Brave New World
Iron Heart, a Cult of Sorcery
Iron Heart is a sorcery cult designed specifically for Kruvil.
Iron Heart (Sorcery)
Tul, a trollkin chieftain of ancient myth, saw lightning strike a tree and melt the stone around it. Tul believed he could use that power in the form of fire to craft weapons. Thus primitive metallurgy was born.
When the first sword was forged, its maker said it was death. Therefore, Tul named the sword Kamate, which means hand of death.
Years later, a trollkin named Kuyibet carrying Kamate was being chased by trolls into hills. Trapped, Kuyibet turned to face his attackers. Just then, lightning rent the sky and the ground opened beneath the trolls’ feet, swallowing them. The sword was lost after that.
Centuries later, Reshar of the Amperian Empire founded the Cult of Nine Blades. He brought Kamate to the trollkin Dojo of Ur-Thaldaar and took an apprentice, Magya Ghor. Reshar gave Kamate, which he had wrested from a dragon, to Magya and made him one of the Nine Masters.
When the Amperian Empire was falling into chaos and the exiled Masters returned to attack the Cult of Nine Blades, the trollkins sent hundreds of warriors to aid in its defense. When the Empire fell and the Cults were torn apart not just the swords were lost. The bonds between trollkin and man were broken as well.
Runes
Man, Mastery
Magic
Common Magic: Bladesharp, Dullblade, Fireblade, Hand of Death, Parry, Pierce, Skybolt.
Grimoire Damage Enhancement, Damage Resistance, Regenerate, Treat Wounds.
Myths
The First Forge: Learn your weapon. :
Resonance: 40%.
Behaviours: Know your weapon. Do not fear pain or danger but prepare yourself for trials.
HeroQuest: You stand in a thunderstorm and forge a blade of your own. When finished, you hold it up to the sky, accepting any lightening strike that comes.
Heroic Reward: You gain the Severing Slash Heroic Ability.
Holding the Sky: Know your enemy. Hold your ground. :
Resonance: 80%.
Behaviours: Be physically powerful. No retreat, no surrender. Make the enemy pay for ground or your blood. Know your enemy to defeat your enemy.
HeroQuest: You must scale a mountain at least 10,000 feet high without resting for more than 4 hours in a 24-hour period. Once there, you must face overwhelming assaults by trolls using only your cunning and knowledge of the enemy to survive. If you are worthy, skybolts will fall and destroy your attackers. If you fall, you must take as many trolls with you as possible.
Heroic Reward: You gain the Duelist Heroic Ability.
Standing Ready to Die: do not retreat. Do not give in to the enemy.
Resonance: 40%.
Behaviours: Failure is not an option. Kill or be killed.
HeroQuest: You must single-handedly defeat at least five enemies in one battle or die trying.
Heroic Reward: You gain the Deflecting Parry Heroic Ability.
Membership, Officers, and Ranks
Novice: Must have the Iron Heart weapon style and four other cult skills.
Apprentice: Must have the Iron Heart weapon style and four other cult skills at 30% and must have fought using cult Sorcery on a weapon that they participated in forging.
Adept: Must have the Iron Heart weapon style and four other cult skills at 50% and must perform The First Forge or Standing Ready to Die as a HeroQuest.
Mage (Blademaster): Must have the Iron Heart weapon style and four other cult skills at 75% and must perform Holding the Sky to prove their devotion to the blade cult. They must protect the Kamate Grimoire at all costs.
Cult Skills
Athletics, Brawn, Craft, Culture (man or trollkin), Iron Heart weapon style, Manipulation, Resilience, Sorcery (Kamate Grimoire).
Crisis Management
I created a RuneQuest II campaign. I brought along the two remaining players from my old game and found two new players. One player was going to go into the army soon, but I could work with three players.
Three days before the first game, the last player from my old game group dropped out, tired of all the restarts. The majority of my previous players quit for similar reasons. You only have to read some of my older crisis columns to see the chaos we could make of games and campaigns.
With only two players left and no new interested players, we didn’t even play RuneQuest II. In the bad old days, this event would have triggered an ill-named crisis of faith. Today, I call this kind of event a God moment: He gets my attention to have me change my actions.
Jesus teaches that people come before law (i.e. rules), but I forgot the people themselves with my old group. I went from eight players to zero in about six months.
People matter. Games entertain. Not the other way around. I don’t want to mix up those two ideas ever again.
Striving to learn from this important lesson and change my ways, I limped along with Rogue Trader for a few weeks. Great system and I had wonderful players. But I couldn’t build momentum or keep the same guys there two games in a row.
Then I ran a one-shot called Preacher’s Rest to attract new players. Six of the players clamored politely for D&D 4E. I capitulated.
I took the setting and plot of the short story Jerusalem’s Lot by Stephen King, dropped it into 4E, and gave it the players. Make characters using just the Player’s Handbook and let’s go.
So we did.
Paradigm Shift
Unlike previous world building I’ve done, Thirteen Colonies started out very organically. Originally, it was a one-shot. It grew into a four story commitment called Essex County (Lovecraft Country including Arkham). Finally, it blossomed (or perhaps more properly mutated) into a full-fledged campaign.
This month, I want to describe what it is like to switch to 4E if you’re a long time DM of any other D&D edition. Next month I’ll provide specific advice on choices a DM switching to 4E should consider.
The 4E sorcerer has a daily spell that does 6d6 points of damage plus Charisma modifier to one creature at range. That large damage output describes the paradigm shift you have to make in your mind to DM 4E. Your instincts will be all off. You can’t assume you understand the relative power of 1st level characters or the monsters they face when you’re more used to the terrifying power of a 1d4+1 magic missile at 1st level.
If this game were any game but D&D it wouldn’t matter so much because you’d have to learn a new system. But here, your previous experience is a liability. I’ve seen experienced players respond to an attack by a monster by trying to roll against Reflex (Reflex now works like AC).
Also, I have two brand new players. One played an adventure in Rogue Trader first and learned a more traditional approach to gaming (ask the GM how to do stuff).
The other player started roleplaying with 4E. When the group arrived in Arkham, the town was on fire. I asked the new player with two games under her belt what she wanted to do. She responded that her PC didn’t know how to put out a fire. Another time, I asked her if she wanted her PC to jam a chair under a door to protect her from a dominated fellow adventurer with murder in his eyes. She asked, “Can my PC do that?”
I’m not making fun of her. She is a skilled player and an already accomplished roleplayer. Her inspired bluffing of some shifters helped prevent a deadly combat. She is striving to go beyond the Player’s Handbook 4E and its limitations.
In old versions of D&D, the player was instructed to tell the DM what you want to do and he or she will tell you what happens (Rule 0 in 3.0). 4E doesn’t work that way.
4E teaches players to take on an adventure run by the DM that consists of both combat and noncombat encounters (PHB 4E p. 9). Players are much more autonomous in the default rules but are channeled into the narrow focus of combat and skill challenges and instructed to rely on powers and to a much lesser extent skills. The DM in the default rules is less empowered. This change to D&D is a huge paradigm shift and I struggle with it.
This shift helps Wizards, though, because DMing at a base level is much simpler now. And while Wizards is doing a great job at getting new gamers through their Encounters program, many of these players have literally not been shown how to roleplay. Some will figure it out but many will not.
4E is a force and power that is not easily ignored by gamers of other RPGs. Wizards is courting 24 million lapsed D&D players with their Encounters program (link to CNN). Many of these players will lose out on learning how to use not only powers and skills but also imagination and cunning teamwork to win the day if we experienced GMs aren’t there to show them the way.
Which is why I’m out there dodging 1st level spells that do 6d6 damage and teaching characters how to put out fires and jam doors (you can use water or sand and yes nearly every PC is strong enough to pick up a chair and jam it under a doorknob). Otherwise, I’m going to lose out on gaming with the next generation if I’m not willing to adapt, change, and challenge players to play a role in a story as well as in a battle.
If you have a long time game group then these changes don’t affect you, yet. But if that group folds and you go looking for new players? Interesting times.
Next Month
I’ll start with practical advice on how to start a 4E campaign if you haven’t successfully run one before. I’ll also note the strengths of 4E and how it does manage to capture the feel of previous editions.
D&D 4E is the Necronomicon of the gaming world. You can peruse it to gain great power but you delve into its secrets and blasphemous truths at your own peril.
Cthulhu fhtagn!
Charlie
