Fioracitta - Now Available

[lawrence.whitaker]

Fioracitta: the Heart of Power is now available.

Fioracitta, the latest campaign setting for Mythras, is here. A complete fantasy city, inspired by the Italian city states of the Renaissance, Fioracitta: The Heart of Power, explores the city, its people, long history, myths, gods, and perhaps most importantly, magic, in evocative detail. Explore how Fioracitta came to dominate the surrounding lands of Ittara; the many factions that vie for control; the enigmatic non-human species who call Fioracitta home; the gods and goddesses who may be ambivalent to their worshippers, or subtly directing their fates.

This is a detailed, but amazingly accessible setting for the Mythras RPG, but can be comfortably integrated into many other fantasy roleplaying system campaigns. Fioracitta offers guidance for creating Fioracittan characters; cabals and secret societies; generating specific historical events to make every campaign unique; and provides a compelling backdrop to campaigns dripping with intrigue and adventure, magic and tragedy.

Join us in Fioracitta’s streets. The book is available from DrivethruRPG in hard and softcover, and The Design Mechanism webstore in hardcover. The PDF is included free with all print purchases.

230 pages

$48.99 hardcover

$38.99 softcover

$15.99 PDF only

DrivethruRPG

TDM Webstore

 

[Jakob]

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.

[Alex Greene]

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.

Edited October 3, 2020 by Alex Greene
Added para on Standard Skills

[Jakob]

5 minutes ago, Alex Greene said:

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.

Thanks! So with regards to combat styles, that means that I best decide whether one or several of the listed weapons are part of a combat style based on campaign type? (I'm using the German edition of Mythras, so I don't know what p. 87 would be in there, but I guess it is the paragraph on Combat Styles in General).

I'm still not sure if I get the new professions right, because they're so different from the format used in Mythras. If there are no standard skills listed (like for the Diarist), does that mean that the profession gets to spend its 100 points between 3 of the professional skills and all standard skills? That would actually make these professions potentially extremely versatile. Or does it mean that they can spend their 100 points only on the listed skills? That would conflict with the core rules, where you can only choose 3 professional skills and raise each one by a maximum of 15.

I mean, in the end, I don't have a problem with treating the profession skill lists as suggestions and having everyone just raising the skills that make sense, so this is not really a problem, more kind of a nitpick ...

[Alex Greene]

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.

Edited October 3, 2020 by Alex Greene

[Prinz Slasar]

13 hours ago, Jakob said:

If there are no standard skills listed (like for the Diarist), does that mean that the profession gets to spend its 100 points between 3 of the professional skills and all standard skills?

Besides what the author's offical rule is, here are two house rules (!) as an alternative:

HR 1: For the Diarist career use "As Scholar" (Gelehrter; german Mythras) for Standard Skills and Professional Skills -  and use the listed Diarist's skills as additional options to choose from. This would be according the normal CRB.

HR 2: To reflect the narrow options of the Diarist career, you can use the cultural skills template twice, so for the "Career step" the Diarist can spend 100 points on the cultural skills again but with the Diarist's skills as additional options. This would be according the normal CRB.



 

Edited October 4, 2020 by Prinz Slasar

[Alex Greene]

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.

[Prinz Slasar]

To continue with HR1, for the Diplomat (p 11) career I would use "Skills: As Courtier (Mythras Core rulebook, p 27)" with the listed Diplomat's skills as additional options.

 

[rsanford]

15 hours ago, Alex Greene said:

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.

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

[lawrence.whitaker]

Soph is Sophia Conner, the TDM Art Director and graphic designer who put Fioracitta together, commissioned all the illustrations, and has also fallen in love with the setting. Her comments were made on Facebook; it's not a review.

[Alex Greene]

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.

[1000buffalo]

On 10/3/2020 at 2:52 PM, Alex Greene said:

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.

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

[Alex Greene]

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!

[Guest Vile Traveller]

I'm slowly working my way through the hardback now. Love the way the city is coming to life as I read the history and the background events.

[Nozbat]

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

[Alex Greene]

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.

[SDLeary]

21 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.

Over the last week?! Your slowing down!

SDLeary

[1000buffalo]

25 minutes ago, SDLeary said:

Over the last week?! Your slowing down!

SDLeary

Ha! Perhaps. I am running games pretty much every night, so there's less minutes to read.  

[SDLeary]

12 hours ago, 1000buffalo said:

Ha! Perhaps. I am running games pretty much every night, so there's less minutes to read.  

As if you need “time” to read anything. 😉

SDLeary