Notes on a semi-successful skill system

When I finished my Team Tsathogga campaign back in 2019, one of the things that I noted afterwards was the extent to which fighters had struggled to keep up with magic users as the game progressed into the higher levels. At the time, I wrote:

One quick and dirty fix that I'm considering is to let each fighter pick a new area of noncombat competency every time they go up a level, so that by level 8 or so they're less 'meat-shield' than 'Batman', although mastering entire new fields of knowledge every few months does rather strain my disbelief. 

When I started my City of Spires campaign shortly afterwards I put this into practise. In this campaign there are three classes, Fighter, Magic-User, and Cleric. Magic-Users and Clerics get spell slots. Fighters get extra hit points, to-hit bonuses, and a skill slot every level. Spending a skill slot on something means you are really good at that skill, and will always succeed at attempts to use it except under severely adverse conditions. If you have the Climbing skill, for example, you can automatically climb any normal surface you encounter, although doing so quickly or quietly might still require a Dexterity check. New skills have to be something your character could plausibly have learned, although given the vast lengths of game-time the campaign has covered (twelve in-game years and counting) this has seldom been a major obstacle. 

Here's how it worked out in practise.

Low Levels: One Weird Trick

At low levels this system worked great. Three level 1 fighters might have almost identical combat stats, but if one of them is great at Running and one of them is great at Climbing and one of them has Heightened Senses then the roles they play in actual play will be totally different. These skill choices worked powerfully to help distinguish mechanically-similar characters, and helped each character make distinctive contributions to the problems they encountered. By level 3 or so I was feeling pretty good about the system as a whole.

Mid Levels: Convergence

As the PCs carried on advancing, the skill system continued to do a good job of letting PC fighters keep up with magic-users in terms of their contributions to problem-solving. But we increasingly ran into a problem: adventuring life being what it is, certain situations just keep coming up, and so it became logical for everyone to start developing a fairly similar set of skills. 

When you only have one choice you might legitimately take either Climbing or Hiding, but once you have six choices most PCs tended to converge on a broadly similar package of skills dealing with perception, mobility, and stealth. Hiding, Move Silently, Tracking, and Night Vision isn't identical to Climbing, Camouflage, Riding, and Heightened Senses, but it's not that different, either - they're both 'sneaky scout' skill sets. Even characters who were determined to develop in other directions often found they only needed 3-4 skill slots to complete their concept: the party builder, for example, took Scavenging, Tinkering, Tunnelling, and the surprisingly useful High-Speed Barricade Building. After that he just spent his skill slots on stealth, mobility, and perception abilities like everyone else. 

High Levels: Superfluity

The difference between having one skill slot and having two was huge, but the difference between having seven and eight was minimal. Most 'adventurer' concepts really only needed 4-6 skills to cover the main bases, so at high levels players were often unsure what to spend their skill slots on - sometimes they'd just say 'I'll think about it' and then leave them unspent for several sessions. This led, in turn, to the rise of 'reactive skill learning', with players saying things like: 'hang on, I've got a couple of spare skill slots. I can spend one of them on Woodworking and then carve the idol that the ritual needs!' (I tended to permit this as long as the skill was one they might plausibly have learned, given their background, concept, etc.) Also, by this point the magic-users had so much magic that mundane skill mastery was getting progressively less important. Thorny problems tended to be solved by throwing huge amounts of utility magic at them, instead.

Lessons Learned

For a game that probably won't go beyond level 5 or so, I think this is a good system, allowing fighter-types to clearly differentiate themselves from one another in ways that add very little mechanical complexity but have a large impact on actual play. At higher levels, however, it increasingly broke down. If I were to use it again I might let high-level characters (7 or above, perhaps) 'double down' on a skill, spending a second skill slot to elevate it to near-superhuman levels. Alternatively I might let high-level characters to trade unused skill slots for some other benefit (e.g. a bonus to hit points or saves), to avoid the embarrassment of just having them piling up unused on the character sheet. Either of these would still allow someone who wanted a true 'Renaissance man' PC to just keep broadening their skill set, without requiring every high-level fighter to do the same!

Super-Basic D&D Classes

For those times when even Lamentations of the Flame Princess just seems like a too much of a faff:

Rules For Everyone

• Everyone: Gets 1d6 HP per level, and can use any kinds of armour or weapons. They have three saves - Fortitude, Reflexes, and Willpower - all of which have a basic value of (15-level). 
• Everyone: Generates their stats by rolling 3d6 in order. Strength modifies melee attack and damage rolls; Dexterity modifies AC, ranged attack rolls, and REF saves; Constitution modifies FORT saves and HP per level; Wisdom modifies WILL saves; Charisma modifies reaction rolls and hireling morale.
• Everyone: Can do generic adventurer stuff like climbing walls and hiding in shadows. If you're not sure whether they should be able to succeed, have them try to roll under their relevant stat on 1d20 to find out. 
• Everyone: Needs 2000 XP to reach level 2, 4000 to reach level 3, and so on.

Rules For Basic Classes

• Fighters: Get +1 HP per level, and a bonus to all attack rolls equal to their level. Improve their FORT save by two steps. Get +1 to all weapon damage rolls per three levels, rounded down.
• Magic-User: Improve their WILL save by two steps. Can cast magic-user spells: one level 1 spell per day at level 1, two per day at level 2, and so on, following the normal B/X progression. Can't cast spells in heavy armour. 
• Clerics: Improve all their saves by one step. (Someone's watching out for them!) Can cast cleric spells; one level 1 spell per day at level 1, two per day at level 2, and so on, following the same progression as magic-users. (Just as in LotFP, Turn Undead is a spell, not a class ability.)
• Elf Fighters: Same as regular fighters, except they improve their REF save instead of their FORT save and don't get the bonus HP per level. Can see in the dark. Heightened senses: can hear and spot things humans usually can't, and only a 1-in-6 chance of being surprised.
• Elf Magic-Users: Same as regular magic-users, except they don't get a bonus to their WILL save. Can see in the dark. Heightened senses: can hear and spot things humans usually can't, and only a 1-in-6 chance of being surprised.
• Dwarf: Same as regular fighters, except they don't get the damage bonus. They can see in the dark and know loads of stuff about mining and architecture that they can use to spot new constructions, identify unstable areas, bore people to death, etc. They also automatically know the value of any gold or jewels discovered.
• Halfling: Same as regular fighters, except they improve their REF save instead of their FORT save and don't get the bonus HP per level. They're sneaky little fucks who are freakishly good at hiding, and have a 5-in-6 chance of surprising their enemies if they don't have a bunch of non-halflings around to cramp their style.

Rules For Other Classes

• Kung Fu Monk: Same as regular fighters, except they improve their REF save instead of their FORT save and can't wear heavy armour. They can do 1d6 damage with their bare hands, and while wearing no armour they get +4 AC and can run along walls, jump huge distances, dance like no-one is watching, etc. 
• The Creature From the Black Lagoon: Like a fighter, but doesn't get the bonus HP per level. Has claws that do 1d6 damage. Can breathe underwater and see in the dark.
• Science Guy / Gal: Like a fighter, but they improve their WILL save instead of their FORT save and their attack and damage bonuses only apply when using high-tech weapons, like guns or vibro-axes. (Fortunately, they can make these themselves if given time and materials.) Can do science stuff like identifying chemicals and teaching robots about the true meaning of love. Gains +4 AC when wearing no armour other than a white labcoat.
• Big Stompy Robot: Like a fighter, but is treated as wearing plate mail at all times. Inflicts 1d8 damage in melee with its big metal fists, and 2d4 damage at range with its built-in death ray. Always fails REF saves. Incapable of surprising anyone.
• Flying Monkey: Same as halflings, except instead of being sneaky they can fly as long as they're only wearing light armour and not carrying anything heavy. They must pass a WILL save to resist obeying orders from anyone who appears to be a witch.
• Sexy Green-Skinned Alien: Like a regular Science Guy/Gal, but gains bonus AC from wearing improbably revealing shiny uniforms instead of from wearing lab coats. Gets +1 to all reaction rolls from people attracted to sexy green-skinned aliens. Doesn't get the bonus HP per level. 
• Mini-Godzilla: Like a Big Stompy Robot, but instead of a built-in death ray, once per day per level it can flame someone in melee combat with its Atomic Breath (3d6 damage). Can only communicate via screaming noises and unconvincing judo chops.
• The King of the Bird-Men From Flash Gordon: Like a fighter, except he can fly as long as he's not carrying anything too heavy. Cannot wear any armour except his ceremonial bondage harness (no AC bonus), and cannot use any weapon except his club (1d8 damage). Brian Blessed impressions are obligatory.
• Dr Zeus From Planet of the Apes: Like a regular Science Guy, but gains +1 to all reaction rolls from other simians. Lies compulsively about the past.

Spirit pacts for fun and profit!

In recent posts, I've discussed the spirit world of ATWC's setting, the shaman class which interacts with it, and the kind of spirit-bargaining in which everyone must engage from time to time, and in which shamans are especially adept. For the vast majority of people, such bargains (and the occasional strange dream or weird encounter in the woods) will be their only interaction with the world of spirits. Questions like 'what do the spirits want in exchange for sending more rain this season?' are urgent matters for them; but 'how can I persuade the spirits to give me magical power-ups?' is likely to be rather lower on their agenda.

PCs are not most people.

Spirit pacts are special bargains which exceptional individuals may make with a spirit (or a group of spirits), whereby they provide the spirit with some kind of ongoing service in exchange for an ongoing boon. A spirit will only enter into such a pact with a mortal who has already won their attention somehow: from their immortal perspective, the lives of most mortals are simply too ephemeral to be worth bothering about. To even get your 'foot in the door', as it were, you'll need to have done one of the following:

1. Made huge offerings: sacrificing lots of animals, or offering up great wealth at a spirit's shrine, is a good way of getting its attention, especially if you do so without asking for anything in particular, allowing the spirit to regard it as a gift rather than a business transaction.
2. Performed great deeds: Like everyone else, spirits are impressed by extraordinary feats of skill and courage. If you've performed such a deed in the area it inhabits, it may well take notice of you. (More powerful spirits tend to be harder to impress, though.)
3. Performed a significant service for it: Stop a forest from burning down? You probably have the forest spirit's attention. Save a tribe from extermination? Their ancestor spirits are willing to see you, now...
4. Won it over with flattery: Spirits are not easy to impress, so you'd better be ready to settle in for the long haul. We're talking about weeks, months, or even years spent composing and singing songs in the spirit's honour, praying at its shrine, and generally making clear in every way possible that you are totally its biggest fan.
5. Seduce it: Most spirits enjoy romantic liaisons as much as anyone else, but with all eternity before them there's not a lot of urgency behind their desires, and many of them are quite content to go for centuries between mortal paramours. If you happen to be very good-looking, however, this may be the easiest route, especially if the spirit in question has a preferred 'type' that you happen to fit. (Local legends will often contain sufficient information to deduce their romantic and sexual preferences, if any.) You can seduce a spirit the same way as anyone else; loudly and repeatedly declare your love for them, sing them love-songs, offer them love-tokens, become sick from love of them, perform great feats for love of them, and so on. If it works - and some spirits are much more susceptible to this kind of thing than others - then they'll eventually manifest to see what all the fuss is about. (At this point the two of you probably also have lots of sex, which may be a bonus or a drawback depending on the spirit in question.)

Vasilisa the Beautiful gains the attention of Baba Yaga and the Riders of Day and Night. Lacquer box painted by Anatoly Shirokov.

Once you've won the attention of a spirit, you can ask it for a boon: the ability to breathe underwater, perhaps, or to speak to animals, or even to ride the winds. The gift must be within the spirit's domain - there's no point in asking a forest spirit to make you fireproof - and the spirit must think you're funny / sexy / cool / interesting / sycophantic enough to be worth rewarding. If it does, then the negotiations begin: these are just like the ones used when bargaining for ordinary favours, except the arrangement is usually in the form of an ongoing payment in exchange for an ongoing boon rather than a one-time payment for a one-off service. Some possible boons, and the spirits that might grant them, include the following:

• Taiga Spirit: Speak the language of birds or beasts, climb like a squirrel, run like a wolf, feel no cold, move without sound, enhanced hunting ability.
• Steppe Spirit: Ride the wind (it turns into a magical wind-horse when you bridle it), gain the vision of a hawk, enhanced horsemanship.
• River Spirit: Breathe underwater, speak the language of fish, swim like an otter, enhanced fishing ability.
• Desert Spirit: Survive without water, endure heat and cold, enhanced ability to find food and water, ability to tunnel through sand.
• Ancestor Spirit: Enhanced hunting / singing / riding / craftsmanship / leadership ability (as appropriate to ancestor's skills in life), immunity to disease. 

In exchange, the character must make a daily or weekly offering to the spirit, of the kind it most prefers: equivalent to the payment for a small favour every day, or for a moderate favour every week. As usual, a shaman can persuade a spirit to be either less picky or less demanding when agreeing the terms of this offering, as per their class abilities. If the offerings ever stop, for any reason, the gift is immediately withdrawn until they are restored. (Particularly touchy spirits might also demand all the 'missed payments' before restoring the boon in question.) Canny PCs will want to exploit this fact when dealing with spirit-pact-using enemies: living in an underwater cave (because you have a spirit-pact which lets you breathe water) doesn't look so clever when your enemies disrupt your morning sacrifice ritual and you suddenly find yourself just as drownable as anyone else...

Now, for most people, this is already a pretty sweet deal: all you have to do is pour out a cup of blood (or whatever) to your patron spirit every morning, and it'll make you the best hunter (or fisherman, or horseman, or craftswoman) in your clan! Again, however, PCs are not most people: and, given the option of being blessed with the swimming ability of an otter, most of them are going to ask if they can get something that gives them a strength bonus instead. In such cases, spirits are likely to offer them spirit gifts: enchanted objects which provide bonuses to stats, to-hit, AC, and saves. (Indeed, such objects are by far the most common form of magic items in ATWC.) Such gifts only function for as long as their user remains on good terms with the spirit which granted them, and continues to make regular offerings, as follows:

• Minor Gift (+1 total bonus): Offering as for a minor favour, made daily.
• Small Gift (+2 total bonus): Offering as for a small favour, made daily.
• Moderate Gift (+3 total bonus): Offering as for a moderate favour, made weekly.
• Large Gift (+4 total bonus): Offering as for a moderate favour, made daily.
• Huge Gift (+5 total bonus): Offering as for a large favour, made weekly.

So a wolfskin cloak which blessed its wearer with great agility (+1 to each of AC, Dexterity, and REF, +3 total) might require a chicken to be sacrificed (or more likely fed to it) every week. As usual, a shaman can try to negotiate better terms on these deals. You can only have one gift or pact at a time with any given spirit, and no combination of gifts can grant a bonus of more than +5 to a single stat. Spirit gifts which function as more miscellaneous magic items - like a skull which shines firelight out of its eye-sockets, providing spooky illumination and letting you zap people with skull-fire once per day - are also possible, at the GM's discretion.

Vasilia reaps the rewards of her persistence. Painting by Ivan Bilibin.

The net result of all this is that powerful shamans - and, more rarely, other individuals who have managed to attract the attention of the spirits - will often have all kinds of special powers and mechanical bonuses, all of which are contingent on them maintaining good relations with the various spirits who grant them. A shaman with five different combat gifts, each granting +1 AC and +1 to-hit, may be a monster on the battlefield: but she has to stay on good terms with five different spirits, and make five different offerings every day, or else their benefit will be lost. Taking on a very powerful and experienced shaman, who can be pretty much assumed to have almost every spirit pact and spirit gift available, will thus largely be a matter of working out how best to sabotage their offerings and relationships in order to make them vulnerable to attack.

One final note: if a spirit is in love with you (not just currently lusting after you - actually in love), then it will grant you its gift without requiring any offerings for the duration of your relationship. Don't even think about trying to see other spirits behind its back!

Spirit-Bargaining for Beginners

So, the shaman class has the ability to persuade spirits to accept lesser offerings in exchange for their help. But what does that mean, exactly? What sort of payments do spirits normally demand from their petitioners, and how far might a competent shaman be able to renegotiate the deal?

Well, that depends on the spirit.

Spirits have very distinctive personalities. In the case of nature spirits, these usually mirror the thing that they're a spirit of (or it is the other way around?); so the spirit of a broad, slow-flowing river that seldom floods will probably be a pretty laid-back gal, whereas the spirit of a unpredictable torrent famous for flash-floods and drownings is likely to be, not to put to fine a point on it, a vindictive bitch. (This cuts both ways: if an enterprising shaman can manage to persuade the torrent-spirit to be nicer, perhaps by setting her up with a suitably chilled-out mortal lover, then the river might become much safer and easier to navigate.) In the case of ancestor spirits, it will be an exaggerated version of the personality they had in life: so the spirit of a famous warrior will be brave and bloodthirsty, the spirit of a wise man will be cautious and patient, and so on. The offerings they expect (and sometimes demand) from mortals will reflect their personalities, but they tend to fall into a few broad categories: food, drink, praise, wealth, and blood. If you have nothing in particular in mind for a given spirit, you can use these tables to find out what kind of offering it wants:

What does the spirit want? (Roll 1d10)

1-2: Food. Food offerings can be burnt, buried, thrown into water, or just left by a shrine; in the latter case, if the spirit accepts the offering, it will vanish as soon as no-one is looking at it.

3-4: Drink. Libations of alcoholic drinks (usually kumis, a drink made from fermented mare's milk) are poured out into water or onto the bare earth. 

5-6: Praise. Prayers, chants, and songs in honour of the spirit are recited, possibly with musical accompaniment, and/or shrines, totem poles, and temples are raised in its honour.

7-8: Blood. Blood offerings are poured out onto the earth or water, or spilt across the spirit's shrine. If an animal (or person!) is killed to provide the blood, then their body is burnt or thrown into water to feed the spirit.

9: Wealth. Coins or precious objects are thrown into water, buried in the ground, or heaped up around the spirit's shrine. (Stealing them is a terrible idea.) 

10: Something else, as appropriate to the myth and nature of the spirit: the spirit of a great peace-maker might demand that weapons be broken across its shrine, the spirit of a great musician might demand that live songbirds be released into the woods around their grave, and so on. If nothing comes to mind, reroll. 

How picky is the spirit? (roll 1d8)

1: Amazingly picky. It will only accept offerings of one, very specific kind: the blood of a black ram with curly horns, for example. It isn't interested in anything else.

2: Fairly picky. It has one, very specific, kind of offering that it prefers, but it'll accept something similar (e.g. the blood of any black sheep) as long as the offering is made a bit bigger to compensate.

3-4: Mildly picky. It has one sort of offering that it likes, but that category is fairly broad: sheep's blood, for example. It will accept something vaguely similar (e.g. the blood of any animal) if the offering is made larger to compensate.

5-7: Not very picky. It will accept any offering of the appropriate type (e.g. any kind of blood).

8: Not picky at all. It will even accept offerings of different kinds (e.g. food instead of blood) if the offering is enlarged a bit. 

Evenk totems. Leave your offering at the base, and the spirit will get back to you in due course. Probably.

These two tables will tell you what the spirit wants. How much of it the spirit wants will depend on how big a favour it's being asked for, how generous it is, and how much it thinks it can get away with. There's a fairly standard 'going rate', though, which is as follows:

• Minor favour (e.g. asking a forest spirit for permission to go hunting in its woods): A crust of bread or a few grains, a few drops of blood or kumis, a brief prayer, a scrap of copper or brass.
• Small favour (e.g. asking a river spirit to protect your boat from the dangerous rapids downstream): A handful of grain or a small piece of meat, a cup of blood or kumis, a long prayer, a couple of pennies.
• Moderate favour (e.g. asking a storm spirit to please stop raining for a few hours): A whole meal's worth of food, several pints of kumis, the blood sacrifice of a small animal, hours worth of sung prayers, a piece of silver jewellery.
• Large favour (e.g. asking the disease spirits to leave your tribe alone this summer): A banquet's worth of food, a whole barrel-full of kumis, the blood sacrifice of a large animal, the building of a shrine accompanied by several days worth of prayer-recitals, a piece of gold jewellery. 
• Huge favour (e.g. asking the ancestor-spirits to back you in your attempt to become king of your people): enough food to provide a lavish banquet for several hundred people, hundreds of barrels of kumis, the blood sacrifice of dozens of large animals (or a few humans), the building of a temple accompanied by lots of prayers and praise-singing, a small fortune in gold and gems.
• Epic favour (e.g. asking a river to permanently change its course): The blood sacrifice of hundreds or thousands of large animals (or scores of humans), the building of a large temple accompanied by continuous prayer-singing performed by teams of singers in rotation, a large fortune in gold and gems. Food and drink sacrifices at this level must always be of some special kind (e.g. bread baked with magical grains); no amount of ordinary food or kumis is ever going to persuade a spirit to perform a favour of this magnitude.

A spiteful spirit - or a spirit that just doesn't like you - can, of course, demand more than this; much more, if they feel like it. It's at times like these that it's handy to have a shaman. Note also that the spirit is under no obligation to do what you ask, no matter how much you offer it: offerings are payments for services, not magical compulsions, and if it just doesn't want to do something then you can't force it to change it's mind just by throwing offerings at it. (A good shaman, however, may well be able to guilt-trip them into it: 'Look at all these magnificent offerings we have given you! Will you still deny us passage? Would you have it said in the world of men that you are an unreasonable and ungenerous spirit?')

So we come back to the shaman, and their ability to persuade spirits to accept lesser offerings. In practise, this means that if they pass their roll, they can persuade a spirit to do one of the following:

• Be less picky: So a spirit that is demanding the sacrifice of a sheep could be persuaded to accept a goat, instead.
• Be more generous: A spirit can be bargained down to offering a 'half-price' deal: so a spirit which is demanding an offering of ten barrels of kumis could be persuaded to do the job for five.
• Be more reasonable: A spirit which is making an unreasonable demand - insisting that it be given an offering of gold just for letting you cross its river without being drowned, for example - can be shamed into asking for a more reasonable payment, which in this case would be more like a copper penny.

As should be obvious, if you're going to be having a lot of interactions with spirits, a shaman is pretty much compulsory. Otherwise you're going to continually be at the mercy of whatever extravagant, excessive, or just plain crazy thing the spirits happen to be demanding today...

Next up: making spirit-pacts to acquire superpowers!

Legendary Mounts (AKA 'I want a Horse +1!')

Kyrgyz couple in traditional dress. And a horse.

I've been reading a bunch of Central Asian epics and whatnot recently, and one thing that a lot of them have in common is that the heroes have horses which are magical or otherwise exceptional in their strength and speed. It makes sense: these were people who lived on horseback, fought on horseback, and knew that when it came to the crunch, their cavalry were only as good as the horses they rode. It's hardly surprising that when they tried to imagine what the legendary heroes of the past must have been like, the first thing they thought of was: 'man, I bet those guys had really awesome horses!'

D&D has a long tradition of PCs upgrading their weapons and armour as their careers go on, so that a character might start off with a regular sword and end up wielding a vorpal blade or a holy avenger or whatever. Mounts, though, are usually assumed to be pretty much interchangeable: PCs start off riding a regular horse, and end up riding... another regular horse. Or maybe the same horse. Did anyone even keep track?

(The fact that mounts didn't scale with their riders also contributes to the lack of attachment most PCs feel for them. When a party of level 6 PCs find themselves at ground zero of a 5d6 fireball, they'll probably all live to tell the tale, but their 2-3HD horses are going to be toast.)

Now, a Horse +1 sounds pretty silly; but, really, any character from a Central Asian-esque culture should be just as happy to get a better horse as they would be to get a sharper sword or a more accurate bow. So here are some suggestions for representing that in the rules.

Turkmen women on horseback.

Mount Quality: Every mount has a Quality Level. This level is applied as a modifier to the following traits:

• Hit Dice. Higher-quality mounts are stronger and tougher, and thus have more hit dice.
• Armour Class. High-quality mounts are more agile, and better able to avoid attacks.
• To-Hit and Damage: High-quality mounts are stronger and fiercer, and thus do extra damage on their attacks (including trample damage).
• Saves: High-quality mounts are tougher and more agile, and thus pass saves more often.
• Survive Unconscious: High-quality mounts are stubborn and tenacious of life, and do not die until reduced to a number of negative hit points equal to twice their Quality rating. (This also helps to reduce the chance that PCs who invest a lot in a special mount then have that investment wiped out by a single lucky hit.)
• The melee To-Hit and Damage rolls of their riders when charging: Any melee attack made from the back of a charging horse already gets +2 damage (double damage if using a lance, spear, or similar weapon). High-quality mounts are able to deliver even more devastating charges, adding a further bonus to the to-hit and damage rolls of their riders.
• Riding Checks: As I've discussed elsewhere, ATWC characters are all assumed to be such expert riders that they only need to make ability checks (usually Dexterity or Charisma) when attempting really crazy stunts. When they do, apply the quality level of the mount as a modifier to the roll.
• Speed: Each level of quality adds 5% to the top speed of the mount. This is unlikely to matter much in combat, but over a long-distance journey or chase it means that a higher-quality mount will always outdistance a lower-quality one unless hampered by a less skilled rider or a heavier load.

Normal mounts range in quality from -1 (broken-down nag) to 3 (exceptional quality), although only quality -1 to 1 mounts will normally be for sale; quality 2 or 3 steeds are rare and precious treasures, and must be won, bred, or purchased specially. All ATWC characters are assumed to be such good judges of horseflesh that they can tell the quality of a mount at a glance, and riding a high-quality horse is a good way to win respect - and to attract the attention of horse-thieves, but that's an occupational hazard. Rich or high-status characters will be expected to ride high-quality horses as a matter of course.

Quality 4 and 5 steeds exist, but they are invariably supernatural in some way - the result of magical breeding programmes, the creations of wizards or spirits, and so on - and many of them have additional magical abilities. To discover which talent a given magical horse has, pick or roll 1d6 on the list below:

1. Horse can talk and understand several human languages.
2. When running at full speed, horse can cross water as easily as land. Sinks if it slows down.
3. Horse can run all day and all night without tiring.
4. Horse has skin of iron and hooves of steel: +3 AC in addition to bonuses from quality and barding, attacks and trampling deal 1d10 base damage instead of 1d6.
5. Horse can breathe fire: up to once every three rounds, one opponent in melee range must pass a REF save or take 1d10 damage. May also make a normal attack in the same round.
6. Horse can jump incredible distances - 50' or more, or 20' straight up - with a decent run-up.

In the unlikely event of their owners being willing to sell them, such steeds are worth absolutely enormous sums.

Mongolian man riding a reindeer. Looks pretty high-quality to me...

Handy Mount Quality Table

Quality	Description	Hit Dice	To-Hit	Damage (Kick or Trample)	Rider's Charge Bonus (To-Hit / Damage)	AC (Natural / Barding / Heavy Barding)	Dies At	Saves
-1	Poor	1d8	0	1d6-1	-1/+1	12/14/17	0 HP	14
0	Average	2d8	+1	1d6	0/+2	13/15/18	0 HP	13
1	Good	3d8	+2	1d6+1	+1/+3	14/16/19	-2 HP	12
2	Excellent	4d8	+3	1d6+2	+2/+4	15/17/20	-4 HP	11
3	Exceptional	5d8	+4	1d6+3	+3/+5	16/18/21	-6 HP	10
4	Magical	6d8	+5	1d6+4	+4/+6	17/19/22	-8 HP	9
5	Exceptional AND Magical	7d8	+6	1d6+5	+5/+7	18/20/23	-10 HP	8

Note that these quality rules can also be applied to mounts other than horses: camels, reindeer, bears, giant wolves, brass snout rats, etc, etc. This can make the choice between mundane and exotic mounts a bit more meaningful: given the choice between riding a horse and riding a giant wolf, almost every PC is going to pick the wolf, but the choice between a quality 1 wolf and a quality 4 horse that can breathe fire might be a rather harder one to make!

Denizens of the Wicked City 7: The Blighted and the Adepts of the Diamond Mind (Ultralight rules for psychic PCs!)

Among all the children of men, it was common knowledge that some people were just born unlucky. They possessed freakish, uncontrollable gifts; flashes of insight into the minds of others, random glimpses into the past and future, the curse of the evil eye. There was little that could be done with such individuals; they congregated in the waste grounds on the edge of settlements, consulted by the unhinged and the desperate, as often as not driven mad themselves by the things they had seen and heard. Those with the mental strength to weather their curse sometimes acquired fame as witches, but even they seldom had any but the vaguest control over their powers. These unfortunates were known as the Blighted.

You'll know 'em when you see 'em...

One day, it so happened that an initiate of the Order of the Stone stayed in a Blighted encampment. Impressed by his lack of fear, and by the fortitude with which he weathered the ascetic ordeals of his Order, one of the inhabitants begged him to take her with him as a novice; for she had learned that suffering was unavoidable, and longed only to be able to encounter her ordeals with the same serenity with which she saw him face his own. She served a long and gruelling apprenticeship, made even harder by the curse with which she contended; but she persevered, and as she did so she discovered something remarkable. By adapting the meditative techniques of the Order of the Stone, she was able to develop a methodology for holding her curse at bay, and even bending it to her will; and this methodology she called the Diamond Mind.

Now calling herself the Sage of the Diamond Mind, the woman returned to her old companions and tried to share her wisdom with them. Most of them proved incapable of mustering the necessary mental fortitude and concentration; but a few succeeded, and they became her first disciples. Wandering from land to land, they taught their secrets to others of the Blighted, men and women desperate to be free of their curse; and so the Order of the Diamond Mind was born.

The laws of the Diamond Mind were simple, but extremely rigorous. Mind and body had to be strictly trained; emotions, desires, and fears were all subject to the firmest control. Like the Elemental Orders on whom they modelled themselves, the Disciples of the Diamond Mind lived lives of extreme simplicity, cultivating a state of perfect concentration, shunning stimulants and intoxicants, and ruthlessly suppressing every urge of flesh or spirit which might threaten to lead them astray. Many male Disciples even went so far as to castrate themselves, in order to free themselves from at least some of their bodily desires. For the successful, however, the rewards were rich: not just freedom from the curse of unwanted and incomprehensible knowledge, but the ability to control their powers, seeing into the minds of men and bending the world to their will. Today, almost anyone who is born Blighted will at least attempt to become one of the Disciples of the Diamond Mind, even if less than half of them ultimately succeed; and the Disciples themselves are to be found in many offices of high honour, serving as advisers to kings and magistrates for whom their insights are more valuable than gold.

The Curse and the Cure: Being Blighted can happen to anyone, and usually manifests at adolescence. On average about one person in a thousand will be afflicted in this way, although some populations seem to have dramatically higher rates of affliction, for no reason that anyone has been able to adequately explain. As mentioned above, these days the first thing most people do upon realising that they are Blighted is to seek out the nearest Diamond Mind adept and beg for training, so most Blighted individuals that the PCs are likely to encounter will fall into one of three categories: inhabitants of remote areas with no way of getting Diamond Mind training (and possibly no knowledge that it even exists), Blighted adolescents roaming from town to town searching desperately for a Diamond Mind adept to train them, or drop-outs who lacked the self-control to complete their Diamond Mind training and have now resigned themselves to miserable lives on the fringes of civilisation. The third category will mostly consist of characters with Wisdom 9 or lower.

Every Blighted character has a Psychic Instability score, which is rolled on 1d6. (Some exceptionally severely Blighted individuals can have even higher scores, but this is rare.) Whenever a Blighted character experiences fear, anger, or stress, they must pass a WILL save or experience an uncontrollable psychic outburst. (Characters who have had even basic Diamond Mind training receive a +1 bonus to this saving throw. Very extreme emotions or stresses might impose penalties, at the GM's option.) If an outburst occurs, roll 1d6, add their Psychic Instability score, and consult the table below. If a 6 is rolled, then put the dice aside, roll another 1d6, and add this to the total; keep doing this until you either stop rolling sixes or your cumulative total rises to 25 or higher, at which point a Psychic Holocaust occurs and you can stop rolling because everyone's probably dead.

Oh, crap.

Note that any result of 10 or higher will be attended by phenomena which make it very obvious who is responsible: the Blighted character may bleed from their eyes, levitate off the ground, be surrounded by a miniature telekinetic whirlwind, or similar effects. Catastrophic psychic outbursts, leading to the deaths of one or more people, are often immediately followed by the lynching of the Blighted individual responsible.

Psychic Outburst Table

Roll + PI	Result
2-4	Bad vibes. Everyone within 50' suddenly feels very jumpy and uncomfortable, and will seize upon any excuse to leave and go somewhere less creepy.
5-7	Very bad vibes. Everyone within 50' starts feeling mildly nauseous, and is filled with a sense of creeping dread. If they don't have a good reason for hanging around, they will leave the area as quickly as possible.
8-9	Minor telekinetic incident. A random fragile object within 30' - a window, jar, etc - suddenly shatters as though from a violent blow.
10	The horrors. If the person responsible for causing the Blighted character's emotion is nearby, they are suddenly filled with an overwhelming sense of horror and dread; they must make a WILL save or flee the area as fast as possible, and suffer a -2 penalty to all rolls until they've had a chance to spend several hours calming down. If they're not nearby, someone else at random within 100' suffers the same effect.
11	Telekinetic incident. All fragile objects within 30' shatter simultaneously. If there are a lot of them, nearby characters may need to pass a REF save or take 1d3 damage from flying fragments.
12	Mental blow. If the person responsible for causing the Blighted character's emotion is nearby, they must make a WILL save or take 1d6 damage and be stunned for 1d6 rounds by a sudden psychic blow. If they're not nearby, someone else at random within 100' suffers the same effect.
13	Telekinetic slap. If the person responsible for causing the Blighted character's emotion is nearby, they are suddenly hit by a wave of telekinetic force; they take 1d6 damage (no save) and are sent sprawling. If they're not nearby, someone else at random within 100' suffers the same effect.
14	Nightmare wave. As 'The Horrors' (see 10, above), but affects everyone within 100'.
15	Major telekinetic incident. Every inanimate object within 30' reacts as though some has just hit it with a hammer: glass breaks, wood bends, metal is dented, and so on. All living creatures within this radius take 1d2 damage. (This will kill most small animals.)
16	Sensory deprivation. If the person responsible for causing the Blighted character's emotion is nearby, they must pass a WILL save or be struck deaf and blind for 1d6 hours. If they're not nearby, someone else at random within 100' suffers the same effect.
17	Psychic storm. Waves of psychic energy roll outward from the Blighted individual; everyone within 50' must make a FORT save or be knocked flying, taking 1d3 damage. Unsecured objects will be hurled about with great force. If this occurs within a populated area, assume a 10% death rate within the affected zone.
18	Telekinetic crush. If the person responsible for causing the Blighted character's emotion is nearby, they are lifted off the ground by an unseen force which begins to crush the life out of them. They immediately take 1d4 damage; each subsequent round, they must attempt a FORT save to break free. If they fail, they take another 1d4 damage and are immobilised for another round. Keep rolling each round until they either escape or die. If they're not nearby, someone else at random within 100' suffers the same effect. This effect will kill most ordinary people.
19	Brain-melter. If the person responsible for causing the Blighted character's emotion is nearby, they must make a WILL save or suffer 2d8 damage. If this damage is enough to kill them, their brains liquefy and pour out of their ears, which is really gross. If they're not nearby, someone else at random within 100' suffers the same effect. This effect will kill most ordinary people.
20	Telekinetic detonation. Hundreds of inanimate objects within 30' explode violently and simultaneously into shards, rags, or splinters. Everyone within this area must make a REF save to throw themselves prone; if they fail, they take 1d6 damage. (In a heavily-cluttered area, this damage might increase to 1d8 or even higher.) If this occurs in a populated area, assume a 25% death rate within the affected zone.
21	Mass sensory deprivation. As sensory deprivation (see 16, above), but affects everyone within 100'.
22	Head-burster. If the person responsible for causing the Blighted character's emotion is nearby, they must make a WILL save or suffer 3d10 damage. If this damage is enough to kill them, their head explodes. If they're not nearby, someone else at random within 100' suffers the same effect. This effect will kill most ordinary people.
23	Psychic hurricane. Every sentient being within 50' of the Blighted individual feels powerful psychic forces clawing at their minds, trying to tear their psyche to shreds. Anyone who fails a WILL roll takes 1d10 damage and can do nothing except roll around screaming for the next 1d6 rounds. If this occurs in a populated area, assume a 50% death rate within the affected zone.
24	Nightmare plague. Every sentient being within 100' must make a WILL save or spend the next 2d6 hours suffering grotesque and terrifying hallucinations. Sufferers will flee, screaming, in a random direction, totally regardless of their own safety. Anyone trying to stop or restrain them will be seen as a nightmare-monster and attacked with lethal force.
25+	Psychic holocaust. Every sentient being within 100' must make a WILL save or suffer 3d10 damage as blood vessels burst within them. Anyone killed by this damage explodes into bloody ruin, painting everything around them red with blood and gore. (If this occurs within a populated area, simply assume a 75% death rate within the affected zone.) The Blighted individual collapses into a coma for 1d6 days, and permanently increases their Psychic Instability by 1.

Blighted characters are not usually suitable as player characters (unless you want to be very unpopular with the other players, but you may play a Diamond Mind Adept if you wish. Playing one requires Intelligence and Wisdom 12 or higher. Use the following game information:

• You can only use simple weapons, and cannot use shields, or any armour heavier than heavy leather (AC +3).
• You get 1d4 HP per level.
• You gain a +2 bonus to WILL saves. (Included in table below.)
• You gain a bonus to all attack rolls (melee, ranged, and psychic) equal to one-half of your level, rounded down.
• You must keep your emotions ruthlessly restrained at all times. If you ever allow yourself to behave in an emotional or impassioned manner, you must immediately make a WILL save. If you fail, roll on the Psychic Outburst table above as though you had a Psychic Instability of 1.
• At will, you can perform feats of telekinesis on nearby objects (maximum range 10' + 5' per level.) For as long as you stand still and devote your entire concentration to moving the object with your mind, it moves around as though it was being lifted by someone whose Strength and Dexterity were equal to your Wisdom and Intelligence, respectively. This movement is slow, and cannot usually be used to make attacks. You can move a number of objects equal to your level, but you must divide your total psychic ‘strength’ amongst them: so a third-level Adept with Wisdom 12 could move two objects as though each was being moved by someone with Strength 6, or three as though each was being moved by someone with Strength 4.
• At will, you can launch a psychic attack on a nearby target by directly striking at their mind, inflicting 1d6 damage. Subtract their WILL save number from 25: this is their effective AC against this attack. You may apply your Wisdom modifier as a bonus to both the attack roll and damage roll.
• By looking directly at someone and concentrating, you may attempt to read their surface thoughts. They will be subconsciously aware that you are doing this, and may resist it by making a WILL save; if they pass, you take 1d3 damage from psychic feedback and cannot attempt to read their mind again that day. Otherwise, you are aware of their surface thoughts for as long as you maintain concentration and they remain in your visual range.
• Once you have established telepathic contact with someone by reading their surface thoughts, you may silently project messages to them at will, and 'read' their responses from the surface of their minds. You may also attempt to tamper with their mind, by implanting an idea or emotion, or by erasing or modifying a memory. They always get a WILL save to resist this, and the GM can grant bonuses to their WILL roll based on the extent of your attempted mental meddling; if they pass, you take 1d6 damage from psychic feedback and cannot attempt to read their mind again that day. If they fail, then the modified idea, memory, or emotion is implanted, and they will believe it to be their own. Doing this will leave telepathic markers which will be clearly visible to any other Adept who reads their mind while your changes are in effect, allowing them to identify which memories, emotions, etc have been artificially implanted by another psychic. (Wise kings get themselves scanned daily!)

Diamond Mind Summary Table

Level	Hit Points	To Hit Bonus	Fortitude save (FORT)	Reflex save (REF)	Willpower save (WILL)
1	1d4	+0	14	14	12
2	2d4	+1	13	13	11
3	3d4	+1	12	12	10
4	4d4	+2	11	11	9
5	5d4	+2	10	10	8
6	6d4	+3	9	9	7
7	7d4	+3	8	8	6
8	8d4	+4	7	7	5
9	9d4	+4	6	6	4
10	10d4	+5	5	5	3

Starting equipment: Long traveller's coat (treat as buff jacket, +2 AC), staff (1d6 damage), tiny icon of the Sage of the Diamond Mind, humourless expression, 3d6 x10 sp.