Leketh

Hey all! If you are interested, there is a free Jackals adventure up on Osprey's blog - https://ospreypublishing.com/blog/cat/osprey-games/post/jackals_bonus

Hello all, J-M here, adding some follow answers! So, Travellers will cover a lot of this for the rites (because each tradition gains 4 new rites!). I will post the relevant information here. During Character Creation - Jackals may select any four rites to begin with from their chosen path at character creation. Loremasters have the discretion to limit the rites a jackal has access to based on their background and starting location. Once the Jackal picks their four initial rites, they may spend their skill points on these rites as usually. Learning New Rites - Jackals may, if they are in the correct location, spend an active advancement to learn a new rite (per the rules on page 106 of Jackals). This learning of the rite is in addition to any other seasonal action the Jackal takes at this time. Only 1 new rite may be learned this way during any seasonal break. If the Jackal spends the advancement and takes the Research seasonal action, they may learn 2 rites during a single seasonal action. Now, in regard to the advancements listed in chapter 6, Advancements, the Active Advancements chart has two entries which bear on this: "Learn a new rite. The rite starts at [Dev + Wis]%." This costs 1 active advancement. "Gain access to a magical tradition of the Jackal's culture. They gain 9 Devotion and learn a rite of the chosen tradition, which starts at [Dev + Wis]%." This costs 3 advancements. You are correct in your interpretation on the second example, that is for characters who want to become ritualists. The “Learn a new rite” advancement is to allow Jackals access to other rites in their tradition. Steeped in Secrets: This talent allows (for example) a Ger Jackal to learn the rites of a Luathi Hasheer. It does not grant them Devotion or Rites, but essentially allows them to spend the 3 advancements to become a ritualist of that path. This is due to their inherent knowledge and deep dive into that culture and its traditions. The intent here is to allow a non-ritualist Jackal to develop a spiritual connection with another culture. Learn Rite: This talent allows a ritualist to learn a single rite from within their culture, but it can be outside their tradition (such as a Kahar learning Paths of the Moon). The intent with this talent in flexibility within a culture as well as allowing a player whose Lore rises and does not want to gain another talent to get a free rite. I will clarify these in the errata. I think the key piece of explicit information is that: without these talents, Jackals are limited to the traditions of their culture, and can only learn the rites of the single tradition they initiate into. One can also use the Research seasonal action to learn a rite within their tradition, to pay for the learning, and gain a rite without an advancement. Seasonal Actions Good question. You have the right of it. The combat spheres would include donations of shekels or time to defense of the town/city in question, donations of weapons or armor recovered from the War Road or that the Jackal commissions, or by forgoing the Takan bounty in the area. As for the rules on the houses: the quality refers to the size and location of the home (As see on page 188), the level refers to the level of feature (so Barracks level 2). As for the total number of followers a house could have, I did not consider a maximum. My gut reaction would be “A house can support a total number of followers equal to its [quality + level] x 10. I am working on an example writeup for a blog post (and will incorporate the maximum rule when I do). I will link it here when it goes live. I hope this provides some clarity on these topics! I appreciate the questions and plan on incorporating all of these into the errata and hopefully the second printing! I am delving into a couple of free adventures which Osprey will post (hopefully we will have 4+ of them this year) and I can repost them here when they go live. And if there are any more questions, please let me know! J-M

Lofgeornost, I will be glad to. I am heading out camping for the day, but when I get back, I will go through the remaining questions and write up the answers this weekend. J-M

Hey all! d(sqrt(-1)) reached out and brought to my attention there were questions and helped organize them for me. Thanks! I have tried to answer all of them, and I am now following this thread, so please, if you have questions or comments, let me know. Additionally, if you are interested, I have run two Jackals Streams: · Birth of a Jackal · Cult of Ceenon I am writing these up and Osprey will put these up as free adventures on their site later this year. Also, Dungeon Muser has run several Jackals streams, which you can find here and here. Additionally, if you want to check it out, I talk about the behind the scenes of Jackals and the Zaharets, here. On to the answers! 1. p57: Is there a minimum chance of success? Modifiers could easily knock it down to 0% (I think in one of the YT videos you mention it is 1%?) – Yes, 1% is always the minimum. I will add that in next time. 2. p65: Attack. The section on Clash spending sounds like it applies to melee only but doesn't actually say so. So, if someone shoots at me can I make it a Clash and shoot back, highest successful roll hits? What if I dodge, obviously I can't damage them then (p 70 sort of implies this) – Yes, ranged attacks can be clashed against with a drawn ranged weapon. I will clarify that. Thank you! 3. p70: Clash Point costs - Clash a charging enemy. Highest success deals the damage it would seem, but it doesn't stop the movement etc. (there's no definition of charge?) – There is not, I will rework to moving to engage. The intent is that there is the person charging into melee can take damage from the defender but will close into melee. However, there is the talent ‘Pinning Shot’ on p 112 grants this cessation of movement. 4. p79: Rite Defence/Save Effect - do I have to spend clash to resist a rite or is it just a normal opposed roll? p70 doesn't mention it as something to spend Clash on. – You do not need to spend CP to resist a rite. 5. p83: Crack of Flame. Enemies suffer penalty to non-defence skills equal to twice Devotion. Is that maximum Devotion or current Devotion? – When dealing with this kind of mechanic for rites, it is referring to the ritualist’s Devotion attribute, not their Devotion Points. 6. p107: Advanced Skill Talents (AST). Is it at 100% or 120% you get your first AST? Text here makes it seem like 120%, but p 117 under Rite and Fate talents says 100%. p208 Nahunum have Combat 120% and it says they get a talent, which implies at 120% - It is 100% for the first, and each 20% above 100%. 7. p109: Healing: Triage and Respite say limited to once per day. Is that 1/day total or 1/day/subject? – Good clarification. It is 1/day/subject. 8. p109: Healing Arcana specialist says use acalana resin for 1 Clash instead of 2 in combat. Where does it say 2 Clash points to do this? p70 doesn't mention it. – I will update the ‘Retrieve an Item from a pack’ to include a reference to Acalana (And add that to the item description). 9. p196: Many creatures have a Corruption rating. Does this do anything or is it purely for the purposes of rites like Touch of Law (p82)? – In the core book, it is primarily for touch of law and as an indication of how corrupt the monster is. In Travelers and future supplements there will be more things which trigger off a monster’s corruption, so I put it into the stats here in the core book to set that up. 10. p68: Mettle: Says to recover lost Mettle requires a full day of rest, plus make END check to regain 1/1d4/4 Mettle. p74 says "One night of rest in a bastion removes 1 point of Mettle damage". Is this in addition, or is there a contradiction here? Also is there a specific definition of "bastion" - Village? Town? Orsem? (I see that it could be that you recover 1 point overnight if you don't rest all day) –The intent was that the rules on page 68 were for when a character is at 0 mettle and needed to recover, with the rules on page 74 were the standard rules. I will clarify this in the errata. A bastion is any place of civilization, village, town, city, and Orsem. 11. p85: Powder of Ibn al-Hanef: Range 3 yard radius, Advancement: range 6 yards. Dust of Geb (p86) has range 3 feet, and advancement says increase range to 6 yards - should this be 6 feet? Looks a bit like a copy and paste error. – It should be yards. 12. p111: Quick Reflexes, repeated in Unarmed Combat (p112) - do these work for both? i.e., if you choose Quick Reflexes (Melee) does it only apply to Melee rolls? Skillful Strike explicitly says "Unarmed Combat check" but Quick Reflexes doesn't. Others that cross over e.g., Graceful Reflexes (Melee/Unarmed) just add +3 to initiative score so do they stack? – Graceful reflexes would stack. I need to update Quick Reflexes for Melee to say explicitly ‘Melee Combat checks’ 13. p117: Imbue Rite: When the imbued rite is activated does this require a skill roll? Presumably of the maker's skill (at time of manufacture?) as the holder may have DEV=0 and therefore no relevant skill. Or does it just work? – It was designed as written to just work once a day, no chance of a critical. But I may write up an expansion to that rule, which I am testing at my table and post it on Osprey’s blog. This rule, right now, requires a WIS x5 roll by the wielder to activate. It is still being play tested, so caveat emptor. 14. p169: Awakening an Item to greatness: rule says Wisdom x 3, example says Wisdom x 5. – Wisdomx3 is correct. I will correct that in the errata. 15. Chapter 4, Clash System/Combat/Step 3: Initiative. The rules say to roll once for each type of foe, but in play the initiative slots do not belong to any given individual; the players (for the party) and the gm (for the NPCs) decides who takes any particular available initiative slot. So, if as (in the example) the foes are 1 Oritakan with an initiative of 18 and 3 Norakan with an initiative of 15, can only 1 foe use the initiative 18 slot and the other 3 have to take the initiative 15 slot? Or could all three Norakan move at 18 and the Oritakan at 15? – It would be 1 foe group (Say the norakan) attacking on a slot (like the 18 one) and then the Oritakan (and if it was in a group, they would all go on) 15. 16. Chapter 4, Clash System/Combat/Step 5: Combat Rounds/Clash Points/Improved Action Effects/Sweeping Arc. This reads 'If an attack hits, also deal half damage to one adjacent target.' Does this mean, in effect, that the character is making a second attack and needs to roll to hit? If not, it would seem that a good tactic for fighting an opponent with high weapon skill would be to attack the person next to him or her and then use this effect to do damage to the harder-to-beat foe without having to roll an attack. – The effect of sweeping arc automatically deal the damage to the adjacent target. And yes, that is a great tactic to use. But, if you are attacking the easier to hit opponent, yes, you will deal some to the other guy, but your main attacks will most likely end the easier to hit opponent. It allows a PC (or monster, as they can use the same tactic) to soften up a harder to hit foe. 17. Chapter 5, Rites. Are there going to be more of these? As it stands, there are 4 for each type of ritualist, which means players have access to all the rites of their tradition from character generation onward. Yes, there are! At the point, all traditions will get 4 more rites in the Travelers on the War Road book, and I am working on many more rites, rituals (Seasonal rites), and traditions. Which I will probably see about putting out on the blog to test out and then compiling into a Rites and Rituals of the Road book. 18. Chapter 5, Rites/Luathi Rites/Hasheer/Paths of the Moons. This useful rite depends on the phases of the three moons: "Certain effects of this rite are not accessible when the moon in question is new. Targets make Defence rolls as Simple checks when the moon is less than half full." First, which effects are not available? Second, how should the GM determine the moons' phases? The Lunar Calendar in chapter 8 Running the Game, covers only 1 month, though I suppose one could extrapolate from it. It's not clear how a GM would know when eclipses would occur, though. – I am working up a simple rule for generating lunar phases, which I can get posted ASAP. I think this should work. I used Donjon’s campaign calendar here for tracking the days and lunar phases. Here is a link to my calendar code. Year 157 would be the start of the book in Jackals. If a moon is new moon phase, for those days, that option is not available. 19. Chapter 5, Rites/Gerwa Rites/Hekas. These alchemists prepare their powders, etc. out of combat. What sort of lab do they require to do this and how long does the process take? Is it something that could be done just before entering an 'adventure site' (lost city, etc.) or do you need a sizable setup and a fair amount of time? – The intent with the Hekas rites is that they are imbuing elements with their knowledge and power and can prepare these before entering an adventure site (I typically have them prepare before leaving a city). This represents a sort of infusion of essence, a kind of ‘as above, so below’ sympathy. However, I am developing rituals (which is the term I am using for rites which can only be invoked as a seasonal action) which will require the Hekas to have a lab. I am also working on that as a potential house style in that book. However, if you want to have a ‘spell component’ cost to their rites, 50 ss per rite would not be wildly inappropriate. 20. Chapter 5, Rites/Gerwa Rites/Hekas/Powder of Ibn al-Hanef. What is the duration of this powder's effect once it is successfully cast onto an incorporeal spirit; that is, how long does it keep the spirit visible and tangible? There must be some interval, since if the spirit succeeds in its defence, "duration is halved." But the duration listed for the spell seems only to address the fact that the hekas prepares the powder in advance and reserves Devotion points into it until the powder is thrown onto a spirit: "Duration: Sustained: indefinite interval; lasts until used or dismissed." – Great catch! The duration was cut during layout, and I should have caught that. The Duration once the powder is invoked should be 2 minutes/1 minute on a save. 21. Chapter 5, Rites/Gerwa Rites/Hekas/Imbue Lesser Elements. It's not clear to me what this rite is for. The general description states that "this is the basic rite the hekas use to prepare items for use in rites... This has the effect of making the item indestructible." Does that mean that a hekas has to use this ritual to create the powders for Powder of Ibn al-Hanef and Dust of Geb? It seems not, since the reserve Devotion cost for this is 2 points, while for those rites it is 3. Or is the point only to make an item indestructible? The description notes that this "provides a +1 to damage or protection on appropriate items." How long does this last? The duration given in the description is the standard: "Sustained; indefinite interval; lasts until used or dismissed." What does 'used' mean in this context? Or is this a copy-paste error from other spell descriptions. – The intent here is not that the need to imbue the lesser elements for the dusts and tokens in the core book. It serves as the base for rites that require refined elements. To start, for the core game, it makes the items indestructible and gives the bonus listed. Travelers and ‘hopefully’ the magic book I have in mind, will have rites and rituals which build off of this rite. If I can share one of those rites to show how that will work, I will. The rite will stay in effect, with the Hekas suffering the reserve cost, until they dismiss it, or until they die. It should not say ‘used’; I will amend that in the errata. 22. Chapter 5, Rites/Gerwa Rites/Hekas/Nightmare Token. What is the duration of this rite? The description says only "Sustained." According to the earlier general description under Rites by Tradition, "A ritualist can sustain some rites over multiple intervals if it has a duration of 'sustained.' The ritualist must pay the cost at the end of each interval or the rite ends.' So how long is the interval in this case? One night, once the spell has begun to work. – The interval of this rite is 10 days/1 week. Thank you for all the great questions, and I hope these answers help. I will add these to the errata doc I am compiling. J-M

I will do so! I am checking with Osprey on what can be shared and what can't be. I have some art I commissioned I can share, as concept designs for the game.

That is a really good point. Plus, it is the BRP forum.

I will see what I can share. I do have some early maps and art which are mine... Ooooh. The Springs does have a lot of Bronze Age Collapse gaming right now

Dimbyd has it correct. I would point to the formats for Romance of the Perilous Land and Paleomythic for insight into the Jackals format. And both it and the campaign it will be in English. The touch stones for the campaign are things like The Darkening of Mirkwood (as a campaign set over many in game years) and the unification of Israel under Saul as seen in Samuel. Essentially, the goal of the campaign is to take the Luathi from city states to (hopefully!) a kingdom. Your campaign will vary of course! It has been suggested I start a sub-reddit for Jackals. I plan to engage with fans, work on new supplements, and interact as I am able. As for expanded fan material, that is something that will have to be discussed with the publisher in the future. Bakker's material - I hear you about the love to hate and hate to love them. The violence is raw and ever-present, and I think his commentary on violence in our culture and media is worth considering. Especially as you interact his philosophy and cognitive science background. For me, it is less the Second Apocalypse and more the First in Earwa which inspires me. The bronze age of his world is realized and deep and informs the future. Perhaps the reason it dug so deep into my writing is because I read it during my studies, so they are linked in my mind.

Woah, that is a lot of responses. I will try to start sharing what I can! (Thank you for reaching out and letting me know about this and the RPGpub thread). OpenQuest is the core of the rules system. As for why OQ and not 13th Age, I love d100 gaming, and for Kalypsis—the setting of Jackals—the super heroic nature of 13th Age was not a good fit. I tried several other systems (d20 based) while developing the setting and none fit the setting and theme as well as my old love OQ! I ended up with some minor changes to character creation and combat options. Looking at the ANE epic poems, I wanted something that felt like the back and forth combat of Homer and others. So. I built a Clash mechanic. You have a pool of points to turn attacks into opposed rolls, which if you win, you deal damage to the attacker. Monsters have a smaller pool of points to do the same thing. There are also other ways to spend these points to affect rolls, damage, and other things. Playtesters seem to like all the interaction and choices. Magic is lower in Jackals and the rites (spells) are unique. They are tied to culture and traditions. The setting is humanocentric, with cultural skill bonuses for the culture you are from. The setting, the cultures, the religions are all very analogous to their historical counterparts: Luathi (Israel post-Exodus), Ger (Egypt), Trauj (desert tribes), and Melkoni (Greek). As for influences and origins—I have a love of fantasy and the ANE world & languages—so I wanted to blend the two for the setting. I also run a lot of Glorantha, so fantasy Bronze Age is in my gaming DNA. Thematic influences for the setting and campaign include: the Baal cycle, the books of Judges and Samuel, Gilgamesh, Homer, the Hittite cycles, and Bakker’s Second Apocalypse. I have never heard of Zenobia, but it is now on my radar! As for pdf options, that is in Osprey’s hands, but I know they are known for their electronic versions.

Hey everyone, John-Matthew here. Someone reached out to the Iconic podcast about Jackals, and mentioned they heard about the game on this thread, and I came straight over. I wanted to say how exciting it was for me to see a thread about Jackals on the BRP forums. It was surreal to find it here! If you have any questions, I will answer them if I can. J-M

I am in as well.