first-rule-publishing-blog

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Uplifts lore: Logos: The Guts.

This post is to provide a nice location for an adventure. It's based on a something that's mentioned alot in my favorite Sci-fi show but is never actually shown.

The machine sub-sector of Logos, "The Guts"

In the great space station of Logos there is a hidden side that is not designed for people, it is the machine sub-sector. For every inch of the station that people inhabit there are chambers for the machinary that support it. Deeper into these sub-sector we find colossal machines with giant moving parts. There is no room for proper human access, those that venture here dance around these mechanisms like insects inside an engine block! The size of "The Guts" is tremendous as it's essentially the underside of Logos. This is the other half that few explore.

Exploration:

Exploring The Guts means going into areas that are not usually safe for foot traffic. Most of these places will move or have something move across it. Further, reaching many of these places requires specialized equipment for climbing smooth metal surfaces. It is entirely possible to fall thousands of feet in these places or be instantly incinerated!

Dangers:

There are many dangers here but the primary one is being crushed or grounded up in machinary parts or struck by steam or another sort of discharge.

Pistons: A wall of metal filling the tunnel charges forward and back. They push air or other gases. Their strength depends on their size but most are strong enough to strike with the force of an incoming train. Their back arms can come from nowhere and strike you on the side.

Vents: Vents can discharge air, steam, or poisonous gases. They can flush with a mild force or strong enough to roll a car over. Further, it's a terrible surprise to discover you are inside a vent as your party finds themselves being thrown against a wall with a column of air hot enough to boil water.

Rewards: The lesson of The Guts is that it is an unstoppable machine. A person has no power to stop or slow any part of it. To venture there means you can survive an environment that is unbelievably hostile. Besides that hoo-haa you can use The Guts to access just about any part of Logos while the grand machine itself has things that you can find anywhere else, which means sweet dosh.

Super-Grease:  An advanced oil that is functionally invincible.  When applied to machinery it will never drop in quality or burn away.  The Guts is drenched in this stuff but collecting it is tricky.  Through the structure it only congeals in certain points enough to be worth the effort of stealing.  It clumps up in gauges, nicks, or simple gaps by the handful or (16 oz. portions if we are going to be specific.)  A machine that is treated in this grease essentially triples in value and is invincible from wear.  Machinists fight for this stuff.  Cost: $1000 per 16oz glob.

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Uplifts: Heirs to the Future Available at OCC!

If you have ever had any experience in gaming in the Pacific Northwest then you have likely run into Olympic Cards & Comics.  They are to my knowledge the best gaming and comics store within afew thousand miles.  If you are west of the Mississippi and have an interest in anything table top related then check it out, I might see you there!    

Also, my book is there. I thank Gabbi and all my friends at this joint for giving me a shot!

https://www.olympiccardsandcomics.com/index.html

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Uplift Exiles

Taking some advice I’ve decided to do some character profiles.  These characters were immeasurable pain the sides of game testers.

Through Lei’Kuhn’s history there is a saying that, “The nation’s bones are made of gold.”  This saying comes from a noble family that has ruled over the country for most of it’s history.  No matter how many times they were ousted or thrown out they have returned.  With the recent regime taking over the land and digging in, many expect this family to return again.  This family is known as the Geum Clan.

The Clan has a strong hereditary trait of nearly every member being a genetic human, not a hint of actually being Uplifts.  Over the years this has snow balled into legends about what kind of Uplift they actually are.  Some legends say that they were snakes or reptiles turned into human form as a sign of divine blessing.  Others say they are all avians that undergo extreme cosmetic surgery and they keep their true appearances a secret.  These legends are the ones that float to the top, the lesser legends speak of horrible deformed births and bizarre body doubles.

Modern members of the Clan:

 Geum Gija:  Gija was the patriarch and rightful head of the clan.  If not for the government takeover, Gija would have been the current ruler of the nation.  When the regime raided government buildings and services they found Gija gone.  The only clue of where he left was a signed declaration of surrender to the opposition.  His disappearance and signed surrender has been a tremendous mystery for the nation as some say it was cowardice while others believe Gija did what he did to save his country from a bloody civil war.  His current whereabouts are unknown.

Stat: HP: 200 MH 150 STR 4 AGI 7 MIND 7 Skills: Fencing 7, Poetry 5, Philosophy: 7 (Note: Stats represent his last known appearance, many years ago.)

 Geum Dae: Dae is Gija’s brother and currently the head of the clan, although the title has no value right now.  Dae was content living a life of luxurious stipends and letting the responsibility slide over his brother, Gija.  When his clan was deposed and his brother gone, he became the head of the clan with the terrible responsibility of handling their situation.  His duties since involve thwarting the regime’s ambitions through international awareness or stopping an assassination plot against one of his family members.  In his own words, “I eat out alot.  Every meal time is a meeting with someone!”

Appearance: Dae is a round old man hidden behind large round glasses.  He has an passive nature about him which underlies a master manipulator.  Years have taught him to get people to do just enough to suit his goals but not enough for them to know what his goals are.  Fun fact:  Prior to the regime takeover he sought to carve his own name in the international martial arts circuit.  While old age has made him slow and flabby he still maintains a inch-punch that crush bone.

Stat: HP: 130 MH: 200. STR 4 AGI: 4 MIND: 6 Noteworthy Skills: Schmooze 4, bargin: 4, Martial Arts: 10 (+10d10)  Note:  Dae has lower physical stats to represent his old age.)

Geum Mok: Mok is a Dae's son and a prince in the family line. Being born into the exile has given him a unique perspective on the situation. He doesn't want to return to Lei'Kunn, instead he believes a more democratic government would be better than the monarchies or dictatorships that have plagued their history. Young and mobile he loves the city life where there are always people doing interesting things. Despite what you'd assume from his beliefs he fills the description of a "prince of mystery" quiet well. He usually is quitely looking over scenery and, somehow, he has a way of letting everyone stop when he finally decides to speak.

Stats: HP 120 MH 40. STR 4, AGI 7, MIND 4. Skills: Dance 5, Martial Arts 2 (+2d10).

Appearance: Mok rather handsome, tall, and skinny with feathery dark hair. He is always dressed fashionably, this is another striking difference between him and Dae who has been wearing the same suit for decades. Despite his romanticized ideals he has no idea what to do about the country or how to bring the changes he wants. He lives a an expensive lifestyle, much to Dae's criticism.

Fun fact: Under a false identity Mok was a member in a boy band group called Lightening Noodle. He of course was 'the loner' of the group. While this did bring him some wealth and made him quite agile, it also gave him a host of special skills that are completely useless to a foreign national trying to lay low.

Sun Geum: Sun is a member of the regime's elite, which would make her the enemy of entire Geum clan. The regime and she herself claim that she is the direct heir of Gija and by rights means she should be the ruler. By her not protesting the government and actually being a member of it's head-honchos she gives the regime credibility and she becomes the face of the government. There are problems with this situation however.

Any questions of Sun's royal heritage is sharply denied. All evidence accepted as valid is from citing data that has already been 'currated' by the regime and under absolutely no condition is she to be genetically tested. All ruling members of the regime's party are to not be tested, incidentally. However suspicions persist as official members of the Geum clan deny her heritage and say that she is a tool and puppet. Further Sun suffers an obvious difference from the family: She is a snake.

Sun is a serpent uplift, a rather exotic one at that. Her rounded head and white glossy scales give her a soft, fragile appearance. Her body is longer but thinner than other serpentoids. She likes to feign gentleness to cover for a scheming nature. She likes to decorate herself by painting culturally significant images on the scales of her neck or sometimes her entire body to make herself look more exotic. Theres rumors that she is a clinical psychopath and shows no empathy in anything she does, of course these rumors also say she stalks the night to inject venom in men she fancies and her diet consists specifically of lost beloved pets.

Stats: str 3 agi 8 mind 4. Hp 140. Mh: 80.

Skills: knives 5, contortion: 9, pistols 4, sneaking 4.

Traits: Venom 3d10 per turn. Will not stop without an antidote(chapter 10) Note that Sun is rumored to poison the tea she serves to gursts with her own venom. It is also said that she uses an herb that delays the effects of her venom to sweeten the drink, making the venom not take effect until hours later. It really screws with people's heads as to whether or not they have been poisoned after seeing her.

[first-rule-publishing-blog]

3Stat: 20 Sider Conversion

In this age of compromise it's been brought up to have rules for those that have the nearly spherical dice famous in the tabletop scene. In truth, it's actually pretty easy. While the d20 system uses the Gambit between 1d4 to 1d20 this post will focus on using d20s exclusively.

Stat and skill bonuses when using d20.

For each point in a stat it adds +1 to the dice roll.

For each point in a skill it adds +2 to the dice roll.

What you must roll above when using d20.

In melee you must roll 4 or higher to hit a target.

In range you must roll 8 or higher to hit.

Cover grants a -8 penalty to attackers (meaning without bonuses they must roll 16≤)

Headshots must be either a natural 20 or a sum higher than 20 after bonuses.

Skills using d20

The easiest difficulty for a skill roll is 10 or better.

A medium difficulty is 15 or better. Very difficult if you do not have at least 3 or more in the skill.

Master difficulty is 20+. This is unfathomable for those that either have natural talent (high attributes) or high skill levels.

Damage:

Because damage is tied to the hit points scale converting it to d20 is simple; in the damage formula simply roll 1d20 for every 2d10s. For odd numbered d10 stats I would recommend rounding down or adding an additional +5, for example:

Space gun: 4d10+40

D20 space gun: 2d20+40

Sword 3d10

Sword 1d20+5

The straight punch(1d10) is the GM's call. If they want to say all punches are now +5+STR or 1d20+STR is up to them. Keep in mind that in d20 the additional damage str does is still +5 per point.

Besides that everything else is the same, if you think different then send me a message!

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Uplifts Lore: The Cleanse

On Logos there are not many holidays but there is one of note: Cleanse day.  This is a day where citizens are to observe the intricate complexities of their space colony home through a natural migration of small robots called CMI’s. 

CMIs (pronounced "see-me" as a slang term) stand for Carbon Mechanized Inspectors. They are an unnumbered horde of antonymous robots that crawl through Logos to take care of the dust, dirt, sand, or any other grime and filth. They resemble bugs, worms, or strange jumbles of limbs. Their function is to crawl along any edge to scrub and cleanse away until they are essentially used up, when they do they gather for Cleanse day.

Once a year, on Cleanse day, these spend bots rustle their beaten bodies into a swarm and crawl through the most populated areas of Logos. Like a river made out of a garage sale, these bionic bottom feeders parade through the station for it's citizens to show appreciation. Where their parade ends is regarded as a tradition to not know. Some say they gather at an airlock furthest from people and blow themselves out to space, others say they loop around to the back of the parade until they break down, still others think there is a giant CMI that feeds on the swarm at the end of their journey.

People celebrate this day the usual way with cheap themed goods, stories, and costumes. Many personal themed CMIs are sold to clean a person's living quarters, stories of horrible accidents caused because of there being no CMIs or CMIs heroically saving lives somehow are told, and CMI costumes are flaunted. Keep in mind CMI costumes are traditionally made of junk boxes and cheap lights and colored as if covered in dirt, but not real dirt as that would defeat the purpose of Cleanse day.  The logic and festive atmosphere of the holiday is contradictory to what most would think Logos is all about but to it’s people there is a special logic that they relish in saying that outsiders just don’t understand.

The most sacred tradition is the offerings. Before the swarm people lay down select pieces of junk and each family can only lay down one single piece. If the swarm takes the junk away then the family is considered to be blessed by the CMIs for the year but if it is not then they are considered to have been inconsiderately filthy that year. Further, the larger the object the larger the blessing will be if it is taken.

All CMIs have basic programming that is refered to as Drone Programming.  Drone Programming is setting a group of robots to do one simple job that collectively is actually a complex job.  In this case all CMI’s are programmed to clean filth where they see it and collectively they perform small maintenance on a machine the size of a continent! 

Stats:

Beetlesnail: hp:1. STR 1. AGI 1. MIND: 1. A 1x1in drone that features a box shaped body sitting on a singular sticky foot. Having just enough capacity to make out dirt they crawl following filth where ever it goes. Some variants have insect legs or emit an antiseptic gel.

Wormsnake: 80-160hp. STR; 2-6 AGI: 4-8. MIND 1. A long tube robot composed of soft materials. Lengths vary from 9 feet to 27. These bots travel through small tubes and vents, scrubbing as they go with a head made of bristles and other attachments. Never known to attack anyone but can emit a nasty shock when threatened. Travels by parastalsis.

Flopfly: 1-40 hp. STR: 1-3 AGI: 1-5 MIND: 1 Wingspan: 2 inches wide to 40 inches. The most majestic of the CMIs the appear as a large winged bug like moths, dragonflies, or butterflies. Unlike those however they do not fly regularly. Instead they waddle along using these wings like feet, flopping with each step. It turns out that a sticky antiseptic cleaner is emited in the wings so as the thing walks it picks up debri and cleans bacteria. The feet-wings will develop colors depending on what it has picked up through it's life of use. Scalpers often collect these drones to sell to tourists, which officially is akin to poaching by Logos security.

There is one other important aspect to CMI’s that the holiday hinges upon and that is that these cast-iron critters are a mystery.  They are made, programmed, and disposed of completely without any person handling them.  Some unknown person orders them commissioned on an automated assembly line when no one is scheduled to over see it, conveniently enough, and they are distributed by drone transports through the station.  Although it sounds clandestined the mystery of CMIs is one that citizens simply don’t investigate to protect the ‘spirit of the cleanse.’ 

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Uplifts Lore: LID

In the game Uplifts it's pointed out that characters from Logos have a unique physical trait: motor neurons that route through the the body and contact the skin surface, seemingly connecting to nothing. Logos technology uses this feature as a way of interacting with machines. In effect it means characters from Logos control technology from Logos through touch or even wireless via their other bit of universal tech: collars.

While LID allows them to issue commands they cannot recievers feedback through these nerves. Their collars however can display information as well as issue commands wirelessly.

The clash between LID and collar is the same as cord vs. wifi: LID and cord requires a constant connection but is faster, more secure, and can allow a wider data stream while WiFi and collar is susceptible to jamming and duping but allows for longer ranged connections without complicated connections.

So far the basics LID is used for are:

-Weapons

-vehicles

-data access(internet)

-accessing terminals.

This of course can leave the following open for flatscans:

-doors!

-designated "outsider" terminals for communications and information.

-Shouting and waving your hands until someone comes to help you.

There are afew things in Logos that requires an LID. GMs can consider it basic essentials or can naturally extend it to every possible thing. The decision is there to make it like a foreign airport where visitors can get by with what they know or to make it a technological fairyland where it very landscape adheres to the chosen LID users.

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Possible errata: Cover, cover fire.

While I was in a routine shootout with my gang bangers I noticed that when you fire multiple rounds in a person who is standing in the open would take most shots while those in cover would shurk behind cover the instant they were hit. This got me thinking about my system and cover.

As it stands now, cover only provides two forms of defense: a -40 penalty to an attacker's roll to hit and flat out negating flame thrower attacks. My thought currently is to say that cover defends from rapid fire attacks. This is high level as this requires the distinction between rapid fire attacks, which deals additional damage, and spray attacks, which add to an attacker's to-hit roll.

The next thought was cover fire or surpressing fire as it's also called. This is a thing I actually had rules for in another game. It went like this:

"To declare cover fire, the attacker declares they are taking cover fire and declares their targets, the attack then rolls and adds their weapon bonus. The defenders that are not in cover will take damage as if they were single shot by the attacker. Until the attacker's next turn, the defenders must roll higher than what the attacker originally rolled. If they succeed they were not hit, if the roll below they are interrupted and are shot in the attempt.

This manuever is useful in making foes take cover and stay in cover.

Damage: Single shot for the attacker's weapon

Penalty: Attacker's roll: 1d100+skill. Defender must roll 1d100+agi.

Note: Half clip: 3 targets. Full clip 6 targets."

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Uplifts 2:

With my first book done my thoughts think of what to do for the next. I suppose it's a wish to return to content writing again, also with all the effort put forth it seems like another book would be easier. That and it would be another chance to make a better book.

An issue I have with another book is a subtitle. So far I have:

Uplifts: Upright and Erect

Uplifts: Between the Ribs

Uplifts: Continuous Laser Noises

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DriveThruRPG print complications.

Thank you all who are giving my first RPG book a chance! Unfortunately I'm having some trouble getting a print edition available through DriveThruRPG.

Luckily Amazon self-publishing services are much easier and the print edition is available here:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1521915385/ref=sxts_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1520307805&sr=1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65

Again, thank you.