RAG uses the Wyrm System, popularized in Michael Wolf’s Warrior, Rogue & Mage, a lightweight engine that bases character attributes on archetypes of the genre. The system has been adapted, with tweaks to combat and expansion of the Talent mechanic to present a range of powers and abilities that set characters apart from normal people.

The document includes character creation, resolution and combat and a range of skills and powers that can provide for a full game experience, but are also easily expanded. Like WR&M, RAG is a free game released under a Creative Commons license. It is available for download at DriveThruRPG as a 36-page PDF.

Windu healed the combatants, and the second round began. Kina took charge and landed a couple shots, but Templar was ready and rolled with the punches, making his Physical Attack saves, and then returning fire. Kina seemed to be having trouble with the concept of turning aside blows, as her saves kept failing. Then Templar surged to the attack, taking initiative in the third round. After weathering the storm, Kina unleashed a furious frenzy of attacks, scoring three hits on four strikes, none of which Templar saved against!

Windu halted the combat and asked what the pair had learned. Both recognized the difference in their fighting styles — Kina’s raw chaotic ferocity and alacrity against Templar’s more studious use of fewer but more powerful strikes, very much in line with their Spheres. Pleased with how quickly the Initiates recognized such concepts, Windu offered praise, and then moved into an object lesson. Shedding his overrobe, he asked the Initiates if they could apply what they had learned so far: an open challenge!

The two young Immortals took up the challenge with gusto. Kina charged forward, with Templar just behind. But Kina was going for a fake-out. She pulled up and cast Flesh to Stone on the elder Immortal, who had suppressed his powerful (70%) anti-magic field. Windu closed his eyes and breathed once, resisting the spell. Then Templar flew through the air and let loose a flying kick, which Windu blocked easily.

Now it was Windu’s turn to demonstrate the might of an experienced Immortal. Suddenly between the Initiates, he leveled two attacks at each. Two titanic blows rocked the unprepared Templar, who failed both Physical Attack saves and flew backward under the assault. Then Windu rounded on Kina — and missed his first strike, rolling a 1 for an automatic failure. Kina’s diminutive stature allowed her to duck the punch! Windu corrected and struck again, landing a blow on her temple, but Kina’s hair moved of its own accord to soften the blow as she made her save.

Kina, undeterred by her earlier failure, cast Flesh to Stone once more, and this time Windu was unable to resist its effects. As Templar launched into the sky to gain some room to heal himself, Windu became a statue! The Initiates had no desire to pound on the elder Immortal’s stone form, and combat ended. Windu congratulated the young Immortals for their quick learning, but cautioned them that there would be foes they would be powerless against, and that they had only scratched the surface of their abilities. They could come to the Arena at any time to practice.

Now it was time to introduce the Initiates to their Home Planes. Windu led the way from the Arena, into the sky and across the planar boundary separating the first level of the city from the second. Here there were fewer visitors, and most of the entities were flying; there were still many angels about. Windu took the Initiates to an area where house-sized planar spheres floated above a bowl-like depression in the plateau. He told them the nature of Home Planes, informed them of the increased power of an Immortal inside his or her Home Plane, and cautioned them that death inside their Home Planes was total and final. With that, he left them to find their Homes, and I turned the game over to the players to describe their desires.

Kina’s desire was revealed as a massive, twisting roller coaster with multiple station stops, each station a building of some kind. Templar’s desire was a city by the ocean, in reality a massive library complex. Speaking later with Roland’s player, he described the dragon’s desire as an island of “blueberry barrens”, a geography peculiar to Maine, and Normandy-like fields and hedgerows. For their further learning and participation, the characters received an award of 2 Power, bringing their Permanent Power to 304.

Now that the players have been introduced to basic concepts and played with their abilities some, the campaign itself can begin. I will not be running the game in November because of NaNoWriMo, and I do not know if we will get another session in before then, so I have plenty of time to plan. Also, Kina’s player pointed out something I had misread — the Mystic Abilities Power costs three choices, so I needed to fix Windu’s sheet. That has been done and the correction appears in the previous post.

A dark-skinned man appeared to them, introducing himself as Windu and asking them who they were. The characters remembered their old identities, but felt these identities were incomplete and that new identities were more correct. As they introduced themselves, their forms solidified: Kina, the tiny Chaotic rainbow-haired proponent of Energy; Templar, the Neutral, sex-shifting, stark-clad servant of Thought; and Roland, the Lawful silvery draconic warrior of Matter. Windu explained their current situation, but admitted that he did not know why or for what these three had been chosen by the Hierarchs themselves. Using the power of the Panopticon, a planar observatory capable of scanning the realms of the multiverse from the very large (the sky overhead) to the very small (the quantum flickering below), Windu explained the basics of the multiverse and the Spheres to these newest Immortals. The Initiates quickly grasped the concepts, thanks to their memories and creativity from their former mortal existences. Pleased with their enthusiastic acceptance of their situation, Windu escorted the Initiates from the Panopticon and into the lowest levels of the city once known as Pandius, now identified with the same name as its plane: Celestia.

In the bright sunshine, they observed the vast expanses — especially the mountain stretching up to infinity, its terraces clad in infinite variety of structural aesthetics. Above them, they witnessed beings of many shapes flying without aid and thus learned of their own ability to escape the bonds of any gravity. Windu led the Initiates out of the Panopticon’s courtyard and into an avenue hundreds of feet wide. Some of the beings overhead were of a kind with others on the avenue: beautiful winged humanoid men and women. As the Immortals passed, those nearby on the ground bowed to them, rising only as the Immortals passed. Windu revealed these to be angels, servants of the Spheres of Energy, Matter, Time and Thought. He did not speak of the servants of Entropy called “fiends”, saving that for later. He did explain that Entropy was a necessary thing for the balance of the multiverse, but briefly mentioned that it had become imbalanced within itself.

Windu took the Initiates to another small plane set within Celestia, called the Arena. Here, he provided the Initiates with simple targets and objects with which to test their capabilities. The player characters gleefully dove into their ability to access magic, exploring various strategies. Kina unleashed force fields and prismatic walls. Templar teleported about, and Roland attempted to use his magic to escape one of the fields without much success. The session ended here, with the Initiates about to begin exploring actual combat, having been told that any damage suffered here would not linger. The players were awarded 2 Power Points for their successful entry into the realm of Immortality.

I want to thank my players (Jason Cabral as Roland, Ina van der Vegt as Kina and John Martin as Templar) for their enthusiasm and their knowledgeable play. We’re all eager to get to the next session, which will happen as soon as we can all get our schedules aligned.

As you can see, I’m tweaking things as I go along. I allowed Roland to alter his breath weapons in both function and form, Kina to perform minor tricks with her hair (nothing as useful as the Snap special power, though) and Templar to change sex from one instant to the next because I thought the ideas were cool. The concept of dedicated-use planes of small size contained within a larger plane that likewise had a dedicated purpose intrigued me. There are now many such “pocket” planes within Celestia, including many Home Planes for new and inexperienced Immortals. Windu himself is an Empyreal of Thought, but has been given the important task of training three Initiates at once — four, when the Time NPC is introduced.

To conclude, here are Windu’s character writeup and the stats for an Astral Deva, the most common of the angels. Note that I am using the optional rule that Immortals gain new special powers as they increase in rank.

Windu
Sphere: Thought
Alignment: Lawful
Rank: Empyreal (Level 22)
Power: 4000
Hit Dice: 36
Hit Points: 390
Anti-Magic: 70%
Armor Class: -20 (-8 natural, -12 Dex)
# Attacks: 4
Damage: 4d12+12 unarmed
Ability Scores: Strength 65, Dexterity 65, Constitution 50, Intelligence 70, Wisdom 60, Charisma 60
Saves: Spells 13, Physical Attacks 7, Mental Attacks 10, Power Attacks 9* (1/4 on successful save, else 1/2)
Special Powers: Enhanced Reflexes (+2 initiative), Extra Attack (+1), Improved Saving Throw (Power Attacks), Increased Damage (+1 die), Mystic Special Abilities (3d12 hand damage, Gentle Touch, Blankout, Mind Block vs. Immortal spells, Heal Self 22 HP, Awareness)

Astral Deva
Sphere: Any
Status: Exalted
Power Points: 100
Anti-Magic: 25%
Armor Class: 0
Hit Dice: 13 (* 10)
Hit Points: 65
Move: 120′ (40′), 180′ (60′) flying
Attacks: 1 weapon or 1 slam
Damage: 1d6+5 or 1d4
No. Appearing: 1 (1d4)
Save As: IM1
Morale: Special
Treasure Type: B
Intelligence: 1d6+15
Alignment: Lawful (Matter), Neutral (Time or Thought), Chaotic (Energy) (good behavior)
XP Value: 10,850 (1 PP)

Commonly known simply as “devas”, these entities are minor yet powerful servants of the Spheres of Energy, Matter, Time and Thought. Their primary function is to carry out tasks assigned them by Immortals, either when the Immortal is too busy (or disinclined) to perform the task or the Immortal’s full might is not required. Many are specifically tasked to travel the planar expanses and assist those in need, especially those being threatened by undead and fiends of all sorts.

Devas are enthusiastic combatants, unafraid to challenge their foes up close. Each deva weilds a special mace +5 constructed of silvery metal with gold flecks. In combat their primary goal will be to assist in the escape of those in need, but they will not hesitate to assist in the destruction of their foes if the battle is going well. They will make use of Power Attack only on rare occasions, as their own Power is limited and often dedicated to gaining access to magic-user or cleric spells.

Astral devas appear as winged humanoid figures of strength, grace and beauty, clad in boots, a kilt wrap and a sleeveless tunic. A deva’s special powers are Call Other (Initiate level), Turn Undead, Enhanced Reflexes and Summon Weapons. They receive 1d4+20 for Strength, 1d6+15 for Intelligence, Wisdom, Constitution and Dexterity and 1d4+18 for Charisma.

Ultroloth
Sphere: Entropy
Status: Exalted
Power Points: 200
Anti-Magic: 25%
Armor Class: 0
Hit Dice: 19 (* 10)
Hit Points: 95
Move: 90′ (30′), 120′ (40′) flying
Attacks: Longsword / spells
Damage: 1d8+5 / by spell
No. Appearing: 1 (1d2)
Save As: IM1
Morale: Special
Treasure Type: V
Intelligence: 1d6+20
Alignment: Neutral (evil behavior)
XP Value: 20,375 (2 PP)

Ultroloths are the officers of yugoloth armies. They are fiercely competitive, manipulative and cruel. They prefer to avoid direct conflict if they can avoid it, leaving hard and dirty work for their troops and minions. If cornered or forced to fight, or in assaults while commanding troops or minions, they prefer to rely on magic (especially spells to help them control the battlefield) and Power Attack. They will immediately use Probe on any strangers who appear to be a credible threat.

Ultroloths appear as robed humanoids with elongated, featureless heads and two large glowing, swirling eyes. Each ultroloth possesses a special long sword +5 constructed of black metal with veins of dark red. An ultroloth’s Powers are Call Other (Initiate level), Control Undead, Enhanced Reflexes and Summon Weapons. Ultroloths get 1d6+20 for Intelligence, Wisdom, Dexterity and Charisma, and 1d6+10 for Strength and Constitution.

On top of that, I couldn’t stand the Factions. None of them appealed to me in the slightest way, as they were all built around the setting’s framework, and the setting’s framework was forced to mold around AD&D in large part, distorting what could have been interesting philosophical concepts. Since Factionalism seemed to be important to the setting, that meant I wasn’t interested in a key part of what made Planescape what it was, and that hampered my ability to use it.

Recently, however, I started approaching the Great Wheel as a toybox for my Immortals game. Using the Classic D&D cosmology as a base meant that I had an easy tool for yanking out the portions of the Great Wheel that I did like. The power level of the PCs meant that I could gleefully approach the more esoteric and dangerous Outer Planar (in the AD&D sense) layers as source material for Outer Planes of their own (in the classic D&D sense).

I also inadvertently tripped over a wonderful idea for background information to help me shape the campaign. The goals of the Spheres of Power make a lot more sense to me and interest me much more than the anything the Factions believe or have to say. They are at least partly elemental, and elementalism has always fascinated me as a concept. The setup of the Spheres also provides not only built-in tensions, but also a reason for godlike beings to work together and interact outside of direct conflict. However, entities belonging to the same Sphere can regard each other with as much antipathy as, or even more than, entities of opposed Spheres. This brings me to my point.

The Sphere of Entropy is opposed to all the others (Matter, Energy, Time and Thought). While its members are part of the Immortal society and will work with members of other Spheres, they are working on goals antithetical to every other Immortal (and the society as a whole). While this makes them obvious villains and scapegoats for anything going wrong, it does not mean they are a happy family of cackling fiends, liars and jerks who will always back each other up. Every servant of Entropy must, almost by definition, have different views of how to achieve the Sphere’s goals, and when those views conflict, violence of all kinds will happen.

Enter the Blood War. In the Great Wheel, evil fights evil as Law and Chaos clash over philosophical differences, and immortal beings slay each other by the uncounted thousands. Entire planes ring with battle as evil turns on itself. Demons battle devils (and each other) while the yugoloths cheerfully encourage the process, selling their services to the highest bidder while advancing their own schemes.

In the classic D&D cosmology, the only fiends presented are demons — specifically adaptations of the Chaotic Evil entities from the Abyss in the Great Wheel cosmology. They are all Chaotic in alignment, even though Entropy does not favor any given alignment. The fiends (demons, in the gold box) are said to be former servants of Entropy given an unending existence. They are true Immortals in the gold box, but became Exalted creatures in Wrath of the Immortals. Thus, they are made by design by powerful Immortals of Entropy.

Remember what I said about Immortals not agreeing on how to achieve Sphere goals? Why should all fiends be Chaotic, then? Why are there no Lawful or Neutral fiends, all equally evil but differing in how to implement that evil? That’s when it hit me — there’s no reason. Why not convert devils and yugoloths, make them servants of Immortals of Entropy with different methodologies, and unleash them on each other as well as the other Spheres?

Thus, I imported the Blood War. The story runs like this:

Entropy, by its very nature, tends to disorganization. Not Chaos, which in the cosmological sense also encourages creativity, but breakdown. Things fall apart. Perhaps at one time Entropy was unified, but for ages untold it has worked at cross-purposes with itself as well as the other Spheres.

No one remembers exactly when it happened, but agents of Entropy, driven by their fundamental differences, splintered the Sphere into three different camps. Each camp, using the titans and angels as a model, created its own nigh-Immortal servants. Thus were the Exalted beings called demons, devils and yugoloths formed. These creatures of Entropy are children of their creators’ desires, thoughts and fears, and will fall upon each other as readily as they will agents of other Spheres.

In time the skirmishes became an unending cycle of war and revenge as each impulse strives for mastery within the Sphere of Entropy. This conflict, which rages across the infinite planes, has become known as the Blood War.

Because of the attrition factors of the Blood War, Entropy has been ravenous for mortal servants to replace the lost numbers. The Sphere regularly breaks the accords preventing interference with the Prime (aka Prime Material) Plane. Agents of all three impulses, as well as Immortals themselves, seek to seduce mortals to Entropy’s service, encouraging them to desire it so that they may enter the Sphere willingly. Those who succumb are often made into more demons, yugoloths and devils. These agents are fed back into the War, and the cycle continues, feeding upon itself.

Naturally the other Spheres are unhappy about this, but because Entropy has effectively become three Spheres unto itself, it is unlikely that a crusade against it would cause anything but an apocalypse, and because Entropy is a regrettably necessary component of the cosmos, even if such a crusade were successful the end result would be disaster. All that can be done is to try to mitigate the effects and hope that in time Entropy will fall in upon itself. Thus, the agents of Energy, Matter, Time and Thought watch, wait and act when they can. Meanwhile, the Blood War continues.

I find this to be a compelling backdrop. It gives plot hooks for stories and background hooks for characters that would otherwise be focused mostly on the Prime Plane, even though they aren’t supposed to interfere there. It offers seeds for plots and projects that likewise do not have to be focused on the Prime. I think my players will enjoy it; I know I’m enjoying it already.

Warrior, Rogue & Mage

Written by my friend Michael Wolf, edited by yours truly. I haven’t gotten a chance to actually play it yet, and I really want to know how it works in practice as well as theory. Considering I’m writing a Wyrm System game, I think the experience will be valuable.

Rogue Trader

The most freedom you’re going to get as a human in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. Characters are more powerful than in the sister game Dark Heresy, though not quite as powerful as the Space Marines of Deathwatch, and it uses the same base rules. Someone will eventually produce a playable-Eldar hack, so I’d like to be familiar with the system when that happens, as I am an Eldar fan.

ICONS

Light, fast supers gaming. This one impressed the hell out of me when it first hit, but I still haven’t gotten to do anything with it. I like how this game makes use of aspects, which I don’t usually care for, and the character creation is quite flexible while remaining dead simple.

Fiasco

This would probably require me finding people experienced with the game itself. I’ve read through it and I think I understand it, but reading and playing are not always the same thing. I like the idea of a game focused on a particular type of story (things going to hell in a handbasket among a particular group of characters) while still being adaptable to all different kinds of genres. The Playset idea is a masterpiece.

BECMI or Rules Cyclopedia D&D

That’s right, D&D where Dwarf and Elf are classes and there are only three alignments! I recently received a copy of the RC for my birthday to replace the one I lost six years ago, and I’m jonesing to put it to use. The Immortals game I’m going to run will use the RC as a reference, but Immortals are so different from anything else in the system it doesn’t really count as RC D&D; plus, I’ll be running that, and I want to play!

Honorable Mentions

Still want to play the Decipher Lord of the Rings. I’ve only ever gotten to play Legacy: War of Ages once, and as I’m a fan of mixing Highlander with WoD-ish things I’d love to do it again. Finally, I like the world of Maelstrom Storytelling a lot; with a good GM, or using the Everway system instead of its native mechanics, I think it’d be a good place to play.

Resolute, Adventurer and Genius is ready for playtesting. It’s up to me to come up with some kind of adventure to put it through its paces, and plotted adventures have never really been my strong suit, so that might take a while. The text isn’t done; I still need to come up with a bunch of iconic characters and finish the location-based setting idea sections, and we need to decide on character advancement as well before we can go to layout. I had wanted to get RAG out by the end of September; now I am aiming for the end of October. If we go over that, it’ll be at least December, because November is entirely dedicated to NaNoWriMo for me.

I’ve got two players for my Immortals game, and that’s probably where I’ll keep it, though I may add an NPC of matching level to boost their capability a bit (and perhaps play with the Sphere of Entropy as well). Taking a bit of a cue from the module “The Immortal Storm”, I’m going to have the artifact the PCs are chasing be broken into multiple parts scattered throughout the various planes that I’ll be adapting from the Great Wheel.

The players will be playing Immortal versions of themselves, to simplify the whole process. Both players were balking a bit at the thought of character creation, despite the fact that I’ll be starting them with ability scores of 20, and Hit Dice, Power and HP are fixed. Before we begin the actual campaign I’m going to run them through some training sessions at level 1 (beginning Initiates) so they can familiarize themselves with Immortal capabilities. Then I’ll bump them up to level 5 or 6 (nearing Temporal status) for the campaign itself, with some attendant increases. I’m getting excited by the thought that I’ll be one of the few people who can say, “I ran an Immortals game.”

Finally, I did some more work on Simfanad and actually got some monsters done (some ported from the inspirational material, some adapted from the old D&D Basic set). Now I just need to playtest it, and it will be ready for release! Deep down I had begun to think I would never finish it, and with my current obsession with the Wyrm System I hadn’t even thought about it in a long time. I’d like to adapt a classic D&D B-series module (probably B2, the famous Keep on the Borderlands) for it, but I’ll probably use one of the old LOR Adventure Game modules since I won’t have to convert any stats. I’m thinking about trying that some time this week, so that I can finally reach that goal after so long.

It began with a dream. I had found a new group to game with, and to my pleased surprise they were running a game of classic D&D’s Immortals — the godlike beings of the setting. While I was rolling dice for stats and trying to think up a general concept for my new character, they were finishing a combat from the previous session. In the first round of this combat, one of the players wiped out an entire city. I was astonished and delighted — but then I woke up.

I got the gold Immortals box set when it came out in the mid 1980s to complete my set of the Mentzer run. I never really understood it back then — I was 10 when it came out, and I sold it a few years later because I never thought I’d have a chance to play D&D ever again. Big mistake. I’ve been able to reread both the contents of the gold box and the Wrath of the Immortals rewrite that was released for the Rules Cyclopedia, and now I think I understand the concepts. Because of that dream, I’m feeling a desire to jump off the deep end and run an Immortals game.

I’m not very big on running games. I prefer to play; running is simply too much work. I’m better at focusing on a single character’s story. But, while I do also want to play in an Immortals game, I have an idea that I think will be entertaining to take other people through. It would be a simple “recover the stolen artifact” game, a bunch of Initiates nearing the end of their probationary period and ready to move up to Temporal rank. The twist is that while I would be using the classic D&D cosmology, where the Outer Planes are an infinite scattering of finite-sized planes (instead of the old Great Wheel of AD&D and D&D 3.x), the places I would be using in the plot would be adaptations of locations from the Great Wheel cosmology that I always thought were the most interesting. This means things like the bottom layers of Lower Planes — dark, evil, deadly places most PCs would never go. Immortals could do it and survive while still being challenged. So, what the heck, right?

I’d probably begin with an introductory session or two for all of us to get used to the ruleset and the vast capability of Immortal characters. The question that would remain would be: gold box, or Wrath box? The Wrath set simplifies concepts, especially by translating Frank Mentzer’s wild ideas about “Power combat” into simpler “Immortal-level spells” and ditching the concept of “Talent” clusters of ability scores… but the rock-paper-scissors guessing-game inherent in the gold box’s Power combat is somehow delicious. Gold box relies on the Mentzer Basic, Expert, Companion and Master sets for info and basic mechanics; Wrath of the Immortals comes off the Rules Cyclopedia, which is easier to reference. So there are pros and cons on each side. I’m leaning toward RC/Wrath for now, but man would I love to be able to say, “Gold box Immortals? Yeah, I ran that!” I’ve freeform-roleplayed characters of this power level before, so I have plenty of ideas of how it will look and feel. The most daunting thing will be learning to keep track of statistics like temporary Power points and what all can be done with them in the middle of combat.

Now I just need to find players…