sentry0

How about this.... --------- The Lost Legion This feared group is comprised mostly of victims of Mythic Breaches who have escaped the Second Law. The leader of The Lost Legion, Xoldra, is an ancient Dragon who was pulled into the material world centuries ago and now actively organizes the Legion against the Blooded. Xoldra is a monster of the Blooded's own making and she believes the Blooded are an abomination that needs to be destroyed. The Legion is a scourge on the Blooded who posses the martial and magical might to bring Final Death to their quarry. The Lost Legion actively recruits Breach arrivals into their ranks and are known to have magics to sense a Breach and to track those that come through them. If a Breach is not dealt with or the Blooded who open the Breach are overrun, then there is a very good chance the mythic creatures who come through will end up in the Legion. It’s often a race against the clock between Blooded Knights and their Breach Hunters and the Legion to see who can get to the mythic creatures first. Perhaps the greatest blow dealt to the Blooded to date has been by the Legion which was the Fall of Chicago in 2005. Xoldra herself is said to have intervened directly and dispatched King Sambell herself in his own Court. Chicago remains the territory of the Legion to this day and it is considered sheer folly for a Blooded to enter it. No King has mounted a campaign to this day to retake Chicago but there are rumors that some Blooded are actively organizing a resistance.

This is true but I was thinking that Breach Hunters would be effectively deputized by Knights and work for/with Knights. Perhaps it's a path to Knighthood, the Blooded equivalent of military service?

Neat idea, consider it stolen I'll need to think on this one, in general, I'm ok with the Blooded magic being able to be cast over and over again without LTE restrictions. If I added LTE into the mix I would be tempted to rebalance the spells so they were more powerful, more like a D&D mage who can cast less spells but the spells they do cast are powerful. I always compare spellcasting in HERO against a warrior swinging around a 2-3 die KA...that warrior can do that all day long so if you restrict the spells in some way like LTE or the Delayed Effect advantage I feel like the spells should have more oomph. The intention was that a Mythic Breach would be scaled based on the spell being cast so a small spell wouldn't summon a Dragon. I'll clarify this in the text. That is an interesting question, I was actually thinking about this and I thought it would be kind of neat if there was a class of Blooded who specifically hunted down the Mythic creatures who come through a Breach. Part of cleaning up a Breach would also include dealing with mortals...Mind Wipes, CC TV footage destruction, cover stories (did you see that guy in the costume?), etc. Maybe this group would exist in the peasant class and report to Knights to claim bounties and curry favor with the nobility. These Breach Hunters would be above the general peasants technically but below nobility.

Thanks for looking things over, it's much appreciated What advantage is that? I'm not familiar with it. Found it, I modified those abilities to use it. Personal choice, I just thought it added some flavour...if it really offends you I could change it Good to know, thanks. Buried at the end of the document is the history section of the blooded. It's really my first draft of it. Regardless, the First Law came about from the witch hunts in the middle ages which ended up decimating the Blooded...the Ancient Laws were penned as a direct result of the witch hunts. Sorry, "public" in this context would be public to the Blooded, not the general public. I'm envisioning a formal execution that would take place during a Blooded event much like how executions were public affairs. Thanks again...really appreciate your feedback.

There's definitely outliers in those numbers Some of the spells I built exceed AP cost and some are below for example, I was expecting that magic rolls would be outliers. I'll put a note into the campaign guidelines section to that effect to call it out. I'll see about adding in some LS, keep in mind they have access to powerful healing magic so there's no real reason a Blooded would fall prey to a disease or toxin.

I took your advice on Regen, seems like a nice little bit of creative accounting. I need to think about making Blooded take those social complications...I kind of feel like those are implicit in the setting so should they have to take them? I could see that if a Blooded has been put on notice for some behavior they may have a watched that's more aggressive, but all Blooded are watched...much like how we're all watched by police. Thanks for your suggestions!

JK Rowling reveals that you have a good day and time to meet with me How Canadian of me.

I updated the doc tonight and renamed a couple of the Bloodlines. Most of the names were working names because I didn't have much of a better idea about what to call them at the time. I also wrote up a couple of new organizations: The Clockwork Union - a cadre of steampunk scientists who like to study and experiment on the Blooded Mars Industries - an American defense contractor who is rumored to be connected to Blooded disappearances The new orgs are both science-y...I felt like the rest of the orgs were distinctly supernatural in origin so a little variety was in order.

I got excited and went ahead and revised the Mythic Breach writeup...I think it's much better now. Here's the new version: ---------------- Mythic Breach A Mythic Breach is a tear in the fabric of reality that allows Mythic beings to cross into the material world; these beings are always hostile to the Blooded. A breach may open at any time or location where Blooded magic is at work. It appears above the ground as a crackling vortex of dark purple energy, and the size of each breach is directly proportional to the power of what is coming through. An Orc raiding party would constitute a small breach while an adult Dragon would be an enormous breach. Once the Mythic creature(s) are in the material world they are instinctively drawn to attack the Blooded in the area and will ignore non-Blooded targets unless provoked. Mythic Breach Probability Spell AP* Breach Activation Segments 1-10 N/A 1d6 11-30 6- 2d6 31-50 8- 4d6 51-70 11- 5d6 71-90 14- 7d6 91+ Breach 8d6 *Spell roll failures of 5 or more are moved one row down the chart A Mythic Breach has a chance of occurring when a Blooded fails their skill check roll on a spell. On a skill check failure consult the “Mythic Breach Probability” table and do the following: Roll 3d6 and compare the result to the “Breach Activation” column, on a successful activation a breach will open Roll the number of dice indicated in the “Segments” column to determine when the Mythic creature(s) will arrive in the material world if a breach opens Exactly what comes through the breach is up to the GM.

Do you have Discord? It's probably the easiest way to do a voice chat these days. The Mythic Breach concept comes from a few places... I wanted a way to introduce fantasy creatures into the game without turning the game into Shadowrun Not all Blooded will be able to defeat what comes through a Breach which could lead to things like Chimera's stalking the streets Brings up interesting story opportunities to clean up Breaches It adds a risk/reward element to spellcasting I love Rifts (the setting, not the mechanics ) I just thought it was a fun idea in general and it adds some flavor to the spellcasting system I like your comment you left in the doc about the mechanic. Perhaps the activation roll should be based on the AP of the spell being cast modified by the magnitude of the fumble? Something like the following: Spell AP* Breach Activation 1-10 N/A 11-30 6- 31-50 8- 51-70 11- 71-90 14- 91+ Breach *Skill rolls that fail by 5 or more points are moved one step down

I've been working on a setting document with the same name as the title of this post for a couple of weeks now and I think the document is in a good enough place to open it up to general feedback. It's still a work in progress and not perfect but it's good enough to convey the settings basics, I hope. I'm posting now to try and gather feedback from the general public of these boards to see what needs more explaining and what needs to be cut. The Blooded are a group of immortals who have a connection to a mythic power that is hereditary. There are 7 Bloodlines that each represent a different mythic theme such as Draconic or Fae. The connection to the mythic world via their blood allows them to weave spells and perform supernatural feats. The Blooded are under siege by external threats like the Eldritch Circle who hunt them to harvest gruesome material components for their rituals, The Continuum who are trying to erase them from the timestream, and the Elemental Lords whose ancient feud rages across the planes to day. In addition to the external conflicts there are the internal politics and stresses of Blooded society. The Blooded live in the 21st century but retain a feudalistic hierarchy with Kings and Queens who rule over geographic areas with their Dukes and Duchesses, Knights, and peasants. Here's the doc - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Y5hufEqzSfmn5OfIU6QNsj1WW-spQJx8/view The doc changes frequently so don't forget to refresh the page every now and again. Leave feedback here or DM me directly through the site or at phil.guinchard@gmail.com Thank you in advance to anyone who takes the time to read the document.

I'm still plugging away on the document and I have added a new spellcasting mechanic to the setting. The mechanic is called a "Mythic Breach" and it's a tear in reality that has an increasing probability of happening depending on the number of failed spell rolls in short period of time in a set area. All Blooded magic has this side effect and by extension has a chance of creating a Mythic Breach on a bungled cast.

I've been working on Blooded magic lately, I built out 49 spells across 8 spell lines and have put them into the setting doc. Made a prefab for them too Still looking for feedback, let me know if you want to help.

Yep, I could see that ?

That's one of the Laws that calls back to medieval Europe where peasants had no right to own land. Instead they payed rent to work on a Lord's estate and were taxed for doing so. I called it out as one of the Laws that tends not to be enforced in the modern era but left it in because a King may decide to enforce it depending upon the King.

Thanks for taking the time to read over the doc and giving your feedback...I really appreciate it! To answer your question about direct email or here, it's really up you and what you feel comfortable with. I'm hesitant on posting the doc here right now because it's in such an early stage of development so there's a bit of a context gap for people lurking in the thread. At any rate, I leave it up to you. To try and answer your main question; I think that I want conflicts to be both internal and external. I don't foresee players working against each other...instead I'm envisioning them banding together for survival. One of the ideas that's been bouncing around in my head is the concept of Guilds or adventuring companies (adventurers in the D&D sense). I like the idea of having the players formally form a Guild or adventuring troupe, sort of like a hero team in Champions. There's lots of opportunities for conflicts within Blooded society itself. Those are mostly a political driven constructs and would vary from kingdom to kingdom or even between kingdoms. There's also the war between The Avalonians and The Lord's of Blight for control of Blooded society as a whole...this conflict needs more thought about what it means to the setting. Is it a burning fire of a conflict or more of a slow burning background thing? External antagonists are pretty vague at this point...still thinking on it. Witch Hunters, mortal wizards, and Elemental Lord's are what I've been throwing around as the short list. The Elemental Lords concept is this: the Blooded are in conflict with the raw forces of creation. In medieval Europe alchemists saw the classic elements as the building blocks for the universe. I like the idea that the Elements are basically trying to erase them from existence because the Blooded are inherently unnatural. I picture them being highly dangerous and powerful foes. Lots to think about still...thanks for your comments.

Great, I'll send what I have your way. I understand what you mean about authoring...I write code for a living not verse.

You're absolutely right about taking inspiration from White Wolf. Back in the 90s my friends and I played those games a lot and had a blast with them. There's a dash of Highlander in there too with a pinch of American Gods maybe a hint of Game of Thrones. I'm hoping that we can pull it all together into something cohesive.

Anything really ? I know you're an artist so anything you care to do in that regard would be greatly appreciated. It would be awesome to get symbols for the Bloodlines tbh. I have written a couple if sentences for each Bloodline but I want to flesh them out more. A couple of paragraphs at least for each Bloodline would go a long way. The layout of the doc is really basic too and could use some TLC.

Thanks, not quite what I had in mind as those images belong to someone else I'm guessing. Fiverr actually looks pretty cool, I was checking out some artists on there...really talented people on that site.

Per the title; is there anyone interested in collaborating with me on a little side project? It's a setting that I'm working on for an Urban Fantasy game and I could use help with writing and art. The elevator pitch is this: the players are immortals, called Blooded, who have a connection to a mythic force that comes from their otherworldly blood. There are nine different Bloodlines that all have a different mystical focus such as Fae or Draconic power. The Bloodlines organize themselves in a medieval hierarchy with Kings and Queens, Dukes, Knights, and peasants. There's lots of opportunity for political intrigue and conflict as well as conflict from outside Blooded society with Elemental Lords, witch hunters, and mortal agencies. I have a short document created if you're interested in seeing what I have so far.

Does anyone know a good place to find free fantasy art? I'm looking Urban Fantasy more specifically. Has anyone used https://www.fiverr.com/categories/graphics-design/digital-illustration before?

Instead of (or in addition to) limitations to distinguish spell casting schools what about having the RSR characteristic be unique per element? Fire - INT Water - PRE or EGO Earth - CON or STR Air - DEX It would encourage spellcasters to focus on stats other than INT in most cases and may lead to some interesting builds. It also leaves spell design wide open in terms of limitations which may make your life easier in the long run.

My thoughts exactly. I think one of the most important rules a GM can follow is: know your target audience. If your group is a bunch of murderhobos then putting an RP heavy scenario or a scenario where they can't kill their way out is going to be bad for everyone.

I've been buying it down and allowing it to be bought down. I think it is really a GM call in terms of if it's allowed. When something is below average (3 in this case) it generally means the character is impaired in some way...most people are simply using it as a point grab not because of some character driven reason.