7:31 PM +JesseCovner10: OK. Hi everyone my name is Jesse Covner, as you can see by the user name. About myself… first thing you should know in this forum is that
7:32 PM +JesseCovner10: I don’t type that fast, I can’t spell, and I have not done this type of chat in many many years
7:32 PM +JesseCovner10: So appologies up front.
7:33 PM +JesseCovner10: I’m a partner in a game company called Sons of the Singularity, along with my best friend Mr. Jason Sheets.
7:33 PM +JesseCovner10: Jason and I met in China, where I lived for 13 years. And we moved with our families more or less together to Japan 5 years ago.
7:34 PM +JesseCovner10: We are both left handed. We are both married to Japanese women (who we met many years ago in China). He is more outwardly evil and bastardly. I pretend to be a good person.
7:36 PM +JesseCovner10: While in China, Jason was a co-creator of the first Chinese RPG con; KhanKon. It started the night before as CaligulaKon with Jason, myself, and another friend who I will not involve. But all those details cannot be published. Today KhanKon has around 1000+ people going to it, but we are not involved.
7:37 PM +JesseCovner10: (If I’m being too long winded, please let me know… I don’t know how long or brief I should be here)
7:37 PM ~Dan: (You’re doing fine. 🙂 )
7:38 PM +JesseCovner10: At KhanKon Jason often played a GUMSHOE / Trail of Cthulhu game set in China. I personally hate GUMSHOE but he’s my friend so I played it. I like the way Jason GMs, which is informed by GUMSHOE. I just hate the combat in it. I think I’m a D&D type power gamer at heart, no matter how I try to fool myself that I’m not. So I played GUMSHOE for many
7:38 PM +JesseCovner10: years.
7:39 PM +JesseCovner10: That campaign we just called “The China Campaign”; I’ll get back to this in a moment.
7:40 PM +JesseCovner10: One day Jason and I were on a high speed train going to Shanghai and he was drunk and moaning about how in China all the people we knew only played D&D or Vampire (and I refuse to play Vampire… the only game I hate more than GUMSHOE which I play all the time)
7:41 PM +JesseCovner10: We were both reading the same books – in particular books by Charles Stross and Richard K. Morgan (Altered Carbon series, but I read and really liked The Steel Remains)
7:42 PM +JesseCovner10: So I came up with an idea to satisfy my friend; I would disguise SF elements in fantasy. Play in Altered Carbon world, but just give everything ga D&D name.
7:43 PM +JesseCovner10: This became my “Rational Magic” world. It started as a thing for D&D. Then Dungeon World was getting big and I tried to run it in DW, but my players said I’m not a DW type of GM. So then I tried to run this in Fate but Jason and I hated the constant spending of meta points and that conversation in Fate. Then I used Savage Worlds, which I
7:43 PM +JesseCovner10: thought was cool but everyone we played with hated the dice and would not move to that.
7:45 PM +JesseCovner10: Finally, I went to a simple system called no one heard of called Barbarians of Lemuria. But I ran into a problem…
7:45 PM +JesseCovner10: I’m creating a world that is not directly based on a pre-conceived IP
7:46 PM +JesseCovner10: And is not a standard genre. It’s “off-genre” ; it requires explaining.
7:46 PM +JesseCovner10: So I adopted ideas I found in a book called Legends of the Wuline, published by EOS press. Lore Sheets. Which are simply handouts with settings elements and first-person narration to tie elements to characters
7:48 PM +JesseCovner10: Making these requires writting. Which is some amount of work for a GM. But if you have your own setting, putting in this work helps make that setting digestable to players, without exposition that the players may or may not get into.
7:48 PM +JesseCovner10: So the Lore System was born out of this. The core feature being that designers, GMs, and players…
7:49 PM +JesseCovner10: create narrative blocks in long form… 200-300 words each… which becomes a background and journal evidence of the character’s life.
7:51 PM +JesseCovner10: These are created between game sessions (or by a publisher / designer), and hence give players an ability to add to the game world outside of their character’s remit (this is the essence of my own definition of “narrative gaming”) while not interupting game-play with meta-currencies, and also allowing a GM to run a traditional plot-point driven
7:51 PM +JesseCovner10: story or campaign.
7:51 PM +FreeGamer: (Lore sheets being adapted to other games??? (Link: https://tinyurl.com/shupatmm)https://tinyurl.com/shupatmm already!)
7:51 PM +JesseCovner10: OK. Skipping ahead. Jason and I formed Sons of the Singularity…
7:52 PM +JesseCovner10: FreeGamer (you are interupting and this is crazy news and I can’t click on that link yet but getting excited and shouldn’t because that’s bad to get hope in these hopeless times)
7:53 PM +JesseCovner10: So when we made Sons of the Singularity (SOS from here out) our first work was not going to be Rational Magic, but rather “The Sassoon Files”
7:53 PM ~Dan: (It was the “Shut Up And Take My Money!” animation. It’s good. 🙂 )
7:53 PM ~Dan: (Howdy, Trug!)
7:53 PM +Trug: (Salut)
7:53 PM +JesseCovner10: Whcih was the China campaign.
7:53 PM +JesseCovner10: Just because we could license that with Chaosium and that would help sales. And we ran our first KS with that.
7:54 PM +JesseCovner10: A bunch of interesting stuff happened there, including that our books were destroyed by the Chinese government and that got us some publicity
7:54 PM +JesseCovner10: Then I published Rational Magic… which was horrible.
7:55 PM +JesseCovner10: Horrible because sales were low. Because I was too close to the subject and getting crazy over it…
7:55 PM +JesseCovner10: And this hurt my relationship with my friend.
7:55 PM +JesseCovner10: So I love Rational Magic, but it caused me pain.
7:56 PM +JesseCovner10: Then we went on to create The Camlann Chronicles, which is a Welsh Arthurian game made for D&D .
7:56 PM +JesseCovner10: Uh no it was made for 5e! Really! D&D had nothing to do with it.
7:56 PM * ~Dan chuckles
7:57 PM +JesseCovner10: But I made this game also for Lore 100, which took the Lore Sheets and Risk Counters (more on that point later if you want) and ported it to a custom d100 clone. This project also didn’t do great but it go published.
7:57 PM +JesseCovner10: And I was not close to it, so it was easy.
7:58 PM +JesseCovner10: And then a month ago we finished a Kickstarter for Journal d’Indochine, which is like a sequel of the Sassoon Files but set in Vietnam. This is also licensed from Chaosium, but we are fulling using Lore Sheets and Risk Counters throughout this book.
7:58 PM +JesseCovner10: The advantage being…
7:59 PM +JesseCovner10: That people don’t know anything about 1920-1954 Vietnam, so it’s off-genre. The Lore Sheets teach the players about this setting while giving characters background in that world
7:59 PM +JesseCovner10: and now… because the KS did well, I have to do layout and publishing of essentially 2 books.
8:00 PM +JesseCovner10: BTW in my partnership, I more write rules (except the Rational Magic setting) and Lore Sheets while Jason and other partnerswrites the majority of the scenarios
8:01 PM +JesseCovner10: I am also in charge of all the really boring and frustrating stuff like … sourcing artists, communicatinge with artists…
8:01 PM +JesseCovner10: layout, sourcing printers, yelling and fulfillment house, setting up and running the Kickstarter, etc…
8:02 PM +JesseCovner10: So… sorry if this was too long… that’s my intro. (done)
8:02 PM ~Dan: Thanks, JesseCovner10! The floor is open to questions!
8:02 PM ~Dan: What can you tell us about the setting of Rational Magic?
8:04 PM +Caladors: So it sounds like you like creating ground up RPGs rather than top down, that can be quiet daunting for newer people to get into, also just a yes or no because Dan has a no politics rule on this other question. Was the book burn because of the 8 dotted line?
8:04 PM +JesseCovner10: Imagine a post cyberpunk post humanist world where people can switch bodies, there are force fields and teleportation, mythos like creatures, robot laborers, and game of thrones style politics… that world is D&D
8:05 PM +JesseCovner10: But D&D doesn’t make sense because it would never evolve the way it did. With gods, there would never be complex societies; people would stay in a bronze age palace economy.
8:05 PM +JesseCovner10: So no gods. Or, no gods that perform miracles that people perceive. There are a lot of religions.
8:07 PM +JesseCovner10: The book takes place in a city called Nagaplath. It’s run by some capitalist wizards who have come to power during an age of “magic industrialization” that started after the death of the last dragon.
8:08 PM +JesseCovner10: The city is under threat by various social forces from within – the replacement of human labor by golems, the power of the elite to control the availability of replacement bodies and the justice system which feeds the city’s elites with body vessels.
8:09 PM +JesseCovner10: And the city is under threat from outside, under threat from fascist states that believe in wholesale magical-neural behavior imprinting (charm spells) and zombie labor.
8:09 PM ~Dan: The rich and infirm move from crutches to crooks?
8:09 PM +JesseCovner10: Only the lower class would get a body of an infirm person. The upper classes illegally buy elf bodies or have new ones grown.
8:10 PM +JesseCovner10: I saw another question I will answer… hold on…
8:10 PM ~Dan: Oh, I figured. I just meant that if you’re rich, it sounds like the criminal justice system provides you with a new body.
8:13 PM +JesseCovner10: Caladors Not sure what you mean by top down or bottom up. I’m not trying to create crazy new dice mechanics. I just want to have a system that I would like to playe (a little crunchy but not more crunchy than Traveller or BRP) that incorporates narrative elements in sectioned off areas. But my players – my friends and play-testers – they like CoC
8:13 PM +JesseCovner10: and that’s about it.
8:13 PM +JesseCovner10: As for the destroyed book…
8:16 PM +JesseCovner10: Mostly top down, but then we played and players wrote Lore Sheets which added to the world
8:17 PM +Dan_: My power just went out. I’ll stay on as long as I can.
8:18 PM +JesseCovner10: Well I was committed to a vision of taking a fantasy genre and asking “what / how would XYZ really evolve here”. This is similar to a thing called Tippyverse. Have you heard of that?
8:19 PM +JesseCovner10: Also similar to an online story series called “The Gods are Bastards”.
8:19 PM +Caladors: I read your influence guide. I am asking is there an easy way to overcome the lore barrier?
8:20 PM ~Dan: I am not familiar with a Tippyverse, no.
8:21 PM +JesseCovner10: I didn’t feel there were barriers. The rules of this world came to me pretty much instantly. Maybe that’s also my life experience? I live in a world with multiple narratives because I lived in China. Narratives that are frustrating and very visible; you just see it every day infront of you. People stuck in the same artificial story
8:22 PM +JesseCovner10: The harder parts were in creating the motivations of individuals in this world. And to flesh that out more, I borrowed from players, who wrote stories on the Lore Sheets in a way
8:23 PM +JesseCovner10: Tippyverse is a campaign idea from a while ago in which the author thought about what would the world be like if D&D rules were applied rationally but only RAW. So there is teleportation, but not generic ways to counter that.
8:24 PM +JesseCovner10: (done?)
8:24 PM ~Dan: So what is the tech level like in Rational Magic?
8:26 PM +JesseCovner10: There is magi-tech and tech, though I don’t provide a tech chart or anything like that. Technologically it’s 16th century… but that decision came from just wanting it to be fantasy but a little different… so I can define the fashion sense as renaissance and then the art can follow from that. Also, I like the look of English basket hilt
8:26 PM +JesseCovner10: swords.
8:26 PM +JesseCovner10: From a magi-technological standpoint…
8:27 PM +JesseCovner10: There are golems everywhere (zombies in the “Imprinter” states). There are clone-bodies and post death soul-storage. Magic wands are commonplace, but so are personal magic shields that repel the wand blases…
8:29 PM +JesseCovner10: Municipal mind control fields are a controversial topic. privacy magic fields are common. Anti-Magic Pulse weapons are common but extremely illegal because it can cause parts of the city to come crashing down.
8:29 PM +JesseCovner10: …
8:29 PM +JesseCovner10: I defined that magic is a resource that comes from areas with leylines
8:29 PM +JesseCovner10: Because otherwise there is no scarcity in this world.
8:30 PM +JesseCovner10: So all this stuff doesn’t work far away from the main cities.
8:30 PM +JesseCovner10: So there are flying ships but they don’t go far.
8:30 PM ~Dan: So it’s sort of like Tesla wireless electricity?
8:30 PM +JesseCovner10: This society has not left the earth, but there are astral plane travellers who come by
8:31 PM +JesseCovner10: Yeah… but I didn’t create that effect visually (stupid me). Thanks for the idea!
8:31 PM ~Dan: Certainly!
8:31 PM ~Dan: Actually, brb — I should check the breaker.
8:32 PM +JesseCovner10: I think electricity was on Dan’s mind.
8:33 PM ~Dan: Actually, could we pause for a minute? I’ll lose my connection when my phopne moves away.
8:33 PM +JesseCovner10: ok
8:37 PM ~Dan: Wow, that hotspot has more range than I thought!
8:37 PM ~Dan: In any case, please continue.
8:39 PM +JesseCovner10: OK.
8:39 PM ~Dan: Is there “old school” magic as well?
8:39 PM +JesseCovner10: Can you explain that?
8:40 PM +JesseCovner10: What does old school magic mean to you?
8:40 PM ~Dan: Well, I mean, is there still high fantasy-type spell casting, or is it all techno-magic?
8:42 PM +JesseCovner10: Well… it is and is not “techno-magic”. Rational Magic is made for both 5e and Lore System BTW. I created new spells for 5e that focus more on “hacking”, telecommunication, golem control, and new mind-control spells that fit the setting. These have names that are a little more “academic” in feel.
8:43 PM +JesseCovner10: The magic system in Lore System is very off-the-cuff and also influenced by the rules lite system of Barbarians of Lemuria. It’s meant to be cast on the fly.
8:44 PM +JesseCovner10: Players certainly can be wizards, “old school” type. In fact, if they are spell casters, that’s what they are. It’s just that most NPC wizards are not very good at their job because magic is not an art for them, it’s just a business.
8:45 PM +JesseCovner10: It’s meant to feel like a renaissance fantasy world. Greyhawk campaign, 300 years later.
8:45 PM +JesseCovner10: (Greyhawk is an old D&D campaign BTW)
8:45 PM ~Dan: Oh, believe me, I know. I’ve been gaming for 40 years. 😉
8:46 PM +JesseCovner10: The most techno thing is probably magic wand prevelence… but that means they are just guns. Weak guns at that.
8:46 PM ~Dan: Speaking of guns, given the time period, are black powder weapons a thing?
8:47 PM +JesseCovner10: The magic does not feel “techno”, in my opinion. But the world feels different from D&D when you start seeing that motivations are very different and the story beats are more cyberpunk.
8:47 PM +Caladors: So why dystopian? If we go by the idea that magic is real and this is a rational world, surely there are priests who can commune with the gods and people know that the good gods have a good after life and the bad gods have a horrible one.
8:48 PM ~Dan: He mentioned that there aren’t any (active) gods earlier, IIRC.
8:48 PM +JesseCovner10: I purposefully decided that these weapons would not become popular in the main cities because of the existence of mass produced magic wands. but when I make Rational Magic #2, black powder weapons will be used by the poor people in the “Outer Kindoms” where they don’t have much magic power because no ley lines.
8:49 PM +JesseCovner10: Caladors Good question… I think there are dystopian elements in this…
8:49 PM +JesseCovner10: I wanted to call it “Fantasy Noir”, but friends said that won’t make sense. But I regret not going with my initial concept. “punk-fantasy-noir”.
8:50 PM +JesseCovner10: The dystopian because people’s bodies have become a commodity, because parts of the world are controlled by nations who believe in wholesales mind-control techniques and zombie labor.
8:51 PM +Caladors: Okay so I understand that, but are their priests and can they commune with the gods?
8:52 PM +JesseCovner10: It’s a boring dystopia in a bright fantasy world. One of the scenarios has an elf terrorist – who’s family is dying from the effects of magi-industrial pollution – and his brother sold his own body to be encased in a golem body (this idea BTW is stollen from China Mievilles’s Bas Lag series)
8:53 PM +JesseCovner10: No gods in the D&D sense. There are extra-dimensional beings. There are things that could be considered Gods, including a whole post-elf civilization that ascended. But there are no miracles.
8:53 PM +Caladors: So no priests?
8:54 PM ~Dan: (Howdy, PuppycatProductions!)
8:54 PM +PuppycatProductions: Hi.
8:54 PM ~Dan: (Howdy, Woo77!)
8:54 PM +JesseCovner10: Priests yes. Like there are Catholic priests today. They lead their communities in prayer and they have secular power. But not a priest or cleric in a fantasy RPG game sense.
8:55 PM ~Dan: Does Rational Magic use Lore or Lore 100?
8:56 PM +JesseCovner10: Lore system. I’m not sure what I want to do with Lore or Lore 100. It’s difficult to gain traction. I personally like Lore system with it’s simple 4 stats and 2d10 dice. But all my friends and playtesters like Lore 100 with it’s d100 type system, lists of skills, etc
8:57 PM ~Dan: Do you have a character sheet for Lore that you can share with us?
8:57 PM +JesseCovner10: Lore 100 is like a hack of BRP. It uses Advantages and Disadvantages instead of lots of different modifications. (just a sec)
8:57 PM +JesseCovner10: …
8:57 PM +JesseCovner10: Lore 100 also includes GUMSHOE like attitude towards clues. Lore System was also influenced by GUMSHOE.
8:58 PM +JesseCovner10: character sheet? I can share attachements here?
8:58 PM ~Dan: You can.
8:58 PM ~Dan: There’s an upload button on the lower right-hand corner of your window.
8:58 PM +Caladors: Okay so oppressive systems where wealth is a major factor and rebirth is possible is there a counter movement with religious types and how is that handled?
8:59 PM +FreeGamer: Is there still healing magic, buffs, and other stuff usually handled by the Cleric class, just not divine in this setting?
9:00 PM +JesseCovner10: I can do that. First, since I already had this open, here is the text of a lore sheet I’m using for Journal d’Indochine.
9:00 PM +JesseCovner10: Director Mazenq. The Direction de la Police et de la Sûreté current building dates back from early 1930 when the original French colonial police station was expanded. The two-floor corner building, surrounded by a white stucco fence, certainly contrasts with other landmarks nearby. Not one peddler dared to establish commerce in front of the
9:00 PM +JesseCovner10: building’s facade. Locals habitually make a point to cross to the other side of the street to avoid passing in front of the building’s front gate.
9:00 PM +JesseCovner10: Once the French re-took Saigon after the August Revolution of 1945, several political activists and insurgents were tortured in the building’s basement. Some say that old scores were also settled during that period.
9:00 PM +JesseCovner10: My old acquaintance Director Mazenq now works in the Direction de la Police et de la Sûreté. He does not seem suited for his department nor care about “The Pacification.” He seems to have some obsession which is keeping him up at night, the French Detective will not open up to me.
9:01 PM +JesseCovner10: I’ll answer Caladors and FreeGamer after I upload some things. just a moment.
9:03 PM +JesseCovner10: Uploaded file: (Link: https://uploads.kiwiirc.com/files/a5a8f5975048bb922bebe1e4129e7cee/luzithra%20%20LS.pdf)https://uploads.kiwiirc.com/files/a5a8f5975048bb922bebe1e4129e7cee/luzithra%20%20LS.pdf
9:04 PM +JesseCovner10: This is a character pre gen for the lore system. Normally the base initial character lore sheets are put on the back but in Rational Magic there are 5e character sheet on the back
9:05 PM +JesseCovner10: Uploaded file: (Link: https://uploads.kiwiirc.com/files/f47ea3fd5ea96f570d91cf356ab8a994/Jacob%20the%20Ranger%20Lore100.pdf)https://uploads.kiwiirc.com/files/f47ea3fd5ea96f570d91cf356ab8a994/Jacob%20the%20Ranger%20Lore100.pdf
9:06 PM +JesseCovner10: Here is a Lore 100 Character sheet from the Camlann Chronicles.
9:08 PM +JesseCovner10: Caladors I didn’t create a religion-based counter movement. There is disorganized and ineffective umbrella counter movement called “Magika Infinitum”. This includes elf and orc rights activists, old guard nobility who are threatened by the Rationalization, labor rights activists, and others. Within this group are religious fantatics…
9:09 PM +JesseCovner10: There is a scene in the book where orcs, in the bodies of humans, commit a terrorist act in a primitive stock exchange center. They are certainly religious (the idea for this scene came from the Uyghur terrorist attack in the Kunming railway station some years ago)
9:10 PM ~Dan: (Quick pause while I switch back to my home network….)
9:12 PM +JesseCovner10: There is some healing and some characters can specialize in “life” magic which has some healing. It’s not meant to be a “class” though. The idea is that character can get healed up quickly during downtime, but combat is more lethal, like Traveler was. It’s not meant for drawn out fighting encounters or battle -by-attrition
9:12 PM ~Dan: There we go. Sorry about that.
9:12 PM +JesseCovner10: That last comment was for FreeGamer
9:12 PM ~Dan: Can you describe how basic task resolution works?
9:12 PM +JesseCovner10: But note that Rational Magic is also made for 5e / D&D
9:14 PM * ~Dan nods
9:14 PM +JesseCovner10: In Lore System, roll 2d10+ 1 Talent, >= TN (which is based on oppositions’ Talent +10) . Simple stuff. It was made to be like Barbarians of Lemuria, only that game uses 2d6 instead.
9:14 PM * ~Dan nods
9:14 PM +JesseCovner10: Lore 100 is d100 roll under. Both systems make extensive use of…
9:14 PM ~Dan: I’m familiar with BoL. Pretty good little system, if a bit flawed.
9:14 PM +JesseCovner10: Advantage and Disadvantage.
9:15 PM +JesseCovner10: Lore Sheets add disadvantage. In Lore System, they also add proficiency, +1 to the roll
9:15 PM +JesseCovner10: You don’t roll of clues; if you have a Lore Sheet you know what you need.
9:16 PM ~Dan: So Lore Sheets just add a flat +1?
9:16 PM +JesseCovner10: In Lore System there are only 4 talents. Aggress, Finesse, Wit, and Envision.
9:16 PM +Caladors: 5e and your setting are going to run into a lot of road blocks with one another, considering the inherent system it operates under.
9:16 PM +Caladors: How do you get around those limits?
9:17 PM +JesseCovner10: Yes. The max talent is 5. Lore Sheets add +1. But if you don’t have a lore sheet that describes competency, you get a Disadvantage.
9:17 PM +JesseCovner10: Also, they can be Tapped…
9:18 PM +JesseCovner10: For gaining the ability to narrate parts of the world related to the sheet. For gaining an Advantage against / for something on the Sheet, for gaining resources and henchment, etc
9:20 PM ~Dan: (wb, kiltedfiend!)
9:20 PM +kiltedfiend: (thanks)
9:21 PM +JesseCovner10: Sorry just a sec
9:21 PM ~Dan: No problem.
9:22 PM +JesseCovner10: Sorry Talents go up to 6, you can get +1 from proficiency from a Lore Sheet. (Been 18 months since I played that and I’ve been working on lore 100 and CoC projects so forgot)
9:23 PM +JesseCovner10: Back to Caladors …
9:23 PM +JesseCovner10: In a recent and awesome review, the reviewer said that he wished I had just made this for Lore System and dropped 5e. and I agree. I was operating under bad marketing assumptions.
9:24 PM +JesseCovner10: But to answer your question…
9:25 PM +JesseCovner10: The world and setting does play differently in each system and I had to add some things to 5e. I had to add a lot of spells. I made the scenarios for levels 1-4 because after that the feel is totally different (I hate playing D&D over level 5 anyway)
9:26 PM +JesseCovner10: I had…
9:26 PM +JesseCovner10: to create Risk Counter mechanic for D&D to help with all the stealth and infiltration and investigation in the world of Rational Magic
9:27 PM +JesseCovner10: It plays really well in D&D btw. But it’s not pure D&D. Hence… there was not reallly a big advantage for me to port this to D&D in the first place. D&D “purists” will see it and say “hey these rules are not in the GM’s guide?!”
9:28 PM +JesseCovner10: caveat: plays well until level 5 or so. When played with modified spells that are provided, and with risk counters for stealth missions, and played with a group that is not focused on combat.
9:31 PM +JesseCovner10: (done?)
9:32 PM ~Dan: We’re a bit overtime. Are you doing okay for time?
9:32 PM +Caladors: How about treasure which seems to be showered in D&D does that fit it? or is that the same as the level 5 cavet
9:32 PM +JesseCovner10: I’m OK. I meant done with that question. I can ask other questions
9:33 PM +JesseCovner10: answer other questions I mean.
9:35 PM +JesseCovner10: It’s its own campaign world. Not something to take characters from other campaign worlds into RM. HIgh level stuff would work I guess but it would be getting beyond the scope of what this world is about. I believe anyway. I have not tried to play it at higher levels.
9:35 PM +JesseCovner10: (that was to Caladors question)
9:35 PM ~Dan: How does combat work?
9:36 PM +JesseCovner10: In Lore System? It’s not really different from other RPGs… Oh I did forget something…
9:37 PM +JesseCovner10: In Lore System you always roll 2d10 AND 1d6 at the same time. The 1d6 has a lot of purposes , one being damage. Characters take turns, make attack rolls, apply damage from which armor soaks up some.
9:37 PM +JesseCovner10: There are “Leverage Actions” so instead of rolling a die you …
9:38 PM +JesseCovner10: add Advantage to your next roll or Disadvantage to an opponents’ roll
9:38 PM +JesseCovner10: There are Specials, many of which do things with Leverage Actions.
9:39 PM +JesseCovner10: If you hit, applying damage is just one option. You can use the damage die to damage armor instead, or just sacrifice it to gain a bonus Leverage Action . This is really helpful for when you have low damage that wouldn’t penetrate armor, so you use that to eitheer break the opponent’s armor or something else
9:40 PM ~Dan: Does the game have a bestiary, and if so, how extensive?
9:40 PM +JesseCovner10: In this setting, armor is very protective (as it was in the 16th century) so when armored, that has to be delt with. But without armor, most characters would go down with 1-3 hits.
9:42 PM +JesseCovner10: There is a bestiary. It is not extremely extensive IMO. Fighting monsters is not a focus of the game. Mostly players will fight other humanoids, necrotic soldiers (aka zombies), golemns, etc. There are canibalistic gnomes and haflings….
9:42 PM ~Dan: I’ll bet they make short work of their foes.
9:43 PM ~Dan: (Sorry. Compulsive punster.)
9:43 PM +JesseCovner10: In this game world the Age of Heroes (the D&D setting) is actually a post-apacalyptic age. The elves of today were actually a form of golem 20K years earlier, including the haflings and gnomes. But they gained sentience and fought. And many gnomes and haflings went crazy.
9:44 PM +JesseCovner10: Orcs are almost wiped out and are in hiding.
9:44 PM ~Dan: In the time remaining, is there anything we haven’t covered that you’d like to bring up?
9:44 PM +JesseCovner10: There are extradimensional “squid-heads” (in no way related to mindflayers at all!)
9:44 PM +Caladors: So what is the core focus of a game? Someone says I want to run Rational Magic, what is your typical first adventure?
9:45 PM +JesseCovner10: There are 4 scenarios – an interconnected campaign – in the book; this is the majority of the book. Players are “Operatives”. In the base campaign, they are sort of like fantasy “Pinkertons”.
9:46 PM +JesseCovner10: Players either fight for or support or fight against the forces of the Rationalization – modernity.
9:46 PM +JesseCovner10: A lot of espionage. A lot of stealth and breaking and entering. A lot of morally grey choices.
9:47 PM +JesseCovner10: In one scenario the players hunt for a terrorist. They find out why the terrorist choose the path they are on. It’s not assumed that the players will decide to stop the terrorist.
9:48 PM +JesseCovner10: There is a more traditional way to play the game. Tehre is a faction called the Manifold Defense Force which is like a fantasy X-Files team. Their job is to stop extradimensionals and terrorists who would launch Weapons of Mass Magical Destruction.
9:49 PM +JesseCovner10: Oh yeah… my games all have player factions so the table can decide to play the campaigns and each scenarios from different perspectives
9:50 PM +JesseCovner10: Also the lore Sheets are often used for secret objectives / identities, so there is some PvP sometimes.
9:52 PM +JesseCovner10: To finish up the question to Caladors, in the first scenarios…
9:53 PM +JesseCovner10: Players wake up on a stone table and are asked to describe the last moments they had before they died. They are then indentured into the services of a wizard to investigate a business issue. This leads to a plot by a foreign power to influence politics through a local student group.
9:54 PM +JesseCovner10: In the second adventure, the players are contacted by the agent of the foreign power who has compromat on the players. The players are pressured to engage in industrial espionage to steal a magical survailance system.
9:55 PM +JesseCovner10: (done)
9:55 PM +JesseCovner10: Any other questions?
9:56 PM ~Dan: I think I’m good!
9:56 PM ~Dan: Thanks very much for joining us, JesseCovner10!
9:56 PM ~Dan: Usual reminder: If you’ve enjoyed this Q&A and would like to treat me to a coffee or two, you can do so at (Link: https://www.ko-fi.com/gmshoe)https://www.ko-fi.com/gmshoe . Anything’s appreciated! 🙂
9:57 PM ~Dan: Now, if you’ll give me just a minute, I’ll get the log posted and link you!