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Shaira

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  1. Hi everyone, Just a quick post to announce that "Three Kings", the first part of my Zero Point campaign for the Call of Cthulhu World War 2 setting "Achtung! Cthulhu", launches today over at DriveThru and RPGNow, published by Chris Birch's new games imprint, Modiphius. You can find details here: Achtung! Cthulhu - Zero Point Part 1 - Three Kings - Modiphius | Achtung! Cthulhu | DriveThruRPG.com Achtung! Cthulhu is investigative Cthulhu roleplaying in the theater of World War 2; "Zero Point" is a globe-trotting campaign against an insidious and inhuman evil across the whole timespan of the Second World War. "Three Kings", the first part of the Zero Point campaign, takes place in mid-1939 in occupied Czechoslovakia, on the eve of World War 2. Very happy to field any questions - I hope you enjoy the setting! Cheers! Sarah
  2. Hi everyone! There's a new update over at the Chronicles of Future Earth website - this week, a report from the Chroniclers of Unthar concerning the cities and environs of the Timosia River, including details of Sapedra, Andalas, and dark and dreadful Typhon, city of the Black Ships; plus a high-res map of the Low City, or waterfront district, of Korudav. Cheers! Sarah
  3. Hi everyone, Just one update at the Chronicles of Future Earth website this week - but it's a biggie. Here's Jennisa Vlathu, ranking pilogiarch at the Chronomancers' Tower, one of the main temples of Unthar in Korudav province (about two days' north-northeast by horse, orn, or chelother, in the direction of Sapedra), talking about "the Ages of Urth". Enjoy! Of the Ages of Urth, lecture by Pilogiarch Jennisa Vlathu. Cheers! Sarah
  4. Hi Pansophy! That is awesome - what a brilliant list of questions and subjects to cover! I shall use that as the foundation for posts to come over at the Chronicles of Future Earth site! Anyone else with anything they'd like covering - please fire away! To start with, I've posted a couple of new pieces on the site today - there's the original sketch map of the Citadel of Korudav, the old city of the "Leaden Walls" fame; and there's a description from the Chronicles of Unthar about the mythical dreaded Helemor - the Whips of Chaos! Cheers! Sarah
  5. Hi Gerall! Yup - there's certainly tons of information about the Springtide Civilizations ready to see the light of day. All being well we should be making an announcement about some cool new Chronicles material coming your way very soon! Cheers, Sarah
  6. Hi guys, I've just put the new website for the Chronicles of Future Earth live today, at The Chronicles of Future Earth - please stop by and check it out! Pansophy - no sooner said than done! I've put a very wee snippet about the Black Lion people up on the new site, and will be posting about the Helemor in the next week or so. The site will be a repository of downloads, setting info, product lists, etc, for the Chronicles setting, plus a place to put snippets and background info you've requested. So, if there's anything you'd like to see up there in the coming weeks and months, please holler - either here or over on the site. Also, rather than set up a separate forum, I've redirected back here. I hope that's cool with you Sverre and everyone - I figured it would be good to drive traffic to these excellent BRP forums! Cheers - and anything you'd like to see, just ask! Sarah
  7. Hi everyone, I've set up a new Facebook page for The Chronicles of Future Earth at (surprise!) The Chronicles of Future Earth | Facebook. Please stop by and check it out. It contains info on the existing Chronicles supplements, plus info on the upcoming Chronicles novel, "The Worm Within", and I've just posted the original sketch map for the Great City of Korudav. I'll be posting updates, snippets, teasers, sketches, maps, etc, on a regular basis - please let me know if there's anything specific you'd like to see! Cheers, Sarah
  8. Hi onearmspence, You're quite right - there are typos in the map key for the Precincts of Korudav. Here's a link to my own version of the map, with the correct references. Many thanks - and I hope you enjoy Chronicles! Best, Sarah
  9. Hi everyone, Just a quick note to say I'll be on the RPG Designers Seminar panel at UK Games Expo in Birmingham this weekend, talking about upcoming Chronicles projects as well as Anglerre, Mindjammer, Cthulhu Britannica, and others), as well as working the Cubicle 7 stand. If you're at the Con, please stop by for a chat if you're passing! Best, Sarah (Chronicles of Future Earth etc writer )
  10. Hi Pansophy, I'm line developer for Starblazer Adventures and Legends of Anglerre, Cubicle 7's two Fate games. Fate's an awesome system once you grok it - not as alien as some more modern rpg rule sets, with plenty of detail and crunch, and capable of some awesome scaling (you can run a combat of a group of PCs attacking a castle, city, or even kingdom, for example, complete with stat blocks). But it's not to everyone's taste - it's less concerned with issues of equipment detail and simulation than BRP, for example, and not as gritty. Aspects, however, are easy to port over. I'm planning on an article for Nick's Uncounted Worlds, but basically you can preserve the aspect rules wholesale; all you need to do is convert the bonus you get from an invoke or compel. +2 is a sizable bonus in Fate; in BRP I'd convert it to a -10% on your die roll. And of course you can invoke multiple aspects if they're applicable - with enough Fate points to burn, you could get a -30% or -40% mod on your roll. One other alternative is to use the bonus to increase the skill chance rather than reduce your roll. So, invoking an aspect "Light-fingered as Hell" when trying to pick someone's pocket would up your Sleight skill from, say, 50% to 60%, or allow you to re-roll. Let us know how you get on! Cheers, Sarah
  11. Hi guys, The format of 'Children of the Worm' is decided by Chaosium rather than me, but right now I believe it's a pdf release. I haven't seen the finished doc, but I'm guessing it will be about 20-30 pages, layout depending. I'll chat with Dustin nearer the time to see if there are POD possibilities. At the very least I'll be printing out my pdf - I prefer hard copy too;-) Cheers! Sarah
  12. Hi John, Up next from Chaosium will be the PDF adventure "Children of the Worm", which is a multi-part scenario set along the Grand Canal of Tegru Kanesh in Korudav. It also provides new critters and magic, and details of the "P'Tek" or Troglodytes, a Jeniri race, and their deity Babisiya (called by them the Dark Mother). That should be out in the next few months - last I heard Dustin was finishing up the art and doing some layout. This summer I'm working on a Chronicles Player's Guide, hopefully (possibly?) for release later in the year (to be confirmed by Chaosium!). This should be a bigger book, about twice the size of the Chronicles core book, detailing the Venerable Autocracy from a player character's point of view - the various regions, races, temples, with lots of cool detail on the Sakari jeniri and esteri and tons of new magic. It's kind of the "everything you need to know about playing in the Venerable Autocracy" book After that - we haven't spoken in detail yet. I have a near-finished scenario "Vales of Yala", which follows on from the paragraph beginning "The scene through the portal changes..." on p89 of the Chronicles core book - although that's not the only way to get there Also there's "Nightmare in the City of Dreams", which follows on from the end of the Worm Within scenario and is a mini-campaign set in and around Ambara, city of the Shalai time dragons.... a bestiary... gazetteer... the Springtide Civilizations sourcebook... adventure pack #3... lots of stuff still to discuss and pin down in detail! Anything there pique your interest? What would you like to see? Cheers! Sarah
  13. Hi everyone, Awesome to see Chronicles getting its own thread - and to see it hit the shelves at last. Happy to answer and questions on the book, setting, or future publications - hope everyone enjoys the read! Cheers Sarah
  14. Sounds cool Steff! Want to know more! I'd certainly buy a PDF mag if it was what I wanted, and either read online or print out. Ideally I'd also like the option for POD - that way I'd be much more inclined to subscribe rather than just buy ad hoc (specially if it was reasonably frequent, too!). Actually not bothered about colour or b&w - my wizened memory has most RPG mags as B&W so I'm fine either way. I'd much rather the art be good, appropriate, with cool maps Cheers, Sarah
  15. Hi guys, Generally I'd use POW in some way, if you want to keep the rules uncluttered. So, either a POW x 5 roll if someone is resisting a "normal" but fear-inducing situation, reducing the multiplier if the source of the fear is more supernatural. (Essentially this is kind of a SAN roll without calling it such.) You *could* make it an opposed or resistance roll. For example, a ghost attacks you POW vs POW - that's actually you resisting the terror the ghost inspires. If it succeeds, you lose MP or suffer another penalty. Personally I like Personality Traits for this kind of thing. Say, you have a "Brave" trait at 70% - you're renowned for your bravery. Then, you can use that to resist pretty much any kind of fear, even if you'd normally (ie without the trait) be looking at a POW x 1 for facing something very scary. Also, you could then use the Complimentary Skill rules to augment another skill - say, if you're trying to fight a scary monster, you could augment your attack skill with 20% of your Brave trait, etc. Cheers, Sarah
  16. Hi Vorax, I always assume everyone plays BRP their own way (I know I do), so there's no particular subset of rules you're 'supposed' to use. Instead, I've furnished things like stat blocks with all the extra bits you *might* need, with no expectation you'll actually use them. So, the stat blocks provide hit locations, strike ranks, fatigue points, *and* major wounds, for you to use or ignore as you see fit. I guess the main exception to the above is the BRP Sorcery rules: they form the heart of the powers used by Urth's temples, so the book will be more readily usable if you use them. Regarding complexity, though, IMHO you'll be fine using the 'Cthulhu subset' of the BRP rules Hope that helps! Cheers, Sarah
  17. My cunning plan is unmasked lol! Really nice to see UW #2 out at last - well done Nick, great job. :-) Looking forwards to more! Cheers, Sarah
  18. Hi Nick, hi all, Looks like I have some work to do! The image on the Chronicles website was actually intended purely as a background placeholder image while we sorted out the cover - which is why it's dark. Now that things are moving at last I think I might have to start doing some updates! BTW, Dustin does have a follow-on module for Chronicles which I believe may be more or less ready to go. After that, subject to demand, there may be campaign packs, sourcebooks, a players guide, etc Cheers, Sarah
  19. I think everybody's right Can I throw "Zothique" into the mix too? And maybe a hint of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Hawkmoon, Lovecraft's Dreamlands, Tekumel, Byzantium, and Leigh Brackett? And, in a *very* bizarre way, the original Planet of the Apes movie? Strangely enough, all of these guys have obviously been a huge influence on Chronicles, but personally the biggest single influence for me has been the *artwork* of Bruce Pennington. Something about his covers for Barsoom, Urth, the Pastel City, Dune, and lots and lots of others is so evocative, I've always wanted to know just *what* was round the corner, what those cities were, who those weirdly dressed priests were, just how far in the future all this weirdness was and what had happened to *our* world to make it so strange? Trying to create a single world which his artwork evoked was probably the spark which kicked it all off for me, a loooong time ago. BTW Dustin let me know yesterday they're a bit closer on the artwork. All being well we'll all have something by GenCon - it's only the cover art we're waiting on! Cheers, Sarah
  20. Hi guys, *is it safe to come back in this thread yet?* Simon - just dropping by to agree with everyone else who's advising you to ignore the whole genre thing when you're writing. If you've got a cool idea for a game book that's going to be fun to play, go ahead and write it. Don't even *think* about genres - that's for the marketing guys later, or for if you need to punt your book to someone in a soundbite "It's a far future dying earth technofantasy setting... it's a far future transhuman hyper-advanced cyberfusion space opera... oh god just read it, pleeeeease?" I'd be very interested to hear what you've got in mind. Go on - what's it about? Cheers, Sarah
  21. Hi Simon, Ohhhh, I *so* agree with you! I think it's a bit like Einstein at university getting squashed by his professors because what he was proposing was "impossible". Everything which doesn't agree with science as we understand it is "impossible" until science as we understand it is proven wrong. Arguing that science-fiction must satisfy the requirements of "science as we understand it" is therefore, imho, completely missing the point - what you've got there is "science", not "science-fiction". There's a clue in the name... ;-) I suppose it boils down to what you want from your scifi. A scifi story which completely throws the baby out with the bathwater on the "logic" front (say, just for the sake of argument, Star Wars - The Phantom Menace ) *does* blow away the illusion of any kind of credibility or realism. On the other hand, telling a scifi story 10,000 years in the future where biotech, extreme longevity, and extreme enhancement haven't irrevocably changed posthuman society is, again imho, running completely counter to credibility and realism - even though it might agree 100% with "science as we currently understand it". I want my scifi to be speculative and transformative, and not ludicrously silly. I avoid the worst excesses of "hey, we'll fly through the planet's core in this submersible" type schlock of really *bad* scifi, and also the "industrial age gearhead nostalgia" of some incredibly restrictive so-called "hard" scifi, where everyone's driving Newtonian spaceships as though the (post-?)quantum revolution never happens. It's a balance which is deeply personal, based on what's personally acceptable to you, your understanding of science, and fiction, and people. Small wonder that everyone argues their corner tenaciously and almost no one agrees on definitions! Cheers, Sarah
  22. Hi Shadow, Chronicles introduces (or "re-introduces"?) demons and divine powers into BRP. The rules are derived from the Stormbringer demon summoning rules (hence the "re-introduced" ), and can be very powerful. Also, "standard" Chronicles sorcery uses the BRP sorcery rules, with extra spells, many of which are jealously guarded by sorcerous schools, temples, what have you. Volume 1 contains a good selection of new magic, and all being well there's lots more to come. Chronicles as a setting also uses the psychic powers rules, calling them psionics, and even some mutations and super powers used as special abilities for some creatures and races. Nothing in the BRP core rules power system is explicitly excluded, although the "Magic" powers aren't directly referenced (you could still use them if you wanted to). Ancient artifacts are very much black box pseudo-magic effects, although there's a cool temple of a god called Khosht the Artificer which has spells to do things like rescue artifacts from hunks of rust, or try to comprehend how a thing works or could be fixed. The artifacts chapter gives you a sizable selection of the key artifacts which are known to the Venerable Autocracy - of course there are lots more ;-) A future full write up of the Temple of Khosht will have a lot more on the ins and outs of artifacts. Regarding other races, there are basically two types: "Jeniri", also known as the Cousins of Man, which are humanoid races, such as the blue-skinned psionic traders called Virikki or the heat-loving Magigi, the "Red Giants of Hagya"; and the "Esteri", the Not-People of Urth, which are not at all humanoid, and include the Hsun Spider Folk (who grow their own biotech called "Hsuntach") and the Ing Shu octopus-like seafarers. There are also lots of human cultures; the Springtide Civilizations are very large, conservative, and varied. The core book contains full write-ups of two human cultures and one each of the Jeniri and Esteri races, plus a table summary of others; future volumes will detail others. The setting also allows you to bring in your own (in case you have a favourite race or culture you'd like to include!). Many of the races keep to themselves, and it's kind of up to you to "dial up" (or down) the non-human element to your own satisfaction; also, each race has an English name, and a corresponding Sakaraic one (the language of the Autocracy). So, the Spider Folk are also called the Hsun, the Blueskins are called Virikki, and so on; that's a theme throughout the game - you can use as much or as little native Sakaraic wording as you like. As I mentioned, Chronicles "feels" very fantasy, and many of the races occupy recognizable fantasy roles (traders, smiths, mercenaries, etc). My own games are dominated by humans and jeniri, with Hsun tinkers selling their hsuntach weapons and Magigi smiths and smelters, but it's really up to you. Cheers! Sarah
  23. IMHO you should be able to port most any fantasy or technofantasy setting material to Chronicles - it's a big world, and there are a *lot* of ways to play. It's not a "questworld" type environment by any stretch of the imagination, but there is a lot of "give" in the background if you want it. For example, the Venerable Autocracy is a bit like Mediaeval China meets technofantasy Byzantium, or some such - very baroque, tradition-bound, even decadent - but there are parts of the Springtide Civilizations which are much younger, with feudal kingdoms, tribal lands, the whole gamut. I think the only thing that would be difficult to transplant wholesale would be elves, dwarves, halflings, etc: there are *analogues* of these guys on Urth, but they have their pseudo-scientific antecedents - the wormlike troglodytes of the Wastes of Kastalon can probably fill the roles of orcs or trolls, but they're Jeniri - "cousins of man" - and ultimately related to human stock. Apart from that, I should imagine you can include a very wide range of material. There's even room for a very "techno-heavy" approach, if that's what you favour. Cheers, Sarah
  24. Hi Steve, Well, to be honest, no there isn't They share the same name, of course: the word "Urth" is the name of the goddess (norn) of fate and the deep past, and also a coinage playing on the prefix "Ur-" (meaning extremely ancient, original, primeval, as in "Urfaust" by Goethe): so "Urth", the extremely ancient Earth, and also the norn of fate ("Wyrd" in Old English). The "extremely old far future Earth" connection is there, but I wouldn't take it further than that - Chronicles is quite definitely a unique "fantasy" setting, with sorcery, demons, monstrous critters, and so on. Of course it exists in a grand tradition of "far future techno-fantasy" with "dying earth" elements - there are a lot of other works in the same space - but it's important that Chronicles *isn't* a dying earth setting - the sun in Chronicles is perfectly healthy . It's no more "new sun" than, say, D&D or BRP are Tolkien - but you'll see many refractions of the "far future fantasy earth" theme throughout the setting Pardon for going on at length - but it's important to be clear about this sort of thing, for obvious reasons. Cheers, Sarah
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