Deuce Traveler
Adventurer
I want to judge a quick pick-me-up fantasy game of In A Wicked Age. Character creation, adventure back story, quest objectives and conflict results are decided cooperatively between the GM and the players.
The Oracles
First, volunteering players and the GM must come to a consensus about which of the Four Oracles we will use: Blood and Sex, God Kings of War, the Unquiet Past, a Nest of Vipers.
Then I will flip the cards on this webpage and tell the volunteers the results: In a Wicked Age: four oracles
In a sample roll, I ended up with the 7 of Hearts, 4 of Spades, 5 of Diamonds, and 3 of Diamonds. This would result in the following characters and stories in order for us to choose Player Characters and Character Objectives:
Blood & Sex
7H: A spirit of the wilds, mercurial in form, sister to gazelles.
4S: A siren-ghoul, who entices the amorous into deadly peril.
5D: A chattel slave who has broken both his bonds and his master's skull.
3D: A raving prophet, advocating self-mortification and deprivation of the appetites.
God-kings of War
7H: A demon of rage and avarice, secret power behind a great tyrant's rule.
4S: A summoner of illusions and diversions, mild and of good humor, but gullible.
5D: The arrival of unexpected and improbable allies.
3D: A war-sorceress, slender but commanding, with golden hair.
the Unquiet Past
7H: A fallen temple, overgrown with moss and ivies.
4S: A market on the crossroads, full of sound and color.
5D: A gutted tower, home to many birds.
3D: The captain of a foreign troop, sent to collect tribute.
a Nest of Vipers
7H: A squat town on the banks of a wide, long river, rich from plunder, whose men raid up and down the river in their ugly boats.
4S: One mistakenly condemned, fled into hiding.
5D: The solemnization of treaty between two neighboring principalities, negotiated in the face of brutality and assassination, brave and hopeful but quite doomed.
3D: The celebration of a day sacred to the city's chief cult.
Character Creation
Characters can be chosen from the lines above in the chosen oracle or be associated with the characters in the lines above. For instance, in 'the Unquiet Past' example, maybe a PC plays the captain of the foreign troop, or a soldier assigned by the captain to collect tribute.
Characters attributes are assigned values by giving 6 dice (d12, d10, d8, d6, d6 and d4) to the following: Covertly, Directly, For Myself, For Others, With Love, With Violence. So a plundering warrior from 'a Nest of Vipers' example may look like this:
Covertly: d6
Directly: d10
-
For Myself: d12
For Others: d6
-
With Love: d4
With Violence: d8
Depending on the character's actions and intentions, he chooses which dice out of his pool to employ against an opponent, who also employs his dice pool.
Player Characters often also get a special strength, which I will cover later. Maybe that strength is the ability to incite rage in oneself or others like the demon in 'the God-Kings of War' example or illusion magic from the spellcaster in 'the God-Kings of War' example.
Finally, each character should have an objective and be opposed to another character's objective in the game. The accomplishment of the objective should result in who 'wins' at the end.
Characters in opposition to one another will come to an agreement over how their situation is resolved after their dice are rolled. The two gaining slight advantages or disadvantages for future conflict resolution depending upon how the conflict resolution is agreed upon. The rules and GM will help arbiter disagreements between players.
Characters from the oracle cards and created back stories that are not PCed will become NPCs and be run by the GM.
Back Story
As this is interactive, the players and GM will come to an agreement over who the characters are, what story is taking place and overall goals of the protagonists and antagonists. The oracles give some framework, but the players' imagination drives the tale.
The Oracles
First, volunteering players and the GM must come to a consensus about which of the Four Oracles we will use: Blood and Sex, God Kings of War, the Unquiet Past, a Nest of Vipers.
Then I will flip the cards on this webpage and tell the volunteers the results: In a Wicked Age: four oracles
In a sample roll, I ended up with the 7 of Hearts, 4 of Spades, 5 of Diamonds, and 3 of Diamonds. This would result in the following characters and stories in order for us to choose Player Characters and Character Objectives:
Blood & Sex
7H: A spirit of the wilds, mercurial in form, sister to gazelles.
4S: A siren-ghoul, who entices the amorous into deadly peril.
5D: A chattel slave who has broken both his bonds and his master's skull.
3D: A raving prophet, advocating self-mortification and deprivation of the appetites.
God-kings of War
7H: A demon of rage and avarice, secret power behind a great tyrant's rule.
4S: A summoner of illusions and diversions, mild and of good humor, but gullible.
5D: The arrival of unexpected and improbable allies.
3D: A war-sorceress, slender but commanding, with golden hair.
the Unquiet Past
7H: A fallen temple, overgrown with moss and ivies.
4S: A market on the crossroads, full of sound and color.
5D: A gutted tower, home to many birds.
3D: The captain of a foreign troop, sent to collect tribute.
a Nest of Vipers
7H: A squat town on the banks of a wide, long river, rich from plunder, whose men raid up and down the river in their ugly boats.
4S: One mistakenly condemned, fled into hiding.
5D: The solemnization of treaty between two neighboring principalities, negotiated in the face of brutality and assassination, brave and hopeful but quite doomed.
3D: The celebration of a day sacred to the city's chief cult.
Character Creation
Characters can be chosen from the lines above in the chosen oracle or be associated with the characters in the lines above. For instance, in 'the Unquiet Past' example, maybe a PC plays the captain of the foreign troop, or a soldier assigned by the captain to collect tribute.
Characters attributes are assigned values by giving 6 dice (d12, d10, d8, d6, d6 and d4) to the following: Covertly, Directly, For Myself, For Others, With Love, With Violence. So a plundering warrior from 'a Nest of Vipers' example may look like this:
Covertly: d6
Directly: d10
-
For Myself: d12
For Others: d6
-
With Love: d4
With Violence: d8
Depending on the character's actions and intentions, he chooses which dice out of his pool to employ against an opponent, who also employs his dice pool.
Player Characters often also get a special strength, which I will cover later. Maybe that strength is the ability to incite rage in oneself or others like the demon in 'the God-Kings of War' example or illusion magic from the spellcaster in 'the God-Kings of War' example.
Finally, each character should have an objective and be opposed to another character's objective in the game. The accomplishment of the objective should result in who 'wins' at the end.
Characters in opposition to one another will come to an agreement over how their situation is resolved after their dice are rolled. The two gaining slight advantages or disadvantages for future conflict resolution depending upon how the conflict resolution is agreed upon. The rules and GM will help arbiter disagreements between players.
Characters from the oracle cards and created back stories that are not PCed will become NPCs and be run by the GM.
Back Story
As this is interactive, the players and GM will come to an agreement over who the characters are, what story is taking place and overall goals of the protagonists and antagonists. The oracles give some framework, but the players' imagination drives the tale.
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