Industrial Incantations

[Seraph]

Industrial Incantations

[note] [/note]

[ic]An electric flavor lingers on the tongue, like the air in a thunderstorm.  The echo of a dozen workmen chanting an arcane syllable again and again with mechanical precision rings strangely in the air. "Chal!  Chal!  Chal!"  This sound blends with the rhythmic hammering of runic symbols into a band of steel, and the sounds and, as you continue forward, the syllable uttered by the next group "Toh!  Toh!  Toh!"  and the next "Sig!  Sig!  Sig!"  Each chant is linked to a single repetitive gesture; a spreading of the arms here, a circle there, in some cases pointing to the sky or the ground.  The briny tang of sweat whispers in your nose.
This is hard work.

Someone approaches the steel band.  The crowd parts with the reverence paid to a bride at her wedding.  All eyes watch this leather-smocked and face-shielded figure approach.  Never for a moment does the chanting pause.  The figure holds with outstretched arms a pair of tongs closed around a beaker of glowing liquid that seems to churn.  Arriving at the rim, the beaker hovers over the runic etching.  With careful motion, the figure pours the liquid into the channel where it seems to slosh--or does it vibrate?  Yes, it pulses on each utterance of the crowd.  With each syllable the it glows brighter, but vibrates less, until it appears smooth as glass. 

With a grunt, twenty located in a ring around the band all push with synchronized effort, to turn the ring around its center axis.  It shifts by precise degrees, laying befored the figure a new rune, and the process repeats until this one, like the other, is smooth like glass.  A man sways on the spot and collapses.  The foreman shouts out above the ritual.

"We need an andon!"

A pair of fresh-faced men arrive to carry their fallen comrade away.  Almost as soon as he has been removed another steps into his place and takes up his chant..[/ic]

Industrial Incantations is a fantasy Role-Playing game set in the continent of Anaxagora.  The powerful nations of Anaxagora are dominated by a class of greedy wizards who hire throngs of common folk to perform portions of spells again and again, never knowing more than a whisper of the power they call upon on a daily basis.  A group of Rebels, however, seeks to overthrow the mages, and put their magics in the hands of the people. 

Characters
Class:  This refers to your social caste.  There are the Ida (Working Class), Middle Class, and the Jin (Ruling class of Mages).  Each will grant you certain advantages and certain disadvantages.  Determines the basic starting skills available to you, wealth, and social status.
Race: Your ancestral or tribal heritage.  Interacts with your class to determine social standing.  Has some minor impact to your skills.
Skills:  Each character begins play with skills chosen from their Class list.  These determine a character's starting abilities.  Over the course of play, all skills are available to player characters to learn, and players and game masters are free to make up new skills as needed.    There are 16 skills, each with 2-3 Subskills.  Characters can specialize in certain sub-skills. 
Credit: Wealth.  Wealth at the beginning of play will depend quite a bit on your class. 

[Seraph]

Skills

Your skills are your abilities in the world.  Anytime you wish to perform an action with a chance of failure, you roll dice.  You will always roll 2 dice.  Which dice you roll depends on your aptitude in a particular skill.  There are five levels of player skill from "Novice" to "Maestro."   As your skill increases, both your maximum capacity, and your average result increase.  The use of 2 dice is meant to create a bell curve that creates a reasonable degree of stability in results. 

Skill Levels
Novice: 2d4; Average 5; Max 8
Initiate: 2d6; Average 7; Max 12
Professional: 2d8; Average 9; Max 16
Expert: 2d10; Average 11; Max 20
Maestro: 2d12; Average 13; Max 24

[note][/note]Skill List
Strength
•   Feat of Strength (Lifting, Pushing, Pulling)
•   Damage
•   Athleticism (Running, Jumping, Climbing)
Reflexes
•   Evasion (Dodging, Tumbling)
•   Balance
•   Flexibility (Contortion, Escape, etc)
Deception
•   Smooth Talk (Bluffing, Lying, Verbal evasions)
•   Misdirection (Sleight of Hand, Pick Pocketing, Distraction)
•   Stealth (Hiding, moving silently, being innocuous)
Performance
•   Acting (Oration, Playing a Character, Comedy)
•   Dancing (Social, Stage, Interpretive)
•   Music (Singing, Playing an Instrument, etc)
Persuasion
•   Negotiation (Haggling, Mediation, Sales, Diplomacy)
•   Intimidation (Threats, Bullying, Taunting)
•   Seduction (Arousal, Coaxing, Enticing)
Fortitude
•   Tolerance (Shrug off damage, Endure pain, resist effects of heat and cold, etc)
•   Stamina (pacing yourself, keeping up vigorous activity)
•   Immunity (resist illness, poison, etc.)
Arcana
•   Symbology
•   Incantations
•   Material Properties
Education
•   History
•   Language
•   Economics
Investigation
•   Questioning
•   Searching
•   Observation
Animal Handling
•   Riding & Driving
•   Care
•   Training
Empathy
•   Connection (Understanding, Relating, Comforting)
•   Sense Motive (Detect Lies, ulterior motives, & bullshit)
Medicine
•   First Aid (Bandage, Splint, Cauterize, etc)
•   Pharmacology (Administering medicines and cures)
•   Surgery (Removing bullets, Stitching wounds,etc)
Survival
•   Sense of Direction (Knowing where you are, avoid getting lost, etc.)
•   Shelter (Construction, location, etc)
•   Foraging (Finding food & potable water, avoiding hazards, etc)
Willpower
•   Resist (Intimidation, Temptation, a Sales Pitch)
•   Equilibrium (Keep Cool under Pressure)
•   Focus (Avoid Distractions, Concentration, Filtering, etc)
Melee
•   Attacking (Striking with a handheld weapon)
•   Defending (Blocking,Parrying, Footwork)
•   Maneuvers (Tripping, blinding, disarming, etc)
Ranged
•   Shooting (With a blaster, crossbow, etc)
•   Throwing (Knives, spears, rocks, etc)
•   Maneuvers (Cover fire, Pinning, etc)

[Seraph]

Mammon

"The City of Three Sisters"

An industrial metropolis in the Republic of Drachmar.  A coastal seaport and the mouth of a river delta with several major shipping harbors for imports/exports.  It is an incredibly stratified city, with the affluent East Side bearing no resemblance whatsoever to the dilapidated ramshackle tenement squares of the West Side.  The Culture of the city is one revolving around money and trade.  Everything and everyone is for sale here, and nothing is sacred except profit.

Shipping District: Located at the southern tip of the Island in the middle of the Delta, The shipping district is surrounded by docks on three sides, and is a maze of crates, barrels, and shipping containers, including some camps of drifters who've made a temporary home in the empty shipping containers while looking for day work on the docks.   In between the shipyards are miles of warehouses.

West Side Slums: Tenements, hovels, and prop houses are all crammed tightly together here in the only section of the city available to most of the inhabitants.  In between the tenements are makeshift houses, and alleys are a tangle of tents and bedding.  Detritus flows in the gutters and watch wagons patrol at frequent, if irregular intervals.  Several rival gangs and crime lords control various blocks of the slums as their own little kingdoms.  People often disappear, and it is an open secret that people are abducted for human trafficking.  Black Market opium and other painkillers are a major hub of the local economy.  Half of the slums are using.  About a third are hopelessly addicted.  Vermin and disease are omnipresent. 

•   What the Middle Class & Luxury districts are told about the West Side.  People are warned to avoid the Slums, which are associated with crime and disease.  Expect to be pickpocketed, panhandled to, and possibly assaulted.  Vagrants walk the streets getting high and don't want help.  They are a drain on the system, contributing nothing.  They will steal from you if they can.  Don't leave valuables unattended.   There are drug dealers all over the slums, bringing crime, they are the problem.  Police in the area are desperately undermanned.  We need more police to make this community safe. 
•   Prometheus: There are a network of safehouses, secret meeting places, and hideouts for a militant group of rebels known as "Prometheus."  Their purpose is to overthrow the Wizards and teach everyone how to use magic for the public good. They are known to stage attacks on factories, vandalize shops, stage violent protests, and bomb public buildings.  Some admire them, but the average citizen views them with distaste.

The Fishing Quarter: Just south of the Slums proper is the fishing quarter.  This is a shared port for both local and Corporate fishing enterprises.  There is an open air fish market, but a great deal of the daily catch is put on ice for shipment inland towards the Capital.  Tent cities of homeless and unemployed fishermen languish here awaiting short term contract work on a fishing boat.  The most desperate seek work upon the Hellcrab Boats.

[note=Luxor Boulevard][/note]Midtown: A patchwork of Government buildings, petty bourgeois merchants, the Old Marketplace, restaurants, brothels, theaters, and fairgrounds, complete with a racetrack where much of the rabble pile in on a semi-weekly basis to empty their savings betting on the brooms.  Interspersed are several abandoned shops and buildings left empty by those who failed to turn a profit. Several buildings have mounted advertising panels on their roof to rent out to other companies.  The buildings themselves are often converted into massive advertisements.  Home to City Hall the Sheriff, Courthouse, and a small Jail for holding suspects while they await trial or transfer to The Asylum.
•   The City Council: An assembly of 7 wizards who make decisions they deem to be in the interest of the city.  The interest of the city is typically whatever increases tourism, tax revenue, and profits for business.  It is an open secret that members of the city council have ties with several businesses operating within city limits. 

The Heights:  North of Midtown, with a view overlooking the city, this was once a low-income area, but it has been bought out by the Jin, renovated, and sold to upper class businessmen and wizards.  Most of the prior inhabitants have been forced into the Slums.  Some upscale theaters and retail establishments have opened up. 

Luxor Boulevard:  High-end shops, jewelers, luxury items, high fashion boutiques, antiquities, and art galleries line this spacious and extravagant boulevard overhung with flowering trees, dotted with abstract sculptures, and lined with parked carpets.  Flanking the boulevard are private communities of luxury homes.  There are no police here, but many shops hire private security.

Oleander Hills: Sprawling estates belonging to the very richest of the Jin.  Private, secluded, extravagant testaments to their wealth.  Every home here has a permanent staff of groundskeepers, housekeepers, cooks, and security.

Proxima: The manufacturing quarter at the city limits. 

[sparkletwist]

I like this. The whole "industrialized magic" feel has appealed to me for a while and this seems like a pretty good take on it.

A couple of nitpicky technical issues related to images:
- Please spoilerize large images
- Please remove the broken photobucket links from your sig

[Magnus Pym]

Very cool!

Did you create the art yourself? The pieces are looking great.

[LoA]

Very cool!

Did you create the art yourself? The pieces are looking great.

No he didn't. Or at least not the second picture in the Mammon section. I've had that one on one of my Pinterest boards for a long time.

Could you give examples of Character building? It would be cool to see how your system functions.