Skills for Classless D&D (Jorune: Evolutions)

I've been working on a classless OD&D inspired sci-fi game system I call Jorune: Evolutions. In my mind, sci-fi games cry out for a skill system, and Jorune's original ruleset had one. But given the rules-light chassis I'm working with, I thought the system had better be a simple system. Also, given how culturally specific and social the setting is, it felt right to me to include the idea of "contacts" as part of character generation, another design element from more modern or futuristic ttrpgs. It helps here that I already model contacts in fantasy games with my downtime activity of cultivating a relationship.

I tried to kill two birds with one stone here. The way I've chosen to model classless OD&D is to give the player 5 all-purpose points to spend during character creations to buy contacts, skills, and dyshas (spells) or anti-dyshas (if they're boccord). What would otherwise be class powers are simply folded into the system of skills so that you can pick and choose. 

Keep in mind that skills and contacts can be acquired through downtime activity and so, once again, nothing is set in stone here. The idea is to give players simple choices that will let them mix and match, and give them flavor. In this post, I present the packages, contacts, and skills. In the next post I'll talk about how the system handles weapon proficiencies and so combat. In later post, I'll talk about dyshas, which are their own can of worms.

Since not everyone is into “building” a character, I have provided seven pre-fab packages that can get you rolling right away. In some ways they mimic classes, and so are also intended to show you how to build a D&D style class in this system. If you want to tinker around the edges, you can take one of these packages as a base and switch out a skill for another skill or contact.

Remember, you can always ditch the packages and just spend your 5 points yourself, which, although a limited budget, is a lot of fun if you’re into that kind of thing. If you want to play a sword and planet Gray Mauser type, play a human, choose stealth, proficiency in sharp weapons, and one dysha, and you are ready to go.

Skill Levels

In a later post I'll explain how skill and stat checks work in detail. But the basic idea is: roll 2d6 with a difficulty modifier and a skill or stat modifier, and on a 7+ you succeed. Skills come in 4 levels:

Untrained	-1
Trained	+0
Skilled	+1
Master	+2

Note that some skills cannot be used at the untrained level (e.g. languages, or iscin skills). For those skills that can be used untrained, those at the trained level can use the skills to do things that someone untrained cannot do. For example, anyone can climb, but only someone trained or higher can climb a sheer rock wall with barely visible handholds. Anyone can use stealth to sneak up on someone, but only someone at the trained level or higher can try to sneak right under someone's nose.  

Purchased player skills begin at the level trained, except for starting languages, which are explained below.

The Packages

Translator

Given your facility with language, you opted to receive intensive training as a translator. Note that being proficient in a language comes knowledge of the species and cultures that speak it. You are as much a cultural go-between as a communicator.

• Choose 2 human languages (Porontho, Kiswahi, Indivee, or Frentran)
• Choose 2 iscin or post-human creole (Boru, Thowtis, Abahth, Chaunt-Se, Sakoq)
• Choose 1 alien languages (Triddith, Rorch-Ko, Cleash, or Thuvill)

Military

During your tauther training, you opted into the military track to receive more advanced training in the arts of war.

• Military Contact
• Melee Weapon Proficiency
• Missile Weapon Proficiency
• Armor Proficiency
• Choose Stealth or Survival (jungle or desert)

Githerin

You hit the streets of the capital at night to hook up with some old acquaintances who escaped village life to make easy money in the capital.

• Underworld Contact
• Stealth
• Climbing
• Sleight of Hand
• Weapon Proficiency: Close Weapons

Iscin

Your natural curiosity won you rare admission to the university for a quick course of study. Luckily, you took to it and made real progress.

• Porontho
• Identify Device
• Tinker
• Choose Natural Philosophy or Biology
• Choose History or Limilates

Scout

You received training as an advance scout, were taught how to ride a thombo, track an enemy, and survive in rough terrain.

• Riding (Land)
• Tracking
• Stealth
• Missile Weapon Proficiency
• Survival (Choose Jungle or Desert)

Connector

People interest you, and you interest them. You are at the hub of many scenes.

• Choose Storytelling or Culture
• Choose 4 Contacts

Seeker

You came to Ardoth with a spiritual hunger, looking for an awakening.

• Dysha (these cost 3 points each)
• Choose Spiritual Contact or Isho Contact
• Choose Crystals or Limilates or Religion

Contacts

You may use your points to purchase a contact at the cost of one contact per point. Aided by the lists below, you must decide what kind of contact it is. To name someone as a contact is to bring them into the game as a resource and active part of your character’s backstory. Contacts come in four levels (as outlined here): acquaintance, associates, friends, and intimates.

• If the contact you choose is someone without real power or social standing, the relationship tracker begins at the rank of friend. 
• If the contact is someone who wields some power, the relationship tracker begins at the rank of associate 
• If the contact is a significant persona, who wields real power, the tracker begins at the rank of acquaintance.

When choosing the contact, give the person a name and identity, and think of how you know them and what your bond is. Are they from your village? In your circle of friends? A distant relative? Your teacher? Did you do business with them? Are they your co-religionists?

Here are some ideas for types of contacts. I have selected them because each category is connected to elements of the setting that are likely to see play; they are all useful and fun contacts. But players are free to invent their own! 

Underworld

Smuggler, Limilate (drug) Dealer, Fence, Assassin, Gang Member, Rebel

Military

Captain, Lieutenant, Private, Scout, Veteran

Spiritual (More on these religions soon!)

Kerrel, Etton, Sanster, Iscin Preacher, Isho Faith Healer, Isho Cultist, Egg Cultist 

Isho

Copra (muadra master), Hishtin (boccord master), Caji (isho student)

Political

Scribe, Ambassador, Aide to a Member of the Burdoth Council, Dissident

Business

Banker, Merchant, Dealer or Collector in Devices or Ancient Artifacts, Klade Member

Iscin

Inventor, Biologist, Natural Philosopher, Historian

High Society

Kesht, Courtesan, Luxury Good Merchant

Skills

I have selected only those skills that will be useful in play and meaningful to the setting. You can assume you character knows how to do anything else that would make sense given their background and experience. These purchased skills begin at the level of trained.

Storytelling

The ability to spin a good yarn, to humor, captivate, and amaze. Those who possess this skill also carry, and know, a fragment of (extended) humanity’s memory in oral form. Since written history began in earnest only five centuries ago, the conflicting tales are the closest thing to ancient history that humanity has. This skill can be drawn on for (conlicting and ambiguous) information about the travelers and humanity’s early days on Jorune.  

Culture

Knowledge of the latest trends and fads in recreation and fashion among the kesht (aristocrats) and wealthy drenn, the modes of speech, the artforms currently in vogue, the etiquette necessary in order to avoid faux-pas in high society, the vacation spots, and so on. This knowledge is situational, but someone with this skill can easily pick up and adapt to local nuances.   

Religion

The knowledge of religious customs and practices. Those who possess this skill know something about the different belief systems, theologies, church hierarchies, and spiritual practices of diverse groups across Jorune. Since this game is set during the time of the Dream of the Egg, spiritual pursuits flourish.

Stealth

The ability to conceal oneself, move quietly, and just generally sneak around. Those who possess this skill add it to their stealth checks, and may make stealth checks in situations where an ordinary person would not be able to. Someone who attacks after successful stealth check surprises their foe granting extra segments of action and other benefits.

Climbing

The ability to climb sheer surfaces. Those who possess this skill add it to their climb checks, and may make checks in situations where an ordinary person would not have a prayer in climbing (i.e. a sheer wall).

Sleight of Hand

The ability to palm items, pick-pockets, surreptitiously poison a drink, perform magic tricks, and the like.

Disguise

The ability to fashion workable disguises. You may add this roll to attempts to fool people through disguises, and may also attempt disguises using makeup and the like that others would not be able to.

Identify Device

The ability to identify and generally figure out devices of the ancients. Think of this as a fallible “identify” spell for technological items. Note that not all devices of the ancient are proper Earth-Tec, usable only by humans. Thus, other races can learn this skill with benefit, although they will never have the thrill of firing an energy weapon or walking on the strange paths taken by the Circuit Men of Ardoth.

Tinker

This is the ability to repair and build contraptions and devices. It gives a bonus to attempts to jury rig a device (e.g. a catapult) in a tight spot, and also allows one to borrow parts from devices to create something new. It is used in the downtime action Invent.

Natural Philosophy (Mathematics, Physics, Astronomy)

Humanity’s knowledge of mathematics is quite advanced (roughly late 19^th century level), whereas physics is in a primitive state. Astronomy is a central iscin study, owing to the complexity of the system of seven moons, and the dramatic effects of lunar conjunctions. Such astronomy often bleeds into astrological speculation as well.

History (History + Archaeology)

This skill gives one knowledge of written history, as well as what has come to light through the limited study of ruins and ancient artifacts. Allows one to roughly identify, and perhaps glean some information about, a set of ruins or an antique cultural artifact.   

Biology (Botany + Zoology + Geology)

This skill gives one knowledge of the lifeforms and rock formations of Jorune. It can be drawn on to identify, speculate about, and derive information about the lifecycles and natural defenses of plants and animals, or the causes and features of geological formations. (It is no substitute for detailed knowledge of the effects of limilates or the powers of crystals, or for survival skills involved in finding a good campsite, but it can definitely come in handy.)

Healing

This is a primitive medical skill. It involves the knowledge of how to bandage and set bones, the use of some herbal remedies (within limits, it is no substitute for a real knowledge of limilates), identification and treatment of well-known diseases (to the extent there is one). Someone who makes a successful medicine check on a wounded comrade will double the rate of their natural healing after each night of rest. A successful check will also identify a disease and mitigate its effect (if a remedy is available). 

Limilates

Jorune is a wonderland of naturally occurring drugs, from poisons, to opiates and stimulants, isho affecting drugs, and a truly staggering array of psychedelic drugs. The use of limilates is a big part of everyday life, lucrative trade, and smuggling. This skill gives one the ability to identify and use limilates both in the wild and in prepared forms.

Crystals

Metal is rare on Jorune, but crystal is plentiful, both as deposits to be mined from caves deep beneath the earth, and in some places, as rock formations that emerge from the ground. Many crystals have special uses and remarkable powers, some connected to isho. Like limilates, crystals are a lucrative trade. This skill allows one to identify, collect, prepare, and use crystals.

Animal Training

This skill allows one to befriend and train beasts. It may allow the acquisition of animal or beast companions.

Riding (Land)

This skill allows one to ride the loping thombo (like an eyeless tonton), the lumbering bochugon (a huge lizard-like mount), or the quaint and incredibly valuable horse. It is added to skill tests to coax your mount into combat, or to outrace an enemy, or leap over an obstacle

Riding (Air)

This skill allows one to ride talmarons (eyeless giant batlike beasts) through the air. It is added to skill tests to plummet and dive, corskscrew, and to coax your mount to attack.

Sailing (Water)

Nautical technology by sailing vessel is well-developed in Jorune, and sea travel and trade is a crucial part of life. This skill allows one to operate a sailing vessel, or whatever size, on the open waters.

Sailing (Sky)

Knowledge of this art is extremely rare in Jorune, but the tiny kingdom of Jasp produces rare airships, sailing vessels that are able to fly through the use of crystals and isho. Burdoth possesses a few of these vessels. 

Swimming

Everyone can swim, but this skill allows one to do things normal people can't, and is added to tests to swim long distances, escape a whirpool, dive for a pearl, and the like.

Caving

The ability to map, navigate, and travel in cave systems. One with this skill will be alert to underground dangers, will glean useful information from the environment, stay oriented, and not suffer from panic or claustrophobia. Given the pursuit of crystals and the existence of underground ruins, caving is a developed skill in Jorune.

Survival (Desert, Forest, Mountain, Marsh, or Jungle)

The member of your group with the highest modifier for the relevant survival skill rolls to make a secure camp and comfortable camp, to hunt or forage, and also to deal with environmental hazards. If there are ties, then the roll switches off between players.

Languages

Languages are skills too, and valuable ones at that. For, knowing a language comes along with a corresponding level of basic cultural knowledge of the community that speaks the language. 

All players start speaking Entren at the master level. Bronth and woffen characters also know their iscin creoles, boru and thowtis respectively. They can choose at what level they know the language based on their background. (Was it a first or second language? Did they know many others of their kind?)

Characters who spend a point to learn a human or iscin or post-human creole know the language at the master level. Characters who spend a point to learn an alien language know it at the trained level. Alien languages are hard!

Human Languages

Entren

The common tongue amongst humans. There are many dialects of this, but if you speak one you can get by in the others.

Kiswahi

The language of the small independent kingdom of Jasp, builders of Jaspian skyships. Spoken by some elite Burdothians as an aristocratic tongue.  

Frantren

Languages spoken by some villager communities in Burdoth. Also the main language of the small neighboring kingdom of Ros Crendor.

Indivee

Languages spoken by some village communities in Burdoth. Along with Entren, one of the main language of the recently subjugated kingdom of Heridoth.

Porantho

The secret language spoken by iscins. Like a technical thieves’ cant for those “scientifically” trained. 

Iscin Race and Post-human Creoles

Boru

A bronth creole dialect, a fusion of bear sounds and Entren. The main language of the bronth realm of Dobre.

Thowtis

A woffen creole dialect, a fusion of wolf sounds and Entren. The main language of the woffen realm of Anasan.

Abahth

A blount creole dialect, a fusion of gurgling sounds and Entren.

Chaunt-Tse

A cruagar creole dialect, a fusion of cat sounds and Entren. The main language of the cruagar realms in the Doben-Al.

Sakoq & Tikoq

Creoles of Entren that are designed to be spoken underwater by the post-human salu and acubon respectively. Learning one allows you to get by in the other.

Sapient Alien Languages

Triddis

The immensely complicated language of the thriddle, a sapient species of encyclopediasts. If you thought German had long sentences, buckle your seat belt.

Rorch-ko

The language of the ramians, quiet seafaring enemies of humanity. It is spoken in low even tones that rub human vocal cords raw.

Thuvill

The language of the thiven, a sapient species of peaceful colony-minded traders. It is a trilling musical language that humans can mimic in passable if discordant and flat tones.

Cleash

The clicking and hissing language of the Cleash, the sapient bug-like aliens. Also allows one to speak the dialect Gleebo, which is spoken by the Scarmis, mantis-like Cleash servitors.

Character Generation and Race

This post is about how my OD&D hack of Skyrealm of Jorune, Jorune: Evolutions, handles race and stats in character generation. But it's also about how race is understood on Jorune. There are five available player character races in Jorune: Evolutions. The first is human, the (more or less) unchanged descendents of the travelers. Second come two post-human races, the smaller, isho sensitive muadra, and the giant isho resistant boccord. Finally come the two iscin races of uplifted animals, bronth, humanoid bears, and woffen, humanoid wolves.

Race and Gender on Jorune

The culture of Burdoth is a strange mix of the old and the new. Many of the prejudices and systems of oppression of our social world are unknown in Burdoth, for the travelers had evolved beyond them and nothing has rekindled them. In a world where the salient division is between human, post-human, and alien, differences in human appearance (skin color) are barely worth remarking on, especially because they were no longer tied to systems of oppression in the society of the travelers. The term “race” is thus used in Burdoth to refer to different species or subspecies of sapient being. Humans are one race, the post-human muadra another, the post-human boccord a third, the Iscin races (uplifted animals) each it's own still different race, as are the sapient aliens of Jorune such as the huge and silent ramian, the insectoid cleash, or the shanthas of human legend.

Miles Teves

By current earth standards there is also little gender oppression in Burdoth. Sexuality and gender is far more fluid and less punishing than on present day Earth. When they became hunter gatherers, the travelers carried this culture with them and hung on to it, transmitting these attitudes to the culture of present day Burdoth. 

Humanity on Jorune is undergoing incredibly rapid changes. That so many of Jorune’s sapient species are human derived, either as iscin or post-human races, sometimes gives rise to unsettling fears about transformation, mutation, and the loss of identity. Especially to those who do not live alongside these other humanities, it can seem at times that the world holds up on all sides funhouse mirrors in which distorted human forms can be glimpsed. This inchoate fear is exacerbated by the fact that human parents can give birth to muadra and boccord children.

Humanity also lives uneasily with isho, which seems at times like an invisible world from which they are shut out, a world that can lash out violently at any time, through aggravating isho storms, or the natural predators of Jorune with their isho senses and dyshas (psychic powers). This fear of an invisible world is the basis of the common superstitions about muadra. The small size of muadra would (and often does) mark them as easy targets for bullying--where fear of their power does not deter. In more cosmopolitan settings, this fear takes a controlled political form, involving regulation and surveillance by the diajic (diaji eaters, isho police). Muadra resistance has taken political forms in Burdoth as well.

The giant boccord have integrated better, and although subject to prejudice, suffer less from raw fear and hatred. Their large size makes them valued laborers in the villages and intimidating targets for violence. For reasons of mutual aid, boccord are often clannish, and have developed extended familial networks for sel-protection. In Ardoth, they flourish in several trades and industry.

The iscin races, where they have established communities of their own, as in the woffen realm Lundire or Anasan, and the bronth realm Doben-Al, have rich and complex cultures with their own distinctive qualities and conflicting strands. But the following generalizations are fair if incredibly simplified. In bronth culture, there are strong threads of stoicism that are often connected with religious ideas, fed by the complexities of suppressing bestial impulses. Woffen culture, by contrast, is suffused with a complicated pack mentality that involves a (non-gendered) hierarchy, but one that is always contested and shifting within the group. Woffen culture tends to be more playful and forgiving than bronth culture, and more about social navigation than self-control.

In Burdoth, where this game is set, iscin cultures are creole cultures. Iscin race PCs are likely to have been raised in human society, and have had to negotiate the issue of belonging and difference, with an interplay between counter-culture and assimilation to majority human institutions. Since your PC is entering tothis, this situation is especially complicated, since others of your kind are likely to view you as having cast your lot with human power structures. But remember, above all, that bronth and woffen are individuals, whose inheritance from humanity, which is after all their template and the source of their formidable sapience, entails all the variation and nuance that one finds among human beings. 

Stats in Jorune: Evolutions

For stats, roll the number of dice indicated for your selected race. Jorune: Evolutions uses the small starting modifier range of Original Dungeons & Dragons: -2 to +2. But unlike in OD&D, numerical stats play no role in this game. You need only record the modifier using the chart below, which influences stat checks, reaction rolls, combat rolls, and downtime actions. (I will discuss the system of stat checks and skill rolls in another post.)

Note too that unlike in OD&D stat modifiers can be changed through gameplay, although not by acquiring levels, since Jorune: Evolutions does not use experience points or levels. Instead players may train a given stat as a downtime action by setting a tracker. They may increase each stat modifier once using multiple downtime activities up to a maximum of +2. It is also possible to increase each stat modifier once up to a maximum of +3 through sandbox play, by undergoing certain experiences or performing remarkable feats on the hexmap. (I call this "sandbox advancement". More on the details of advancement another time.)

Given the limited modifier range, and the possibility of change through play, your starting stats are likely to be less important in Jorune: Evolutions than in other system of D&D from AD&D 1E forward. 

Roll	Modifier
6-	-2
6-8	-1
9-12	0
13-15	+1
16+	+2

There are seven stats in Jorune: Evolutions

Strength: Your physical power. It is added to hit rolls with melee weapons. (Note that all damage in Jorune evolutions is a flat 1d6 as in OD&D. Strength does not modify melee damage.)
Agility: Your speed and limberness. It is added to your armor class. 
Aim: How good a shot you are. It is added to hit rolls with ranged weapons.
Learning: Your facility with learning. It is added to rolls for learning skills and using devices.

Isho: Your sensitivity to isho. It is added to rolls using dyshas.

Stamina: our vim and vigor. It is added to hit points.

Charisma: Your ability to lead. It is added to reaction rolls.

EDIT: Gus L. made the case in the comments that the range of -2 to +2 (or even +3!) is too large for OD&D. Despite his great experience running OD&D, I tried to resist by emphasizing that it didn't seem that bad in combat. But I crunched the numbers on my system of skill and stat checks, and it turns out he was right. So here is what I'll be using in Jorune: Evolutions instead:

Stat Roll	Modifier
6-	-1
7-14	+0
15+	+1

This modifier will still be possible to raise through play, but only once, and only through "sandbox advancement". The max possible modifier for a PC will be +2.

Choosing a Race

In making the choice of your character’s race, there is a dynamic similar to level limits for demi-humans in early editions of D&D. Bronth, woffen, boccord, and muadra, begin with advantages unavailable to humans. But the use of Earth-Tec is closed to all non-humans. While as a member of an iscin or post-human race you will have your own story to tell no less than human characters, it is likely that over time your advantages will be eclipsed by those of your human companions as the group comes into contact with the remnants left by the travelers. If you choose to play a nonhuman race, be aware that this is the choice you are making. 

Human

Note this  illustration by Frazetta was not painted in the society of the travelers. Protagonists on Jorune are not limited to white men.

Your character is a human being, an unchanged descendant of the travelers. All skin colors and physiques found on present day earth are found on Burdoth, so you may decide how your character looks. Humans are the only race able to use Earth-Tec, the original ancient technology of the travelers. You are also the only race who has dreamt of the egg. In Burdoth, your race is politically ascendent.  

Strength	3d6
Agility	3d6
Aim	3d6
Learning	3d6
Isho	3d6
Vitality	3d6
Charisma	3d6
Special	Earth-tec, Dream of the Egg

Earth-Tec: You are the only race that can use Earth-Tec, the wondrous technology of your ancestors. 

Dream of the Egg: You are the only race to perhaps have had the mysterious dream of the egg. (Choose or roll 50%).

Boccord

Yes, this awesome illustration by Miles Teves is based on Conan the Barbarian. Teves was also not from the society of the travelers. 

You are a post-human species that looks human, but has developed a large form (8’-9’), and a resistance to Isho. You may choose the details of your appearance, apart from your larger size, just as a human would. In addition to your large size, you are the only race able to use anti-dyshas, mutations that developed to shield you from isho. You may not learn dyshas.   

Strength	3d6
Agility	3d6
Aim	3d6
Learning	3d6
Isho	1d6
Vitality	3d6
Charisma	3d6
Special	Large, Anti-Dyshas

Large: +1 melee damage against normal creatures, +2 against small creatures. You can carry more than a human, but weapons, armor, and equipment are 2x as expensive for you. (Note that since all weapons do 1d6 and strength does not modify damage, large size is a significant advantage.)

Anti-Dyshas: You may never learn dyshas. You are the only race that may spend skill points to learn anti-dyshas. 

Muadra

Miles Teves

You are a post-human species that looks human, but has developed a small form (3’-4’), and a greater sensitivity to, and ability with, isho. You may choose the details of your appearance, apart from your larger size, just as a human would.You may choose one free dysha. 

Strength	3d6
Agility	3d6
Aim	3d6
Learning	3d6
Isho	3d6+12
Vitality	3d6
Charisma	3d6
Special	Small, Free Dysha

Small: In melee combat, normal creatures do +1 damage to you, and large creatures +2. You can carry less than a human.

Free Dysha: You begin with one free dysha. You are thus the only race that can spend skill points to begin with a major dysha. Those with a major dysha have been trained as muadra and are “isho literate”. Those without a major dysha are “isho illiterate”.

Bronth

Teves, obviously

You are an iscin race, an uplifted bear. You look like an erect fur-covered humanoid with a bear-like head, and clawed hands with opposable thumbs. You are slightly larger than a human (6’-7’). You have great strength, and are able to use your natural claws and bite as normal weapons. You also may draw upon a bestial rage to wreck great havoc, but at a cost to your humanity. 

Strength	3d6+12
Agility	1d6
Aim	3d6
Learning	3d6
Isho	2d6+1
Vitality	3d6
Charisma	3d6
Special	Natural Weapons, Bestial Rage

Natural Weapons: In melee combat, you are always armed. Natural weapons can be used in grappling as close weapons. 

Bestial Rage: You may opt to release the beast within, entering into a bestial rage. This lasts for up to 3 turns. During this time take an extra melee attack and take advantage on damage rolls with natural weapons. At the end of your bestial rage, test against learning (6-) reduce your learning modifier by 1 permanently (7-9) take one permanent bestial feature (e.g. eats like a real bear or growls when irritated) (10+) no effect. If you fall below -2 learning modifier as a result of a failed check, you have squandered your hard-won humanity and are now one of the lost. You cease being a player character. 

Woffen

This is perhaps my favorite Teves illustration

You are an iscin race, an uplifted wolf. You look like an erect fur-covered humanoid with a wolf-like head, and hands with opposable thumbs. You are slightly shorter than a human (4’-5’). You have great agility and are able to use your natural fangs as normal weapons. Your senses are powerful, allowing you track well and perceive subtle differences others cannot. 

Strength	3d6
Agility	3d6+12
Aim	3d6
Learning	3d6
Isho	2d6 + 1
Vitality	1d6
Charisma	3d6
Special	Natural Weapons, Heightened Senses

Natural Weapons: In melee combat, you are always armed. When grappling, you may use your bite as a close weapon.

Heightened Senses: In moonlight or dim light (but not total darkness) you see as though a lantern was lit. Add +1 to hear noises check. Add +2 to tracking rolls where a scent is fresh, and +1 where a scent is fading. Since there is no darkvision without the use of dyshas, heightened senses are a significant advantage.

Naming Your Character 

Now that you have selected your character's race and rolled your stats, it is time to choose a name. Names on Jorune follow two patterns. One influence is John Carter of Mars, Barsoom-style names. These are names that sound like this: Barsoom, Deja Thoris, Thuvia, Llana of Gathol, and Tars Tharkis. Examples of proper nouns from Jorune that follow the Barsoom pattern might include Jorune, Drenn, Kesht, Khodre Dhardrenn, Dharsage, and Tarsory. 

The other influence is a mélange of names from different nations mashed together, sometimes misspelled. The following would be very Jorune names: Peter Gauss, Vasanth Ramirez, Marie T’san. You can also combine Barsoom names with earth names e.g., Johnny Zareth, Chen Chakis, Davis Ko Bolar, or Omari Lendara.  

Bronth and Woffen born in Burdoth usually go by names that follow this pattern as well, although they will also have names in their respective iscin creoles. 

In the next couple of posts I'll talk about making your home village, selecting starting skills and proficiencies, and using dyshas. 

Here, have a badass female protagonist by the legendary Liz Danforth

Setting Presentation as Big Mystery Seeding

I had a new insight about one of my favorite topics, worldbuilding for open-world, sandbox games. Think of it as another tool in the toolkit.

I want to focus on the initial presentation of your very own evocative snowflake setting to players. Here's an idea. When we share a "setting" or "background" with our players in an open world sandbox, we should think of ourselves as sharing actionable intelligence. Rather than painting an ornamental backdrop for the real action, we should think of ourselves as placing pieces to be engaged with in yet to be determined ways on a game board. But how can we build and convey a setting through actionable intelligence?

Now, there's a school of thought that one used to hear much more retro-gaming circles, that we should worldbuild "from the bottom up". Don't start with an info dump, or a half-realized fanfic novel; instead start small with a little corner of the world. Give people just what they need to know to get playing--and no more. Build the rest organically from there. Sensible advice for someone who gets overwhelmed by prep, or those whose past experience consisted primarily of scripted adventure paths. Forget all that and plop down a hexmap, with a few jotted notes about a town, select adventure hooks, and one or two little dungeons. Then go wherever the adventure leads!

While this works, there is a cost to doing things this way. One cost is that it's much easier to imagine small scale things if one has a working sense of large scale things. I can improvise more easily if I know what "feels right" or is "plausible" given the general way I've been thinking about things. Without a bigger context, it's hard for me to imagine things on a small scale.

But a more important point is that one of the great pleasures of sandbox play comes from the slow-burning long game. One feature of the long game is that you need to have it in view from early on, ideally before the first session. I'm talking about the tantalizing horizon of possibilities that lies off in the distance, igniting desire and curiosity among the players, drawing them in. If all you know is that the town is called Hofberg and there's a dungeon filled with salt ghouls in a mine nearby, you just can't play this kind of long game.

What this slow-burning long game is like will depend on what kind of a game you're running. It will likely involve the relations and intrigues of various major factions. These are the things in the setting that most directly correspond to game pieces, with which players may choose to interact. But if your game is focused on exploration and discovery, as mine usually are, then the long game should also be, at least in part, about the exploration and discovery of the unknown. Now discoveries come in all sizes. The slow-burning long game is about the really big ones, the mind-blowing mysteries that are tied deeply with the setting and world, the learning of which has the potential to change everything.

To build this in from the start, when presenting your setting, instead of conveying facts, try leading with the unknown. Go with the questions rather than the answers, the big ones, the slow-burning mysteries. Nothing says "this is a sandbox of exploration and discovery" like introducing a setting by emphasizing what facts aren't known. (Aside: it's fun to hold some questions back too, because it's also a slow-burn pleasure to have the players stumble onto a big mystery that's been there all along after a long time playing in the sandbox.) 

This WWII encryption device was literally called an "enigma machine".

I just did this with the intro to my players guide to Jorune: Evolutions. In recasting the setting of Jorune, I found myself replacing the perfectly fine narrative sci-fi info dump in the original (2nd edition) books with conflicting stories and outright mysteries. In essence, instead of saying, "Human colonists came to Jorune on such and such a date for such and such reasons, and here's what happened...Then their ships were destroyed in such and such a war," I replaced this with conflicting oral histories and cycles of myth that essentially said, "Some stories say they came because of this, other stories say this other thing. Nobody knows what the hell happened to their Ship and Earth-Tec!" Given that the discovering Earth-Tec is a major thing in the game, this ties the questions about the past directly to the heart of the action. Similarly, when I introduced my own new trippy psychedelic element, "the dream of the egg", to the setting, what I introduced was a blatant enigma almost literally calling out to be solved.

One thing that's fun about questions is that you don't need to have your mind made up about the answer at the start. Perhaps you'll have some idea about some of the answers, but perhaps others wait on the setting taking more shape in your mind through play. That fits with the sensible "you don't need to have thought this out before sitting down to play" ethos without giving up on the big picture. (But, if you're like me, you'll have answers to some questions in mind from the get-go, because it's the answers that will have made the questions alluring to you in the first place.)

Another thing that's fun about questions is that factions and NPCs may have theories or think they know the answer. Allow theories to proliferate! Maybe everyone has a take. This is especially appropriate for a setting where baseless speculation, psychic visions, wooly tales, and "metaphysical" extrapolation of drugs experiences are bread and butter. But actually, I think it could work for any sandbox game where exploration and discovery are core activities and a lot actionable intelligence is unknown.

So, there's one more tool for your tool kit. When presenting your setting, lead with the mysteries and enigmas. Emphasize the questions without answers. In a game about exploration, knowing what you don't know is actionable intelligence.