Revelations of the Darkness that is right beyond our mundane field of vision....

[digitaldark]

Just wanting to throw out a bit about a setting in development and see what you guys think...

Dark Revelations

"When you look out your window you see it, even though you do not believe you see it. There is a whole world of magic hidden within your own mundane reality. Mine is a world where a deadly threat has been terrorizing the earth for untold centuries and the only thing that protects you from it is the fact that you do not even know it exists."
- Jareb Pendragon
Ex-Golem Knight and mystic fugitive.

DR is a d20 Modern setting based on one assumption....magic has always existed and it has been kept secret for ages in an attempt to make the world to believe that the mystical simple is not real. This disbelief powers the most ancient and powerful of any abjuration ward, the Veil, which prevents the hosts of the fiendish hordes from being unleashed upon the face of earth.

Some New material includes:

• A new magic system grants any type of character to weave together spontaneous spells. Includes several new advanced classes that allow characters to utilize the new magic mechanics to their fullest, such as the Technomancer. This system, while completely unlike the standard magic system, does not simple throw out the old spells from the core book and 3rd party book but allows you to continue to use them as scrolls and through other means.
• New racial mechanics that mimic the basic classes for several new race options. Examples are the Malakim, angelic beings of divine might that tend to damage electronic technologies just by being near them, and Vampires (these aren't your typical vampires mind you, they have a unique and original history in DR that sets them apart from the vampires that populate other rpg.)
• A variety of different organizations will be detailed from the Mystical Government that rules north america in secret to Secret Orders dedicated to the eradication of fiendish entities.
• Also...new occupations, new feats, advanced/prestige classes, npc's, technomagic gear, a host of new monsters, and a detailed history..

...just a little info on what is to come...now post away, criticism, praise, questions....let me here what you have to say...or if there is something else you wanna know..just ask

 

[Tsyr]

Hurry up with it!

*cleans a puddle of drool*

 

[digitaldark]

Hurry up with it!

*cleans a puddle of drool*

Soon my friend....soon.

Give me a week or two..and I'll have some previews to announce

 

[Shadow64]

Sounds cool. The spontaneous spell ability sounds really nifty. I've been wanting something like that for a while but haven't been happy with my own attempts at it.

 

[digitaldark]

Sounds cool. The spontaneous spell ability sounds really nifty. I've been wanting something like that for a while but haven't been happy with my own attempts at it.

Its been my favorite part of writting this setting..and has taken the longest out of all the new mechanics to hash out..

the concept is based on a selection of magical skills and then learning dweomers, which are specific concentrations from a school of magic. For instance, the Evocation School has fire and force dweomers while the Abjuration school has banishment and ward dweomers...Overall, each school has 4 to 5 different dweomers to learn.. Each dweomer has several different uses and can be combined with other dweomers to create unique spontaneous spells...each dweomer effect you weave into the spell will raise its DC and required magical energy to cast it....

The system does allow quite a bit of flexiblity in creating unique new spells...for instance you could have a healing spell that not only heals hp but blesses and provides armor to the target..or combine several fire evocation dweomer effects to cast a bolt of flame that not only damages the target, but traps them in a dome of flame or cause an area burst of flame centered on them....its not just limited to combat related spells either....divination, for instance, has 4 seperate dweomers to use

one of the previews underway is a list of some frequently used (or weaved) spells by a few of the Iconic DR spellcasters....

(Channeling magical energies can also be dangerous to electronic equipment on or around the character as well...)

 

[The_Universe]

This sounds SWEET. NEEEEEEEEEEEEEEED more info.

 

[digitaldark]

Ok Ok...a bit more info

Well well....I've been hacking away at writing for most of the day and am really pleased with the things I've hammered out..much like a dwarven smith making an spectacular suit of mithril plate mail....I picked up Urban Arcana the other day and it has sparked the creativity...and also made me rethink I few things...so they are not confused with the info in that remarkable book (chances are..since my setting has quite a bit of modern magics..the ones interested in my setting will prolly have UA as well...so I don't want in conflicts between the two rules-wise)..anywayz...

I few tidbits of information....

Vampires
Yes..the bloodsucking lords of the night play a semi-big role in my setting. They tie directly to one of the several campaign mode options I present and somewhat loosly to another one.
I've created a back history for them that is pretty much different then any of the vampiric histories presented in other games or in movies.
I've also been researching a lot of biology related feilds for a complete chapter on vampiric pysiology. For instance, vampires are descendant from an ancient fiend of darkness named Zenorath. He was defeated by a circle of high priests of Ancient Egypt in the time of the dynasty of Menes, the first pharoah of Egypt. Zenorath, driven off by the priests, plotted revenge and eventually was confronted by the leader of the circle of high priests. An epic battle ensued, leaving the priest mortally wounded and spritually weakended, while Zenorth's fiendish body was obliterated by the faith of the priest. Zenorath forced his essence and will into the body of the dying priest, taking it as his own. The melding of Zenorath's fiendish essence and the priest's mortal body created the first vampire, Zenorath the Lord of Blood. (Zenorth, being a fiend of darkness was damaged by light as a fiend and this allergy has transfered through his essence to the new body.)

Vampires will have many more options for custimization as well. A vampire character starts play (true blood) or is turned into a Fledgling vampire. Through the course of a campaign, the vampire can spend experience to "evolve" into a mature vampire, or farther.
There are also basic vampire classes, that are basically the same as the basic hero classes, but they have different vampire based talent trees and new bonus feats lists. You could play a Fast Hero 2, Strong Vampire 3 if you want. Imagine a Fast Hero 3, Fast Vampire 3, Inflitrator 3!
A few vampiric Advanced Classes...The Blood Sorcerer is the shapeshifting variety of vamps such as the infamous Dracula. The Blood Fiend is a vampire that revels in destroying their own kind through vampiric cannibalism, which also allows them to learn the talents of a vanquished vampire.

The two campaign modes, which are basically just examples of ways to use the DR setting in your own campaigns, are the Twilight Nation and the Slayer's Brotherhood.

The Twilight Nation is the name for the international ruling body of vampires. Their headquarters is located in a remote metropolis in northern Alaska (where they get days worth of night!). You could be a member of their vampiric guard, working for the interests of the Twilight Nation, or you could be against the Twilight Nation and join the Kinder (a rather large vampire cult who like the fact that they are decsendant from an ancient demon and wish to ressurect him and smite the Twilight Nation infidels!).

The Slayer's Brotherhood isn't exactly BtVS, its an international group that has existed since the time of the Inquisition, and has sought the destruction of the entirety of vampire kind for centuries. (Actually, they're not just after vampires...they think the mystic world is a new phenomena..and seek to eliminate it as well...little do they know, the mystic world has been on earth since before even the mundane world )

Next time...I'll talk about the Malakim (aka Angels)

 

[digitaldark]

I'm back again....

Thought I'd stop by and let everyone know that we're still here and that I'm still working on Dark Revelations...I've had a few setbacks lately (namely loosing my real world job..so I've been looking for a new one). These will not prevent me from finishing the setting, however, it may take a little longer to finish it.

Last time I was here, I said I'd tell a little about the malakim.

Malakim
The malakim of Dark Revelations are not like the typical angels of mythology. The malakim are actually more akin to the vampires of DR. One thing that is consistant of the DR malakim and the angels of mythology is that they do not possess free will. Its this lack of will that causes them to be like vampires, they need a mortal host for their celestial soul (like a vampire needs a host for its fiendish soul).

Metatron, an ancient celestial being from the time of the dragons, is the one who selects the hosts for his malakim children and gifts them with a celestial soul. Metatron is the anti-thesis of the fiend Zenorath.

There are several orders of angels as well: War, Nature, Dark, Light, etc.. and each one is gifted with power relative to their order. Each order has a strong allegiance to one particular aspect as well and gains benifits and penalties relevant to it.

The key characteristic of the Malakim, however, is their Halo. The Halo is the manifestation of their celestial soul and entails various different things, such as a aura of light or warmth, a pair of feathered wings, etc. All halo's emit a mystical electromagnetic feild that can potentionally damage or destroy technology held by the manifesting malakim while a more powerful one will effect a whole area.

Malakim will also have access to a few malakim-only advanced/prestige classes as well, such as the Archangel and the Archon.

Thats it for now.....more to come..

Very soon we will be announcing an open call for playtesting Dark Revelations. Just a heads up for those interested.

Also, I'm going to put together a sample vampire npc with the DR vamp rules and then pick him apart to demonstrate how the system works...i'll try to get that together asap!