The Kingdom, Long Divided (Two GLOG Classes, A Bright Place in the Sky)

These classes were invented for A Bright Place in the Sky, a setting that the inimitable Locheil (of The Nothic's Eye fame) and I began to work on in collaboration about half a year or so ago. The initial basic prompt was Sengoku period Japan meets Mughal India, but as we kept poking at it the scope of inspiration has expanded somewhat.

Lacking the energy to give an exhaustive summary, I will simply say that it is a setting of sky islands, where the aerography of the world matches the psychogeography of the people—as people grow united, their islands draw together and merge, and conversely schism and controversy can cause the land to crack and fall apart. The center of the world is ostensibly under the authority of the great Noonday Empire, whose immortal porcelain golem-emperor and current possessor of the Mandate of Radiance is a sad twink in an impenetrable sky palace. His realm is divided and fractious, and many usurpers have risen with a dream of unifying the lands.

It is said that a prophesied world-conqueror will one day arise with the Mandate of Earth and bring together all the lands under heaven into a single goddess-island, Pangæa, but this has yet to take place.

Beyond the remit of the Noonday Emperor, the world devolves into extremes. The six dikpālas, or directional deities, rule the six corners of the universe. Each presides over, or represents, a primordial energetic process or principle, and exists in a syzygy with their opposite—they are Radiance and Darkness, Sea and Sky, and Fire and Fertility. Earth, the goddess Pangæa, will be born when all the dialectical tensions are resolved.

The number six is important.

Here are two classes for this setting, representing the forces of Radiance and Darkness. We are currently writing for g24, which seems to increasingly be emerging as the “default” GLOG within the milieu we inhabit, but this is of course subject to change.

 

Censor

+1 INIT on even levels, +1 SAVE on odd levels

Starting Equipment: An officious blue-and-white robe and saffron headband, a tall and distinctive hat, a writing kit (inkstick, instone, paper scrolls, brushes), sturdy travel boots, a spyglass, a jar of fine wine, and your medium Sword of Judication.

Skills: Calligraphy and 1) Herblore, 2) Oratory, 3) Autopsy, 4) Couture, 5) Fire Investigation, 6) Traditional Dance.

Source: yixique or "eunuchboy"

A: Sword of Judication, Sacrosanct, +1 MD

B: Measurer of Men, Requisition, +1 Hit

C: Solar Glare, +1 MD

D: Last Judgment, +1 Hit

Δ: Destroyer of Worlds

A: Sword of Judication

You possess a Judicator Devil - a spirit of terrible poison heat and bone-prickling light, bound physically into a sword-shaped ceramic shell, and spiritually by a series of oaths sworn to the Noonday Emperor. So long as the Emperor yet lives (and he has lived for a very, very long time), your Devil is sworn to uphold the law and punish lawbreakers. In practice, this weapon is a medium golem-sword which hovers eternally at your side, taking up no slots in your inventory.

If you issue a formal accusation of a crime against somebody, you gain a cumulative +1 Hit with your Sword of Judication against them for each of means, motive, and opportunity you can correctly identify. If you are able to state all three, you can unsheath your Devil from their ceramic shell, revealing a blade like a forked tongue of brilliant howling flame.

In this state, your Sword hits against AC 10, deals an extra die of damage against your target and all known accomplices, and inflicts horrific searing wounds that do not naturally heal. Once your target surrenders or is slain, the Sword will return itself to its sheath.

If an enemy offers false surrender and tries to attack you or flee, you can instantly interrupt them with an iajutsu slash with the unsheathed blade - if successful, your strike is guaranteed critical hit.

A: Sacrosanct

You are legally and spiritually sacrosanct. Anybody of lower rank than you must SAVE to be able to willingly harm you unless you have attacked them first; those who consider themselves particularly honorable or loyal will feel themselves obligated not to strike you even if you do attack them first.

B: Measurer of Men

At the conclusion of a conversation with an intelligent being, you can ask and receive truthful answers to 2 of the following questions:

• What do they want the most?
• What do they fear the most?
• Who do they trust the most?
• Who do they despise the most?
• How do they feel about me?

You can use this ability multiple times on the same person, but only once on any given day. If you obtain answers to all five questions about a person, then you have their measure and can no longer be surprised by them, even in your sleep.

B: Requisition

You may submit written mail to any bird (save the perfidious crow) and have it safely delivered to the palace of the Noonday Emperor, where it will be read by one of countless eunuch functionaries. In addition to updating your bosses on your progress, you may requisition equipment necessary to the completion of your duties.

You may safely ask for commonplace equipment and items, which will be shipped to you at no cost. More complex requests can be negotiated, but the most requested (and most regulated) special dispensation is the delivery of additional MD, which do not return to your pool once expended.

Keep track of the total number of MD you have requisitioned—each time you do so, roll 1d[Templates]. If you score equal to or under your current tally, the palace will refuse to send you anything more or respond to any of your mail until you complete a major service on their behalf, at which point your count resets.

It takes requisitions 1d6 days to arrive in civilized areas, 1d8 days in the boonies, 1d10 days in the wilderness, 1d12 in foreign cities, and 1d20 otherwise.

C: Solar Glare

Your eyes shed sunlight like bullseye lanterns at will in a 60’ cone, and dim light for another 60’ beyond that. You can see lies and ill-intent as clouds of bruise-purple and ocher-red smoke, respectively.

You can release a blinding flash of light from either of your eyes, causing anyone in the sunlit area to check HRTS or else be blinded for 1d6 rounds. Using your glare in this way is highly taxing on the vision; you must keep that eye closed until you perform two of the following: spend ten minutes in total darkness, drink a cup of tea, go to sleep.

If you flash both your eyes at once, the check is made with disadvantage and the blindness lasts for 1d6 turns.

D: Last Judgement

When you unsheath your Sword of Judication, you can do so with a blazing draw-cut that turns your target into a walking ghost, dealing 3d6 damage directly to the victim’s STR and CON scores at the rate of 1 point each day.

With bedrest and medical attention they can check with HRTS each to forestall the damage, but this will only prolong their suffering. If there is a cure, it is a closely-kept secret.

Δ: Destroyer of Worlds

Fire your Atomastra at something totally impenetrable and survive the consequences.

You are immune to ability score damage from all sources. Those who make eye contact with you see a reflection of that which you have wrought, and must SAVE or be terrified.

Psychopomp

+1 SKLL on even levels, +1 SNEK on odd levels 

Starting Equipment: A black-and-indigo turban and bodysuit set, a light lacquered forehead-protector and disc-plate, a pair of smoked-glass spectacles, two light sickles or punch-daggers of matte steel, a light matchlock pistol, a spool of garotte-wire, a straw rain-cloak, an alms bowl, and a box of agarwood and dragons-blood incense.

Skills: Moving Quietly and 1) Ventriloquism, 2) Massage, 3) Knife-Grinding, 4) Ropework, 5) Acrobatics, 6) Vocal Mimicry.

Source: Mizushyne

A: Wheel-Turner, Thunderbolt Tantra, +1 Hit

B: Weight of Sin, +1 MD

C: Shinigami Eyes, Web of Silk and Shadows, +1 Hit

D: Samadhi or Vipassana, +1 MD

Δ: Arahant

A: Wheel-Turner

It is a deep and profound truth of existence that all things are transient, excepting the state of non-existence. All people will inevitably die, and be reborn as according to their karma—as such, many believe that there’s not much virtue in punishing bad men.

Your opinion, and the opinion of the sect that trained you, is that there’s nothing wrong with giving the universe a little helping nudge.

You have a Karma score. When you kill a wicked person, gain a point of Karma for each infamous deed they have committed. Your maximum Karma score is equal to your [Templates] x 2.

Whenever you roll equal to or under your Karma on any d20 roll, you can treat it as an automatic success if it were to be advantageous to you.

A: Thunderbolt Tantra

Most of those charged with the moral cultivation of the sangha achieve their work through long, patient teaching. Your brand of illumination comes in a single razor-sharp stroke of inspiration.

When you strike a surprised person, spend one or more points of Karma to deal [Karma]d6 additional damage. If you could reasonably describe your maneuver as a plunging attack, you may also add any falling damage you would’ve taken.

B: Weight of Sin

While clasping your hands in prayer, you may choose to modify your physical weight according to your karmic burden. At 0 Karma, nothing happens; at 1-2, you can tread silently and don’t set off pressure plates or cause floorboards to creak; at 3-5, you are light as a feather and can fall unharmed, ride wind currents, and skip across the surfaces of water; at 6-8, you are effectively weightless and can move around as if under microgravity; theoretically, at 9+ you would ascend into the Heavens like a helium balloon.

You can spend Karma to force another to bear the weight of their sins with a touch—multiply their weight by 1 + [infamous deeds], and reduce their SNEK and INIT bonuses by as much, for [Karma] days.

C: Shinigami Eyes

You have truesight, which is entirely independent of your actual eyes (or lack thereof). Your vision automatically penetrates all illusions, shows the true forms of shapechangers, reveals the nature of yōkai, fairies, and demons, and allows you to see people’s sins, engraved upon iron tally-sticks hanging from their necks on heavy leaden chains.

As a side-effect, when looking at someone you can see their name, HD, and their remaining natural lifespan. Sentient magic swords and spell-spirits count as “someone.”

C: Web of Silk and Shadows

All things are bound together in a great causal spiderweb. If you know at least one of the following about a person, you can spend Karma to have up to [Karma] more revealed to you:

• Their name.
• Who they serve.
• Their most notorious deed.
• What they look like.
• What they sound like.
• If they’re alive, dead, or undead.

If you know all six of the above, then you unfailingly know the location of the person in question.

D: Samadhi

Through intense meditation and judicious application of murder, you have attained a state of perfect mental equanimity. You are immune to charm, fear, and any undesired emotion.

You may spend Karma to gain [Karma] extra MD which do not return to your pool once expended.

D: Vipassana

Through painful meditation and thorough application of murder, you have attained a state of perfect mind-body awareness. You are immune to pain, exhaustion, and exposure to the elements.

By spending Karma, you may make [Karma] additional attacks in hand-to-hand combat on your turn.

Δ: Arahant

Obtain this by remaining at 7+ Karma for a year and a day.

Upon death, spend all your remaining Karma to be reincarnated into a suspiciously-similar character who dreams vividly of your life each night and starts with [Karma] x 100 XP.

Spellcasting

Works as usual for a GLOG. Your character rolls 1d6 on their spell list at A and B, and 1d8 at C and D. It is safe to assume that spells can be taught fairly reliably to other casters of the same class, and with some difficulty to casters of other classes.

Mishaps and Dooms are a hazard for full-casters, but I am realizing as I prepare to post this that I forgot to write any, so - these guys might not have to worry about them. I don’t know.

Censor Spells

1. Ward 
   Invest MD to mark up to [Sum] paper talismans with eye-glyphs and seals of Imperial authority in cinnabar ink. 
   
   You can close your eyes to shift your vision to any one of your warding talismans at any time.The talismans can be placed individually, or can be grouped together into a polygonal chain or closed polygon no more than 100’ to a side, creating an invisible barrier that spans between adjacent talismans. 
   
   You are automatically made aware when living things cross the barrier, and can make it impenetrable to supernatural beings of [Dice] HD or less.
   
   
2. Tongues 
   For [Sum] hours, your tongue becomes a dancing ribbon of brilliant yellow-white flame, allowing speech and understanding of all human languages plus [Highest] of the following:
1. The crackling language of fire…
2. The babbling language of rivers…
3. The barking language of dogs…
4. The purring language of cats…
5. The musical language of birds…
6. The whispering language of winds…
   
   
3. Command 
   You may issue a verbal command of [Dice] words to up to [Sum] targets in a language they understand, or [Sum] words to a single target—they must SAVE or immediately obey for up to [Highest] rounds or until it is complete, whichever comes first. 
   
   Intelligent creatures SAVE at +4 if the command is deeply opposed to their values, and all living beings with a survival instinct automatically resist obviously suicidal commands.
   
   
4. Prism 
   Conjure a gleaming prism that fires up to [Highest] + [Dice] total pencil-thin rays of coherent light using your Hit bonus for 1d6 damage each, choosing separate targets for each ray, before splintering into fast-dissolving shards. You may fire as many of your allotted rays as you want in a single round in place of a normal attack. 
   
   While your prism exists, you may clap your hands to cause it to expand and envelop you in a refractive shield, giving missile and beam attacks against you a [Dice]-in-6 miss chance.
   
   
5. Stasis 
   One person or object (yourself included) is wrapped in binding chains of pure golden light, freezing them in space and time relative to the most sensible reference frame for [Sum] + [Dice] rounds. During this period, they are unable to act but are also immune to all damage and new effects. Any emanations (heat, light, magic) are also suspended. 
   
   At the conclusion of the spell’s duration, they experience all the forces they were subjected to under stasis as a single impulse, potentially flinging them at great speeds. 
   
   You can take -1D to cast this spell as a reaction.
   
   
6. Glitterdust 
   Blow into your cupped hands to release a plume of glittering golden dust in a [Dice] x 30’ cone. The dust lingers in the air for one round, obscuring vision, before settling on all available surfaces. Up to [Sum] individual people or objects can be spared at the caster’s volition—the dust will simply slide off of them like water off a duck’s back. 
   
   Glitterdust is nearly impossible to clean off by conventional means, and has been known to leave people and objects faintly sparkling for decades after exposure. The only surefire way of getting rid of it is to wash it off with aqua regia. Dilute carefully and take your time!
   
   
7. Emblem - Dominate 
   Conjure a radiant halo which hovers above your head, shedding a beautiful, hypnotic golden light. Anyone the light falls upon must SAVE or be compelled to approach you in a state of awe and pay obeisance to you, unable to raise arms against you and compelled to kneel. The halo emanates for [Dice] x 10 minutes. 
   
   You can discharge the power of the halo by laying your hand upon the head of someone who has failed the save. Instill in them an order up to [Sum] words long which they are bound to follow, or they become a walking ghost, per Last Judgement.
   
   
8. Emblem - Atomastra 
   Conjure radiant bow that fires a single arrow for [Sum] + [Dice] damage in a straight line of indefinite length. 
   
   If it strikes something that it can’t penetrate… well, the first thing they teach you at Censor Academy is don’t shoot it at something it can’t penetrate.

Psychopomp Spells

1. Pain 
   You may link up to [Dice] + 1 targets you can see (including yourself) with faintly iridescent red strings. Anybody linked is immune to all conventional damage—any damage that would be dealt to them, however, is divided equally amongst all those they are linked to. 
   
   Somebody can remove themselves from the web by spending time cutting through the strings; otherwise, it automatically ends when all but one of the bound targets are dead or incapacitated. Unwilling targets may SAVE to avoid being bound.
   
   
2. Shadowplay 
   Cause your shadow to lengthen and extrude a [Sum] x 5’ tendril beginning at any point your shadow would naturally fall on. It can pass along any flat surface, climbing walls and such. 
   
   Regions of contiguous shadow it passes through do not count against its total length. If any part of your shadow (including your ‘natural’ shadow) would touch another living being’s shadow, you can attempt to puppet it. The target may SAVE at -[Dice] and, on a failure, is forced to perfectly mimic any physical action you take until you choose to break the binding.
   
   
3. Fuligin 
   For [Sum] minutes you become a fuligin silhouette, blacker-than-black. You are completely invisible in shadow and darkness, even to creatures with night-vision, and are immune to radiant damage. 
   
   If cast with 4+ MD, you are not a mere silhouette but a hole in the world. You are immune to all damage but cannot interact normally with objects (they fall into you). Anything that is fully enveloped in your body is transported to a lightless void where it falls, forever.
   
   
4. Nails
   Invest MD to conjure [Dice] + 1 ring-hilted poniards of black iron with red lacquer handles. These are throwable light weapons of +1 quality, and can be made to vanish and reappear in your hands as a move. 
   
   When driven into a solid surface, the nails become firmly affixed, requiring a MOVE check of DC 10 + [Sum] to wrest out of place. If a living being’s shadow is pierced, the analogous body-part is paralyzed and tethered in place relative to its shadow.
    
5. Bilocation 
   Split yourself into [Dice] + 1 Shadows. Each has HP, AC, ability scores, and movement equivalent to yours, acts on the same initiative, and is capable of acting independently and in coordination with one another under your ultimate direction. 
   
   Your Shadows take 1 damage each round they are exposed to bright light, and 2 damage each round they are immersed in direct sunlight. They are capable of interacting with the physical world, albeit with a -4 penalty to their MOVE score. 
   
   At any point, even during somebody else’s turn, you may cause all of your Shadows to vanish, causing your “real” self to reappear at the position of any one of them with that Shadow’s respective HP score.
   
   
6. Kundalini 
   For [Sum] rounds, you are endowed with the flexibility and cunning of the serpent. You gain [Highest] of the following benefits:
1. Resistance to bludgeoning damage…
2. Advantage on SNEK checks…
3. You can squeeze through any space larger than the diameter of your head…
4. You can grasp and manipulate objects as dexterously with your feet as with your hands, and walk as quickly on your hands as with your feet…
5. You can support yourself in any pose so long as you have at least one finger or toe firmly planted on a solid surface…
6. You can choose to deal [Dice] damage each round automatically via constriction to anyone you are grappling.
   
   
7. Emblem - Gu 
   Invest MD in a jar of [Dice] slots, filling it with venomous centipedes and scorpions and sealing it fast. The jar must “cook” for [Sum] days—at the completion of this period, it will be full of the most noxious and terrible poison known to man. 
   
   Gu poison instantly sublimes into a gas at atmospheric pressure, creating a cloud of [Dice] x 10’ radius upon release. Anybody within the cloud takes [Sum] + [Dice] total damage inflicted across a period of [Lowest] rounds. 
   
   There is also a [Highest]-in-6 chance the jar will contain a centipede demon of HD [Dice] x 2, which will be unleashed upon the jar’s opening. 
   
   Certain very senior assassins know the secret of making Gu metastable at standard temperature and pressure, allowing it to be slipped into food, smeared on weapons, &c. Somebody who knows this method could procure [Sum] doses of poison from a given jar—when directly ingested or delivered via a poisoned weapon, Gu causes its victims to quite simply SAVE or die.
   
   
8. Emblem - Teleport 
   If you know someone’s location to within a 5’ margin of error, you can step into total darkness and emerge from their shadow from up to [Sum] miles away, taking [Lowest] freezing damage as the price of your passage. Most people tend to be surprised by this.

Four Perfections (GLOG Fighter, Arise Ye Wretched)

Inspired by, with some bits taken wholesale from, Deus ex Parabola's Sword-Shepherd, Loch's Rotless and Shepherd, and my own brain :3 

Modern science has demonstrated that the same four alchæmical fuels that form the basis of modern industry and machinery also play a vital role in the alchæmy of the human body, providing the motive force for the lungs, the heart, the brain and the soul. In a sense, this means a person is roughly homologous to a motorcar, puttering along and fouling the atmosphere. 

You are more comparable to a souped-up grind-racer, with a big screaming engine and neon flame decals. You are faster, stronger, sharper, embodying impossible ability and an immaculate cool. Your ilk are born or made, but almost never inherited—much to the dismay of countless lineages of armigers who proved entirely unable to replicate their honored ancestor's fêted skills. 

In the present day, those possessed of surpassing skill are labeled Paragons and treasured by the state. 

Paragon

Source: Matthew de Witte

Skills: 1) Gun Maintenance, 2) Calligraphy, 3) Wargames, 4) Parkour, 5) Birdwatching, 6) Sports Betting

Starting Equipment: A medium and light weapon of your choice, a scuffed ballistic breastplate, a rumpled business suit, a briefcase full of ammunition, a pack of (1. Ghoulstone Red, 2. Tracer, 3. Mirage Ultrafine, 4. Onager, 5. Black Bandit, 6. Regnal Reserve) cigarettes, a tense homoerotic relationship with your handler.

+1 Hit and Technique per Template.

A: Parry, Guard, Cognoscente, +1 Attack/Round

B: Thunder Voice or Fire Blood

C: Tiger Eating Tiger

D: Radiant Soul or Lightning Mind, Blade Evolution

A: Parry

Weapons leap from your hand to meet their brothers. Once per round, subtract [Hit] with a held weapon from incoming melee damage.

A: Guard

Once per round you can reduce incoming damage by 1d4, directing it onto a slot of armor, or 1d6 onto a shield. Any damage in excess of that number is still dealt and if the defensive implement blocks its maximum amount of damage it is destroyed.

If you are not carrying a shield or wearing armor, you can choose to take 1d6 damage from an attack instead of the real amount once per round. You can do this after you know you are going to be hit.

You cannot use Guard and Parry on the same attack, but you can use them both in the same round.

A: Cognoscente

Smoldering within you is the ability to perform martial miracles. Your Techniques are abilities, learned through hard practice, instinct, meditation, and the teaching of other, more experienced Paragons; via extraordinary utilization of the body’s natural energetic resources, these Techniques can defy plausibility. Your first Technique must be chosen or rolled from the Generic Techniques list, but subsequent Techniques can (and should) be invented in collaboration with your GM, and can get substantially wilder.

 

B: Thunder Voice

Your voice, when you wish it to can be heard clearly over gonnefire, explosions, and other noisy diversions. You are immune to stuttering, being interrupted, or losing your breath.

Your howling warcries rouse allies and terrify enemies: while you yell, your allies (you included) in earshot gain 2+[Templates] temporary HP, and your opponents must make a Will Save or suffer a -[Templates] penalty to all aggressive and bold action.

There is no limit to how often you can do this, but no individual can be affected by it more than once in a battle.

B: Fire Blood

Your blood is scalding-hot and pressurized, significantly increasing your body temperature. You are immune to fever, hypertension, and exposure to the elements.

Furthermore, your blood behaves like strong acid to people and things you hate. This does about 1 damage for 1 HP spilt, 1d4 damage for 2 HP spilt, 1d4+1 for 3, 2d4 for 4, and so forth. Anything that pieces your skin will result in a decent blood spray, thanks to the power of your circulatory system, and get on whatever drew blood from you unless they succeed a Save. Stabbing you is probably as good a reason as any to hate someone.

If you try to coat a weapon or ammunition in your blood you can probably cover it in about 2 HP worth of blood per slot it occupies. Your blood retains this power until it dries.

 

C: Tiger Eating Tiger

If you so choose, your eyes glow with nightshine, giving you perfect vision in full light, near-perfect vision in dim light, and decent vision in darkness. While active, if you can see someone’s eyes, you can determine their HD, and if someone can see your eyes, they can see your HD. Most people have 1 HD; most people will find anything more than 1 HD to be terribly intimidating.

If you are able to make eye contact with someone unaided, you are also able to charge to them as a maneuver, circumventing all obstacles through momentum or parkour and dealing an extra die of base damage on your first subsequent attack.

You count as a monster whenever it would be advantageous.

 

D: Radiant Soul

You, and anything you hold, can touch (and therefore injure) the intangible and supernal. This extends to bullets fired from guns you are carrying for esoteric reasons. You ignore all damage resistances, immunities, and other limitations on dealt damage.

You are immune to fear, energy drain, sepsis, and necrosis. You will leave a beautiful corpse.

D: Lightning Mind

You can take 3 HP damage to immediately take a full extra turn at any time, even during an enemy’s action. You can Parry missile attacks, and anything that allows a Reflex Save.

You are immune to charm, sleep, and any negative consequences of staying up too long (though you still need to sleep to obtain the benefits of it).

D: Blade Evolution

By meditating for a day and a night over your weapons, you can reveal a Quest for Power to Refine one of your Techniques. Negotiate how the Refined Technique differs from the regular one with your GM. Example Refinements are provided for the generic Techniques, but one Technique could have many possible Refinements—it is entirely possible for two Paragons to Refine the same Technique in different ways.

Source: De Witte again

1d10 Generic Techniques (and Example Refinements)

1. Ambush Predator - You deal an extra die of damage when attacking with the advantage of elevation or surprise.
1. Refined: You deal maximum damage on a leaping attack.
2. Cataphract- You can Guard with as many pieces of protective gear as you have worn each round, though you still cannot Guard more than once against the same attack.
1. Refined: When Guarding, you can choose to sunder the defensive implement to automatically reduce by the maximum amount +2.
3. Cleave - When you lay somebody low with a blow in hand-to-hand combat, make a free attack.
1. Refined: You can now Cleave against anything you can see.
4. Fast Hands - You can reload normal thunderarms without taking a maneuver, and thunderarms that would normally require a full round with a maneuver. If you have a gun to hand, you can declare and resolve one shot prior to rolling initiative.
1. Refined: You can declare and resolve three shots prior to rolling initiative, with no more than two shots aimed at a single target.
5. Gonne Kata - You take no penalties from using a thunderarm in hand-to-hand range, and can make a free unarmed attack upon missing a shot with a thunderarm.
1. Refined: You get +4 Hit with thunderarms against a target you have hit with a hand-to-hand attack in the last round, and a +4 to hit in hand-to-hand against a target you have shot in the last round.
6. Ground Game - Every round you have an opponent grappled, you may dislocate one of their limbs on a successful opposed STR check.
1. Refined: Rip limb clean off, 1d10+4 damage. Ow.
7. Hammer Fists - Your unarmed attacks are as light weapons and can splinter wood, shatter bricks, and even crack solid stone with repeated punching. You need no more than one inch of windup to make an unarmed attack.
1. Refined: Your unarmed attacks are medium. You can hit a surprised foe with a nerve pinch for 1 Fatigue to make them Save vs. Paralysis, or a death touch for 3 Fatigue to make them Save vs. Death.
8. Riposte - If your Parry reduces damage from an incoming attack to 0, you may Riposte against the attacker instantly. If you forego proactive attacks for a round you can Parry for 1d6+[Hit] instead.
1. Refined: If you successfully Riposte, you can Parry again on the same round.
9. Sharpshooter - For every round you spend aiming a missile weapon, take a +1 to your next shot and expand critical range by 1, up to a maximum of +10/10+.
1. Refined: Your vision follows the paths of your bullets in slow-mo 360° cam. You always instinctively know whether a shot of yours killed, wounded, bloodied (50% HP or less), grazed, or bounced off a target on a hit, even if you can’t see it.
10. Total Defense - You can Parry and Guard the same attack.
1. Refined: If an enemy attacks you and does 0 or less damage, they are automatically Stunned for a round. 

Source: Vampire the Masquerade, some book idk

 

Cultivated Dreamers (GLOG Sacred One Adaptation, Arise Ye Wretched)

It may no longer be Glåugust, but it's never too late to jump on a bandwagon. This is "adapt a setting-specific class to your setting," and in the spirit of the inimitable Deus ex Parabola, who jumped on his bandwagon years before Glåugust ever even began, I am adapting Loch's Sacred One for the Hex.

Cultivated Dreamer

The holdouts of a prolific Sybilline cult originating in the reign of the Solipsyd emperors.

By the mid-late Empire, an elaborate map of the correlations between experiences in the waking world and the consequent geographies in Dream had been drawn; the imperial oneirotects used this knowledge extensively to craft, or perhaps raise, the Cultivated Dreamers: certain citizens, plucked from the far reaches of Empire and conditioned by means of rigid intellectual discipline, post-hypnotic suggestion, and powerful pharmakon to express certain concepts or facets of the human condition so purely and completely that their dreams could serve as vessels of the sublime, carefully managed spaces into which a noble dreamer could project to brush the realm of pure ideals. 

By the late-late Empire, the better part of the nobility spent nearly all their time in induced torpor, residing in these unreal "Marble Gardens" which promised pleasures and pains which superseded that which the material world could honor. The Cultivated Dreamers themselves, those twisted-up bonsai people, were kept in pampered captivity and guarded more jealously than jewels. 

Though Old Sybilline is long since fallen, her techné broken and her delicate dreaming nobles ground down into the mud of reality, some small fringe sects still keep the tradition alive, grooming Cultivated Dreamers and their perfect diamondlike minds into the present day.

Source: 00AGAIN00

 

+1 Will and +1 Save per Template

A: Anointed, Sacrosanct, Bonsai Person

B: Marble Garden, Soporific Voice

C: Lucidity, +2 Attainments

D: Right of Passage, +1 Attainment

A: Anointed

You are the most or least prominent member in any group, at your choice; if you wish, you are immune to being ignored or interrupted. Your coming is presaged by a perfume-cloud, and its sillage billows in your wake—no incense or resin, not sandalwood nor benzoin nor copal nor patchouli, frankincense or myrrh or dragon’s blood, can fully capture the intricacies of your individual scent. When you grow angry, your eyes grow hypnotic and your voice takes on an echoing aspect.

Dolls, Azatas and Yugoloths always treat you as a friend. Servitors and adjutants of the Old Sybilline Empire will prioritize your orders over others’.

A: Sacrosanct

When a thinking creature attempts to attack you or knowingly bring harm to you, they must Save or be unable to do so.

While in a dream, you are treated as a Lucid of equivalent level.

A: Bonsai Person

The creation of managed dreamscapes exacts a terrible price. You must choose (or have chosen for you) a subject of your obsession that permeates all future expressions of your powers. When confronted with your obsession, you must Save or be unable to pull your attention from it; you can repeat this Save every round in a situation of active danger, every turn in a situation of general ambient pressure, and every hour in a situation of relative calm. 

 

B: Marble Garden

You flower into your true purpose, your mind blooming into a fragrant kept reality for the edification and play of others. When dreaming, drunk, high, or otherwise in altered perception, you may erect the tentposts of your Marble Garden, a space that reflects the inner contours of your self. The shape and nature of it is dependent on your obsession. There, you can hold private conversations, leave messages, repose, &c.

Other Cultivated Dreamers can find their way into your Marble Garden with knowledge of you and its nature. You can also bring others into your Marble Garden as visitors, by sleeping next to them, drinking the same wine, getting high off the same chemic, etc…

You can set up to [Templates] axioms that anyone and anything currently within your Marble Garden are bound by. These cannot interface directly with the Aleph-Taw Principle (read: you can’t have a rule that anyone who sets foot in your Garden dies instantly), but life and death can be made easier or more difficult to reach within your Garden. You can also gain new axioms by taking on a related taboo—the greatest of the Dreamers are enmeshed in such a comprehensive web of taboos that they can to little but lie in bed and dream.

B: Soporific Voice

You can attempt to dull the attention and emotions of those you are speaking to.

You may attempt to calm all listeners by taking a slot of Fatigue - if they can understand you, they must Save. Anything with less HD than you fails this Save automatically. When a creature fails a Save, their emotions dull to grey outlines, anger drains out, joy becomes hollow and the will for violence fades. This lasts until they can take a little rest to shake it off.

If you are able to keep reciting to them, taking +1 Fatigue, they will eventually fall into a deep slumber. At this point, you may choose if their sleep is dreamless, or if they will find themselves “awakening” within the confines of your Marble Garden.

This is believed to be a precursor to, or remnant of, the legendary lost war-spell, Sleep.

 

C: Lucidity

You become Lucid in the waking world, with a Crown of 20m, two points of Focus, and two Attainments of your choice. You gain an additional Attainment at D.

 

D: Right of Passage

While traveling through the Dreamlands, all you meet will treat you as an honored personage. You will never be attacked by any pseudo-sapient dwellers of Dream, and can choose to be immune to the axioms of other Cultivated Dreamers.

Your Marble Garden becomes capable of containing a true mirror of The Divine.

Scholar (GLOG Class, Arise Ye Wretched)

 Wandering investigator and instigator of the Black Coil, the great helical library that penetrates Heaven and Hex, tasked with the quixotic task of making the universe comprehensible. Your order possesses great esteem and influence in the downbelow regions of the Hex. 

Source: Kyoung Hwan Kim

 

Scholar 

Gains rage as a Barbarian. You gain +1 Language at every level, +1 Hit on odd levels, and +1 Save on even levels.

Skills: Analytic Philosophy and 1) Socioalchemy, 2) Numerology, 3) Applied Gematria, 4) Ergology, 5) Alienism, 6) Kismetics 

Starting Equipment: Tweed greatcoat, embroidered thobe, skullcap, light stiletto, canned coffee, 3 doses of methylphenidate, granite cylinder-seal of office 

A: Analysis, Great Purpose

B: Refutation, Tireless Obsessive

C: Synthesis or Antithesis, +2 MD

D: Prima Vedex 

 

A: Analysis

In addition to the normal functions, you can spend 1 point of rage at any time to:

• Take 20 on an intelligence-related check. 
• Speed-read a book in 10 minutes—you will instantly obtain a broad synopsis and answers to specific queries, and will fully absorb the contents in your sleep.
• Determine [Templates] values in a creature's statline.
• Scan an enemy or object for weak points—your critical range against them increases by 2. 
• Gain access to a full description of any spell, martial technique, class ability, or other special move used in your presence. You gain +4 to Saves against it. 

You can photographically recall anything that occurred under your Analysis. Anything that would be considered common knowledge, anywhere, is known to you. You have a [Templates]-in-6 chance minimum of understanding a reference, no matter how obscure.

A: Great Purpose 

The order of the Scholars has but one mandate: the elimination of incoherence. This is the central axis around which all else rotates. 

Incoherence is, simply put, the phenomenon of things not working as they're supposed to; a failure of past theory to account for the present conditions, or the universe's failure to make itself appropriately orderly. Either way, you have been taught since you first entered the academy to scorn and despise it. 

Whenever you encounter an incoherent phenomenon, you gain 1 point of rage. If you are at full rage, you must Save to leave a source of incoherence behind without fully studying and eliminating it.

The nature of your mission is widely known. Scholars occupy a social role somewhere between paid consultants, itinerant judges, and wandering exorcists. They are often the de-facto first line of defense against witches and monsters in underdeveloped regions. You will be offered hospitality in most "civilized" places, people will trip over themselves to give you free fry-bread and chimaek, rectors of local school parishes will try to get you to speak on the dangers of the occult at awkward assemblies for their charges. Often you will be called on to arbitrate disputes, and your judgements will usually be taken seriously. You will probably get roped into a lot of impromptu detective work. 

 

B: Refutation

Once you have Analyzed an instance of incoherence, spend 1 point of rage to refute it. Spells will cease to function, impossible martial techniques will remain impossible, and so forth. If the incoherence originated from a source that's capable of making Saves, then it does so—a success means the effect is only naturalized, and will revert to its normal state in 1d[Templates] minutes, whereas a failure means the effect is permanently dispelled.

B: Tireless Obsessive

While you have at least 1 point of rage you are immune to the negative effects of stimulants. If you would crash on stimulants, you can instead enter a rage, allowing yourself to continue working on a project but rendering yourself unable to think, work on, or converse about anything but your current obsession.

Sidebar: Stimulants work as follows: a dose of stimulants substitutes for N hours of sleep (coffee 1, pepsis-leaf extract 2, meth 4, so on so forth) and gives a +N to Initiative, but requires you to Save or take a cumulative -N to INT and WIS. If you hit 0 in either score you enter stimulant psychosis. At the end of every dose's effective period, count up your total sleep debt (number of hours you've gone without sleep on stims) and roll 1d20—if you roll equal to or under your sleep debt, you immediately crash, knocking out on the spot.

On the flipside, you are capable of sleeping anywhere, in any position, standing, sitting, kneeling, upside down, you name it. Anything short of a shotgun blast won't wake you or interrupt your sleep if you don't wish it to. 

 

C: Synthesis

You gain the ability to cast as a Magician and a Crown of 20m. Roll or choose two of the following Words:

1. Concrete
2. Ink
3. Vine
4. Insect
5. Ceramic
6. Number

 Your Implements are:

1. Quill - Strike an agreement to be enforced by the power of [Word], or encode a secret message within [Word]. 
2. Lantern - Cause hidden [Word] to reveal itself.

C: Antithesis 

You gain an Anticrown of 20m, which negates the Crowns of other spellcasters and makes magical workings impossible without your permission. You can spend your own MD to abjure spells, reducing [Sum] by the [Sum] you rolled and causing it to backfire on a negative result.

 

D: Prima Vedex

Prima Vedex is a title of honor, the mark of a scholar who has mastered the inquiring arts to the highest possible degree.

Whenever you Analyze a person, or a work of art or text created by a sentience, you can spend 1 point of rage to create a perfect mental construct of them. You are able to converse with the construct at-will. It knows everything that could be extrapolated from the original text by a Sherlock Holmes-type mind; you could trick a construct into revealing that the passcode for their private safe is a loved one's birthday, but if they arrived on it via a random number generator you're out of luck. 

If you ever have more constructs than you have points of rage, you take a penalty to all d20 rolls equal to the difference as the mental cacophony breaks your focus. You can kill your constructs at will to make space—they will generally try to convince you not to do this.  

Dollguard (Arise Ye Wretched)

In elder days, two great empires vied for command of the realm of dreams - mighty Old Sybilline and High Isshin-Daga. That they were separated by the entire bulk of the Interdark, on opposite sides of the world-plane, was of no consequence. 

The peoples of these proud civilizations dreamed of worthy opponents, of one another, and met in commerce, diplomacy, and battle upon the immortal coil of sleep. Children were sired, crops exchanged, philosophy and poetry recited to rapt foreign audiences. One of the greatest marks of this collaboration, of peace and respect between equals, was the establishing of the Dollguard under the Catalyd Dynasty. 

This elite force of prætorians was composed of esteemed and trustworthy Isshin-Dagan warriors given military doll-bodies by the Sybils and tasked with protecting the life of the Sybilline Emperor. Their foreign nature proofed them against involvement in internecine politics (or so it was believed), and their sexless forms made them ideal guardians for the Emperor's harems and seraglios (or so it was believed).

It hardly needs to be mentioned that this all came to ruin with the advent of the Dreaming War, which shattered the dreamscape with terrible oneiric weaponry and caused a panhexagonal crisis of Meaning, along with the twilight of the oracles. This, incidentally, is why dreams don't really make sense anymore—dreams used to be a fairly straightforward affair with clear-cut interpretation before the War fucked everything up. 

For the Dollguards, the War was an unmitigated disaster, dividing their loyalties between their homeland and their adopted liege. Those who survived the brutal campaign of internal purges and assassinations found themselves trapped in their false bodies and driven irrevocably mad by the cataclysmic conclusion of the conflict. 

A few still wander to this day...  

Dollguard

Source: this is just Sasori from Naruto...

HD: 8

AC: 14 (Lacquered paper)

Hit: Three attacks at +9 each

Damage: 1d10 (Glaive) or 1d6 (Chakram, Thrown), usually poisoned (1d4 STR, DEX, or CON damage)

Movement: Uncannily graceful, with a strange tinge of mania, sped-up

Intelligence/Mien: Skillful, graceful, poetic, ancient, utterly insane. Mute, but can speak all sign languages fluently.

Special: Can Parry and Guard like a Sword-Shepherd. Roll 1d4 one to three times for special traits. Duplicate rolls result in extra charges.

1. Flamethrower - Sprays a 10m cone of jellied napthta, dealing 1d10 damage on a failed Save plus 1d6 damage each subsequent round until extinguished. 3 Charges.
2. Shoulder Hwacha - A pepperbox rack of envenomed needles propelled by rocket microcharges. Fires once, peppering a 5m radius with hundreds of projectiles and hitting each target with 1d6-3d6 needles, depending on size. Each needle does 1 damage, and deals 1 damage to STR, DEX, or CON.
3. Wired Reflexes - Limb rigged up with internal runesteel wires, allowing extension and retraction - fire as a grapple, or swing as a flail to slice for 2d4 damage. 
4. Gas Canister - Launch up to 20m in any direction, hitting at +4 and dealing an extra die of damage on a charging attack. 2 Charges.

Their fire-retardant lacquer coating makes them fireproof (or at least, no more flammable than normal), but their paper body takes maximum damage from heat and flame if the protective layer is peeled or scraped off (this usually happens at half HP or less).

Fatal Woman

The most élite Dollguard are the Fatal Women, who were rumored to be not humans but Valkyries, enfleshed in filigreed mannequin frames. 

Source: Come on. You know who this is.

HD: 12

AC: 18 (Frozen mercury panoply)

Hit: Three attacks at +12 each

Damage: 2d6 (Atgeirr) or 1d8 (Tachi) or 1d4x1d4 (Machine Pistol)

Movement: Zoomer shooter protagonist.

Intelligence/Mien: Rip and tear, until it is done. Can somehow speak, despite lacking any vocal apparatus.

Special: Can Parry and Guard like a Sword-Shepherd, as well as Cleave. Spurning the poisons and trickery of the regular Dollguard, she instead weaves the fates of all violent men with her clacking, elegant fingers—she can roll 1d20 three times prior to rolling initiative, and can swap the results of any roll (even damage rolls) that occurs during the battle with one of those stored numbers. The number that would've been rolled had she not intervened is stored in her 'pool' in the place of the one she used.

 

 

 

False Medusae (Arise Ye Wretched)

False Medusa is a somewhat insulting appellation to distinguish them from the "True Medusa" of Qabalque legend. They have no singular language or endonym (some include: Kuo-Toa, Sahuagin, Trithoni, and Locathah), though recently there has been the formation of a nascent political group identity under the banner of the Ocean People, in solidarity with various other aquatic humanoids.  

One of the many demi-humans (if you're kind of racist) or "monstrous humanoids" (if you're extremely racist) of the Underside. They've got dense thatches of long fronded tentacles that trail from their heads, shoulders, wrists, and around their cloacae; these appendages have limited independent motive power and are armed with nematocysts and bioluminescent nodules. Their faces are smooth and sharklike, with folded-over slit nostrils and rows of bristling razor teeth, yet with an odd intimation of feminine beauty (though, in truth, they are genderless and reproduce parthogenetically). Their skin is grey, brown, or deep green; they are covered in tough, leathery scales that show a faint iridescence at certain angles. Webbed fingers and toes, coupled with thick fluked tails, give them powerful and agile underwater movement.

Their eyes are their most notable features. Under normal circumstances they are glossy, depthless black marbles; sloe eyes. Many have written off the famed petrifying glare of the Medusa as an urban legend, a sailor's exaggeration of the arresting beauty of their alien gazes. In reality, their shining black eyes are the product of nictating membranes which possess a natural polarization, like biological sunglasses. Should the film ever retract, their true eyes are revealed, glowing orange-yellow and capable of paralyzing with a glance. Initiates of their most feared and exclusive martial societies peel off their eyelids with a shucking knife as a rite of passage.

Their societies are divided between mostly-settled kelp-farmers, transhumance sturgeon herders, and fully nomadic hunter-gatherers. 

Farmers tend to massive rafts of algae, cultivating "food forests" that make use of every part of the complex ecosystems that form around these great drifts. Their primary economic product is umami seasoning, though their business is being undercut by new methods of chemical synthesis. Sturgeon herders subsist on caviar as both a staple foodstuff and a luxury export. The hunter-gatherer lifestyle is severely endangered, with most remaining practitioners turning increasingly to commodifying their lifeways for tourist consumption, or else living off remittances from family-members in the commercial diving, whaling, and coral-mining industries.

In addition to their formidable natural gifts, Medusae fight with a variety of hydrodynamic weapons. Their most common tools of war are long, slender finned darts, cunningly crafted to supercavitate upon being launched from an atlatl. In hand-to-hand combat, they wield half-moon ulu blades, which they call "mother knives," and a kind of streamlined monk's spade, which they call the "grandmother knife." They consider these especially suited for underwater combat, as the fan-shaped blades mimic flippers or fins and can be used by a cunning warrior to augment movement or agitate currents. Underwater thunderarms are rare and extremely prized. They often wear armor made of salvaged netting, which protects against slashing and serves as a trophy of successful raids against fishing trawlers, which they see (correctly) as threats to their homes and livelihoods. Their martial arts teach them to maneuver to gain the lower position and strike with the advantage of buoyancy, and to cut with perfect edge alignment, which is necessary to minimize water drag. While they generally shun swords as dumb weapons for losers, they are also terrifyingly good with them. 

They are biologically immortal, and follow a logarithmic growth pattern. Their grandmothers are their fiercest warriors and their wisest leaders.

False Medusa 

HD: 2

AC: 12 (Net-Maille)

Hit: +3/Special

Damage: 1d8+1 (Dart) or 1d6+1 (Mother Knife) 

Movement: As dolphin

Intelligence/Mien: As human who knows she could kill basically any normal human she meets.

Special: Anybody in hand-to-hand range with her with exposed skin must Save every round or suffer 1d4 DEX damage. Anybody making eye contact with her must Save each round or take 1d10 DEX damage. You can automatically pass this Save by closing your eyes, blinding yourself. She is not immune to her own paralytic gaze.

 

Medusa Grandmother

HD: 5

AC: 16 (Hull Panoply)

Hit: +6/Special

Damage: 1d6+2 (Mother Knife) or 1d10+2 (Grandmother Knife) or 2d8 (Hydrojet Pistol)

Movement: As shark

Intelligence/Mien: Old, wise, and inured to violence.

Special: Anybody in hand-to-hand range with her with exposed skin must Save every round or suffer 1d6 DEX damage. Anybody making eye contact with her must Save each round or take 2d10 DEX damage. You can automatically pass this Save by closing your eyes, blinding yourself; she is very good at punching you in ways that make humans involuntarily open their eyes. She is not immune to her own paralytic gaze, but is trained to reflexively shut her nictating membranes at the slightest glint of a mirror; she gets +4 to the Save to avoid reflected gaze attacks.

Be On Your Guard (More GLOG Magician Schools, Arise Ye Wretched)

The previous post contained lies - or perhaps this one does. Conjuration was not merely split into Dislocation and Goety—it was, in fact, the Ur-School, singular in its power and purpose, and subjected to a sevenfold split to create the modern categories of Gnosticism.

Other coherent paradigms of magic exist: Necromancy, devised by Unræd and kept jealously by the Curators of Necropolex, harnessed to maintain the stalwart independence of the Necropoles; Illusion, secreted away in a dream to the otherside of the Hex, where it found wide popularity in the academies of Jiangskr and High Isshin-Daga; Dislocation, an art traditionally kept by diasporic clans of nomadic mountain-people who can be found in all the high places of the Hex, leaping from one peak to another.

Conjuration herself, Queen of the Arcana, long rumored to be the subject of clandestine investigations in dusty Panopticon basements, each new generation producing some sublime quicksilver genius who inevitably burns all her talents and potentials on attempting to reconcile the syntactic gaps in that which was broken.

Source: Delphin Casado

 

Necromancy

Words (Regular/SCHOOLMASTER):

1. Ice
2. Keratin
3. Ash
4. Bone
5. POISON
6. HOPE
7. BLOOD
8. DEATH

Implements: 

1. Skull - Animate [Word] to obey one-word commands, or release a drifting cloud of [Word].
2. Tome - Ask a question of [Word], or bind sentience into a mass of [Word].
3. Gun - Fabricate bullets from [Word], or lay a curse of [Word] with a shot.
4. Scythe - Mark something for death by [Word], or harvest [Word] from the dead or incapacitated.
5. GRAVE - Take [Word] into yourself to enhance power and vitality, or chimaerize two beings of [Word]. Immobile.

Praxis: Gain +[Templates] temporary HP upon waking, which are expended prior to any regular HP. When a living being dies within your Crown, gain 1 point of temporary HP, up to a maximum of [Templates]*2 at any given time. Your hair and nails count as Light weapons.

Illusion

Words (Regular/SCHOOLMASTER):

1. Mist
2. Glass
3. Smoke
4. Silk
5. MOON
6. MUSIC
7. AUDIENCE
8. MEMORY

Implements:

1. Veil - Vanish into [Word], or craft an uncanny disguise from [Word].
2. Fan - Redirect attentions to or from [Word], or banish illusions with [Word].
3. Torch - Conjure a silent image from [Word], or release a disorienting burst of [Word].
4. Censer - Fill your Crown with illusory [Word], or trap a single subject in a false world of [Word].
5. STAGE - Dude, fuck if I know. I'll come back and put something in here later. Immobile.

Praxis: See through illusions worked by beings with less HD than you. You can project a swarm of [Templates] mirror images around you. Targeted attacks against you have only a 1-in-[Templates] chance of success, increasing by +1 per failed attempt and +2 per successful attempt until success is guaranteed. 

 

Dislocation

Words (Regular/SCHOOLMASTER):

1. Dust
2. Rain
3. Birds
4. Paper
5. LIFE
6. TREASURE
7. DOOR
8. MIRROR

Implements:

1. Bead - When thrown, appear at point of impact in a burst of [Word].
2. Knot - Exchange locations with [Word] within your crown, or return to the location where the knot was tied in a burst of [Word].
3. Key - Allow unhindered movement through [Word], or open a passage between two instances of [Word] within your Crown.
4. Bolt - Split yourself into clones made from [Word], or teleport [Word] with a touch to anywhere within your Crown.
5. GATE - Teleport yourself to any [Word] you are aware of, anywhere, or open a doorway into an extradimensional Demiplane of [Word] the size of your Crown. Immobile. 

Praxis: Gain +[Templates] equipment slots, held in an extradimensional space and retrieved with a mudra. On your turn, take 1 Fatigue to materialize anywhere you could walk in one round, ignoring difficult terrain and hazards but not barriers. 

Conjuration

Words (Regular/SCHOOLMASTER): 

1. Fire
2. Water
3. Earth
4. Wind
5. Wood
6. Metal
7. Darkness
8. SUN
9. STAR 
10. LIFE
11. SPIRIT
12. MEMORY
13. THOUGHT
14. DIVINITY
    

Implements:

1. Staff - Create a sphere or wall of [Word]. 3 Slots.
2. Sword - Divide or parry [Word] with a strike. 2 Slots.
3. Grail - Distill a potion of [Word], or cause one who drinks from the grail to be wracked with [Word] at your will. 2 Slots.
4. Pentacle - Call forth a being of [Word], or exchange to compel a favor from [Word]. 1 Slot.
5. Mirror - Trap or deflect [Word] while the mirror is aloft. 2 Slots.
6. Orb - Get a vision of nearby [Word], or something in nearby [Word]. 4 Slots.
7. Key - Allow unhindered movement through [Word], or open a passage between two instances of [Word] within your Crown.
8. WELL - Call forth an unlimited font of [Word], or realize a Wish via [Word].

Praxis: Creatures of your [Word]s must Save to knowingly harm you.

Q&A Section

A brief Q&A, featuring a mix of questions I was actually asked by people on Discord and questions that I've made up to give myself an opportunity to elaborate on things.

Q: Are Implements the same things as normal objects? Like, can a Transmuter just pick up any old hammer and do Transmutations with it?

A: No :). In the modern day, Implements are machined according to precise numerological ratios and inlaid with gold circuitry to make them proper vessels for magic. You can't buy a new one at a supermarket, but specialists can probably sell them to you for about 100g a pop.

Q: Can you learn new Words? 

A: Yes, but it's hard as hell. Some kind of Quest for Power or other major undertaking is needed in order to alter your school's guiding logic enough to accommodate new inputs. 

Q: How about Implements?

A: Ditto. The Gnostic trades flexibility for reliability. If you want to be picking up new spells all over the place, go play an Occultist.

Q: So how do magic spells actually work? Mechanically?

A: Because of the wide variety of possible [Word] inputs, I figured less is more when writing Implement descriptions and neglected to write a proper GLOG-style spell description. You know how to write these, plop down some [Sum]s and some [Dice]s and so forth and get to casting!

Q: Does a particular Word/Implement combo always result in the same spell?

A: I've actually been thinking about this, and rolling it around in my head, especially in the context of the "hotrod spell" bandwagon that was going in the GLOGosphere in times of yore. While I'll leave how permissive you want to be down to the individual GM, I'd say that, at minimum, you should allow different Magicians to cast different variants on the same spell—one guy's Sphere of Fire can be a classic Fireball, another a rolling orb, a third a lingering firestorm, and so forth. If you allow one Magician to devise multiple variants of the same spell, you should probably require each interpretation to be tied to a different Implement. It'd be neat if, for instance, you could gank another magus and steal her Implements to gain access to the specific hotrod versions of spells that she knew.

Q: Blah blah blah I have questions etc etc

A: Too bad, I'm bored of this format. Go DM me on Discord or something.

3+1 Neat Catalysts

Modifiers are a subset of Catalysts that must be integrated into Implements and modify all spells cast with it. They are typically non-consumable, but must be used every time the Implement is called on, and cannot easily be exchanged.

1. Attuner -  One of the most ubiquitous Modifiers - a 1-slot attachment to an Implement that attunes it to a single Word, making it unable to channel any other Word but granting all spells cast a +3 to [Sum]. The form and composition of the Attuner is specific to the Word and the Implement it modifies.

2. Multi-Threader - A complex 2-slot splitter matrix that allows a spell to be cast with two Words at the price of halved [Sum]. 

3. Silencer - A 1-slot aetheroresonant baffle that causes spells to be silent or invisible, at the cost of -3 to [Sum]. Decoheres on a Mishap, causing the release of all stored light and sound in a blinding and deafening flashbang burst.
   

You ever think about how a tower is basically just a really big wizard's staff? Me neither, I think my delightful girlfriend actually pointed that out. Anyways:

+1. TOWER - Increase the radius of your Crown by an order of magnitude for every story beyond the first.

Subtle Body, Luminiferous Mind (GLOG Psychic, Arise Ye Wretched)

Presented without comment. This is a part of the Hex setting that I've been poking at for a good while.

 

Lucid 

A: Crown, Intent, Manifestation

B: Scanner, Lingering Intent

C: Inception, Evanescence

D: WAKE UP.

A: Crown

Like the Magician, you too have a Crown of 10m radius per [Template], suggesting a deep symmetry between traditional magic and Lucidity. Some theoreticians, in fact, have labeled it a third form of magic—Solipsistic. You, however, are far more limited by your Crown. 

Not only do your powers fail to affect anything outside your Crown, but all changes you make to the world are fully reverted once the affected subjects leave your Crown. This should be interpreted fairly strictly—for instance, if a Lucid were to shuffle the contents of a room via telemotive force and then leave, all items would snap back to their original locations as if they had never moved at all (and, who knows—maybe they didn't). 

There are two exceptions to this, which are really only one exception, referred to collectively as the Aleph-Taw Principle: Life and Death remain constant across the bounds of wakefulness. Or, to put it another way: you die (or get pregnant) in the dream, you die in real life.

While you possess a Crown, all your sleep is completely dreamless. 

A: Intent

While in theory your capability to alter the world within your Crown is near-infinite, the slippery nature of dream-logic causes your actual power to be bottlenecked by your ability to focus. In order to exert the true measure of your strength against a target, you must fix your Intent on it. This usually involves intense staring, putting fingers to temples, mantra chanting, &c, but does not strictly require an outwards show of exertion.

Most of your Attainments will specify a general effect, which can be brought to bear on anything within your Crown at any time, and an enhanced effect which can only be used against targets of your Intent. 

You may channel Intent on up to [Templates] subjects at any given time. The targets of your Intent can be switched with a Maneuver. If something exits your Crown, you instantly lose Intent on it.

When taking damage, your Intent can flicker—Save or lose Intent. This can be reestablished via the normal process. 

You can "stack" multiple instances of Intent on a single target to intensify the effect of your Attainments. They take -2 to Saves against your abilities per level of Intent past the first, and many abilities will designate additional effects for higher levels of Intent.

A: Attainments

These are the primary categories in which your reality-warping power manifests. You gain [Templates] of these abilities, rolled or chosen from the list. You can wield your psychopowers with about as effort as swinging a sword or casting a spell (read: they take a "standard action," whatever that means), requiring no expenditure of MD or Fatigue or any other such resource. 

If an Attainment directly alters another person, they can probably Save against it. 

1. Ergotics 
1. General: Fire a bolt of reioplasma for 1d6 damage.
2. Intent: Fire a continuous beam of reioplasma from your crown chakra for 1d6/1d8/1d10/2d6 damage every round, flowing around obstacles and penetrating all armor and resistances.
2. Telemotion 
1. General: Apply a force about as strong as a two-handed shove in a single direction.
2. Intent: Seize something in a telemotive grip as strong as [an ordinary person/an Olympian athlete/a wild beast/a giant]. Intelligent subjects get an additional Save if you attempt to manipulate them in a way that violates their self-image. Most people tend not to imagine themselves as horribly injured.
3. Reformatting 
1. General: Cause something to have superficially different features (wrong number of fingers, clocks showing wrong numbers, etc...). 
2. Intent: Completely reshape a subject into something [of the same type (e.g. human→different human)/in the same general category (e.g. human→pig)/in the same ballpark (e.g. human→great soft jelly thing)/of any kind at all (e.g. human→toaster)]. 
4. Realization 
1. General: Pull any common pocket-sized item from your pockets whenever you need it.
2. Intent: Conjure anything up to the size of [a sword/a bazooka/a car/an airplane] from thin air. 
5. Excitation 
1. General: Apply a heat like a butane torch.
2. Intent: Cause an object to heat violently, resulting in [ignition/melting/incineration/detonation]. Intelligent beings get an extra Save at +10 against this if applied directly to their person. 
6. Body-Lightness 
1. General: Float around like you're weightless, or fully submerged underwater, or suspended from wires.
2. Intent: Gain flight as fast and elegant as [a sparrow/a falcon/a biplane/a fifth generation supermaneuverable fighter jet].
7. Esperance 
1. General: View colored auras corresponding to emotions around intelligent beings. 
2. Intent: Read [surface thoughts/intentions & beliefs/core memories/complete mind-meld].
8. Attraction 
1. General: Make a verbal suggestion or change somebody's attitude towards you one step along the chain of Nemesis→Adversary→Irritant→Stranger→Acquaintance→Friend→Partner.
2. Intent: Dominate somebody, controlling their body like [a marionette (badly)/a marionette (skillfully)/a dyspraxic person/your own body].

B: Scanner

By making eye contact with another Lucid, a Gnostic, or any other class that has a Crown, you gain the ability to use their Crown as your own, and vice-versa. You can dedicate your Intent to negating your opponent's on a one-to-one basis.

When you kill another Crown-bearer, your own crown expands by 2m.

B: Lingering Intent

Once you've fixed your Intent, you can maintain it even once the target has left your Crown. While you are no longer able to make active changes, any effects of your Attainments will persist until you refocus your Intent.

Your Intent is reset when you sleep. 

C: Inception

At any time, you can cause your Crown to "pop" like a diaphanous bubble, causing it to vanish without reverting changes. In this way, you can make real, permanent alterations to the universe, at the cost of your Crown.

To regain your Lucidity, you must obtain a new Crown. The most common way to do this is to kill another Crown-bearer and take theirs, but dream-quests to have new ones forged at the anvils of the Valkyries, daemon-pacts, super-science serums, etc... are always alternative options.

C: Evanescence

Just as a veil of forgetfulness occults the dreaming world from the waking, so to do the workings of your art fade from the minds of your subjects. If you so choose, intelligent beings must Save upon exiting your Crown to recall any events that occurred within in any substantive detail.  

D: WAKE UP.

If you would die, instead you can sunder your Crown to WAKE UP. When you WAKE UP WAKE UP PLEASE WAKE UP, you reappear in your bed, fully unharmed, unsure whether or not IT'S ALL A DREAM. If YOU HAVE TO WAKE UP in the presence of others, they perceive your apparent death as usual; YOUR FAMILY will WANT YOU BACK, your FRIENDS will NEED YOU, and so forth.

You can regain your Crown in the usual manner.

  

Do Not Hate My Obedience And Do Not Love My Self-Control (GLOG Spellcaster, Arise Ye Wretched)

This post owes a great deal to Locheil's Wonder-Worker and lovely Purplecthulhu's Magician, and was written for my Hex setting.

 

In order to buttress magic against the loss of mystery caused by the proliferation of certain spells, a stabilizing grammar needs to be employed, founded on certain underlying axioms and developed along consensus lines. Æthelræd the Great, considered the greatest magician of history and the founder of the Gnostic tradition, laid out seven disciplines or schools in his seminal Gnosis of Æthelræd which would come to be taught at the Panopticon of Heptaphalyx.

In the early days, after Æthelræd split themselves into a man, a woman, and a eunuch (called Æthelwulf, Æthelflaed, and Unræd, respectively) but before WWI, most Magicians behaved like Nasuverse Magi: utterly amoral combinations of mystics, academics, and aristocrats, individually obsessed with a joint Magnum Opus—the search for the Grammaton—and willing to treat human life as grist for the mill in pursuit of its attainment.

Ever since the Wizard Wars, this count has declined a bit, and the average Magician finds herself unfortunately rather more fettered than her noble forebears. Illusion was stolen by Cthonian dreamthieves in WWII, and Conjuration was split down the seams into Dislocation and Calling in the aftermath of WWIV for being too damn overpowered. The current Panopticon of Pentaphalyx teaches five orthodox schools, each rigorously explored by generations of logicians. You, like most Gnostics, are tutored in one of those five. You are commonly perceived somewhat like a lawyer: a professional sociopath, but a somewhat glamorous one.

Source: Me, sketching

 

Gnostic Magician

Skills: 1) Trivium, 2) Quadrivium, 3) Binge-Drinking

Equipment: One Implement of your School, a color-coded leather greatcoat, single-breasted, with academic honors pinned on the breast, a Light muzzle-loader, a pair of specs or shades (depending on your CHA score), 5000gp of debt.

A: Crown, Grammarye, School, +1 MD

B: Eye-Body Praxis, +1 MD

C: Schoolmaster or Interdisciplinary Studies, +1 MD

D: Thunder Perfect Mind, +1 MD

A: Crown

You can only do direct magic inside your ‘Crown’, a ‘magic circle’ which is [templates] * 10 meters.

Effects that would leave your Crown falter and fail unless otherwise stated. Effects must originate within your Crown.

A: Grammarye

To work spells, combine a Word, an Implement, one or more MD, and up to [templates] Catalysts.

Your Words are imprinted into your brain and are not easily communicated or modified. Learn 2 new Words at every level from your School(s)’ list..

Implements are obtained in play. Each School has a list of Implements that can successfully channel their magic.

Magic Dice (MD) are the resource spent to cast spells. All MD are restored upon the conclusion of a full night’s sleep. When a spell is cast, one or more MD are allocated - all dice are rolled, [Sum] amd [Dice] are tabulated, and all dice that show 4+ are expended until the next proper rest.

Catalysts are objects or reagents, often consumable, that modify a spell’s effects. I can’t be bothered to write any right now, so just imagine I wrote a bunch and they’re all really, really cool.

A: School

Your School determines your Words and Implements. 

Evocation

Words (Regular/SCHOOLMASTER):

1. Fire
2. Force
3. Radiance
4. Lightning
5. SUN
6. GRAVITY
7. SHADOW
8. MAGNETISM

Implements:

1. Wand - Create a missile or wisp of [Word]. 1 Slot.
2. Rod - Create a line or shield of [Word]. 2 Slots.
3. Staff - Create a sphere or wall of [Word]. 3 Slots.
4. Broomstick - Create a cone of [Word] or be propelled by a jet of [Word]. 4 Slots.
5. OBELISK - Afflict all in your Crown with [Word], or destroy all [Word] in your Crown. Immobile.

Transmutation

Words (Regular/SCHOOLMASTER):

1. Acid
2. Wood
3. Blade
4. Crystal
5. MUSCLE
6. METAL
7. STONE
8. FUEL

Implements:

1. Gauntlet - Make a strike imbued with [Word], or against [Word] within your Crown. 1 Slot.
2. Sword - Divide or parry [Word] with a strike. 2 Slots.
3. Hammer - Break or repair [Word] with a strike. 3 Slots.
4. Chain - Move or immobilize [Word]. 4 Slots.
5. CRUCIBLE - Freely sculpt [Word] as if clay,or transform [Word] to another substance of [Word]. Immobile.

Divination

Words (Regular/SCHOOLMASTER):

1. Dreams
2. Sight
3. Cloud
4. Writing
5. WATER
6. THOUGHT
7. STAR
8. DIVINITY

Implements:

1. Blindfold - See through or see through [Word] in or above your Crown. 1 Slot.
2. Bow - Make an arrow out of [Word], or fire an arrow that seeks [Word]. 2 Slots. 
3. Tarot - Ask a yes/no question about [Word], or receive a numerical prediction about [Word]. 1 Slot.
4. Orb - Get a vision of nearby [Word], or something in nearby [Word]. 4 Slots.
5. POOL - Send a message via [Word], or cause [Word] that you know the location of to be within your Crown. Immobile.

Enchantment

Words (Regular/SCHOOLMASTER)

1. Fear
2. Rage
3. Grief
4. Lust
5. LOVE
6. FAITH
7. WISDOM
8. ROYALTY

Implements:

1. Mask - Inspire or dampen [Word] within yourself, or inflict [Word] upon another with a gaze. 1 Slot.
2. Ring - Issue a command to creatures in the grips of [Word] or [Word] itself, or cause the wearer of a linked ring to be continuously driven to [Word]. 1 Slot.
3. Grail - Distill a potion of [Word], or cause one who drinks from the grail to be wracked with [Word] at your will. 2 Slots.
4. Instrument - Animate creatures or objects of [Word], and [Word] itself, to behave according to or opposite their nature. 2-4 Slots.
5. FLAG - Inspire [Word] in all witnesses, or obedience to a set of ideals of [Word], within your Crown. Immobile.

Abjuration

Words (Regular/SCHOOLMASTER):

1. Undead
2. Beast
3. Disease
4. Machine
5. MAGIC
6. SPIRIT
7. DRAGON
8. HUMAN

Implements:

1. Salt - Prevent [Word] from crossing a boundary line or marker, or render someone untouchable to [Word]. 
2. Mirror - Trap or deflect [Word] while the mirror is aloft.
3. Bell - Drive out all [Word] from your Crown, or be alerted if [Word] enters your Crown.
4. Lockbox - Draw in [Word], sealing it in your lockbox, or release that which is currently contained.
5. CUBE - Draw all [Word] in your Crown into the cube, or torment everything within the cube with [Word]. Immobile.

B: Eye-Body Praxis

You gain the ability to see Crowns, and experience unmistakable synaesthetic feedback (of a form specific to each practitioner) when actually inside a foreign Crown, instantly alerting you regardless of condition (drunk, asleep, etc…) and allowing you to recognize familiar magicians. You also gain a +3 to Saves against Occult magic.

Additionally, certain cultivations and practices specific to each School result in unique capacities innate to your particular mind-body-perception complex.

1. Evocation - You can hover unassisted at a height of up to [Templates] x 2 meters, and glide safely on energetic jets that project from your fingertips. This also allows your hands and feet to serve as Light weapons, with a damage type of one of your [Words].
2. Transmutation - You gain a permanent [Templates] of DR against anything softer than your [Words], and can meditate for ten minutes to transform up to ⅙ of your body to one of your [Words].
3. Divination - You gain a permanent +[Templates] to Initiative and, while focused (i.e. uninjured, well-fed, not engaging in complex arithmetic) have a flat 1-in-6 chance of dodging anything that can be dodged via precognition.
4. Enchantment - You gain a +1 to all Reactions, even if they know you’re an Enchanter. You can animate up to [Templates] slots worth of items to follow you around, perform basic tasks according to their nature and your [Words], etc…
5. Abjuration - You gain 14 base AC from mage armor, and can ward up to [Templates] willing individuals, making them within your Crown at any distance for the purposes of protective magic.

C: Schoolmaster

You fully dedicate yourself to the practice of a single school. You become capable of learning the other four Words, listed in ALL CAPS.

C: Interdisciplinary Studies

You become capable of learning the Words of one other School, and using their first two Implements.

D: Thunder Perfect Mind

You receive a glimpse of the Grammaton, and knowledge of a Quest for Power you could undertake to reach it. Even just this fragmentary comprehension is enough to strike you deaf, blind, and dumb, but your ability to read the underlying propositions and syllogisms of the Universe more than compensates, giving you omnivision (as Beholder) within your Crown and a cool text-to-speech voice.

Since this is slightly bullshit for Diviners, who already had a bunch of abilities about seeing through/in/whatever things inside their Crown, they now get to consider their Crown to be [Templates] kilometers for the purposes of their divinations, and also they can point at 1 HD losers and make them Save vs. Permanent Insanity.

You also gain a Mental Inventory of 10 slots, which you can use to cast spells without Implements. Come up with a Word+Implement combination and record it—thereafter, you can cast this specific spell without the physical implement in hand. Each spell occupies a number of slots equal to the Implement it would normally require—for “immobile” Implements, we will conveniently reckon them as requiring 10 slots. You can swap these out during downtime.