Welcome aboard to all of our new backers who have joined as we're digging into our final week of the campaign. Two quick bits of campaign stuff to talk about before we get to today's sneak peek.
First up, for backers who have just joined in - please make your voice heard!
The final version of the Storypath Ultra Core Manual will have three example games - these will be settings with systems and rules in place to run right out of the book, but serve an even more important job as examples of how the rules can be used to build your own game and implement your own ideas. The Storypath Ultra Core Manual is a book full of lego bricks, and these three examples are just some of the cool ways to build your own cool structures.
The first of the included example settings, Pinfall from Grace, Body Slams from Hell, not only offers a complete game set in the parallel version of the year 2000, but also illustrates exactly how Story Path was implemented and adjusted. Onyx Path has plans to write two more, and as a backer you'll be able to vote on which ones you prefer.
For our Sci-Fi example, backers have chosen "An experimental space flight flings the player characters into a distant galaxy full of strange and alien sights."
For the final poll, you'll be voting on a Fantasy setting example. Your options:
A cozy fantasy game where explorers look for ingredients to help heal their sick dragon friend.
A war-torn world ripped apart by a devastating magic war, and a few surviving wizards try to prove who is the best among them.
A group of young heroes are blessed with magical armor and weapons in order to defeat an evil sorcerer queen seeking to destroy their land.
Voting will run until the Crowdfunding campaign ends on September 26th when the campaign concludes. You must be a backer of this project to vote for this setting.
I love to gather around the table with my gaming group and roll dice, but I find that we're mostly getting together online to play these days. The last Stretch Goal and next Stretch Goal are there to provide some tools to help a bit with online play. We've just unlocked one goal and are now ready to look at our final goal for the campaign.
ACHIEVED - At $45,000 in Funding – VTT TOKEN PACK - Digital assets will be created to support online play for Storypath Ultra games, including key character and creature tokens from the book. This online asset pack will be added to the rewards list of all backers.
At $52,000 in Funding – DISCORD DICE BOT - Onyx Path will work with an external developer to create and maintain a Discord Dice-Bot for Storypath Ultra.
We'll have a review or our Stretch Goal accomplishments and bonus rewards next Wednesday as we head into our final day.
Throughout the campaign, as we've shared sections of the manuscript, we've followed up with some examples of how bits from those chapters could be used as illustrated by our example setting, Pinfall from Grace. Our last chapter was all about Storyguiding these games, so today we're going to look at some Storyguide Characters from our example setting. These are just some excerpts, but you'll be able to read the entire Pinfall from Grace, Bodyslams from Hell chapter next Monday when the final chapter of the manuscript becomes available to backers.
Storyguide Characters
The Y2K World is a fascinating place full of adventure, intrigue, and mystery. But all in all, the whole concept of wrestling matches between angels and demons would fall flat if there weren’t any opponents to wrestle. Here we present a handful of antagonists to use in your games of Pinfall from Grace, Body Slams from Hell, and to inspire you to make your own using the antagonist advice.
Demonic Wrestlers
Demonic wrestlers use the same antagonist rules as in many other Storypath games. However, because of how they interact with the new rules presented in Pinfall from Grace, Body Slams from Hell, we’ll recap some things to keep in mind as you portray or create your own antagonists.
Demonic antagonists use the same templates as Storypath, but the templates have different names. “Worker” is equivalent to “Grunt,” “Talent” is equivalent to “Professional,” “Star” is equivalent to “Villain,” and “Lord” is equivalent to “Nemesis.”
Storyguide characters don’t have Grace or miracles — just Qualities and powers. If you want to give a character a miracle (to emulate a Storyguide character angelic wrestler or to provide an equivalent demonic ability), you can convert it into a power. Just use the rules for the miracle but note that it can only be used a certain number of times, such as once a scene or a few times a story.
During matches, antagonists can only use powers marked as “match only.” Qualities still work during matches, however. “Natural Weapon” does not incur the Foreign Object Complication when used in matches. Generally, match-only powers are used once a match.
Antagonists have a wrestling style like Wrestling Style Paths, to allow them to purchase relevant Moves. They can even have more than one wrestling style, unlike player characters (although typically only Stars and above have more than one style). However, antagonists don’t get Enhancement to purchase those Moves, although they can use their inherent Enhancement to purchase them as normal. If you want to make a demonic wrestler that’s closer to a player character wrestler in terms of Enhancement, give them one of the championship titles.
New Antagonist Powers
Below are some additional powers used by antagonists from Pinfall from Grace, Body Slams from Hell.
Demonic Defense (Match Only)
The antagonist can resist more damage than normal. Once per match, it may double its Defense for a number of turns equal to its Desperation Pool.
Drain (Match Only)
The antagonist steals the life of its foes. Once per match, the antagonist can purchase to the following Move:
Drain (1-3 hits): Deals 1 damage for each hit. Further, the antagonist gains a +1 Enhancement that stacks on the next action it takes against the character.
Slippery (Match Only)
The antagonist proves difficult to hold. Once per match, they can ignore the Establish Grapple or Educated Feet Moves.
Ricki the Rhymer
“When you face me, you count to three. When you fall, I’ll win it all. Only when you… oof! Hey! You hit my nose before the match goes!”
Ricki is one of the lowest orders of demons, the rhyming demons. This diminutive, green-skinned goblin of a wrestler can’t help but speak in rhyming poetic meter. Combined with its propensity to wearing gold and shiny jewels, it is sometimes mistaken for appropriating modern hip-hop culture, but in truth it’s simply a speed demon with delusions of adequacy and only the faintest idea of what’s going on, let alone understanding human society.
“Ffffloat like a butterffffly? Hardly. I ffffly directly into your nightmares, toady to angels.”
The Queen Bee looks like a bee twisted into humanoid form. It has muscular limbs, but a bulging abdomen and a stinger at the end which it uses in the ring. It likes to toy with its opponents, wearing them out through a variety of technical moves and draining stings before ending the match.
“You cannot stop me. You cannot even touch me. I am the obstacle to all your hopes and dreams.”
The ravager of souls. The wrecker of dreams. The indigo assassin. This towering purple monster with ram’s horns and a black unitard has been called by many names, but the most important name of all is “Chaos champion.” It has held the Chaos Championship since the war started, and its implacable, tenacious style makes it unlikely that anyone will take the title from it anytime soon.
Template: Star Primary Pool: 10 (monster and brawling wrestling styles) Secondary Pool: 8 (resist pain, intimidation) Desperation Pool: 5 Enhancement: +2 on attacks with ram’s horns, +1 on intimidation Defense: 2 Integrity: 1 Injuries: 8 Armor: 2 Initiative: 5 Qualities: Invulnerability, Stable, Weakness (silver objects) Powers: Chaos Championship title, Demonic Defense (Match Only), Summon Ring
If you look at these excerpts and start to think about how you'd write up some of the different tier villains in your Thundarr the Barbarian-inspired game, then the examples are already working! These example settings will be about 30,000 words - brief but to the point, streamlined but playable - and serve as examples and inspiration as well as games in their own right.
And yes, I said Thundarr the Barbarian because I'm voting for Option 2, and that's my take on it!
