It's that time of year, again, where I reread Neuromancer. Which means I'm back on my shit.
I started this months ago and originally intended it to be a Shadowrun mod for CyberGLoG, however, in delaying, I have missed goblinization day. Would've been perfect. But it's gone now, so forget it. Instead I'm switching to an even more popular setting: Bright. (Hell, I think I've now missed THAT date. I refuse to look.)
Only thing is, I remember very little about the world (there's a walrus-man, maybe?) and I refuse to rewatch it. Also, most people bring some sort of baggage to any IP, no matter how close to the source material. So, as with most things in life, I'm making shit up.
(Edit, Sept 28: Grimlucis has dubbed the setting "GoblinBright." This will be stolen in future usage.)
Metatypes
In Shadowrun Bright, if you wanna play a metahuman (them's your demihumans), you gotta spend character creation points to pick up the metatype. Well, there ain't no points here. In the GLoG you're human unless you take another species template at level 1. Here's no different. Below is the Bane and Bonus gained from the racial Template A.
You may notice the flavoring is different here. That's 'cause the only difference between Human and Metatype in Shadowrun Bright is some stat bonuses and the occasional ability to see in the dark. Not exactly thrilling stuff. Yes, yes, in the grand scheme of the corporate machines we're all the same; human, elf, dwarf - all just drones to turn a profit for the CEOs. But there's also blood magic, and Chicago has been nuked, so you might as well spruce things up a bit.
Though, if you want to use the ability bonuses and boring sight modifiers, I can't stop you. Only judge.
Elves
You're a member of a lesser Physical offshoot of the race that constantly sings reality into existence. You were born and have lived your entire life in the Physical, and are probably doomed to become a corporate cog. Some of you have set up shop in British Columbia, screaming about Tir Na nOg and full ascension into the True world - but those are just fever dreams, hardly different from Smith and his Eden. ...or is it?
Bonus
Farstep: You're able to slip briefly into the True World, in all of it's Dimethyltryptamine soaked, fractal-hell glory. Once per session you can slip through the cracks in reality and find a "short cut." Teleport 5*(level) feet in any single direction.
<Sidebar>
If you're looking to actually make this closer to Bright, for some reason, replace Farstep with Smell Magic. It's like detect magic, but scent based. I recall them elves in the moving picture doing a lot of sniffing around potentially magical things.
</Sidebar>
Bane
Radbane: You're Physical, but are still affected by incorrect lyrics in the True World. As such, you suffer twice the damage done by radiation attacks. You also have a 1-in-6 chance of suffering an immediate mutation from the radiation.
Dwarf
The elves refer to your people as "maggots." Rightfully, you're offended, but, also, in the previous age your people spontaneously generated from the body of a dead giant. But not just any giant,
The Giant: Ymir. So, there's that. While your people were, and are again, accused of inflicting mental diseases on people, this isn't exactly true. The best you can do is drunkenness, really.
Bonus
Blood of Brimir: Once per day you can force a target to make a Save vs Mind Effect. Failure means they assume your level of Drunkenness, until healed normally.
Bane
Bone of Blainn: You're heavier than you look, as your bones are laced with iron, to the point of your Movement speed is reduced by 4.
Also, no matter what language you speak, and no matter where you were born, you speak in a thick German accent. Scientists don't know why. I don't either.
OrcYour folk were once humans - specifically French/Spanish Cagots from the Pyrenees - but at some point in the timeline of things, a BBEG needed an army, useful pawns, and/or general servants. A series of empty promises, cruel magics, and hogsheads of strange alchemical cocktails later the orc was born. Born? Crafted. Designed for war and war byproducts, Orcs tend to be harder than average to kill, fighting long after mortal wounds should have claimed them. After the BBEG's plans fell to ruin, Orcs faced a difficult reintegration into human society and - who am I kidding? Humans are shit, they still face a difficult reintegration, centuries later.
Bonus Hard to Kill: When at 0 HP or below, you may spend a Conviction point to ignore Lethal damage for 1d6 rounds.
Bane
Won't Back Down: A successful Wisdom check is required in order to retreat from a fight you've been injured in.
Troll
While Elves, Dwarves, and Ork can potentially blend in to a crowd of humans, you, yourself, are a big hulking form of a man. Well, not a man, exactly, no. Man-like, rather. With green fur and a large nose, you look like something that crawled out of a John Bauer picture.
Bonus
Troll Skin: Restore 1 HP per round. Fire damage stops this effect, until a long rest, where it's heavily implied you've cut away the burnt sections and allowed your body to regrow.
Bane
Troll Metabolism: You require double the dosage of consumables to have ANY effect when applied to your person. Also, because your body repairs so quickly, it will reject any Augment without a steady dose of immunosuppressant. The medicine also stops your Troll Skin from working while it is in your system.
Archetypes
In Shadowrun Bright there's not really set classes, just a lump of skills and abilities for point buy, with examples of archetypes to give you an idea of what you're building. Obviously, that's not gonna work for this situation. Given CyberGLoG is built on the GLoG chassis, jamming fantasy templates into the cyberpunk system is easy enough. I've got some more specific ideas ticking around, but here's my suggestions for fixing the already made templates to what's missing in the setting.
Magic
Just take your favorite Wizard class and jam it in. Simple. Some additional spells at the bottom. Magic learning is done in the usual mechanical fashion, but now includes resources like YouTube and "...For Dummies" books.
Adepts
Sounds like a
Monk to me. Shoot, the original fluff even says "A monk did it." I think. I could be making shit up again. I refuse to check.
Mystic Adepts
Multiclass between Wizard and Adepts.
Technomancers
Go away kid, you bother me.
...Actually, SquigBoss'
Sorcerer (or Skerples'
Sorcerer, I guess) using the listed
Programs.
Spells
Originally, I was looking to convert the core book spells to GLoG versions, but god damn they're not great. And I enjoy the game. There's 18 versions of the same spell. Eighteen. Then there's spells for boosting a resist before you ingest a toxin and boosting a resist after you ingest the toxin. Why? They're the same spell, just casted at a different time. I mean, I've half assed writing assignments and used meaningless filler text in order to reach a certain word number length, but that wasn't for something getting published. I don't know.
Some of these spells may seem over powered. That's fine. I want you to be tempted to use them; invest all your casting dice. Triples aren't THAT likely. (heh heh heh)
New Mechanic: Mixed Success
Pilfered from
here. Casting dice are invested normally, however only the highest result is considered. More dice invested, higher chance of a better result. Doubles and triples still apply.
- 1-3: Mixed Success
- 4-5: Full Success
- 6: Critical Success
New Mechanic: Burnt Dice
By voluntarily sacrificing a Casting dice, you can occasionally augment a spell in a way detailed. Burnt dice do not return to your hand (nor are they rolled) until you normally replenish them.
Combat Spells
(Element) Ball
R: 200' T: 20' area D: Instant
You hurl a magical bolt of a chosen element at an area, doing [sum] damage to all objects. Elements to choose from: Acid, Electrical, Fire, Force, Ice, Radiation, Stun. Each element is a different spell and must be learned separately.
[Burn] a dice to allow for 1 ricochet per burnt dice.
[Burn] a dice to allow for a delay in explosion equal to the rolled value of the burnt dice in rounds.
Yep, that's it. That's the entire original Combat Spells section summed up into one spell. Saved ya two pages. Even spiced it up a bit.
Detection Spells
Analyze
R: 50' T: Individual/Object D: Concentration
The spell allows you to analyze the target of the spell, gaining some insight about it. Some appropriate targets are (but not limited to) devices, magical objects, people, or the words they're currently speaking.
Mixed Success - Vague details only
Full Success - Vague details with minor specific details
Critical Success - Exact, specific details of everything detected
Clairsavoir
R: [dice] * 10' T: Point in Space D: Concentration
You conjure an invisible sensor to a point in space, whether you can see it or not. As long as you can maintain concentration you're able to see through this sensor as if it was part of your normal sensory range. Unless you're blind, then you gain normal vision. Using an item as focus for the scrying (mirror, fire, bowl of water, etc) increases the range to [dice] miles.
[Burn] a dice to allow for an additional sense to the sensor: hearing, speaking, smelling
Combat Sense
R: Self T: Individual D: Scene
Target has a [dice]-in-6 chance of still acting when surprised.
Detect
R: 500' T: Self D: Concentration
Six different spells, learned individually. Detects the presence of a type (see below) and provides some details of the detected. Casting dice are invested normally, however only the highest result counts for result.
Types
- Enemies - Those that currently seek to do you harm.
- Individual - A specific person, chosen during casting.
- Life - Living things. Not spirits, nor robots.
- Life Form - All of a specific type of life form (human, elf, dog, etc); target named while casting.
- Magic - Detects all spells, artifacts, casters, spirits, etc.
- Object - Detects a specific type of object (guns, explosives, spoons, etc); target named while casting.
Mixed Success - Vague details only
Full Success - Vague details with minor specific details
Critical Success - Exact, specific details of everything detected
Mindlink
R: 100' T: Individual D: [sum] minutes
Allows mental communication between the caster and the target, allowing for exchange of conversation, emotions, and mental images.
[Burn] a dice to add an additional target to the conversation.
Mind Probe
R: 20' T: Individual D: Concentration
Sometimes talking is too slow, and you need to pry the answers out of the target and move on. Target is very much aware of the probe, but not necessarily the source.
Mixed Success - You can only read the target's surface thoughts
Full Success - You can find out anything the target consciously knows and view recent memories.
Critical Success - You can probe their subconscious, gaining information the target might not be aware they have
Health Spells
Antidote
R: 20' T: Individual D: One day or until used
Allows a second Save vs Poison for the target, should they fail the first, made at a +[dice] to their Save.
Decrease/Increase Attribute
No.
Detox
R: Touch T:Individual D: Instant
Purges the target of a named chemical (drug) in their system, doing [sum] stun damage in the process.
Mixed Success - Ends the side effects, but addiction remains.
Full Success - Ends the side effects and removes any addiction.
Critical Success - As above, but makes target immune to the drug for [sum] day.
Heal
R: Touch T: Individual D: Instant
Heals a target of [sum] hit points. This spell can only affect the target once per sun across the horizon.
Increase Reflexes
R: 50' T: Individual D: Concentration
Increases the target's Initiative check by [dice]
Oxygenate
R: Touch T: Individual D: [sum] minutes
Allows a target to hold their breath for the duration, before their natural breath holding duration takes over.
Resist Pain
R: 50' T: Individual D: Concentration
Reduces the damage a target takes by [dice] and makes them immune to Stun damage.
Stabilize
R: Touch T: Individual D: Instant
Removes [burn] Fatal Wounds from the target.
Illusion Spells
Argh. Good lord. There's three spells in this section spread across...Jesus, nineteen. Gonna trim some fat here.
Disguise
R: Touch T: Object D: [dice] hour
You wrap an object in a veil of illusion, allowing it to appear as another object of the same sort and size. You know, "disguise" it.
Hallucinations
R: 50' T: [dice] * 5' diameter D: Concentration
You create a perfect representation of whatever object or creature you wish, in one of the traditional senses. This recreation is able to move or sound or smell however you determine, as long as you concentrate. This spell can only 'add', not 'subtract'.
[Burn] a dice to add an additional sense to the hallucination.
Obfuscation
R: 50' T: [dice] * 5' diameter D: Concentration
Where the Hallucination spell adds, Obfuscation subtracts - removing an object/person from sight, muting a sound, destinking a stank. As long as you concentrate.
[Burn] a dice to cloak an additional sense
Manipulation Spells
Animate
R: Touch T: Object D: [sum] minutes
Gives inanimate objects the horrific ability to move on their own. Target objects effectively become 1HD creatures with the intelligence of a trained dog. A dumb one.
[Burn] a dice to animate an extra object.
Armor
R: 50' T: Individual D: Concentration
You solidify a field of magic around the target, adding [dice] to the target's armor score and taking up the same amount of inventory slots.
Barrier
R: 50' T: Area D: Concentration
Actually two spells which are learned separately: One for magic, one for physical. You generate a translucent, but shimmering, wall with 10 square feet of surface area per [dice], shapeable by you, that is one inch thick. A Physical Barrier stops physical things like bullets, cars, fleeing bystanders; while a Magic Barrier will stop anything with a magical aspect. If you think it has a magical aspect, it probably does.
Command
R: Hearing T: Individual D: [dice] rounds
Target saves or obeys a [sum] word command.
[Burn] a dice to extend the duration for rest of the scene.
[Burn] a dice to effect an additional target.
(Element) Wall
R: 50' T: Area D: [dice] rounds
See those elements listed in (Element) Ball? Now you can apply them in a [Sum] square foot wall. Apropos of nothing, a sheet is just a wall laying down.
Yeet
R: 50' T: Object D: Instant
Flings an unattended target object at a secondary target. Weight of the object effected and damage done determined based on success:
Mixed Success - Up to 20 lbs (9kg). Damage as light melee weapon.
Full Success - Up to 200 lbs (90kg). Damage as medium melee weapon.
Critical Success - Up to 2000 lbs (900kg). Damage as heavy melee weapon.
[Bring] the GM a beer to effect animals/people.
[Burn] a dice to change the Duration to "Concentration" to levitate the object instead.
Counterspelling and Dispelling
They're basically the same thing. Counterspelling is done while the spell is being cast (automatically failing your next Initiative check), where as Dispelling is performed while the spell is being sustained. The process is simple, but horribly dangerous, as the counterspeller vomits out a bunch of random magic energy in the hopes of something else happening.
Counterspell
[Burn] dice in an attempt to cancel out the target's MD rolled. The caster's higher roll cancels out the target's lower roll. Should any MD from both sides match, both the caster and the target suffer the Mishap effects.
Dispelling
[Burn] dice to attempt to unravel the delicate magics sustaining a spell. By vomiting on it. With magic.
Mixed Success - The effect is reduced by [Burn] or [Sum] as appropriate, with Doom
Full Success - The effect is reduced by [Burn] or [Sum] as appropriate, with Mishap
Critical Success - The effect is completely ended.
This is all derivative garbage, but it's outta my system now. Thank god. I'm finally free.
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