpower resistance, and how to hide their life force (requires total concentration).

Then he taught his buddies how to do this and vanished, never to be seen again.

Shadow Warriors were made to be guards! After 1000 years of service they asked for their freedom, and got it immediately. Because the Terra Council is nice I guess.

They thought this was pretty sweet, so they made a pact to protect... people. This lets them pick a dude to protect on an Adventure, usually the physically weakest, probably a spellcaster. They take this totally seriously and would die to protect them. This means they get the same XP their protectee does on the adventure, presumably on top of their own for participating. Only one person at a time, and you don't get the XP until they're home safe.

It's also totally voluntary, but it's honorable and shit.

One Shadow Knight is totally awesome ! She's named Xzul and is the Goddess of the Guardians and the Balance.

Shadow Warriros need high int, dex, and agility! They start getting modified at 3, then they go through the Shadow Master training at the academy.


Their Natural Abilities are Mental Shielding preventing their thoughts form being read by any means except God Power, Resistances of 50%+1% every 2 levels to magic and earthpower, Astral Projection once per day for up to an hour, and the ability to Hide Life Force !

Their Skills on top of the SFAGTA are Ambush; Concealment; Concealment, Detect; Disguise; Guardsmen; Meditation; Surveillance; and Tracking.

Their Basic Abilities are:
Getting 1d100 psi points plus another d100 if Int is 23+, plus 1d100 every 3 levels, min roll of Ego.
Limited Telepathy which lets them communicate telepathically with dudes in 50 feet, costing 15 psi points per minute with a duration of "Permanent".
Sound Saber which does... generic damage, scaling after 5th level as per usual except this one sales at +10 per level instead of the usual +1000 per level, so it's pretty crap, except maybe it's Psi damage so it ignores armor? Have I mentioned that basically nothing every says what kind of damage it does?
Enhanced Awareness gives Shadow Warriors a 60% chance to notice incoming danger and shit before the surprise roll. It can detect a variety of shit. You an also try to use it actively to find things. The chance does not go up with level.

They also get Special Abilities ! They get one ability off the Shadow Warrior list to start with, unless int is 23+, in which case they get two. They get another 1st levle aiblity every 3 levels, and one 5th at 5 and every 5 levels thereafter, and one 10th at 10 and every etc.

At 20th level, they becomes Shadow Knights and can now learn psi spells, starting as a 1st level Minor Practitioner and advancing to a maximum of 20th level caster.

The First Level Shadow Warrior Abilities are:
Heal and Regrowth as the 1st level psi spell. You know, the one where the maximum possible psi points for a mortal is enough to heal 1000 hp, total, letting you blow your entire day's psi on healing one dude up from moderately in the negatives.
Psionic Steed which lets them summon a magic horse. A magic hovercraft horse, as it floats 2 inches off the ground, letting it run over water, ice, lava, and "other unstable surfaces". (Synnibarr apparently does not have convection.) It can also carry shit inside it, is immune to physical and energy attacks, and can fly at 20th level.
Psychic Shield is yet another shield spell.
Quickness gives +1 init, +10% dodge, and one attack per turn for a bit, fairly cheaply.
Shadow Axe lets you make an axe which does Generic Scaling Damage, can be thrown as a beam attack, cuts through two 10ths (which I guess means it's not psi damage as that normally ignores 10ths entirely), and "Can be made into a psionic energy ghost". Which will, instead of doing damage, overstimulating the victim's pleasure centers, which incapacitates them for 15 minutes. (if they fail the save, you save against fucking everything in Synnibarr.) It also returns to your hand after being thrown at the speed of thought (tarwarp 10, as previously established).
Telekinesis as the 1st level psi spell.
Two 10ths Damage Protection does exactly what it says, for a turn. I think you can sustain it so you don't need to use up the 1/4th attack to recast it on subsequent turns, too.

Fifth Level abilities are:
Clairvoyance as the 1st level psi spell
Cloaking Sphere which protects you against sensing spells/devices/abilities, has a 90%chance of preventing you from being heard, but doesn't prevent Sense Psionics or the Mk. 1 eyeball from finding you. It has a duration of 10 minutes, can costs 30 psi points per turn.
Lance lets you make a psi lance which does... decent damage? Or you can banish somebody to a pocket dimension for 24 hours, but that costs more. If anybody else touches it it hurts them.
Shadow Hawk makes a magic hawk, which you can see and hear through. It can travel at the speed of thought (tarwarp 10), but much slower in combat. You can feed it more psi points to make it cast Scan Mind and Willforce, make it engulf a people's head and turning into a shadow hood so they can't move, see, or attack, and don't remember anything that happens to them, or you can use it as a messenger/courier by teleporting.
Shadow Staff lets you make a staff which drains people's con points, which you can either give to other people, use to refill your own, or shoot as beams.
Teleport as per the 5th level psi spell.

Their Tenth Level abilities are:
Crossbow which makes a magic crossbow, which can fire up to 3 arrow. "All arrows can be used only once." The wording does not specify per use of the ability, so since Fate must run things as written that means ever. The arrow types are a physical one which pierces 3 10ths and does a... decent amount of damage, strength bonus or lack thereof not specified, a nullification arrow which will cancel two of the powers at a time and prevents the victim from using powers for 5 minutes, and a stun arrow which will blow up and hit a 50 foot diameter area, stunning up to 10 people or 1 ton.
Hand of Annihilation lets you poke people and annihilate things. You can keep poking until the duration runs out or you actually hit. if the victim saves, they need to make another different save of pass out for 2 hours.
Psionic Armor lets you create some armor with 3 10ths that also increases your strength by 200 and will hurt dudes if they touch it for a small additional drain. It lasts an hour.
Psychic Form costs a shitload, and lets them glow really brightly, making a loud roar, and making people within 10 feet feel nausea. "Everything considered, it is a very scary effect." In this form, they're immune to everything but magic, psi, and earthpower (which apparently includes God Power and Vendernat Nalaberong), can fly at 100 mph and pass through almost anything. In this form, they function as beam attacks. It doesn't say "their attacks" do, just that they do. They also can only use psi abilities they have, and other items, weapons, and spells won't work. Nothing else changes.

And that's Shadow Warriors! Next time: Shamans! Shamen? Whatever. They're another spellcasting class, with their own bigass spell list.

Classes: Shamans

posted by Zereth Original SA post

World of Synnibarr, Part Just Four Classes Left After: Shamans!

You know what this game needed more of? Native American sterotypes.

Shamans are a "special type of spell use and warrior" and get spells to buff themselves!

As a race, they're all "North American Indians", although not all member of the class are I guess? They're the Synachi, and they live in the northern Terran island of Holdarian. They're descended from the "10 Shaman mothers and fathers."

They're also awesome tailors and can use any type of leather you want to make clothes out of! They grow "all forms of ordinary creatures" to do this. Also they mark ranks with "two electric eagle feathers" per rank. "These, with their leather clothing, make for walking works of art ('functional but stylish')."

They can tell if you're gonna be a Shaman when you're born, becuase you're pretty and don't cry. They're sent to shaman school at 10, for 15. One of the things they learn there is how to control wind to fly, which the class got as a birthday present or somethign from Space Jesus. So it works anywhere God Power does.

They're not actually spell"cast"ers, rather they sing . And sometimes use focus items like "bear claws tied on a ceremonial wand".

Also, like every other fucking special ability in the goddamn game so I don't know why they needed to put this in the fluff section , their songs drain Con! And have the cost listed! Also some songs aren't songs but are in fact Power Word: Sandwich or whatever.

Their wind air control lets them play an instrument they made up, the Dalhada. "The average Dalhada weighs approximately 900 pounds and resembles a grand piano." They use the wind to vibrate strings, reeds, pipes, and also drum. It's apparently so awesome gods often notice and go listen.

The best at playing this ridiculous thing go hold bimonthly concerts in the "Granite Bowl", which is located in who gives a shit.

Their Natural Abilities are: JACK SHIT! Ha ha, suck it Shamans! Other than their skills on top of the SFAGTA which are Hunting and Detect Spell Traps.

Their Basic Abilities are owning a Mage Tree Staff , their Songs , being a Pure Practitioner In the Art in magic, and two other things:

Control of Wind which lets them fly up to 100 mph, and carry themselves and 200 pounds plus 10 pounds per level of stuff. It is also listed as a wide beam attack but has no mention of how to use it offensively.

Senses lets them feel magic, psi, earthpower, and alchemy in... um... Range is 0 feet, so I guess touch?


The Shaman Songs aren't quite as long as psi, earthpower, or mage warrior spells, so I'll be goign into a bit more detail.

First Level Songs include Cloak of the Shaman which is another shield, Dancing Song which gives somebody +15% dodge and 2 extra attacks for an hour, and can only be cast on a person twice a day or they save vs dying , Distraction which, uh. Distracts dudes, Guardian Spirit which gives two 10ths, +200 str, and +2 init, and can only be cast twice a day on one person or , Illusions of Rakk which is like the mage warrior Illusion spell, Little Fire Spirit which makes a ball of flame you can either use as lighting or to light something on fire, Lotus Bolt for all your putting dudes to sleep needs, Mystic Cage for locking dudes into an invulnerable weightless levitating wood sphere where they can't see or hear anything but have an infinite supply of air needs, Rain Dance for all your raining 1000 to 6000 gallons of water and also shooting people with paralyzing rainbow lightning needs, See the Past , Solidify Air , Spirit Force as per 2nd level Mage Warrior spell Telekinesis, Spirit Spear for all your shooting people with a magic spear needs. Spirit Stomp for all your knocking people over by stomping on the ground needs, Tomahawk for all your throwing a physical tomahawk at people and doing magic damage needs, Transform Into a Spirit for all your turning into a ghost needs which lets you fly at 100 mph and also "movement with this song is instantaneous and can be used as a Tesseract-type dodge" somehow at the same time, War Club for all your hitting dudes for extra damage and stunning them with a real war club needs, and War Cry for all your yelling really loud and making people surprised for 3 seconds needs.

Third Level songs are all sub-abilities of The Pouch . When they reach 3rd level they get it and two The Pouch abilities. It's not a magic item, but the songs need a real one, and the "required totems of materials appear in the pouch in one segment when the song is used." These abilities include: Fire Totem which makes a small redwood totem pole which can shoot fire ha ha no this is Synnibarr, it shoots disintegration beams, Fog which makes a Cloak of Mist style fog which can either be used like that spell or cover a 100 foot area, Hush Powder which lets you sprinkle it to either silence the dude you sprinkled it on or make a sphere of silence which doesn't let sound in or out (but you can talk while inside it), Knife makes a magic knife, Powder of Darkness creates darkness blinds people in a 15 foot wave... permanently unless undone by the Song of Health, Sling makes a magic sling, Speaking Sap makes a bit of sap that you put in your mouth and then you can hear and speak "any higher order language" which you are specifically able to use as often as you can want (except for the con cost) and also it tastes good, Spirit Breath makes wax which you can put in your mouth to get the benefit of Eternal Sustenance, except temperature range is -70 to 170 degrees F, Spirit Pipe lets you blow smoke rings to banish spirits and shit, and Teepee lets you make a magic climate-controlled teepee.

Fifth Level songs are normal again, and include Call and Control Beast and Plant Spirits which lets you shove your mind into a nearby plant or beast for five minutes, Cloak of Peace which makes everybody in a 7.5 foot radius around you completely invisible and silent, apparently even from each other, Fire Circle is a shield which also burns people who touch it, Fire Arrow shoots a magic fire arrow as long as you have a bow made of mage tree wood and unicorn tail hairs which costs $10,000 (first one comes free with the spell), Ravens Claws crates an invisible 5-foot radius field which claws shit, Song of Health heals one person plus one person per 3 levels of the caster for 100%, costing 1 con point per dude and making Psi healing spells look like chump shit once again, Song of Sensing makes the shaman impossible to surprise and able to find magic shit , including a 65% chance of sensing God Power, Venderant Nalaberong, or secret doors, in a 500-foot diameter area at once, Song of Winter which freezes shit solid, Song Stick which lets them store up to six spells in a mage tree stick, more renamed mage warrior spells, Spirit of Flame which doesn't do friendly fire and summons wither a sphere for flame, shoot a beam of fire, or summon a fire bird which they can get inside and fly around in, Spirit of Rock and Earth which lets them do a bunch of earth control shit, Spirit of Water which does different shit for water, Spirit of Wind , Spirit Shape which lets you adjusts people's physical appearances or use it as Metamorph and doesn't have much to do with spirits, and Wind of Neverana which cancels some kinds of magic.

Tenth Level songs include: Fire Staff which makes a staff which makes an Enhanced Brilliant Defender as per the mage warrior spell and also you can hit people with it to make them save or die, Shaman Sphere which is another shield spell, this one immobile, Shaman Storm creates a hurricane, and then you can make it do lightning bolts for millions of damage but don't do that too much or you'll lose control, Song of Great Sleep which puts people to sleep in an area of up to 50 days, Song of War which gives you Dancing Song, Guardian Spirit, and 75% magic resistance for an hour and also don't use it more than twice in a day or you die, and Spirit Possession which lets turn into a spirit and posses a guy, and if you do they get to save once very 12 hours to kick you out again.

Fifteenth Level spells include Bear Claw which lets you shoot an invisible phazed beam out of your flying grizzly paw glove, Nightmare which lets you induce and control nightmares, Shaman Shout lets you yell really loud and hurt people and knock them unconscious, Solidfy Time which lets you slow everybody you want to in a 100-foot area down to half speed/attacks/dodge/init, Sun Song which lets you create a circle of fire around you which burns the shit out of things in a large area, or you can use it to fly around instead, or both for double cost, and Turning Song which is like the alchemist Reflect and Amplify except it also reflects physical damage and also some of the numbers are different I think.

Twentieth Level songs include: Symbol of the Beasts which lets you summon one of four elemental beasts which do various shit I don't feel like typing out, a couple more spells taken from other spell lists including a 40th level Earthpower spell, The Drum which lets you summon a magic drum and play it to disrupt concentration, and then suck people's souls into the drum and ask them questions they have to tell the truth about, and also you can destroy the drum to "irrevocably" destroy their souls. You can do this to up to 10 people at a time! You can also, if you have a sympathetic link (clothes, hair, etc) and their name, you can spend more con and take an hour and summon somebody from any distance to do this shit to them, but can't destroy their soul that way. Then there's some more spells cribbed from the Mage Warrior list.

For the Thirtieth and Fortieth level song list, we are told that they just use the Mage Warrior lists. Straight up, no renaming or anything.


And that's Shamans! Next Time: Tigers, Golden and Scarlet!

Classes: Tigers, Golden/Scarlet/Mage

posted by Zereth Original SA post

Also, time to stop slacking off. It's time for World of Synnibarr, Part 3 Again: Example of Play, for real this time!

Here you go.

And also World of Synnibarr, Part Almost There: Golden and Scarlet Tigers!

Tigers are martial artists, and are human! (Except that they're one of the classes where you can split your race/class with Method 2.) They're called that becuase they wear silly outfits, like Batman's cowl only with cat ears instead. The picture on the page does not have a cape.


_{Pictured: Silly outfit}

Gold and Red types are trained in different locations, becuase Scarlets are evil while Goldens are good . Yep, it's alignment restriction time! The location of their temples are secret, except they're somewhere in the Terra Isle Mountains, located on the Terra Isles somewhere I guess.

It is said (by Tigers) that they can defeat 5 Ninjas of the same level. Apparently Humility is not one of their class abilities.

They don't sleep. They can use chi to punch and kick really fast, so their unarmed attacks count as beam attacks.

Because they don't sleep they have a strong sense of duty to those who do, particularly casters! They will guard these people, and also cook and do their chores and shit so they can spend all their time studying magic. Okay...

They also get an anime-style battle aura, colored appropriately. This is a blatant tip-off to which kind of Tiger they are, and the book claims it's the only way to truly tell, except that the alignments are pretty fucking restrictive so you could just watch one for a while.

Speaking of alignment restrictions, Golden tigers have to have gold, silver, or blue auras, and Scarlet gray, red, or scarlet. And players of Tigers are required to play their dude "exactly within the boundaries of the specific aura." So, you know. It'd be pretty fucking obvious which kind of Tiger they are based on their behavior.

Their Natural Abilities are Meditating for 6 hours instead of sleeping, which "counts for regaining power", probably Con points, that their unarmed attacks are Beam Attacks , that their Hand-to-Hand Damage is comparable of the best melee weapons (except you can't make your hands out of exotic metals for armor piercing), that they get better Beam Attack Dodge equal to their normal, up to 65% (the maximum for mortals, it says), and a Jumping Bonus , letting them jump 3 foot up and 70 feet across unless their strength gives them better.

Their Skills on top of the SFAGTA are: Biology in normal, Marine, and Xeno-; Combat, Grappling; Combat, Martial Art: Disarming, Empty-Hand, Throwing, Way of the Body, and Weapons; Meditation; Moving Silently; and Nerve Pinch.

Their Basic Abilities are:
Shadow Vision which gives them darkvision.
Tiger Strike which costs nothing and does the same damage as a Tiger punch, modified by strength, and then listed after that it lists +10 points of damage per level after the 5th, which since it's listed after strength mods means it is trivial, adding a max of +450 damage, and also you can knock people out with this if they fail a save. Damage type, once again, not specified, so I can't tell if it's physical or Chi damage.
Sense Life Forms And Auras lets them do what it says in 50 feet, accurately enough to aim at.
Telepathy With Other Tigers lets them call other tigers up to a mile away on the mind phone.
Run Faster Than An Arrow costs a whopping 3 con points and lets them effectively teleport... "Range: 73 feet" not very far! It's not actually teleporting, though, they're running. And get 2 10ths of protection from the Tiger Fire covering them while they do it, and it can be used to dodge area effect attacks if they can get out of the AoE. (The Adventurers Guide Errata actually increases the range on this, but I forget how much.)
Tiger Fire lets them do a bunch of shit! They can make a shield, they can shoot people to drain their con or hurt them, use it to fly up to 500 mph, and also Gold tigers can heal dudes with it (again, more efficiently than the basic psi healing spell), and Scarlet ones can instead infect people with somethign which will... kill them pretty fast, as it does 20% +1/2% per level of the victim's HP per set. ... It doesn't specific max or current. It can also restore con points... which apparently do not come out of the Tiger's reserve... Up to twice the Tiger's own con score per day. Can't be amplified, but it... doesn't seem to exempt the Tiger themselves, so they can scrape out a lot of Con per day this way, it looks like.

They also get Special Abilities ! Randomly rolled at levels and blah blah blah.

Their First Level Abilities are:
Claw which lets them hit dudes up to 500 feet away with a magic tiger paw, or use it to grab stuff and pull it back or as a grappling hook
Cloak of Flames gives them the effects of Cloak of Mist, Invisibility, and Quiet all at once, and also they can affect other dudes at higher levels
Fire Shield works like the shield mode of Tiger Fire except you can attack out of it and it only comes in sphere mode
Tiger Sense lets them detect magic

Their Fifth Level ones are:
Fire Strength lets you give somebody two 10ths and +20 str per level of the user (up to 350) for an hour. It affects you, plus one additional person per 5 levels.
Flames of Confinement lets you confine people and suppress their powers until somebody bashes down the sphere of Tiger Fire you used to do it.
Tiger Tesseract is anotehr fast short-range teleport, with slightly different rules from all other others because this is fucking Synnibarr.
Ward of the Tiger lets you make an illusion of the area you placed a circle in which stops attacks going in but not out, and magically conceals dudes inside it from magical detection and such. It lasts 10 hours.

Tenth Level are:
Eyes of the Tiger makes their eyes glow the relevant color and gives them the "equivalent of" the psi abilities Postcognition, Clairvoyance, Scan Mind and Willforce, Sense Truth and Falsehood, or Sense danger. One at a time, 1 con point = 15 psi points exchange rate.
Slow-Motion Wave affects as many people as you want/can afford in a "200 foot area around the user" (diameter? radius? square footage? ) with the effects of the 1st level Mage Warrior spell Slow Motion.
Tiger-Fire Wave affects a 500-foot "area" around you with the effects of the Tiger Fire Blast. Which isn't really anything to write home about but I guess it would be good for killing a lot of weak shit. (as long as their fail their saves!)
Tiger's Luck requires a million-dollar set of bracers (made of moonstone and white gold) which you get one for free with the ability, which lets you... once per day per 10 levels, avoid any attack which rolled under 95% (150 at 40th level). And also you only take normal damage form the attack... you... completely avoided. This lasts a turn! Also, 35+1% per level after 10 resistance to chemicals, poisons, and phazed attacks, apparently passively! However if you fight another Tiger with this ability they both cancel out, except you still get the resistances against people who aren't the other tiger attacking you. (But not the active "ha ha you missed" ability, I guess.)

And while we're here, let's look at Mage Tigers !

Roughly 1% of Gold and Red Tigers "born" (how are tigers recruited, anyway?) are Mage Tigers! Mage Tigers start training in the womb, learning about magic and shit until 10. Then they start Tiger training!

They aren't as good at Tigering as full Tigers, and take 7 extra years of training. And wont' ever get Tiger Fire. They get most of the other shit, and also Mage Warrior spells! They can't use Mage Tree Staffs though.

Their Natural Abilites are Meditation and Sense Life Forms/Auras from the Tiger list.

Their Skills are like Tiger skills, except they get Astral Projection and don't get Way of the Body or Moving Silently.

Their Basic Abilities are getting Partial Practitioner of the Art in Magic, Telepathy with other Tigers, Resistance to psi, mutation, and energy of 25%+1% per level, Tiger Strike but only once per day per level, their unarmed attacks aren't beam attacks but are otherwise like normal Tiger attacks, they have normal Beam Attack Dodge, Don't get Tiger Fire, and can Detect Astral Forms out to 500 feet.

They get Special Abilities like Tigers do, except they never get 10th level abilities.

It is unclear if Mage Tigers are required to fit the alignment restrictions or not.

And that's both types of Tigers! Next time: Weremen!

Classes: Weremen/Winged Warriors

posted by Zereth Original SA post

World of Synnibarr, Part Did Anybody Read The Example Of Play?: Those wacky Weremen!

Weremen were originally created over 25k years ago as bodyguards and servants and shit for the Alchemists! Back when Alchemy was new and imperfect (as opposed to being based largely on a language nobody can learn, ever) and Synnibarr was sitll in transit to its current location.

Becuase the newbie Alchemists sucked ass, they managed to fuck up and build a flaw into the Weremen: They decided working for the Alchemists was lame and quit.

So at this point a Werewoman called Tavasa gathered up the other were-dudes and they all went to The Mountain Islands, to set up shop. This later got destroyed by drakes and they live in Terra now, and Drakes live there instead.

Young Weredudes go to school, learning "the ancient Art" of advanced math and other shit from the Alchemists, who apparently don't really hold grudges I guess? Later they go to were-school, the Hall of Shadows, to level up.

They study with the Alchemists for 15 years and graduate at 21, and get a whopping $500 to start with for some reason rather than getting any cash form their parents or shit like most classes do. As their only possessions on graduation are that $500 and stock Alchemist robes and sandals, the first place they go with their massive amounts of cash (The lowest you can possibly roll on the normal chart is $1000) is the tailor, becuase "No self-respecting Wereman would be caught dead dressed as an Alchemist!" Unless they're at school, apparently.

They ahve special alchemy-based abilities! They have a field which can resist and drain various types of attacks, and they choose to resist or absorb it when hit, and if the absorb it they can use the power for six hours.

They ALSO get a power called "Shadow Form", which makes a black aura field thing around them so they look like a solid shadow. It lets them teleport, or drain strength/con from dudes through touch, or also read memories by touch.

They are also impossible to mind-read or detect their auras, at all, ever.

Their Natural Abilities are Shitty Starting Cash of $500 and Mental Shielding so their auras/minds can't be read.

Their Skills on top of the SFAGTA are: Math, Advanced; Ambush; Concealment; Concealment, Detect; Disguise; Impersonation; Interrogation; and Interrogation Resistance.

Their Basic Abilities are:
The Absorption Field , which lets them, at first level, absorb 4 energy/attack/damage/whatever types off of Table 48, randomly rolled, of course. This an be nullified, and can't do shit to Phazed attacks. You also get 35%+2% resistance to attacks on top of the ability to absorb them, which can't be nullified. You have to be aware of the attack to absorb it. The eight types are: Physical (which doesn't come with resistance), Magic, Psionics, Earthpower, Mutations, Alchemy, Energy, and Chi. It can absorb up to 1 million life points of a physical or energy attack, or 100,000 per level of the others. They only absorb the part of an AoE which hits them. They can also shoot shit they absorbed back out as damage of the type it was when they absorbed it, in ranged or touch as the attack was. You can't absorb physical objects, just being hit, and if you're full you take full damage if your resistance roll fails.

Shadow Form lets them teleport, or hit people for damage and con drain, or read minds and shit.

Their also get Special Abilities as they level up.

At 5th they get Selective Amnesia which lets them erase dude's memories selectively, up to their entire life. This can only be reversed by a Wereman of equal or higher level.

Shadow Claws at 10th gives them wolverine claws which do alchemy damage and aren't affected by strength.

Dark Bolt 15th lets them shoot people with a bolt which does the same thing as Shadow Form attacks or Shadow Claws.

Extrasensory Perception at 20th lets them use the psi spells Detect Danger, Post Cognition, and Speak with Objects. Sense Danger has a 50% chance of working even if you aren't actively using this ability, for free.

Doppleganger at 25th lets you copy the form of somebody you're touching, including growing wings or extra arms, from 10 to 5000 pounds for the new form. Since you can also read dudes' minds, this makes you a perfect infiltrator, apparently! Except you don't get any of the dude's powers. You can project their aura, but your thought shield is still up.

Reflect at 30th lets you reflect shit instead of absorbing it.

One Extra Absorption Mode at 40th lets you absorb a fifth (randomly rolled) type off the list!

And that's Weremen.

Let's do Winged Warriors while we're here!

They call themselves the Alorians, and not much else is known about them. They go to school in the wild as kids, and the mountains around Lake Diamondblood.

They are the performing artists of Synnibarr! Twice a month, "opposite the Dalhada concerts", the "Live Emotion" theater troupe puts on plays and shit! But not musicals becuase Winged Warriors can't sing for shit and are even worse dancers.

They also fucking love hunting! They have a yearly Storm Drake hunt where you have to catch it without hurting it, at all. Also it's muzzled which protects them from its teeth, and it form being tracked by them somehow. It gets a 1 minute head start, from the Terra Airport.

They will fight to the death if denied freedom and die if imprisoned for more than 90 days!

They are "masters of the air" and learn to be great warriors by self-training. They have steel-hard razor sharp feathers in their wings they can use to hit things with.

They are also allegedly the greatest trackers in the universe!

Their Natural Abilities are Enhanced Senses , Two 10ths Damage Protection , Resistances of 50% to magic, psi, and earthpower, +5% to dodge while flying , and The aforementioned feathers .

Their Skills on top of the SFAGTA are Acting, Comedian, and Hunting!

Their Basic Abilities are a 50% chance of a Master Mutation, Psionic Tracking with unlimited range and a 50%+1% per level (max 90%) chance of success, a permanent Cloak of Mist effect, and Radar .

Their Special Abilities are:
Quickness which lets them get +10% dodge, one extra attack, and +1 init on a per-turn basis
Super Strength which adds 200 str plus 10 per level after 5 on a per-turn basis
Invisiblity for up to a set or they attack
Uncommon Proficiency which gives +25% to hit (instead of the more common +50% version) and proficiency with all weapons, ever, anywhere, apparently even if they rely on alien physiology to use. This one can be nullified, though.

At higher levels, they get more powers:
Razor Wing at 5th gives them the ability to do less damage than hitting people with your wing sword feathers normally does, but it still gets strength bonus and I think is Mutation damage so it ignores armor.
Wings of Fire at 10th lets you use your wings as a shield
Talons at 15th lets you make magic claws around your lower legs/feet, doing... fairly good damage, not strength based. Or you can do half damage to two dudes if they're within 6 feet of each other.
Warrior's Wings at 20th is the "sign of adulthood in the Winged Warrior" so apparently you're just a hid until 20th level, and manifests itself by you growing some small blue feathers where your wings attach to your body and also glands on your wings. Which let you shoot gas which makes people pass out, or hypnotize people at 30th level. But if you use too much hypnosis gas on a dude they have to save vs dying. Winged Warriors are immune to the gas, and rubbing one of those blue feathers under somebody's nose (detachment not required) will counteract the result. As will any heal spell.

Teleport lets them teleport 100 miles (more for more con points) and bring along up to 5 other dudes weighing up to 10k pounds. And you an spend more con points to bring more shit, too. At 35th level you can use it to teleport to whatever you're tracking.

Warrior's Eyes lets you see shit miles away, and is Phazed so only shit that stops Phazed things can block it. At 40th level it merges with your Tracking ability so now you can see what you're tracking and can track things in a Phazed manner.

And that's all the fucking classes! Next time: Skills!

Skills

posted by Zereth Original SA post

World of Synnibarr, Part Thank God That's Over: Skills!

There are exactly 192 skills in World of Synnibarr!


And here they are!


Next time on World of Synnibarr, we-Oh, fine. I'll go into more detail.

You need both training and money to learn skills after character generation. Specifically, $100 per skill point.

Now, you may notice most skills cost at LEAST 5 points, except for weird useless shit like Pottery and Weaving. Let's skip ahead to Chapter 2: Rising in Levels to see how many skill points you get as you level up, hm?

It seems Non-Classed Adventurers get 10 skill points per level (consolation prize for sucking at most other things), while guild-trained adventurers get 5 per level. Except Tigers, who don't get any until 5th level, and amazons and ninjas at 10th, and Mage Tigers and Psielves don't get any more until 15th level. Variant races vary from race to race.

So if you want to learn Acrobatics, that's three levels right there. And as the chart indicates, it has prerequisites, too. So if your Mutant wants to learn Acrobatics, he'll also need Balancing and Juggling; Combat, Dodging and Blocking; and Jumping! Which will cost an additional... 1 skill point, becuase the others are part of the SFAGTA. Okay, poor example.

Speaking of which, in case you forgot, the Skills For All Guild-Trained Adventurers consists of: Balancing and Juggling (2 points); Climbing (3 points); Combat, Dodging and Blocking (3 points); Combat, Hand-Held Weapons (5 points); Combat, Hand-to-Hand (3 points); Combat, Projectile and Throwing Weapons (10 points); Computer Operation (3 points); Cooking (2 points); Detect Traps and Secret Doors (5 points); Fishing (2 points); Math, Basic (3 points); Medical, First Aid (5 points); Navigation, Air (5) Land (5) and Water (5); Piloting, Boats (5); Reading (1); Running (1); Sewing (3); Survival, Wilderness (10); Swimming, Basic (1); Weaving (2); Wood Carving (3); and Writing (1), which would cost a non-classed adventurer 88 skill points.

There are optional rules for having talent in a skill: Roll a d20 for each skill you get and if it's 15-18, you get +1 skill point, and 19-20 gets +2. You also get these whenever you boost them up through spending further skill points on top of the base cost.

There are also non-optional rules for increasing them without skill points: Every time you succeed at using a skill "under pressure", you add one "tentative" skill point to it. Every time you fail, which does not have the under pressure note, you subtract one. After the adventure is over, you total them up, and if it's positive, spend that many points on the skill for free! You don't get the Talent bonus, though.

Also if you try to use a skill without knowing it, you either have 50% of the success rate, or 10% if it's one of those skills marked with a * on the chart. If you succeed seven times in a row, you are now self-taught and "a Non-Classed Character can add it to his list of known skills". Guild-trained adventurers are now self-taught in it and uh... Unless it's a Discipline, in which case it only goes up to 50% and now you have to get another 7 successes in a row somehow. Note that most Disciplines are not going to have anywhere near 100% chance of success at base, so you're going to need to succeed at 7 single-digit percentage chances in a row to get it that far.

It's not clear how the skillup-through-use thing interacts with the partial success chart. (failure by 01-15% is "90% successful", 16-25 is "50%", 26-36 is "25%", 37-40 is "Not successful", and 41+ you did the opposite of what you wanted, somehow. You have made the door even more locked than it was when you started picking it.)

The opposed skill use rules don't compare relative success rates or anything, no. They're ridiculous. First you see if they both succeed, like Concealment vs Detect Concealment. If one guy fails, well, results are obvious. If they both succeed, though, they don't compare how well they did or anything. Instead, they each roll a d20. Let's say Hiding Dude rolls 10 and It rolls 15. Now, whoever has the higher base success rate gets to add the difference between these two rolls, in this case 5, to their roll, and whoever is higher wins! So if It has higher Detect Concealment "Chance to Accomplish" than Hiding Dude has Concealment, his effective roll is 20 so he finds the guy. If Hiding Dude has better Concealment, though, he adds the 5, getting 15, and tying with It, and then the GM looks at these rules, sees that they don't even consider ties, and scratches his head.

Also you can't learn the vast majority of these skills in an "Isolated Village" but whatever.

Let's check out some of the weirder skills! Like Accounting. Which takes 3 years to learn, has a base success rate of your Ego score (+1% per extra skill point), and lets you... do accounting shit. Totally worth the page space in this book about adventurers, right?

Or take Acrobatics! It costs a whopping 15 skill points, takes 3 years to learn, and gives you a success chance of your dodge score to do gymnastic/acrobatic shit. Oh, and also gives you +1 to Dexterity and Agility and +3 to strength (as long as you have the 9 dex, 10 agi, and 11 str to learn it in the first place). Some skills are better than others!

Aerobics, meanwhile, costs 1 skill point, takes... a single day to learn, has no other perquisites, and gives you +1 constitution! This is, in fact, all it does, and that requires you to work out for 20 minutes a day.

Or Alchemy Use! Which requires 17 int, and you to have already learned Astral Projection, Basic Math, MetaPhyiscs, Reading, Science, and Writing, and takes 7 years to learn. This massive expensive gives you... two lesser Alchemy studies, and the opportunities to buy more at 10 skill points a pop! 20 points and minimum 10th level for the mid-range ones, and 30 skill points and min 20th level for the best ones. However, there is an advantage: You get to choose which on you want instead of rolling on the chart. "This infuriates the more traditionally oriented Alchemists."

Or hey, remember Ambush, which some classes get? Guess what, it has a 35% chance to work without improving it through use (which requires you to succeed more than you fail) or spending more skill points, at a 1% per point rate.

And Archery! Which is the skill of, uh. Not shooting bows, but instead MAKING bows and arrows. (50% plus 1% per extra point). It also gives you +10% to hit with one specific type of bow! In fact, it lets you "fabricate a useable weapon from available materials". You can make crossbows, compound, recurved, and long bows, and also arrows and arrowheads. Out of "available materials". You're trapped naked in a room with nothing but a jar of mayonnaise, a copy of Mein Kampf, and a CD? Apparently you can make a bow and arrows out of them, 50% of the time.

Astral Projection requires you know Meditation, and gives you an Ego * 2 +1% per extra point chance of projecting. (what happens if you do the opposite of astrally projecting?) It doesn't give any stat bonuses, but there is the note "(saves on air fare)" after telling us that. Which is odd because you can't take your body along or anything.

And becuase it's in the SFAGTA, Balancing and Juggling lets you walk on narrow surfaces, tightropes, your hands, juggle shit, and also stack shit on top of other shit and have it not fall down. At least I think that's what "ability to balance objects" means. It has a success chance of 10% plus your Dexterity + Ego, +1% per extra point.

Basket Weaving lets you... weave baskets. And also "mats, woven roofs, crude boats, sails, hammocks, blankets, woven ropes, and twine", and also locate and cultivate suitable plants. Except it also says you can "use available materials" to do this, without specifying suitable available materials or anything. And remember, the GM has to run the rules exactly as written .

Biology lets you do, you know, biology shit, identify creatures, and also gives you +1 to your Int. With a success rate of your Ego score, and I'm only going to specify further skill point stuff from now on if it's NOT +1% per point. Marine and Xeno just let you do that for underwater and alien shit too, and dont' give you further Int bonuses.

Blacksmithing is what it sounds like, and has a success rate of 40% + 2 % per extra skill point, and lets you make tools and weapons, Including guns. And make alloys, but only consisting of two types of metals. Not three. (Unless you also learn Metallurgy.) It also doesn't let you make armor, that's the earlier Armorer skill.

Chi Use takes 10 years to learn, costs 15 skill points, requires that you already know Astral Projection; Combat in Dodging and Blocking, Grappling, Hand-Held Weapons, Hand-to-Hand, Martial Art Disarming/Empty Hand/Throwing/Weapons, Projectile and Throwing Weapons; Math, Basic; Meditation; Physics, Meta-; Reading; Science; and Writing, and lets you learn either Amazon, Ninja, or Tiger style chi use. (Additional styles available for the low low price of Fifty Fucking Skill Points ), and gives you 2 first-level abilities and one extra per every 20 skill points, third level abilities for 25, fifth for 40, and 10th for 50. You still need to meet the level requirement, too. You also get to choose instead of rolling.

Climbing, another SFAGTA skill, gives you Dex + Agility + Str chance of climbing shit, and requires Balancing and Juggling. Any vertical surface, including ice, snow, free rock, and also rappelling.

Combat, Advanced Weapons takes 5 points, 3 months, and gives you your generic shot roll +1% per 4 extra skill points, shooting guns. When you learn the skill, you gain proficiency in any three weapons "(hand guns, rifles, grenade launchers, and such)", with extra weapons costing 5 skill points each. Without it you're out any to-hit bonuses you'd normally have when shooting dudes.

Combat, Dodging and Blocking from the SFAGTA costs 3 points, and gives you your normal dodge and block score. Without it, you'd only get 80% of your dodge, which would go up by 1% every 4 levels. (Classes advance at different rates, from 1 every 3 levels for most pure casters and non-classed adventurers, 1 every other level for some others, and 1% every level for the rest), plus !% dodge per extra skill point. So you'd better keep track of your failed vs successful dodges, I guess!

Combat, Grappling costs 2 points, required Dodging and Blocking, gives +1 to str, and has a success rate of Dex + Agility with no maximum limit, and is modified by relative strength. It is irritatingly complicated like pretty much all grappling rules ever, and I'm not going into it more.

Combat, Hand-to-Hand, anotehr SFAGTA special, gives you your normal shot roll +1% per extra 4 skill points to hit people with your fists and such for shitty damage. Punches are 10-100, kicks 20-200, head butts 10-80, elbow strikes, knee strikes and wing slashes are kick-equivalent or worse, and the Human Bite is 2-20. Basically you don't want to be stuck with this without some better natural weapon.

Combat, Hand-Held Weapons, is SFAGTA, is 5 points, gives the normal combat skill effects of base shot roll +1%/4 extra points, required Dodging and Blocking, and gives you proficiency with 3 types of melee weapons, with each extra costing another 5.

Martial Art Disarming (15 points) gives you your dodge rate +1%/4 extra to disarm a dude, with or without a weapon, even against tentacled opponents!

Martial Art Empty-Hand costs 17 points, and gives you +2 to strength and +1 to agility and dexterity. I'm not sure if ninjas and such who get this as part of their class are supposed to get those bonuses too, or if they're included in being a ninja/whatever. It makes kicking and punching people do damage worth actually considering, except you can't make it armor piercing so I guess it isn't really. It doesn't have a chance to accomplish, so I guess your'e still using your Hand-To-Hand hit chance.

Martial Art Throwing costs 12 points, requires Dodging and Blocking and Grappling and gives you your dodge score + standard combat skill bonus chance of throwing dudes who weight up to 25% over your maximum left capability. Specifically, pushing them over and shit, not picking them up and checking them.

Martial Art Way of the Body requires a fucking laundry list of what looks like every other combat skill but I don't care enough to check, gives +1/2 init every 8 levels, and lets you... catch or deflect thrown or missile projectiles as long as they aren't beam attacks "(slower than 250 mph)" (5 extra points to do beam attacks), spend another 20 points to make your hand and foot unarmed attacks beam attacks, 25 points to get one extra attack every seven levels, and another 25 points to dodge beam attacks as normal attacks.

Martial Art Weapons (5 points) gives you proficiency with marital art weapons, separately from normal melee or thrown/projectile weapons, and requires the skill for those. Gives you 3, 5 points per extra one as normal.

Projectile and Throwing Weapons costs 10 points and gives you proficiency with low-tech ranged weapons, and throwing melee weapons. 3 types 5 per extra etc.

Comedian gives you the bonus of "Great at parties" and lets you improve people's reactions with a joke, at a 40% success rate.

While there are several computer-related skills, there aren't any actual rules for using them beyond their success rates, possibly using the opposed skill rules.

Concealment gives you a 40% chance to hide shit. No, Dex/Agility don't help you hide in shadows. 40% base chance. "If the disguise is known, add 20% to the chance to accomplish." I'm... not sure what that means. It also helps you cover your backtrail and shit.

Detect Concealment gives you +10% to Class B Suprise, and also lets you find hidden shit at 35% base chance. And also see through disguises. It requires you know Ambush, Concealment, and Disguise.

Cooking from the SFAGTA gives you an 80% chance of "performing any of the culinary arts", and requires you know Reading and Writing first. It also teaches you how to "Tell good food on any planet".

There's both a Criminology skill and a Criminologist-ology skill, becuase why not.

Detect Traps and Secret Doors from the SFAGTA gives you your Wisdom-granted chance to "This skill is self-explanatory".

Detect Spell Traps gives you your Ego score chance to find Spell Traps. But not Cloaked Spell Traps, or any other type of spell. Just Spell Traps.

Disarming Traps gives you your Ego + Dexterity + standard 1% per extra point up to a max of 80% chance to... place and rig traps. You also get +10% if you know Carpentry, which may or may not let you exceed the 80% limit and oh, the end of the skill description says you're taught how to disarm them or find the off switch.

The various Engineering skills cost large amounts of points and have huge fucking laundry lists of requirements, and all refer us to Chapter 11, "Engineering". They also have "+(10 or 8) per level" next to their cost, and note that you start at first level.

Fishing, from the SFAGTA, gives you Ego + 30% chance to catch fish, even on alien planets and deep-sea fishing or ice fishing. If you're going to use a boat to fish, the skill helpfully informs us you need to know how to pilot one first, but otherwise there's no prerequisites.

Holography requires Cinematography, Basic Math, Photography, Reading, and Writing, and gives you a 50% chance to not fuck up taking 3d pictures or movies.

Jumping gives you +1 to strength, and gives you a 90% chance to jump 10% farther than normal!

Advanced Lockpicking gives you an Ego + Dex chance (+25% if you know Basic Electronics, which is sadly not an actual skill so you can't get that bonus) to pick shit Basic Lockpicking doesn't cover, like magnetic, computerized, combination and "Electronic combination" locks. -25% chance if you can't see. Note that it doesn't specify seeing what you're working on, just that you can see. Comes with the tools you need for it free.

Basic Lockpicking gives you Ego + Dex chance to pick basic mechanical locks, and has the same free tools and blindness penalty as Advanced.

Locksmith requires Basic Electronics and Repair, and... apparently includes both Lockpicking skills. 40% chance to make locks and, based on the wording, pick them. I think.

Math, Basic from the SFAGTA teaches you math "through the prealgebra level", and has not success chance. Requires Reading and Writing.

Medical, First Aid, from the SFAGTA, gives you and Ego + 10% chance to perform first aid (CPR, bandaging, treating burns and severed limbs, etc), and also "raise the victim 10 life points", with no time use or materials taken or anything noted, and keep people at -10 life points alive. Uh, let me check damage/dying rules here... If you're below 0, you bleed 200 points per minute, until you hit -1000, then you die. So that keeping people alive at -10 thing doesn't seem to be on speaking terms with the actual rules for dying.

Navigation, Air, Land, and Water, give you Ego + 10% chance of not getting your dumb ass lost in relevant terrain. Land requires Basic Math, Reading, and Writing, and Water and Land require Navigation, Land as well. (AstroNavigation is also available, requiring more skills and being for space navigation, at both sublight and FTL speeds.)

Physics lets you look at how shit works in Synnibarr and drink heavily.

SFAGTA skill Piloting, Boats gives you base 100% chance, (explicitly allowed to exceed 100% but I can't find any rules limiting skills in general so this is like being told you have permission to be affected by gravity) (there's a table with negative modifiers nearby, so don't think you're getting a free ride) chance to not crash your boat. Types listed are sailboats, motor boats, row boats, ice boats, hydroplanes, and tying anchor knots.

Practitioner of the Art, Minor and partial, require 14 int for magic or psi, and 15 wis for Earthpower, require Meditation, reading, and Writing, and for the low low price of 90 points for Minor and 130 for Partial, make you spellcasters! ... Apparently starting at level 1 spellcasting when they learn it and advancing normally as they go up in levels thereafter. Seems they still need to roll for shit. Comes with free "caprenium treatments" so you can actually cast your spells.

Reading teaches you to read Terran. If you want to read other languages, fuck you . (I also don't remember the Terran language being specifically mentioned anywhere else in the book, but might be wrong.)

Runecraft costs 1 point, has an 80% base success rate, takes a year to learn, and lets you spend your precious limited skill points on various magic runes. For example, 1 point lets you learn to scribble a rune on something to make a magic light equivalent to a candle which lasts 5 hours and you can turn it on or off from up to 50 feet away. Some of them are kinda useful but becuase this has no prerequisites you can probably just find somebody to do Sharpness (2 points, whatever it's on never needs sharpening until you remove the rune) on your swords or whatever for a small fee.

SFAGTA standard Running gives you +10% to max running speed. That's it.

Also SFAGTA Sewing gives you Dex + Ego chance to sew shit, to I assume nobody's suprise.

Singing gives you 60% chance to not fuck up singing, and gives you +1 on reaction rolls. Apparently just becuase. However, there's a 50% chance of any given character actually being able to sing, and if you fail, fuck you, you wasted your skill points. Also if you can sing "may influence a reaction by +1", using the success rate. On top of the passive +1? Oh Synnibarr, you and your unclear rules.

Being a Stunt Person gives you +1 agility, has a base rate of Agility + Dexterity, requires you already know Acrobatics, Balancing and Juggling, Combat Dodging and Blocking, Jumping, Basic Math, Reading, and Writing. It lets you, you know, be a stuntman in movies. And also if you're goign to jump out of a plane you need "Hang Glider Piloting (parachuting)". Plus, you can, if you succeed at your skill roll, take 75% damage from blunt attacks. Not edged weapons, guns, grenades, tech weapons, or the powers. Just "bludgeon attacks".

SFAGTA Wilderness Survival requires Cooking and First aid, and gives you a 40% chance to not fuck up identifying plants, "some of the fauna", and building shelter and finding edible plants. If you have Hunting you get +20%, and Trapping gives +10%.

Swimming, Advanced teaches you how to save that dumbass who fucked up swimming.

SFAGTA Swimming, Basic teaches you how to swim. Without it you don't know how to swim. It has no chance to accomplish, and the bonus is "+1 to strength per 10 skill points".

The Tailoring skill takes a year to learn, requires Basic Math, Reading, Sewing, and Writing, and teaches you how to make "clothing, shoes, boots, leather armor, and anything else ." So fuck all those other item creation skills, all you need is tailoring . I repeat: by a literal reading of the rules, which later rules require the GM to do, Tailoring lets you make anything .

SFAGTA Weaving gives you Ego + 30% chance to make thread and cloth. And also build looms, spinning wheels, drop spindles, and "more primitive methods", and also make dyes and waterproofing agents on top of actually making thread and cloth. Or you could just take Tailoring which apparently lets you do that, and also make swords, guns, and starships.

Weight Training gives you +2 to strength, and requires nothing. You can also put up to 5 extra points in for another +5 strength! Except if your strength is over 25, in which case this is useless. That's all. All it does.

SFAGTA Wood Carving gives you ego + 40 + 5% per extra point chance to whittle shit. Examples listed include fishooks, musical instruments, and blowguns. "No limit is placed on a user's creativity." Oh Synnibarr, you'd think you'd learn about making statements like that after Tailoring.

Writing comes in 1 point basic and 5 point advanced versions, and the SFAGTA doesn't specify which it includes. IT gives you an Ego + 20 + 5% per extra point chance of using "elementary writing techniques". Advanced gives you that chance to write something which actually sells on the market, for money. up to the GM how well, though.

There is also a list of HOBBIES, as it says the skill list is not all inclusive! Every character should have a hobby! Except some hobbies may require you to learn a skill, as Archery is one of the first listed. These have no mechanical impact, apparently. Others include Beekeeping, Body Painting, Dancing "(including the limbo)", Falconry, Frisbee and Frisbee Golf, Loitering, Parasailing, Role Playing "(live or table top)", Soccer, then immediately after Soccer and entry for various Sports (such as Antigrav Tennis, Hacky Sack, Warball, "and all others"), and Yo-yo Throwing. And many mroe I have not reproduced here.

So, that's Skills in Synnibarr! If you have questions about specific other ones off the chart, feel free to ask! Next time: Variant Race Examples !

Levelling Up/Godhood

posted by Zereth Original SA post

Oh hey, Syrg, Looks like you aren't actually reading my updates or you'd have noticed that update 22 is both colored Tigers and Mage Tigers and the Weremen update has Winged Warriors in it too.

Anyway time for

World of Synnibarr, Part Actually The Variant Race List Is Really Boring So I'm Skipping It: Leveling up!

I will however be getting back to the variant races when I do monsters so you get to know what they actually are other than that they get a handful of abilities. (Also as previously noted Preists of Berava are complete bullshit if you can scrape up the points for one, as they include all Ninja or Tiger abilities, best-grade spellcasting, a bunch of extra skills(many of which are on the Ninja or Tiger list already, so I'm not sure what happens there), and the most ridiculous strength bonus available.)

Chapter 2, "Rising in Levels" opens with a defense of using levels, stating that while it may pigeonhole people, it's completely necessary for evaluation the overall power of an adventurer. Because a level 1 Talking Racoon, a level 1 Aquarian, and a level 1 Preist of Berava are all about equal in power, right?

The game does, however, give XP, or "Gaming Points" as it refers to them and I won't, for various shit other than just killing things, as seen in Chapter 15. (Preview: Infiltrating a computer gives you 1 point per defense program you overcame, avoiding or running off something gives you 10% of its XP value, imprisoning an intelligent creature or wanted criminal gives you 3x its XP, Ninja,s Amazons, Psielves, and for some reasons Dwarves get XP for stealing things, picking pockets and locks, and finding and disarming traps.)

It takes 2x your next level in XP to go up, so you need 4 XP at first level to get to second level. And you reset to 0 when you level up and start counting up again. The example has a character gain 11 XP for killing a drake and saving a damsel, and thus becoming level 3 with 1 XP in change. It also doesn't specify in Computer Infiltration that it has to be, you know, a hostile system or anything, so you could just buy a computer with cheap shit security and hack into it over and over to hit level 50, assuming you've got the Computer Infiltration skill or are a BSC.

If you somehow have more than one class (being a dual-adapation BSC, an Immortal Born, or if you bought a Practitioner of the Art skill), you have to evenly split the XP you gain between them. So the Practitioner of the Art skills kinda suck even more than it looked like. Especially since apparently other methods of getting more than one class do give you level-up skill points for both, but becoming a spellcaster when you class doesn't give it doesn't.

There's a chart which gives all the level up bonuses for the 20 basic classes plus Non-Classed Adventurers, but the chart for variant races was back in Chapter 1 somewhere, because Synnibarr and sensible organization are not on speaking terms. It has HP, attacks per turn, dodge, block, disarm, throw, and AA, A, B, and C surprise incrases at various rates (the fastest attacks per turn increase belong to BSC Infiltrators and Ninjas at 1 per 7 levels, and Red/Yellow Tigers at 1 per 6, with everybody else at 1 per 8 except the pure casters and Non-Classed Adventurers at 1/10). It also notes that non-classed adventurers get the short end of the stick again, in that they only get 90% of the life points for their race per level. Humans getting 1d4*100. And then there's a note under the chart with init bonus (varies, Tigers get the best) and the note that all Shot rolls and all Fate rolls except disease, poisons, and chemicals go up by 1% every level.

And then, there's shit about LEVELLING UP TO BEING A GOD. Starting with "be at least level 45 before you try" and "don't Wish for it or you explode". What you have to do is go on an Immortal Quest, which needs at least one of your classes to be 45th or higher in level, and you have to call up a god and ask for one. They'll answer with a 50% + 1% per level you've worshiped them chance, which the book specifically mentions the GM must already be aware of. You can only pray once a day.

Once htey do, they give you some extremely difficult task to help the god, and specificlly not the character. Once you succeed, the god will take you to Titan, the home of the Gods, where the shove a God Point into you and toss you into the Fires of Shadarkeem, which makes you 51st level, and Immortal!

Rising to Demigoodhood (71st level) is done similarly, only it takes 10 god points and presumably it's easier to get your patron god to call you back this time. After this, you're now a Demigod and have one "Core God Point"!

Getting to God at 110th level (while the highest listed Demigod, 30th level, is apparently only 100th level) requires you to do anotehr quest, and now be provided 100 god points and... Breathe in the Flames while converting one of the core god points into God Power. Uh... I'm pretty sure we'll learn what this shit means sooner or later. You can't use your own God power for those God Points, though, you still need help.

Rising to Elder Godhood is similar to this shit, but are not covered here. "(sorry)".

The Flames of Shadarkeem are... "the vent for the power that the d read dimension absorbs". They're a 100 foot taller, 20 foot diameter pillar, in the city of Titan on the planet Taine. Which refers us to a footnote in the backstory which mentions that Shadarkeem is the birth dimension of the gods and they turn into mortals because only Venderant Nalaberong and God Power work there. But nothing about Taine or Titan or anything. Only Immortals and Gods know where this place is, and can teleport there. Alone, until they're a full on God, in which case they can use God Points to keep mortals alive.

When you're an Immortal, you get bonuses! The very first thing you get is a gift from Lord Sa'pell himself (who?) of... a second character class! You start in it at first level, and have to go to school for it. Your old class you no longer need to go to school for, but still need 6 months (barring being a BSC or some other training time discount) to level up in it. And if you already have a class, Sa'pell apparently just gives you a pat on the back. You also no longer fear death or aging becuase you're not mortal anymore.

If you're a BSC, you now get to be a real boy with a soul and life force of your very own becuase you need a soul for your Immortal shit. And also you don't need to worry about high technology being nullified or otherwise not working anymore. You still run on EGs, and now you can learn Venderant Nalaberong like anybody else! (that is, you can't learn it for only one reason instead of TWO reasons now!)

Also in addition to not fearing aging you actually stop it, and your various Limitations go up! Don't worry, they're actually listed later in the chapter.

You also get something called Divine Vision, which lets you "feel the presence" of life forms, the various types of magic and special powers, energy, and people's auras and levels. You can also sense God Power and intensity thereof, but that's like hearing. As opposed to the earlier sense, which is like... uh... This is not specific enough to give you targeting information. Range is 5 feet "per level of the Immortal". So is it 55 feet at Immortal Level 1 = Normal Level 51, or 5 feet?

You still need XP, and must split it up as per normal multi-class rules. There's a chart with Post-Mortal Level to Normal Character Level conversion provided for the purpose of figuring out what your various level-based spells and abilities and shit do now. 1st level Immortal to 30th level Demigod are just straight conversions up to level 100, while God levels are worth 10 Normal levels apiece. These are also used for determining how many XP you need to level up.

There's now a list of bonuses, and it specifies that the strength bonuses can't b nullified! Hooray!

Being an Immortal gets you an additional class, an Immortal 10th which can't be nullified, Divine Vision, Eternal Sustenance (which you have to turn on, but is otherwise free and can't be nullified), +2 to all attributes except Strength which gets +100, and +1 init! They also get 1000 life points per Immortal level, and also their normal HP for their classes.

Demigods get an additional Immortal 10th, Continual Eternal Sustenance which is a side-effect of their Core God Point and I do not believe is mentioned anywhere else so there's no actual rules for it, and the stat/init bonuses again. They get 10k HP per level, plus class HP, and 1 Core God Point per level.

Full on gods get a THIRD class, a third Immortal 10ths, +3 to all stats except Str and another +100 to it and another +1 to init. They get 50k HP per god level and their normal class HP, 10 core god points per level, and Divine Vision now lets them notice a 5-mile area (square? radius? come on , McCracken) in a 50 mile range at once.

And now we get God Power explained! See, God created Fate, and Fate created the Centiverse, so named because it's made of 100 dimension each with 100 subdimensions. This multiverse contains something called "God Power".

It's the strongest force ever! Except Venderant Nalaberong, which can neither affect or be affected by God Power. You can't combine them becuase God Power just cranks shit up to the max. Which basically means if you've got God Power you've got a lot more con points to play with.

Now it's time for a definition of the term God in Synnibarr! "Within this game there are beings that have elevated their consciousness to a level whereupon they can channel a special form of energy through their minds and bodies." Said power... being generated by worshipers. So, Gods are Gods because they can use God Power, I guess.

Gods and Demigods are different from Immortals in that they don't need to eat, drink or breathe, because they're full of God Power. You can use god power directly to fire bolts of energy which by the time you're level 71 are pussy shit. They take a whole fucking God Point to fire, which is worth... 20 con points, 300 psi points, or 500 EG. And you can spend as little as 1/10th of a god point at once (which makes the god bolt weaker proportionally). You can also make a shield which protects vs... very little for 20 effective con points. It does at least stop everything that isn't Venderant Nalaberong.

Of course, this looks even fucking worse, becuase using even 1/10th of a God Point to power an ability makes it now God Power based.

Core God Points are part of your soul, and generate 1/10th of a God Point each day. You get more by leveling up or controlling a Divine Plane, described later. You can also convert a Core God Point into 10 God Points, but you ahve to use a complete God Point and this is pretty stupid becuase you're never getting it back. Maximum possible Core God Points is 2k.

You also get god points per day based on your worshipers! Specifically, 1% of the square root of the number of worshipers. Who need to faithfully pray and meditate for at least 15 minutes a day or they don't count. Dudes dedicating their entire day to keeping themselves alive and worshiping you do not get you any extra juice, apparently. (However, it may be possible to worship more than one god this way as long as you spend at least 15 minutes per god. So get together with your buddies and set up your religion appropriately, I guess!) This means you need 10,000 devoted worshipers to get a whole God Point per day, on million to get 10, and 110,250,000 to get 105, the maximum allowed for a first level demigod. (272,250,000 for 165, first-level God max, and 8.1 billion for 900, the 50th level God max.) The most you can actually get from worshipers per day without wasting the extra is 1.5x your level. Despite specifically saying from worshipers it specifies that your Core God Point based income doesn't count against this limit.

When a God or Immortal "dies", you're out of things for 2 weeks unless your soul is imprisoned. After which your soul will rebuild your bodies from your... stored DNA in your immortal mind. Until then, you're a spooky ghost and can only talk to people and appear to them!

However, Shadarkeem Metal is a nasty piece of work which absorbs every Power except Venderant Nalaberong. If you get within 10 feet of it as a post-Mortal, you feel week, within 1 foot you fall unconscious if you fail your metabolic shock roll (which you roll every attack segment) and if you spend more than 5 minutes that close, you die becuase it sucked up your soul. Or right away if you're touched with it. You can however let god-type dues in the metal back out if you break or destroy it. Carefully, otherwise you'll fuck up their soul! (rules for this: nope)

And now, Divine Planes! For the low low price of 100 core god points and 500 normal god points, you get your own pocket dimension 100 miles in diameter! Comes with a free "small asteroid" with a liveable environment on it! You can change the laws of physics in it when you make it, but changing them from the default costs 10 god points per day per change. It's linked to you, but "is not considered a home plane until linked by way of the Fires of Shadarkeem." Making the place bigger by 10 miles costs a further 1 core god point and 5 normal god points. And it also increases in size by 10 miles per level. Retroactively? Who knows. Planets cost as much as a 10-mile increase for a a 1-mile globe, the same again for each extra mile of diameter. "Although a clever God may find another way to amass matter." Like the enormous amounts of spells for it, or just flat-out stealing some planets nobody cares about from a real dimension and not spending fucking core god points on it. You need to use normal genetic engineering to provide your wildlife and place them somewhere habitable, and maintenance of "unnatural temperature variations" costs 10 god points per 1 mile of area. Duration not specified.

In order to claim a divine plane for somebody else, you need to kick out the resident god, and take over the political and military systems of any dudes living there, especially "the religious majority". Keep this up for a year, and it's now your own plane! This gives the controller 100 core god points. So creating your own basically means you break even, and get a nice pad. You get no bonus for having a bigger than default plane.

You can put your plane anywhere you like, as "They coexist on different dimensional frequencies and may occupy the same physical space of the prime or subdimension that they are in." You can even put more than one divine plane in the same spot! You can't move it once you've made it, just make it bigger.

Making ways in costs 10 god points a pop, and moving them afterward costs 5! Anybody else who tires to open one needs to cough up 2 Core God Points, or 1 to close it. Just sealing one off without completely destroying it costs "at least 10 god points per day". Making a hole to another Divine Plane costs an extra 100 god points on top of the 10 god points for actually making or 5 for moving a hole ("(on top of the two core points to open)", which was only previously mentioned as required to open SOMEBODY ELSE'S existing portal), and will let the other god know about it. It requires as many God Points to get through a locked portal as the dude spent on locking it! You are allowed to choose what your portals look like.

Home Planes are "very special to Gods and Demigods." You make one by spewing 50 God Points out into your controlled plane for a year, and then you can go back to the Flames and shove 100 Core God Points into a thing you brought from the plane. Then you take it back, and you're extra Immortal in there! Unless your soul is destroyed by God Bolts, you can't even be killed by fucking up your soul! (This requires your soul to be restrained and then blasted with God Bolts, which is basically the only reason other than their Line of Sight range to use them over more damaging lesser abilities fueled by God Points.) In fact, even if your soul is destroyed outside the plane, your plane will remake you in 2 weeks! But no pull you out of some Shadarkeem Metal.

Within the week after making your Home Plane, you can change its laws of physics, permanently! After that week you now need to spend God Points on changes again. Also your plane reflects your health, so if your soul is destroyed (presumably in the god-bolt-barrage "actually destroyed" method rather than the "eh whatever" normal methods) it stops being a Home Plane and you wasted those 100 core god points assuming you're still alive. You can also kick out a dude from their Home Plane as normal, but you have to go through the normal hoops to make it your own new Home Plane.

And finally, the Limitations! You aren't allowed to have your various numbers on your sheet higher than these, varying by if you're a mortal, or various stages of post-mortality. Also you aren't allowed to ever have more than three classes at one time by any means (including Power Transfer and Posession), and you can't travel back in time to help yourself. If you try, you go insane, and may be erased from history entirely! You also can't leave the Centiverse or exceed the Limitations, ever, in anyway.

There's a lot of numbers, but basically none of it will really mean anything to people who're less familiar with the rules than I am, and a lot of it I don't even really understand. Or care about. Although there are some "wait what" shit hiding in there, like the fact that you can only ever have a maximum of 25 special abilities at once, not counting spells, as a mortal. And, for example, there's... exactly 25 special abilities as a Ninja, so if you're dual classed somehow you're gonna have some issues. You can also only be brought back to life a nubmer of times equal to half you Con score as a mortal, there's a specific limit on the Nerve Pinch ability, and... NOPE! The Chance of Success for skill is NOT on here! (But your maximum possible Skill Points as a mortal is 680. Including the free skill-ups through use? WHO KNOWS)

And that's leveling up and maximum limits! And also the (entire, I believe) rules on being a god because this is fucking Synnibarr .

Next time: Gear! This may get split up becuase the Cybernetics section probably deserves its own update.

Provisions

posted by Zereth Original SA post

World of Synnibarr, Part 100 Pages Down, 346 To Go: Chapter 3, Provisions!

After a really brief and out of place anecdote about haggling down the price of some cursed bagpipes, the equipment chapter gets under way! And note that everything in this chapter is easily available at list price in Terra city from various shops. All of it.

But first: Money! You normally get 10% of purchase price selling things back, and currency is valued in Dollars. On apparently all Synnibarr. It comes in small metal plates called "tiers", available in silver ($1, 0.1 ounce), Titanium ($5, 0.02 oz), Black Titanium ($20, 0.04 oz), Hadrathium ($50, 0.1 oz), Gold ($100, 0.2 oz), and the "gold terrum", which is worth $500 and weighs an ounce. The book does not explain what a terrum is.

Most shops will, however, take "any for of precious substance" as currency. Plunk down an 0.01 ounce chunk of Sunstone to pay for your $10,000 purchase? Sure whatever. Change for the Hope Diamond? No problem!

More interestingly, the Terra Council will summon adventurers when they hit 40th level (remember, that's when the matter creation abilities start letting you produce diamonds and gold and shit), and give you a lesson on economics and destabilizing markets and so on. Also, inform you that becuase the matter creation abilities weren't intended to be used for making money, that it is highly illegal to use them for that purpose for purchases greater than 100 million dollars. Create some gold right there to pay for your booze, though, sure, that's okay, apparently.

The actual equipment opens with a list of random ass shit, like an air compressor for refilling air tanks, backpacks, boots, cooking utensils, radios, flashlights, tents, and so on. Only a few items get their own descriptions, such as the 150 pound "portabl"E hydrogen-fueled Air Compressor, which doesn't work where "technology" won't (but a shotgun will), a scuba kit which includes no electronics so I guess it WILL work where tech doesn't?, a medical kit which wieghs 9 pounds, consiting of 25 small bandages, a bottle of antiseptic, 10 feet of guaze, some diluted Alchemist's Ambrosia in injectors which will heal poison, disease, and 10% of the user's max HP (once per day), three bottles of spray adhesive cast/bandage material (suitable for 1 cast or 1000 bandages per bottle), and seven pounds of Protoplasm . Which is used by treating it like play-dough to make a leg or two arms which you stick on the bloody stump and five minutes later, you've got a working arm/leg! For a week. A powered life support belt, consiting of a belt, collar, bracelets, and anklets, will use the power of science to protect you from shit like being in deep space or 300 feet underater, and for a MERE five million dollars, a solar-powered "audiovisual" TV! Which weighs 10 pounds, can hold up to 100 hours of recording, has a camera, is actually a two-way communication device up to 1000 mile range, lasts a month on a 1 EG clip, has a collapsible solar panel, and can be hooked up to a "magic relay device", not actually explained here.

Also, drinking alcohol during pregnancy may cause mutations.

And then: Power sources! Electronics are powered by "energy", which comes in "EG Clips"! Which are, again, "Electronics in gravimetric suspension". Which I'm pretty sure is complete fucking nonsense. They are available in Normal, which costs less, weighs more and is more bulky, and Organic Electronics, which are ten times as expensive for their capacity, weight much less, and are required to power Organic Electronic items. It costs $100 per EG to recharge normal clips and takes 15 minutes per EG, and $1000 per EG and an hour per EG to recharge organic ones! Also, organic ones come in dimensions like a 0.5 inch diameter, 1 inch tall "dome".

You can also get generators! Like the hydrogen generator, which costs a million, comes with a 3 gallon tank, and uses 1 gallon every 15 minutes to produce 15 EGs. Or you can get a 2 million solar generator to produce 1 EG every 15 minutes out in the sun, or a 25 million "charge-light" solar generator to produce 0.5 EGs every 30 minutes for organic electronics. Or you could use it as a flashlight, lasting 1 hour per hours it's been out in the sun. Or you can get a larger, 30 million organic energy solar generator, which generates... 0.5 EGs per 30 minutes.

You can also buy various natural substances! Like air ferns for $10 each to supply oxygen, blood oranges for $200 each to refill your Con points (which is mentioned in the Monsters chapter, but not here despite lots of room on the table's description column, only once per day), Heal Spring Melons which will heal "all wounds and most diseases", again with restrictions not mentioned here, berries which will turn you into mist for an hour, and twigs which you can use to "terreract" 100 feet. Most of these are fairly cheap.

Hand-Held Weapons! They "may be altered", and it's noted that we should have enough information to know how to do that. v v They come in two varieties: Normal and Martial Art. Most characters are trained with only three types, as per the weapon skills stuff earlier. But if you have Uncommon Proficiency, you can use any of them! Except the "Ninja longsword", which you only do the normal 100-800 with. There is no "Ninja longsword" on the table, but the "Sword, long samurai" has a note that it does 100-800 damage (like a normal longsword) unless you're an Amazon or Ninja, in which case you do 100 to 1000. You apparently can't get this bonus in any other way.

Weapons, in fact, do not do just their listed damage: They do their listed damage, plus 1 point per pound they weigh! However, don't make things too heavy, or you'll get penalties, as mentioned in Chapter 12.

You also can't just make a steel item and then coat it with somethign which has better armor piercing capacity to save on money. You need to build it entirely out of whatever hare-brained thing you want. Rules for this are for the most part listed in Chapter 4, which I will go into then. There are also irritatingly complex rules for how to figure out how to figure out how much weapons for Giants weigh, based on cubing its length in inches and shit, but these are optional and don't seem to affect the base damage, just the weight.

THe complete list of handheld melee weapons are: Axe, large war; Chain; Club, war(spiked); Dagger, long; Dagger, short; Glaive; Halberd; Mace; Mace, spiked ball; Manruki gesauri (Martial Art weapon); Nunchaku (MA); Sai (MA); Staff; Staff, bladed (MA); Sword, long samurai(MA); Sword, long; Sword, short samurai(MA), which does as much damage as a normal longsword; Sword, short; Tanto (ma) which again does as much damage as a normal longsword; Tonfa(MA), and a Whip, razor tooth, which will hold 25,000 pounds and is 30 feet long, with spikes on the end.

Projectile weapons consist of a throwing axe, blowgun, longbow, compound bow, crossbow pistol, crossbow, throwing warhammer, razor boomerang, sling, spear, and throwing stars (which you can throw 3 of per attack, so you can suck three times as fast). All bows and crossbows have the same range, 15 times the user's strength score in feet, and are custom made to fit your strength. Projectiles have better armor piercing capacities than a melee weapon made out of the same material. Arrows, crossbow bolts, and pistol crossbow bolts do fixed damage each, so there's no point in using a longbow over a compound bow unless you're worried about it breaking, becuase it has more life points. Being shot with an arrow, as a ntoe, does more damage than being hit with a halberd, the most damaging melee wepaon on the chart.

Then follows low tech weapons, which will work anywhere. In space, underwater, or whatever. They're made using technology, but "work on a mechanical or chemical basis", so they'll work in places tech doesn't. They generally do more damage than melee weapons or muscle-powered projectiles, except they don't get strength bonuses so they'll fall behind really fast. Except for the shotgun, which does 10,000-40,000 per slug. (Shotguns are pump action.) Of course, if I recall correctly, only BSCs and people with Uncommon Proficiency can use these without coughing up some skill points. The shotgun requires an entire attack to pump it between shots, and none of the mundane slugthrowers has burst or autofire modes.

High-tech weapons consist of energy and magnetic propulsion weapons, are more competitive with people with high strength using strength based weapons, and are much more expensive. And also a Laser Saber and Plasma Axe which do quite a bit more damage than physical melee weapons, but use energy so they can run out, and also don't have armor piercing abilities unlike exotic material weapons. Ohter weapons include the Phazed Plasma Rifle, the Turbolaser Rifle, the Laser Sonic Impact Rifle, and an Electro-Boomerang.

Missiles range form a small one which barely does more damage than a shotgun slug with a range of 3000 feet, all the way up to the "Bi'reel Planet Smasher" which is noted as being an exaggeration (it'd take half a million of them to do so) with a range of 24 light years. Some of them have boring special effects or sensors to let them home in on various things. They come in ordinary explosives, kinetic impact, chemical dispersal, and multi-munition varieties. (All pre-set, of course!) Of particular note is the Cobra Bite, which can be loaded not with explosives, but with magic spells/abilities/and so on as you like, but it doesn't come with a full battery to power whatever you want it to do.

You can also get shields, in the "chunk of metal to hold in between me and an attack", and force fields, available in belts. They all block various subsections of the things you'd want them to do, and consume energy. Except the "Passive Bendix-Field Belt", the most expensive by far, which will stop basically everything but God Power, including Venderant Nalaberong 50% of the time. However, despite its name, it still needs to be powered.

Armor comes in various varieties, for the purposes of giving you mroe protection! However, leather and steel armor doesn't actually provide enough protection on its own to get you a 10th, but if you stack leather armor and steel chainmail or plate, you get a whole single 10th. If you want real protection you'll need shit made of exotic materials. Armor for dwarves and psilves costs half becuase they're small, and armor for people over 7 feet costs ore. Armor reduces your dodge, and if you're a spellcaster in Earthpower or Magic, you can't wear armor that reduces your dodge by more than 10%! No, you can't wear it and just not cast spells, you are apparently physically incapable of it. Fortunately, only ONE armor is over a 10% dodge penalty, the Sunstone Grizzly Skin!

You can also get power armor! None of which goes over 10% dodge penalty, either, and the best suit even has a bonus! Power armor is expensive as shit, but totally sweet and has tons of cool shit built in. Force fields, built in weapons, radios, etc. Takes power, though.

Transportation consists of unpowered (Ships, hang gliders, and a pedal-powered gyrocopter), Low-Tech (cars, helicopters, etc), and high-tech, which consists of antigravity bikes, an antigravity belt, and a "gyrostabilized bike" which you can drive right up the side of a building. The bike costs less than a shotgun, too!

There are also engines you can use to build your own vehicle around! (Rules for this not included.) Three types of antigravity thrusters, a hydrogen turbine(2300 pounds and 10 feet long), a "magneto hydrodynamic" based underwater propulsion drive, a larger version of that, and a small turboelectric underwater prop. Sorry, if you want to build your own low-tech bike, you're on your own.

You can also buy horses, winged horses, or drakes to ride!

And... Oh man. Next time: Cybernetics! This is gonna be pretty .

EDIT: And as always, if you have specific questions about something, let me know and I'll crack the book back open and answer them.

Provisions 2: Cybernetics, explosives, and drugs

posted by Zereth Original SA post

World of Synnibarr, Part At Least They Don't Eat Your Soul: Gear Part 2: Cybernetics!

The concept of cybernetics is "centuries old" (becuase nobody thought of it back on old earth over 40k years ago, apparently), and the Alchemist guild has "perfected" it. Surgery and recovery takes a while, with a "full conversion" requiring up to an ENTIRE WEEK! "Softwiring" (gotta love Synnibarr using terms before explaining them ) is universally dangerous, and takes at least 4 hours, with the guild using "special spells" to make sure you don't croak there on the table. You can also get this done by back-alley cyberdocs, who don't use the spells, but this is dangerous for what should be obvious reasons, and is thus illegal in Terra. Which "drives many people to the Forbidden City." You can also find cheaper augmentations on the black market sometimes, and may get murdered for any you got.

Getting them legally requires applying at the Alchemist's Guild (for bionics, I guess?) or hiring Bioware (see chapter 7) to make you another generic fantasy RPG cyber you up. During chargen, you can spend skill points on bionics if you've got enough, but afterwards you need to spend money. How this interacts with the "maximum skill points" in the Limitations is, of course, not clear.

Now, we get a paragraph on "biomass"! A human has 100% biomass, split up into his Arms, Head, Legs, and Torso, totaling 100%. If you have wings or a tail, these add 6% each, so a winged Chameleon Drake actually has 118% biomass with no augmentations. The Head has 5% (but you can't go under 2%), arms are technically 6% each but require another 0.5-1% for anchoring to the body with a full replacement, legs are 15% each, and the torso has the last 51%. This does not, however, affect your HP. That is broken down per hit location (in optional rules) in much greater detail. (Your right knee has 2% of your total life points!)

This is important becuase if you replace more than 75% of your bodymass, you don't have enough Caprenium and Technentium to use spells, magic items, or mutations! (But chi and (assuming you haven't installed brain-replacing bionics) are just fine, apparently.)

Augs have a lifetime (up to 150 year) warranty, and are not Organic Electronics. (except when they are). So they'll function in the Dark Continent and the center of the world. But be careful! Restoration/Heal and Regrowth/Regneration type spells will remove the implants! Heal spring melons and normal heal spells won't, but you also need Reconstruction type spells to repair your augs.

Your HP are reduced by the amount of biomass being replaced, and then you add the aug's HP, which can get you quite a bit more HP at first level but by the time you're a demigod it's going to be cutting into your max HP quite a bit, as it also affects the HP you get when levelling up.

They use less power when not in active use, can't be nullified or canceled if they don't list a power drain, and weigh the same as what you got removed. You gotta but 2 feet tall or higher to ride the cybernetics train, and if you're a dwarf, elf, gnome, or giant you pay 50% more except for the "hotbox, head cube, and head disk". All bionics are priced as if they are made out of titanium, and if you want it made out of something else it's time to hit the alternate material construction rules, like for melee weapons.

Arm, Fullmod can entirely replace your arm, giving you 200 strength in it for on million dollars, with an additional million per extra 50 up to 700. If you leave it at 200, you have 5% unused biomass you can cram other shit in, like weapons or grappling hooks. It has 4000 life points. You can also swap out fullmod arms easily.

Arm, Hardwire replaces your ligaments with titanium and adds artificial muscle, increasing your strength by 150 for half a million! This costs con points to use at full strength (at five minute intervals), and thus can't be nullified. It has the same HP as the 3% biomass it replaced. (So use it at +149 strength for no con drain, I suppose.)

Arm, Softwire increases arm strength to 30, for $100,000. To, not by. It has the same HP as the replaced 1% biomass.

Arm Mod, Blades costs $5000 ("unless using special materials), replace .5% biomass, and has the same life points as the weapon. It gives you a hidden blade in your arm! "The blades can be of any material for the same cost as a steel long or short dagger." How big you can make it depends on how long your forearms are, and you can have it come out of your palms or "wherever else they choose".

Arm Mod, Blasters , for $100,000 plus the cost of the blaster and 2.5% biomass, implant a chem, laser, or sonic blaster in your arm. It has the same HP as the gun. You can either plug batteries into your arm, or get an implanted Hotbox to power it. It shoots out of your palm unless you order something else.

Arm Mod, Dart or Projectile Weapon replaces 2% biomass, costs $150k, and gives you a dartgun or pistol, or a rifle grafted to the outside of your arm. (which still replaces 2% biomass somehow.) You can also get a squirtgun or as sprayer, with a capacity of 4 cc. It has 2000 HP.

Arm Mod, Grappling Line costs $10k, replaces 1% equivalent biomass space inside a fullmod arm, and gives you a 40-foot long grappling hook which will support 1 ton, and under maximum load the winch will retract in 6 seconds. You can also use it while it's not mounted in an arm, but it doesn't specify how. It has 1000 HP.

Arm Mod, Hypos replaces 0.1% biomass, costs $100,000 including 2cc of one chemical (except Alchemist's Ambrosia or any 11+ level poison). You can get muscle-powered or electromechanical versions of the retraction system, and can swap out the 2cc load as you like.

Arm Mod, Shocker replaces 2% biomass and costs $10k, has 1000 HP, and lets you taser people for a low amount of damage, and... no stun effect.

Arm Mod, Weapon Magnet replaces .5% biomass, costs $120k plus 50k per weapon after the free steel longsword (or other weapon of equal or lower cost). It uses a magnet in your hand paired with a small antigrav unit and magnet in the weapon to pull it to your hand at a range of 100 feet up to 50mph. It requires Strength 50 to restrain the weapon, and the weapon can't weigh more than 100 pounds. It has 1500 HP.

Body Mod 1 replaces 8% biomass, costs 15 million dollars, has the same HP as replaced biomass, and increases strength to 40 by "an amplification of adrenal glands and muscle". Also tendon and bone reinforcement.

Body Mod 2 replaces 15% biomass, has 10k HP, and replaces your skeleton with titanium for $26 million, pelleum for $27 mil, and sunstone for $126 mil. It also partially armors your skin. This gives you +10k HP and one 10th, +60k HP and 3 10ths, and 4 million and 4 10ths. You are only allowed to pick titanium during chargen.

Body Mod 3 replaces 5% biomass, does... not have any HP so you just lose 5% of your max HP, costs $45 mil, and rewires your nerves so you get +5 agility and dex.

Body Mod 4 replaces between 59% and 83% of your biomass, costs $160 mil, and includes Body Mods 1-3, plus an additional 40k HP and 1 10th, boosts your strength by 300, +10 per $1mil up to 800, and gives you an oxygen generator for free. It also "fully converts the human to a cyborg". It also has 40k HP itself.

Body Mod, Hidden Compartments replaces 1-3% biomass, costs $5000, has 500 HP, and gives you a hidden mechanical container.

Body Pocket replaces 1-5% biomass, costs $2k per percent, has the same HP as replaced biomass, and gives you fleshy hidden pockets! You can even have muscles placed in them to quickly eject the contents. 1% gives you large enough to hide a knife in.

Brainline replaces 0.1% biomass, costs $8 mil, has 5000 HP which aren't added to yours, and requires a head disk or head cube. It's a datajack, and lets you hack computers. With your BRAIN. For an additional $10mil, you can get a wireless version, which has a range of 10 feet and requires mounting an antenna on your head.

Caprenium Sensor replaces 3% biomass, costs $100 mil, has 500 HP, and lets you sense if a special power is being used in a 50 foot diameter area. Not what kind of power or exactly where it is, but just that something's doing something.

Coolline replaces .5% biomass, has 5000 HP not added to yours, costs $1000, and gives you a wire you can use to recharge your implanted batteries, or use them to power external things.

Cyberphone replaces .5% biomass, has 300 HP not added to yours, and costs $50k. It gives you a "multiband transmitter and receiver" in your body which you can use to "Tap into almost any communication network" in a 40 mile range.

Cybertentacle replaces 3% biomass (1% if inside an arm), and gives you tentacle. Reach up to 40 feet, 7 feet if in the arm. You can also get one in your head up to 3 feet long. Strength between 30 and 100 feet depending on how much you pay (unless it's in the head in which case it's 25). You can also get the shocker, hypo, or blade mods on them, or get eyes, ears, or blasters. You can also hit people with them.

Ear Mod 1 replaces .1% biomass, doesn't affect your HP at all, costs $50k per ear, is a "softwire enhancement" (which I think means "biomods" because this is another no-power-drain aug, but it's not stated what that actually means anywhere I remember) which lets you hear heartbeats up to 5 feet away. "the amplification is five times the normal range of hearing."

Ear Mod 2 replaces .5% biomass, has 250 HP, costs $100k per ear, and gives you the benefits of Enhanced Hearing mutation, except you need both ears modded to get the suprise bonus.

Ear Mod 3 replaces .7% biomass, has 300 HP, csots $250k per ear, and gives you Enhanced Hearing, plus you can hear radio transmissions ("range 100 miles" instead of being based on the range of the transmitter), and you can filter out unpleasant sounds, hear heartbeats up to 100 feet away and conversations up to 300 feet, and get an additional 10% bonus to suprise.

External Jack appears to be... the same... as Coolline. Except with twice as long surgery and 50 HP instead of "not added to user's life points" hp. And not mentioning a cable.

Eye Mod 1 replaces .1% biomass, doesn't affect HP, costs $200k per eye, and gives you infravision. Softwire and no power drain.

Eye Mod 2 replaces .5% biomass, has 100 HP, costs $500k per eye, and gives you the equivalent of the Enhanced Vision mutation. And also telescopic vision with a range of 10 miles, and 200x magnification.

Head Cube replaces .1% biomass, lowers your Spell Memorization Units and psi points by 40%, costs $15 billion , is not available with skill points, has 3000 HP not added to yours, is Organic Electronics and runs off your body, and is "the ultimate storage medium". Composed of a protein cube, it lets you store 500 skill points or 100 SMUs of information, "including engineering skills and spells". It costs $1000 per skill point to program, except Chi Use, Alchemy Use, and Minor Practitioner of the Art cost $300 million, with Partial costing $500 million. Nonphysical engineering studies cost $1billion (prerequisites included). (That means spells and shit.) Spells cost $3 million per spell level. Write-only unless you're a BSC or using organic electronic storage medium to download. It can't be magnetically damaged.

Head Disk replaces 0.2% biomass per disk, costs $30 million plus $100k per extra disk up to 5, has 500 HP not added to yours. It lowers SMUs and psi points by 10% per disk, and can hold up to 80 skill points worth of shit per disk. Nonphysical engineering studies, spells, mutations, and the use of powers can't be added. Costs $1000 per skill point to get them on the disk. You can also copy your skills and memories onto the disk if you want. These ones WILL be erased by magnetic attacks if you fail a "15% fate versus energy" save.

Holofield costs 3% biomass and $10mil, and has 2k HP. It can make you and up to 50 pounds of shit invisible. But it's easily disrupted. (rules for that not mentioned.)

Hotbox costs 0.5% biomass per 10 EG storage, +0.5% for an external jack, costs $5000 plus the cost of the EG clip, and has 1000 HP. It can be mounted internally or externally. Internally means it's automatically wired up to all your other augs to power them, while if you get it externally you need a coolline to plug into your augs to power them I guess. Because you can't just use a normal power cable or anything. Mounting externally is apparently completely worthless since it never says it costs less biomass to do so or anything.

Leg, Fullmod costs 20.5% biomass (aren't legs only 15%?) $1.5mil per leg, and has 4000 HP. It lets you get your leg between 200 and 700 strength, as per arms, and has 7% biomass left for cramming shit in at 200. (1% at full strength.) You can also swap them out easily.

Leg, Hardwire costs 6% biomass, $600k per leg, and works like hardwire arm mods.

Leg, Softwire costs 4% biomass and 400k for both legs, and works like softwire arms, except up to 30 strength, and gives you an additional 2000 HP and lets you fall up to 100 feet without damage.

Leg Mod, Jet Thrusters costs 3% biomass, $100k (with two cartridges of fuel included), and gives you ROCKETS. in your LEGS. Fuel costs $10k per cartridge, and lets you fly up to 200 MPH carrying a total weight of 2 tons, presumably including you. Cruising speed is 55 MPH. 100 mile max range at full speed, 200 at cruise speed. Costs 2 skill points to learn to fly with this shit.

Organ Replacement costs Variable% biomass and between $10k and $100k, you can either get mechanical replacements, or get cloned replacements. If you get a cloned brain, you have to be re-taught and your personality wiill be altered. Takes either 2 days to grow, and either 5 months of attendance by a highly skilled doctor, or some random level 1 schlub Gnome casting a heal spell on you will do it instantly.

Oxygen Generator costs .5% biomass for an add-on or 2% to completely replace your lungs and $20k, and can generate air for you to breathe with even in a vaccum. (This takes 1 EG per hour, while filtering air takes 0.01 per 10 hours and breathing water takes 0.1 EG per hour.) You can only use them as a filter or gill-equivalent if you went for the complete conversion, though.

Radar costs 1% biomass and $200mil, has 750 hp, and works like the master mutation.

Sonar costs 1% biomass and $20k, has 700 HP, and gives you sonar. This gives you +10% to hit, 10% bonus to suprise underwater, and has a 4 mile underwater range, a 1 mile air range, and can see through up to 3 feet thick objects and 20 feet past that.

Third Eye costs 0.5% biomass and $5mil, has 5000 HP which aren't added to yours, and gives you an eye with an antigravity motor in it which can fly around and let you see shit through it up to 500 feet. It also has the abilities of eye mod 2. It's organic electronics.

And that's the cybernetics!

Also left in the chapter are explosives and drugs. They're rated in cost per ounce, damage per ounce, and blast radius. You can also buy detcord, fuses, and blasting caps to set them off with. You can get concussion crystals (rules in the monster chapter), Concussite which is processed concussion crystals , liquid explosive which is pretty much nitroglycerin, Clay Explosive which si basically plastic explosive, Terminite which is a more expensive clear gel which does... less damage, costs more, has a small blast radius, and is harder to find than Clay Explosive, and has no apparent advantages breaking the otherwise adhered to pattern of later listing=bigger boom, Shevite which comes in bricks and is detonated by sunlight, Assasin's Putty which is a "clear-blue honeylike substance" which doesn't leave smoke or odor, Dimethyl Hydrazine which is a thin, heavy greyish liquid, will blow up at anything over 170 degrees, and is also fule for your leg rockets, and finally: Antimatter.

Poisons we already saw in the Ninja writeup.

Drugs and chemicals include:
Amnesia Inducer , which will erase the last hour's memory, with a 20% chance of causing insanity. If given along with Photo Memory, they'll cancel each other out. (As long as they're at the same time or Photo Memory was first, otherwise you fucked.) If you give more than one dose, it erases the last day. 4 doses in under a week erases everything.

Aura Changer will change your alignment. Somehow. It doesn't say it changes what you detect as, but your actual alignment. 20% chance it's permanent! Truth Serum cancels it. If used with DMSO, you can get it in through the skin, otherwise it's an injection. (No, Amnesia Inducer did not specify application method.)

Breathium lets you not breath! Don't mix with Talamean, or you have a 90% chance of dying. Antidote: Neutralizer.

DMSO is familiar to anybody who's played Shadowrun and lets you apply normally injection-applied drugs through the skin. Antidote: Neutralizer.

Emotion Enhancer comes in various formulas to induce extreme versions of a specific emotion, such as love, hate, fear, aggression, and so on. Fear causes heart attacks. Love lasts for life "or until the drug wears off". Come on, make up your mind! Antidote: Neutralizer. If given twice within 4 hours, 65% chance of insanity. (Cured with the normal spell.) If mixed with a Hypnotic, the effect is permanent!

Hearing Enhancer gives you Enhanced Hearing for 6 hours. If used for more than 72 hours, you get complete hearing loss for 24 hours. Don't use with more than 3 other enhancers or they'll all fail. Antidote: Neutralizer.

Hibernation puts you in hibernation for a week per dose. One breath per minute and 3 heart beats per minute. You also get hearing and sight loss for 5 minutes after it wearing off/being canceled. Antidote: Metheltylamean. If you use more than 25 doses at once, you need 1/10th the normal dose of Metacal as well.

Hypnotic works like the minor psi spell Hypnosis. if you use it more than once inside 2 hours the "user" will go insane for 4 hours. I... think it GIVES you the hypnosis spell? Also, don't mix with Metheltylamean. Why?

Ketoseen gives you 2 10ths for 6 hours. If you use it for more than 12 hours you're paralyzed for 24 hours. Antidote: Neutralizer.

Metheltylamean is a... sleep substitute. 20% chance of giving you insomnia for week. Also a 75% chance of driving you permanently insane if you use it for more than 7 days straight. If you use Metacal and this after a full meal, your powers refresh as if you'd slept through the night! (over 2 hours.) Don't mix with Hypnotic becuase

Metacal is a food substitute! Costs a mere $20 and lasts for 24 hours. Don't use it more than 10 days straight or your digestive system will permanently shut down unless you get somebody to use a healing spell, ability, or chemical on you so I guess use it as long as you fucking like becuase those are all over the place.

Neuroaccelerator gives you +2 attacks, +10% dodge, and +20% to hit for 6 hours. (If you use it more than once per day there's a 25% chance it'll paralyze you instead.) Also, don't try doubling up on it or there's a 75% chance of it working in reverse. Antidote: any form of paralytic chemical or poison.

Neutralizer cancels many other drugs. Antidote: Synthetic Ambrosia.

Optical Enhancer gives you better vision and might make you go blind if you use it too much, don't mix with more than three other enhancers.

Olfactory Enhancer is for smell, don't mix with... uh. Wait a minute. Even if you count Emotion Enhancer, there's only exaclty four other "Enhancer" drugs, three if you don't count that one. And you're allowed to mix up to 4 at once. So that doesn't actually mean anything! SYNNIBARR!

Photo Memory gives you the mutation Photographic Memory for 5 hours. If you use it for more than 72 at a time hours you forget everything you leraned under it. Antidote: Amnesia (not "Amnesia Inducer")

Synthetic Ambrosia is that shit in the first aid kit. Also it's addictive, 10% chance per use after the first within 24 hours, cumulative. (so 11 will definitely get you.) Only restoration type spells can sure addiction, and the withdraw symptoms are convulsions, brain tumors, and within 10 hours, death.

Talamean gives you +100 strength for 6 hours. Used for more than 12 hours straight and you instead get -100 strength. Don't mix with Breathium becuase it'll kill you within 15 minutes. Antidote: Talamean X So. Talamean + Breathium + Maybe DMSO = very easy way to kill dudes.

Talamean X decreases your strength score by 95%. Antidote: Talamean.

Truth Serum does what it says on the label. Double dose will cause unconsciousness, and a triple dose means the victim has to save vs a heart attack.


So that's the entire gear chapter! Next Time: Chapter 4, Substance Descriptions! Just four pages of material descriptions and charts of their material properties and costs/availability!

More Cybernetics

posted by Zereth Original SA post

It's not a bad idea, on the face of it, it's just that. Well. Is getting a magic oxygen machine (in the sense of "how the fuck does that work" instead of "literally powered by magic", since that'd be something else) deep inside your chest really the sort of thing that would significantly affect your ability to take hits, in either direction?

Not to mention, as we're about to find out, that the alternate material construction rules require that you plug in the weight of the item you're using. Which means if you want to try and use them to build your cyber-arm out of something tougher than normal for increased HP, the system just stares blankly at you.

EDIT: Not to mention, the absolute maximum starting HP for anybody who isn't a BSC Warrior (who I believe can't get bionics) is 1200 for a giant with maximum HP roll and 20 con. 1000 for the next highest HP guys. And if you can afford $5000 for an arm mod, blade, for a mere .5% of that (-5 HP), you can gain the HP for a long or short dagger, depending on if you can fit a 9" or 15" object inside for forearm: 15k HP for short and 25K HP for long. More if you figure out how to apply the alternate construction rules, or take the "you can make it out of anything for the price of a long/short dagger" extremely literally, pay $5015 and get millions of HP. At level 1. In fact, using the ACTUAL material construction rules, you can get a long dagger with 156,250,000 HP for $4083 for the materials and $25 for the dagger, which assuming this adds to the $5000 price of the arm blade straight up, means you can gain over 156 million HP for under $10k. Truncated at 50k HP max for a mortal, though. (100k for immortals, 500k for demigods, and 10 million for actual gods.)


Okay, you know what I said about taking bionics being a bad thing for long-term HP growth? NEVER. FUCKING. MIND. In fact, this should probably be A Sub-Update To The Bionics Section , Syrg.

Substances

posted by Zereth Original SA post

World of Synnibarr, Part Baskin Robins 31 Flavor Metals: Chapter 4: Substance Descriptions!

But first, let's go back and check out the alternate material construction rules. Now, what you need to do is first check out the weight of your weapon. You then multiply that by the "Density Factor vs Steel" of the material you want to make the item out of instead, to figure out the new eight in pounds (which as you may remember, each pound the weapon weighs makes it inflict an additional point of damage), and then figure out how many ounces it weighs. This you compare to the price per ounce of the material you're making it out of, for how much the raw material costs! And then you add the base price of the normal steel weapon.

If you're changing the material from something OTHER than steel, you're on your own with the math.

And here are those tables!

Now, the specific item I made the arm blade out of in my "more life points than God, literally" example is Red Fire Pearl. Which you may notice has the highest HP per cubic inch of anything on the table, by a huge margin, except Titanite. Yet Red Fire Pearls only cost a mere $100 an ounce! They are, you know, pearls, so conventional methods would make it hard to work, but that just means you need to find some mutant or spellcaster with a "reshape objects" ability, which I remember there being several of. You'd think this would make the item cost more, but the alternate material construction rules simply say you add the base price of the item to cover construction costs!

Now, as for why you'd WANT to build your weapons out of things other than steel, besides exploits to get literally more HP than you can use? Well, there's the "heavier weapon=hits harder" thing, but you don't really want HEAVY weapons so much, as the penalties for carrying lots of things are actually fairly steep. Instead, you want high Hardness, as melee weapons with more than one 10th of hardness will ignore one 10th less of damage resistance on the target than they have. (Projectiles like arrows will ignore the same amount, making archery again pretty good for raw-HP-damage-doing.) This means that Fire Pearl arm blade will, in fact, ignore one 10th when we stab people with it! As shown on the chart, so would a Hadrathium dagger, while Pelleum Steel and Pelleum would pierce two, Stunstone and Midnight Sunstone would pierce 3, and a Titanite dagger would pierce 4.

Armor made out of these materials would have their full 10ths of damage resistance as shown on the table. You may notice that steel is not, in fact, hard enough to provide a full 10th, so it actually kinda sucks as armor. Unless you take advantage of the "stacking leather and steel chain/plate = 1 10th" note on the armor table, it doesn't actually protect you. At all.

Now, let's look at the description of some of these materials, shall we?

Black Titanium is the first special substance they found after the Dark Age, and is as hard as diamonds. So apparently in the bizarre future of Synnibarr, the Mohs Hardness Scale now goes up to 20. It's useful for armor for obvious purposes, and it being lighter than steel makes it handy for weapons too, and projectile weapons will even get armor-piercing abilities! Plus you can also shove constitution points into it to give it resistance to psi and earthpower. It is not magnetic.

Concussion Crystals refers us to their description in the Monster chapter. (Spoiler: They are inanimate objects and do not belong in the Monsters chapter.)

Earth Eggs are created similarly to a pearl, by . No, really, it says "When and where earth eggs are found is a complete mystery." They are egg shaped, and look like "a piece of sky trapped in an oval ball of glass". They glow! The largest, greater than 1 cubic foot/1500 pounds, are "a form of life". These are extremely rare (most are 1-4 pounds), and this topic is immediately dropped. THey boost your Earthpower spellcasting if you're holding them at the time: 1 is 2x, 2 is 3x. It is unknown if 3 is 4x and so on. You can't make them with any spell or ability.

Fire Diamonds have the same physical properties as diamonds, except they glow brightly! This doesn't do shit unless you focus it through a ruby and then stimulate the light with high-frequency sound waves. Uh. Somehow. This turns it into a "laser sonic beam, a tube of laser energy that can conduct and amplify sound with devastating results." Flawed fire diamonds don't do that: they just crack water into hydrogen and oxygen. Just by being there. This is used by some to provide oxygen to breath in underwater facilities (how they deal with CO ₂ buildup or not blowing up at the slightest spark is unclear)or to provide fuel of Giant airships. Roughly 60% of fire diamonds are flawed. As you may notice from the chart, flawed fire diamonds are enormously cheaper than normal diamonds. DeBeers is alive and well in the future, I guess.

Fire Pearls come in three varieties! They are created by giant mutant fire clams in the Kathtan Sea. Roughly 65% of them are red, but have not special powers beyond their inherent material properties, making them an excellent choice to make implanted cybernetic weapons out of for reasons I have already gone over. ( ) 25% of them are white, and 10% are coal black! White ones glow, and can be used to make Starfire as per the Alchemist ability, but for a higher Con cost. Black ones let you sense magic, psi, earthpower, and alchemy out to 50 feet, for a turn, for the same cost as a white pearl. You can use either six times per day.

Forgotten Steel is made out of shaniteum, the "forgotten ore", and is silver in color. You find the ore in the Shandreall Plains of Mist. And only there. You can either use it to fire lame magic beams, or you can build a 1 foot long, 0.5 inch diameter wand to focus your magic or mutation powers! This will "focus mutations and magic times 2". I think this is supposed to mean it's a standard one-step amplification. It is also allegedly easy to enchant but there are no rules for that.

Gravanium is found in shaniteum ore, and has negative weight. Specifically, once cubic inch weighs negative 2.95 pounds. If you run electricity through it, it will lift twice as much, and if you apply a magnetic field to it it will weigh 0 (unless in ore) until you take it away. Oddly enough, no stock vehicles incorporate any. I have no goddamn clue what its mass is becuase McCracken didn't think about inertia while making it. And what happens if you take it to somewhere that doesn't have 1 G gravity?

Hadrathium is a silver metal, named after the God of War and Winning. It's 1.5 times as hard as diamond (Assuming this is an extension of the Mohs Hardness Scale, its indicated 16 Hardness should means it is 2 ⁶ , or 64 times as hard, and linear means it is 1.6 times as hard), and thus will cut through 1 10th (as it has two 10ths itself. Except this means arrowheads would cut through two and). It is also poisonous to drakes, and will cause a small amount of damage on top of the attack and makes them pass out if they fail a save. It is "impervious to electricity".

Hell Iron is found on the Bi'reel's home plane, and drains mortal life force on contact. (Immortals aren't mortal and are thus immune.) A pound will hold a soul! Doing so requires it to pierce flesh. Legend has it Bi'reel made 1000 swords out of this shit to help the Dark Lords try and conquer Synnibarr, but as it remains unconquered it obviously didn't help much. Its material properties indicate it would be a kinda crappy weapon, except it ignores 10ths so it's pretty good. "Flames engulf the blade" when it's got a soul inside, and breaking it will free the souls in it. (instead of you ending up with, say, two 3-pound chunks with 3 souls each in them.) Mechanics for it bursting into flames are not listed.

Midnight Sunstone is a gem and is used with organic electronic devices to make Pure Psionics! Also known as Midnight Sunstone Energy. The reason you give a shit is that it is very hard to block. You get it from midnight sunstone drakes/hydras and psisheen mushrooms.

Nova Quartz is found "only one-third of the time wherever gold and quartz are found together in their natural state." Or on any world that orbits two suns. It is ordinary quartz. Except for its fucking laundry list of weird shit it does becuase it's got trace amounts of caprenium in it. It'll help you use anything except Venderant Nalaberong or God Power, if you do some weird ass shit:

First, take 2 ounces of nova quartz, and gold plate it. Then attach it to a 12-eg battery! This costs $2.5 million for some damn reason. (Gold: $500/ounce. 12-EG battery: Assuming you can't get one in between the 10 and 100 entries and have to use the "hard wire together" rules, $1212. Organic Electronics if you want it to weigh basically nothing: $121200. Things in this that involve shit worth $2.5 million: 0). You can mount it in a belt or medallion! It works by sparking 2 EGs worth of power into an exposed bit of crystal not covered with gold, which makes a light! This subtracts some constitution from you, and lets you do one of ten goddamn things. You can only use it six times before it needs to cool off for four hours, and your metabolism can only deal with this shit 12 times day! If you do it more, you roll your Metabolic Shock at -15% or

The shit it will do is:

• For 1 con point, multiply a power/spell by 2. This will double damage, duration, or range, but only one at a time. Or it'll instead let you use a power somewhere you normally couldn't.
  
• 2 con points lets you multiply your strength by 4 and gain 1 10th for a set
  
• 2 con points also you 3 10ths for a set
  
• 2 con points: +20% dodge and +2 attacks for a set
  
• A generic-ass shield which blocks all the basic powers + energy, lasts up to a set, damage blocked based on con input
  
• 3 con points: Lets you shoot a beam which is not really worth it
  
• 2 con points: Lets you fly at 60mph with up to 1500 lbs cargo for an hour
  
• 1 con point: 50 foot range, 100 pounds worth of telekinesis per con point used. No duration listed, so spend all your con points on this to get PERMANENT TELEKINESIS I guess.
  
• 1 con: lets you sense danger or magic in a 100-foot diameter area. For a turn.
  
• 4 con: Heals and regenerates 100% damage and any lost limbs except the head. One person per use. (Do not mix with ridiculous-HP armblades or they'll pop out and you need to go under the knife again.)
  

You select these mentally, and can only use one at a time. Works anywhere your crazy bullshit future battery will.

Pelleum is fucking heavy. And also pretty hard. It's not magnetic. It's pure black. You get it from Greater Earth Elementals. You can alloy it with steel to make something nearly as strong but lighter. Even then, Pelleum Steel plate comes with Gravanium inlay so it's not crushingly heavy.

Power Iron will store con points! One per ounce. You can tell if it's storing any becuase it is gently vibrating to the touch. It is rarer and harder to find than Shadarkeem metal and Shemite, because it has a natural Cloak of Mist spell on it to prevent you form magically locating it. Even with Venderant Nalaberong. Otherwise it's identical to iron.

Rubies are used in lasers.

Shemite is crazy rare! It is a "living form of crystalline grown" that you get from those previously mentioned alive earth eggs when they hatch. (You make them hatch by using magic or earthpower within 10 feet of one, then up to 5 years later it hatches.) It then grows a crystal tree up to 5 feet tall, at 1 foot per 3 years. It will grow up to 3 feet wide "branches" and its trunk is approximately 3 inches in diameter, and "maximum total weight" is 130 pounds per foot. Of height, I guess? It looks like a bonsai tree! A total of six have been located, 2 of which are on Synnibarr.

An alive shemite tree will do a bunch of shit! If it's at least 6 inches tall, it'll find somebody to bond with (usually exclusively and for their lifetime) and... engage in "spell projection". It has 50 Spell Memorization Units per 6 inches of height and learns them through "a telepathic grazing-type ability". Which it can do out to 5000 miles. The permanent bond is only 10 mile range. These abilities work through anything except Venderant Nalaberong or God Power based telepathic shielding. I'm still not sure what this actually means, can the guy use the spells?

They have auras and personalities and shit! They're fond of selecting successors out of bloodlines. Only way to break the (unclear purpose) bond is destroying either the tree or the bonded dude. They can talk to you WITH THEIR MIND, are considered at least 10th level, and are worth no XP.

Oh here we are: The mind-linked dude can "tap into the tree's spell memory at will". The tree will then cast it for them, using Shemite Points! Casting time is as usual even though it's the tree doing it.

If you break off any part of the shemite tree it DIES. The stuff still works, but only has half the shemite points.

The shemite tree is composed of many colors of shemite, which have various properties. The heart is red, blue out in the branches. The clear, amber, and blue shemite all do the same shit. Except Red, which can be used to store god power: one God Point per 1/4th lb. 1/4th of the tree's weight is red shemite.

Shemite points are... used a one per spell level basis to cast magic, "even within a Null Void or a blue sun". One shemite point per half pound (two if it's still alive). They take 24 hours to come back after use. You can also use them to amplify powers! 1=x2, 2=x3, etc up to x10. You can't duplicate this shit, and you don't normally find more than a pound of it at a time (except if you find a tree I guess.)

Sunstone is "very unusual". It's made by psisheen mushrooms and sunstone drakes! You see, when the mushroom rots, its "remaining psionic energy traps neutrons and stabilizes them." This somehow makes "the hardest crystals in the Centiverse". (Midnight Sunstone is actually harder, but maybe they just mean that the Midnight type is a subset of Sunstone in general.) If you build a $1million headband of forgotten steel and set a $1million sunstone in it, this will amplify psionic abilities (by 2). As long as you're actually wearing it. It is also used in FTL communicators!

Shadarkeem Metal is from Shadarkeem. It absorbs every power that isn't Venderant Nalaberong. Post-mortal beings who come within 1 foot of it will fall unconscious and eventually die and get their soul sucked into it! Or if they touch it, them AND THEIR STUFF get sucked in. They're free again if it's broken. Titanite can block these effects! One pound will affect one immortal. A 10-pound sword of it will hold 10 immortals! Thanks for the math lesson, Synnibarr! It's steel grey, and is not affected by magnetism. Unless it's actually in Shadarkeem in which case it's just iron.

Titanite is immune to everything except God Power and Venderant Nalaberong. It is only found in the tallest mounts on Synnibarr, the Titans! Specifically, the ore is only found in the tallest peaks of THOSE. You smelt it by melting it overnight at 18k F, which means all the impurities boil off and you're left with molten titanite. Once you cast it, you can't melt it again, so make sure you get it right or have a friendly god or Venderant Nalaberong user on hand to adjust it for you. It is colored "glowing gold". You can block spells with it that aren't Venderant Nalaberong or God Power. (Specifically a shield but I'm not sure why making your armor out of it wouldn't do shit.) This is obviously the best shit to make armor out of.

And that's special materials! Next time: Starship Creation!

Starship Construction

posted by Zereth Original SA post

World of Synnibarr, Part But Why Would You Want To Leave: Chapter 5, Starship Creation!

In the Forbidden City, the Alchemist Guild's best starship engineers have a company employing 6,547 people to make starships! Because of the huge risk of industrial espionage from the zero other starship construction firms on Synnibarr, they are set up in the biggest building on Synnibarr, covering 5 square miles of ground under one roof. Because multiple smaller buildings wouldn't be cool enough. Because making starships is so fucking hard, they have set up some kind of controlled environment in there with "specialized conditions", which is impossible to duplicate! How they made it in the first place is not mentioned.

They own a hotel specifically for meeting prospective customers at! Assuming you're not asking for anything weird, they can get you your ship in 5 weeks. Cash on delivery. You also get free piloting and navigation lessons! You presumably still need the skill points free.

The process for building a ship is: Select hull size. Add armor if desired (more tough, less fast). Figure out effects of armor. Choose power supply, engine, and computers, then figure out what those did. Choose comms and sensors, add shields if desired, and choose weapons. Now, figure out how much free space and weight you have left!

I'm going to make the cheapest possible ship (Other than a bare hull)as an example. Note that even a bare hull has running lights, surface-landing gear, up to 3 air locks (for $30k each), external robotic arms with 2 ton lifting capacity, full life support, sublight thrusters capable of up to .99 c, quarters and lavatory facilities for three people, and a 500,000 EG max power supply.

A Fighter hull costs $90 million, has 100 million HP, weighs 7 tons, is 35' long, 9' wide, 8' high, has 2500 cubic feet volume, can carry 8 tons of shit, and gives you 75% of your pilot's normal dodge in starship combat and has a "Need to hit" of 70%. Maybe that gets explained in the vehicular combat section elsewhere.

Armor is explicitly optional, so I'm not getting any. An Extra Small thruster costs $50 million, weighs 3 tons, and consumes 1500 cubic feet, while letting us move at up to Warp 5 for 1,000 EGs per hour, and gives us +10% Need to Hit.

An Extra Small power source costs $5 million, weighs 2 tons, and consumes 800 cubic feet of volume. Uh oh, we've only got 300 cubic feet left.

Well, the cheapest computer costs... Nothing, weights 100 pounds, and consumes 4 of the remaining cubic feet. It runs our life support, gravity systems, and has an autopilot, and gives us +10% to hit with any weapons we get.

Fortunately, communication and sensors don't consume any space on top of the computer. Let's get short range sensors, letting us see out to 200,000 miles for $200 million, costing more than the rest of our ship put together so far, and an automatic translator, a maser comm system, and a Sunstone Tele-transmitter for FTL communication, for a total of $130 million.

Shields are expensive, so we skip them, and while a tachyon plasma beam or accelerated particle beam look nice, we're tryign to save money here so we'll just get some miniguns or something later.

This brings our ship to a total cost of $475 million, with 296 cubic feet of free space and, ignoring the 100 pound computer to make the math easier, 3 tons of cargo capacity! I deiced I want to be able to fit my entire 6-man party in it, so I subtract 200 cubic feet per person from my remaining space and uh oh. Okay, I can carry 4 people, counting the free quarters, and have 94 cubic feet of cargo space left. I subtract 200 pounds per person for life support or whatever from the 3 tons, and discover I can carry up to 5800 pounds of weapons, personnel, and cargo. Oh, and that, given the base from the hull, the bonus form the thruster, and the no bonus form the computer, that anybody attacking me needs to roll at least 80 or better to actually hit me when I'm going fast.

This is a pretty shitty starship, honestly! Maybe I should've brought more than $500 million to ERROR COMPANY NAME NOT FOUND. For another $30 million, I could've gotten a ship which could carry 15 tons of stuff and had 9,000 cubic feet!

There is also a note that you should never ever tell anybody you came from Synnibarr, for unclear reasons, and that also they are unlikely to believe you even if you do say you did. Because apparently Synnibarr is a "mythological legend" to everybody else in the Centiverse. Interstellar trade? WHO NEEDS THAT LET'S FUCKING HIDE. Also, aliens might have bureaucracy! Or quarantine procedures!

And that's Starships. A lot of boring tables without anything interesting options. Next time: Reactions and Hirelings!

Reactions & Hirelings

posted by Zereth Original SA post

World of Synnibarr Part Also That Raccoon With A Watch And Bazooka Gets A Page To Himself Between Chapters: Chapter 6, Reactions & Hirelings!

Now, you may or may not remember that back in chargen, your Ego score could give you reaction adjustments! You could get up to +6. The roll this modifies is a d20 roll! The chart goes from -10 to 41. There is also a table of aura modifiers, for all 9 auras vs all 9 auras. (All the way good talking to an all the way evil dude or vice-versa gets -20, while having the same aura gets you +3. Unless it's Violet then it's +0.) This does mean you could end up off the bottom of the chart easily when talking to somebody with an extreme alignment difference. And no, it doesn't say "less than", the chart only covers from -10 to 41.

There are also circumstantial modifiers, for being a religious fanatic who already wants to kill you (-1000), guarding their "mate, young, or treasure" at -10, being bribed with food or treasure assuming it's actually interested (+5), "Able to understand spoken langauge." gives you +2, and outnumbering it gives +8. You also get +1 per every 10 levels you have, but only when dealing iwht humanoids, rather than wolves or shit.

If you roll -10 to 0, it hates you, and "will attempt to harm only if the modified roll is below 1." So. Any time you get this result on the chart. 1-5 is "Dislike", who won't help you and may lie to you, 6-8 doesn't give a shit, 9-15 is "Mildly interested" and is likely to overcharge you if you're trying to get them to do something, 16-20 is "Interested" and will be moderately loyal for fair wages but likely to run away if things go bad, 21-25 will work for normal ages, and defend you but not to the death, and won't turn on you, 26-38 will work for reduced wages and guard you to the death, and 39-41 will pay you for the privilege of working for you.

Most of the chapter is boring tables, really, although there's some interesting bits on hiring an Alchemist or engineer to make shit for you. First, see, you have to roll under your Ego on d% to figure out if your character can think up the idea you have. Then you either go to the alchemist guild (65% chance they're busy) or go talk to a buddy. If you're going through the guild, you go to the Mirrored City, which is a big glass-and-steel skyscraper and not a city, and then actually go to a nearby building becuase you aren't allowed in at all unless you're an engineer. You then talk to one of the Alchemist interns manning this place and they'll look over your idea and see if anybody can be convinced to drop what they're up to in exchange for piles of money. If they do, they charge you $25! Then you get an appointment with the dude, who if he accepts, is bound by the guild to finish unless it puts his life at risk.

The base rate is $1500 per hour per Engineering level plus the "base cost of the spell or mutation". How long it takes is up to the GM entirely, and you're required to provide equipment, experimental materials, work space, and a nice place to live while work is underway. If the Mirrored City is providing this shit it costs you an additional 20%. This shit takes a while, too, so it's likely to be hard to convince the engineer. Once you come to an agreement, you need to get a license to own and operate your thing. The contract includes reasonable rates on repair and maintenance, but you HAVE to get that through the Guild or they'll confiscate whatever you had them build.

And that's a boring, uninteresting chapter! Next Time: Lands & Worlds . Much longer and much more crazy.

Lands and Worlds!

posted by Zereth Original SA post

World of Synnibarr, Part I Guess I Should Get Back To This: Chapter 7, Lands and Worlds! Part One.

Synnibarr has the same axial tilt as Earth did, and apparently the same calendar! Days are actually24.6 hours, though. The climate is very pleasant, except for the WERESTORMS and twice-annual eclipses.

The eclipses are caused by the planets Caltoose and Tarn, and bracket Darkmonth, which is not a month. The first one is Tarn causing a total eclipse, and the second is Caltoose causing a partial one.

Two weeks during December are Darkmonth, despite being inside another month, when the planet Shalom, which I remember Synnibarr as orbiting, block the suns, Bijor and Dior, making everything darker. So the entire planet turns wintery.

In the normally tropical Forbidden Continent, this means they get two weeks of crazy fucking storms! CONSTANT RAINFALL. Somehow. This is apparnelty good for the rainforests, though!

Terra, meanwhile, gets... "vast blizzards of blue snow" and temperatures down to an incredibly low 14 degrees F! But don't worry, Terra City itself inside its constant Werestorm dome thing is kept nice and comfortable by magic.

Also the God's Teeth and Sapphire Deep have a bunch of islands in them!

"Look at Synnibarr and you will know that Aridius loves a good garden."

Here, have the world map for the surface of Synnibarr!

Featuring the Terra Isles in the southern hemisphere. Also, with the equator not centered. I guess Synibarr is not a sphere.

First, the Arctic ! Apparently people tend not to return from there when they go. Maybe the extreme cold and winds up to and over 70 MPH, known to blow for up to a week constantly. There also isn't much there, the terrain being described as mountainous and bleak. So few people go, and fewer return.

As long as you don't count the moon drakes, thermal hydras, snow scorpions, giant polar bears, and such which live there.

Oh, and it's the most volcanically active are on Synnibarr (which, I will remind you, does not have a mantle becuase it is a hollow shell), and thus has lots of gems and shit!

But tryign to mine them is dangerous becuase of monsters, and you find them in small amounts. Also they attract some kinds of monsters? And some tunnels are full of 500F poison vapors. Or lava. Closer to the surface, you get less of that shit, but more monsters.

There's also a map of the arctic but it has literally nothing interesting on it.

The Antarctic is a bit more interesting! The land there is larger, and has... forests on the outside of it. Climate is similar to the Arctic, but with milder winds. It also has significant volcanoes.

Also in sheltered valleys, there are hot springs and freshwater streams and shit. And caves connecting these actually hospitable valleys. The mountains are pretty impassible, though, being sheer and tall, and made of "black and red stone that is twice as hard as granite."

There are also deep waterways leading to rich rain forests in this area which is allegedly really cold but the actual description of it strongly disagrees. One of these waterways leads to the entrance to the Center of the World! (450 miles from where the Giant ship drops you ff.)

The area is not very well explored. The Antarctic maps is barely any more interesting than the Arctic one is.

And I have a headache, so next time, The Dark Continent! And other places.

More Lands and Worlds!

posted by Zereth Original SA post

World of Synnibarr, Part I Can't Keep Schedules: More Lands and Worlds!

Last time, we checked out the Arctic and Antarctic! (Or Antartic if you go by the world map.) This time, we're checking out the Dark Continent and probably other places!



The Dark Continent is has a climate similar to the American Northwest, and also has bigass mountain ranges. It is the largest contiguous land mass on Synniba-wait a minute.
On the world map, the Forbidden Continent is clearly larger than the Dark Continent. And it doesn't have a Not To Scale note or anything.

Annnyway. The Dark Continent is almost entirely unexplored, probably because of its mysterious property of "inhibiting the flow of all electrical energies so that high technology does not work here." All the way up to geosynchronous orbit 23k miles up, and 9 miles out to sea.

Powers are affected as follows: Nothing over 10th level, no Major mutations, and mo magic items/scrolls/potions that do shit over 10th level. All organic electronics can't do anything becuase they fall under all electrical energies apparently can't make Midnight Sunstone Energy and BSC warriors can't use their cocoon or antigrav thrusters. You also can't use time or gravity control spells in any form, but non-spell abilities of 10th level or lower are fine I guess."Unless your characters like to live dangerously" you don't wanna teleport either (or Tesseract), as there's only a 10% chance of being seen ever again. Max range 1 mile even if you do it. (You also get an additional 1% chance per level of actually arriving.) And flying without wings sucks, as you can only go 60 MPH at most unless you're using the Shaman wind ability.

This shit is, according to the Alchemists, becuase there's a lack of caprenium radiation here. (But there isn't a lack of it in deep space where there's no matter around.) However, if you use an ability you're allowed to, it still functions at full strength if you're over level 10. (Unless it lets you fly faster than 60 MPH.)

Anyway, the awesomest natural feature of the Dark Continent is the Ice Teeth Mountains, which are at points high enough to poke out of the atmosphere. Up to 35,000 feet high! They are called the Ice Teeth becuase they split up around the Desert of Blindness, and where they border the desert, there's thousands of narrow gorges. This causes lots of wind. Because teeth = wind, get it?

There are also lots of caves in the Teeth, called the World Veins. In some cases you can follow them out to islands up to 300 miles off the coast of the Dark Continent! This is the only safe way to get through the Ice Teeth! Except they aren't entirely safe becuase "evil cave demons" and other things inhabit them. Apparently trying to go over the mountains is worse I guess? But it's not explained how.

The Dark Continet is FULL OF MONSTERS. "almost every nasty monster that exists on Synnibarr" in fact. Plus they aren't affected by the nullifying effects of hte place so if you go there you're in for a world of hurt.

Most of the people who live there (As opposed to the monsters) are Amazons, Dwarves, and Giants. The biggest city is Sword Home, the dwarf capital where they are raised and trained.

It's also git the biggest trucking swamp on the planet-ship, the creatively-named Great Swamp. Sometimes also known as the Drownder. Somehow, the swamp is thousands of miles wide and is "Almost completely unexplored", with little known about its wildlife.

In the south, a shitload of thermal drakes live in the mountains and jungles of the Volcanic Peninsula, which as you can see from the map is an island. It's unstable.

The Ice Teeth don't quite divide the entire goddamn continent in half, so the Great Chasm makes up the last bit. It's 315 miles across and a mile deep, and is where all the rivers form the Great Swamp (on the FAR SIDE OF THE CONTINENT) and the Jungle of Flies (or "Flys" according to the map) flow out to sea. At over 56 MPH, and up to 20 miles wide. It's like the Grand Canyon except the lower valleys are made of pure redstone! Which I think we covered in the material chapter. The upper are a is granite. As you can see on the map, the Ice Teeth separate the Jungle of Flies and the Great Swamp. The text claims that the chasm does too, but according to the map it does not in fact do so as it is confined to the western side.

Anyway, the Forest of the Sasquatch (or Sasquach according to the map) has towering straight oaks and sasquatches in it. That's all the book got on it.

And now, the Enchanted Continent !

While clearly much larger than the Dark Continent, it's not contiguous. It also, like the Dark Continent local map, doesn't quite match up with the world map version.

It is so named becuase its sweet damn climate and not having fuck you bullshit like the Dark Continent does. It's climate is like California, with large redwood forests and rolling meadows [s]and giant boring deserts which are boring as hell to drive through, have you ever BEEN here McCracken[s]. The skies are filled with winged horses for some reason, and the soil is fertile and shit. But watch out, it's also got Biogladites!

Let's take a detour to Chapter 17 to figure out what those are becuase it doesn't mention them again in this section.

They resemble humans, only wider (weighing between 500 and 2500 pounds and being 4 to 7 feet tall), with brown skin, steel-gray eyes, and 4 fingers on each hand. They are capable of using and maintaining complex mechanical devices, such as their hydrogen turbine fueled water and airships. Which they use to raid shit on the Enchanted Continent. They operate out of a port which has been hidden by the Trolocks for 35k years. The Drakes fucking hate these dudes, apparently becuase they tried to bind them. This fucked up and instead let the drakes find them(or possibly canceled the concealment entirely, but earlier wording implies it's still up) and "destroy them", so I guess this is just an interesting historical no-"which they still do today." Er. One of us is unclear on the definition of "destroy" and I don't think it's you, McCracken. However, they don't get fucked up by the drakes as much anymore becuase the UDF (United Drake Force) disbanded. Biogladites can also change your aura and memory by touch. And not long-term touch, just one attack worth. They are also Partial Practitioners in magic up to 10th level, with 200 SMUs. Their life force, aura,s and thoughts can't be sensed. Most of them also have laser guns or such shit and tech-shields.

So! Yeah. Bit of a problem.

Anyway, the only major mystery (besides "where the fuck are Biogladites") is the Sword Glade, a forest which has no information about it except that legend claims it was made by Tuch, the God of Ninja.

Anyway, climate's awesome! So lots of things live there! So it's hard to explore! I guess!

The major cities on it are Magmas and the Emerald Downs. These are not marked on the map becuase that would be convenient. They are located at the mouth of the Serpent's Tail inlet and on the island in the Elfin Sea. Emerald Downs was founded by Psielves and Humans, and has 1.5 million people and is growing. Magmas is not further mentioned. I think Emerald Downs is the one on the island, becuase it was listed last and that location was too, but can't be sure becuase it doesn't specify and they aren't marked on the map. There's also a city named Valhalla in the Midguard Strait (somewhere), named after the winery there that makes crystalberry liqueurs. Which are apparently awesome.

Also, there's a forest called Soul Swallower, made by Trolocks, who. Well, let's check Chapter 17 again! In less detail this time. Okay, Trolocks are evil spellcasters, made out of Mage Warriors, Gnomes, and Shadow Master of at least 40th level. They are fanatically loyal, don't age, and get some sweet bonuses. Some of them can even use Venderant Nalaberong! Somehow! They also revive if you don't destroy their remains with fire or acid, and then destroy THAT with Black Fire which I don't remember what it is. So. The evil Trolocks operate out of the evil forest with the dumb name. Mortals generally feat to go here, becuase going there is pretty goddamn dumb unless you're a god out to fuck shit up or something.

To the northwest, there's a few islands, which aren't explored, but are rumored to be covered with forests and hills and freshwater springs and deep caves.

Forbidden Continent!

This place is the most changed from its appearance on the World Map. The scale indicates it is smaller than the Dark Continent, while its world map appearance makes it about as wide and much longer, without the large sea in it. And remember, you have to run things exactly as written ! Which map is correct?

The oddest thing here is an ancient legend! About Were Mountain, which spits out invisible nullifying Werewinds as often as 20 times a day. Which affects the entire continent.

Anyway, apparently an Alchemist hollowed the place out and made a bigass lap in it. Which apparently pissed the Earth Lotts off something fierce, becuase they swarmed the place for an entire Darkmonth trying to get in. Until the Werewinds came! Apparently, the Alchemist gave up his humanity to make them. Somehow. So now the continent gets its shit nullified for 5 minutes an average of 3 times a day ("and 25% of the time during an encounter").

The second oddest thing (besides cities actually being MARKED on it ) is the Iron Wall. Which is a huge goddamn wall taller than the atmosphere, fencing it... something. It's unscalable, and you cant' fly over it becuase it's got special power shields. Some intelligent tree demons know where the entrance is, but they aren't telling anybody.

Some people think it's underground, in a secret temple in the jungle, and that during Darkmonth the tree demons do evil rituals to keep it hidden. They have never been forced to speak of the door, because of their legend: "He who leads the uninformed to the door shall die forever in the lake of boiling mud." So no only will you be dead, forever (which given the presence of resurrection magic is actually an important distinction), your corpse will be in some boiling mud! Oh no!

Anyway, the jungle (presumably the Forbidden Rainforest marked on the map) also has mutated oak which grows up to 200 feet and spreads out to 400 feet, making a really dense canopy becuase their branches intertwine with each other. In fact, walking on the canopy is apparently better than fighting through the jungle below! The oak jungle/rainforest.

Anyway. Apparently in addition to the jungle and/or rainforest, the ENTIRE REST OF THE CONTINENT is also a forest. "A vast forest stretches over the entire Forbidden Continent." Except for the Were Mountains, which average 7k feet tall and stretch for 265 miles to the Desert of Shae, which is apparently both a desert and a forest becuase as mentioned, "A vast forest stretches over the entire Forbidden Continent." Anyway, the desert has few oases, but they never dry up. And also an oddly large amount of trees for a desert.

Anyway, past the desertforest, there's an area called the Winter Peninsula, whose climate and vegetation are similar to Sweden and Norway. And also completely covered in forest. On the lower end, there's a volcanic (and forested) peninsula called Hydra Home, where most of the hydras live. (They have also been seen near the Were Mountains.) Hydras are the most migratory of drake types, and change territories every 5 years. Most of the continent has been mapped, but not recently enough that you can tell what's there besides "trees I guess."

The Isles of Shadow, Shikeena Peninsula, Scorpion Isle, and Crescent isles are not described. As the isles are not part of the continent proper, they may or may not also be completely covered in forest.

Mountain Isles!

This one almost matches up!

The Mountain Isles resemble the Rocky, Smoky, and Andes mountains. (Which I would have thought were actually fairly different from each other.) The mountains are big and close-packed. In on area there's a "giant plug-like formation of rock" forming a plateau 800 miles across, and between 600 feet and 1 mile high. It also has splits down to sea level, forming giant fjords, and the upper surface is forested with giant oaks and firs. (Again with the oaks.) Drakes come here to chill out during Darkmonth in the warm caves and burrows in the cliffs. The deep tunnels (up to 1 mile deep) are ideal for this purpose, and some of the drakes stay here year-round. They all migrate every 5 years, though.

The Mushroom Spires!
Do not get their own map. You'll just have to look at the barely-visible dots on the world map.

They are located near the Terra Isles, and consist of mushroom-shaped islands. One mile high rock spires hold up mushroom-like tops, some of which are up to 200 miles wide. There's 37 of these in total, and the entire archipelago is 1360 miles long and 1,223 miles wide. The islands are not evenly spaced. There are bridges between them, with a 66% chance of any given bridge being intact enough to use.

The main predators here are the mist drakes and sunstone drakes, who are busy having gang wars. There are also crossbreeds of winged horses and unicorns called unisi here, which are "shy but very intelligent." Their power is legendary, which is why they haven't been wiped out by the drakes.

The unisi are usually Gold aura (and coat), and are known for wisdom and knowledge of power. Except some are Scarlet aura and therefore EEEEEEVIL, which makes them dangerous as shit. But don't worry! Only about 5% of them are evil as shit. The rest range from sky blue to silver or gold, and they all have long white manes. So they are apparently color-coded by alignment.

Anyway, it's hard to capture them, even if you match their aura, but if you pull it off they'll usually let you use them as a mount, permanently. Capturing one requires you to be up at sunrise, on an island. And probably near a pool of fresh water, which are found in abundance on the Mushroom Spires.

First, blow into a large, hollow horn shell three times in long bursts. Then wait for a half hour, or until a unisis arrives. Or a Drake turns up looking for tasty unisis flesh. (Roll d100: 01-40, a unisis arrives, 41-70 a mist drake, 76-95 a sunstone drake, and 95-01 they all show up at once. Hey wait, Sunstone and All Three overlap...)

Anyway, if a drake gets there first, the unisis will hang out a safe distance away and watch. But if the adventurer is losing and they have a compatible aura with the unisis, there's a 65% chance the unisis will try to rescue them. And then leave, so you have to do this again.

If you do turn up a unisis, there's a 60% chance that they'll go "sure okay" and you've got a flying unicorn buddy you can ride now. How you go about CAPTURING them instead of just going "HEY WANNA BE BUDS" is not mentioned.

Anyway, the Mushroom Spires have fir forests and rolling pastures of clover, and lots of springs. Somehow. Despite being WAY UP IN THE AIR. Also, the universe's greatest concentration of psisheen mushrooms, which grows in sunstone creature dung. Such as drakes, grizzlies, and hydras. See, they grow sunstone like we grow hair or fingernails.

Anyway, the mushroom is tall, amber, glassy hard, and glows. Once you break it open, it's soft like an orange inside, and you can eat it for magic powers, as mentioned in the Mushroom, Psisheen writeup in the monsters chapter despite this being an inanimate plant . This is another reason they're called the Mushroom Spires! Because there are mushrooms on them.

Yes, most of the Mushroom Spires section is taken up with how to get a unisis buddy.

Next Time: The Shandreall Plain of Mist, Oceans, the Center of the World, and more!

Geography^3

posted by Zereth Original SA post

World of Synnibarr, Part Did I Mention The World Is Hollow: More Geography!

First, Oceans!

The giants have charted most of the various bodies of water on the planet, but there's still places that aren't! Also here are the two biggest.

The Sapphire Deep is named for its color, and is relatively calm. The Mushroom Spires and Terra Isles are here.

The God's Teeth (also known as the Heart Swallower) is nasty! Legend says it's cursed by the god of the seas becuase the sea drake king stole his daughter. It's named becuase the high winds keep its waves looking white, like teeth.

And now, the Center of the World !

See, Synnibarr is made out of a hollowed-out Mars. Inside, there's an artificial sun lighting the inner side, called The Garden. The sun is on a "thread", which is actually a ruined city slash star drive called "The Womb". Because of an explosion which made not just fires, but radioactive fires, it's almost entirely molten slag, becuase it's only had some 40,000 years or so to cool down. The other 1% is inhabited by Scarlet Insectivoids. Also the place is still on fire in bits.

Fortunately, the artificial gravity and internal ecosystems are still limping along so things can actually live in the Center.

You get to it from the Antarctic, going down a tunnel which is 30 miles deep and 1 mile across, made of pelleum steel. It's got a big ol spiral staircase along the edge, too. No railings, bu it's 15 feet wide so you can just stick close to the wall and take a break at the large platforms every mile down.

Once you get 14 miles down, you run into a null field (see the mutation Null Void) becuase why not. At mile 15, gravity turns off for 100 feet, after which it turns into an upward climb instead. at mile 16, anotehr null field, and then it's another 14 mile climb up to the Center of the World.

You come out on top of a tower, with A minimum drop of 130 feet to a rock, or 200 feet if you jump into the sea it's in. Two miles across the "warm, clear water" is Berava's coast.

Also, inside the Center of the World, there's a sort of depowering effects! No spell or ability over 3rd level will work (ones without listed levels are fine), strength is capped much lower, only lesser mutations work, BSCs are severely nerfed, scrolls and potions only work if level 3 or lower, enchanted items straight up don't. no "complex electronics or microelectronics" work except cybernetics, and natural substances like the various berries and sticks and wood and shit work fine, and you still get the level-based scaling on abilities that you can use.

This is caused by something going in inside The Womb. See, remember that mutant who blew it up and shit? She's actually trapped in a "gravity-time warp." which is generating vast power, which is feeding the reactor. So there's. Radiation and shit, which interferes with the caprenium radiation caused by technentium and caprium or something. This is also deadly to all drakes except Chameleon Drakes.

You also get weather in it. However, the atmosphere only goes up 10 miles, after which it gets really, really thin, until you're close to The Womb at which point there's another mile of atmosphere around it. And days are marked by the sun brightening and darkening instead of the normal way, becuase you're inside.

Next Time : Individual continents inside this thing!

Center of the World

posted by Zereth Original SA post

World of Synnibarr, Part Tune In In 2013 For The Next Update: My bookmark says we were at the Center of the World, so I guess that!

This section opens with a reminder that Synnibarr used to be Mars before Space Jesus hollowed it out and made it into a starship. Apparently, the inside is totally awesome and mysterious, and is imaginatively named the Garden. It's got its very own sun and wait hang on this feels familiar.

Okay, checking, I already covered some of this shit last time. Time for the map.


For specific areas, let's check out Arimi first!

It's "the mountain continent" because varied terrain is for people who aren't lazy. It's one gigantic plateau, with sheer cliffs for shores, up to a mile place, except on the Jenerat peninsula. Elevation varies from 3000 feet to 72,000 feet in the Titan Mountains. (Home of that wonderful bullshit material Titanite which you problaby don't remember you want to make all your shit out of it, becuase it is literally invulnerable once you finish working it the first time without God Power.)

It joins the Ring of Frost with a bit which has been terraced into bigass stairs, Legend claims Space Jesus used this as his "walking place". Lack of concrete info on Aridius and the actual scale of these stairs makes it hard to tell how accurate this is. I mean, for the reader.

The coastal areas are lightly forested, while the inland area has lots of more dense forest and also deep "almost cracklike canyons". And also fjords and shit and who cares, it's time to hear about DRAGONS!

See, Arimi is where dragons live! They are like Drakes, only lamer. ("smaller and less intelligent", in the book's exact words.) Some "mutant humans" use them as mounts. You know what never mind, I don't care about dragons any more.

The book goes on to talk about those dudes who ride dragons, the "Wind Runners", who live in cliff caves and fight each other and hate Halitheians and who cares.

Meanwhile, in Berava , we have the jungle continent! It is also the largest land mass in the Garden/Center of the World/Whatever the book is calling it this page. I'd mention something about how all the continents inside Synnibarr are linked through the Ring of Frost, but on the other hand, we have Eurasia and Africa and North and South America.

Anyway, only one mountain range has been named because McCracken was lazy , the Corsair Peaks near the Ring of Frost, and contains the Corsair's Strait, named so becuase of the more or less constant naval battles between the Halitheians and Tenjohussan.

Also: Underground lava tunnels. Like the World Veins on the Dark Continent, can cross the entire place, and that's all the book says.

Off the west coast (which is actually to the top of the map for some reason), "where the Shards begin" and I can't remember if we're supposed to know what that is yet, is the Dark Isle, which is where the Blood Mages, or as they refer to themselves, the Ravashem live! It's always night, and you can walk there at low tide. For actual information on them, see Chapter 17.

The tunnel to outside is off the east coast of Berava, except that according to the map it's more in a large gulf to the north, and it's to the west of the nearest land. It's hard to miss becuase it's a giant metal island thing a couple miles out to sea.

About 100 miles inland (possibly from that) is a 5000 foot high plateau where the Priests of Berava live! It has seven waterfalls. They are fed from freshwater geysers. These spit water 20 feet in the air. The pour out a total of 19 million gallons of water a minute because one of them is slacking off. The Preists treat the jungle on this as their "own garden", and use the fountains and terrain to "Express their love of life" in unspecified ways. And also if they leave the Center of the World they become ridiculous murder machines.

Doreann is the island continent. It's "an experiment in isolation" where all the marsupials live. But it's not Space Australia, because they're all there for protections against predators which they couldn't defend themsleves from. There are SOME predators, but this hasn't disrupted the natural balance becuase McCracken doesn't understand how nature works becuase the kangaroos have figured out how to throw rocks at things.

The island is like Japan only warmer. Its rocky coastlines are inhaibited by seals, and also descendants of "Kamodo" dragons, who are jet black, up to 20 feet long, and eat fresh meat instead of carrion. It is named the Lazer becuase it hunts with laser vision .

On the downside, the Halitheians live here. They're pirates! And worship the total five mountains on the continent. They are crocodile people. And eat people. And have live young, which the male carries to term becuase why not. They go be pirates with ships, which they make out of wood which grows on the continent, because this is Synnibarr and that actually needs to be specified becuase they might use mushrooms that fall from the sky or something.

Kath is the desert continent! Its coastline has dense jungles and forests, which is kept out of the inner continent by bigass mountains which go around the whole thing, except where they turn into foothills "near the grand plateau" where Kath joins the Ring.

Speaking of that plateau, it's named the Sandtable, and averages 1 mile above sea level. It's got a canyon named the Lifegiver running through it, with a river named the Lifegiver at the bottom. It's over 100 miles wide and 1 mile deep. And filled with jungle. The river/canyon are named Lifegiver becuase of all the life in the middle of the desert, see? Although after it leaves the plateau, it peteres out after another 500 miles into the desert. (Conditions on the plateau are not specified, but given its name it is probably ALSO desert.)

Also, the Sandtable has a bunch of deep caverns becuase of freshwater springs carving them. You can always find adventure in them. The book does not go into any more detail than that you can always find adventure there, though. ALWAYS.

And now the book gets around to the Ring of Frost becuase I think it's going in alphabetical order. Anyway, in the Center of the World, the POLES are the Tropics while the equator is the cold area! Given that the sun doesn't move and thus there's no axial tilt relative to anything for the inside, why is unclear.

Anyway, it's the ice continent! Where all the cold-area life from old Earth lives. It's got a bigass sea in it called the Ross Stripe, which is 20,000 miles long and varies from 134 miles to 150 feet wide. Average depth 5000 feet, max depth 13 miles, and it frequently freezes and always has icebergs. And also fjords, some of which are heated by hot springs. It is adjacent to the Frost Spine mountains, which parallel the Ross Stripe for 22,000 miles somehow, despite this being longer than the Stripe itself.

The Ring's terrain is mostly mountains, and deep valleys with hot springs in them. (and also the Ross Stripe, I guess.) The coastal regions are heavily forested for a bafflingly specific 259 miles inland, at which point you get permafrost plains, which are snowed on in winter. They also have lakes and boulders. The ring is 1300 miles wide on average and 1050 miles wide at the narrowest!

There are also 24 tunnels through it, evenly spaced every 1000 miles. They're manmade, 100 feet tall and 250 feet wide, and made of pelleum steel and provide a quick way through under the mountains and ocean. There's handy water fountains every 10 miles in case you get thirsty, and they're exactly 50 degrees Fahrenheit. And exits to the surface every 100 miles. Who built them? Who cares! The book sure doesn't!

Also, there's two points where the Womb is tethered to the surface in here, and they're not really a good place to hang out. The "radioactive fire" keeps all the snow away for 3 miles around it, and no Powers work because of the radiation, which will cause instant death "or worse" to those without protection.

Utha is the forest continent! This is different from the jungle continent, obviously. It rains a lot. There is nothing interesting about it.

The Shards are finally explained, and are islands that are the tops of underwater mountains or volcanoes! They are located west of Berava and east of Arimi according to the map.They have jungles on them.

Breakerill Deep is where the pirate race of the Tenjohussan live! They live in underwater caves, and don't use ships, they use whales . Whales with large blowholes they can hide in, and extra air reservoirs. Although they can just ride on the outside of the whales becuase they have gills, unless the whale gotta go fast. The whales can swim at speeds for lengths of time. The sea itself is pretty nice and mild.

The Kathan Sea is the warmest part of the Breakerill Deep, and gets its own heading of the same size as the Breakerill Deep does despite being a sub-section of it. It's got coral reefs and monsoons, which sometimes become hurricanes.

The Shantain Ocean is rough and nasty, unlike the Breakerill Deep.

Doreann Gorge is the deepest sea in the Graden, with Alchemists reporting it as up to 14 miles deep. Currents make ships wreck on Doreann. Yes, that's it. The sections suddenly get very short around The Shards.

The amusingly-named Devil's Punchbowl is cold! It is connected to the Ross Stripe through an underground tunnel called "Glowing Cave". Which has between 100 and 150 feet between the water and the ceiling, and has bioluminescent moss on the walls. The water in the Punchbowl does not freeze despite averaging at 32F. It's named the Devil's Punchbowl becuase of the storms "that suddenly appear and drop freezing rain, blowing ships into the rocks at the Punchbowl's entrance." I have no idea what this has to do with punchbowls.


Next Time: More delays Economy and Society and Cities!

Cities & Shit

posted by Zereth Original SA post

oh right

World of Synnibarr, Part It's Still Tomorrow : Cities and shit!

So, during the last 500 years after that Dumb Plague went away, civilization has been kinda plagued by monsters and shit. Drakes eating people or enslaving them, other things eating people, the book just kinda focuses on people getting eaten.

So, they instead go underground (so it's harder to run away from the things that want to eat you I guess) or stay near cities. If you wanna set up farther out, you're basically going to be fighting shit 24/7 so, you know. Civlization: Not doing so good on the expansion thing. But sometimes you can make friends with the monsters! But it's rare.

As such, society and economy levels vary drastically! Some places are, well, Terra City, and others are basically dirt farmers poking at the ground with sticks in the hopes plants will pop out. And the Alchemists, with their attempts to monopolize technology, are not helping. Things are not likely to improve! They are called out here as grabbing the smart kids and brainwashing them into following the Alchemist doctrine. But lately they have started returning home and implementing tech shit that isn't strictly Guild-only, so things are improving! Not much, but they're getting better. Thus contradicting earlier in the same paragraph!

So most places rely on wooden tools (not even stone? Damn.) and magic. Farming is common, but hunting, gathering, and scavenging are more popular. But some places chill behind awesome force fields watching TV or something!

And becuase most knowledge of geography has been lost and orbital mapping is not possible becuase of the lack of space travel , nobody really has a good idea of what's going on in most of the world! But "from what we can ascertain, civilization is beginning to take root." Yes, suddenly the book shifts to in-character type unreliable narrator shit mid-paragraph. And Adventurers can help make shit better by killing monsters and shit.

So, now, on to specific Cities !

Cities have Crime, Tech, Art, and Defense levels! Crime factors range from 1, almost no street crime ("thefts, muggings, rapes, and other forms of crime") at rating 1, increasing to 5% at 2, and 25% at 6. Frequency of checks is not specified.

Defense Factor is the chance of random encounters, from none at Excellent, 10% at Good, 15% at Fair, and 25% at Poor. This represents the protection of hte city from monsters and shit wandering in.

Tech level 1 cities have jack shit, tech level 2 have "low-tech mechanical machines", 3 have normal electronic items too, and 4 have high-tech shit including organic electronics.

Art is magic shit. level 1 nothing, level 2 slight, level 3 average, and level 4 heavy. This includes individual knowledge, the availability of instruction, and common use of magic and chi and shit in everyday life. And no, you don't get any more information than "non/slight/average/heavy" to guide you.

So, let's look at Emerald Downs ! With a population of 1,500,000, Excellent defense, Crime Factor 1, Tech Level 3, and Art Level 4, it's "one of the bright places on the Worldship." It's located in the Elven Sea in the Enchanted Continent, and is protected by crazy spells and shit! The only way to get in is to dock at its port, which is actually on an entirely different island one mile away. You go through a 100-foot diameter tunnel with five differnt levels to get there, bypassing the Vendernat Nalaberong Security spell keeping people out from any other method (Except all the other methods of flat out ignoring security spells I vaguely remember form the classes.)

The city itself is on the shore, stretching inland, and was made by... somebody, out of a "Green glasslike substance resembling actual emeralds". Welcome to Oz. It's got a bitchin' palace with 8 bigass gates to get in and shit. This is where King Kell lives, and has spent the last 100 years ruling, and the city has flourished under him! No further information on him is available.

Its primary exports are art, books, and music, and more than 30% of the population are artisans.

Dorvendor - Capital city of the Ravashem is not so nice! It has a population of 19,500, a defense factor of Excellent, a Crime Factor of 6, a Tech Level of 2, and an Art Level of 4. It's in the Center of the World on the Dark Isle, surrounded by a deadly swamp! Its main exports are death and imports are slaves. It's surrounded by enslaved villages to actually grow their food and shit. They'll teach anybody their eeeeeevil magic, but if you fail the entrance exams you DIE! It's ruled by mages, and justice is restricted to Ravashem only. Anybody else who disturbs the peace or anything remotely irritating will ind themselves sacrificed to power a Ravashem blood magic spell! And then thrown in jail! In that order, apparently.

Dragon's Mouth has a population of 15,000, a Good defense factor, Crime Factor 1, Tech Level 2, and Art Level 2. It's on the coast of Arimi in the Center of the World, and it's where the largest Wind Runners clan lives and wait don't give a shit about those dragon-riding assholes

The Forbidden City boasts a population of 10,000,000, an Excellent defense, Crime Factor 3, and Tech Level and Art Level of 4 each! It is on the Forbidden Continent (Near a river which is probably the Forbidden River flowing into the Forbidden Bay), and is ruled by an emperor! Who nobody ever really sees! He made the place and did something to block the Werewinds.

It is the place you go when you want a spaceship, and also has pretty awesome other shit as shown by its maxed-out Tech and Art levels.

The Imperial Guards carry "special rifles" and power armor of uncertain origin, and are protected by the power of the emperor. And can see an hear what other guards do. So I guess they're a hive mind or something. There's some Imperial Alchemists doing this shit, becuase if you want somethign weird done, you talk to an Alchemist. Unless you like Alchemist hit squads busting into your bedroom, I guess, although it's never really explained how they enforce this shit.

Anyway, the sea-facing edge is walled off with big walls of pure redstone granite (whose properties I have forgotten and don't give enough of a shit about to look up), and on the other side are the Redstone Mountains. There's also a foot path from the beach, and a magically appearing and disappearing hole in the wall of sea traffic after the toll is paid. Giant(tm) ships include the toll in the $1000 travel fee, though.

The Forbidden City has "one simple policy" (located right next to the "Laws of the Forbidden City" sub-heading in the next column), which is "Get an ID and pay your fucking tolls and we wont' ask any other questions." If you don't pay the toll, the "impounding fee" is $200. Getting into the city costs $50, while boats cost $100 and starships $150. (Per head? ) IDs cost $2000, and a $1000/year fee, but getting one requires you to rent an apartment and be there at least months out of the year, and also get a local bank account. This lets you bring in guests for half price, up to 5 per ID. They use magic stripes with your DNA encoded into it that you can't duplicate.

Anyway after that boring bureaucracy shit, you can buy "every decadent pleasure conceivable" if you have the money! Unofficial city motto is apparently "Where Terra is lightness, we are darkness." I like "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" more myself. The Forbidden City really needs a better PR team.

Anyway, cost of living is high, becuase you need security from that Crime Factor 3. A safe apartment costs $2000 a month, but shit on the provision lists is list price.

The city is about 50 miles across, and buildings reach heights of up to 1,500 feet. (According to Wikipedia, this beats everything but the top 5 tallest buildings in the world.) This apparently means the streets are poorly lit and crime-ridden, while the heights are pretty sweet and halve sealed walkways between buildings so you don't have to go down there with all those poors . The ecomony is good, but stratified, with the 'royalty' having all the money, and commoners not allowed to go past the 100th floors ""for reasons of sanitation of course."" The average worker gets by okay, if they've got a decent education.

The Laws of the Forbidden City are:

1: Do what the emperor and his goons say.
2: "Property Law:" Don't fuck up any streets or buildings unless you own them in which case who gives a shit.
3: "Treasure Law:" If you leave your shit lying around for 10 days it's open season, unless it's on private property (including renal parking spaces and shit) that's registered, which you have to renew in person every yearh.
4: "Private property law:" AKA the Megacorp Rule: If it's on your private property, you in charge. As long as it doesn't leave your property, you can do whatever you fucking want, and nobody is allowed to come in or take anything without your permission. Run your own private security force, why not.

Gateway has 7,000 people, Poor defense, Crime Factor 6(!), Tech Level 3, and Art Level 2, and is located at the end of the waterway where Giant ships drop off dudes who want to go to the Center of the World becuase they like all their good special abilities going away. (Or want some Titanite.) It's basically a shanty town, with no real government or laws, and is composed mostly of taverns and inns. Also, the drakes never attack it for unclear reasons.

Hell's Gate has 100,000 dudes, Excellent defense, Crime 6, Tech 2, and Art 4, and is on the northernmost Shadow Isle off the Forbidden Continent. It was founded by the Bioladites and run by the Trolocks, and it's populated by basically every sentient species on the planet.

You can buy basically anything (except tech stuff: Tech level 2, remember) here, kinda like the Forbidden City, only more Mos Eisley and less Blade Runner, I guess. The biggest draw is the captial-a Arena, where gladiators compete for large purses at the end of the week. Specifically, 500 Gold Terrums. Which works out to $250,000.

The town guard is a bunch of dudes of various races, all armed with Ravashem or Shadarkeem swords so they can even keep Gods in line. (Because gods can't just stand off and blow them up with their crazy 50+ adventurer/god abilities ) Also, slave markets, biggest in the world! Careful, you might end up for sale!

It's built in a dead volcano, and the buildings are a mishmash of styles "to make the city seem poorly designed" so this is apparently intentional on the part of the Hell's Gate Zoning Board. It also has drake-riding guards patrolling out to 5 miles offshore, and reacting quickly to any signs of open conflict! So you ahve a 25% chance of getting mugged every ERROR FREQUENCY NOT FOUND but the guard will show up promptly I guess? Also, most pirates work out of this place becuase the administration doesn't give a shit. Also, dark religions! Even maybe a portal to Bi'reel's home plane of Hell!

Hydra Home has 250,000 dudes, Fair defense, Crime 5, Tech 2, and Art 3, and is on the Forbidden Continent, connected to the sea by a shallow river called the Channel. The city itself is built across the Channel and up into the jungle, most buildings on stilts up 20 feet in the air. Instead of streets, it has bridges and walkways and shit, and everything's made of oak and maintained by spells. It is a "haven for rare plants and animals", and where most of the exotic animal pelts used throughout the planet come from. Also, incense and jewelry and basically no government so you better be ready to fend off whatever wanders in. No mention of hydras.

Katheia has 100,000 people, Good defense, Crime 4, Tech 2, and Art 4, and is located in the Center of the World, on Kath, on the banks shores of the Lifegiver River where it leaves the Sandtable. It is a "hostile monarchy", ruled by a sultan, and its guard is humans armed with swords, bows, and a smattering of rifles. It's made out of stone and marble, except for the huts which are made out of straw and wood, and it's got a big wall to fend off the Viceen raiders. Inside, every bit of land is either farms of habitation. No stores or government buildings or anything, apparently, just farms and houses! It is on a trade route between the Kathan Sea and the rest of the world, so caravans and travelers stop there a lot. Its main exports are rubies and fire pearls, and it imports pretty much everything else,especially slaves for the ruby mines.

Lions Home (not Lion's) has 600,000 residents, Fair defense, Crime 3, Tech 3, and Art 3. It's on the Forbidden Continent, and is one of the prettiest cities on Synnibarr. It's got awesome beaches for great vacation spots, and its architectural style is "white villas with flat roofs and narrow shady streets of red brick." It is also near the Iron Wall, reminding people that Space Jesus used his awesome Space Jesus powers to make the planet. It is democratic. Its (Fair, so 15% chance of finding a laser-whale while heading to the corner store or whatever that's supposed to actually mean) defenses are run by trigger-happy adventurers.

It's a fishing town. Almost every type of seafood in the world is found here becuase different types of fish living in different places is foreign to McCracken, I guess?

Magmas has 25,000 people, Good defense, Crime 1, Tech 3, and Art 4. It's on Serpents Jaw on the Enchanted Continent, and is underground but not nearly as big as Sword Home. (Which is listed AFTER Terra for some reason. I guess T comes before S in the Terran alphabet?) It has sweet-ass Gnome-run farms around it. It exports dairy products and vegetables. It is founded and run by Gnomes. They use magic to keep it safe.

And Terra will have to wait for next time becuase it is pretty fucking long. And also there's a bunch of shit after the general city things also about Terra.

Ships Home is 20,000 dudes, Excellent defense, Crime 1, Tech 2, and Art 3, and is on the Sapphire Straits on the Dark Continent. It's the Giant capital, and "it is rumored that Galedreas's parents live there." It's on the shore, made largley out of A-frames, "giving the city the feel of an alpine village." It's democratic, and the guard is composed of Giants in a shocking swerve.

It is the "principal source" of lumber and ships becuase shipping lots of lumber across pirate-infested intercontinental waters is a great idea right? The giants use... modified airships to log the area around the village, and use genetically engineered trees which grow in 5 years to keep the place looking nice. Issues of soil nutrients and such are not mentioned. The place also makes 10 to 20 ships a day, from "small skiffs to a single large sailing vessel" whatever that means.

Sword Home has 50,000 dudes, Excellent defense, Crime 2, Tech 2, and Art 3. It's on the Fishtail Peninsula, next to the Forest of the Sasquatch, and I don't remember or care what continent that's on. It was founded by the Amazons and Giants, and is now where the majority of the Dwarves live. (50k pop? Not a lot of dwarves then, I guess.) The guilds train young dwarves here before sending them to Terra for their final bit of training, and the city is underground in "polished-smooth caverns".

The buildings inside are made out of wood, stone and imported shit, and it's lit by... Alchemist magic. Which consists of piping in sunlight from outside. Very impressive. At night, they use lanterns. The caverns are big, and extend out for about 2,000 miles, so there's lots of room to grow I guess.

It's a monarchy, ruled by the King and Queen from the hidden city of Jewel. (Wait, the city is ruled from another, different city? ) The guard is staffed by dwarves and gnomes, and their exports are minerals and gems. Some of the best gold, nova quartz, and moonstones come from here.

Valhalla has a whopping 4,000 citizens, Good defense, Crim 4, Tech 2, and Art 3, and is located on the Midguard Straits on the Enchanted Continent. They brew crystalberry and grape wine. It's guarded by Snagith the thermal drake, and her four kids.

Cyberrock has 16,000 dudes, Fair defense, Crime5, Tech 4, Art 2, and is located off the coast of the Forbidden Continent. No ability or spell over 3rd level works here. That's it. Nothing else about it.

Stonespray , Tusk , and Watersend are even less interesting than Cyberrock . We are informed of their locations and boilerplate stats and nothing else.

Next time! Companies and guilds and shit, and Terra City itself! Who's looking forward to six solid pages of vague info on Terra City shops? EDIT: Note that all of the cities around the world that McCracken felt like talking about total 4 pages, and one solid page and change of that is Terra itself. This is six pages of shops and shit, plus one page dedicated to the map so you can find them.

Terra City

posted by Zereth Original SA post

Okay, it's time for

World of Synnibarr, Part Now More Condensed Because Nobody Cares About Pages And Pages Of Shops: Terra City!

Terra City has a population of 125,000, an Excellent defense factor, is crime-free, and has Tech Level 4 and Art Level 4!

It's domed, and apparently these domes are UNDERWATER. You get in through a tunnel we don't give a shit about, and is surrounded by a Werestorm which nullifies fucking everything so you have to get in or out on a ballistic course or riding a floating ship or something. And it's 15 miles from the inside to the outside. They use magic and shit to help with traffic control.

Politically, it's got an elected mayor, and all city guards are at least 20th level, and they've also got a shitload of adventurers lying around. Also, a magic satellite called the Eye in orbit. It's in geosynchronous orbit over Terra, watching for hostile shit, and informs people through a special process called... masers. Which requires five Alchemists and a bunch of equipment to receive voice and crappy still pictures every five minutes. Nnnnot seeming very impressive.

Terra is awesome to live in, and cost of living is low. Only $300/month of basic expenses. In the UNDERWATER DOMED CITY WITH ONLY ONE ENTRANCE. Somehow.

Also, the cops are awesome! They're all at least 20th level, and there's 127 of them, and they're all Good aura. They have handcuffs which nullify powers, a wristwatch communicator which lasts for a massive 10 minutes per full charge, a power-nullification gun, and a "black lamborgini-type, antigravity squad car". Max speed 705 MPH and a bunch of other shit. You know, maybe they should have more cops and less ridiculous cars?


The laws they enforce are:

• 1: Don't kill or hurt dudes (including stunguns, hypnosis, and shit) unless you're in a duel or performing a sanctioned assassination
  
• 2: Don't steal shit, except shit left out for 30 days is now salvage, etc.
  

Now, you don't get many violations, because crimes may be viewed up to 1 month in advance, becuase they have the Minority Report system set up in the police station basement or something, I guess. So you get arrested the instant you try to do something. And then they use Venderant Nalaberong-fueled honesty spells on you to make you confess. Punishments include being made into a zombie for menial labor, being killed and having Stay Dead cast on you, "Voluntary organ donation and community service" (don't we have easily available spells to regenerate missing organs? Why would you need organ donors?), mindwipe and aura change, and having your powers permanently removed.

And remember, this is the good city. All cops are of Good alignments.


Anyway, assassinations require that you have been wronged, and that your mind gets read and the past scryed to check that this actually happened, in which case you pay $10k per level of the victim and they send an assassin. And the assasins have to follow a bunch of stupid rules becuase they're supposed to be not evil.

There are also a bunch of companies/guilds/etc in and around Terra! There's the artists guild, the assasin's guild, "Adventures Unlimited" which specializes in river rafting trips, Bioware which makes computer RPGS sells cybernetics and genetic alterasions, Biotech which builds animals, a caravan guild, a construction guild, bodyguards, demolitions, a detective agency, guys who aren't part of the Alchemist guild but can engineer shit becuase they got the okay, some firefighters, the class guilds, Spies Inc, a company which just goes and rescues people, a bank, the Mirrored City which we've heard about, "Real Dream, Inc", which publishes books, comics, and TV shows, and also Total Recall style implanted memory vacations, a repo company, and the Terra Police and Council. If you want more detail on any of these, go ahead and ask, but it's Synnibarr, so it wont' be interesting!

And now, I come to a full-page map of Terra City (which is rectangular and there's only one map, not matching up with the "Three Domes" from earlier), which has 146 points of interest marked!

20 of these are the offices of the Guild Masters, who are all level 50 except for the Ninja Guild, which is run by Blade, the 6th level God (equal to 160 normal levels) of Heavy Metal, Cragons, and Martial Arts. A further 20 are the guild halls themselves, many of which have 50th level headmasters listed but not all.

In the actual shops, there are a total of 69 owners or employees who are 45th level of higher, and thus one god-given quest away from being a Demigod themsleves, or are in fact a god. From highest to lowers:
A lockpick shop is run by Cat, the 16th level God (260 normal levels) of Assassins and Thieves, who voluntarily returns everything he steals.
53 shops, taverns, and so on are owned by or have on staff 50th level adventurers, two of which (a tavern and a stable) are owned by the 50th level mutant named fucking Brothel , who is also on the Terra Council. Of the others, one is owned by an UNKNOWN CLASS, 3 are co-owned by pairs of 50th level guys, 2 are three-way partnerships, and one is implied to be personally staffed by the owner during buisness hours, and is also open 24 hours a day.
7 are owned by people between 45th and 49th level, two are owned by 40th level people, and 1 each at 35, 30, 20, and 15.
33 do not have a listed owner or just say "A Human" or the like, and one is owned by A MYSTERY OOOOH , implied to be Lord Midnight, who I don't remember or care who that is.

Next Time The star system Synnibarr is in, the rest of space, and DIMENSIONAL TRAVEL(WITH TABLES)!

Wait this is kinda boring!

posted by Zereth Original SA post

World of Synnibarr, Part : Wait this is kinda boring!

So. After long consideration, I have come to the conclusion that Synnibarr, while on the surface is all crazy Venderant Nalaberong and bizarre classes and shit... once you get past that surface, it's full of boring. So from here on out I'm goign to be abridging the shit out of things.

So, the solar system. It's a binary system, and Synnibarr itself is in orbit around a large planet in an impossible orbit thanks to the fact that it's actually a giant spaceship and not a real planet. The planet, Shalom, is habitable and colonized, while its two real moons are, in the case of Tarn, volcanic and filled with death bacteria, and the other, Caltoose, gets nearly a full page of explanation of various shit, like what you can do with various crap you can find, the mysteriously missing native race the Alchemist archeologists have found, the wildlife, and it's all boring . 1.5billion skeletons of the native race, apparently almost the entire race, found on an island with some weird electronic thing too damaged to figure out what it was? You'd think this would be interesting but that's all the information you get. Except that "sings of survivors have been spotted. However, none have been contacted." What kind of signs?

There are other planets in the system, too! 4, plus an asteroid belt. The inner planet, Thornis, has a legend claiming that an ancient race learned Venderant Nalaberong, and Super Evil God Bi'reel traded them more power in exchange for knowledge of it (this was early so it wasn't common among gods I guess) and then turned around and enslaved them and built crazy powerful items. Except they blew up in his face and now the entire planet is super-evil becuase he got distributed through it. This is why Venderant Nalaberong and God Power cant' affect each other, in fact! Then, the now crazy evil race went around being evil and made some of the thing Bi'reel was trying to make (exactly what these are is, of course, not specified) until a non-evil one was born and then she used the items to teleport into space and seal the race on the planet forever! This blew up her and scattered the items to "the ends of space". They're indestructible and undetectable, which explained why Bi'reel (who somehow survived being spread out through the entire planet I guess) has found only one by stealing it from some adventurers who also found the thing that is impossible to detect. Somehow. Anyway, the curse keeps anybody from the planet from leaving, but other people can land through the omnipresent cloud cover and then NEVER LEAVE oooo spooky

There's an asteroid belt that has nothing interesting about it except that sometimes space drakes chill out on asteroids in it. Dani is a barren airless rock ball with no interesting features. Shemel is a cratered rock-ball with methane pools in the craters. And Saphice is big, and covered in an oxygen/methane sea, from which we can figure out that it's really fucking cold if those are in liquid form.



There are also alternate planes! The Minor and Prime Astral Planes start us off (the minor one is closer to reality). In the Minor, you can be sensed through some things and affect the world with the right tools/powers. There are five types of powers which work on both astral planes: Magic, Psionics, Earthpower, and Chi. Yes, that is only four. Mutations also work but only if they generate one of those four types, so... Yeah. 5 = 4. Anyway, on the Minor you're basically a ghost, you know the dirll.

On the Prime, you're in a spooky void filled with ghost planets and shit, and there's nothing to do there except go find the center, where there's a 20-foot-wide porthole. I think McCracken has confused "porthole" with "portal" becuase he kinda consistently uses it for this kind of thing. This "porthole" lets you connect to a "dimensional causeway". These come in main dimensional causeways and subdimensional causeways, becuase there's 100 dimensions with 100 subdimensions each in the Centiverse. The causeways consist of a bunch of 100-mile-diameter spheres with a bunch of little platforms with archways on them floating in it. Obviously, these are used for astral dimensional travel.

The Elemental Planes are not dimensions, they're what you get between dimensions. They're another way to get around, although you need the aid of a greater elemental to open a "porthole" to them. They come in Air (clouds you can walk on), Earth (caves), Ether (void with rocks in it), Fire (volcanic wasteland), and Water (giant surfaceless sea. Presence or absence of sea floor is not stated).

There's also Limbo, which is Subdimension 100-99. (Who determined the numbering scheme is not stated.) Also, it's only 100 miles across, but connects to the entire world, so if you end up there, move a foot, and go back, you'll have travelled hundreds of light years! As such, the various shit which banishes people to Limbo can only pull you back if you don't move even a tiny bit . Go on. Be compeltely still without any fidgeting, at all, for an unknown period of time. Yeah, looks like banishing shit to Limbo is pretty much one way. Also, time travel randomly happens here! This is totally unpredictable so it's basically an excuse for the GM to dick people over extra hard for going to Limbo.

There's also a castle in the center of it where the God of Time, Yanak, lives. He's crazy. Some guy named Hyeel keeps him under control and is TOTALLY EVIL and keeps the Plane of Limbo under his EVIL GRIP in unspecified ways. The only reason you'd go to this castle is the tunnels that can be used for controlled time travel (after which you will need to get your ass out of Limbo and then teleport vastly astronomical distances back to where you want to be I guess), with the small downside of thousands of Dark Lords in you way. Oh, and the fact that getting in is easy, but getting out takes a spell cast at 500th level power within about a foot of where you entered, or 1,000th level if you were banished. Alternatively, you can go find the dimensional causeway exit. (Spoiler: It's heavily guarded!)

There are also rules for creating random dimensions! I will roll one up to demonstrate.

A roll of 57 on table 110, "Number of Powers That Work In A Dimension", indicates that one power is canceled! A roll of 5 on Table 111 indicates that it is Alchemy! Our adventurers come out in a system with a, roll of 10 on Table 112, Star Size, extra-Large, 100,000,000 to 1,000,000,000 mile diameter star, a roll of 4 on table 113 indicates it is white. Checking table 114, this indicates that becuase we have an Extra Large White Star, two powers are doubled and all others are normal. Two rolls on Table 115 indicates that the powers that work better are 7, Technology, and 1, Magic!

There are 40 categories on the table, 5 size categories by 8 colors. (Did you know stars can be black?)

Next time, I attempt to puzzle out combat! You are probably only going to be interested in the endless list of saving throw categories.

Combat

posted by Zereth Original SA post

Did somebody order some World of Synnibarr ? No? Well you're getting it anyway

Last time, I promised I would puzzle out combat! This is, specifically, combat with hand to hand and normal weapons. If you're using spells or special abilities, you are referred to Chapter 9. Doing shit underwater and in other weird environments is in chapter 12, and "other chapters" cover space combat or combat in the Psychic Plane. (Which I think is not the Astral plane.)

The game helpfully provides a combat sequence! It is 1: Init roll and state attack or action, 2: to-hit roll, 3: victim's response (dodge or whatever), 4: Determine results if they didn't dodge, 5: Saving throw (if they didn't dodge), 6: "heroic Attempts (optional)", and 7: "God Roll (when all else fails)".


First, you roll for init, and if you win, you go on the first turn segment, even if you don't have enough actions to act on it normally. If you tie, you roll again to see which one of you goes first on that init. If THAT ties, you roll again, and if THAT ties you go at exactly the same time. You then proceed down the attack segments (12 in all), and then resolve the actions of combatants who have actions on that segment (determined entirely by your number of attacks per turn) in init order.

There are also options for rolling init for large batches of combatants: You roll a d%, and then that percent act on the init you roll next. Repeat until you cover all of them (if you go over 100% you stop and only however many it takes to make up 100% have that init).

You may notice that, if you don't get the highest roll, this is not particularly important!

Next, you wait until it's your action, and then you choose what you're doing, probably attacking something! You roll a d% to hit, add your assorted shot bonuses (up to +100%), and automatically fail on a 5 or less and the victim can't dodge, only block, Natural 100, and they can't block either, and if you do more than 1% of their HP they have to save vs dying!

There are modifiers for range and things moving fast relative to you. Actually, no, faster or slower than you, so if you are moving at 300 MPH, it's easier to hit if it's moving at 300MPH perpendicular to you, I guess.

In order to hit, you need to roll over 30% for "Normal Hand-toHand", 40% for ranged, 100%+ called shots on things less than 10% of the target's full size (assuming human targets), and 150%+ against things 1% or less (no qualifiers listed). If you go for a called shot, you miss entirely. If you roll 100-149 after modifiers, you do double damage, and 15-200, triple! But not if you were making a called or pinpoint shot.

The GM can, at his option, make you roll (something, it's not specified) to see where a missed shot goes.

There are also options for if you're waiting for somebody to show up to shoot them, or if you're using multiple limbs, or whatever, but who cares.


Next, your response! You may Dodge, Block, or Counterattack. Or... disarm, judo throw a guy, or just go "pff whatever" and get hit.

Dodging, you roll d% under your Dodge (or Beam Attack Dodge or Wide Beam Attack Dodge as relevant), and if you succeed, you don't get hit! You get to move a little when you do this, and you are allowed to use a defenseive response even if the attack missed, letting you move around a little, or disarm people or counterattack without risk!

Blocking works the same, except it has higher % ratings, and you just interpose something which then gets hit itself.

Disarming and Throwing are only relevant if you have specific skills, and are irritatingly complicated so I'm not covering them.

Counterattacking is... Odd. You can only do it if you have an attack action to use on the segment you got hit in. You need to roll your Dodge% chance, but then instead of a dodge, you roll a d10 against the person attacking you, and if you lose you get hit without chance to dodge or block or anything. If you succeed, you get to attack them instead! And then they get to choose their defensive option, and yes, coutnerattacking is on the table. You can't counter a third time, though.

... What happens to the original attack is... not clear.


Now, assuming you have hit, you determine damage, based on your weapon's damage dice, your strength adjustment, how fast you were going, if you rolled well enough for double or triple damage.

Then, it is time for your victim's saving throw! Which they always get. Against everything. There is a big goddamn list of categories. Usually this means nothing happens, but it depends on the exact category.

Next comes "Heroic Attempts", which is jumping in front of the bullet for somebody else. Although you can do other things as well, depending on what your GM lets you do. This is worth XP based on the level of the guy you're saving, in fact! But only if htey otherwise would have died. If you die while doing this, your next character gets +2 to all his stats! (But this doesn't count for determining if you're an Immortal Born, you have to get natural 20s for that.)

Finally, the God Roll. If all else has failed you, and you're about to die... You get to roll a d%, tryign to roll under the number of levels you've faithfully worshiped your current god divided by 2, plus 5%! If successful, you're fine! You need to worship a god for this or you instead get a random chance of becoming a ghost.

Those of you who remember the god rules may recall it does not give you any actual ability to sense that your worshipers are in danger or assist them!

There is then some shit about surprise (Class AA, A, B, and C in descending order of how likely you are to be surprised by something), and then it is time for FATE ROLLS! Or, as I will be referring to them throughout, saving throws, because that's pretty much what they are.

First, it tells you how to determine your base fate rolls! Magic, Earthpower, Psionics, Alchemy, Chi, Mutations, Poisons, Chemicals, and Disease were covered during chargen. Everything else is 10% unless the category says otherwise, and rises by 1% per level unless otherwise stated, to a maximum of 55% for mortals.

You also modify the saving throws of your victims based on your level, specifically subtracting half your level, even if they're higher level. You can't bring them under base, though.

And the CATEGORIES!

Antimatter is a flat 10% and never rises, and either means you are missed (if it is a small projectile), or take 10% damage (if an area effect).

Bone Breaking and Crushing is 10% + 1% per level, and indicates you take 1% of the damage and do not get your bones broken!

Cold is 10%, and does not specify that it does NOT go up, but doesn't specify that it DOES. If you succeed, you take 1% damage if applicable, and presumably avoid being frozen solid or whatever.

Concentration Break is your Psychic Shock%, and is rolled when somebody tries to distract you from casting a spell.

Curse is used against one specific spell and similar abilities (but not the spell Ravashem Curse, as it specifies), and is 5% + 1% per level. If you succeed, no effect.

Death Spells has you use the saving throw category of the spell, and if you fail, you then roll Metabolic Shock, and if that fails, you die. If it succeeds, you fall into a coma for 48 hours.

Disease, Poison, Chemicals, and Gases are your Constitution + 10%, and the base is 10%. They never go up unless your Constitution does, even if you become a demigod or whatever. Sucess means no effects.

Energy Weapons, Radiation, Electricity, and Lasers is 10% plus 1% per level, and for normal or narrow-beam attacks, indicates a miss. On wide beam, wave, or area, it's 1% of the damage. Electricity means you also have to roll metabolic shock to not pass out.

Radiation gets some extra rules: If you succeed, you then save vs Disease, and if you fail, you catch radiation sickness, only curable by the rare blood of a scarlet drake or hydra! Or, you know, a restoration-type spell. Radiation sickness does 10% of your HP when you catch it and another 10% every 24 hours. After five days, your powers are nullified, and after 10 days you're dead, even if your buddies have been keeping your HP topped off with spells, I guess.

Fear does not specify, so it has 10% plus probably 1% per level, and indicates you do not feel fear for the next 6 hours. We are referred to chapter 12 for more information on fear.

God Power For mortals, it's 5% and doesn't rise, and indicates no effect. For gods, it is not specified.

Gravity and Time are apparently the only goddamn thing in the fucking game which you don't get saving throws against. You have to use more gravity or time to block it instead, depending on which you were attacked with.

Heat, Incineration, Fire, or Acid are 10%, with raises not specified either way, and indicates you take 1% damage, and if that's more than 25% of your HP you need to roll metabolic shock or fall unconscious. If you're Incinerated, you may lose a body part even if you succeed based on Hit Locations in Chapter 12.

Illusions is Psychic Shock% or Ego%, plus or minus any modifiers the GM feels like throwing in. If you succeed, you recognize it as an illusion, but in Synnibarr many illusions come with actual physical telekinesis based elements so it can continue beating your shit in anyway.

Materializing in a Solid Object okay, THREE things you don't get saves against. You can only survive if you aren't all the way inside, or if you are also immaterial when you materialize. Somehow.

Metabolic Shock is used for all kinds of shit, as we keep finding.

Miscellaneous Fate , AKA, "anything which is 10% plus 1% per level".

Nullification is 10%, flat, never rises. Success means you aren't nullified.

Phazed Attacks is another Misc Fate scaling thing, which is a special type of energy, the nature of which is not specified here. Or anywhere, I think. Sucess means no effect.

Physical . Yes. Yes, you can save against GETTING HIT BY A SWORD. Or wind. Wind. You take 1% damage.

Pure Psionics or Midnight Sunstone Energy , which I think are different names for the same thing but don't feel like checking. It's 10%, never changes, and if you succeed, it doesn't do shit to you.

Severing or Blindness and Deafness gives you 1% damage and you're not actually blinded, deafened, or severed. Also, some rules about deafness affecting surprise rolls is shoved in here.

Sound is labeled as physical in the Physical section, but gets its own section! First, you roll Physical for the damage, and then if you take more than 25% of your HP, OR fail, you roll Metabolic Shock or fall unconscious. Sometimes this is mentioned in the sound spell/attack, sometimes not! You go to sleep for 1d6 minutes unless the attack description says otherwise.

Spells - The Powers is that Magic, Earthpower, etc list. Successful saving throw means it has no effect unless the power/spell says otherwise.

Thrown or Missile Weapons is like Physical, only for projectile attacks instead. If you succeed, you get missed.

Venderant Nalaberong is flat 10%, for everybody, all the time, anywhere, even Gods! Success means no effect.


Well! Next time, I skim the seciton of special rules for using spells and powers and shit!

Magic & Shit

posted by Zereth Original SA post

World of Synnibarr, Part Whatever : Magic And Shit

So, as you may have noticed, special abilities run off Con! You have a number of Con points equal to your Con score, which goes up to 20 for mortals. The book says you have toe carefully track this shit.

Also, using them means you're getting a little weaker. In fact, if you get down to 4 points, you have to make a "Metabolic shock roll of 18%", apparently ignoring your usual Metabolic Shock score, or fall unconscious! Or not... You know what, I'll just leave you the book's text on the subject.


... Yeah.

Anyway, you get them all back when you sleep (or meditate if applicable), but you have to have eaten at least 10% of your body weight in food during the day. That... seems a bit high to me.

Psi points are tracked separately, and if they go under 0, they have to save vs passing out, and losing psi completely (no duration stated). If they suceed, they take a small amount of damage, have a headache, and need to get three nights of rest and not use any psi powers until then to recover, and using psi powers again during this time if you somehow get some more psi points means you just have to start rolling saves again.

You can get mutations installed through genetic engineering if you have the cash! This does not give you Mutant class abilities (getting discounts on constitution cost for them, mainly) though, and can spend extra points to crank shit up by some rules, who cares.


If you're a spellcaster, you also have Spell Memorization Units, which are kinda like spell slots. A Level X spell takes up X SMUs, and you get an amount based on your practitioner category (Pure, Partial, or Minor). If you're a practitioner in multiple types, you don't get separate Magic and Earthpower or Psionics and Venderant Nalaberong SMU stacks, you've just got the amount for your best category. (if you learn Venderant Nalaberong, it's at one category higher than your current best, max of Pure.) Memorizing a spell takes 5 minutes per level (so, 4 hours and 10 minutes for a level 50 spell), while forgetting a spell is instant. Once a spell is memorized, you can cast it as long as your Constitution/Psi points hold out.

Pure practitioners get 7 SMUs per level up to a max of 350, Partial get 5 and max at 250, and Minor get 3 and max at 150. You also get 1 SMU per point of Int or Wisdom (whichever is relevant to your spellcasting school) over 19.



Actual casting requires your hands free except for a "Staff or wand", an that you are not wearing armor with more than a -10% dodge penalty (which is, according to the armor charts in Chapter 3, literally everything except a Sunstone Grizzly skin ) , and not have your hands tied up or whatever. Unless you're using psi, in which case whatever it's all mental who cares.

If you want to control more than one spell at a time, you have to be 5th level, which lets you do two, or 10th level, which lets you do three of total levels equal to or less than your caster level. This is introduced with the concept of casting several attack spells in a round, but that would seem to be casting a spell, letting it finish, and then casting another one and so not covered under these rules. However, if you're 5th level and maintaining two spells like this, you can't cast a third, I guess? Also anything requiring complete or total concentration isn't fucking kidding: You can't do much more than walk, or dodge IF you make a psychic shock roll.

Then we get into tedious bullshit I don't care about so the chapter is over!

And now, I will end this update with a single entry from the monsters chapter.

Bear, comma, Polar: Polar bears are immune to Chi and Alchemy, 75% resistant to Magic and Earthpower, and six times per day can engulf their claws in chi energy, and also can cast the Tunnel spell, again six times per day. They weigh 1500 to 2000 pounds, stand 10-16 feet tall, and can run at up to 40 MPH. They have a high init bonus, and are worth 3 Gaming Points.

Next Time: Engineering!

Engineering

posted by Zereth Original SA post

World of Synnibarr, Part R&D For Fun And Profit: Engineering!

By which the game means "making new shit". Making an existing type of gun is a Blacksmithing task (or Tailoring ), while making a new type of gun is an Engineering: Mechanical, Aquanautics, and Aeronautics task.

Yes, that's all one category and if you're good at any one you're equally good at others.

You learn an Engineering discipline either for free by being a 20th level Alchemist, or by shelling out what is usually a rather large amount of skill points (Most categories are 50 points, with a couple being 20 and the aforementioned Mechanical/Airplanes/Watercraft being a whopping 70). They all also have many prerequisite skills! Alchemists get these for free too, but anybody else has to get them the normal way.

At this point I feel I should remind you that most PCs get 5 skill points per level, while some classes don't get any until later. You can use the "do stuff without having a skill successfully" method to learn engineering, but it takes quite a bit of time and that tanks your skill chance. A lot, becuase these are in the advanced skill category which gives you only 10% of the listed chance, instead of 50%.

Oh, and you'll need to raise your Engineering Level to be able to make anything good or do shit with any rate of success! This costs another 10 points per level (8 for AI, Electronics, and Mechanics), so you can get another Engineering Level every other character level!

The process for actually doing this is to first, write down the full details of what you want to make and show it to your GM! You then roll to see if you developed plans properly. The base chance is 20% plus half your Ego score, and minimum Ego to become an engineer is 30. So, let's assume 35% chance. This goes up by 1% per level, presumably Engineering level in the field.

You then need to roll again to actually produce the item or spell, although you take (number of levels you are higher than the requirement)% less time to do it if you're higher level Given that they go up to 20, this means for the lamest shit you can get up to doing things in only 81% of the time! Specifically, it takes 1 year, plus 1 week per engineering level required to make the thing in the first place for physical things, or one year plus one week per combined spell levels of what you're mashing together.

Oh yeah, did I mention that? You want to make something BETTER than what's already listed, rather than just having more bells and whistles? Well, fuck you. You can just smash existing spells together, or make weapons up to, but not better than, existing weapons. You also need to know the spells you're mashing together or "have samples or plans" to study for physical things.

So, the categories!

Physical is divided into:
Mechanical, Aquanautics, and Aeronautics!
First Level skill in this field will let you make among other things steam engines, aqualungs, pit traps, gears, pumps, "basic vehicles of any sort", and semi-automatic firearms (not including the propellant, that's a different field).
Fifth Level will let you make hydraulics, basic submarines, small planes, "specialized hydrogen engines", oxygen generators, jet packs, fully automatic guns, and underwater habitats.
Tenth lets you make flying submarines, jets, "hydraulic engines capable of 60,000 horsepower" (source of pressure to drive it not mentioned), "magnamuscles for power armor (able to lift 10 times the wearer's strength), spacesuits, and large underwater habitats.
Twentieth level lets you make flying bathyspheres (which Wikipedia indicates is a type of unpowered submersible lowered in by crane, so I'm not clear why this is higher level than a flying submarine), "any form of power generators", magnetic mass drivers, "environmental systems", and matter-antimatter production/space drives.

Chemistry, Medicine, Biochemistry, and Mutations lets you make drugs and shit!
First Level lets you make temporary strength-boost stuff, poison or antidotes for up to 10th level poison, truth serum, love potion, DMSO agents for contact poisons and such, and up to Class 2 explosives.
Fifth level lets you make Class 3 explosives, synthetic Blue Rain bombs (which a trip to the provisions chapter indicates is "a frag grenade"), combine lesser mutations, and "create almost any of the chemicals, including 20th-level poisons and and antidotes".
Tenth level lets you make Class V explosives, combine master mutations, do any sort of transplant including the brain, "cure any disease curable by medical means", and 30th level poisons/antidotes!
Twentieth level lets you make Class V explosives, combine minor elements of major mutations, duplicate any chemical you fucking want, make clones, reanimate the dead, "chemically duplicate or augment memory", create creatures, and produce a chemical form of Alchemist Ambrosia.

This comes with some actual rules! Smashing 4 lesser mutations together gets you a Master mutation for category purposes (but as I remember the lists, it'll be pretty lame), and two Masters plus one Lesser gets you a Major. One Major plus one Lesser equals a "Souped-up Major", which still counts as a Major except you can't combine more shit with it. You may also be able to copy mutation-based shit from monsters that isn't on the Mutation list!

Actually doing anything with the mutation stuff requires some really expensive shit, but the Alchemist guild probably has some of the non-consumed stuff you can use if you're a member. Firsty ou need a 20 foot high, 20 foot in diameter glass vat. The price of the "Nutralux" you fill the vat with is already included in the pricing in the mutation lists. ($20 million worth, and the cheapest mutations you can get are $25 million.) You then need a DNA Code Transmitter, or DCT, on top of the vat, which you type the DNA code shit into or something, and then you shove the experimental subject into the bacta tank Vat and stick the DCT in and "fire" it. Hooray, you're done!

Electronics and Microelectronics!
First level lets you make radios, tape recorders, calculators, crude radars (more advanced radars are not listed anywhere so I guess that's the only type of radar on Synnibarr), laser guns, "remote control systems", electric motors, and "generators". Not, you know, any specific type. Just generators.
Fifth level lets you make robotic systems and artificial limbs (with a mechanical engineer's help), simple computers (with an AI guy's help), hologram projectors/receivers/recorders, motion sensors, portable spectral analyzers, electron microscopes, "laser sonic weapons and laser sabers", antigravity and gravity bottles for power storage, and stabilized superconductors.
Tenth lets you make force fields, bionics (except for limbs I guess since they're listed earlier), cybernetics (I'm... not sure how this is supposed to be different from bionics), "gravity drive systems for high-speed vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft" but I guess not for other things, advanced computer systems (AI engineer requirement not listed this time), and a DCT.
Twentieth level lets you make phazed weapon systems (no, the book never really defines what "phazed" means ), compact multifunction weapons (such as a hand blaster which can shoot lasers OR a phazed chemical blast and now I am even less sure of what "phazed" means), stardrives (apparently interstellar travel is possible by purely electronic means) and navigation systems, and "matter conversion devices".

This is where that "no better weapons" bit comes in, and also you can't make nukes, becuase fiddling with the fissile materials will fucking kill you . Fortunately they also don't naturally exist on Synnibarr.

The idea of making a fusion weapon using some of the various other crazy shit you can get on Synnibarr without starting the reaction with some fission does not seem to have occurred to McCracken, so it is not addressed.

It also specified you can't make anything that's better in damage-to-size or damage-to-energy-consumption than existing weapons, and gives making a laser saber that runs off "penlight batteries" (which are, I remind you, no present on Synnibarr) or a blaster that does 1 million LPD per hit for 1 EG. So I guess maybe this is referring specifically to energy weapons, which would be good becuase Synnibarr's guns are pretty weaksauce.

Organic Electronics! This opens with a note that you'll need an AI dude to make "any type of thinking computer", which I'll get to in the AI section, and if you want it to make spells or shit you need to also know that category or at least have a dude who knows it to help.
First level lets you make anything up to 10th level normal electronics, only it's ~Organic~! So, assuming you meet the rather longer list of prerequisite skills and are okay with spending 2 more skill points per level (to get the same shit much faster), this is straight up better than normal electronics unless you need to use it in places Organic Electronics doesn't work.
Fifth level lets you make 20th level normal electronic things! It doesn't say "11th through 20th" like first does for 1-10, but that's okay becuase as you may have noticed, 1st, 5th, 10th, and 20th are the only important levels in engineering! Ever!
Tenth lets you make androids, matter transmitters, "port drive systems", and devices to generate magic, mutation, and psionic powers!
Twentieth lets you make Pure Psionic generators, "artificial life force storage devices", and the ability to duplicate any form of technology, alien or otherwise. Except BSCs. You need 9 other guys who also know Organic Electronics Engineering to do that, becuase

Artifical Intelligence! By which McCracken means "computer programming".
First level lets you make programs to run life support systems, do math, make autopilots, and "power-feed programs for energy weapons". Because you can't do that in hardware, I guess.
Fifth lets you make programs "to respond to voice or thought command (cybernetics), and also do simple problem solving. So I guess this s where you get rudimentary actual AI.
Tenth lets you program Organic Electronic systems, power control for stardrives, "navacoms", and power armor control shit.
Twentieth level lets you program supercomputers to perform complex problem solving, and also programs for "matter transmission and conversion", and "any higher electronic systems".

That's it for the Physical Engineering Disciplines! Now for the nonphysical!

Magic, Psionics, Earthpower, Alchemy, Chi, or Mutations!
All of these are the same.
First level lets you mash together spells or abilities of first through fourth
level.
Fifth lets you do 5-15.
Tenth lets you do 20-30th. (I don't think there are any spells or abilities of 14-19th level, so this is not as odd a gap as it seems.)
Twentieth lets you do 40th-50th level shit.

There is then some tedious bullshit about exactly what ways you're allowed to modify shit, mostly "add everything together".

So that's Engineering! All of it. Guidelines for doing things which aren't related to spells, mutations, or other magical special abilities other than vague categories? Ha ha, fuck you! You and your GM get to scratch your head over your proposed flying submarine plans and shrug at each other for how much it should cost and shit.

And now, your Monster Of The Day: Boar, Giant.
Giant boars are "2 tons of ornery pig with nothing to do", an stand 5 feet tall and are 8 feet long. They have brown fur with a white stripe on the back, and "a face that not even their mothers could call endearing". They are omnivorous (and thus tasty), travel in large groups, and fight primarily using their alchemy-based poison stinger, and have 3 10th of damage reduction. I'm not sure WHY they fight with the stinger as their single horn does quite a bit more damage, although their 25th level poison is quite nasty.

Next time: Gaming Situations (aka "Random Shit I Thought Needed Rules") and "Time and Movement", which are bother rather boring so I will be going light on them.

Charts

posted by Zereth Original SA post

It's time for
More World of Synnibarr, Part Charts !

The next chapter is "Gaming Situations", meaning... stuff. Just random stuff.

For example, it opens with the rules for determining how throwing things work! You see, you-Actually, let's just look at the chart.


The * leads to a footnote that this is a percent of the character's weight limit, but that was cut off in the PDF I have. You may also notice that this chart is, um. A very simple formula. But god damn it, we need some fucking charts.

The speed is particularly important, becuase impact damage is determined by using the speed the impacting object is traveling at in MPH, then converting that into a strength score, checking the damage adjustment for that strength, and then applying that to the object's weight in pounds! Elasticity of the thing you hit is not mentioned.

And there's a handy chart for falling objects! Simply check how long, or how far you've fallen, and find out how fast you're going when you hit!

Which seems to indicate that Synnibarr does not have earth-normal gravity, based on some search engine time. (The figures I got were ~31 MPH after falling 32 feet. Feel free to correct my stolen math.) Yet just over this it lists 120 mph as approximate human terminal velocity "in a free-fall position", which agrees with my googling. EDIT: The seconds fallen to speed appear to match up (thanks Ettin), but then the distance doesn't.

There are also rules for jumping on people like you were Mario (assuming you are sufficiently larger than your target: Dwarfs can't stomp Giants, and this is the entirety of the guidelines we are given), rules for running really fast at somebody and punching them (add the speed-based damage adjustment for your speed to your strength adjustment).

And then, rules for fighting with heavy things! First, heavier weapons do more damage! Second, if you are carrying more than 5% of your maximum load (maximum load for average rolled strength of roughly 14: 130 pounds, so 6.5 pounds) you lose 1% off your block score for each 1% (so 1.3 pounds) over that you are! But not dodge. Just block. Also, your number of attacks is reduced by 1% per every percent of your weight limit carried. So if our Strength 14 guy is carrying, say, 32.5 pounds of equipment, a conservative estimate for an adventurer with gear, he's down a full quarter of his attacks per round. We are also referred to chapter 13 for more information on Payload Hindrance.

People without crazy high Strength just get fucked even more, I guess.

There are also rules for determining how hard you can breathe at people. First, you divide your wight limit by 800, then square that, and then multiply this figure by 1.17! This is the pounds of force exerted by you breathing out really hard. If you want to figure out how far you can move people by breathing on them, you just go to the impact distance rules, and input your weight limit or pounds of force (pounds in this case), divide by the target's weight, square that, and then divide by 315. 02 to determine how many feet you pushed the thing!

There are also rules for how long you get deafened by explosions, which take into account if you're in an enclosed area or not, but not anything else whatsoever, including being invulnerable, rules for breaking objects (refer to the material tables, and add 25% if you want to actually rip it rather than just bend it), fighting invisible things, shooting guys with automatic weapons (not in the combat chapter becuase uh), fighting at super-speed (if you get more than 9 attacks per round you're classed as a beam attack for dodge purposes), fighting underwater, while flying, mounted on animals, and driving vehicles.

We then get rules on how armor and shit works. I think I've covered all this, but it should be noted that, yes, armor takes damage from getting hit. Full damage. The example is a Ninja, wearing some brand new pelleum steel chain mail, whose 1.3 million life points is only enough to protect him against 1.5 hits from a Giant with a bigass sword, after which he gets pasted.

After tracking, fear, and insanity rules, we get rules on taking to objects (they're dumb and can't remember things for that long), plants (can't see very far, but if you roll a favorable reaction they'll talk your ear off becuase they "so seldom get conversation"), and animals (have excellent memories).

Oh. Oh man. DISEASES. It says that there are "a few" diseases which can't be treated with normal spells or alchemical creations, which I assume is the list given here.

One of which is the common cold . Yep. Seriously. Can't magic away a cold .

We then get "Kuru", aka "The Laughing Death", which is basically Joker Gas that makes you go berserk too. Only contagious. You catch it by either eating the rotten brain of an intelligent creature, or it's transmitted like a cold is. It can only be cured by the Amazon's Golden Hand ability by somebody with God Power, or the juice of a "phazed dart bush root", less than an hour after being picked, administered in 1 cup doses every half hour for 10 hours. This gives you a 40% chance of survival! Or you can just isolate the guy, wait for them to die, and resurrect them afterwards.

Fire Plague is caught by breathing the breath of somebody with it, or the fumes from a "rotting phazed plague beast within 100 feet". You literally burst into flames. But only if you have caprenium in your blood, us normal humans aren't affected (but can transmit it). Only treatment is to pack the victim in ice until it's over, and it'll melt quickly. ONLY ICE. Other methods of keeping the victim cool are not useful.

The Read Death covers you in blood blisters (including in your eyes ) which if ruptured will have you bleed to death in 15 minutes. You catch it by touching an infected being, with a 25% chance you'll instead just be a carrier. A Venderant Nalaberong or God Power healing effect can cure it, otherwise a poultice of armor oil and egg yolk will keep the blisters down enough to give you a 65% chance of survival.

Swamp Flu makes you shake, vomit, and weak, and if you use your powers in "any way" you pass out for 1d4 hours and have a 30% chance of straight up dying. You catch it in swamps. No cure, treatment is "warm compresses through which the victim breathes". If you rest, don't use your powers, and get this, there's a 50% chance of survival!

And then life points. There are optional rules for moving slower based on how hurt you are, and for damage per hit locations! Because you wanted more charts, right?

.... Yyyyyeah.

So, moving on. The next chapter is Time & Movement , and... well. Have another chart.


It also contains Payload Hindrance, which reduces your dodge by 1% per every 1% over 25% of your weight limit you're carrying. So carrying heavy things reduces your ability to move out of the way entirely less than your ability to put something you're holding in the way of the attack.

You know what, this is a stupid chapter. Let's move on to...

The Psychic Plane! In the psychic plane, you're a Dream Warrior, which has statistics largely unrelated to your normal stats, and a separate level. I'm not sure why you're supposed to care, except maybe giving people therapy by beating up their neuroses. You know what, this chapter is stupid too. We're done here.

Next Time, we cover Chapter 15: Adventuring , when things go back to interestingly crazy for at least a few moments.

Adventuring

posted by Zereth Original SA post

Make a Synnibarr character!

Speaking of which.

World of Synnibarr, Part NO HOUSERULING , or, Hide and Seek: The Path to Power: Adventuring!

The chapter opens with mentioning that there is always a damsel in distress or a village under attack by monsters. So, remember, on Synnibarr, at least one of these is always happening, no matter what . This may seem an odd assertion, but I'll be getting into why in a moment.

After some basic advice ("be sure to buy supplies you'll need in case things go wrong, and maybe you can use your powers in ways other than the blatantly obvious?"), we get into information on how the GM, or Fate, is supposed to run things!

In the form of a 13-point list covering almost 2/3rds of a page. Which I will mostly paraphrase here, with the occasional direct quote when I feel I need to prove I'm not making this shit up.

1. The GM is allowed to use the book as reference, but PCs need permission. And if the text doesn't explicitly state that it is possible, it's only so with the GM's approval, and that ruling applies "only within the context of that particular game or adventure and no other". So the GM can change his mind later if he wants, no whining.
2. The GM is not allowed to alter anything except random encounters about an adventure one it's started. Unless, and only unless, the players have not revealed all the details about their special abilities/weapons/whatever, "particularly engineered effects". I'm not sure how players are supposed to get things without the GM being aware of their powers. Anyway, you can call out the GM (but not during the actual game) on changing shit around mid-stream, in which case he has to reveal his notes to prove he did.
3. Roll your dice in public.
4. Players have to say what they're doing before rolling dice, including targeting and shit.
5. You aren't allowed to switch out your character in the middle of an adventure. Implying you are at other times.
6. No takebacks. If you say you did something stupid, you did it, and the fact that your PC who is much more familiar with the world would have to be incredibly stupid to actually proceed doesn't have anything to do with it.
7. If the GM asks you a question about your character, you have to answer.
8. Oh man. This is the big one. Ahem. "Fate has absolute control during the game regarding rolls and interpretation of the rules. Fate may not, however, deviate from the rules as they are written " Yes. Yes, you aren't allowed to house rule things. Moving on... "for if he or she does and the players find out, then the adventure can be declared null, and the characters must be restored to their original condition, as they were before the game began." However, if you pull this too often, the GM can overrule this, but watch out, your players might just quit.
9. Also, if you call out the GM on a rules issue, and it turns out the player is :absolutely correct", they get double XP for the adventure. Or take an XP penalty if they're wrong. Or, if you think you're being treated unfairly, you can just pull your character out of the adventure and restore from backup from before it started, and then you have to work shit out with the GM.
10. If you want to use OOC knowledge, you have to make an ego roll. Too bad there aren't any rules for ego rolls, which given rule 8 means you can't make them ever! This and Venderant Nalaberong are the only references to ego rolls in the book I've ever been able to find. If you somehow overcome this minor stumbling block, you can then use the knowledge of the monster's statblock or whatever, but not powers, spells, or shit.
11. You gotta record all con/EG/psi point/etc expenditures accurately.
12. Don't throw shit at your PCs they can't theoretically handle unless they ask for it or decide to go poke a god with a stick or something.
13. Be careful, only hand out suitable amounts of treasure for the level of the PCs so they don't get too powerful. No, there's no guideline for this.

There's then some advice on making a campaign, with some really basic boring advice like "Maybe the guy in charge of the Terran Council can tell PCs where to find something to do with his magic crystal" or "don't forget you can mix in some sci-fi with the fantasy!"

Then there's some advice on high level adventurers, which is basically "don't forget you can totally fuck them up easily because you're the GM and have more or less absolute power".

And now I will use some tables to roll a random adventure.

The adventure types list is not a table, but it is numbered 1-8, so a roll of 5 gets us "Information Gathering or Spying", with a note to "roll guards", but that's done by rolling up random characters so fuck that.

It takes place in (1d10=3) the Enchanted Continent, where the weather is (1d6=5) Snowing (1d4=2) hard enough to bring visibility down to 5 miles, with (1d6=3) Medium wind factor for 3/4ths normal visibility.

Our heroes are spying on or gathering information from (1d6=5) a Cave, referring us to table 217 in chapter 13. Which is a table of random cover for caves. Well, the cave is (1d6=4) Medium: 4 rooms, with a 40% chance (13, yes) of 1d4 (3) secret rooms, for a total of 7 rooms. Which have random cover in them.

Anyway, in this cave complex, there are (1d4=1) 3-6(1d4+2=4) 4 traps, (1d4=3) 3-6 monsters (4), and (1d6=1) a 10% chance of one adventurer (14, no adventurers).

As there are no other adventurers, we don't roll treasure for them. If we did, we'd roll d100 for them, then another d100 for each of their levels above 1, and add that to the general treasure roll. (In extreme levels of wealth, they'll instead have a map to where their stash is.) This goes up to +40, and the table goes from 01 to 140. A d100 roll indicates 24, the lowest category, so the place has $1000-10,000 (1d10*1000 = $8,000) in coins and metal.

The table does not generate anything other than coins, metal,s gems, or fine metals until 111. You are also allowed to place shit that makes sense but if you were going to do that you wouldn't be running Synnibarr.

There is some extremely vague advice on traps and magical traps, after which we get to earning Gaming Points, aka XP.

This is divided into a number of types!

If you have a legit contract from the Assassin's Guild, you can get XP from performing an Assassination equal to 10 XP plus 1 point per level of the victim. Or 5 plus 1 if you were detected in the process. None if you're caught.

Assisting New Players gets you 0.1 to 5 XP for teaching the newbie the rules and shit, at the GM's discretion.

Avoiding or Chasing Off a monster gets you 10% of its XP per turn it required to do so.

Completing the Mission gets you 1 to 20 XP for not giving up or "struggling to have hope when "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" assail thee and fate turns its eyes away."

Computer Infiltration gets you 1 XP per defense program encountered and overcome. Nature or difficulty of these programs is not taken into account, nor is who owns the computer, so sit in your basement hacking a computer until you've got enough XP for level 50, it shouldn't take long.

Dying Heroically , whether you succeeded at saving the person you were trying to save or not (other methods of heroic deaths are not mentioned) gets you +2 to all your stats (which doesn't count for qualifying as an Immortal Born) and if you're using the classic chargen you can choose from all the classes instead of rolling three. If you commit suicide, instead, you get -1 to all stats and can only roll one choice. It is unclear if charging deliberately into overwhelming odds counts.

Evading Pursuit gets you between 1 and 6 XP based on the level of the pursuer (how is not stated) if you manage to hide after being spotted, and pursuit must last at least 3 minutes. Pursuer being hostile is not listed as a prerequisite, so those of you who can't hack should go play hide and seek instead.

Fair Killing ! Okay this one's kinda long. Straight up combat gets you the monster's listed XP value, or the level of an adventurer is used for their value. If they summon an elemental or something, you get 1/4ths the summoner's XP value for it becuase it can act independently. By the way, 1st level Gods are worth 110 XP.

Robots, droids, and "transmorphed objects" are worth 0.5 to 100 XP based on the Gm's decision which is supposed to be based on what it can do.

You only get 10% XP for ambushing somebody can killing them before they get to roll init, unless you're a Ninja, Amazon, Dwarf, or Psielf, becuase they're "assassin-type characters".

Assassin-types also get XP for stealing (2 XP plus the XP value of the oblivious victim, or 0.5+XP value of a knowledgeable victim) or picking pockets (1 XP plus halve the value of the victim when undetected), picking locks (0.1 XP), locating traps (0.1 XP), and avoiding or deactivating traps (0.25 XP). None of these require a hostile victim, so give your buddy a worthless thing and then practice pickpocketing on him, if you don't want to hack computers or play hide and seek.

Game Conduct, Staying in Character, and Nonaggressive Conflict is a mouthful of a category, and includes not being a dick to other players around the table, roleplaying, and "keeping heart when the going gets tough", as well as talking your way out of fights and shit. You get 1 to 20 partywide and 1 to 10 for a specific character per adventure, max.

Heroic Attempts are the combat maneuver of diving in front of the bullet. You get the person you're saving's level in XP, up to 20, but only if you actually saved them from dying.

Imprisoning an intelligent creature or wanted criminal gets you 3x their normal XP value. Just catching some random animal/mosnter doesn't count.

Raising Someone From the Dead gets the person responsible for the target coming back to life their level in XP. This is not always the person casting the spell, but how you determine who it is if that isn't the case is not stated.

Rescues are worth 1 XP to each member of the rescuing party, or 1/10th XP per victim saved for massive rescues divided among the party. Unless you're saving somethign like an entire planet, in which case the GM spits out an arbitrary value.

Subduing somebody nonlethally gets you double their XP value. So get those sleep spells!

Successful Communication with any creature without using the creature's native language, spells, or special abilities gets you 2 XP. So make up some hand signs and use them while playing Team Hide And Seek for extra massive XP gain! Or, if there were language rules, just have all the PCs learn the same language and talk in that all the time for shitloads of XP.

Next time: Random encounter tables!

Random Encounters

posted by Zereth Original SA post

World of Synnibarr, Part Tables Everywhere: Random Encounters!

So, Chapter 16: Random Encounters is... Entirely composed of random encounter tables, with a few brief scraps of explanatory text. But mostly just tables. Over and over.

This is completely uninteresting. So, part over! See you next time!









World of Synnibarr, Part Next Time: Chapter 17, Monsters!

So. Monsters! I'll just be listing random selections that are particularly interesting or odd.

The very first monster is the Aberiverim, which is a giant yellow hive-mind rat who can cast spells in groups of five or more. (Inflict Wounds and Invisible Defender, specificlly.) At a level equal to the number of Aberiverim working together to cast the spell, up to level 100! They are weak against psionic nullification/cancellation/whatever, I think those actually mean slightly differnt things in Synnibarr but fuck if I'm looking it up.

Alentiens are PSI SKELETONS. They look like a humanoid skeleton of 5 to 7 feet tall, and are made entirely out of psionic energy . Somehow. They're top-rank Psi spellcasters, and can engineer 1st level psi spells! Nullifying psi at them will kill them if cast at equal or higher level. ... For 24 hours, after which they're fine. And... I'm... not finding any reference to their effective level here. They can also use a psi-based Metamorph (cost or limit on use not mentioned) to look like normal people or something, and walk through physical barriers with no problem.

Alligators comma Giant grow up to 30 feet, weigh between 1000 and 2000 pounds, and fight either by grabbing things with their powerful jaws and dragging them under the water to drown, or by stabbing them with their alchemy-based tail barb.

Amoebas grow to 10 feet across and 2 tons, and are a giant single celled organism. They fight by either engulfing things and dissolving them with acid, or firing magical energy bolts at things, are immune to heat/fire, and absorb energy damage.

Antelopes are herd animals who don't attack unless provoked or frightened, and get around by making 40-foot (20 feet high) levitated jumps. Their hooves can be harvested to, when two are pressed together, make a weak antigravity field which can act as a parachute for up to 1000 pounds "at a range of 1 mile" whatever that means.

Apples comma Golden nullify powers when eaten, and the trees produce hypnotic fumes which compel people to do this if they fail a couple of saves. On the upside, the trees draw gold out of the soil, can you can 90% of the time find $1000 to $4000 worth of nuggets around its roots.

Apples comma Silver will, after eating one, provide all the food and drink you need for the next 24 hours.

Armapines are basically a cross between an armadillo and a porcupine. Armapine meat is delicious, and dried armapine meat eaten with bread will mean you don't need to eat for up to 3 days. They dig holes to hide in and fire their poison quills at prey, although they're shy except when hungry. They also have a diamond-shaped mark on their head which they can fire the psi spell Intellect Annihilation out of six times per day.

Banshees are ghost- like creatures that have a few sound-based abilities, and haunt areas that have treasure. Or are bound there as guards, willingly or unwillingly, but they're nasty and will attack adventurers even if stuck there. However, only large "treasurers" are acceptable for haunting.

Bats... huh. They don't have any attack except "Being disease carriers". And it just makes the victim lose 50% constitution for 7 days, unless cured with the juice of silver apples or any heal disease ability. Where's the laser eyes or alchemy stingers or shit? Are you okay, Synnibarr?

Bears comma Giant Panda are 24 to 30 feet tall, weight 10 to 14 tons, can sense auras and life forms in a 1000 foot range, and are gentle and speak "the human tounge" and are often helpful. They are mortal enemies of the midnight sunstone grizzlies. I guess the bats was a fluke.

Bears comma Giant Sea Polar swim in the seas, have one master mutation, can turn invisible for six hours once per day, and can use a telekinetic bear hug when standing up three times per day.

Bears comma Sea are smaller than Giant Polar ones, and have the lesser mutation Eternal Sustenance and can shoot earthpower Blue Bolts out of their eyes, and have poison claws. They can also use the Circle of protection spell defensively.

Bendra'katar are an alien race who have a few things about them, but their main notable feature is spreading a virus that infects people and then makes them susceptible to telepathic control by the Bendra'katar. Even if they were immune to psionics before. They have a high opinion of themselves because of this.

Berries comma Crystal- are "the fastest propagating thing on Synnibarr", growing up to 2 feet per day in the summer. They're kinda like grapes, only with crystal clear skins. which are thick, so instead of spoiling, they make wine out of themselves on their own.

Bulls, comma, Port are bulls, with wings and the ability to teleport 100 yards. Their meat is the best tasting around (despite the armapine claiming that earlier) and they're pretty dumb, so without the flight and teleport ability they'd probably have all been killed off by now.

Clams comma Giant Mutant Fire are "the best tasting shellfish", and are also the source of fire pearls! Which you may remember as the material used in the "get enough HP from an implanted dagger to cap out the HP limit for gods " trick. They defend themselves by shooting Alchemist Star Bolts and with the Starfire Shield and a Starfire burst.

Cobras comma Winged are 25 feet long, weigh 50 to 200 pounds, and are 5th level dream warriors, and are intelligent. They fly using a levitation ability, and use the small pigeonlike wings on the back of their hood to help control themselves in flight. Half of them can use first through third level Mage Warrior spells in Venderant Nalaberong, but they have to learn these the old-fashioned way rather than getting them genetically. They can also shrink, and their religion encourages them to hate everything from outside the Center of the World.

Crab People are crab people. They're not particularly intelligent, but they use primitive tools made out of scavenged material, and have recently been observed showing more organization than previously. They breathe water through their gills (I thought crustaceans didn't have gills?), and 10% of them have a master mutation.

Cragons are dumb, like most god-related things in Synnibarr.

Crocodiles comma Giant are remarkably similar to Giant Alligators, except they have more dangerous attacks and psi spit instead of a barbed tail.

Crocopedes are "centipedes with the head of a crocodile and batlike wings". And eyestalks. And a poison sting. They are "one of the few living thigns that kill for fun".

Deers comma Flying are deer with wings and... huh ,that's it. Odd.


Okay, I think that's enough for now. Tune in next time for More Monsters!