This Isn't Orden

While we're not gaming in Orden, we'll do our best to align with the rules as written. There will, however, be some departures because some of it doesn't fit with the campaign setting. For example, Ajax isn't a thing here, so War Dogs and Hawk Riders aren't a thing, at least in the lore sense.

Aging & Lifespan

Members of all ancestries age at about the same pace - the pace of typical Humans. Aging is slowed as Heroes gain rank to the point of extra decades of life at Silver, extra centuries at Gold, and virtual immortality at Diamond. See Rank, below.

Ancestries

The following RAW ancestries are available to players: All of them except Revenant.

Devils, Memoneks, and Time Raiders are not native to this world. Since this is a fantasy world, I'm going to need an interesting explanation for how one of these ancestries got here, and "crash landed" is not interesting.

Ancestry Lore Changes

Think of Dragon Knights (Draconians in our world's lore) as a natural species of dragon-people.

Think of Orcs as indigenous Americans - the real history; not the propaganda. Strong ties with nature. Strong family and clan structure. Generosity, but also a willingness to fight for survival.

Homebrew Ancestries

The following additional ancestries are available to players: Celestine, Leonid.

Classes

We'll use the MCDM published classes that are also implemented in Codex. Necromancer flavored Summoners are forbidden.

I am especially not a fan of the power-creep that typically accompanies third-party classes, though I might consider a reasonably adjusted Elementalist.

Combat

Unconscious

If you wake up from being Unconscious, and you are still in combat, you can not stand up from prone as a free maneuver. If you can’t do it while in the midst of adrenaline-fueled combat, you also cannot do it while groggily regaining consciousness from whatever bad thing happened to you.

Complications

The following complications are not available: Amnesia, Artifact Bonded, Elemental Inside, Fallen Immortal, Lost Your Head, Shared Spirit.

The following complications are available but will be different in ways we'll discuss if someone wants to take one: Crash Landed, Host Body, Infernal Contract (both), Hawk Rider, War Dog Collar.

The following complications are available but you won't like what happens if you take them: Vampire Scion.

Complications are a fantastic opportunity for player creativity. Please bring your ideas!

Dimensional Storage

Think of Dimensional Storage as a Bag of Holding that is one of your innate abilities instead of an item. Its capacity grows with your rank. Heroes may choose to acquire Dimensional Storage by taking the Dimensional Storage perk (available in all perk categories) or as a 1-point Purchased Ancestry Trait at hero creation.

Capabilities and restrictions of Dimensional Storage include:

• Only you can access your Dimensional Storage. You cannot grant access to anyone else. However, if you die, it can be looted by someone with the Loot Power or a looting ritual.

• The only way to prevent you from using your Dimensional Storage is to completely suppress your ability to use magic.

• Loot that you acquire via the Loot Power or looting rituals is placed directly into your Dimensional Storage.

• Items within it do not experience the passage of time, so there's no movement, even at the subatomic level, so everything comes out exactly as you put it in.

• Living, multicellular entities cannot be placed into Dimensional Storage. It simply doesn't function for them.

• Dimensional Storage adds no weight, mass, or bulk to its user.

Dimensional Storage can manifest in various forms. Creativity is encouraged!

Downtime & Project Rolls

Applicable recipes and materials are required to start crafting / downtime projects.

Heroes will be granted one project roll per full day of non-adventuring activity in a place they could take a Respite if they wanted to. Taking a Respite - the game mechanics of a Respite - is not a requirement to earn or make a project roll.

Familiars

If we have a very small number of them, like no more than two in the party, our familiars will be a lot more interesting and a little more powerful than RAW - a cross between familiar and retainer, including personalities. We’ll delve into the details if and when someone takes a Familiar Perk.

Gods & Religion

Ignore the lore in RAW. Instead, review the Gods & Religion lore entry.

Language

Even though this isn't Orden, we'll use the Orden languages. Custom languages are too hard to manage, especially considering downtime activities.

I'll need a Very Good Reason for any dead language taken in a slot granted during character creation.

Leveling

I'm leaning toward 20 victories per level. This will give us time to do some side quests, world-building, and back-story content without hitting level 10 far too early.

I would like for all heroes to maintain the same number victories and all respite together - leveling up as a unit. This makes encounter balancing easier for me. It also means heroes won't fall behind if their players need to miss a session.

Loot Power

Looting Monsters requires either a specialized Ritual (requirement: Ritual Lore skill) or the Loot Power. Without either of those, you cannot loot Monsters, though you can certainly search through pockets and packs of defeated non-Monsters.

The advantage of the Loot Power over the ritual is that it is instant, which might enable you to loot monsters that you would not be able to loot if you needed to take the few minutes per monster to execute the ritual.

• Heroes may elect to take a Loot Power, either at character creation or later, by taking the Loot Power perk (available in all perk categories) or as a 1-point Purchased Ancestry Trait at hero creation.

• The Loot Power enables the Hero to instantly, magically, and thoroughly loot Monsters and other defeated foes.

• Loot Powers may be used only on kills the Hero earned or has been granted explicit permission by its killer to loot.

• When using a Loot Power, all the loot from the looted entity is placed directly into the looting Hero’s Dimensional Storage, if they have it and space is available.

• Using a Loot Power on a Monster transforms its deteriorating magic into objects like crafting reagents, Spirit Coins, magical items, etc. while also generating a large amount of the most foul-smelling rainbow colored smoke imaginable.

Montage Tests

We will sometimes use the Montage Threats & Opportunities alternative to RAW Montage rules, when it makes sense to do so.

Player vs Player

• There will be no non-consensual PvP in this game.

• This extends beyond combat into literally any action a Hero might take that is intended to have a meaningful adverse impact upon at least one other Hero.

• Consensual PvP must be approved by the Director in advance.

Rank & Echelon

We'll refer to "Echelon" as "Rank". This is mainly cosmetic and a little bit mechanical.

The ranks in the game are:

Rank is an aspect of a being's aura and can be detected by creatures of Iron Rank or higher.

This detection enables creatures detect and "read" others' auras to varying degrees of success. These degrees depend on rank disparity between the individuals and the quality of the individuals' training in obfuscation or detection of auras.

Rank has a level of tyranny to it in contested situations.

In combat, Heroes can easily defeat even swarms of monsters of any lower rank. If you encounter a group of these that wants to fight you, the players will simply narrate how they win. Conversely, it's impossible for heroes to defeat even one creature two ranks higher than they are. If you pick a fight with one of these, we can collaboratively narrate how you lose.

Outside of combat, higher Rank creatures usually have a decided advantage over lower Rank creatures who aren't specialized. For example, a Silver rank hero who is untrained in being sneaky and lacks magical assistance will never be able to sneak up on a Gold rank anything. Similarly, a Silver rank creature with some stealth capabilities will probably never be noticed by a Bronze rank creature.

Skills

Crafting Skills

For each crafting skill you take at character creation, you may also take one Echelon 1 Recipe that falls within that crafting skill. Recipes taken this way are subject to Director approval.

You won't start with any crafting materials.

Rituals Skill

The following additional skill is available in this setting: Lore / Rituals. This is a ritual specialization that brings along knowledge of adventuring-appropriate rituals (like looting) with a base of knowledge that can expand over time through discovery and research downtime projects.

Timescape Skill

This isn't Orden so we will repurpose Timescape to be a little more generic "Cosmos". It will keep the "Timescape" name.

Spirit Coins

• Heroes can consume (as in eat) Spirit Coins of Iron Rank and higher.

• Consuming a Spirit Coin equivalent to your Rank serves as nourishment (food & water) for one meal.

• You can consume one Spirit Coin as a Free Action at any time during your Turn.

• When you consume a Spirit Coin of a Rank higher than your own, you temporarily gain the power of that Rank (but not its abilities) until the start of your next Turn. When the power fades at the start of your next Turn, you suffer ill effects based on the difference between your Rank and the Rank of the coin consumed. This effectively increases your rank to the rank of the coin consumed for the duration of the effect, including Tyranny of Rank effects described under Rank.

  1. +1 Rank
     Benefit: Gain 1 Edge and apply 1 free Surge to all your actions, Additionally, all actions taken against you suffer 1 Bane.
     Cost: Lose 50% of your maximum Stamina. Gain the Weakened Condition. This effect cannot reduce your Stamina below 1.

  2. +2 Ranks
     Benefit: Gain a Double Edge and apply 2 free Surges to all your actions. Actions taken against you suffer a Double Bane.
     Cost: Lose 75% of your maximum Stamina. Gain the Weakened, Dazed, and Slowed Conditions. This effect cannot reduce your Stamina below 1.

  3. +3 Ranks
     Benefit: Gain automatic Tier-3 Result on all actions and apply 3 free Surges. All actions taken against you automatically suffer a Tier-1 result.
     Cost: Your Stamina drops to 0. You can only recover Stamina by taking a Respite.

  4. +4 Ranks
     Benefit: Gain automatic Critical result on your next Ability Roll before the effect expires, allowing you to take one extra action. Both your actions get an automatic Tier-3 result. Additionally, you apply 3 free Surges on all your actions and are immune to actions from anyone of a lower Rank than the coin you consumed.
     Cost: You die. Your body is consumed by magic.

• In all cases, each subsequent time you consume a Spirit Coin of higher Rank before taking a Respite increases the Rank difference effect by 1.

Titles

Titles offer excellent opportunities for precise character customization. If you're interested in creating custom titles that require effort to achieve, I'm eager to discuss your ideas. Let's aim to keep them balanced and on par with the Titles in the core rules.