Campaign: From The Ashes¶
High Concept: Superheroes fighting for the future of humanity in the ashes of an alien invasion
Trouble: Aliens and Survival
Source Book: From The Ashes
Rules Modifications¶
These are rules modifications for the From the Ashes campaign. They are likely applicable to any campaign that is targeting a superhero level of power.
WARNING
These changes are currently tentative and may (and probably will) be changed before the game is started. And also possibly during the game, so there is that.
Current Status: Request For Comments
Demiurges & Creation¶
Since we aren’t doing world creation, and thus Facts, you can skip all the stuff about Demiurges and Setting Facts.
Crew¶
We’ve largely decided that everyone is a member of the same Emergency Response Reserves unit, and thus know each other for some time before the begin of play.
The ERR can be activated for humanitarian and natural disasters, and is organized under FEMA. They have historically only been activated in response to hurricanes, earthquakes, dam collapses, and similar sort of events.
As a reserve it has the normal one weekend a month and two weeks a year training requirements.
Power Level¶
To represent a higher starting power level than the orphan farm-boy, we’ll be increasing starting XP.
Starting XP: 60
Drawback¶
Replace Trouble with Drawback.
The drawback, must still be a drawback after the apocalypse.
Think of the normal set from Champions/DC Heroes/Gurps Supers/etc and give it some color and spin. Here are some examples with and without color:
Addiction (Opioid Addict)
Cannot Heal (Must Be Repaired)
Inhuman Appearances (Wolf Hybrid)
Dark Secret (Killed a Child in Rage)
Enemy (Hunted by Victim’s Father)
Mistrust (Shifty Eyes)
Physical Restriction (Missing Arm)
Power Loss (Power from the Wand)
Strange Attractor (Tool of Fate)
Unlucky (Cursed Fortune)
Vulnerability (Frost Burns)
Many of the usual Drawbacks that are more roleplaying related are captured by Paths and so should be acquired that way.
Dependent (Path of the Guardian/Love)
Exile (Path of the Outcast)
Fame (Path of Renown)
Path of the Vow
Path of the Ideal/Belief
Path of Greed
Path of Vengeance
Boons¶
Free: Emergency Response Reservist (or a variant) (Tier 1)
Free: Character’s High Concept (Tier 1)
Free: Character’s Drawback (Tier 1)
Consider which Boons will survive the apocalypse.
Locations¶
The Tier 1 Locations are:
Washington DC Metro Area
Baltimore Metro Area
Eastern Shore and Chesapeake
Western Maryland
Central Maryland
Northern Virginia
Edges¶
Cost: XP cost for Edges is reduced to 15xp.
Free Edges:
Focused Power
Color: The character can reach deep and tap the Changed power deep within them and unleash it with force normally beyond their reach.
Rules: The character may pay a favor, and one boon related to their changed nature provides double the level of advantage that it normally does (e.g. a tier 2 power would provide 4 levels of advantage.).
Note: This is broader than most edges are allowed to be.
Beyond Human
Color: The character’s changed nature makes them no longer bound by human limits.
Rules: The character may spend a favor and may convert any dice they have not yet rolled into +1 values up to the maximum the pool could roll.
Special: If another favor has been spent on this roll, Beyond Human can be activated for free.
Favor¶
Gain one Favor at the beginning of each scene up to a maximum of 3.
This replaces getting one favor if the character is at zero at the start of a scene.
All other methods of gaining Favor still work, but instead grant Reserves.
If a character is out of favor they may choose to take a wound or trauma (as narratively appropriate), but that wound or trauma is deferred until the end of the scene, but before the recovery roll.
Note that this is a Wound/Trauma, not Blood/Stress.
Reserves¶
In a situation where a character has no favor and chooses to take a wound/trauma, they may instead spend a point of reserves.
A character may have up to 3 points of reserves.
Quests¶
XP will be awarded outside of quests, however the creations of quests is still possible, encouraged and recommended.
Anyone can create up to 2 quests at the end of a session.
If a quest is completed during a session, more xp is rewarded and a point of reserves is granted to whoever created the quest.
The more the quest allows the GM to prepare for the next session the more XP it is worth.
There can be a maximum number or quests equal to the number of players in the campaign.
If we are at the max quests, a quest can be abandoned without the usual waiting period.
Logos¶
Since we aren’t doing world creation, and are handling quests without Logos, no need to track Logos.
Working Together¶
If two Heroes wish to work together, under base rules one hero can lend a boon and it would replace whatever the other Hero could use for that pool in their strategy (if it makes sense).
That still applies, but in the case where the character doesn’t have a boon that is better, but does have an equal tier boon, they may lend that boon and it will add one additional level of advantage on top of whichever boon is being used for that pool.
Each pool may only benefit once in ths way, and the synergy between the boon lent and the rest of the Strategy may be subject to closer scrutiny.