Penumbra: A Rules System for the Cadaverous Earth

[Rose-of-Vellum]

You found a great picture there and did really good work with the lettering and the photoshopping!

Thanks! I should clarify that the original artist is Baezann (see deviant art). I edited the color scheme, applied some filters, and did the lettering. I definitely don't expect players to have pictures for their PCs, but the picture was what inspired the concept, so I went with it. Glad you like it.

Very specific and tailor-made items there; very close to at least my understanding of Steerpike's original plans for CE. I recall he had us write up our own tailor-made names and effects for ordinary spells, re-skinning them for flavour purposes. Well done.

Likewise glad you approve. PC's, and their gear, should definitely be tailored and specific. Granted, players don't need to list their PC's actual clothing as I did; they could just post clothing and leave out the parenthetical information (provided they offer some description elsewhere as to the general look of the PC). But the eldritch oddities and theurgic devices should be specifically spelled out. Same with 'spells' -which I will try and illustrate with the next sample PC.

Thanks for posting up Bartleby!

Hopefully it, and the forthcoming analysis, will be helpful.

Your knowledge of CE is pretty impressive.

When the spread is so delectable, one does not merely nimble -one gorges. :)

[Rose-of-Vellum]

Update: I added a new section (at the beginning of page two) detailing Lifestyle. Rather than charting petty purchases, one selects and pays for a certain bracket, or cost of living, in one lump, monthly sum.

Bartleby: A step-by-step explanation of character creation using Penumbra

Beyond knowing that I was going to create a sample warrior, I started with a basic concept, in this case inspired by a picture. I then created the backstory, personality, and appearance. After that, I looked at the mechanics.

Obviously, Bartleby is human, so I looked up human racial traits. I then decided he was a warrior. I could have made him a rogue based upon his background, but I thought warrior was the better fit (plus, Superbright advised that I do rogue last). Looking over the already posted foci, mechanical augmentation seemed the most appropriate. Also, I wanted to show how grafts can be incorporated into a PC's stats. For disposition, I selected Graceful, based upon its abilities and how they meshed with the PC's time as a circus performer and his developed persona. For lifestyle, I selected affluent (even if he'd love to have a lavish lifestyle, his income just doesn't support it).

So after looking up all the relevant rules/options, I assembled the character 'sheet'. Here's a line-by-line blow:

Graceful male human warrior 1 (mechanical augmentation)

Although I covered the reasons for the various components, this first line gives a brief, but detailed, explanation of a PC.

XP: 3; Benefits Gained: skill (combat maneuver)

This line tracks XP gained and spent. Only XP gained, but not spent is listed in the first part. The second lists what XP has been spent on the character's current tier towards advancement. Bartleby may or may not have spent XP to reroll bad rolls, but this is not recorded here (but would be deleted from the XP pool). Once a character spends XP on all four categories of advancement (skills, stats, edge, grit), they advance a tier. Until then, the player lists what advancement categories have been selected -but there's no need to specifically state which stats, skills, edge, etc. were improved (although that is good to tell the GM when you do so).  

Grit: 2

For most characters, your Grit level equals your tier. However, Bartleby is a human, and humans have the Pluck racial trait, which adds one to their Grit level. Remember, your Grit level caps the amount of Grit you can spend on any one action.

Pools (Edge): Might 16 (1), Agility 17 (1), Intellect 7; Damage Track: Hale

As a warrior, Bartleby started with 11 Might, 10 Agility, and 7 Intellect. His focus added +3 Might & Agility; his Disposition added +2 Agility, leaving him with 14, 15, 7. He then had 4 points to distribute how I wished, so I added 2 to both Might and Agility, giving him his present scores. Conceptually, these bonuses are due to natural dexterity, his training as a circus performer and prizefighter, and his mechanical augmentations.
The Edge for each Pool, as delineated by his archetype, is listed in parenthesis right beside each stat. Damage Track lists where is on that scale (i.e., Hale, Impaired, Debilitated -and would also list any special damage, like being diseased, poisoned, etc.).
Normal damage/point loss from pools would be marked like so:
Might 8/16 (1), Agility 17 (1), Intellect 5/7

Defenses: Agility (mastery without armor); AC: 1

Special defenses would be listed here, such as gravespawn mastery on defense rolls vs disease & poison. List the type of defense roll (and the degree -i.e., expertise or mastery- in parenthesis). AC goes after. If the AC comes from armor, list the category of armor (i.e., light, medium, heavy). Bartleby doesn't wear armor, as his comes from his mechanical grafts, courtesy of one of his first-tier focus ability. For a character that wears armor and has an Agility reduction and Might cost/hour, please note that in 2 following tags, like so:
AC: 2 (medium); Might Cost: 2; Agility Penalty: 3

Note, I could have donned Bartleby in armor, even light armor at no cost to his Might or Reduction due to his warrior ability, but I  decided that didn't fit the concept of a pugilistic fop, so I went with no armor and picked up the combat maneuver that gives him expertise with Agility defense rolls -which coupled with a similar bonus from the Graceful focus, gives him mastery in Agility defense rolls.

Recovery Rolls: 1d6+1; Rolls Left: 4

Note your recover roll amount (typically 1d6+your tier, but some traits increase this). Then list your rolls left for that day.

Languages: Hextongue, Shambles

As a human, he began play with Shambles, plus one other language. Being that he is from Moroi, Hextongue was the most logical choice.

For the Clockwork Abattoir game, picking up Hellspeak is a smart move.

Lifestyle: affluent

Subtracted from starting wealth, as explained at the beginning of page two. Had Bartleby not had the 100 obeloi, he would have had to select Decent instead of Affluent -conceptually this could have been interpreted as him having just lost his manor's deed in a bad gambling match, or have it repossessed by his landlord after he squandered his monies on drugs, drink, and slatterns. If this was the case, I as a player would likely strive to earn enough to 'restore' his lifestyle 'back' to affluent.

Senses: sight-based perception (expertise)

Humans start out with expertise in 1 skill of their choice. I contemplated choosing lockpicking due to Bartleby's past stint as an escapologist. However, due to his gearborg neck that can spin 360 degrees, and his telescopic prosthetic eye, I thought the perception was the better choice -especially since it allowed me to list something on the Senses line -which is where darkvision, bloodscent, etc., would go.
Conceptually, I reasoned he lacks expertise in lockpicking because he hasn't actively practiced or performed in years -he's rusty, and frankly most of his act was due to his ability to use his feet to untie himself rather than the complexity of the bindings. But if he started practicing again, I would advance his lockpicking skill as soon as I could (i.e., next tier).

Skills: balancing (mastery), careful movements (expertise), physical performing arts (expertise)

Non-sensory, attack, and defense skills go here.

Weapons:

List your weapons, then parenthetically note what category each weapon belongs to (e.g., light natural, heavy ranged, medium bladed). If you have expertise or mastery in a certain category, mark it like above weapons like so:

Attacks: heavy bladed (mastery), light bashing (expertise)

Combat Maneuvers:

List them here, reducing extraneous information and tailoring it to the character (e.g., switching pronouns). Same for rogue tricks and theurge esoteries.

Flaws:

List flaws, whether they are from a PC's race, focus, or disposition. Based upon his background, I added an extra flaw/weakness to Bartleby: his addiction to lyssa. In some cases, PCs who create additional flaws might be granted compensatory skills/items if the GM so desires. I didn't do this in this case, but if I did, I would likely grant the PC an extra skill -namely expertise in lockpicking.

Items:

First, list eldritch oddities -namely those objects, that despite an arcane nature, are more permanent and/or unable to be used directly in combat. Each character starts out with one. Some start with multiple ones due to their disposition and/or focus. Make them specific and personal. Generally, it's not just a weird trinket, but something of sentimental value to the PC. Feel free to ask the GM for help, but definitely get the GM's approval before finalizing your oddities.

Next, list your theurgic devices. Same as with the oddities, except that these devices are temporary (limited use, consumable, etc.), and can have in-combat use (whether defensive, offensive, or utilitarian nature).

Third, list mundane possessions. Generally, list weapons (ammo) and armor first, then other gear, followed by coinage. Within those broad divisions, you can go nuts and alphabetize. Or not.

[Steerpike]

Extremely helpful.  I should definitely be able to build my character properly now.  She's coming along nicely.

[Rhamnousia]

Is there a reason why warriors start with 50 coins (the Numenera default is 5), while theurges and rogues only get 4 and 8, respectively? Or is it just an oversight?

[Rose-of-Vellum]

Typographical error, Superbright. It should read 40 and 80 respectively for theurges and rogues. Thanks for catching that; I've fixed it accordingly.

[Steerpike]

To be clear, when you take a Focus you gain its 1st tier abilities *in addition* to the manuevers of your Archteype, right?

As new characters, do we start with 0 XP and leave our "Benefits Gained" blank?

[Seraph]

To be clear, when you take a Focus you gain its 1st teir abilities *in addition* to the manuevers of your Archteype, right?

As new characters, do we start with 0 XP and leave our "Benefits Gained" blank?

Seconded.  Also, you mentioned that you spend XP to gain benefits, and when you've gotten all 4 benefits, you are considered to go up a tier.  Is it possible to spend points to, say, get 2 skills in a row, or 2 manuevers before filling the rest of the requirements for going up a tier?  Would there be any mechanical benefit to doing so?

[Rose-of-Vellum]

1. Yes, abilities from archetype and focus stack, rather than replace.

2. Yep, let's start with 0 XP, and leave the Benefits Gained blank.

3. See the section on XP and Advancement. You can purchase them in any order, but you must purchase one of each kind of benefit (after which you advance to the next tier) before you can purchase the same benefit again (i.e., stats, edge, grit, skill/trick/maneuver/esotery). So no, you cannot advance 2 skills back-to-back (...although technically you could advance skills back-to-back, but only if skill was you last benefit of one tier and the first benefit purchased in the next tier).

[Rhamnousia]

Not to rush you, but how long until we get an item list?

[Seraph]

Not to rush you, but how long until we get an item list?

Yeah, and without any guidelines on how much things cost, I don't know how much equipment is reasonable.

[Rose-of-Vellum]

There's no set eldritch item list. Instead, I would rather players pitch their own item ideas (or I can help if desired). For your theurgic devices, they should be level 1 effects. This means, among other things, that they should be around the same power-level of tier-1 esoteries/tricks and do about 2 points of damage. They also should be one-shot items.

So, things like:

A syringe of Waxborn-infused effluvium that allows you to temporarily, say 1 minute, change your physical appearance (think Polyjuice potion, save you need to concentrate to maintain a certain form, otherwise your features drip and ripple, pulled by the current of you wandering stream-of-consciousness).

A flesh-hex that causes a minor tenebral to erupt from your pores, temporarily granting you expertise in stealth-related tasks in shadowy or dark surrounding for one hour.

A ganglion-splattered flute harvested from a Cultivar ruin. When played, it causes a single creature's skin to grow a cluster of subdermal teeth that attempt to cut through the flesh, dealing 2 points of damage, with a successful attack roll.

An owl-shaped mask that can transform into a swarm of miniature, mutated screech-owls that instantly fly and assail a foe of your choosing, before vaporizing into an icy, feather-filled wind. Their attack deals 2 points of damage for one round.

Stuff like that (also look at Bartleby for additional examples). If you have multiple devices, you can -if you wish to- cause an item to have multiple 'charges' (each charge counts as 'another' device for creation purposes). So, to use the example above, Lothar Mascerad is a tramp-bioengineer with a fetish for the Cultivar Technocracy. As a theurge, he starts out with 3 theurgic devices. His player decides to give him the above flute, which he calls the Areophone of Fangs, and decides that it can be played three times before the flute loses its ganglions lose their luster, rendering the flute an ordinary, if inert, musical instrument. Thus, the flute would count as 3 items.

As for reasonable equipment, look at the lifestyle rules. Pick one, pay for the first month with your monies and use that as a benchmark on what mundane items you can/should have. If something seems out of line, change it (or I'll chime in when I review your sheet). For example, Bartleby paid 100 obeloi for the Affluent lifestyle. Thus, giving him a gold-plated cigar-cutter seemed appropriate -but not if he had a Decent or poorer lifestyle.   

Does that make sense?

[Rhamnousia]

Why not just use the system in place for minor magical items? It seems like that'd be a major reason to choose Numenera in the first place.

[Rose-of-Vellum]

Not sure what you mean. Would you mind elaborating?

[Rhamnousia]

At the back of the Numenera book, there's a huge list of 100 potential cypher effects, essentially the same sort of one-shot, low-magic items it seems you're trying to emulate with your theurgic items. They're meant to be quasi-magical items as is, so fitting them into the new setting is just a matter of tweaking their fluff, which was vague to begin with. The items' levels are also randomly rolled (usually 1d6, 1d6+4 at the most) which adds an element of unpredictability.

They've also got a proper gear list, but it's extremely bare bones and I don't see anything wrong with just basing it off lifestyle rating.

[Rose-of-Vellum]

Unless people are really stuck for ideas, I'd prefer not to use a random item generator, but instead have players come up with items of their own imagination. If you want to lift an item and tweak it to fit the setting and character, that's cool.

Also, necromancy focus is up (not so important for Skein).