Cardinal Goons

 The Pope is dead, again, and the leader of the capitalist world is proposing the dumbest thing ever, again, and now his mega rich followers have gone to the Vatican to combine the two situations. I needn't tell you how these people's messiah would whip the shit out of them with a whip of his own braiding. They lack self awareness and the critical thinking to realize this, however.

But, now a game of how Cardinals become Popes. Strangely it doesn't involve shedding skin during metamorphosis.

Cardinal Goons

The Gist

Six candidate Cardinals must delve into the catacombs of Vatican City. There, they will face unknown and terrifying challenges; tests to ensure their Devotion, Piety, and Infallibility. They must delve deep and retrieve the triregnum, to return with it and sit upon the Cathedra. 

But be warned: The throne only seats one. 

(You know Tunnel Goons? It's that, but with select cardinals. The majority is rehashed here for convenience.)  

Action Rolls

When the outcome of an action is uncertain, roll 2d6 + ability + 1/relevant item. If the result is equal to or greater than the assigned Difficult Score (DS), then it is a success. If the action is potentially dangerous (ie. attacking a roaming Head of John the Baptist), then the difference in the resulting roll and the DC is the amount of damage done. Basically, if you fail the roll, you take damage equal to the difference. If you succeed, you give the damage. 

Difficulty Score

Easy: 8 | Medium: 10 | Hard: 12

Inventory

The Inventory Score is how many things you can stuff into your adventure sack. Anything over this number causes a -1 to be added to your Pius and Sin rolls. 

Characters come with 3 unique items, but the rest of the pack is yours to fill. Or overfill, even.

Inventory Score starts at 8. 

Heath and Death

Heal starts at 10. When you reach 0, you are dead. 

Regain all Health lost by stopping for a meal of pasta and wine. This takes about 30 minutes.

Advancement

If you’re still playing this for some reason, you advance every 2 game sessions. Raise 1 attribute (below) and choose your Inventory or Health to also increase by 1. 

Attributes

Every character starts off with 0 or more points in the following attributes. 

Pius - Your ability to avoid the devil. Literally dodging away from him.

Devotion - Your dedication to scripture, both the written and spoken word.  

Sin - Your ability to do terrible things. Hitting, stealing, trials of the flesh.

Also, everyone speaks their native language and Latin. 

The Papabili

Cardinal Chook Duggery

_The Tree Hugger_

P 2 | D 1 | S 0

* Habit of Francis of Assisi - Allows for speaking with Animals.

* Corked Galero - Protects against swarms of things. 

* Crozier of Saint Fiarce - Functions as a Staff weapon, but also can cause Grasping Vines to grow (DC 10) 

Cardinal Giuseppe Archette

_The Studious_

P 1 | D 2 | S 0

* Scroll of Saint Floran (DC 10) - Spits a fireball at the target. Consumed on Failure.

* Scroll of Jude Thaddeus (DC 10) - Restores Health. Consumed on Failure.

* Finger Bone of Saint Anthony of Padua - Protects against the Undead as Armor. 1st degree artifact. 

Cardinal Godric Foundling

_The Knight_

P 0 | D 1 | S 2

* Armored Mitre - Dented and bloodied, but it perceivers 

* Sword of Saint Catherine - Yes, that one. 

* Rib Bone of Saint George - Provides divine protection from the knight of knights. 

Cardinal Ignacio Marquez

_The Red_ 

P 1 | D 0 | S 2

* Piano wire reinforced rosary beads

* Dagger (hidden within crucifix) 

* Red silk gloves

Cardinal Jean-Claude Chisanga 

_The Untouchable_

P 2 | D 0 | S 1

* Ankle Bone of Saint Christopher (DC 10) - When set to a trip line, causes an alarm to cry once the line is tripped. 

* Habit of Saint Nicholas Owen (DC 10) - Allows the wearer to appear to be up to five feet from their actual location. Consumed on failure. 

* Sack of Golden Caltrops

Cardinal Lucien De Vos

_The Raven_

P 3 | D 0 | S 0

* Toe Knuckle of Saint Casila - Aids in sneaking. 1st degree artifact.

* Lockpick of Saint Baldomerus - Set of lockpicks used by Baldomerus of Lyons. 2nd degree artifact. 

* Hand of Glory - Unlocks any door. Once. Consumed on use.

Cardinal Seamus O’Brien

_The Lich_ 

P 0 | D 3 | S 0

* Scroll of Saint Rita of Cascia (DC 10) - Raises a servant from a currently unused corpse. Consumed on failure. Fails if a servant currently exists. 

* Blood of Saint Januarius (DC 10) - Allows for the viewing of ghosts. 1st degree artifact. Consumed on failure.

* Thurible (as mace) - Billows sweet smelling smoke as it swings. 

Cardinal Stanislaw Kovacs 

_The Serpent Tongued_

P 0 | D 2 | S 1

* Pickled Tongue of Saint Bartholomew - When placed in the user’s mouth, anything they speak detects as the truth. 

* Scroll of Saint Joseph of Cupertino (DC 10) - Makes the target forget the last few moments. Consumed on failure. 

* Silver snake dagger 

Cardinal Tex Smith

_The American_

P 0 | D 0 | S 3

* Thoughts - Gold plated desert eagle. Twined with Prayers.

* Prayers - Gold plated desert eagle. Twined with Thoughts.

* Plate of Deep Fried Spaghetti (ration)

Doug Nash

_The Lost Tourist_

P 1 | D 1 | S 1

* Cell Phone - No reception

* Sacred Heart of Jesus statue (as Club) - Bought from the gift shop

* Tourist Guide Book - Good for looking things up. 

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[HMtW] Using Divination to Generate a Character

 

In His Majesty the Worm, character creation is simple enough: 5 multi-stepped steps for, if you've a character in mind, quickly getting up and going. 

But, what if you've no specific character in mind? Well, the game uses tarot cards. Just divine a character using said cards. Here's how!

Using Divination to Generate a Character

The idea is fairly straight forward: instead of using your brain meat to come up with a character, layout eleven cards from the players deck in the pattern shown below, then consult the charts. It can be further expanded to include random gear generation, but it'll need some adjusting and additional gear descriptions to make the math work. Basically, it'll take longer than I was looking to on this thing. I'll circle back to it.

The Spread

1. This is your Kith (Human, Fay, Underworld, Orc)
2. This is your Kin, basically for selecting a subtype of Kith. For humans, it doesn't matter, but regions have been provided for role playing purposes. 
3. This is your major attribute. The suit of the card determines which attribute a 4 is placed to.
4. This is your secondary attribute. The suit of the card determines which attribute a 3 is placed to. If the suit of the card is already in use, then look at the value. If even, move to the Right along the chain (Swords-Pentacles-Cups-Wands) until an unused suit is found. If odd, move to the Left.
5. This is your minor attribute. It determines your weakest attribute, in which you'll place a 1. I'm going to leave you guessing as to where to put the 2. Think as hard as you can. You got this.
6. This is your first motif. Card A represents the descriptor, and Card B represents the profession.
7. This is your second motif. Card A represents the descriptor, and Card B represents the profession.

8. This is your third motif. Card A represents the descriptor, and Card B represents the profession.

Kith and Kin

Motifs

Example

In case you can't read off my poorly lit floor: 

1. 3 of Swords              6.A 8 of Cups                       8.A 4 of Wands

2. 6 of Cups                 6.B 6 of Pentacles                8.B 9 of Cups

3. Ace of Cups             7.A Knight of Pentacles

4. 10 of Swords           7.B 10 of Pentacles

5. Ace of Swords         

1. Taking a Kith and Kin of Swords/Cups, we see this is a Human from the East. 

2. With Cups being the Major attribute, it gets assigned a 4 and becomes the adventurer's Path

3. Swords gets assigned a 3. A book nerd with a pension for violence.

4. With Swords already in use, and the card here being odd (Ace = 1), we shift suits to the Left, bringing us to Wands. With a Wands of 1, this person isn't terribly magically inclined. 

5. At first they were a Silent Friar. There's that book learning during quiet contemplation.

6. Then they made their way as a Numb Hunter. Looks like there was trouble at the monastery. 

7. But now wander as a Twisted Raider

Meet Licinius, a human from the eastern lands (Swords 3 | Pentacles 2 | Cups 4 | Wands 1). They were, once, long ago, a Friar bound by a vow of silence, who spent their time learning and reflecting on the creations of Mithras. That was until the Orc raiders came, and sacked the monastery for its idols and shiny bits. Being the only survivor, they attempted to hunt down the twisted Orc raiders for revenge, becoming what they hated in the process. Rumor has it the leader of the Orc raiders has taken the monastery's prized marble Mithras statue as a trophy, deep within the Underworld. Are you a bad enough dude to retrieve the statue?

Make up a House name and words, pick a mastered skill, and grab some gear. Simple. 

The longest part of the process was finding my tarot deck and trying to figure out how to take a decent picture. I failed at both, but the task still got done.  

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Motivation and Bonds

 

I believe this started as a Goblin Punch post that then influenced Rise Up, Comus’ Bond system in his soon to be released His Majesty the Worm game; to which I am now filing the serial numbers off of and remixing a bit. Has he spoken about it before? I don’t recall. 

The original intent was to use this system in a Firefly themed game, but we can all see I ain’t getting around to it anytime soon. It would’ve probably have been most of Some Weird Sin rewritten in the voice I used for that one dragon post. 

Bonds and Motivation

No man is an island. Except for, of course, Island Pete. Though he’s technically an AI operating a colossal party barge out in international waters. The idea is sound, however. Everyone is connected to someone, whether we like it or not. We’re social creatures and tend to form bonds with others. In our grim, dark time, struggles these bonds are what tend to spur us on; to motivate us. To that end, and to squeeze more role playing out of the players, a few changes are getting made to the Conviction system. 

These may make Stable play cumbersome. I have no solution for that at the moment. 

Motivation

Let’s start here. What was called “Conviction” is now “Motivation.” Honestly, the name is more inline with the intent of the subsystem. “Why did you become a mercenary?” “What are you willing to risk your life for?” - Your motivation. 

Now, Conviction had a pool of points connected to it, that filled by one every time you put yourself in trouble for following your Conviction. Points could then be spent to add a bonus to a dice roll based on circumstances. (Also, in reviewing the system for fixing, I’ve realized the bonuses are going the wrong way. In a Roll Under system, the +4/+8 should be -4/-8.)

The points are remaining, but the pool is getting a little bigger. Each Bond (explained below) has a condition associated with it and, when the condition is met, that Bond is considered Filled and remains so until used. 

Filled Bonds can be used a number of ways:

• Provide a -2 bonus on d20 rolls unrelated to your Motivation

• Provide a -4 bonus on d20 rolls related to your Motivation

• Modifying a roll made in combat by the Bond’s Target, up or down, by 2. Both characters must be present (and alive) in the combat. 

• Remove a point of Lethal Damage from yourself. Must be accompanied by a motivational affirmation. 

I seem to have just talked myself into modifying the Assists system as well. No one made it to level 5 anyway. 

The values in the bonuses are lower, but you get them more quickly and they stack. You can spend as many as you wish in a round, even on other people’s turns, but the -2/-4 must be declared before the roll is made. 

Bonds

A bound is made between two players, one for each pair of players. Each Bond has a condition associated with it that must be met in order for the Bond to be considered Filled. I’ve provided examples of the bonds, but they’re mostly Neuromancer related as I’ve just read the news about the TV show and it is freshest on my mind. Don’t you worry, I’ll probably have opinions on that as more news comes out. 

Allies 

Other crew members that you’re professional and amicable with. This is the default bond. 

Example: Case and the Finn

Filled When: You make an ally laugh in and out of character. 

Antagonist

They may be part of the crew, but there’s no love to be lost between the two of you. This is not an excuse for being an ass to the other player, mind you. 

Example: Molly and Riviera

Filled When: You witness your antagonist fail a check. 

Best Friend

Maybe you’ve been best friends since childhood. Or maybe you met at a some weird guy’s basement to play roleplaying games. Either way, best friends tend to know each other better than themselves, and totally don’t get mad when the other steals content from their soon to be released game.   

Examples: John Anderson and Tina Bonemeal; Case and Molly

Filled When: You share a secret with your best friend

Bodyguard/Ward 

Someone on the crew needs a little extra protecting, and the Bodyguard sees that this happens. 

Examples: Turner and Angie Mitchell; Molly and Kumiko

Filled When: 

• Bodyguard fills when their Ward survives a lethal encounter (combat) without taking damage. 

• Ward fills when they get into lethal danger

Business Partners

The bloody gears of capitalism keep on grinding and, even though it’s enslaving and killing you, that doesn’t mean you can’t make a little something for yourself. 

Examples: Cowboy and Roon

Filled When: Business partners fill their bonds when a significant capital venture pays out 

Codependent

Codependent characters tend to rely on the support of each other, both emotional and physical, to shake off the crushing loneliness and isolation of modern society. 

Examples: Sarah and Daud

Filled When: Codependent characters fill their bond when they seek out emotional support and validation from the target of the bond. 

Drug Dealer/User

The Dealer is a man with love grass in his hand. The User, uh…uses. Uses drugs. 

Examples: Zone and Case

Filled When: 

• Dealer fills when they sell drugs to a User

• User fills when they buy the drugs from their Dealer

Employer/Employee

Turning players into the hired help. This is what it sounds like: One player is the employer, the other is the employee. 

Examples: Molly and Armitage; Wage and the Joeboys

Filled When: 

• Employer fills when they pay their employee an agreed upon payment or other reimbursement. 

• Employee fills when they perform a significant task to the benefit of their employer over themself (a Job). 

Lovers

Despite the cold harshness of the world, you two have found each other. If both players are okay with it (seriously, don’t get weird) a Lovers bound 

Examples: Bobby and Angie Mitchell 

Filled When: This bound is filled when you do something romantic for the other in character - be it tagging an overpass with their name or making them an 8-bit chiptune mix tape. 

Mentor/Protege

The mentor is someone with a wealth of knowledge to provide (or at least fake it). Their protege is someone they’ve taken under their training and guidance. Think jedi master and padawan.

Examples: Case and Dixie Flatline

Filled When: 

• Mentors fill this Bond when Protege follows your advice

• Proteges fill this bond when you ask the Mentor for advice and it is given. 

Ride or Die

This isn’t the first crew the two of you have been part of, and you’ve seen each other through thick and thin. With unquestionable certainty, you know they have your back. 

Examples: Hiro Protagonist and Y.T.

Filled When: You assist your partner in making a check. 

Rival 

A friendly competition never hurt no one. “Friendly” being the keyword. 

Examples: Molly and the Yakuza assassin (it’s not a perfect fit) 

Filled When: You see your Rival succeed in making a check. 

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Probably Gonna Make Everything One Damage

 
Whenever I'm faced with a powerful amount of stress, I tend to start stressing and fussing over things that neither need it nor matter. Really just start poking at things that work fine enough. Anyway, that led to this: 

I'm Probably Gonna Make Everything One Damage

One thing that always struck me as odd during play was the fact that you have to roll under to succeed in an attack, but then roll over to "succeed" in damage. Tradition, probably. But what to do? Convert to Roll Over like a normal person? God, no. Gross. Other ideas involve: 

1. Subtraction This clearly won't work. I can hardly get players to add. Having them work out something like "7-1d6" every other roll would really grind things to a halt. 
2. Damage Array While I still like the idea, it seems like a step in the wrong direction. Also, it would generate a bunch of work. Though, as I write this, I realize so would...
3. Making Everything One Damage One of the design philosophies behind the original GLoG was making things more simple, namely in reducing rolls. From two rolls to one, from one to none. This one largely gets ignored (from what I've seen), but here's a place to actually do that. 

An attack roll is basically just two rolls to determine one value: the amount of damage you do. Ranging from "none" to "max" it's a tradition that held on and hasn't, from what I've seen (not that I've really looked), been challenged. 

But it's also two rolls for one result. I like rolling the dice as much as anyone, but in holding with the simplification design principle, them rolls gotta get squished together. I suppose I could go the Into the Odd route and make all attacks automatically hit, thus making every character's turn automatic damage to someone. That seems too far to me, however. 

Basically, I've got the notion in my head that every attack is some form of gambit and should come with a risk. One that should pay off immediately. If you're gonna stand out in the open and/or foolishly fight fair, you should run the risk of failure (Attack roll), but receive a significant payout immediately (1 damage). 

Alright, but why 1 damage?

That value is coming from 2 seconds of intoxicated math applied to averages. Allow me to reproduce my hard to read scrawling:

Given 4d4 as the dice used to generate Constitution, and therefore HP, the average of the roll is 10 HP. 

Light weapons did roughly 1d6 of damage, making the "average" 3.5 damage.

Medium weapons did 1d8 for 4.5 damage "average."

Heavy weapons came in a 1d10 for 5.5 

With these values, to take a 10 HP "average" character down to zero, light weapons would require roughly 3 hits, as would medium weapons. Heavy weapons came in for only 2 hits. These hit amounts look good to me. Perfectly fine. Armor is important for a reason. 

In moving the damage range down to 1, HP will also need to be adjusted. Namely instead of the noble 4d4, the value becomes (4d4)/4, which drags the range down to 1 to 4, usually 2. Modified by templates and augments, this also seems fine. Don't get shot. 

 On one hand, while this will speed up combat and standardize weapon damage (let's be honest, I was obviously making the damage values up out of thin air. And I clearly had favorites.), it also means I'm gonna have to rewrite the gear list to make them stand out via special qualities. Which I probably should have been doing anyway. Also rewrite the combat section, damage section, augment section...

But it seems worth it. It feels better to me. When the time arises, I'll have to do a one shot to test it out. Might take a minute, but I should definitely do a play test before the rewrite. For once. 

Also, it seems like someone has done this before, but I can't place it. I'm sure that won't cause problems. 

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CLICK HERE FOR YOUR FREE CREDIT REPORT

 
That title'll keep people away. Anyway, in speaking of bad ideas and unfinished articles, another post that went unfinished was detailing the lost attribute "Credit Score" and the Life Style system that went along with it. Basically the idea was to abstract the money system in a way similar to the way Exalted handled it. Also there was some sort of twitter discourse going on at the time...I think about professional GMs, maybe? I don't know, but the tone was meant to be shitty about that. Whatever it was. 

Also to point out that starting with wealth is the most likely way to have wealth, credit scores are used to keep poor folk poor, the system is rigged from the start, and anyone thinking other wise should probably be eaten. 

System name references have been updated. 

Life Styles

Welcome! Thank you for showing interest in Some Weird Sin Life Style packages and options. We provide multiple options in various price ranges, allowing for a customized experience we're sure will meet your personalized needs! 

Membership prices are paid directly to the General Manager (GM) using real money. 

1. Public Membership (Free) - As a member of the general public you get Free access to the Street lifestyle. At this level you receive 0 rubles per session and have a Credit Score of null. You have no in-character home and may only select Starting Gear from the Street lifestyle equipment packages.

2. Bronze Membership ($10) - As a Bronze member, you gain access to the Low lifestyle. At this level you'll receive 200 rubles per session, have a Credit Score of 300, start with a Capsule living space, and be able to select from the Low lifestyle equipment packages or below for your Starting Gear. 

3. Silver Membership ($20) - By becoming a Silver Member, you're guaranteed access to the Middle lifestyle. You'll received 350 rubles per session, have a Credit Score of 580, start with a Small Apartment, and be able to select from the Middle lifestyle equipment packages or below.  

4. Gold Membership ($40) - At the Gold level, you'll have access to the Upper lifestyle. Here you'll receive 500 rubles per session, have a Credit Score of 670, start with a Medium Apartment, and have access to the Upper lifestyle equipment packages or below. 

5. Platinum Membership ($80) - By purchasing the Platinum membership, you'll announce to the world that you live the Petite Bourgeois lifestyle. Here you'll receive 1000 rubles per session, have a Credit Score of 800, start with a Town Home and Personal Vehicle, and have access to the PB lifestyle equipment packages. Go on, treat yourself! 

6. Corporate CEO Membership ($160) - By choosing to become a member of the elite CEO level, you will be entering an exclusive club and will experience the all the finer options of the game: 

• 2000 rubles per session to live out your wildest dreams
• Credit Check rolls with be a thing of the past with Unlimited Credit
• You'll start with an entire corporation of people at your command
• Yacht, cars, helicopters - all yours! And the facilities to house them. 
• Speaking of housing: Choose between a palatial estate away from the city OR an orbital paradise of your very own! 
• Not only will you have access to all Starting Gear lists, but you'll also receive a custom piece of equipment meeting your specifications.
• For a mere additional $50, the GM will get YOU one beer per session. 

So why not join the Corporate CEO Membership today? After all, you've earned it!  

Note from Editor: The only thing you've earned is a place against the wall, you corrupt failson. 

Credit Score

The bad ideas continue! In this incarnation, the Credit Score is essentially a stat that was used to abstract the money system, sort of like the way Exalted 2E did. Can't speak for the other versions. 

Essentially, day to day purchases using non-Ruble based currency (US Crypto-dollar; Japan's NuevoYen; all the distributed ledger ones) would be ignored and any major purposes would require a Credit Score check. Basically rolling a 1d1000 and rolling under your Credit Score. Success means you get the funding for the thing. Failure means you don't. However, unlike most stats, performing a Credit Score check lowers your Credit Score check (after the roll is resolved).  Each time you make the roll, remove 10 points. 

To regain the points, you simply have to pay 5% of the original loan amount per in-game month. After 50% of the loan has been repaid, you'll raise your score by 10 points for every additional 10% you pay off. If you miss a payment, you lose another 10 points. 

Why not in Rubles?

Because the people using illegal, and untraceable paper currency are not the kind to care about your ability to repay the loan, just that you will, or they're scrap you for parts in order to repay the difference. 

"That's a dumb system."

Yeah, it is. Why the fuck do we still use it?

But game wise, I feel like there's something here. It'll need to be polished and tinkered with, but something. I won't be using it at the moment, but something. 

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