From: Jonathan David Amery Date: Thu, 17 Jan 2019 18:59:03 +0000 (+0000) Subject: First up X-Git-Url: https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/ucgi/~jdamery/git?a=commitdiff_plain;h=4b521083aa5591b36831f188bb0ea5e58b83241e;p=PlayersGuide.git First up --- diff --git a/Last_Exit_to_Babylon.mdwn b/Last_Exit_to_Babylon.mdwn new file mode 100644 index 0000000..652da07 --- /dev/null +++ b/Last_Exit_to_Babylon.mdwn @@ -0,0 +1,150 @@ +# The Track Not Taken + +## Game Book Entry + +The Road runs from before the dawn of civilization out beyond the +decadent future. A cursed few find their way to it by power of blood; +others are brought there and can sometimes return. Within the span of +history we know two great civilizations are aware of the Road – the +failing anarchy in what they call the 25th Century and our great City +of Babylon. + + +## Setting Info + +The road is a passage through time. The main branch of the road +represents what you might call "consensus history", but where it goes +can change over time. Minor branches exist and if you go far enough +away from the well trod routes you could find anything. + +On the well-frequented parts it's a nicely maintained asphalt road, +going up being a 10-lane freeway in the civilized parts of "up time". +Whilst you will see carts and horses (particularly down-time) and the +occasional traveller on foot most regular users of the Road find some +way to acquire a motorised vehicle from the twentieth century or +beyond. + +Exits from the road move up time in accordance with subjective +experience - if you spend a year away from home then when you get back +to the exit you entered the Road on a year will have passed back in +your home time. As a result the exits have to be relabelled and +maintained from time to time. Motels and Inns exist along the fringes +of the Road in nearly all times. + +The road tends to attract special people. Once you've visited you can +always get back although it might take years of searching for another +access to it. You might never get back home though! + +The (Second) Babylonian empire runs from 626 BC until 539 BCE. The +player characters will start off in the city of Babylon in 580BC not +long after the city of Babylon has been rebuilt. The Babylonian +Empire is an authoritarian kingdom with unique knowledge of the Road +and the Fifth Bureau maintains the kingdom's current control over the +road - a combination of espionage, border guard, and troubleshooting +force. + +Bureau legend has it that the Bureau was founded by members of the +Fourth Bureau fleeing the fall of Babylon and that members of the +Fifth Bureau will likewise found a Sixth Bureau from the ruins of the +Fifth. You won't have enountered members of either organisation but +the standing order is that directions from the Sixth Bureau are to be +obeyed without question. + +The three major road exits near Babylon are indicated with signs of: + +* "The Blue Ziggurat" (currently around 620BCE) +* "The Hanging Gardens" (580BCE) +* "The Angry Snake" (530BCE, not long after the fall of Babylon) + +These exits are all permanently manned by the Bureau. + +There are many minor exits which go to Babylon and other parts of the +ancient world and the Bureau tries to keep patrols between +approximately the 5th century CE and the third millenium BCE. + +After approximately the 5th century CE the high tech travellers take +over control (although they rarely venture downstream of about the +10th century) and signage is mostly written in the language of the +Road - foretalk. Anyone who's travelled on the Road before can be +assumed to speak at least some foretalk. + +The three major arms of the state are the Bureaucracy (including the +Fifth), the Priesthoods (particularly of Marduk), and the Military. + +## Character Generation + +* You are either a member of a Bureau special team or have been asked + to work with it. +* Characters are 50 point LoGAS characters, but you should feel + encouraged to sell down one or many Attributes. The average Road + traveller is Superior or worse in all four Attributes. +* Up to 5 points of Stuff either way. +* You must have at least one Power; otherwise the Bureau wouldn't have + selected you for this mission. +* You can spend up to 10 points on Rank, which will determine your + position in the local hierarchies and what mundane resources you can + draw on; see the table below. In principle the Bureau member with + the highest Rank is in charge of the mission; and any Priests or + Military in the team are merely advisors... +* If you have Eidolon then you're an elite member of the Military, if + you have Umbra then you're a Priest or Priestess, if you have + neither and Warden or Master of the Road then you're an agent of the + Bureau. If you have none of the above then you're either a + specialist of the Bureau or a private citizen who has been hired or + drafted (give me a backstory) +* You can have any items / creatures that (a) are less than 15 points + total. Characters without any innate ability to find road on-ramps + might wish to have an item with the "Pass through Door" ability to + help them find their way onto the Road (or rely on the others!) + * The computerized books from _Roadmarks_ are 7 point items + * You can have a C20th vehicle stashed at the Road for 1 point + (Mobility) + +### Modifications to normal abilities: + +* Warden and Master of the GS are renamed Warden and Master of the + Road. + * Warden works basically the same way as it does for the Stair; + except you're dealing with roads rather than doors. Road + on-ramps tend to be out of the way or down dead ends or + alleyways; although occasionally you'll find them in what appear + to everyone else to be uncompleted highway infrastructure. + Locking or Unlocking a road is likely to require a construction + crew! + * Master will work approximately the same way it does in LoGAS but + there will be a lot more interpretation required - if you're + interested in taking this we'll have to have a brief chat about + how it works for your character. +* Eidolon and Umbra can be taken at a 25 point "Initiate" level (and I + suggest you do!) - pick one aspect that you're really good at and + everything else will work approximately a third as well. +* Wrighting: Wrights will be given time after the mission briefing to + make two icons of other party members, and can have icons for a + contact in the Bureau and any allies they have. +* Invocation: I'm not sure how this might be useful, but I'll listen + to your ideas! +* Cantrips and Sorcery: these both work Really Well on the Road, and + less well in the real world the further you get into the + technological eras. +* Sorcerors can have up to 4 simple effects that you can use at whim + * (e.g. "fireball", about as effective as hitting someone with a + sword, "teleport 10m foward" etc) + * you can come up with arbitrary effects on actually useful + timescales (not on the scale of falling, combat, or geology + unless they're very simple modifications of one of your known + effects; but on the order of 15 minutes or so). +* You can spend 1 point on "Domain" which will give you a hidey hole + off or adjacent to the Road somewhere where people know who you are, + but it's secret from everyone who you haven't informed about it. + +### Rank: + +|Points| Agent |Specialist| Civilian | Military | Priesthood | +|-----:|:--------:|:--------:|:--------:|:--------:|:----------:| +| 0 | Trainee |Apprentice| Helot | Soldier | Acolyte | +| 1 | Agent |Journeyman| Freeman | Sergeant | Deacon | +| 2-3 |Lieutenant|Journeyman| N/A | Corporal | Underpriest| +| 4-7 | Captain | Master | N/A |Lieutenant| Priest | +| 8-10 | Major | Master | N/A | Captain | Bishop | + +(Yes, a Captain in the Military outranks a Captain in the Bureau)