EMPYREAN

Lore is another fundamental extension to EMCore. With Lore it becomes possible to detail and highlight the knowledge of each character. This immediately increases the game value of Insight, because Lore doesn't limit itself to stories the character knows, but practical knowledge, like the ability to treat wounds, the ability to operate specialist equipment or technological devices, etc. All players begin with a number of Lore known equal to their Insight Aspect Level. Players with Insight Level 5 gain 2 additional types of Lore. Players with Insight Level 4 gain 1 bonus type of Lore. Among a host of others, the following types of Lore are available: Academia: You have had the luxury of studying some mode of education which makes you familiar with erudite texts, capable of reading and writing with ease, knowing the proper use of grammar and syntax. You are also familiar with fundamental teaching and learning concepts, so that you can use your skills to facilitate teaching or...

Talents are the most basic extension to the EMCore System. The role of talents is to extend or even tamper the function of the Aspects, allowing players to experiment with more complex characters. Each character begins play with a choice of 3 Talents. High Adeptness grants bonus Talents. Adeptness Level 4 grants +1 Talent, and Adeptness Level 5 grants  +2 Talents. Some basic Talents follow: Focus : You ignore the effects of a roll of '1' on any dice. A result of '1' no longer reduces the amount of successes by 1. You must choose an Aspect that will be coupled to this talent, starting with the Aspect with the highest level and moving down. You can choose this talent multiple times. Each time it applies to a new Aspect. It can never apply on the same Aspect. Prowess : (Requires Force Level 5, Focus (Force)) There is no match to a well-trained, forceful warrior. With sheer, uncomplicated power, you forge your path into the frey, carving your path with brutal i...

The following rules make up the Empyrean Core Game System (aka EMCore).  Overall, the game system of Empyrean is modular, and can be extended in many ways. Even some Core Mechanics highlighted here can be altered within a certain context. The Dice:  Empyrean can be played with any dice. Currently, the core system is being balanced around using primarily the d12 dice. In its extended version, the game system has also been tested and balanced around using primarily the d20 dice. Each dice has the following potential results: Botch, Failure, Success, Critical Success.  The Botch Number is 1. Botch counts as -1 success for the entire roll.  Failure counts as 0 success. Success counts as 1 Success, and  Critical counts as 2 successes. The Success / Target number determines the minimum result needed to score a success. So for a roll with 8+, any result of 8 or higher is a success (and any result between 2 and 7 is a failure). The Critical number d...

Empyrean Awakening So it's time to return focus on the primary subject: Empyreans. Following up on the preliminary post here , that paints a very loose, very general picture, we're not yet going to give any more concrete answers that could provide a clearer picture of what an Empyrean actually is. Instead we're going to remain vague for a little while longer, because being vague suspends the mystery that is necessary in the initial experience of being an Empyrean, and this is what we're mostly exploring here: The character's awakening to the life of the Empyrean character. Kaltos led a peaceful and relatively unassuming life, in the small subterranean settlement of Atias. He helped run the settlement's church, lending moral, psychological and physical support to those that needed it. Although he was hardy and strong-willed, he didn't have the violent spirit needed to practice in martial ways. When a gang tore his settlement apart in a brutal ra...

Because Empyrean characters have access to Empyrean Powers they have little use for active Talents, as they cannot combine their benefit with that of their powers. So Passive Talents are more appealing to Empyrean characters. Nonetheless, passive talents can be more appealing to other characters as well. In fact, as only Champion characters benefit from active talents, passive talents are overall more interesting for most character types. What follows is a list of passive talents that can be useful to any characters: Focus : You ignore the effects of a roll of '1' on any dice. A result of '1' no longer reduces the amount of successes by 1. You must choose an Aspect that will be coupled to this talent, starting with the Aspect with the highest level and moving down. You can choose this talent multiple times. Each time it applies to a new Aspect. It can never apply on the same Aspect. Prowess : (Requires Force Level 5, Focus (Force)) There is no match to a well-t...

Because of the wide distribution of the d20 dice, this is a dice better suited when larger dice pools are involved. However the core system is more closely matched to smaller dice pools, of usually between 3 and 6 dice. In addition to this, the baseline target number of 16 for rolls with few dice does come a little lower than necessary. So this is an alternative approach to playing the core system of Empyrean using d12 dice as a baseline instead of d20, but still using the d20 dice for bonus rolls. Because of the bigger impact of the escalation of power with the change of success and critical success numbers, some additional rules have been changed. To achieve this conversion consider the following: A roll of 1 still remains a botch result, and subtracts one success. The Aspects are now modified as follows: Level 1: 2 Dice, Success: 8, Critical: 12 Level 2: 2 Dice, Success: 7, Critical: 12 Level 3: 3 Dice, Success: 7, Critical: 12 Level 4: 3 Dice, Success: 6, Critical: 11 Lev...

The greatest champion in all the legends of the Unfolding Dream was Caldonnas - the champion of dreams. He was the first of the Elu to stand steadfast against the horrors of the abyss, and against the depravity of Ulaheron, the Shadow God. Every demon, every devil, every creature of darkness and shadow trembles at the approach of Caldonnas, for his was the Ire of Akaon, the great maker - and unmaker - of dreams. Such was the power and valor of Caldonnas when he led the shining host of the Shanacan, that all darkness hid from the face of the dream, for they dreaded the fire of their unmaking that burned in the hearts of these stalwart warriors. But for all his power and glory, greater still was Caldonnas' punishment. The Vaenu, the deities of Fate feared the rise of Caldonnas and the Shanacan. They had become an unstoppable force, and wherever they went all horror and darkness was undone, scorched in their all-purging fire. The cosmic balance was disturbed. The Vaenu, alw...

Anatheras is one of the oldest known names, its origin lost in time. Its meaning remains obscure. Some sources claim it means "Summer Palace", due to the alleged archaeological site of the old Arkenassian palace, buried somewhere deep in the bowels of the citadel. Others suggest the world relates to "Bane" or "Monster" due to the alleged presence of a slumbering ancient horror, sleeping in the depths of the sea near the citadel. What remains certain is that Anatheras is a place with a rich history and a lot of development. Sadly, most of the old sites are sealed under the citadel proper. But to understand Anatheras in its current state, one must comprehend the notion of the Arandorean Citadel. The Citadels were first built at least a thousand years ago, before the rise of the gods of the Hexad, with technology that is probably now lost forever. They are colossal behemoths, remnants of an era that is now long gone. They were built to secure million...

Mankind fell. It toppled from its high-perched seat, where it once gazed upon the universe with boundless ambition. Now tyrant-gods reign in gigantic citadels, whilst free men and women have turned into subjugated worshipers, or survive as marauding mutants, daring the new perils of the warped wilderness and the red desolation. This is the Age of the Fall. Six Tyrants now rule over thousands of Chosen, and millions of human slaves, worshipers and sacrificial victims. Together they are known as the Hexad, and are agreed upon as the official and only religion of Arandor. The Hexad have designated themselves as gods, bestowing gifts upon their chosen, rescuing their faithful from their tremendous ire, and punishing all other gods, seen as false. For a thousand years they’ve reigned, destroying all knowledge of the past, and completely rewriting the world’s history to suit them. They are fickle, whimsical gods. They are cruel, sadistic beings. But who can d...

This post will temporarily conclude the Core System development, demonstrating how the Empyrean Core System is sufficient for more than a few sessions of a single story, but can also support evolving characters as part of evolving storylines. Empyrean Characters Empyrean Characters begin life as regular humans with a quirk and evolve into super-heroes with a twist. So there is a lot of character development that happens between point zero, where the character has no clue as to what is going on, to point A where the character has begun to see the tip of the iceberg, and realize they're looking at an iceberg. From a storytelling standpoint it is a powerful and dramatic development. In essence, it is the convergence of two storylines. The mortal wakes up and remembers glimpses of who the godlike alter-ego used to be. Not the whole thing, but enough to realize they have a mission here. A destiny. And destiny is the keyword here. Empyreans do not understand willpower,...

This is the most simple layout of how combat works in Empyrean. This means that this is the "core system" or "bare-bones" implementation of combat, and not the actual combat system in its full-scale complexity. The system described below will serve most basic needs for resolving combat situations fast, without growing unnecessarily complex and long-winded. Combat is turn-based (of course). The sequence of play during a round of combat is broken down as follows: - Engagement Resolution - Movement Phase - Shooting Phase Engagement is a situation where all participants involved are locked in combat with one another. Practically this covers all situations where instant, or almost instant actions occur simultaneously, which involves most melee combat actions, among other things. A character within a threat-range of another combatant, in a situation where both combatants can act and react simultaneously, is considered engaged. Engaged characters are involved with comb...

Following up on the Core System explanation from the previous post, here is a character sheet that can better assist with visualization of the system. All the core elements are neatly gathered inside one page, and that's all a player needs to play Empyrean using the rules we've described before. I have added a character drive, below willpower, in order to allow for the expansion of the inspiration system. For now this is merely, mostly about tracking the character's value system. All players start with a drive score of 1, which is what is assumed in the inspiration mechanics explained in the Core System rules. Here we merely leave the possibility open to develop the character's drive further, either with ad-hoc rules, or via a future development system. The character sheet has a back page, (of course! what type of self-respecting character sheet doesn't?!) and comes in two formats. An A4 size, landscape with huge fonts that look back at you (which you can ...

The Dice: This is how the dice functions:  We have almost exclusively 12-sided dice in Empyrean.  Each dice has the following potential results: Botch, Failure, Success, Critical Success.  The Botch Number is 1. Botch counts as -1 success for the entire roll.  Failure counts as 0 success. Success counts as 1 Success, and  Critical counts as 2 successes. The Success / Target number determines the minimum result needed to score a success. So for a roll with 8+, any result of 8 or higher is a success (and any result between 2 and 7 is a failure). The Critical number determines the minimum result needed to score a critical. So for a roll with 10+, any result of 10 or higher is a critical is a critical, whilst any result between the critical number and the success number is a success, and any result other than those is a failure or a botch if that result is 1. Each roll is usually made by at least 2 dice while unmodified. The basic number of dice ro...