A Look at Accursed Golems

Golems are the created beings of the Accursed world, and if you're a Ravenloft fan you're probably used to the idea of the intelligent Golem. Golems are created by The Crone and can be comprised of anything: Flesh, straw, stone, glass, etc. Here are two Golems, one made of wood and one made of stone.

I didn't use the same conceit with Golems that I did with Dhampirs, where they started from similar origins and took opposite roads. These are merely two separate Golems from the opposite ends of the Golem spectrum, organic materials and inorganic materials.

ROWAN "REDWOOD" MATTHIAS

"The Redwood", as Rowan was known as during the Bane War, was a gifted field tactician who stood firm in the face of danger, ordering his men forward and devising plans of victory. When The Crone got ahold of him, she transformed him into his namesake: A tree-like golem. Now the Redwood rallies his soldiers around him once more, convinced that his tactical genius will be enough to triumph against The Crone's forces. His tree-like visage, complete with goggles to compensate for his impaired vision, strikes a fearsome, steadfast image, surrounded by soldiers willing to lay their lives down fighting for what's right and just.

Name: Rowan “Redwood” Matthias

Witchbreed: Golems

Rank: Veteran

Agility: d6

Smarts: d10

Spirit: d8

Strength: d6

Vigor: d8

Charisma: 0

Pace: 6

Parry: 5

Toughness: 9

Acceptance/Defiance: Acceptance Level 1

Skills

Fighting d6

Guts d8

Intimidation d8

Knowledge (Battle) d12

Notice d6

Persuasion d6

Repair d6

Shooting d6

Hindrances

Arrogant

Bad Eyes

Loyal

Edges

Brawny

Command

Command Presence

Officer of the Alliance

Racial Package

  Constructed: The Golem has the Construct ability.

  Deliberate: Agility can go no higher than d6.

  Hulking: +2 Toughness.

  Weakness: +4 Damage from Fire

  Hardy

  Notice Tests -2 

Witchmark

  Witchbreed Sense

  Drawn to Those in Need

  Witchspeak

  Warning

Gear

Flintlock Pistol, Short Sword

GRANITE JACK

Jack Butler was always a big, stubborn man...but The Crone took his inner essence and manifested it in startling fashion, transforming him into a giant man of stone. Granite Jack is slow and not very bright, but he's a terrifying sight when he does move into action, preferring to eschew weapons and pummel his opponents with his bare, rocky hands. Being a Golem, he's already quick to recover from being stunned, and he's accepted the stone facet of himself, making him harder still to wound. Pray that you are on his side, because Granite Jack is a veritable juggernaut who will only become more terrifying as his strength and ability grows.

Name: Granite Jack

Witchbreed: Golems

Rank: Novice

Agility: d4

Smarts: d4

Spirit: d6

Strength: d10

Vigor: d8

Charisma: -2

Pace: 6”

Parry: 7

Toughness: 8

Acceptance/Defiance: 0

Skills

Climbing d4

Fighting d10

Guts d6

Intimidation d6

Notice d4

Survival d4

Taunt d4

Hindrances

Slow

Stubborn

Ugly

Edges

Hard to Kill

Luck

Martial Artist

True To Its Origin

Racial Package

  Constructed: The Golem has the Construct ability.

  Deliberate: Agility can go no higher than d6.

  Hulking: +2 Toughness.

  Weakness: +4 Damage from Blunt Force Damage

Witchmark

  Witchbreed Sense

  Drawn to Those in Need

Unarmed Attacks (Str+d4)

Thoughts: Granite Jack is a scary, scary bruiser. Why? Because I dumped Agility and Smarts, which makes him vulnerable to Tricks, but True To Its Origin (which may be getting excised) gives him Hardy (which prevents wounds from two Shaken results), and Construct essentially gives him Combat Reflexes (and his Spirit's d6 and can easily rise). Yeah, Fighting d10 was expensive, but he needs it as his Agility locks him out of a lot of the cool combat Edges.

Redwood was fun, inspired a bit by seeing the book carrying, glasses wearing Golem in the Accursed art...but with a twist, making him a military genius instead.

Mongrels are up next, and I'll try to make it a point to delve into Arcane Backgrounds with that one.

A Look At Accursed Dhampirs

Dhampirs are the half-vampires of the Accursed setting, created by the Blood Witch. Dhampirs are described in the Accursed Player's Guide is being agile, sure-footed and charming. I decided to play around with character generation a little bit and take a closer look at Dhampirs.

Any of the Accursed can choose to accept or defy their nature, embracing the power of their Witchmark or struggle against it. The more you embrace the Witchmark as a Dhampir, the more vampiric you become. The more you struggle against it, the more human you become (which is how it works with all of them). So I created two Accursed Dhampirs: Both have done horrible, horrible things since gaining their Witchmark...one embracing his nature and the other fighting it.

KHALOS THE BUTCHER

Khalos gained a reputation for his rage and his brutality in The Bane War. To this day his name is cursed and though he fights the minions of The Blood Witch, he has few friends. This isolation has driven him down a dark path, and while he will never serve The Blood Witch again, fighting monsters has indeed transformed him into one. He flies into a berserker rage in combat, summons wolves to fight by his side, can consume blood to make himself stronger and cuts a horrible swath with his scythe, Bloodletter. However, his vampiric nature forces him to move under the cover of darkness, holy ground makes him incredibly uncomfortable and he must feast on blood in order to survive. His time in the Bane Wars have given him astonishing resolve and his is a great boogeyman to stalk the Blood Witch's banes...but has he crossed the point of no return?

Name: Khalos the Butcher

Witchbreed: Dhampir

Rank: Veteran (2 advances)

Agility: d10

Smarts: d6

Spirit: d8

Strength: d8

Vigor: d8

Charisma: +1

Pace: 7

Parry: 8

Toughness: 8(2)

Acceptance/Defiance: Final Stage Acceptance

Skills

Climbing d4

Fighting d10

Gambling d4

Guts d8

Intimidation d8

Notice d6

Riding d4

Streetwise d6

Tracking d8

Hindrances

Mean

Vulnerability to Holy Ground (Minor)

Wanted (Major)

Edges

Berserk

Blood Fury

Call to the Wild (Wolves)

Grand Coven Veteran

Sweep

Trademark Weapon (Bloodletter)

Racial Package

  Dark Charm (Charisma +2)

  Graceful (D6 Agility)

  Keen Senses (D6 Notice)

  Low Light Vision

  Nimble (+1 Parry)

  Wood Weakness (+4 from wood)

  Enemy (Blood Witch)

  Blood Hunger

Witchmark

  Witchbreed Sense

  Drawn to Those In Need

  Witchspeak

  Warning

  Stage 1 Acceptance (-1 to all rolls in sunlight, +1 to Pace)

  Stage 2 Acceptance (Parry increases to +2, -1 to attack rolls against Dhampir, double damage from wood, need blood to survive)

  Stage 3 Acceptance (-2 to all rolls in sunlight, need invitation to enter homes, Agility increases by one die type, Charisma +1, abilities that affect blood gain +2 against Dhampir)

Gear

Scythe (Str+d6) (Parry -1, +1 to attack rolls, Reach 1, 2 hands), Reinforced Great Coat (+2 armor)

Liam the Penitent

Whereas Khalos revels in who he is, Liam is haunted by the things he's done under the influence of the Witchmark. The horrors he has seen - and committed - have forged him into an unflappable agent against evil, one who is taking his soul back one piece at a time. Damage in combat rarely slows him down, and few things can frighten him at this point in his life. Liam knows that he is owed a horrible death for what he's done, so he seeks it without fear, only hoping to drag as many minions into damnation with him as he can.

Name: Liam the Penitent

Witchbreed: Dhampir

Rank: Heroic

Agility: d8

Smarts: d6

Spirit: d10

Strength: d8

Vigor: d8

Charisma: +2

Pace: 6”

Parry: 7

Toughness: 6

Acceptance/Defiance: Stage 2 Defiance

Skills

Fighting d8

Guts d10

Investigation d6

Knowledge (Enochian Faith) d6

Notice d6

Streetwise d6

Subterfuge d8

Taunt d8

Tracking d6

Hindrances

Death Wish

Heroic

Quirk (Sucker for a Pretty Face)

Edges

Brave

Combat Reflexes

Counterattack

Graceful Leap

Iron Will

Nerves of Steel

Penitent

Relentless

Racial Package

  Dark Charm (Charisma +2)

  Graceful (D6 Agility)

  Keen Senses (D6 Notice)

  Low Light Vision

  Wood Weakness (+4 damage from wood)

  Nimble (+1 Parry)

  Enemy (Blood Witch)

  Blood Hunger

Witchmark

  Witchbreed Sense

  Drawn to Those In Need

  Witchspeak

  Warning

  Bane Sense

  Stage 1 Defiance (Wood damage drops to +2, Dhampir loses Low Light Vision)

  Stage 2 Defiance (Notice skill is reduced 1 step, Dhampir has no Wood Weakness, gains +1 benny each session).

Gear

Longsword (str+d8)

Thoughts:  I really like the available character options. A few oddball Edges and Hindrances are missing (Bloodthirsty, No Mercy, and so on)...stuff that aren't included as part of the setting but that I'll probably add back in myself...but I made it a point to try to create these as close to Rules as Written as possible.

Anyway, that's a look at Dhampirs down. In a day or two, I'll try to sit down and stat up a pair of Golems. If this looks appealing to you, back the Kickstarter. If not, then brace yourself for a few more posts about something that probably doesn't appeal much to you! But I'll try to work some non-Accursed posts in just the same.

Note: I am not affiliated with Melior Via or their Kickstarter in any way, I just really, really like what I've read in the Player's Guide, enough that I've backed the Kickstarter myself.

Sneak Preview: The Accursed Player's Guide

So I'm going to come right out and say it: If the Player's Guide is any indication, then Melior Via has made the game I wanted to write, but never trusted myself to design.

From their press release:

The Curse is Imminent

New Savage Worlds setting launches on Kickstarter on Friday, September 13th.

Melior Via, LLC, publishers of the critically acclaimed Hope Preparatory School game setting are preparing to launch a crowd funding campaign for the creation of a new RPG setting. Accursed is a dark fantasy world, where the players take on the roles of classic movie monsters. They struggle to free the land of Morden from the dark influences of the Witches. The Accursed draw their power from their curses, while struggling against it to preserve their souls. Recognizing that the game is named Accursed, it became apparent that the project had to launch on Friday the 13th.

About the setting:

In Accursed, Hammer Horror films meet Hellboy, and Solomon Kane meets Castlevania. The game world allows players to take on the roles of characters with transformative curses, cast by the Witches of the Grand Coven. They are Dhampir (Half-vampire charming rogues), Golems (living creatures crafted from unliving materials, similar to Frankenstein’s monster), Vargr (werewolves), Mummies, Mongrels (humans with bestial limbs and other body parts grafted onto their bodies), and Revenants (the living dead). The Accursed must not only fight evil from without; each character’s Witchmark defines his curse and changes over time.

About the Creators:

Ross Watson, Jason Marker, and John Dunn have designed role-playing games for many properties, including Star Wars: Edge of the Empire, Shadowrun, Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay, Robotech, and Malifaux: Through the Breach. They have decades of experience working in the gaming industry and are very excited about bringing a new twist on dark fantasy RPGs to life. The three members of the core team are bringing their combined creativity, experience, and passion to the project.

Accursed website: http://www.AccursedRPG.com

Kickstarter Preview: http://tinyurl.com/kgjk2pz

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AccursedRpg

Twitter: https://twitter.com/accursedrpg

Melior Via, LLC website: www.meliorvia.com

Now, that sounds all well and good, but you can say anything on a press release...but they sent me a copy of the playtest draft of the Player's Guide and I've spent a few days with it. First off, the book is very pretty. Here's the cover:

Not bad.

Accursed is powered by Savage Worlds, which is pretty high on my list of games, as you all know. Now, monster hunting/fighting games are nothing new in Savage Worlds. This art, for instance, gives a little bit of a Rippers vibe. However, not a lot of Savage Worlds games are placing the PCs in the roles of, essentially, monsters. The Accursed are all Witchmarked, which has a different effect on the PC depending on the witch that marked him:

• Dhampirs are half-vampires who suffer from some of the flaws of vampires but are more nimble and graceful, and even have an Edge they can take that gives them a boost based off of their blood feeding.
• Golems are men who have been transformed into constructs, with all the pros and cons that entails.
• Mongrels are twisted beast men who have had animal parts bound to their bodies.
• Mummies are the loooong dead, who have risen at the beckoning of the witches, forcing them into unlife.
• Revenants are angry, driven walking dead like The Crow.
• Vargrs are the setting's own werewolves.

So, yeah, Solomon Kane meets Castlevania, as you play men turned into monsters who are fighting monsters. While the book introduces new setting rules, powers (to go along with powers sets for Alchemy and Witchcraft), where the setting REALLY sings is in the WitchMark, which is what turned the poor guy into an Accursed and is the source of his power. So far, so good, right? One of the Wowza moments for me is that the Accursed can accept or defy their witchmarks, which has a deep impact on them...they can either accept their fate and gain more power at the expense of their soul, or they can embrace their humanity but forsake their power. This level of complication is added very simply, with corresponding bonuses and penalties based off of each level of acceptance or refusal. So, yeah, you can choose to become completely mortal...but you still have dangerous and powerful enemies and you are giving up your power while still waging a war!

A couple of years back, I was envisioning a Castlevania-esque setting that I thought Savage Worlds would be well suited for, but Accursed hits a lot of the beats I wanted to see in my own setting. The Kickstarter should be live by the time you read this, but I'll be back (probably this weekend) to play around with character creation a little bit and look at the Accursed character types a bit closer...but as it stands, I'm more excited about this than I have been a new setting or game for a while, and I cannot WAIT to see what is going to be in the full book.

Tommy's Take on Age Past (Preview)

Age Past is an upcoming fantasy RPG by Jeff Mechlinkski, and due to my partnership with Paco Jaen of G*M*S Magazine, I have been given the opportunity to preview the book. Now, this is just that, a preview...I won't be doing a full review here.

The PDF I was given clocks in currently at 253 pages, with some material still missing as well as several placeholders for art. The estimated completion date is September 2011, so I think they still have time.

Age Past uses an interesting twist on the notion of dice pools for their system, called the Elegant10 system...and it kinda is, really. You take your dice, however many it is for a given action, and roll them. You keep the highest die for the result. However, if you roll multiple 10s, each additional 10 is a +1 to your result. Additionally, you have the option of holding back any number of dice from your pool and using them to grant a +1 instead.

For instance, if you have 6 dice, you can hold three...you roll three and get a 5, 7 and 2. So you keep the 7 and add the three you held back for a total of 10. That's kind of cool, and a bit different than your typical dice pool systems. There is a catch, though: If half or more of your dice turn up 1s...then your action fails. So if you roll six, three of them have to be 1s in order to fail. If you roll two and hold four, then if you get a single 1, you fail.

This also has a nice side effect for a higher powered game with larger die pools, as you can ditch x amount of dice as automatic bonuses, while still rolling enough dice to feel comfortable about success.

The Age Past rulebook has a subheading of The Incian Sphere, and there are promised supplements for Steampunk, Martial Arts, "Fantasy Technopunk" and Religion/High Level Adventuring (where I could see the Elegant10 system being awesome).

The game world, Terres, is divided into multiple spheres (continents) that are largely cut off from each other, and so they have all developed differently (this is where the supplements will come in)...I'm sure this is something that falls apart upon closer examination, but if the other ideas are good enough, I'll accept it. Besides, this allows for mixing and matching of the books/supplements with minimal explanation.

Age Past uses an archetype based system, which is really an incredibly flexible class system where you take a solid starting point (Thief, Mage, Assassin, Barbarian, Scholar) and develop it from there with little restrictions...although some combinations are likely to work better together than others.

Characters are defined by four heroic traits and six attributes. The Heroic Traits being Reaction, Brawn, Charisma and Intellect with the Attributes being Agility, Endurance, Influence, Mind, Spirit and Strength.

There is a Luck system, kind of like Hero Points/Drama Points/Bennies/Etc from other RPGs, and everyone has access to Kewl Powers.

The available races are Gobla Incia (western goblins), Hammer Dir (rock dwarves), Mechanites (mechanical people), Orkis (orcs), Silpen Kai (man elves), Straaden (wood folk), Terres Incian (western men) and Theriomorphs (half beasts).

One of the things that bugs me about this game are the naming conventions...honestly, I'm not sure if I applaud the effort of giving orcs a name like Orkis...or if I'm annoyed that they aren't just calling them orcs and being done with it.

The skill system looks fairly robust, with a system for fumbles as well as just failures, with fumbles having their own unintended consequences based off of the type of roll being made.

The Powers system is rather extensive, with 130 powers, many of which can be taken up to four times each. These cover a wide range, from what we normally consider "class features" to "feats" and so on. Each power also has a short flavor text quote attached to it for extra effect.

Powers include Apprentice Spell Caster, which can be taken four times at four different levels, depending on just how powerful and versatile you want your character to be. Bane Gaze is a magical stare that automatically cowers minions and can force other opponents to lose their actions. Combat Master is a catch-all that provides a selection of bonuses you can choose from. Dragon Kin means you have latent Dragon genes, and now have a breath weapon. Heavy Lung increases your tolerance to either heavy smoke or inhaling water. Link Eyes allows you to see through the eyes of your animal companion...and those are just some examples. I can only imagine that more powers will come in the later supplements.

Factions are also present in the game, with ranks in each faction that you can achieve and bonuses that you can gain for having that rank. They include Assassin Guilds, Loremasters, Inquisitors and Smugglers.

In place of a typical alignment system, Age Past uses Morality system that starts with Heroic, Selfish and Malevolent and then gets further defined from there.

Finally, there is a Flaws system...however, it is not a min-max type of thing where you try to take Flaws that don't affect you in order to buy new points...it's just meant to be something detrimental that pops up every session or so...kind of a "Heroes with feet of clay" type of thing. Honestly, I kind of like that.

The equipment section covers a lot of old fantasy standards but also includes small bombs, pistols, some unique traps and more, edging the overall "feel" a bit away from "standard" D&D fantasy.

An extensive spell list is present for spellcaster types...unlike D&D, you don't have "fire and forget" spells, instead requiring Mana expenditures and, with some spells (typically combat spells) a MIND roll.

Critical hits are interestingly done as well...you compare the attack roll and the defense roll, and if the defense roll is half or more below the attack roll, a critical hit occurs...and Age Past uses a Warhammer-ish set of critical hit tables for effect.

The combat section also includes siege rules, naval warfare, minion rules (Age Past adopts a very...dismissive...view of minions, allowing heroes to clean out levels of minions equal to their level without rolling...just a fair warning, if you hated the 1 hit point minions from D&D4e).

Age Past also has magic items, with a twist: You can become addicted to magic items! If you get hooked on magic items, you are compelled to seek out stronger magic items, until such time as you kick the addiction or you finally get something that satisfies you. Interesting little twist.

And yes, in addition to the lists of magic items, Age Past has rules for crafting your own.

Monsters are divided up in categories similar to those in D&D 3e, with Constructs being replaced by Clockworks, Aberrations by Horrors and so on.

All of the monsters are given a couple of paragraphs of description in addition to their stat blocks, and those annoying naming conventions come in again: (There are no vampires, but Blood Drinkers...though they do come in three varieties: Feral Drinkers, Baron Blood Drinkers - for the Count Dracula types and Merks, who are kind of like vampire knights, serving the Baron Blood Drinkers).

In fact, at least three examples are given for each category, providing a wide spread of monsters, if not a deep roster. An enterprising GM should be able to take those examples and craft his own monsters without too much effort.

Supplemental rules in back are included for those wanting miniatures play. The PDF I have even includes a printable GM screen, in a very nice touch...I'm oddly surprised that in 250 pages, however, they didn't include a GMing section. Especially odd since this is an otherwise all inclusive rulebook.

From the version I've read, they need some solid proofreading...I saw some typos, misused punctuation and so on. I'm not a huge fan of the names for the races, as I've mentioned...but that is the thing that sticks out as being my BIGGEST gripe.

There are a lot of D&D-inspired ideas here, but there is a lot setting it apart from Dungeons & Dragons, and the Elegant10 system alone does a lot to make me give the game a second (and third) look. Even at this stage the game is playable, and they have active playtesting ongoing right now. Much like with New Epoch, there is clearly a lot of heart here, and I think the game probably deserves more than to be dismissed as a "fantasy heartbreaker". Looking forward to the continuing development of Age Past, definitely.