Alex Greene

The Book of Schemes is now available on DTRPG, by the way.

Guelden is a fun little place to romp around in. I'm sure you're going to adore The Book of Schemes, not least because the first part of it is all about, well, schemes.

Mechanisms for scheming, Machiavellian intrigue, and general shenanigans behind the scenes are some of the most fun activities to GM, and to play. And this is true of any Mythras setting - Fioracitta, Guelden, Mythic Rome, Mythic Constantinople.

Book of Factions.

Luther Arkwright.

When TDM moved to their new online shop site, they took the time to update the Luther Arkwright core rulebook, retooling it for Mythras rather than RQ6. New logo bottom left, and Mythras has replaced RQ6 and RuneQuest in the interior, afaict.

If there is a new Luther Arkwright, it's probably going to have to include more Heart of Empire and Legend of Luther Arkwright material, including rules for creating Homo novus and Homo eximia characters, and so on. As well as, possibly, setting stories hundreds, even thousands, of years into the future.

I'm keeping an eye out on this title.

Bad news: the KS did not meet its funding goals.

The good news: Aeon Games have launched the book in PDF today, and a pre-order for the hardcopy.

The Design Mechanism are running a variety of scenarios during GenCon, based on Mythras, as well as their Casting The Runes horror game. Just to let you know that there are two scenarios being run on 17th Sept 1pm and 18th Sept 9am, set in Fioracitta, called "A Race Through Dark Places." I believe there are still free slots available, but most of the rest - including scenarios for Destined - have now been fully booked, subject to the inevitable cancellations and last minute dropouts.

If you were running a Mythras-based scenario at any given GenCon, what setting would you play, and what would be your scenario's general idea and theme?

3 minutes ago, g33k said:

There's also the Supers demo-product for Mythras, which I understand is planned for a full treatment...?

And of course one could easily "roll their own" in BRP with the BGB; but that's decidedly not a ready-to-go splat/sourcebook/bestiary.


As the OP seems most interested in D&D specifics, I've gotta circle back to Classic Fantasy.  What-say, @threedeesix?  Mind-Flayers and other Illthid's under BRP?  Do they include "Psionics" or Psi-like powers?

 

Basically, check out Luther Arkwright. That really is your best bet. The psionic powers listed there include drain prana, evil eye, focus force, inflict pain, mind probe, psychic wrack, sap vigour, and synaptic puppetry. Telepathy, clairvoyance, and telekinesis are a given.

Everything a growing illithid needs.

3 hours ago, AaronLionhart said:

I am really tempted to check this Mythras thing.

@svensson I know it sounds incredibly strict, but can you tell me if I can find in those books a d100 version of the classic Mind Flayers or a bootleg of them?

Not to my recall, no. Illithids make extensive use of psionics, and neither Mythras nor Mongoose have rules for psionics or psychic phenomena, though give me time and a green light from Loz to write a psi supplement for Mythras, and I'll quite happily conjure up a bootleg mind flayer critter for you.

You know what does have psionics rules? After The Vampire Wars, Luther Arkwright, and Worlds United. Luther Arkwright is your best bet for bootlegging Mind Flayers - just use the stats for Disruptor Bishops and add a little brain cannibalism, and you're there.

Both Mythras and Mongoose Legend have non-humans: Mythras, in its Creatures section of the Core Rule sectionbook, and Mongoose Legend in its Monsters of Legend 1 and 2.

Fioracitta; The Heart of Power, a supplement for Mythras, has non-human species listed in the Characters chapter as peoples, not as monsters. Not only are non-human characters playable in Fioracitta, they are beings who can be interacted with and considered to be part of society.

To call a being which speaks a "monster" in that Mythras setting is an unforgivable slur. Same, really, for their other settings such as Lyonesse, Worlds United, and Luther Arkwright. But yeah, go and check out Mythras and Mongoose Legend.

Unarmed really needs to include Traits such as Throw, Pin, Deck Foe, Gut Punch and so on. People see the 1d3 damage and think "Oh, that's not much," and then they get into combat and some local thug knocks their teeth out.

Well, that was really easy.

I just sped up all the stat blocking of the supporting characters, antagonists, and special guest stars of the adventure Scandalous Liaisons by using OpenOffice Calc. Generated them all at once. Physical combat stats and social conflict stats, too.

5 hours ago, Nozbat said:

Sadly...I just haven’t had time.. but I will Alex...I promise.. and post my comments 

Too much reading about other things ..and writing AS campaign.. reading stuff to try and look vaguely competent in RQG.. oh and I also work sometimes

Sure thing.  Take your time on your projects. I'm a lot closer now to finishing Scandalous Liaisons than I have been in months. Just stat blocking and a bit of preliminary proofing to do.

2 hours ago, 1000buffalo said:

I'd agree wholeheartedly after reading through it for the last week. Wonderful city, great sourcebook - comprehensive, and gives a fantastic sense of place.

Thank you!

1 hour ago, Nozbat said:

How many cows wide and how many cows tall? (We Irish still work in cow measurement and never got into this new fangled metre system)

 

56 cow heights (withers height) or 32 cow lengths (nose to tail). 827 hands.

Giotto's Campanile in this world is about 84 metres tall, so I imagine that in my Fioracitta there would be architects who would create towers that high or higher, up to the limits of stone and wood.

So imagine an architect who discovers that some glassblower is making sheet glass plates metres across, and some other guy is using Rhonaran concrete for walls and buildings (unlike our world, they never lost the secret of making sturdy concrete when their Empire fell), and who decides to build a tower of glass reaching more than a hundred metres, with experts in material sciences from Prosoche University joining in ...

I just had someone ask me about the really flexible history of Fioracitta, and the new historical events table which allows you to write in a chunk of history or a single event that isn't in the listed histories.

I told them what I'm saying here - this includes players. If they want to create an ancestor so they have an ancestor spirit to conjure up, that's what the tables are there for. As long as you and the GM write down the details, once written, so they can be brought up again later in the same campaign.

And if you finish your Fioracitta campaign, and come back later to start afresh, you don't have to have that ancestor, or that historical event, or even that Shadow Society group or whatever, turn up in Fioracitta in that entirely separate campaign.

Each campaign, each GM's campaign, can be different; with differing details in its history, different historical characters, and so on. You can literally never run out of adventures in Fioracitta - and they can all be just as canon as the next group's version down the road.

Okay, well in this case I'll definitely have to bring in something about how big the interiors and exteriors of Fiorese civic and other buildings are expected to be.  I'm definitely inclined to come up with a Fioracitta Companion, in that case, as one of the items on top of my to-do list after Scandals.

1 hour ago, Prinz Slasar said:

One thing that confused me a bit was that sentence about building height in the Gioconda district. "[...] their imposing towers climbing into the sky as civic engineering can provide." (p 162)
I'd searched for further informations in the illustrations and text paragraphs but didn't find more about it.

Is the sentence written in a hyperbolic sense?

The real world Tower of Arnolfo in Florence is 95 metres high. Civic engineering in the Renaissance created some buildings which were imposing back then, but which would seem to be lacking in ambition compared to the skyscrapers of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Large buildings, and large interiors, were a thing for the real world Renaissance, as architects created new ways of reinforcing structures against gravity, and this is reflected in the fictional setting of Fioracitta - in its temples, the Tamaggian temples, in particular.

I think the words "as high" should have gone in there somewhere. I would have to check to see if it was in one of the manuscripts I sent. I would hate to find that I wrote over the words "as high" in my haste to cut and paste the end of the sentence in one of the edits, because mea culpa if that is so.

I thought I had written something about towers rising 60-100 metres above the ground somewhere.

I'm going to open this here and just let you know that if and when anyone has any questions or comments about Fioracitta, let me know here (and if this thread is more than a week old, open a new thread and tag me in the opening post - I don't like thread necromancy much either).

Current topics:-

- comments about problems you may have in receiving the hardcopies (the covid crisis is still upon us, and some post may be delayed still)

- whatever you might find about the book that grabs your interest

- hopefully, deeper questions for anyone who's had a good look through it.

- and yes, there are one or two things in the book which might be counted as Easter eggs ...

Again, that's what Scandalous Liaisons will do - allow players to explore Fioracitta and make use of plenty of references within the book.

Oh, and there are some useful references to Mythras Companion, if you have that book and want to put those rules into action, along with rules for players and GMs who do not have access to that book.

4 hours ago, 1000buffalo said:

Just ordered up a softcopy of Fioracitta, so will let you know when it arrives.  I usually like to do my first read through a printed book (when I get one).

I hope you took advantage of the free PDF option for softcover and hardcover purchases.

I think everyone who's worked on Fioracitta is hugely gratified by its reception this weekend, and hope to see the title really taking off in time to come. I know I am hugely pleased, and grateful.

Depending on sales of Fioracitta and the adventure I'm still writing, which I'm calling Scandalous Liaisons, this weekend I've seriously been contemplating further products to support the Fioracitta line. If Fioracitta takes off, at least I know I'll be happy to create further works for this supplement and setting. I've spoken to people, and there's some good feedback for this idea.

So, I'm casting feelers out here. Once you've got Fioracitta in your hands, or on your tablets, laptops, whatever, what do you think? Do you want more titles to expand upon the glamour and weirdness and charm of The Heart of Power? Supplements and adventures?

Give it a think. Let us know.

2 hours ago, rsanford said:

Who is Soph? Was their an online review done that we can listen to?

Soph Conner, one of the incredibly talented editors at TDM, in a comment posted on Facebook. The last in a line of editors of Fioracitta, who worked with Dean Kotz and myself to turn that book into something truly impressive.

If and when someone makes a review of Fioracitta, I'll post the links here.

I'll be here tomorrow to answer more questions. This has been a great day. Soph even described Fioracitta as "something superb, which deserves to be up there with the great cities of fantasy gaming."

Thank you, everyone.

Here's two examples of Journalists which show how much of a difference the 100 point spread makes.

Journalist Aliboglio puts some of his 100 points in Bureaucracy, Commerce, Customs, and Influence. Aliboglio likes to schmooze, press the flesh, and dig through archives to get at the truth. Financial records, birth registries and Tamaggia church records are all the same.

Journalist Baranna puts points in Athletics, Deceit, Insight, Perception, and Stealth. She is used to climbing places where she is not welcome in order to get at the truth, she is glib, and she knows how to hide, cold read her interviewees, and eavesdrop.

The Standard Skills you put your points onto will define your character's metier and forte. Insight and Influence, for example, make your character good at reading people and manipulating them. Commerce and Customs, on the other hand, make the character a born haggler.

54 minutes ago, Jakob said:

Okay, let's start with the questions ... I'm a little bit rusty with Mythras character creaton, so maybe these are dumb, but nevertheless:

The "skills for Fiorese characters" (p. 9/10): I don't quite get where these come into play ... are they meant to replace cultural skills?

Professions: Several of them (e.g. the Diarist, the Diplomat) seem to lack standard skills to choose from (and they don't point you toward a core rules profession either, like a lot of the others do).

Combat Styles: Is every combat style for one and only one of the listed weapons? The list format (several entries separated by commas, with the last one lead by an "or") seems to imply that.

As for Standard Skills, p. 38 of Mythras applies. "Standard skills are common to everyone. They represent innate abilities and skills that most people employ on a regular basis from any walk of life." I always assumed that every character possesses these skills at their base chance, and you can share your 100 skill points among them.

Most characters, and practically all Fiorese characters in particular, are Civilised. Barbarian and Nomadic exceptions are listed on p. 15 of Fioracitta. Because characters are Civilised, their cultural background skills can be drawn from those listed on p. 15 of Mythras. The skills listed here are for their professions. The 100 points can be spread among those cultural background skills from Mythras as well as the skills listed for these professions.

Some of these professions are new. There is no cultural equivalent to them in Mythras. It kind of makes the character options unique to this book. You may complain about the lack of useful skills for Journalists, but in my experience journalists in real life seem to have no useful skills whatsoever, so.

as for the Combat Styles, p. 87 of Mythras still stands. There's an or in their listed Combat Styles, too. You just don't see it in the pages of Mythras.

You do, however, have to choose which Trait to learn when your character chooses their Combat Style. If it says "choose one from," that's the Trait you pick for your Style when you're using it to fight. It doesn't just grant flexibility in Combat Styles, such that no two warriors, even with the same characteristics and Combat Style %age, will fight in exactly the same way; the difference in Traits can be used to identify the character by their fighting stances, the way they apply their abillities, and even to identify the fighting stable or teacher who taught them to fight.

I just got an email - Fioracitta is finally out on DrivethruRPG!

There'll be a big official announcement, but here's a link, large as life!