DEGRADER post-postscript, notes, gear list

 

Some more working notes and ideas hatched in conversation with the magnificent phloxserver, mostly with Grek and Archon. Following on from this, this, and this. 

Heartbeat and Particle sensors

Heartbeat is hard to spoof, and only keys off Degraders (there's nothing else in the zone with a heartbeat), but has a tight ranged and no penetration. Particle sensors are specifically designed to pick up the emissions that accompany the firing of Superlative weaponry - if you fire Da Big Gun (or the Superlative Pistol, or use a Superlative Knife), you emit these particles for 3 - 5 turns (duration is hidden from you). Particle sensors have far better range than heartbeat sensors. 

Superlative Knife is a flare!

You can use your superlative knife as a flare in your hand if you want! All Superlative weapons are wired into your rig, so you can't throw it. I can't think of a reason someone would want to do this, but you can totally do it!

New Kit: Device Catapult

A torsion powered launcher, capable of launching sensors and other devices along with a sticky payload (a 'goo bomb' in the vernacular). In practice this allow Degraders to shoot their devices in a straight line and have them stick to surfaces without damage.

The Catapult takes up 1INV, can only fire devices of 1/3 INV size or smaller, and must fire them alongside a goo bomb (each of these is an additional 1/10 INV). 

A sensor fired by the catapult functions as normal. If set to scan in a directional cone, that cone always points back toward the firer - this protects the instruments. 

If you shoot another degrader with the device catapult, it does no damage but the target immediately makes a loud noise ping. 

Ghoul Degraders

They do not exist! Degraders are people/cyborgs but they are not gross enough to set off particle sensors. Your Degrader can be hot if you wish it. 

Drone Manipulators

A piloted drone has manipulators on it, and can do anything you can do with your hands. You still can't give the drone your Superlative weaponry, or expect it to fight with a combat knife (it can use the beretta just fine). 

Camera Feed

Your rig can support live viewing of a single camera feed at a time while you go about your turn. 

Movement, Throwing

A Degrader moves 30ft normally, 20ft sneakily, or 60ft at a sprint. 

A Degrader can huck 1 INV worth of gear/explosives/whatever 30ft, and less than this 60ft, with good accuracy. You can't throw something that's bigger than 1 INV. 

Explosives

Explosives are lethal when detonated, to a range of 50ft x INV slots worth of C4. They are dangerous at double this range (1 in 6 chance of death). Interposing cover downgrades both of these one 'step' - lethal to dangerous, dangerous to not dangerous. Degrader rigs are rated for shrapnel but you never want to be fucking around with explosives. 

Explosives destroy terrain by the reasonable fiat of the DM. A Degrader setting off a planned demolition may ask for a breakdown of what they can expect it to accomplish. 

Explosives held in the inventory of a Degrader hit by Superlative weaponry detonate immediately. 

Sensor Upgrades

Sensors always start at 1/3 INV, and all upgrades (penetrating, cascading, better range, better power reqs) upgrade this INV cost, from 1/3 > 1 INV > 2 INV > 5 INV. 

You can also lower this size by one by downgrading their power requirements one step: from light > standard, or from standard > heavy. 

Frequencies

If you set it to a frequency, you rig will auto display all devices that are also on that frequency. A big deal if you discover a device with someone else's frequency, plug it in, and see that they are wearing 5 INV of explosives with detonators primed. 

Team Deathmatch

NEW GAME MODE UNLOCKED. You win if your team are the last ones standing. You don't know who your teammates are and have no capacity to communicate with them, except for a single message that you can write at the start of play, which will be delivered to them by the DM before deployment. 

Both teams have unique insignia on their rigs, and a new 'step' in the close combat altercation rules is introduced: 'check insignia'. If you take this step and the other Degrader does not, you lose automatically. If you both take it, you are both rewarded with knowledge of the insignia worn, and may assess your next actions accordingly. 

Degraders can remove insignia, wear false insignia taken from enemy corpses, etc., at their discretion. 

All Degraders can attach a single charm to their insignia on character creation, like a backpack charm. This has no effect on play, but will be noticed at the 'check insignia' step of a close combat altercation. It may also make your Degrader happy, or comfort them in the field :) 

&c. It's a stressful job!

Thoughts About Immersion

I was thinking last night about Sam's Cataphracts maxim: the immersion that comes from having the player's activity correspond very tightly to the character's actions. In Cataphracts this is writing missives - a military commander irl is mostly sending instructions out and waiting for reports to come back, and doing exactly this in a Cataphracts game means that those games have an absurdly high level of immersion in play, certainly higher than any other game I have ever been a part of. 

I would like for degrader to feel similarly (sadly not possible to run in real time, which would lean into this) - since what you are mostly doing is interacting with UIs and the binary, on/off logics of sensor feedback, the very radically artificial medium of Discord PbP is actually formally appropriate to the fiction. That's the idea anyway; we'll see how it works in practice. 

KIT LIST

By default you have:

• Your Rig, with a frequency rolled on a d1000.
• Your Superlative Rifle.
• Your beretta and combat knife.
• Wire snips for cutting wire to length.
• Leetl screwdrivers and other hand tools for wiring things in.

In addition:

Gear

• 100ft of power cable (1 INV)
• 100ft of data cable (1 INV)
• Device Catapult (1 INV)
• Goo Bomb (1/10 INV each)
• Plastic Explosives (in whatever quantity you wish. Maximum of 1 detonator per 1/3 INV of explosives)
• Mechanical Tripwires (max 20ft long, 1/3 INV each)
• Laser Tripwires (no maximum length, power reqs: low, 1/3rd INV each).
• Batteries (either 1/3 INV or 1 INV).  
• Drone! Quadcopter that you can pilot by wire or radio. 2 INV, 1 of which is the Drone's INV to carry other kit. 
• Flares: lots of light and heat. 1/3 INV each. 
• Glowsticks: a little bit of light, no heat. 1/10 INV each. 
• Smoke Grenades: release visibility occluding smoke in a large area (typically around 80ftx80ft). Smoke lasts 3 - 5 turns. 1/3 INV each. 
• Console. Basically a relay, that can receive wired or radio data, and output it into wired or radio, on a different frequency if desired. Has a screen by default. 1/3 INV, power req: low.
• Traversal Gear. A catch all for kit that will make your navigation of the space easier. Examples might include rappelling or climbing gear, bolt cutters, crowbars, fire retardant or acid proof cloaks, etc. etc. By default takes 1 INV and gives you a specific situational advantage in the usual tactical infinity ways - the DM may specify that a particular thing takes more or less INV at their discretion. Feel free to pitch your DM if you have something specific in mind!

Sensors (all 1/3 INV without upgrades)

• Movement. By default: range 80ft (radial) 160ft (directional), power: standard, penetration: low. Upgrades: cascading 20ft, range: +40ft, power: low, penetration: high. 
• Heat. By default: range 80ft (radial) 160ft (directional), power: standard, penetration: low. Upgrades: cascading 20ft, range: +40ft, power: low, penetration: high. 
• Sound. By default: range 60ft (radial) 120ft (directional), power: standard, penetration: low. Upgrades: cascading: 20ft, range: +20ft, power: low, penetration: high. 
• Electrics. By default: range 60ft (radial) 120ft (directional), power: standard, penetration: low. Upgrades: cascading: 20ft, range: +20ft, power: low, penetration: high. 
• Heartbeat. By default: range 20ft (radial) 40ft (directional), power: high, penetration: low. Upgrades: cascading: 10ft, range: +10ft, power: standard, penetration: high. 
• Particle. By default: range 60ft (radial) 120ft (directional), power: high, penetration: low. Upgrades: cascading: 20ft, range: +20ft, power: standard, penetration: high. 

Active Projectors (1/3 INV without upgrades, same upgrades available as scanners)

• Lidar. By default: range 60ft (radial) 120ft (directional), power: standard, penetration: N/A. Upgrades: cascading: 20ft, range: +10ft, power: low.
• Scrambler. By default: range 20ft (radial) 40ft (directional), power: high, penetration: low. Upgrades: cascading: 20ft, range: +10ft, power: standard, penetration: high.
• Jammer. By default: range 20ft (radial) 40ft (directional), power: high, penetration: low. Upgrades: cascading: 20ft, range: +10ft, power: standard, penetration: high.
• Camera. Special. Range: visual range, power: standard, penetration: N/A. Upgrades: power: low. 
• Lighting. Special. Range: 30ft for low power, 60ft for standard power, 100ft for high power. Radial by default, but can be set to illuminate in a cone (no change to lighting power).

Spoofers (1/3 INV without upgrades. Upgrades step INV 'up' one level, downgrades 'down' one level, minimum 1/10 INV) 

• Noise. By default: immobile, makes soft noise, power reqs: low. Upgrades: makes loud noise, mobile (set to move in a straight line, or pilot-able by wire or radio). Downgrades: mechanical (no power reqs, only functions for 3 turns after setting), power reqs: standard. 
• Heat. By default: immobile, generates heat, power reqs: standard. Upgrades: mobile (set to move in a straight line, or pilot-able by wire or radio), power reqs low. Downgrades: mechanical (no power reqs, only functions for 3 turns after setting), power reqs: standard. You can also use flares.
• Movement. By default: immobile, but triggers movement sensors (lol), power reqs: low. Upgrades: mobile (set to move in a straight line, or pilot-able by wire or radio - note that all mobile objects will trigger movement sensors by default). Downgrades: mechanical (no power reqs, only functions for 3 turns after setting), power reqs: standard. .
• Electrics. immobile, spoofs electrics sensors, power reqs: low. Upgrades: mobile (set to move in a straight line, or pilot-able by wire or radio). Downgrades: mechanical (no power reqs, only functions for 3 turns after setting). Note that all sensors and other electrical devices will trigger electrics sensors by default, power reqs: standard. 
• Heartbeat. By default: immobile, spoofs heartbeat sensors, power reqs: low. Upgrades; mobile (set to move in a straight line, or pilot-able by wire or radio). Downgrades: mechanical (no power reqs, only functions for 3 turns after setting), power reqs: standard. 
• Particle. By default: immobile, spoofs particle sensors, power reqs: standard. Upgrades; mobile (set to move in a straight line, or pilot-able by wire or radio). Downgrades: mechanical (no power reqs, only functions for 3 turns after setting), power reqs: high. 

 

DEGRADER postscript

 

A quick set of qualifiers and additional thoughts for this post (which in turn derived from this post - these form a loose trilogy), sadly not the full kit list and map, which is still coming.

I would like to draw attention to this essay, about the practice of a Spanish contemporary artist, and especially to its descriptions of the gallery as a 'trap-scape', and the 'gyropolitical' logics of mutual and predictive overcompensation. 

Move + Action

The more I think about it, the more I think that move + action is not the best way to do this (hoping to have a playtest soon to actually stress test some of these assumptions) - since most of the player interaction with the world will be in setting, tweaking, and reading their various sensors, I think giving players infinite sensor interaction each turn, along the arc of their movement, makes more sense. Sensor readouts are per turn anyway, and you can still only fire Da Big Gun once. 

Piloting a drone means that the drone gets your turn, not you. If it doesn't have a camera or lidar or something attached to it, you will have to pilot it blind, or within your own FOV. You might well use your floorplan to do this. 

Situational Awareness

All Degraders automatically see scanners and other devices within 20ft while sneaking, or 10ft while moving normally. Degraders are blind to devices while sprinting.

Sensors Cont.

Sensors are all described using the following standardised profile. 

• Power: low/standard/high. 'Standard' follows the rules in the first post: they requires wiring in or attached batteries to function - small batteries last ten turns, large batteries last forever. 'Low' can be powered forever on small batteries. 'High' needs to be wired in, batteries are insufficient. 
• Penetrating: low/high. 'Low' means that walls block the scanner's 'bubble'. High means that the bubble penetrates walls. Lead lining blocks all scanners of all types (it blocks transmissions as well).
• Range: basic(x), sphere(x), directional(x), cascading(x, y). 'Basic' means that the AOE can be set to radiate from the sensor in a sphere, out to [x]ft, or set to radiate in a fixed direction 90 degree cone, out to 2[x]ft. Sphere means that it can only be set to sphere, directional means it can only be set to cone. Cascading means that it can be set as basic, and additionally adds [y]ft to its range each turn, for three turns, after being set. 
• Size: 1/10 slot, 1/3 slot, 1 slot, 2 slots. Given in inventory slots, and may be variable if you wish to add features of tweak a specific piece of gear. 
• Passive Sensors: noise, heat, movement, electrics, heartbeat, particle. A passive sensor describes its AOE (using its range and penetration), and then describes pings inside that range, outputting via radio by default, or by wire if wired to do so. A moving source of ping will have its entire trajectory inside the AOE described by the sensor (you will get the 'path' that it traces). 
• Active Projectors: lidar, scrambler, jammer. A active sensor describes its AOE using its range and penetration, and then subjects that AOE to the effects of its rays. For Lidar, it builds an image of what the rays physically encounter, and sends this back as an image. For a scrambler, it permanently destroys any switched on electronics in its AOE. Scramblers are assumed to 'pulse' at the start of each turn - electrics can move into their AOE, but will be destroyed if they remain there at the start of a turn. For a jammer, it actively blocks radio frequencies from crossing its AOE (can be set to 'all frequencies', or specific frequencies), and will also trace the vector of the frequency that it blocks (not the point it originated from, but the line backwards from contact).
• Cameras are a special category of sensor that output real time video of what they see. They have a fixed FOV, and if they are looking at nothing but darkness they record nothing. Almost the entire map is in darkness! Feed output can go to your rig, or can be sent to a powered screen. Note that cameras do not send pings or track anything, they are purely live feed. If you are not watching a camera, you get nothing from it. There is nothing stopping you pairing one with, say, a movement sensor. You can beam a camera feed into your rig, but only one at a time. Seeing someone moving on camera is not a sufficient 'lock' to fire on them, unless the end their turn visible on that camera - the same logic as other sensors. 

Shielding 

1 slot. Can be added to a sensor to render it immune to scramblers. A Degrader's rig is shielded by default, which extends to all inventory while it is worn. 

Sounds

If something is loud, Degraders can hear it, and usually get a ping or direction. Things that are loud: weapons fire from any distance, quadcopters or someone sprinting within 50ft.  If something is soft, then only audio sensors will pick it up. Everything that makes noise that isn't loud is soft. Ambient noise may disrupt both loud and soft noise at the DMs discretion, and they will tell you so if this occurs: 'The nearby steam hammer means you can't hear a thing!' This will also make sound sensors useless. 

Smell

Particle sensors added to the list, of potentially limited use, except if Degraders smell like shit. I am very back and forth on this. On the one hand, it's a weird and interesting world building thing and quite thematically appropriate if Degraders are assumed to reek badly enough to set off particle alarms, and are unaware of this except as a data point in their sensor suites. On the other hand, it's a very specific (and specifically abject) place to put all the player characters by default, and I like the idea that you could also imagine yourself as a hot sci fi person underneath all the gear, instead of forcing the default to some fucked revenant. More thinking required. 

Superlative Pistol

Any Degrader can swap their Superlative Rifle for a Superlative Pistol, which functions identically, with the following adjustments: 

• You free up 2 additional INV
• Your shots are adjudicated on a special step before rifles, potentially allowing you to get the jump on other Degraders with the standard loadout. 
• The shot from your Pistol is visually and audibly distinct from a Rifle shot - all Degraders will know they are being fired on by a pistol. 
• You only have one shot, which you can recharged by plugging the Pistol in at a power supply for three turns. 

Also: found an instagib gif! I am tickled by the realisation that designing a map for some people to play this game in will basically mean creating a Deathmatch arena - another fantasy of old, one that I never had the technical knowhow to realise. 

DEGRADER

 

Forms a rough companion to this, obviously.

Update: part two, part three, and the after action report. 

You are a DEGRADER - a sophisticated, tech-assisted, forward attack operative, trained and equipped to function with limited-to-none external support. It is zero hour: a new zone of interest has just been opened up to interested parties, and you and an unknown number of adversaries have been deployed with an indentical mission: lock it down using lethal force, and prepare the way for acquisition and exploitation.

DEGRADER is a turn-based pbp wargame focused on misdirection, optical play and counterplay, resource management, and prediction/compensation. All players begin the game invisible, and unaware of the position and number of their enemies. They also begin with a Superlative Rifle, which can be used to immediately kill anything at any point on the map, from any other point, through all intervening material. If your enemies can see you, they can kill you. Best then not to be seen. 

The zone of interest is a vast industrial interior. It is still in operation and mostly pitch black, although some sections (those which once would have been staffed by humans) are brightly lit. A Degrader can navigate just fine in the dark, but will need to supplement their killing potential with sensors of various kinds, which can be set up and complexly linked inside the space. Sensors return data, data can be used to track movement, heat, sound, and other identifying traces. If a position can be locked, the Superlative Rifle will unerringly find whatever hides there.

You begin play with your Degrader rig, a Superlative Rifle, a 9mm beretta with 15 rounds, a combat knife, and a scale map of the zone of interest. You have 10 inventory slots, which can be filled with whatever you like from the stores list. As a Degrader, you do not need to eat, drink, or sleep, at least not for another month or so. Once you are happy with your loadout, you should give your Degrader a callsign, and maybe imagine what they look like under the rig. 

You can then choose your drop position on your map, and will be immediately infiltrated to that point using specialised interdiction technology. All of your opponents do the same, and then you and every other player will get a series of extremely rough and approximate positions for all drops into the territory. Count them, and mark them. 

You are now in country, and play can begin. 

The golden rules of DEGRADER: 

• if you end your turn inside enemy sensor range, you can be killed that turn. 
• If you end your turn outside of them, you probably can't be.
• If you move through enemy sensor range, or return pings of any kind, you are feeding information to them about your movements, whether or not they end up with a lock on your location.
• You probably won't know when you are inside enemy sensors, unless you can see the sensor itself. 

Movement and Actions

Each turn consists of a move, and and action. All turns take place simultaneously, with the exception that a Superlative Rifle can be fired before any other turns are resolved. All Rifles resolve their effects simultaneously. 

Moves can be sneaking, normal, or sprinting, which are noiseless but slow, noisy but fast, and very noisy and very fast respectively. You choose a movement posture per turn, and are assumed to be in that posture the whole turn. 

Actions are usually things like setting at removing sensors, laying cable, plugging in equipment, etc. Some actions will be free (switching something on if it is already installed, plugging a cable into an instrument or power source), and some will not (installing things, changing the settings on an instrument, piloting things). 

Navigating the zone of interest is mostly fairly intuitive (you can climb ladders, you can drop down from gantries, etc.), but you may want to try things that are risky. This is not really a game about tactical infinity, but your Degrader can attempt trpg stuff if you wish it - if you take a risky action (moving through moving machinery) roll a d6: on a 1, you fail and suffer the consequences (you die). For very risky actions this is a 1-2 or a 1-3, as determined by the DM. They will always inform you of your odds and the consequences of failure before you roll. You can pack traversal gear of various kinds that eats up inventory, but which will make certain things less risky. 

Nearly all instruments take an action to set up (you can set their settings for free during this action). As described above, it also takes an action to fire your Superlative Rifle, and it is recommended that you move in the aftermath, because the firing the Rifle is both loud and extremely visible to other enemies. 

If you stumble onto an enemy in the dark, both players must choose simultaneously wether they are going for their pistol or their knife, then roll a d6. If only one person chose pistol, then that person rolls at +2. If at least one person chose pistol, the altercation is as loud as a gunshot and will ping for everyone. Whoever rolls highest kills their opponent, and on a tie both are killed. 

If you are aware that someone is coming and have specifically prepared an ambush at least one turn in advance you instead roll with a +4 (a +6 if you use a pistol and your opponent does not). 

Whenever anyone uses their pistol, it uses d6 rounds. If you need to use it and don't have enough rounds left to make up the result on the d6, you resolve the combat at -2. If you want to take extra magazines you may do so - each takes up 1/3 of an INV slot. 

Power

Everything that requires power to function needs to be wired into power sources in the zone of interest - these are at fixed locations, and marked on everyones maps - or supplied with batteries you can bring with you. Small batteries take 1/3 of a slot and last 10 turns, large batteries take 1 slot and last forever. Some instruments are marked as 'low power' - these will run forever even on small batteries. 

The Rig

Your rig has its own integrated power supply which lasts forever, and which runs at enough surplus to count as one large battery on your person at all times. This means that you can power something - probably a sensor, but maybe something else - in your inventory, and it will move as you do. 

Sensors

Sensors are instruments that track a given stimulus, and then record and transmit that they have done so. The types of sensors are noise, movement, heartbeat, heat, electrical, with the special category of visual (really a live feed camera). Most sensors come in two models: short range, which take up 1/3 of a slot in your INV, and long range, which take up 1 slot. 

Note that ranges are not equivalent. A noise or heat sensor will by default have a much larger range than a heartbeat or electrical sensor, for example. 

Sensors can additionally be set to radial, with a short range, or directed, with a longer range. Directed usually mean a 90 degree cone, and about double the range (which would give you about 2/3rds coverage relative to a short ranged radial sensor). This is true of all sensor types.

Some sensors might expand their effective range 'bubble' over time, as they better attenuate to their surroundings and start to filter out noise signals. 

All events can be tracked by sensors, but there is no sensor that can track everything. A noise sensor will record something moving, but a heartbeat sensor will return nothing unless that thing has a heartbeat. It is your job to set up a network of sensors that will return enough data that you have useable target locks for your Superlative Rifle, and to avoid being detected and targeted in return. 

All sensors are equipped with a radio link to your Degrader rig. This signal means that you will get its pings from anywhere, but it also means that someone discovering a sensor will discover the frequency of your rig, and use it to track you. If you wish to avoid this, you can have your sensors transmit on other frequencies, and be picked up by consoles (which might be in safer locations, and relay from there back to your rig on your main frequency), or by wire that you can lay down, which cannot be detected except visually, or jammed without literally cutting the wire. All sensor radio output frequency, as well as your rig's receiving frequency, can be changed by you at any time, including remotely using a console.

Lights

Need power, and come in different sizes and intensities. In darkness, a visual sensor will need light to function. You also cannot see very well without light - your rig includes lenses that let you safely navigate your surroundings out to about 10ft, but you can't pick out figures or details in the distance. Light is binary, it's there or it isn't. If it's there everyone can make use of it. If you can see someone in LOS you can fire on them. 

Consoles

Catch all term for an instrument that can receive and display pings if set up do do so. They can relay pings via radio or wire (including to your rig, if you like), or simply display on a screen. They can also remotely control the setting on other devices they are connected to. They require power to function, and can be used to spoof radio jamming or tracking if you are worried about this.

Dummies, Drones

Dummies are devices that emit light, heat, noise, radio frequencies, spoof heartbeats, etc. They can be mobile or stationary, with stationary models typically taking 1/3 of an INV slot, and mobile models taking 1 INV. A mobile dummy can be remote controlled by radio (which will mean anyone with the frequency can give it orders), or by wire (range limited by length of wire). 

A drone is a mobile dummy that can attach a sensor or other kit. They are 2 INV slots (one of which is the drone's INV for carrying other gear). Attached sensors offboard data by wire or radio as normal, and if the drone is piloted by wire both these signals can travel along one wire. Drones can also mount lights and explosives, flares, smoke grenades, anything you can think of. 

Typically require power to function (some crude dummies may not). 

Trip Wires, Lasers

Crude 'sensors' that record a simple ping when crossed. Trip wires are triggered by anything physically dragging across them and do not require power, lasers are powered, and are triggered by anything that breaks the beam. 

Explosives

Detonator can be set to trip when taking input from sensors, or manually by wire or by radio. Can be attached to drones or dummies, or simply to walls or ceilings. Effective kill range depends on how much explosive material is in the package (generally either 1/3 or 1 INV worth). Can also be thrown. 

Jammers

Can be set to jam everything (no signal will be able to pass through the jamming zone) or just specific frequencies. Can also be set to ping the sending location of whatever is trying to send through the jammed zone. 

Boosters

Can be set to 'throw' a linked sensor's point of output to another point within its (the booster's) range.

Smoke

Throwable. 1/3 of a slot. Will obscure line of sight in a very large radius for 3 - 5 turns. 

Flares

Throwable. 1/3 to a slot. Will put out large amounts of light + heat for 3 - 5 turns. Also come in glowstick varieties: way less light and no heat, but 10 to a slot. 

Next post: a complete stores list, with all the different models and kit. Maybe a big zone map?!

Bonus alternate DEGRADER models:

• Has no Superlative Rifle, instead carries a Superlative Knife (it looks a bit like a box cutter), which instagibs anyone in a close contact altercation. Can sprint silently. 
• Has no Superlative Rifle but carries 30 INV of equipment - drones and bombs and smoke oh my! Cannot move at a sprint. 
• Isn't a Degrader at all: 10 human cops with ARs and flashlights, and no additional INV. You move all of them every turn. An AR can fire on anything you can see and kills on a 4+ on a d6. ARs have 30 rounds in the magazine, and fire d6 rounds per shot.

Like this. 

Optical Wargames

 

It's been a while since I did any non Barony non short fiction posting, and this is another one of those ideas that's been swirling around in my head forever and ever. 

Some short history: I used to play the very very great classic Unreal Tournament 99 a lot when I was a kid. I played its equally great, but quite different sequel UT2004 as well, quite possibly more than any other single game in my life (I never got on with UT3). 

In Unreal Tournament, there is a gun called the Shock Rifle - for my money one of the best deathmatch weapons ever designed. It's primary fire is a quick-firing hitscan beam that kills in three hits, and it has secondaries you can play with at closer range for higher lethality - it's a high skill/hire reward kind of weapon. There is also a mutator (game mode, for those unlettered in XTREME nineties naming cultures) in those games called Instagib, which gives everyone a shock rifle that always kills in one hit. What this does, obviously, is turn a deathmatch game into the most extreme form of rocket tag, where movement, aim, and reflexes need to be microseconds better than your opponents' at all times for you to have any chance of surviving at all. 

Now, I am not a good deathmath player really. I love deathmatch games to pieces, but I don't have the hand-eye coordination and twitch reflexes necessary for high level play - even more so now that I'm no longer 16. Even so, I was always absolutely fascinated by Instagib as a concept. What does it mean for the design space when every single person gets handed a sort of 'absolute' lethality from the jump?

One of the greatest ever. Oddly no Instagib gifs out there!

In modern warfare (I am an enthusiastic amateur reader of war theory but I am not a specialist, and I may well be wrong about specific points) there is a diagram called The Survivability Onion. It is pictured above, and what it aims to describe are the threshold at which one can be considered safe in a warfighting environment. The best thing to be is not there at all. The second best thing to be is not identified (seen), the third best is not acquired, etc. etc., all the way down to penetration and death. It is better not to be killed, and by extension, it is better not to be seen. If you are up against a sophisticated military threat, to be seen is breathtakingly close to being killed.

I am interested in this as a design space. When I was younger I used to fantasise about a specific type of first person shooter game - one in which everyone had some expy of the Instagib shock rifle, but which was played in nearly total darkness, inside a complicated and vertically arranged 3d environment. So you also have flares, NVGs, spotlights, triplines, sensors, alarms, traversal gear etc. - you have a bunch of tools that you have to make use of to facilitate target acquisition, and to make sure that you yourself are never acquired. Once acquisition has taken place, the actual firing of the weapon, the kill manoeuvre, is trivial - you could even abstract it out entirely and have the player press a button to kill the enemy once acquired, although I like the (now very old fashioned) insistence of having a trigger to pull on the supergun. 

This type of contest - effectively invisible (or at least very low visibility) antagonists with ultra-lethal capacities, trying to control a space using optical machinery (and spoofing tech) to acquire their enemies before the same is done to them - can be extrapolated into other designs as a formal model; it doesn't have to be a shooter. I had some wild ideas for an entirely optical RTS/adversarial citybuilder game at one point, which saw players (again, in pitch blackness) building logistical machines and assemblages to power and deploy their sensor apparatuses more quickly and efficiently than their opponents.

Is there a way to make this kind of combat interesting (to anyone other than Louis)? I suspect that many players would find the absolutely all or nothing approach a turn off - you are effectively playing the game until you are arbitrarily deleted, without knowing how or why it happened. Possibly the joy of arbitrarily deleting your opponent some of the time would make up for this, but I think it would be crucial for blind luck to play a minimal role in target acquisition. 

Another option: group PVE play, under strict time pressure - although what is it you're acquiring here? NPC bad guys? Part of the joy of this sort of play is knowing that a human is trying their best NOT to be seen. 

A rambling little post to say that this has recently been rekindled in my brain, and that I would like to try my hand at designing a little rpg/wargame system that tackles some of this. That system experiment is NOT in this post. Sorry :) But hopefully coming soon :)

 

The Maenads of the Third City

They can be seen during Rantine's highest summer, when the crimson sea smokes and boils, and when most of the population retreat to the shaded interiors of their homes and apartments, to share blood, or simply to wile away the days and escape the unbearable heat.

The Imperial garrison also stay off the streets on the worst days - it is true that the sun (low in the sky, radiant heat from surfaces, the solar disk itself almost black) can kill you, or drive you mad, cook you in your armour, blind you; but it is also true that people go missing on days like this, and Imperial soldiers are no exception. 

Maenads are often young, but not exclusively, and often poor, but not exclusively. Their skin is stained red by the smoke that boils off the chemical sea, which they bathe in to commence the transformation after swallowing potent and poisonous psychoactive chemicals. Most of them wear masks (and sometimes people will throw masks out into the street for them) to make themselves anonymous to friends, neighbours, lovers, and family while in under the influence of the summer madness - these are traditionally carved and painted in the likeness of the queen. They sing and dance in the streets, all of the ancient spiral dances, and they set upon whoever they come across and beat them to death with their red hands and red feet. They eat the viscera and tie the heads to their long staffs go parade at the front of the dance. You will hear them before you see them. The tradition is a very old one.

Maenads are technically criminals and murderers, and there have been many programmes over the decades to try to root out the tradition. In the early days the Imperial troops simply massacred them in the streets, but each year they would take higher-than-acceptable casualties doing so. They would also report strange things - naked commoners punching through breastplates, tearing off limbs, hysterical dancers shrugging off musket fire. Eventually it was decided that, since the phenomenon was contained to a few specific weeks of the year, and since the slaughter had no observable effect on the numbers the year following, further campaigns of this type would be wasteful. 

There are all sorts of reasons why a Rantine might decide to participate in the yearly dances. Sometimes they are battling black depressions, sometimes they are in mourning, sometimes they are lonely, especially the older participants, sometimes they are just very angry. Sometimes they simply want to kill someone anonymously. Some of them cannot explain themselves at all - there are years when the urge is known to spread through the population like a sickness. Most Rantines have taken part once or twice in their lives, and know the deep, bright, painful joy that the ceremony brings. 

Maenads who cannot find people in the streets will sometimes break into houses to get them there. Sometimes they break into garrisons. They game goes like this - they will knock on the door, and you must remain absolutely silent. If they hear you moving, or if you say something, they will beat their way through the doors and windows to get at you. If they knock three or four times and hear nothing from inside, they will move on to the next door. Rantine children and babies are typically drugged unconscious for the duration. 

Rantine Maenad

HD1, senseless battering limbs (as light weapon), unarmoured, movement: dancing, then sprinting, demeanour: laughing, singing, weeping, hysterical, unreasoning.

A Maenad's damage dice explode. They never test morale. When they are killed, flip a coin. On a heads, they stand back up and keep coming. This only works once. 

The Beast of Rantine will never attack Maenads, and has in fact been observed to join in their frenzied dancing. 

BAMBI WAS A BOY

Why speak of traps? There are none of them here; no snares, no false appearances, no formal betrayals, and no hunter tracing the vector from the long barrel of the rifle that he carries outwards to the body and the heart of his most gentle prey. 

-

The first thing to know about me is that you cannot put your hands on me, cannot catch or hold me, or stop me in any way. You might say my body is like smoke, or like a dream or a hologram — you can see me perfectly clearly, but if you reach out to touch you will find nothing but air.

Of course this or that rough or uncouth hand might get lucky now and then. It is impossible I think to be absolutely discreet in these things. But even if I am occasionally delayed this way it will only be for a few minutes — perhaps an hour at most — and then you will lose me again. And this is not so bad. There is no cruelty or cleverness in this dispersal; there are no exceptions, and no reason why anyone in particular ought to feel singled out. 

I say it again: there is no cruelty here. 

-

There is the body, which is illuminated in harsh spot lighting, and there is the space around it, which is lost in shadows. A brutal chiaroscuro, employed here like a scalpel to cut the subject from its ground. 

You take such joy in the complicated arrangements of the frame, your eye, the dark ground and the subtlety of the body before it. Normally you would say that the oversaturated subject was the more real and vivid, and that the opaque darkness behind was merely its substrate, the dream or the chaos or the negation that is its vital grounding.

But here I think that the postures are reversed. It is exactly by its vivid brilliance that the body slips away; it doesn’t quite vanish, but in any case it is no longer accessible, maybe no longer even present. 

And this means that even though the body is clearly visible it is also absent, and it means that what is still present (and was always present) in the wake of this complicated game of transparencies is the black obscurity of the ground, which is formless, disgorging monsters. 

Commissioned to accompany the painting show Mourning Never Comes, for Gallery Bargum, Berlin, May 2026.  

Class: Psychic

Two Stories About Giants

The White City, that famed metropolis, has for its creation myth a story of ten giants and a human child, who built and administered the polis in its first days. In this story the invincible giants made a choice amongst themselves: to be subservient to the will of the child who would become Emperor. The intended moral instruction of this decision is debated. Their monstrous remains are said to be built into the curtain wall of the palace, that they might defend the empire even after their deaths. 

The Rantines of the north tell a different story. They speak of the Ten Heroes, the bloody-handed ones, the original sires of their race, who taught them blood-drinking, chemistry, dancing, and future sight. The Ten Heroes came down from the boiling jungles and found the Rantines living like mud eels in the flooded meadows and swamps that form its border. The Heroes showed them how to build fortifications, how to drain land and sink foundations, and instructed them to build a city that would never be vanquished from the earth. 

Then the Ten Heroes ventured south, each searching for their individual doom, and disappeared from the histories. 

Psychics

The giants of the northern jungles are know to possess precognitive and oracular powers. Their abilities originate in the third eye that sits in the centre of their foreheads, the place that the Rantines call the Crown. 

Very rarely, a Rantine will manifest something of this terrible power (and even more rarely, humans of the other races of the world - there are even some Baronials who have been observed to manifest 'the knack', presumably via intermarriage with the people of the Old Capital). In the old days it was a sign of great favour and fortune, and commoners who showed promise with the gift could be raised into the nobility. The military of the Old Capital made extensive study of the giants and of human psychics, and that research powered much of their terrible arsenal of war. In the current day, the White City requires that all psychic phenomena be reported and psychics registered, and takes pains to extradite them to the capital, and recruit them into its military.

Unlike the giants, whose gift is wholly concentrated in the Crown, human psychics rely on a distribution of energy through their bodies. They 'shape' or 'project' or 'read' energies and auras, and they shift these through nodes and channels in their respiratory, vascular, and neurological systems. This process is known to degrade the human body over time, but has many miraculous effects. It is not magic as it is understood in the Barony, and does not appear to have anything to do with entities. Many academics in the present day prefer to treat psychics as a myth, or an exotic traveller's tall-tale. 

Further north, their modern day reputation is something like a secret or military police corps: rare and dangerous White City spooks, whose presence betrays the active interest of the pragmatists. 

Psychic

When you create a psychic, you must choose whether you wish to play a White City Operative or a Rantine Supremacist. This will change your starting gear and skills, but has no bearing on your templates. Rantine Supremacy is extremely illegal, and if you are discovered to be one you will be hunted and probably sentenced to death.  

You might want to play a psychic of some other provenance - you are encouraged to come up with a different set of gear and skills with your DM, as appropriate. 

 

Skills: if you are a White City Operative, choose two from: moving silently, climbing, breaking and entering, silent takedowns, and playing the Image Game. You also have a handler in the White City military. If you are a Rantine Supremacist, choose two from: formal etiquette, history, forgery, avoiding notice in a crowd, poisons, or bloodlust (-1 to weapons damage for the duration of a combat if you have recently tasted blood from one of the enemies in that combat). You also have connections in the revolutionary underground. 

Gear: if you are a White City Operative, you have form-fitting light armour, a light combat knife, a White City Blaster, mirrored goggles, and d3 Intelligence Reports. If you are a Rantine Supremacist, you have a full set of Rantine Finery in addition to your usual clothing, a medium spiral sword or heavy spiral spear that you are proficient with, a steel tooth prosthesis, and a pistol with powder and ammunition for 20 shots. 

A White City Blaster is a sealed, single-shot steel pistol that fires as a blunderbuss. It is waterproof, smokeless, and fires with a quiet thwwpppp. Once used it is useless and can be discarded. The internal firing mechanisms are self-sabotaging, to forestall reverse-engineering. 

Intelligence Reports allow you to ask for a briefing on a specific character or region. The DM will provide you with an accurate, up-to-date sketch of the person or place, with any pertinent information included. You must declare what your reports are focused on at character creation. 

Rantine Finery will let you attend formal events in that city, and be taken seriously by its noble class. It can also be sold as a set for 300s in the White City, and 500s further south. If you take the time to carefully sell each piece individually, these are 400s and 650s respectively. 

You add Psychic templates/2 (rounding up) to your hit rolls. 

A: -1 hp, The Knack, Energy Sculpting, choose one technique, roll one technique, roll one doom.
B: -1 hp, Stillness, roll one technique.
C: -1 hp, Illusion Techniques, Breathing Techniques, roll one technique.
D: -1 hp, To Draw Wire from the Soul, choose one technique. 

The Knack: You have a single Psi Dice, which starts as a d4. Choose one technique from the following list, then roll an additional one - you gain additional techniques as indicated above. If you roll a technique you already possess, you may choose to step up or down one space until you get to one you do not possess. You must always roll your Psi Dice when using a technique, and you may always choose to make a maximum roll (which will deplete, as explained below in Energy Sculpting); if you do so, you immediately take d6 burnout damage. 

Techniques

1. To the Limbs. You focus on your extremities, their hardness and swiftness. Your fists and feet count as heavy weapons for a round, with an expanded crit range equal to [sum]. They can also be used as crowbars, hammers, vice grips, etc. for the duration. 
2. To the Belly. You breath deep down into your stomach, and gain [sum] temporary hp, which disappears at the start of your next round. 
3. To the Heart. The beauty of your soul manifests at your shoulder. [Sum] enemies in combat must save CHAR to attack you this round, and you give off golden light as a torch for the duration. 
4. To the Palm. If you can place your open palm on someone, you can accurately identify illness and curses, blind or deafen them for [sum] rounds, or transfer 1 point of hp between the two of you (in either direction) to a maximum of [sum/2] rounds. This cannot raise either person above their max hp, and contact must be unbroken for the duration. In combat, placing your palm on someone to facilitate this is an attack that deals no damage. 
5. To the Eye. The vision is like a scalpel, infinitely subtle. For a round, you can move anything that you can see via telekinesis. Your extensive self has a STR equal to [templates] x [sum]. Doing this in combat requires focus that precludes other action. You can also speak telepathically to anyone you can make eye contact with, up to [sum] words. They can't speak back. 
6. To the Lungs. Breath is the foundation of everything. You breath, and the universe breathes with you. For the duration of the round, you cannot be moved against your will, you are immune to fear damage and other mental effects, and you have damage resistance equal to [sum/2]. 
7. To the Loins. Let the seed of life fill you and drive you, like a white fire that heals where it should burn. You gain +1 attack in melee for the round, as well as +[sum] to hit. If you spend this round doing nothing but drinking human blood, you heal [sum/4] hp. You can't regain hp this way more than 2 + [CON mod] times per day - more than this you simply throw back up.
8. To the Mind. Like the tip of an arrow, like the sea, like glass, like flowing water. Your AC increases by [sum] for the round as you step between blows with inhuman grace and celerity. You shout with joy each time you do so. 
9. To the Extensive Body. The border of the self is not the skin. This round, ignore [sum] weapon attacks that originate outside of the extensive body (ie, not melee attacks). Where they strike this invisible barrier, it flares up with fire the colour of your soul. You can use this to shield others standing next to you. 
10. To the Expanded Self. Spend a turn stilling the mind, turning inward, and then allow yourself to expand. For about a minute, you can detect the presence of souls within [sum x 10] ft, and can hone in on any [sum] of them to read their surface thoughts. You can distinguish between sentient and non sentient souls.

Energy Sculpting: The maximum size of your Psi Dice grows once per template you gain in Psychic, from d4, to d6, to d8, to d10. You roll your Psi Dice every time you use one of your techniques - on a 1-3 it does not deplete, but on anything greater than a 3, it downgrades one 'size'. If your d4 downgrades, you lose your Psi Dice, and access to your techniques, until you can regain it. Meditating in the lotus position (for a spook) or with one hand raised in prayer (for a Supremacist) for on hour upgrades your Psi Dice one 'size', up to its maximum allowed by your templates, or gives you back your Psi Dice at d4 if you have lost it. 

Stillness: You are never surprised in combat. All attempts to read your mind or coerce you using magic fail. You cannot be scried on, and can choose to make your soul invisible.

Illusion Techniques: At the beginning of your turn, you may spend hp to create that many illusionary duplicates. All of you take a turn simultaneously, and then at the end of the turn you can declare which was really you. The actions of the duplicates are then undone. 

Breathing Techniques: You can hold your breath for up to a month without ill effect. 

To Draw Wire from the Soul: At any time, you can choose to take as many d6s in damage as you wish, and deal equivalent damage to all creatures within 50ft. You may choose instead to deal the damage only to a creature that you have eye contact with. You may also choose to lose 1 point of max hp to add an additional d6 to this damage, as many times as you wish. This template can only be used while your Psi Dice is a d10, and when you use it, you also lose your Psi Dice as though it was depleted at d4. 

The Ten Dooms of the Bloody-Handed Heroes

1. The Doom of Fate. Gydorah cheated death, and then death, ever jealous, ever invincible, cheated her. You roll thrice on the death and dismemberment table and take the worst result. 
2. The Doom of the Solar Disk. Astopal built great, black wings that he might discover Heaven behind the sun. You take maximum damage from fire. 
3. The Doom of Ill-Made Stars. Belagrad discovered and made war on the dragons in the freezing void. He was bested. You cannot sleep on moonless nights, and take maximum damage under starlight. The Star People, should you ever be unfortunate enough to meet them, despise you above all others.
4. The Doom of Blood. Gorphrax drank from some tainted well, and cursed his line forever after to live as beasts. You cannot stomach rations that are not human blood or uncooked human meat. If you are ever deprived you have [templates] + [WIS mod] (min 1) days before you become an uncontrollable monster until sated. 
5. The Doom of Madness. Ashan Xiloc saw her lover torn to pieces, and never recovered. You invert your mental boni, and are illiterate and innumerate. You are also immune to gaze attacks. 
6. The Doom of Melancholy. Palan sailed out into the ocean in a small boat with no sail, and was never seen again. You cannot swim, and all healing is 1 point less effective for you. 
7. The Doom of the Dreamer. Cypromanter's body survived nearly two centuries without his mind. When it finally died, it is said that the flesh had turned to diamond. You can never travel to the Dreamlands, and if somehow you are forced to you will never leave under any circumstances. Roll a new character. You intuitively know the route west from the Lantern Berth, to the Islands Where the Sun Goes to Die. 
8. The Doom of Solipsism. Kryptos turned away from her companions, disgusted by their weakness, until finally she stood alone. You cannot accept helpful actions from others. You (you personally, not your party, as long as you are not doing the talking) have -2 to all reaction rolls with humans. 
9. The Doom of Weakness. Ensee could not protect the ones he loved, nor, ultimately, himself. Your panic threshold is halved. 
10. The Doom of the Seeming of Strength. Pelmander destroyed every foe that raised a hand to her and nonetheless died alone, in the most abject pain. Should you ever contract a disease, it is incurable. This includes magical cures. 

Rantine Nobles

Rantine Gear

 

A quick followup to this post, with some gear specific to the Third City. 

• Glass Knives. Frightening weapons that leave really nasty internal injuries, mostly used by hoodlums and street toughs to intimidate people. The hardwood club and glass knife are associated with the Rantine Mob, and with the bad ends of those they choose to move against. A glass knife is a light weapon that damage you as well as your target if you critically miss with it, regardless of proficiencies. If you crit with it, you instead break the blade off in the wound - thereafter the target will take d6 damage per turn that they move or take an action, until they spend a whole turn fishing the shard out of themselves, which also deals d6 damage. If you are a Rantine native, or have Fighter or Bravo templates, you can attempt to break the blade without a crit, which is a normal attack at -4. 
• Fang Prosthesis. A steel (or, if you are poor, a ceramic or even wooden) denture that replaces the teeth completely. They are fastened to the bone of the jaw, and hollowed and shaped to facilitate the draining of blood from a bite, down into the throat. If you have someone helpless, or if they are a willing participant, you can drink their blood like a vampire. If you were desperate, you could use them as extremely awkward weapons of last resort (as improvised piercing). There are some models that incorporate ingenious little injectors, and which can be loaded with poisons and other surprises. By far the item on this list most strongly associated with Rantine, and especially with its hereditary nobility. 
• Rocket Weaponry. It is the military artillery of the White City that forms the cutting edge of rocketry in the currently age, but the Rantines invented the art, and their weaponsmiths and artificers are still among the best in the world. Rantine rockets burn red, and fly in straight arcs, as opposed to the Imperial models (burn white, corkscrew). A rocket weapon is a pistol or musket which rolls to hit with disadvantage (and is slow moving enough to facilitate active interdiction or evasion by something with sufficiently quick reflexes), but which damages everything within 15 feet of the target if it hits. Even on a miss, half of those in the AOE will take half damage. On a critical miss for those without proficiency (Rantine natives, White Citizens, and Fighters have this by default), you centre the shot on yourself. Each individual shot costs about as much as a whole pistol or musket. 
• Rantine Spice. A thick, acrid, bright red spice mix that comes pre-mixed in pungent oil. Rantines put it on everything, and complain loudly about the flavourlessness of foreign food. Southerners joke that it is made from the poisons that accrete in the boiling sea. A very strong and difficult-to-acquire taste, but beloved by those who grok it. A small pot of Spice (1/3 INV) can be used to extend up to 20 rations, such that they count double, and last twice as long before spoiling, if spoilage is an issue. It will also sell for good money in the White City, and very good money in the Barony or the steppe. Rantine street toughs are known to snort back pellets of this stuff such that it coats the back of their throats - a practice largely intolerable to even the most die-hard southern aficionados. If you can pick up this trick, and do it without gagging or coughing (CON save at minimum), you have an easy in with Rantine hoodlums and Juggers. 
• Rantine Lace. This is what any Rantine of means will be dressed in day-to-day, and is the chief export of the Third City in the current day. Worn properly, a garment of Rantine Lace covers the whole of the body save the face. It features elaborate ruffs, sleeves, and corsetry, and is often subtly tailored to accentuate the classical Rantine height, slimness, and elongation. A bonnet or head-piece will cover the hair and build out the head, such that the tooth prosthetics and enormous eyes are most of what you see. In peacetime the ancient Rantine wore white lace, and in wartime they wore red - the wearing of red lace is currently illegal. Wearing the whole ensemble might get you some funny looks in the south by those who know what it is, but the individual pieces are highly fashionable and sought after. The Old Capital in particular was known to have an insatiable appetite for Rantine lace. 
• Treated Timber Proofing. They use various chemical treatments to build boats and barges capable of traversing their sea without damage. Essentially this treatment makes a piece of wood, paper, leather, etc, acid proof, at enormous expense. Proofing must be refreshed every five years or so. 

Vampire Hunter D. Yes, Rantines look like vampire-classic.

Bloodborne