My next post I suspect will be an exploration/summary of where each of the character's powers come from.
The Genius
The Genius's power is to prepare terrible and powerful spells which they can unleash to great effect. Any number of spells can be prepared or learned, the only limitation is the Genius' time, resources, and desire to do so.
Play the Genius if you want to create plans and manage resources to wield the most powerful magics to overcome the largest obstacles.
With the Genius, you have access to the widest variety of the most potent rituals, and can learn any of them your character wants to. However, your magical abilities rely on the resources available to you, and failure to manage them well could leave you with many problems.
Examples: Walter White, Rhialto the Marvelous
Str: 9
Int: 18
Wis: 14
Dex: 15
Con: 9
Chr: 12
HP: 8
+lvl: Engineering, Math
+lvl/2: Science, Subterfuge
Traits:
Cowardly ● ● ○ ○ ○
The Genius is terrified constantly and excels at taking any and all opportunities to avoid conflict. This character is the sort of person who would know not to engage in any risky behavior with their assets necessary for survival or would go their entire life without stepping foot in water deeper than an inch.
● – Can check to evaluate the danger of any given situation before getting entangled in it.
● ● – Can quickly disengage from dangerous situations without provoking any immediate response from the engaged characters.
Ingenious ● ○ ○ ○ ○
The Genius is not only very smart, but also apt to apply their intelligence in new and novel ways to solve difficult problems. This character is the sort of person who would give MacGyver a run for their money or fix their car's engine with duct tape and glue instead of buying a new one.
● – Can check to attempt to solve problems without the necessary tools or materials and only a work around and a good description of the method used.
Wizardry:
As the Genius your magical powers all come from your ability to understand and exploit the reality of the world around you. This is done by preparing powerful spells ahead of time and then releasing them once ready. There is no limit to the power and number of spells which can be prepared before hand; however, the time and resources required along with the chance of catastrophic failure steadily increase with the ambition of the caster. The Genius' repertoire is also limited to what they can understand themselves doing, meaning some spells will be off limits based on their Traits.
The number and power of the spells which the Genius has easy access to is based on their level, and detailed in the chart below.
Genius Spell Limits
| Level | Rank 1 | Rank 2 | Rank 3 | Rank 4 | Rank 5 |
| 1 | 1 | - | - | - | - |
| 2 | 2 | - | - | - | - |
| 3 | 2 | 1 | - | - | - |
| 4 | 3 | 2 | - | - | - |
| 5 | 4 | 2 | 1 | - | - |
| 6 | 4 | 2 | 2 | - | - |
| 7 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | - |
| 8 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | - |
| 9 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
In order to prepare a spell, the Genius must already know the spell, must have access to materials to create physical components to store the magic, and then spend time in relative peace. If the Genius currently has less spells prepared of the Rank than they are allowed, (as can be seen above) then the preparation takes materials which have no cost and only 10 mins per Rank to prepare fully. If the Genius has access to spells of a given Rank, but already has the above amount (or more) prepared, preparing another takes materials costing 10^(Rank) SP and 1 hour per Rank. If the spell you are trying to prepare is of a higher Rank than you currently have access to, it costs 10^(Rank + 1) SP, takes 4 hours per Rank, and has a failure chance of 15% for every Rank it is above your max castable Rank. This can be offset by 1% for every Rank in an applicable Trait your character has. This failure chance is rolled only when the prepared spell is attempted to be cast. If the spell fails by 10% or less it still occurs but goes a long with a side effect. If the spell fails by 11% to 20% it simply fails to happen. A failure of more than 20% causes a magical backlash which is catastrophic for the caster and any nearby.
In order to learn new spells to prepare, the Genius must first make sure that they don't conflict with their Traits. If the Genius wishes to learn a spell whose powers are at odds with one of their Traits, they must first bring the Trait to Rank zero. Whenever the Genius gains a level, they may learn a new spell of their devising which matches one of their Traits. When inspiration strikes, they have no need to spend any money and the process only takes 8 hours, regardless of the spell's Rank. If the Genius already has a copy of the spell in question, they may learn it simply by taking one day per Rank of the spell to decipher its contents. Finally, if the Genius wishes to learn a spell without already having access to a copy of it, they may spend one thousand SP per Rank of the spell and three days of time per Rank of the spell. This process has a failure rate equal to if the Genius tried to cast the spell. (15% per Rank above current possibility - 1% per applicable Trait Rank)
Casting a spell is as simple as releasing the energy stored in the materials used to prepare it. This means that the materials are used up and destroyed when the spell is cast and that only prepared spells can be cast. There may be some ways for the Genius to mitigate the failure rate of preparing or learning powerful spells, but these are rare and powerful in the extreme.
| Preparing Spells If... | Material Cost | Time | Failure Chance |
| Fits within the chart | 0 SP | 10 min/Rank | 0% |
| Fits within Rank but not # | 10^(Rank) SP | 1 hour/Rank | 0% |
| Doesn't fit Rank | 10^(Rank +1) SP | 4 hour/Rank | 15*ΔRank - Traits |
| Learning Spells If... | Material Cost | Time | Failure Chance |
| Lvl Up + Match Trait | 0 SP | 8 Hours | 0% |
| Have Copy of Spell | 0 SP | 1 day/Rank | 0% |
| No Copy of Spell | 1000 * Rank SP | 3 days/Rank | 15*ΔRank - Traits |
Failure results
| under 10% | Negative Side Effect |
| 11% to 20% | Harmless Fizzle |
| over 20% | Catastrophic Side Effect |
The Villain
The Villain was a scourge on the land, spreading their dark power into all the cracks and crevices of the world. Eventually they got their hands on a captive who even the Villain couldn't bring themselves to kill, and eventually let go free. The release of the prisoner was the Villain's one redeeming act, and it brought about their demise.
The Villain's power is to invoke powerful Sorceries core to their being without relying on any outside objects, ideologies, or relationships.
Play the Villain if you want to wield terrible forces inherent to you, which no one else can have any effect on.
With the Villain, you can create an island with completely customizable powers which rely only on themselves . However, this power relies on managing their carefully constructed personal and public identity.
Examples: Elric of Melniboné, Gul'dan
Str: 10
Int: 16
Wis: 17
Dex: 11
Con: 13
Chr: 8
HP: 12
+lvl : Intimidation, _____
+lvl/2 : Philosophy, Authority
Traits:
Distant ● ● ○ ○ ○
The Villain is a solitary person who relies solely on themselves whenever possible. This character is the sort of person who would feel comfortable living alone in a cabin in the woods for 5 years or would feel no remorse eating a pet when stuck on a desert island.
● – Can check to avoid a reaction to any circumstance while putting on sun glasses and walking into the sunset.
● ● – Can posit a question and receive an "objective" and "rational" answer which doesn't rely on or include the emotions or "subjective" aspects which may go along with the answer.
Thoughtful ● ○ ○ ○ ○
The Villain is a pensive person, who thinks deeply about ideas which are important to them. This character is the sort of person who would have a complicated and detailed reasoning for their walk to work every day or would spend two hours in the shower thinking about if a burrito is a sandwich.
● – Can check to ask others to contribute to the character's internal monologue when pondering.
Sorcery:
As the Villain, your personal brand of magic comes simply and naturally to you. Wielding these powers is intrinsic to your own personal view of yourself, much as writing is to a writer, drawing to a drawer, or dancing to a dancer. For this reason, your sorcery requires no preparation before hand, no long arduous rituals, and no complicated wheeling and dealing; it can simply be done.
The magical actions available to the Villain are known as Sorceries. These use the individual magic reserve of the Villain, known as Mana. At any given time, the Villain can hold only a number of Mana points equal to lvl x 5, and can only spend up to lvl x 3 on any given Sorcery. Spending Mana equal or less than the Villain's level on a Sorcery is considered "casual" expenditure, which provides some benefits detailed below.
The Sorceries available to the Villain stem from their perception of who they truly are, defined in Hell as their Traits. For each level of each Trait, the Villain gains another Sorcery which they can use, meaning as they gain a clearer image of themselves, they also gain a clearer image of what they can do. The first Sorcery gained from any Trait will always provide a way for the Villain to gain Mana, with the subsequent Sorceries providing impressive effects which can be used to spend it.
Each Sorcery is defined rather simply, with only the mechanical effects below. This is not because the flavor of each of these Sorceries isn't important, but because the exact nature of the Villain's power is intended to be defined and fleshed out by the player instead. Primarily, it is important for the Villain to have some description for how their power operated when they were alive, and now that they are damned in Hell. This could be the destructive psychological manipulation of others using dark and terrible techniques, an inherited family power to breech the walls between worlds and bring in demons to do your bidding, or something else way cooler that you come up with. Each Sorcery should then be adjusted to fit with the overall flavor. The Animate Defeated Sorcery could be the Villain whispering dark threats to the downed creature stupefying it into a mindless zombie who follows orders, it could be tempting ravenous demons with the corpse of the fallen and then cajoling them to stick around, or it could be something way cooler than either of those. This may partially change the nature of how precisely the Sorceries work, and thats fine.
The Villain's Adjectives can also change how their Sorceries manifest over time. On the surface, Sorceries will change their aesthetics to match the Villain's Adjectives. More interestingly, each new rank will bring with it a new way to change each Sorcery. For the first rank of the Adjective, this is always an opportunity to use a Sorcery without spending Mana if the use aligns with the Adjective and the Mana spent is at or below Casual usage. Past this first modifier, a new one is unlocked at each new Adjective rank with the exact modification determined by the Adjective in question.
Starting Powers:
Basic/Universal
Blast – Fire a ranged attack which does 1d10/Mana spent on a hit
Distant ●
Death Absorption – Can desecrate a helpless being at 0 HP to gain 1 Mana per Hit Die of the effected creature. This destroys their form and prevents them from healing under normal circumstances.
Distant ● ●
Animate Defeated – Can spend 1 Mana/HD on a helpless being at 0 HP to create a (mostly) mindless minion of the same HD.
Thoughtful ●
Meditation – May enter a meditative state which allows for reduced outside effects and the recovery of Mana. Can be used to great effect and time outside of combat (~1 Mana/Hour) or for just a round in combat to gain 1 Mana.
Max Mana Pool: lvl x 5
Max Mana per Sorcery: lvl x 3
Max Mana on Casual Sorcery: lvl
The Thief
The Thief stole with from whomever they desired with not a care in the world, spending weeks and going days without rest to take well earned prizes from their victims. This eventually all came crashing down when they acquired knowledge they shouldn't have, and brought about their own demise.
The Thief's power is to steal not only physical objects, but also the have access to take form the Material, Mind, and Mouth of anything/one encountered in Hell.
Play the Thief if you want to have a finger in everything else's things, knowledge, and relationships, and be able to take them for yourself.
With the Thief, you are never at a dead end and can gain something more with just a little risk and clever use of your powers. However, all this requires keeping and organizing what you know about the other members of Hell along with what you have taken from them.
Example: Cugel the Clever,
Str: 11
Int: 16
Wis: 8
Dex: 17
Con: 10
Chr: 13
HP: 12
+lvl : Subterfuge, Finance
+lvl/2 : Combat, Science
Traits:
Obsessed ● ● ○ ○ ○
The Thief is single minded in their approach to tasks and can easily suffer from tunnel vision and chase goals even after it becomes impractical to do so. This character is the sort of person who would pull 2 all nighters to finish their project right before it was due or would stalk a prospective romantic partner over weeks in order to set up "accidentally" bumping into them and using their gained knowledge to convince them on a first date.
● – Can check to ignore "distractions" when working on and continuing an obsession.
● ● – Can freely follow and track one designated "goal" or "target" even as this would normally become all but impossible.
Inquisitive ● ○ ○ ○ ○
The Thief is relentlessly curious about the world and people around them, and explores those ideas vigorously. This character is the sort of person who would actually be interested in your obscure thesis or would ask embarrassingly personal questions about you in public.
● – Can check to get answers from the DM about things that they probably don't know through investigation.
Theft:
As the Thief, you can "steal" anything you know about. This can be from people, places, things, organizations... pretty much any reasonable noun. The most basic version of this involves simply taking objects you can see from the entity in question. If you want something which isn't visible or you don't know about, you can instead perform a "pat down" to try to get knowledge of the objects the target has on them. The same basic principles apply to taking knowledge from the involved party, or understanding their relationships with others.
The Thief can go deeper than this, not just taking the surface effects of the Material, Mind, and Mouth, but instead stealing aspects core to them. This once again requires knowledge of what is intended to be stolen, which again can be gained through a "pat down" or information gathering check. Once the Thief has an understanding of the physical properties of the target's Material, the Traits of their Mind, or the Adjectives of their Mouth, they can take what those grant the character those properties. This can either occur to take them away from the effected entity for a given time, provide them to the Thief for some duration, or to provide the Thief with a "token" of what has been stolen to put on their character sheet for use at another time. Some examples of what can be taken are taking the spit of a Dragon to allow you to breathe fire like one (Material), telling a guard a confusing story about renovations in the base so they loose their orientation (Mind), or picking the mannerisms of a Pit Fiend in order to emulate his pompousness at a later date (Mouth).
All of this is done with a check on a d20 using Dex/Int/Chr for Material/Mind/Mouth plus lvl if it aligns with a relevant Trait, with a success on a 10 or higher. The level of success determines how long it will take the target to realize they've been swindled, or sometimes just that something suspicious has happened, (chart below) in addition to how long before stolen "abilities" will expire. Every previous theft in the encounter will cause a -1 on the next roll, as your repeated suspicious actions become more and more likely to attract attention. Thefts against especially powerful or aware entities may cause addition penalties, and strategies taking advantage of the flaws or weaknesses of the target, the surroundings and environment, or using previously acquired resources could provide bonuses.
Just like other actions in this campaign, the details of how the theft is approached should be described and spelled out. This can involve describing how pockets are picked, the lines given to convince someone to divulge sensitive information, or how one studies and imitates another's mannerisms and style.
| 10 | Immediately |
| 11 | 1 round |
| 12 | 1 min |
| 13 | 5 mins |
| 14 | 30 mins |
| 15 | 1 hour |
| 16 | 4 hours |
| 17 | 12 hours |
| 18 | 1 day |
| 19 | 1 week |
| 20+ | 1 month |
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