Towerlands

From AdamWiki

Contents 1 Designer Notes 2 Setting 2.1 Magic and Religion 2.1.1 Magic 2.1.2 Otherworlds 2.2 Random stuff 3 Traits 3.1 Influence 3.2 Domains 3.3 Burdens 3.4 Loyalties 3.5 Friends 3.6 Foes 3.7 Kingdom 3.8 Spiritbonds 3.9 Traditions 3.10 Fetishes 4 Conflicts and Resolution 4.1 Keeping Dice 4.2 Rerolling Dice 5 Burdens 5.1 Gaining Burdens 5.2 Using Burdens 5.3 Removing Burdens

Fantasy role-playing about competing loyalties. The characters are notable figures in a small kingdom, called a towerland. They serve the towerland and protect it from enemies. They also may serve various factions, like priesthoods or orders of knight or secret mystical societies, each with its own agenda. They also serve the interests of their (often noble) families.

Here are the Towerlands Rules. These supersede anything below!

Designer Notes

See Towerlands' Power 19 for design notes for this game-in-progress. Also see Towerlands Design Notes.

Towerlands is a fantasy role-playing game for my personal use. It is my intent to replace my old Thousand Towers D&D campaign with this. The setting of Towerlands borrows ideas from Thousand Towers but doesn't slavishly follow the latter's ideas.

Setting

After the demon wars, the Ilsanketer Empire fragmented into a thousand tiny kingdoms as old families and local warlords grabbed for power. Amidst the great calsetta forests sprang up a hundred thousand towers of various kinds to stake territory. The demon wars were replaced with endless border feuds and skirmishes. The militant people didn't know how to go back to a peaceful life.

Magic and Religion

Most cultures share cosmological roots. Gaia is the mother goddess who created all things, including The Other, the force of destruction. Gaia is the godhead (and not a "deity") but manifests as a variety of sets of deities that "sum up" to the universe. For example, Gaia is the four elements, represented by four elemental deities (collectively called The Quaternion). Each of these deities holds less than a quarter of her power (synergy occurs when they work together). Many natural forces are described by pairs of deities (light and dark, good and evil, and so on). A host of ten thousand devata (spiritual angels) serve to protect the world. The Other destroys them and turns them into powerful demons. Deities are just powerful beings, basically powerful spirits and demons, not transcendental gods and goddesses. You could, theoretically, kill the Goddess of Fire; Gaia could just create a new one but, more likely, another powerful divinity would step in to fill the role. The Other exists as a manifestation of Gaia's destructive power and thus Gaia cannot destroy him unless he wants to be destroyed. Thus, arguably, The Other represents Free Will in the universe.

Magic

Magic is natural. Everything is magical. Practitioners of ritual can invoke the divine for magical power, called kora (which simply means, "and more" or "and better"). Kora makes you luckier, or better at something you already know how to do. It creates amazing "coincidence" and stretches (but does not break) credibility.

More dramatic effects can be created by invoking spirits or demons and commanding or asking them to use their abilities. If you need a fireball, summon a fire elemental. In general, spirits and demons are intelligent or at least cunning, and one must take care when dealing with them.

Rituals are complex and personal though traditions are passed down from teacher to student. Everyone knows a little magic, at least in the form of a simple prayer or oath. This is real magic. Another way the common person uses magic is by (sometimes inadvertently) attracting the attention of a minor spirit or demon.

Things are made holy or unholy by deed, not by ensorcelment. Thus, a temple must be built on the site already made holy by a great heroic deed and a sword that slays an evil demon may become blessed (or cursed!) as a result. Warriors and hunters often quench their weapons in the blood of their prey. Some drink the blood, hoping to gain a mite of the power from the fallen. This is as much a magical ritual as anything else.

In general, magic is deeply tied to spirituality. One cannot call on magic without believing in its source, which almost everyone knows to be Gaia in her manifold aspects. This fundamentally makes the people of the world rightfully superstitious and pious in their own way. The average person would not disrespect the land for fear of spiritual reprisal. A truly evil person hides his nature until he can ally with powerful natural forces of evil for protection.

Otherworlds

The universe is a complex place full of twists and turns that can take a hapless traveler into different worlds. These places, called otherworlds, are just the way of the universe (after all, a forest is not an orderly arrangement of trees but rather a chaotic mess of brambles and canopy and trunks and branches). Imagine the universe with hidden entrances to sections of the world that turn back on itself, with a disturbed topology, and you start to get it. There isn't really a place called "the otherworld" and there aren't clean transitions from the real world into one of these places, but one generally knows something is afoot at a certain point.

You might take a weird turn around a large tree and before you know it, you're not in the woods in which you grew up, but in that strange place that the old rangers talked about, with the huge trees and the ten foot tall elk. Or perhaps while poking around in a dark cave, a hole opened up into a much larger cavern not on your maps, too large to be here logically. The world is full of such "magical" places and they are often populated with different creatures than people are accustomed. More often than not, those creatures stay in their pocket and don't bother you for the same reason you don't bother them -- the two "worlds" are separated by a very small "portal" and denizens of neither world find it often. Sometimes a ten foot elk wanders across a farmer's field though, and sometimes a farmer ends up lost forever in the Tall Trees and never comes home.

Portals to otherworlds cannot be closed because they aren't really portals. It's all the same world and the topology just creates a kind of tunnel to another place. The tunnels can be sealed, however, in the same way one might block a cave entrance or dam up a river. Determining the extents of the land is difficult though as the boundaries shift and stretch and recede on their own as a stream meanders across the land over centuries. Any method used to "secure" an otherworld portal is sketchy, at best.

Random stuff

Elves have skin the color of wood grains. Young elves are green. The oldest elves are gray or white.

Majority of cultures are matriarchal / matrilinear. In some, men are considered "coarse" and not fit for education; most grunt soldiers are male.

Traits

Note: Also Wells (extra dice).

All traits are measured in 20-sided dice (e.g. 1d20, 3d20, 6d20). Sometimes a trait is represented by a "virtual" die, given as a pre-rolled numeric result (e.g., 17). Traits sometimes generate dice during conflicts and sometimes allow unfavorable dice to be rerolled. Virtual dice values are sometimes swapped with dice you already rolled (like swapping a good 18 with a bad 11 virtual die because of a burden).

Influence

Influence is a special trait with several game effects.

First, it gives a general measure of power of the character. A character with Influence 3 is much more powerful than a character with Influence 1. Second, Influence gives a player dice to roll like any other trait. Influence 2 gives a player 2 dice at the start of every conflict.

Last and most important, a character's Influence is the number of dice he keeps. Say a player rolls 3d20 and adds 2d20 more later on, for a total of five dice, and rolls 3, 5, 12, 14, 19. If the character's Influence is 2, then the player may keep two dice: 14, 19.

There are additional rules for keeping dice, for rerolling the unkept dice to improve them, and for comparing the dice to see who wins a conflict.

Domains

There are five domain traits -- Physical, Mental, Social, Emotional, and Spiritual -- which govern a character's participation in conflicts and describe a character's strengths and weaknesses at a high level. Each of these is rated with a small number of dice, typically between 0d20 and 3d20, but sometimes much higher (e.g., 7d20). Domain traits, like Influence, earn you dice in conflicts. The domain used for a conflict depends on what you're trying to accomplish.

Burdens

See the Conflict Resolution section for details about burdens, a special kind of trait gained during conflicts.

Loyalties

A loyalty is a trait bound to a faction (a group of people). Loyalty traits are often written as just the name of the faction ("Canters of Wormwood") and sometimes as title, positions, or responsibilities ("Harbinger of the Canters of Wormwood").

Friends

A friend is a trait bound to a single person who will help the character. Note that the character may not like this friend... Friend traits are usually written as just the name of the friend ("Robard Candry"), sometimes with a short description of who they are ("Robard Candry, Minister of Twystespyr"). A friend trait can explain why you are friends, too ("Robard Candry saved my life").

Foes

A foe is a person who wants to harm the character. Note that the character may not wish harm back upon this enemy or even know the enemy exists... Write foe traits like you might write a friend trait.

Kingdom

A kingdom is a special kind of loyalty trait. (more)

Spiritbonds

A spiritbond is like a friend trait but is a metaphysical connection to a magical spirit. This bond allows a character to perform magical feats. Write a spiritbond like a friend trait ("Jumai, water demon of Wormwood").

Traditions

A tradition is a body of knowledge or experience from which the character draws. A tradition trait is written using the name of the tradition ("Thousand Year Watch of the Twystespyr Sentinels") and possibly the character's approach to it ("Anger-driven Tree Cant of the Daughters of Isicara").

Fetishes

A fetish is a tie to an item that is important to the character. Usually this is a possession ("Grandfather's curvy sacrifice knife"), but it could theoretically be a tie to some public item ("the Queen's tiara") or place ("grove of seven obelisks").

Conflicts and Resolution

Most of the time playing Towerlands is spent discussing what your characters are doing and saying, even playing out the roles and having "in character" discussions. Eventually, you'll want your character to do something and the outcome will be uncertain or risky (a "conflict") and you'll want the conflict resolution system to help you figure out what happens. Use these rules only when you're sure that winning and losing are both interesting outcomes in the story. If they're not, then just decide what happens with the GM and other players.

When you start a conflict, someone should represent each outcome and those possible outcomes should be clear. Sometimes two different players want different things to happen. Often the Game Master steps in to represent the opposition to one or more player actions. Be clear what everyone expects to win and lose in the conflict.

With advice from the players, the GM determines the type of conflict. There are five types of conflicts, based on the domains on the character sheet (physical, mental, social, emotional, and spiritual).

The player rolls his Influence plus a relevant attribute based on the conflict domain.

For example, you're trying to win an argument through logic and debate. You think it's a mental challenge, and the GM agrees. You roll your Influence 3 plus Mental 2, for 5d20. You roll 6, 8, 13, 14, 17.

The GM has allocated a certain number of dice to the challenge, as well.

You're debating a well known scholar. The GM has given him Influence 2 and Mental 4, for 6d20. The GM rolls 2, 5, 10, 14, 15, 19.

Each side picks the highest dice rolled and keeps a number equal to the Influence they have. If your highest dice are ties, you can keep all of them.

You keep 13, 14, 17. The GM keeps 15, 19. (If the GM had rolled two 15's he would keep 15, 15, 19. If he'd rolled 15, 19, 19, he'd get just keep 19, 19 and no 15's.)

The "unkept" dice remain in a pile in front of you. There are opportunities to reroll them.

You push the 6 and 8 into your unkept pile. The GM pushes his 2, 5, 10, 14 into his unkept pile.

Compare dice, starting with each side's highest die. The winning side gets to describe something cool that they do or say that shows how they're winning for the moment. The loser gets to respond but he cannot undo anything the winner said. The winner can't describe any permanent effects, though (not yet). Discard both dice, back to the dice bag, not to your kept or unkept dice piles.

You and the GM compare your dice. Your highest is 17; his is 19. He wins this round.

The GM says, "The old scholar explains his very impressive credentials and starts with a powerful logical attack on your premise, leaving you sputtering." (The GM doesn't even need to debate you, since he's not nearly as smart as this wise old scholar.)

You respond, "I say, 'Uh, but, uh, y-you have a very interesting point there... but have you considered the ramifications of the Tower Treaty on the sociopolitical worldview of the nascent races?' I don't know what that means, but I'm stalling for time."

You toss the 17 and 19 back into the dice bag.

Then compare the highest pair of the remaining dice that were kept. The winner gets to narrate again and then the loser can respond.

The next higher pair is your 14 against the GM's 15. You lose again!

The GM starts, speaking as the scholar. "'Bah! Nonsense! Who taught this boy history? The nascent races barely understand basic hygiene, let alone politics and the Treaty!' He chortles at you derisively. You're losing the argument."

You respond, "I blush, looking around the tavern hall in embarrassment. I don't have anything to say yet."

You discard the 14 and 15.

Repeat this until someone runs out of kept dice. When you don't have a kept die to match against the other side, the person with a die gets to inflict a burden on you and you lose the conflict. The type of burden depends on the conflict domain.

You're down to one die, a 13. The GM doesn't have any kept dice left, because the scholar had Influence 2 and you had Influence 3. You get to inflict a burden on the scholar. He had it coming! In this case, it'll be a Mental burden.

Inflicting burdens is easy. Write a new negative-sounding trait on the character's sheet. The trait must pertain to the conflict's domain and it must make sense with what you're doing in-character. Take the conflict die you have and assign it as a virtual die to the trait. Then discard the die. Describe what happens in the story before letting the injured party respond. Often you'll talk first and write second, once you know what you're doing in the story.

You pick up your 13 and say, as your character, "'Ah! You're wrong! I spent years among the earth men and they're not at all primitive. In fact, their political structure is quite complicated, daresay more advanced than that of the oak elves or even the Tower Confederacy.'"

You tell the GM that you're assigning a Mental burden to the scholar: a new trait, "Doesn't understand nascent races" with a virtual die score of 13.

You toss the 13 die back into the dice bag.

Once you're out of kept dice, the conflict ends. Whoever won the last round wins the entire conflict and everything that it stood for. You can start a new conflict or find a way to get more kept dice (see below), or you can escalate.

The GM, out of dice, decides not to press the conflict further and you win the argument. He describes how the scholar has to concede the point and then you two make up amicably, drinking sweetwine and talking fervently about local politics till the dawn breaks.

That's how the basic conflict resolution system works. The rest of this section describes all the complicated, fiddly bits that make it even more fun.

Keeping Dice

Your Influence is the basic number that determines how many dice you get to use ("keep") in a conflict. Unkept dice sit idly by waiting for you to do something with them. Discarded dice never go into your unkept pile; they go back to the dice bag or wherever your unused dice belong.

Additionally, there are other ways to keep dice. This section explains those rules.

You've already seen one exception: ties. If your lowest kept die has a match among your unkept dice, you get all the matches, too. So if you roll 5, 17, 17, 18, 19, and your Influence is 3, you get to keep four dice because your lowest kept die is a 17 and there are two of them. If you rolled 5, 17, 17, 17, 17, 19 with Influence 3, you'd get five dice (one 19 and four 17's), since your best three are 19, 17, 17, and there are two more 17's.

Another way to increase your kept dice is by rolling 20's. Any roll of 20 is a kept die and does not count against your total. If you roll 3, 4, 10, 20, 20, and you have Influence 3, then you get to keep all 5 dice (the 20's are kept for free, and the 3, 4, 10 get counted against your Influence 3). If you roll 3, 4, 4, 10, 12, 20, 20 with Influence 3, you'd keep the two 20's, the next highest three (12, 10, 4), and the other 4 because it matches the 4 you already kept (according to the Tie rule).

Rerolling Dice

What really makes conflicts unpredictable and exciting is the ability to reroll dice in your kept and unkept piles. In each conflict, before comparing highest dice, each side may choose one trait on their sheet and use it to reroll a number of their own dice. You can use a trait rated at 3d20 to reroll three of your dice.

The dice you reroll can come from the kept pile, the unkept pile, or both. Most of the time, you'll reroll unkept dice, since you're trying to convert those low numbers into higher ones.

Once you've rerolled, you can swap dice one-for-one between your kept and unkept piles.

You must explain how the trait applies to the conflict at hand.

You're arguing with the scholar. You have 13, 14 in your kept pile, and the GM has 14, 14. He's going to win the next conflict.

You call on a trait: "Tradition: Ways of the Earthmen 2d20." This lets you reroll two dice. You pick up the 6 and 8 in your unkept pile and reroll them, getting 9, 18. You swap the 13 in your kept pile for the 19 in your unkept pile. Now you have 18, 14 in your kept pile.

You explain, "I lived with a nascent race, the Earthmen, for over a year. I know their ways and can use that in my debate."

You have a good chance of winning now, or at least tying! But the GM can call on the scholar's traits, too!

Burdens

A burden is just a special trait, represented by a virtual die. Each burden is associated with a domain (mental, physical, social, emotional, spiritual).

Gaining Burdens

You can gain burdens in three ways: when you run out of kept dice before your opposition does, when your opponent sacrifices a victory die to injure you, and when you lose a conflict with inflicting a burden as the main goal.

We've already discussed the basic way you gain burdens, above. When one side of a conflict has a higher Influence than the other, he will have more kept dice, and thus runs a strong chance of injuring the other and winning the conflict. This is a painful fact of life, though it is offset by strange luck (rolling 20's, rerolling dice and upgrading them to 20's, and the Tie rule that brings in extra kept dice at the low end).

The second way you gain burdens is when your opponent sacrifices his highest kept die. The die must be a winning "victory" die -- that is, it must be higher than your highest kept die. Instead of playing it against your highest die, he discards it and writes a new burden for you. Assign it the virtual die that you just discarded.

You're arguing with the scholar again. You have 12, 15 in your kept dice. The GM has 13, 14, 18.

The GM sacrifices the 18 (discarding it) and writes a burden for you: "Distracted when arguing with smart, old men" and assigns it the 18 virtual die. Ouch.

Using Burdens

You will rarely use your own burdens. Instead, the GM will use your burdens against you when you least want him to! Likewise, you'll get to use your opponents' burdens against them, too.

Any time you can reroll dice, you can instead swap one of your dice with the virtual die on an opponent's burden. You cannot do this with burdens gained in the same conflict; you have to wait till the next conflict to use them.

After some sleep, you get into another debate with the scholar. You roll 1, 3, 4, 7 (unkept) and 12, 16 (kept). The GM rolls 6, 11 (unkept) and 13, 15 (kept).

In the first round of the conflict, the GM calls on your earlier burden ("Distracted when arguing with smart, old men 18") and swaps his unkept 11 with the 18. He then swaps his unkept 18 with the kept 13. Now he has 6, 13 unkept and 15, 18 kept. This will put him ahead.

You change the 18 next to the burden to an 11. The GM didn't choose his unkept 6 because he wanted the highest possible value to stick in your burden so he can use it again later!

The GM says, "The scholar is making his point, and you keep thinking back to your earlier discussions with him, trying to remember his tactics. Before you realize it, you've totally lost track of what he was saying, getting maybe half of it."

You respond, in character, "'I'm sorry. I wasn't paying attention...' I'm off my guard and distracted."

You can call on your own burdens, too, but the burden die goes to your opponent and your opponent chooses one of his own conflict dice to be the new virtual die for the burden.

Removing Burdens

You can remove an burden when its virtual die is reduced to 1. Just tell a bit of a story about feeling better and overcoming the burden and erase the burden trait.

There are a number of ways to reduce an burden trait to 1.

Whenever someone calls on your burden during a conflict, its virtual die is swapped with a value from one of the conflict dice, as described above.

You can also pay a Story Point to take a healing scene. A healing scene focuses on your character and his struggle to overcome a burden. In a healing scene, you will start a conflict with your burden as the opponent (played by the GM). The Influence of the burden is the same as your Influence. The domain of the conflict is usually the same domain as the burden. The burdened side gets dice for Influence plus the virtual die in each burden you have across all domains. If you win the conflict, the burden is reduced to 1 and removed. If you lose the conflict, replace the burden with one of your choice of your unkept dice.

You spent a Story Point to try to get rid of your "Distracted when arguing with smart, old men 11" Mental burden. You explain to the GM that you are doing some mental concentration exercises during your free time.

You launch a mental conflict against the burden (the only burden you have).

The GM will take the side of the burden. Its Influence is the same as yours (3). The GM gets 3d20, plus the virtual 11 for the burden. He rolls 11, 12, 17. That gives him 11, 11, 12, 17. He'll keep three dice and the Tie rule will give him all four!

This is a mental conflict so you roll Influence (3d20) plus Mental (3d20) and get 6, 8, 12, 15, 15, 20. The 20 is a free kept die, plus you get three more, so you keep 12, 15, 15, 20. Now you have four dice to compete against the GM's four.

As it stands now, you will win this conflict (your 12 beats his 11) and remove the burden. If the GM improves his kept dice with rerolls, that could change matters, though.