BRP Ashes, to Ashes

[neorxnawang]

Thanks everyone for the positive comments!

To try to answer some of the questions:

Well, the demons are both everywhere and nowhere. Their influence is extremely pervasive. However, they operate from the shadows (with a few exceptions). They have "people" to do their dirty work for them: corrupt generals, innocent generals, corrupt church leaders, innocent church leaders, superstitious mobs, etc. One of them, Zazeer, is a hyperintelligent social engineer who has created new social structures that reduce or in most cases eliminate the need for the demons to reveal themselves to the general populace. A big part of the campaign is the players finding out that there are actually demons still around, and that they are pulling society's strings. (There aren't enough surviving demons for them to work safely in the open, but they are calling the dance).

In terms of rules set, there are a couple of chapters on this. One discusses which BRP rules, skills, gear, etc. are in play, and another is a variant magic system. I assume access to the BRP main book, and then talk about things like these skills are available, these aren't, these are under limited circumstances, use this rule, don't use that one.

The art was a deliberate choice. There's some social commentary under the surface of the setting.

I did only do one continent and an island. I am considering doing a couple more regions in a sequel. However, there is a reason for this (read the chapter on Marine Travel; the demons are heavily invested in preventing seafaring for a very specific reason, so no one really knows what lies across the ocean).

I'm not sure what is up with the dead tree version other than I was told that one is coming shortly. Not even I have a dead tree version other than my core file that I printed out.

[Tywyll]

Originally Posted by neorxnawang

Thanks everyone for the positive comments!

To try to answer some of the questions:

Well, the demons are both everywhere and nowhere. Their influence is extremely pervasive. However, they operate from the shadows (with a few exceptions). They have "people" to do their dirty work for them: corrupt generals, innocent generals, corrupt church leaders, innocent church leaders, superstitious mobs, etc. One of them, Zazeer, is a hyperintelligent social engineer who has created new social structures that reduce or in most cases eliminate the need for the demons to reveal themselves to the general populace. A big part of the campaign is the players finding out that there are actually demons still around, and that they are pulling society's strings. (There aren't enough surviving demons for them to work safely in the open, but they are calling the dance).

In terms of rules set, there are a couple of chapters on this. One discusses which BRP rules, skills, gear, etc. are in play, and another is a variant magic system. I assume access to the BRP main book, and then talk about things like these skills are available, these aren't, these are under limited circumstances, use this rule, don't use that one.

The art was a deliberate choice. There's some social commentary under the surface of the setting.

I did only do one continent and an island. I am considering doing a couple more regions in a sequel. However, there is a reason for this (read the chapter on Marine Travel; the demons are heavily invested in preventing seafaring for a very specific reason, so no one really knows what lies across the ocean).

I'm not sure what is up with the dead tree version other than I was told that one is coming shortly. Not even I have a dead tree version other than my core file that I printed out.

Can you tell me more about the new magic system? I'm very interested in the crunch elements of the setting before I think about getting the PDF.

Cheers!

[neorxnawang]

I can try...it's going to be hard to summarize a chapter succinctly.

Basically, magic was fractured and rendered rather chaotic by the Abjuration that blew up the World. Magic is innate with certain (rare) people, but there is no one to "teach" it out in the open. As a result, Adepts have to proceed by trial and error from childhood. And the Adepts who learn to keep their gift secret are the ones who probably survive to adulthood.

Basically, an Adept can try to cast any published spell (with exclusions: no summoning things, no banishing things, no non-physical travel, since the World is isolated), but unless they have had a lot of practice or learned some way to "jury rig" that kind of magic through adventuring, it is likely to blow up in their face. The basic mechanic is:

(Adjusted POW) x3 vs. (MP of the intended spell effect) x10 on the resistance table, limited by available MPs. Success means the spell goes off; failure means it doesn't, physical damage may be taken depending on how bad the failure is, and fumbles really smart. It's dangerous and never certain to cast spells, since magic is chaotic and the Adept has never been formally taught. It allows for blaze of glory suicides as well.

Most other conventions (incantations for particular spells, runes tied to a kind of magic, experience, magic items) function within the boundaries of this formula. Many provide a bonus to adjusted POW depending on the type of magic, particular spell, etc. There are also circumstance bonuses (out of combat, book learning based on finding some books) that may apply.

In addition, Adepts get some freebies depending on achievement of story-line goals. (This is a mechanic I use throughout the setting; if you accomplish x in the story-line in the Keeper's discretion, then you might get bonus power y).

There are also rules for Wild Talents (people who have an odd bit of unpredictable magic but who aren't really Adepts) and Faithful (holy people who have unpredictable but limited "miracles" go on around them).

[kustenjaeger]

Greetings

I just picked up the pdf and from a brief scan through on the screen it looks good.

I look forward to trying it out on some unsuspecting players (probably not my teenagers and their friends though as some of them aren't yet subtle enough).

Regards

Edward

[Inominavell]

Yeah!!! Thanks For that, I'll get it for sure. In DTV too!

[DreadDomain]

Is there any preview available for AtA. A few pages somewhere so we can read a bit and see how it looks like.

What options are used for it (aside than magic described above)?

[neorxnawang]

Well...

In terms of a preview, that's up to Chaosium. The best that i can do is an add-on, which is laid out the same way as the main document. There is one in the files folder of the Yahoo group

ashesttoashes : Ashes to Ashes

(Yes, 2 Ts)

Apart from the magic rules (which are pretty involved), the setting is pretty close to option neutral. Use whatever ones you like. The one innovation is a story-line based achievement model--join this group, get x benefit; achieve this goal, get y benefit. The add-on illustrates an application of that mechanic in the context of a guild (a prestige class of sorts in which benefits aredoled out based on storyline goals). I don't use SAN or Allegience although I do use Allegiance as a general reference for some NPCs and regions (e.g., Fallingstar tends to be neutral and lawless; Eglantine very law oriented)

[neorxnawang]

Am now advised that a hard copy of Ashes to Ashes will be out in July (i.e., prior to the next con they are going to).

[bloodshadows]

This will be the first thing that I run once my copy of BRP arrives. This is the sort of setting that I live for!