I ran my first session of The One Ring (Second Edition) last Spring, and I loved how well it exposes themes from Tolkien’s works. I think it will shine in long-term play. Winter is here and I’m eager to dive back into Middle-earth with another session.

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about orcs. This post is for those already familiar with The One Ring, so I won’t delve into the existing mechanics. Instead, I want to share my own apocryphal musings and a GM-side procedure I’m cooking up to make orcs more engaging and memorable: as adversaries, and as characters.

Orcs of Morgoth

Tolkien was uneasy about the orcs in his fiction. As a Catholic, he didn’t like the implications of having a race of sentient creatures who were evil by nature, or beyond redemption. He struggled to compose an origin for orcs that would satisfy these concerns, and apparently never settled the issue.

For my present campaign, I’ll be more reckless. In my rendition of Middle-earth, the original orcs—the orcs of Morgoth—are all Elves who fell under the magnetic influence of the Dark Lord. Specifically, Morgoth’s desire for power was so potent, it was a literal contagion.

Elves will not admit this, but in the First Age, the overwhelming majority of the Firstborn were consumed by this mimetic desire. The idea of orcs being a separate, corrupted race, the idea of orcs multiplying by breeding, is elvish propaganda to hide from the horror that any of them may be vulnerable to the same corruption.

If this sounds familiar, that’s because it’s inspired by the mimetic theory of Renee Girard. According to Girard, imitation is the most fundamental human instinct. And it’s not just the behavior of others that we imitate: we also instinctively imitate one another’s desires.

Girard posits that mimetic desire is the root of most human conflict: People who enter into each other’s desires become rivals. If you imitate my desire for my spouse, you desire her as well, and then you and I become adversaries.

With Girard, there are more catastrophic consequences. You and I are not the only models for one another’s desires: We live in a society in which every person is a model whose desires we instinctively imitate to some extent. The snowballing of mimetic desire produces a contagion that threatens to destroy society in a crescendo of rivalistic violence.

Enough Girard for now. In my extension of Tolkien’s fiction, the Dark Lord’s desire is overwhelmingly potent. Potent enough to overwhelm the individual identities of Elves who are drawn into its magnetic field. The twisted, scarred bodies of orcs are a consequence of the rivalistic violence that their desire for power begets in them. This desire for power literally twists their bodies toward violence, and the multitude of rivals also enthralled in Morgoth’s influence assures that any survivors have endured harrowing violence from others.

Orcs of the Necromancer

My campaign takes place during the waning years of the Third Age while Sauron is yet disguised as the Necromancer of Mirkwood. I always wondered, why was he known as “the Necromancer”?

It’s because Sauron has found another way to spawn orcs in the catacombs of Dol Guldur. Inspired by the orcneas of Beowulf—“orc corpses”—Sauron’s orcs are created from corpses. Elf corpses.

Sauron’s desire for power is likewise potent, even contagious. This is a central theme of The Lord of the Rings. But as a subordinate to Morgoth, his desire is not as overwhelming to the Elves of the Third Age as the desire of his master. Of course the orcs of Morgoth would be attracted by the magnetic desire of a new Dark Lord, but they are scattered and Sauron wants more.

Just as Barrow-wights are spirits sent to possess the mortal remains of Men, Sauron’s orcs are demon-possessed corpses, or corpses possessed by the souls of Men or Elves who once served Sauron loyally in life.

Rising Through Ranks

Mechanically, one idea that sparked my interest was the much-hyped Nemesis System from the games Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War. I haven’t played those games and I’m not a PC gamer. But the main idea of the Nemesis System seems a natural fit for tabletop role-playing—almost a no-brainer. The heart of the Nemesis System as I understand it is this: NPCs are affected by your encounters with them, they remember the player character, and their future behavior is shaped by their past experience.

This is nothing new for tabletop role-playing. This should apply to every NPC at all times. Taking in the players’ choices and showing how they affect the world is a fundamental principle of being a GM. This is a central feature that differentiates role-playing games from other games.

However, considering the orc-centric focus of the Nemesis System in Shadow of Mordor, the growth and change of orcs involves elements that could be particularly relevant for The One Ring RPG:

• Orcs are typically organized in warbands.
• Warbands have a hierarchy.
• An orc’s position in the warband may be subject to change.

And the consequences of these three circumstances show a lot of potential for both story and gameplay.

My procedure builds on those based on the following principles:

• When orcs first encounter the player-heroes, their individuality might be quite limited. They may or may not be named already, they may or may not enter play with any distinct personality. If not, it’s the GM’s job to bring each orc to life through play.
• Any orc who survives an encounter with the player-heroes earns some more personality detail, each time they survive, based on what happened in the encounter.
• Any orc who survives an encounter with the player-heroes also earns some mechanical differentiation. Especially if an orc is demoted or promoted in the warband as a consequence of the encounter.

The procedure is this:

• After every orc encounter, the GM may swap or add a new Distinctive Feature to every orc. If it’s the first encounter, this might be when the GM assigns a trait to individualize each orc.
• Promotion: If an orc kills a player-hero, they are promoted in the warband, and the GM rolls for a promotion below. And when a superior orc is killed, someone will have to be promoted to fill their role.
• Scars & Savvy: An orc who does not kill a player-hero gets more Endurance anyway, by simply surviving.

Promotion

So you killed yourself a hero. (Spit!) Or maybe you were lucky enough to be the toughest remaining orc in your unit when your superior was taken out.

Roll a Feat die, and compare the result to the orc’s current Attribute Level (Attr):

Roll	Outcome
Eye of Sauron	Increase the orc’s Stamina Multiplier by 1, and add 1 to the orc’s Attribute Level and Hate
> Attr	Add 1 to the orc’s Attribute Level and Hate
≤ Attr	Make a Might Check (below) if the orc’s current Might is less than 3; if Might stays the same, give the orc a new a Custom Move or Fell Ability (GM’s choice)
Gandalf Rune	The orc is Challenged by another orc (see below)

Stamina Multiplier

An orc’s Endurance is the product of 2 numbers: Attribute Level and this factor. Multiply the orc’s Attribute Level by the Stamina Multiplier to determine their Endurance.

The default Stamina Multiplier for all orcs is 4, and can increase through promotion.

If the orc’s Attribute Level or Stamina Multiplier change due to promotion, it’s time to re-calculate the orc’s Endurance. If the result is lower than the orc’s previous maximum Endurance, add the orc’s new Stamina Multiplier to their previous Max. Endurance instead.

Might Check

Roll a number of Success Dice equal to the orc’s current Might. If all the dice show a success icon, then the orc’s Might increases by 1 (to a maximum of 3)

Challenge!

Another orc has challenged your promotion, and is willing to fight you for it. Whoever wins will take the promotion instead!

1. Choose another orc in the warband to challenge the orc being promoted, if any survived.
   • Otherwise, pick another orc who may benefit from challenging the orc’s promotion.
   • Invent a new orc if you don’t have any.
2. Make an attack roll for each orc, the challenger and the the defender.
   • If either orc has a Might greater than 1, make multiple attack rolls for that orc and add them together.
3. The orc who rolls the most Success icons wins.
   • If that’s a tie, the orc who gets the highest attack total wins.
   • If it’s still a tie, roll again.
4. The winner gains Endurance equal to loser’s damage rating, and then makes a Favoured roll on the Promotion table above.
5. Decide what happened in the fiction.

Scars and Savvy

Any orc who does not get promoted still gains Endurance if they survive. It works like this:

• If the orc lost any Endurance fighting with the heroes, the orc adds that amount to their maximum Endurance.
• An orc who didn’t lose Endurance adds 1 to their maximum Endurance.

Custom Moves

If an orc gains a Custom Move, it’s time for the GM to get creative and imagine something based on the circumstances of their previous encounters.

What are “moves”? They are things the monster can usually just do: concrete things the GM describes that bring the monster to life. Moves don’t spend Hate, require an attack roll, or anything. The orc can do them off-camera, or outside of combat, and sometimes in combat.

My original idea was to have a big d100 table (or something similar), so the GM could randomly select a new trait or special ability any time an orc survives an encounter with the heroes. But I realized what I really want are orcs who change—and possibly improve—in ways that are directly informed by the fiction. Sometimes a random table can spark unforeseen inspiration.

But often, the circumstances of their last encounter or the orc’s personality will suggest obvious ambitions, passions, or opportunities that inspire a new trait or special ability. Use those first.

Otherwise, consider the following questions (inspired by Dungeon World) to develop a new move:

Is there new folklore about the orc?

Write a new move that expresses what the orc is known to do.

What does it want and what tactics does it use?

Write a new move that describes how the orc gets what it wants.

Does the orc use deception or trickery?

Write a move about the orc’s dirty tricks.

Does the orc develop a new mutation, adaptation, or modified gear?

Write a move describing how it uses this new trait.

Is the orc an effective leader or strategist?

Write a move about how the orc organizes and calls on their forces.

Has the orc gained insight from the Shadow, or from beyond this world?

Write a move about how the orc uses otherworldly knowledge or power.

Has the orc’s presence become disturbing, terrible, or horrible?

Write a move describing how the orc uses their appearance, voice, and actions to inspire abject terror.

Example: Grimshot

Separated from their allies, Arathorn and his squire are facing off against orcs in the Trollshaws. The orcs overwhelm them, but not before Arathorn slays their chieftain.

One goblin archer manages to Wound Arathorn in the skirmish, but another shot flies wild. Unseen by anyone, the squire picks up the orc arrow and uses it to slay his lord. The goblins track the traitor through the late winter snow and kill him. Being in the back rank until the last round of combat, our as-yet unnamed archer escapes the battle unscathed.

Suppose this is the goblin archer who wounded Arathorn and killed Arathorn’s treacherous companion.

Not only was the orc-chieftain slain, but this little guy is bragging that he killed the chieftain of the Dúnedain. He takes the name “Grimshot” and claims Arathorn’s helm, shield, and greatspear as his own. Because he is lying about the achievement, taking credit for someone else’s kill, I will give him Insecure as a new Distinctive Feature.

Let’s roll for his promotion.

My roll on the Promotion table is a 4. That is higher than his current Attribute level, raising his Attribute level and Hate to 3. No one challenges his promotion.

Since Arathorn is such a high-profile hero, I will give him a second roll on the promotion table. I might codify this later based on the hero’s Valour or something.

My second roll on the Promotion table is the G-rune. That means another survivor, an orc soldier, challenges him for the title.

Now Grimshot’s roll is 4, 5, and 5 (14 total) vs. the soldier’s 3, 2, and 2 (7 total). Grimshot wins, slaying the challenger. He gains +3 Endurance and I make a Favoured roll on the Promotion table.

My third roll on the Promotion table gives 9 and 4. The 9 is higher than his current Attribute level, raising his Attribute level and Hate to 4.

All done. Now I just have to translate the results back into coherent fiction.

Here is Grimshot’s new stat block:

Grimshot, Orc Warchief

Cunning, Keen-eyed, Insecure

Attribute Level	4
Endurance	16
Might	1
Hate	4
Parry	2*
Armor	2

Combat Proficiencies

Bow of Horn 3 (3/14, Pierce); Great Spear 2 (4/16); Jagged Knife 2 (2/14)

Fell Abilities

Craven. When affected by the Intimidate Foe combat task, the creature also loses 1 Hate.

Orc-poison. If an attack results in a Wound, the target is also poisoned.

*2 Parry only when using shield; 0 when using bow

I love Sorcerer.

For Halloween this year, I organized what was supposed to be a Sorcerer one shot. Now, by popular demand, we’re planning to play at least one more session to wrap up the Kickers for each character.

The pitch

Here is the teaser I shared with the players to get people excited about the game:

Transylvania, 1887. The forests are filled with moonlight and magic, and the mountains are perforated with tombs older than any Christian grave.

No one was ready when the ruins of Castle Draculea reappeared amid a cloud of iron flies like a sprawling labyrinthine Babel. Secret messengers have crossed Europe, bringing invitations to eclectic and unlikely guests.

You have your own reasons for accepting the call. Maybe you are a noble, enticed by power. A soldier, seeking vengeance. A friar, seeking absolution. A composer, seeking inspiration. A nun, seeking freedom from a curse. A surgeon, escaped from the dungeon. Or a stage magician, seeking forbidden knowledge. Your destiny awaits you in theses twisted, demon-haunted halls.

And the shadows whisper, “How far will you go to get what you want?”

Touchstones

• Dracula, the novel by Bram Stoker
• Koji Igarashi’s Symphony of the Night (Playstation)
• Mike Mignola’s Hellboy comics
• Jim Henson/David Bowie film Labyrinth
• Short stories by Edgar Allen Poe and the Sherlock Holmes fiction of Arthur Conan Doyle

I’ve wanted to run some Dracula/Castlevania-inspired Sorcerer for a long time!

Prep

I conducted 2 main kinds of preparation for this scenario: Filling my imagination, and creating some content.

One thing I did to fill my imagination was to re-read the Bram Stoker novel Dracula over the past 2 weeks. I didn’t finish it because it’s not my only reading, but I did savor some of the specific imagery and prose that Stoker employs, and it helped re-establish atmosphere I wanted to include in the game.

Likewise, I popped in my Playstation black disc of Symphony of the Night and re-played some of the game several nights in a row. I also played some of the early levels of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow I, a game I never really mastered. And I re-read the Hellboy stories “Seed of Destruction” and “Wake the Devil”.

Based on my inspirations, I created 2 kinds of content to help us get started quickly: demons, and backgrounds.

Starting demons

In Sorcerer, player characters get their power from a dysfunctional relationship with transgressive personae, AKA demons. By the book, players typically create their own starting demons, based on the inspiration provided by 2 statements the GM provides. Or at least, the players define their demons’ special effects as a basis for the GM to develop the mechanics. Since this was planned to be a one-shot, I took responsibility for this, so the players would have a menu of evocative content to choose from and form their character ideas around. I’ve done this once before, and it worked very well!

Here are the handouts I created detailing the starting demons (pp1–5).

I created 10 starting demons for the players, anticipating only 4–6 players, but by game day I had 9 players RSVP! The demons were:

• The Blood Cloak of Selim the Sinister: A dark Ottoman-style cloak lined with bright crimson silk, that heals you when it gets blood on it.
• Cursed Bloodline: The Vampire’s curse, bestowed upon Dracula’s most favoured scion. You get to play a vampire.
• Greymalkin: A well-groomed, dark grey cat with bright eyes; it boosts your lore and can walk through walls and shadows.
• Ne m’oubliez pas: A small tube of red lipstick made by the Parisian perfume house Guerlain, that makes you very seductive.
• The Orb of Thíristarr: A crystal ball the size of a fist, that shows you what people want and boosts your will when you offer it to them.
• The Shadow Signet: An ornate silver ring marked with unknown glyphs and a waning crescent moon. It basically makes you the goblin monarch, like David Bowie’s character Jareth in The Labyrinth.
• The Scourge of God: An ancient, rust-red sabre, once held by Attila, who claimed it as a gift from the war god Mars. This lets to stir up peoples blood for fighting, makes you a master strategist, and mows suckers down like grass.
• Soul of Wolf: A ravening beast lurks beneath your skin, tearing its way out. You get to be a werewolf.
• Tongs of Saint Dunstan: Battered tongs from a dark age forge. Stolen directly from a Hellboy story, they let you grab demons and beat the Hell out of them.
• The Vampire Killer: A coiled whip of chain with jagged spikes tipped with a serrated talon. This is the classic Belmont weapon from the Castlevania series, and one that Dracula would immediately recognize!

In addition to the demon abilities and stats, each demon sheet also offers a few details for the player character who binds it: the master’s telltale, lore descriptor, and price. In Sorcerer, these details are typically chosen independently of the starting demon, but I did this the last time I ran a Sorcerer one-shot, and it proved both expedient and fun.

One more demon

Of course, I also created stats for Dracula himself: my own twist on the classic, using the rules of lichdom from Sorcerer & Sword.

► SPOILER

See Dracula, p6. This is the only demon I inserted into the scenario, apart from the player demons. I considered inserting Bram Stoker himself as a Naïve NPC sorcerer, but decided against it. I may use him as a highly-driven mundane NPC.

Backgrounds

The other content I created were a handful of short background descriptions to spark character ideas (pp7–8). These were developed for inspiration only, especially to establish atmosphere. I considered character professions that could replace the protagonists in Dracula or play important roles in short stories by Edgar Allen Poe and Arthur Conan Doyle.

The prose following each background suggests one way players could link such a character to the Castle Dracula scenario.

Beyond inspiration and atmosphere, these backgrounds could also be slotted directly into a character’s Past descriptor, to help players form character ideas and create their characters more quickly. And that’s exactly what most players did. They showed up eager to play!

Into play!

When we got together, I cut out the backgrounds and spread them out across the table. I cut the demon sheets in half so each sheet had one demon, and spread these across the table too. One player made up his own background, but the rest picked and combined a background and demon from the pool, and we got things started.

I’ll share their character sheets and write about the Kickers next time!

This is a selection of psionic powers available for player characters inmy Reliquary Space setting. They replace the psionic rules in Mercenaries, Spies & Private Eyes, with inspiration from GURPS Basic Set, 3rd Edition.

Reliquary Space index

Each psionic skill costs 3 Skill Points. They have no IQ minimum, but higher IQ gives you a higher chance to gain mastery over your skills—otherwise, they are latent. To check for mastery, make a Level 2 Saving Roll for each skill, combining your IQ with your level in the chosen skill.

Latent skill: GM uses the skill erratically as though it were controlled by an distracted and unreliable, but otherwise benevolent NPC. Such powers may manifest in stressful situations (with a Saving Roll) or otherwise, at the GM’s whim. If you spend significant downtime training under a master of a given discipline, you may check for mastery again at the end of your training regime, taking a +1 bonus for each fortnight of unbroken, focused practice in a single skill.

Psionic skills are divided into disciplines: Telepathy, Psychokinesis, Psi Static, and Chorochronometry. Any of the psionic skills within the same discipline may be taken as Specializations stemming from any other skill in the same discipline, provided the esper meets all other requirements.

The range of all psionic skills can be extended by use of clairvoyance or senses gained via mind-reading.

Psionic Skills at a Glance

Telepathy

Telepathy

Psi Sense

Mental Blow

Mind Shield

Sleep

Illusions

Mind Control

Psychokinesis

Telekinesis

TK Shield

Energy Medicine

Psi Static

Psi Static

Chorochronometry

Clairvoyance/clairaudience

Autotesseract

Exotesseract

Psychometry

Precognition

Telepathy – 3 pts.

Reach out to other minds within the range of your daylight vision.

Battle of Wills.

Many telepathic skills call for a Battle of Wills, pitting the telepath’s power against their target’s grit and mental integrity.

This struggle is resolved like that of fighters in hand-to-hand combat: Both sides roll dice, add their Will, and compare the totals. The side with the higher total wins. (Groups may combine their totals on each side before comparing totals.)

If you’re a telepath, your Will rating is equal to half your current Intelligence score. Everyone else figures their Will the way fighters figure Missile Adds, based on the character’s current Charisma or Intelligence, whichever is higher: For each point the attribute exceeds 12, they get +1 Will. For each point the attribute falls short of 9, they get -1 Will.

Roll dice equal to your Telepathy skill level, and add your Will. The target gets dice equal to their Mind Shield skill level, if any. A telepath may choose to counterattack instead, rolling dice equal to half their Telepathy skill. Either way, they add their Will to their roll.

Compare these totals: The higher side wins, and the difference between the rolls becomes either hold or damage.

If you win, you gain hold over the target. Otherwise, you suffer non-lethal damage to your Strength score. If your hold is no less than the target’s Will, the target is unaware of your telepathic intrusion.

Broadcast.

Send your thoughts to a single recipient. If the target isn’t a telepath, you may use Mind-reading to receive their response.

Mind-reading.

If the target is unaware or unwilling, resolve a Battle of Wills to enter their mind. If you succeed, you get a number of “search queries” equal to your Telepathy skill level before the connection closes. Ask about their thoughts, sensory information, or memories. After each query, they may burn Strength equal to your hold to expel you from their mind.

While you see through another entity’s senses, you may include their visual range within the range of any psionic powers you use.

Telepathy allows you to use the following skills untrained—Mental Blow, Mind Shield, Sleep, Illusions, and Mind Control—but doing so costs you Strength equal to the Telepathy skill level they require, in addition to any Strength usually required to use the skill.

Psi Sense – 3 pts.

You can feel the presence of other espers. If you actively sniff for espers within your range, make an Intelligence Saving Roll plus your skill vs. the other esper’s Luck score. If they are actively using a psionic power other than Psi Static, add their skill to your roll!

When you sniff while multiple espers are in range, roll vs. the esper with the lowest Luck score.

Mental Blow – 3 pts. (Requires: Telepathy)

Shout.

Spend 1d6 Strength. Everyone within range must make a CON Saving Roll (modified by their Mind Shield) against your skill level or be stunned for a number of rounds equal to the amount they missed by. They can attempt a Charisma Saving Roll each round after the shout to snap out of it before then.

Direct mental attack.

After you win a Battle of Wills, your hold becomes lethal Strength damage against your target, plus a bonus equal to your Mental Blow skill.

Mind Shield (Requires: Telepathy)

Passive resistance against telepathic intrusion. Your Mind Shield gives you dice equal to your skill level in a Battle of Wills.

Sleep (Requires: Telepathy 3+)

After you win a Battle of Wills, the target falls into a sleep lasting up to your Sleep skill in hours unless awakened.

Illusions (Requires: Telepathy 6+)

Create an illusion in the target’s mind. After you win a Battle of Wills, you imbue the target’s perceptions with the illusion you describe, using as many major details as your skill. The illusion persists for your skill in Turns (minimum 1 round), or until they leave your presence.

The target may burn Strength equal to your hold to shake off the illusion if they examine it or interact with it substantially—such as when it would damage them or vice versa, or when it would be disrupted by their actions.

Subtle details that conform to their expectations may pass unnoticed, while blatant psychedelic visions or phantasmagoria might provoke ongoing resistance.

Mind Control (Requires: Telepathy 9+)

Hypnotize someone and make them follow your verbal or telepathic orders. After you win a Battle of Wills, the target falls into a trance. They will take no action apart from following your commands, and you may operate them like a puppet if you do nothing but concentrate. Your grip over them lasts your skill in Turns (minimum 1 round), unless you command them to wake, you lose consciousness, or leave their presence. They remember everything.

If any command would violate their animal survival instincts or ruling passion, the target may burn Strength equal to your hold to throw off your influence.

You may instead give them a post-hypnotic suggestion. After you win a Battle of Wills, describe a trigger and an action you want them to take. The target will come out of the trance and behave normally until they encounter the trigger you described. At that time, they will automatically obey your suggestion, unless it would violate their animal survival instincts or ruling passion. In that case, they may burn Strength equal to your hold to fight off the impulse.

Player characters targeted may choose their actions, earning Adventure Points equal to your Mind Control skill any time they fulfill the telepath’s commands contrary to their own character’s interests.

Psychokinesis

Telekinesis (TK) – 3 pts.

Move items with your mind!

Move up to 10^TK times the Strength you spend in pounds, at a Speed rating equal to your Telekinesis skill times the Strength you spend. You can move smaller weights at greater speeds by multiplying Speed by the factor you divide the weight by.

Accuracy.

When you launch an item at a target, treat it as a missile attack with a Dexterity equal to your Basic Basic TK skill times the Strength you spend. On a hit, treat your Basic TK skill as a Monster Rating to determine damage.

Range: As Telepathy, or any unseen item you have seen within a radius of your IQ in yards.

TK Shield (Requires: Telekinesis, Precognition)

Deflect a physical or telekinetic attack.

When you are hit by an attack while conscious, and subtract your TK Shield level from each damage die. You may spend Strength to absorb additional damage, 1-for-1.

Pocket atmosphere.

If you are ejected out of an pressurized environment, submerged underwater, or otherwise sent from a breathable space to a place where you can’t breath, you can make a Charisma Saving Roll plus your TK Shield skill to take enough oxygen with you as if you were in a space suit. If you make it, the bubble holds for TK Shield skill level in combat rounds.

Energy Medicine – 3 pts. (Requires: Telekinesis)

Healing ministration.

Touch someone who is injured to heal their wounds. Make a Charisma Saving Roll plus your Healing skill level: If you make it, the target recovers lost CON up to your Energy Medicine skill level. On a miss, you lose 1d6 Strength. If you roll less than 5, the target also suffers 1d6 damage!

Directed Energy Attack.

Use your psi to squeeze a target’s blood vessels or similar. You must see or touch the target and make a missile attack with a Dexterity equal to the target’s CON. On a hit, roll a number of dice equal to your Energy Medicine skill for damage.

Psi Static – 3 pts.

Psi static disrupts espers from using their powers, within the radius of your daylight vision.

Interference.

When you activate your power globally, anyone within range must make a Charisma Saving Roll against your Psi Static skill level before using any psi powers except for Psi Static.

Focused Disruption.

When you target a specific person you can see, they must make a Saving Roll as above. If they make it, they may use their power—but it costs them additional Strength equal to their skill level.

Chorochronometry

Clairvoyance/clairaudience – 3 pts.

You can perceive the folds of spacetime and the forms that occupy the space around you in your minds eye, and reach for the sights, sounds, and other sensory impressions in other locations you have previously visited. Make an Saving Roll IQ Saving Roll plus your skill level:

• Level 0 if view is within your visual range, but obscured in some way.
• Level 1 if the destination is on the same celestial object as you, out of sight.
• Level 2 if the destination is is on a different celestial body in the same system.
• Level 4 if the destination is in a different system in the same sector.
• Level 8 if the destination is in a different sector in the same quadrant.
• Level 16 if the destination anywhere in the galaxy outside your current quadrant.

Failure means the vision is confused and blurry, or you see an alternate location of interest, chosen by the GM; and your Clairvoyance is disabled for 1d6 hours.

A blind clairvoyant can see unobstructed surfaces to a range of their IQ in yards without a Saving Roll, but a roll is required to see through exterior layers, such as inside envelopes or containers.

Autotesseract – 3 pts. (Requires: Clairvoyance 3+)

Fold space to teleport yourself and no more than 5 pounds of worn gear to any place you can see (including through Telepathic or Clairvoyant vision). Make an IQ Saving Roll plus your Teleport skill, with the Saving Roll level determined by the range, per Clairvoyance.

Failure means you teleport to an alternate destination of interest, chosen by the GM; and your skill is disabled for 1d6 hours. Failure to roll at least a 5 on the the dice means you also splinched, and suffer damage equal to the amount you missed the Saving Roll by.

Exotesseract – 3 pts. (Requires: Autotesseract)

Same as Autotesseract, but you can teleport persons and objects you touch, weighing up to 10 to the power of your Exotesseract skill, times the Strength you spend, in pounds. Alternatively, you can teleport remotely viewed persons and objects to your current location.

Psychometry – 3 pts.

You can pick up the echoes of significant past events that radiate from certain objects and locations. Items associated closely with a person may convey details about that person’s current location and condition. Such impressions typically come in the form of vague flashes of imagery and information.

Make an IQ Saving Roll plus your skill. For each level of success, you may ask the GM one question about the vibrations of this object or place; including what happened here, and what happened to any significant people who interacted with the subject.

Failure means your skill is disabled for 1d6 hours. Repeated attempts cost 1d6 Strength.

Precognition – 3 pts.

You can pick up the shadows of what may happen. Make an IQ Saving Roll plus your skill. For each level of success, you may ask the GM a question about the current direction of fate—in general, or concerning specific people, places, and things. The GM will answer honestly to the best of their ability.

Failure means your skill is disabled for 1d6 hours. Repeated attempts cost 1d6 Strength.

If you are caught by surprise, make a Luck Saving Roll plus your skill vs. the danger’s level in Precognition. On a success, you had a feeling just in time and you get to act first.

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Go back to Reliquary Space index.

This is a quick overview of character creation for my Reliquary Space setting, using the rules of Mercenaries, Spies & Private Eyes as a basis. Setting-specific house rules are highlighted.

Reliquary Space index

Rolling Attributes

Roll 3d6 seven times, and assign the totals you get to the seven attributes: Charisma, Constitution, Dexterity, Intelligence, Luck, Speed, and Strength. Arrange them as you see fit. If any of the rolls show triples—the same number on all three dice—roll two additional dice and add them to your original roll. This should give you seven attribute scores ranging from 4 (pitiful) to 30 (superlative).

If your average score is below 12, consider playing a recommissioned Boomer (see below).

Example A – Paolo Atreidus: CHA 7, CON 22, DEX 11, IQ 5, LCK 12, SPD 12, STR 10

Example B – Bella Jesurit: CHA 5, CON 4, DEX 15, IQ 17, LCK 14, SPD 12, STR 9

Combat Adds

Hand-to-Hand Combat Adds. Exceptional Dexterity, Luck, and Strength improve your hand-to-hand combat ability: If any of these scores are higher than 12, you get 1 Hand-to-Hand Combat Add per point over 12. Low Dexterity, Luck, and Strength diminish your hand-to-hand combat skill: Subtract 1 point from your Hand-to-Hand Combat Adds for each point below 9. This should give you a number ranging from -15 to +54—but skewing toward zero.

Example A: Paulo’s DEX, LCK, and STR are all in the average range—offering neither bonuses nor penalties to Hand-to-Hand Combat Adds.

Example B: Bella has exceptional DEX and LCK, giving her +5 Hand-to-Hand Combat Adds. 3 points come from her high DEX (15 – 12 = 3), and 2 come from her high LCK (14 – 12 = 2).

Missile Weapon Combat Adds are derived from exceptional Luck only: +1 for each point of Luck beyond 12, or -1 for each point of Luck below 9.

Example A: Paulo’s LCK of 12 gives him zero Missile Weapon Combat Adds.

Example B: Bella’s LCK of 14 gives her +2 Missile Weapon Combat Adds.

Skills

You have a number of Skill Points equal to your IQ, which you can spend on Skills that round out your character’s abilities. Skills also shape your background, contacts, and starting gear. Most skills cost 1 Skill Point, but a few cost 2 or 3. The Skill Point cost is listed in parentheses with each skill.

Most skills require a certain Intelligence threshold to master. In order to take the skill, your IQ must have a score equal to or exceeding the IQ minimum listed. Some skills have other requirements, which may include other skills, minimum thresholds in other attributes, or both.

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At a Glance Skills List, p128 of MSPE 2019 Combined Edition by Michael Stackpole. © 1983 and 2019 by Flying Buffalo Inc.

You can spend additional Skill Points to increase your level in many skills. Each additional level costs double the Skill Points required for the previous level.

Skill Level	½pt. Skill Cost	1pt. Skill Cost	2pt. Skill Cost	3 pt. Skill Cost
1	½	1	2	3
2	+1	+2	+4	+6
3	+2	+4	+8	+12
4	+3	+6	+12	+18
5	+4	+8	+16	+24

Example A: Paulo’s low IQ gives him 5 Skill Points, which must all come from the “IQ 4” or “Open” lists—he currently lacks the necessary intellect for higher pursuits. He takes Knife Fighting (1 pt.), Pugilism (1 pt.), and Hereditary Title (3 pts.)—a Duke. He wants to increase his level in Knife Fighting to 2, but that would cost an additional 2 Skill Points, which he does not currently have.

Example B: Bella’s IQ gives her 17 Skill Points to spend, which may be chose from all available skills. She takes Martial Arts (1 pt.), Basic Telepathy (3 pts.) at level 2 (+6 more pts.), Mental Blow (3 pts.), Mind Shield (3 pts.), and Environmental Survival: Desert (1 pt.). To advance her Basic Telepathy an additional level and unlock Sleep would cost another 12 Skill Points, but all her points are spent.

Knighthood – 1 pt.

The character must make a level 3 Charisma Saving Roll to receive the title. Until then, they are a squire—a knight in training apprenticed to another knight. You may attempt the Saving Roll once before play if you invest the skill point when creating your character. If you fail, you may attempt it again when you have downtime to present yourself before your lord after an adventure. Add 1 point to your Saving Roll for each major knightly deed you have accomplished that brings renown to your lord.

Once you earn the title, you may be addressed as “Sir”, “Dame”, or an appropriate honorific of your culture. You also add 2 to your Charisma, permanently. Knights are expected to fulfill duties to their liege lord .

Lordship – 2 pts. (Requires Knighthood)

The character must make a level 6 Saving Roll on the average of Charisma and Intelligence to receive this title. You may attempt the Saving Roll once before play if you invest the skill points when creating your character. If you fail, you may attempt it again when you have downtime to present yourself before your sovereign after an adventure. Add 1 point to your Saving Roll for each major lordly deed you have accomplished that brings renown to your sovereign.

Once you earn the title, you may be addressed as “Lord”, “Lady”, or an appropriate honorific of your culture. You also gain the power to nominate subjects of the realm for Knighthood. Lords are expected to fulfill duties to their sovereign when called.

Psionics

I have tinkered with the MSPE psionics rules to integrate material from GURPS Basic Set, 3rd edition as appropriate to the setting, and my tinkerings are covered in detail here.

Each psionic skill costs 3 skill points and may be latent or mastered. To check for mastery, make a Level 2 Saving Roll for each skill, combining your IQ with your level in the chosen skill.

Latent skill: The GM uses the skill erratically as though it were controlled by an distracted and unreliable, but otherwise benevolent NPC. Such powers may manifest in stressful situations (with a Saving Roll) or otherwise, at the GM’s whim. If you spend significant downtime training under a master of a given discipline, you may check for mastery again at the end of your training regime, taking a +1 bonus for each fortnight of unbroken, focused practice in a single skill.

Example B: Bella must attempt Saving Rolls for mastery of Basic Telepathy 2, Mental Blow, and Mind Shield. Her first roll gives her a 5 + 2. Adding her IQ and Basic Telepathy skill, the result is 26, which passes the Saving Roll. Her roll for Mental Blow comes up 1 + 3—an automatic failure. Her Mental Blow is yet untrained and manifests erratically. Her Saving Roll for Mind Shield produces a 6 + 3—the result is 27, meaning her Mind Shield is fully under her power.

Decide Personal Details

Your character’s Age, Sex, Gender, Nation, Height, and Weight are all up to you, within reasonable human limits.

Example A: Paulo (he/him) is the 15-year-old scion of House Atreidus, a minor noble family in the galaxy’s Outer Rim that rules over the planet and nation of Cowabung. His dark Ducal robes conceal a portly frame of 5′10″ (and still growing), at 200#.

Example B: Bella (she/her) is a 33-year-old votary of the Interstellar Vestal Order. She is 5′4″ and 135#.

Gear

You may begin play with the tools of your trade, including any and all equipment implied by your skills. If in doubt, ask the GM. Rare or exceptional equipment may require a Saving Roll on LCK to acquire, and you may have to settle for second-hand or jury-rigged gear in questionable condition.

Unlockable: Boomer (cybernetic organism)

If the average of all seven attributes is less than 12, you may choose to play a recommissioned Boomer instead of a human. Boomers are cyborgs designed to appear human, that have been discontinued and outlawed in the galaxy. To convert your character to a Boomer, make a Level 1 Saving Roll for each attribute; this represents the various stress tests that Boomers must pass in manufacturing. If the Saving Roll fails, your engineers detected and patched a manufacturing flaw: Add the highest number showing on the dice for your Saving Roll to that attribute. Then, pick your chassis:

• C-Class: Choose one of the following attributes and double it: CON, DEX, SPD, or STR. Choose another and multiply it by 1.5. Combat skills cost you half the usual number of Skill Points/Adventure Points, and all other skills cost double. C-Class Boomers typically have alloy endoskeletons capable of mounting new weapons systems.
• I-Class: Choose one of the following attributes and double it: CHA or IQ. Multiply the other by 1.5. Social and performance skills cost you half the usual number of Skill Points/Adventure Points, and all other skills cost double.
• M-Class: Triple your IQ. Theory, information, and calculation skills cost you half the usual number of Skill Points/Adventure Points, and all other skills cost double.

Boomers lack organic minds required to practice psionic disciplines. As you gain Adventure Points, it costs half the number of AP to advance the attribute that you doubled or tripled when picking your Boomer model.

If a Boomer suffers damage equal to half their CON or greater, they are disfigured in a way that makes their inhuman status obvious. If a Boomer suffers damage equal to triple their CON, their fusion cell is breached, causing a devastating explosion that deals a damage potential of 12d6. Anyone within a radius equal to the Boomers IQ in yards must make a Luck Saving Roll vs. the damage potential or suffer damage equal to the amount they missed by. In this case, the Boomer’s frame is melted and their internal data crystal is destroyed.

If a Boomer is damaged beyond repair without having their fusion cell breached, their internal data crystal can be recovered and transferred to another Boomer frame, including their CHA, IQ, LCK, and all their skills and memories.

Example C – Otis VIII Centennial

Original rolls: CHA 6, CON 12, DEX 17, INT 6, LCK 8, SPD 11, STR 13

After stress tests: CHA 11, CON 12, DEX 17, INT 12, LCK 14, SPD 11, STR 19

Otis will be an excellent C-Class Boomer. They double their CON to 24 and multiply their STR by 1.5, making it 29.

That gives Otis +24 Hand-to-Hand Combat Adds (5 from Dexterity, 2 from Luck, and 17 from Strength); and +2 Missile Weapon Combat Adds.

Otis gets 12 Skill Points, which might as well go mostly to combat-related skills, since their cost is halved. Let’s start with Martial Arts—6½ pts. are enough to propel them to a skill level of 4. That leaves enough points for Archery (½ pt.), Knife Fighting (½ pt.), Fencing (½ pt.), Plasma Pistol (½ pt.), Plasma Rifle (½ pt.), Combat Shooting (½ pt.), Underwater Combat (½ pt.), and Speeder Bike (2 pts. doubled).

Otis was decommissioned over a century ago and their previous internal data crystal was partially corrupted, leaving them with no memory of their previous commission. They now appear to be a 37-year-old human male bodybuilder, with scars and hints of grey in their stubble. They are 5′11½″, weighting 368#.

Go back to Reliquary Space index.

Psychic Space Opera in the Wreckage of a Dead Alien Galaxy

By fits and starts, humans finally developed hyperlight travel and took to the stars. But everywhere they went, they found only vast emptiness. They established colonies on other worlds. Then they found the remains: Primordial ruins left by impossibly ancient alien civilizations, scars in the crust of planets like our own. Hulking derelict space vessels floating silently, their life support systems disabled in ancient eons, their crews reduced to films of lifeless carbon residue.

Despite their loneliness amid the stars, humans forged a sprawling and fractious galactic empire. Novel arts and sciences sprang into being, while disconnected colonies lapsed into varieties of barbarism. Fleets of star ships enforced factional interests in crucial trade corridors, and the houses of baroque imperial power played long strategic games of intrigue for dominance.

Scattered across the galaxy, a generation of espers was born. The noble houses seek these gifted ones to train them and use them as weapons against each other.

You are the crew of a small vessel: a mercenary, a spy, an esper, a titled noble, a scientist, a robot, a rogue, or some other pawn in a bleak and byzantine space opera. But even a pawn may become a queen when it reaches the other side.

Touchstones

• Dune as if drawn by Mœbius
• Alien and H.R. Giger art
• Caprica
• Blade Runner
• Bubblegum Crisis
• Lovecraft
• Akira
• The Empire Strikes Back
• Weird Tales

System: Mercenaries Spies & Private Eyes, 2019 Combined Edition; with supplemental psionics rules adapted from GURPS Basic Set, 3rd edition.

MSPE is a fast and flexible game in the Tunnels & Trolls family. But unlike T&T, there are no classes and character competence is based on the skills you choose to advance.

• Quick Character Creation
• Psionics