Lovecraftian goods for Ladies and Gentlemen

Welcome, dear Guest!

The last week at Steamagination’s Facebook was Lovecraftian Week, a time full of forbidden knowledge and extraterrestrial horrors. Today I have for you a compilation of all goods that appeared on FB during that week plus one extra gadget – The picture of Filip Liebkraft. Enjoy!

 

Gadgets

 

The Book of Offerings (20 XP)

A man who used this book too often.

A rare and forbidden magical volume encouraging the reader to offer a part of himself in exchange for the lore of alien, hungry entities.

Or: an invisible imp advisor, a ritual knife of an alien cult, arcane formulas tattooed into one’s skin.

Traits: once per session: any ritualist power*, Enchance Power spell, any other ritualist spell*. Special: when using spells from this book you can sacrifice a Reputation, Constitution or Wealth point to gain an extra die just like ritualists do.

*Choose one when you acquire the gadget.

 

Fateful cookies (15 XP)

Fortune cookies (or tea cakes) with eldritch secrets instead of prophecies. Eat them regularly and you’ll soon be both well-versed in occult matters and fearless – or maybe too mad to fear anything?

Or: tea leaves of bad omen, collection of non-Euclidean statues, a psychoanalyst seeking occult meaning in his patient’s dreams.

Traits: courage +3, occultism +3, token: +5 in a conflict against an enemy who causes Fear.

 

The picture of Filip Liebkraft  (10 XP)

The picture told me that there was a shoggoth on the roof.

A portrait of famous Wotanian occultist who probably was kidnapped by venrierist to help in contact with the Elder Gods. The picture is said to have gone mad instead of Liebkraft himself. If it talks to you in your dreams, don’t worry – but be sure not to sleepwalk for you may enter the picture and never come back.

Or: Dr Zauberberger’s Remote Investigator, crystal ball with zoom option, clockwork third eye.

Effects: occultism +3, special action: find out any piece of lore related to the Elder Gods or Elder Races.

Special thanks to Liebkraft from Yog-Sothoth.com for giving me an inspiration for this gadget!

 

Saint Mario’s Spyglass (10 XP)

Some say that Mario Slavio, the most curious traveler in the Middle Ages was made a saint because he remained a faithful dualist despite the things he has seen during his voyages. Most of them have been seen using this spyglass.

Or: Dr Zauberberger’s Remote Investigator, crystal ball with zoom option, clockwork third eye.

Effects: spot +3, special: you can always use analysis or occultism to analyze the things you see through this spyglass as if you were standing next to them.

 

Walter Jackson’s notes (10 XP)

The notebook of a consulting detective that stopped at least dozen unholy rites, arrested the high priest of The Dancer Throught The Aeons and is currently considered lost in time and space.

Or: “Be a cultist!” disguise set, fake tattoo of a dangerous cult, talking skull of an ancient priest-king

Traits: occultism +3; +3 to social actions against cultists, warlocks and madmen.

 

Feats

 

Alien Heritage (5 XP)

And one day you won’t recognize yourself.

Strange things happen around you and maybe even in you. They may have happened since your birth or have begun after a strange event in your past.

Effect: once per session you can add a second card to the result of the roll at a cost of Reputation or Constitution point. This card represents something strange and shocking, like gills opening on your neck or a mysterious voice advising you on swordplay. You can’t use this ability when you play a second card by exhausting a power.

 

Fearless! (10 XP)

Requirements: trained in courage.

Effect: you draw an additional card when you succeed on a Fear test (normally it takes a raise). If Fear was caused by a creature during a conflict, a raise on that roll gives you an extra d10 for your next action against this creature.

 

Bend reality – a new spell

You can suddenly turn a favorable opportunity used by your opponent to your advantage.

Variants: Steam-powered Fate Depolarizer, a leak of matter from the tenth dimension, minor time manipulation, spinning a narrative of the real world.

Requirements: use this spell only when your enemy is playing a card. Discard all cards from your hand, lose a Reputation point (due to the mind-shattering scope of this spell) and make a roll of your arcane skill with TN dependent on the card: 2-10 means TN 10, J-K TN 14, Ace TN 20 and the Joker TN 30.

Effect: if your roll succeeds the card played by your enemy gives him a penalty instead of a bonus, for example a roll result of 17 with an ace is 12 and not 22. If your enemy was using a card instead of rolling the dice his test simply fails.

 

Sanity loss – a new scar

Some monsters – demons, the Elder Races, some undead – may be so appalling that losing any conflict with them causes a loss of Composture instead of Agility or Brawn. A PC whose Composure is reduced to 0 in that way can regain it by getting a following scar:

Sanity loss: courage -3, occultism +3

 

New to Wolsung: two opposite entrances

What I’d like to share with you today is my experience with introducting Wolsung to new players. I’m planning to write it down as a two- or three-part series, beginning today with two ways to smoothly teach new players the rules of this game. As stated in the title, those two ways are completely opposite to each other, but they both have worked at my table.

 

Option one: long creation

The first option is rather mainstream and I’ve already had time to test it well. It’s very simple: don’t fill the whole character sheet at once, instead fill it gradually over the course of first three sessions.

It’s nice to see a character gradually coming to life.

On the first session distribute only attributes, skills and archetypes. Players should choose race and profession of their characters, but these choices won’t influence the rules – not yet. They get no tokens and they get only five cards for the entire session:  Five, Ten, Dame, King and an Ace. The color of these card doesn’t matter yet – they can be used with any aspect of an Archetype, ex. a club can be used as “suspects” by an investigator even thought “suspects” are normally associated with spears. The Game Master gets no cards and no tokens. It’s up to the Game Master if the Extraordinary Ladies and Gentlemen start with an Achievement and thus if they have 2d10 dice pool.

Those limitations serve many purposes. First and foremost they ensure that players won’t be overwhelmed with the whole ruleset of Wolsung. My introductory sessions using these rules always run much smoother than those with full mechanics. Second, more specific aim is to ensure that players won’t have to use the cards too often. When they use them only when they really need them they’ll have a better chance to learn to use them in an interesting way. And, last but not least, not introducing cards and tokens at the same time ensures that players will understand the difference between them – after all, they both add to the roll and it’s important to know when to use and how to describe each of them.

On the second session introduce professional and racial abilities, gadgets and feats. Give them to players in typical amounts, including 20 XP that every character should get at its creation. However, don’t introduce tokens and limit the use of any token-relying abilities to once per session.

 I think that using gadgets, feats and magic is easier than using a full suit of cards, so this order of character creation seems the best for me. It also has a huge advantage when it comes to spellcasting characters. They aren’t able to renew their powers using tokens, so from the very start they have to focus on more lively and interesting option of renewing them using the rules of their sort of magic (using one’s primary element for Wild Talents and so on). Let’s hope that this habit will stay with them once they get a bunch of tokens.

On the third session full rules apply – give the players regular number of cards and tokens and finally have them yourself.

If your players learn really fast, you may give them half this amount (three cards and three tokens) during the second session. On the other side if they need more time to understand Wolsung, you can give them half the amount on the third session and wait until the fourth with the full amount.

This way of teaching Wolsung is really well-tested, I have taught something like a dozen players using it and now they all use the rules very easily and creatively. my second idea lacks these virtues but it can be really fun to some players.

 

Option two: Lots of cards!

In this version a player chooses only his Archetype for the first session. His character has no stats, but he gets three cards and draws another three each time only one is left in his hand, discarding the worst of the four. He can play this cards as any other player, with one exception: if he uses card value as a result of his roll, other players can increase this result with their card bonuses.

Because such a player has no stats, he can’t be a target of an attack during a confrontation and his failures only have consequences to the story, not the mechanics.

That’s why I consequently write “player” instead of “players” – this option is best suited for adding a new player to an already formed group. This is the way I’ve used this rule in my sessions (only once so far, but with good results). A character created this way is not only very simple to run but also invincible, so he gets a period of protection that allows him to get involved in the plot more smoothly. Getting new cards when he still has one left allows to hoard an all-powerful deck towards the end of the session. I think there should be such a possibility because Wolsung is, after all, a tactical game and players should be taught to rely on their own wits, not only sheer luck from the first session.

The obvious drawback is that the player has to use many, many cards on the first session – but since he doesn’t have to do anything else, it shouldn’t be a really serious problem. I think that a player who begins with such minimal rules will use cards more interestingly during later sessions.

What to do with such a character after the first session? I suggest creating him using long creation rules, but simplified: the character gets three tokens on his second session (along with attributes and skills) and on the third one he is ready with full suite of both stats and cards.

Using these rules to create an entire team is a very interesting option both for new players and for experienced ones wanting a fast-paced, fun game, but it requires to tweak other rules of Wolsung in quite a serious way. If somebody is interested in this home-brew version of Wolsung I’ll gladly write about it.  

 

In next installment of this series I’ll write about introducing the world of Wolsung to the players and helping them find their place in this Victorian society. However, first I’ll finish A Game of Shops an review Operation Wotan. I know that this week has less new posts than the last one and I’m sorry about it but I can’t write more for you because of my exams.

I’ll be glad for your opinions on these ideas!