[Any text in these kinds of brackets is commentary and to be removed.] [The text is provided with three levels of headings, the chapter, subchapter and subsubchapter. The first type is not designated specially. There's also a number of "boxes" and "sidebars" for layout purposes. They are suggestions only, as far as placement goes.] [The text includes a number of formatting conventions: /cursive or other emphasis/ *bold or other emphasis* _underline or other emphasis_ - list x)numbered list [any other comments or guidelines are in brackets] These are to be removed during layout.] [Language editor: English is not my first language, so take especial care in considering sentence structure and grammar. Any stilted or erraneous forms are most likely not intentional.] [the table of contents, for editor's convenience. To be removed. The Fall of Atlantis and the Dawn of Human History The world and the style The idea Setup Character creation and development Game mechanics Die pyramids Conditional modifiers The planning mechanic Characters and statists The overview The campaign Turn order The vignette The reflexive rolls The actions The turning point The aftermath The year summary The Engine Actions Campaign arc The endgame GMing chapter GM dice The GM goals Pointers ] The Fall of Atlantis and the Dawn of Human History [introductory] /Atlantis - the kingdom of the seas, it's everything Plato dreamed of and more. It's the ideal state, ruled by philosopher kings ultimate in wisdom and great in the human arts. Hardly human, they, but greater for it surely. Atlantis - she rules the world, taking slaves and servants from among the humans and trading baubles for the raw resources she needs. All peoples have heard of the sea kings, and human leaders bow to their might. Never are the peoples of the Earth free as Atlantis floats upon the surface. Atlantis - the land of science and magic, wisdom over human imagination. Perfect with their gods disbelieved and might ascendant. The atlanteans know how to move the Earth and the heavens, and that will be their doom. Atlantis - everything Moorcock and Howard, Shelley and professor Marinatos ever dreamed of and more. But doomed to fall. What that fall portends for the world is now in your hands./ The Fall of Atlantis and Dawn of Human History is a roleplaying game for a GM and some players. It takes the play group through the last generations of Atlantis and the first ones of human history. On the way maybe some answers about humanity are learned. For play you'll need pens and papers and lots'a dice. The world and the style Before the last ice age in a pulp paradigm. The humans are more or less like today, but they have barely learned the first principles of agriculture here and there. There might be some neanderthals somewhere to spice things up. Despite their barbarity the humans have extremely rich oral traditions, everything national romantics hoped for. They are extremely human, savage and noble. [box] The GM will be the main player to play humans and the world outside Atlantis. He should not be afraid of wonder and extreme colors in depiction, as Atlantis will have the same. Humans are either noble savages or degenerated wildlings, scholars of the woods or indifferent fools. Likewise the world could include anything from mammoths to forests of giant trees, lacking not in grandeur. [/box] The only significant power on Earth is Atlantis, the island state lying somewhere in the northern Atlantic. It's an island and a city, a great metropolis with millions of residents. It's technology level is parallel to modern day, and it's rulers hold on to strange magical secrets. Atlantis brings food and resources from Eurasia, Africa and America (though no doubt they have different names for the continents). The same holds true for slaves, which are used extensively in accordance with the social ideal. Socially Atlantis is the platonic ideal state in all it's horrifying grandeur. The Atlantean race - distinct and distinguishable from humans - occupies the higher levels of society due to competence, while human slaves and servants of various status fill the majority of roles. This is a completely working version of the ideal state, with no coersion or nepotism. Humans are given a shot at the caste exams, but rarely anyone passes. [box] The supernatural has a pulp feel to it. Everything is possible, nothing is understood fully, magic approaches science and vice versa. Generally everything supernatural is however tied inextricably to Atlantis, sometimes with ties only dimly understood. Some examples of what could be true: - There once was another state like Atlantis, the island of MU in the Indian ocean. It is no more, probably owing to portentous reasons. - The ancient gods of the atlantean religion are asleep under the antarctic ice, dreaming of worship they are bestowed. - Atlanteans have an enormous research station, "Project Gaia", in the arctic region, tapping into the planet's magnetic field for electric and magical power. [/box] There came a time in the Atlantean development when they considered the questions of life and death finally resolved to their satisfaction. Consequently the Atlantean philosopher kings have gained a certain modicum of hubris, which may have lead to their fatal mistake. The temperature of Atlantis was once comparable to Canada or northern Europe, which did not overly please the people when their mind was turned to their own betterment. They used their considerable technological and magical powers to shift the weather of Earth to make of their island home the paradise they deserved. This will prove their downfall. For years all went well, but now, a hundred years later, Atlantean scientists have found out that their tampering with the weather has resulted in further changes. A new ice age will come much faster than it should. Weather will start cooling with alacrity until only polar bears and penguins can live in Atlantis. Alarming news, but the Atlanteans are confident that they can deal with this. If they could shift the poles once, surely they can do it again? To make the matters worse, the human tribes of the continents have gotten all the more restless in the years of late. It's as if an ancient curse of the people of MU is finally taking hold... Well, if that's the case, we can deal with that too. It's not as if the Atlanteans were foreigners to the magical arts. [box] Nevertheless the world pales compared to Atlantis, whose millenial culture, science, magic and philosophy are paramount. Atlantis is all humanity could be, hypercompressed to one place and time. The players should cooperate in laying out the visual and factual texture of the Atlantean society and culture. All historical stylings and futuristic visions are possible inspirations, although transcendental mysticism and enlightement will probably be an important undercurrent regardless, and everything is predicated on a comfortably loose interpretation of Plato. Atlantis itself is a huge metropolis with a multitude of social classes and lifestyles. It's mores and expectations range from simple to elaborate in different situations, it's government sharing different aspects with anarchy, caste feudalism and democracy. One part of the city could be completely different from another, except for the underlying ideal. The city has enjoyed an era of unforeseen peace and expansion during the late centuries, and therefore has no standing army at all, and being an ideal state, no police forces either. There is an absolute freedom of speech and thought for the upper classes, while the servitors are taught myths and legends suitable for inspiring content and fealty. [/box] [subchapter]The idea Players take the roles of Atlantean philosopher kings. The inner structure of the caste is almost anarchic, with everyone doing what they feel best for the state. Everyone has enormous resources in their disposal. Play progresses a year at a time, with each player character choosing for himself how he spends the year. The Atlanteans live normally about as long as humans, so when a character dies of old age the player continues with one of his offspring. The main effort for the philosopher kings of this age is to try to save the Atlantis from the calamities befalling the nation. As the weather grows colder the human tribes start yearning for freedom and as Atlantis weakens from the growing cold, it's riches start to draw raiders. It's a question of whether Atlantis disintegrates from inside before the raiders get it, really. When the characters finally realise the inevitable fate of Atlantis, they have to start planning for the future. The real story of the game is the story of history, how the thousands of years of Atlantean stasis are broken, and what happens then. The characters will save a fragment of Atlantis, and that will give them a say in the future. Will they conquer a new, land-based empire? Will they ally themselves with humans? Will they die? Will Atlantis become a myth that once was, or shall it's legacy endure through history? Setup The game is played in the traditional manner with the GM running the ancient world outlined above. The players will each run their characters, who however have much to say about most things: they are highly educated philosopher kings with great resources, so there's not much a player cannot decide outright. This means that the players have quite a bit of authorship. The rules do not make a mechanical distinction between the GM and the other players, and "player" will always mean both where not specified. The world isn't detailed any more heavily than the above setting explanation. The players can extrapolate as they wish. The point of play is to address some pretty heavy themes from the atlantean sociology to the real meaning of morality and human history, so the GM should probably have working knowledge of what he's doing when making decisions about the world. [box] Suggested background reading for color and issues includes - *Plato's* /Republic/, a seminal work on authoritarian society and it's benefits. - *Karl Popper's* /Open Society and it's Enemies/, the standard rebuttal of Plato and his successors. - Anything by *Doris Lessing*, a central scifi author of the hippie bend. - *Jean Untinen-Auel*, *Piers Anthony* and others have written entertaining romantized visions of the different degrees of savage life style. - Generally American genre authors who straddle the line between fantasy and science fiction tend to have suitable moods and themes in their books. Robert Silverberg's Majipoor cycle is a fine example. - As a twist, the fate of Númenor in /Silmarillion/ could inspire the game... All the players are free to delve into the material, especially if the game is intented as a longer running campaign. Understanding the issues of government and color Atlantis faces can only add to the game. [/box] With the above world outline in mind, the players can detail Atlantis and the world more heavily when necessary. The play group can choose a suitable aesthetic for the island. Possibilities range from futuristic scyscrapers to victorian rococoo and beyond, really. Atlantis is a wonder. The Atlantean people are great, too. They have some obvious differences compared to humans (other humans, properly, because they are of the same species), but that's it. My favourite is blue skin or hair, but it's customisable. Their culture is rational and mystical at the same time, including /real/ history about how they came from the stars before humans even were. What they know is likely correct as far as it goes, but they don't know everything. And wisdom is obviously lacking, being that they manage to destroy their island. [subchapter]Character creation and development [sidebar] Halfbreeds and Eugenics A half-breed is a progeny of mixed parentage, with both Atlantean and human ancestors. The percentage of Atlantean ancestors is used for rules purposes. All half-breeds are counted as Atlanteans for purposes of racial magic and technology. Visible Atlantean characteristics disappear rapidly towards 30% parentage, disappearing totally at 20% A character with less than 20% Atlantean heritage will be a half-breed only if the introducing player so wishes. A character with affinities will always be Atlantean or halfbreed, barring ancient people of MU and such GM inventions. A halfbreed with less than 80% but more than 50% Atlantean heritage will have two affinities, while one with at least 20% will have one. In reasonably close cases the player decides. If the character's parents are characters, the character will always get one affinity from each, and one freely chosen, always picked by the player. In half-breeds one of the affinities is always chosen freely, regardless of total number. A character's number of affinity and skill points per year depend on schooling. There are three types, the Atlantean, the incomplete and the human varieties. The Atlantean one is detailed in the main text and is available only to full Atlanteans (three affinities) schooled in Atlantis or colonies. The incomplete schooling is for humans (or half-breeds) schooled in Atlantis (or colonies) and atlanteans schooled by parents or otherwise incompletely, while the human schooling is for all other cases. The Atlantean schooling takes fifteen years, and can also be completed later in life. Incompletely schooled characters get one affinity point and two skill points per year, while human schooled characters only get one affinity point and one skill point per year. Humans without affinities do not gain affinity points. While a fully schooled character can always assign skill points to any skill as long as they stay in Atlantis or the colonies, any other kind of character has to actually have an opportunity for training in the skill. Incompletely schooled characters have to always have training opportunities, while human schooled characters can only learn skills they actively use during the year in a task roll or as supporting characters. "Training opportunities" are any in-game conditions needed to train in the skill, and making use of them is not an action. Although one could imagine that characters would gain fewer skill points during their schooling years, we will assume for ease of calculation that any character schooled before their twentieth year will gain the benefits of that schooling for all of their years. [/sidebar] [sidebar] Example skills and affinities Skills and affinities are exactly similar - affinities are essentially specialized skills. Sometimes the GM may however wish to limit some exotic subjects as affinities only, denying them from human characters. Likewise some things may not be possible as affinities, depending on the particulars of a given game's paradigm. The GM is the final arbiter of scope and applicability of a given skill, and should ensure more leeway for more exactly defined skills, and vice versa. *Arts* Dance Music Literature Painting *Sciences* Engineering Theoretical physics Biology Genetics Medicine Mathemathics *Magic* Necromancy Summoning Conjuration Divination Alchemy *Cultural* Religion Politics Depating Social engineering Language (one) History Philosophy *Natural* Survival Primitive warfare Modern warfare Hunting Mantis boxing Other skills should be invented as need arises, and they should be kept at this level of universality - a craft or occupation could be constructed around one, but not without supporting skills. Additionally the GM will actively allow inventive and heroic use of especially narrow skills while being stricter with broad ones. Thus it could come to pass that a beautiful painting influences the course of the nation... Example motivations Motivations are primarily player tools for signalling other players about their intentions towards play. Therefore there is no mechanical difference between character and player motivations. There is also no mechanical need for limiting motivation scope or sharpness, as those are negotiated through play. *Character motivations* Love towards someone Hate towards someone Becoming king/prophet/premier scientist/artist Gaining the respect of someone Supporting humans Saving Atlantis from ice/barbarians Resolving the mystery of MU *Player motivations* Being funny Driving for action Addressing some premise Telling a gripping story Building a dynastic storyline [/sidebar] At the start each player character is an Atlantean philosopher king, while later on their new characters will be the progeny of their former ones. The differences for character creation come from the character's genetic stock (pure or halfbreed) and schooling (Atlantean or human). The character creation details the creation of pure Atlantean kings, while the differences for other kinds of characters are outlined in sidebars. Each character is rules-wise defined through skills, affinities and motivations. The skills are things the character knows, wide enough to base an occupation on. The affinities are skills an Atlantean is born with, in which he exhibits supernatural competense. Motivations are the goals of the character and the player. In addition to the above formal considerations each character should have the traditional details of family, personality, background, appearance and so on. Political standing and family connections are especially pertinent for the situation philosopher kings find themselves in. First of all the player should choose the affinities his character exhibits. These are things the character is born to do, destined to excell in in some mystical sense. An adult character has always discovered where his affinities lie. No Atlantean may have philosophy as an affinity - in one sense they all have it, in another not one. The affinities can be anything allowable as skills, including any exotic subjects as well, in both modern and fantastic sense. Good ones might be theoretical physics, necromancy, modern warfare, divining, biology and other such fanciful subjects. Dance or literary arts work as well, though, depending on character goals. The characters will also have skills, the other things they learn through living on Earth. Skills are defined intuitively as character competence on an area wide enough to support an occupation. Presumably the GM will judge strange ideas, and it's especially important to negotiate the general outlines of supernatural skills ahead of time, to avoid misunderstanding. Although Atlanteans can certainly figure out a multitude of subjects, there are some things more likely than others. Magic is lonely and subjective work, and rarely taught in classroom, for example. Although exotic martial arts are studied, strategy has to be learned from books. History and the arts play a part in the caste exams, and characters are usually well versed in them. Almost all philosopher kings have Philosophy 10 or higher. Both skills and affinities are rated from zero up, with numbers representing competence and experience as per the accompanying table. Table values are of course means, and represent normal Atlantean expectations. [table] Value: Skill: Affinity: 0 Abnormally clueless A newborn 5 Basic understanding Middle school 10 Amateur interest High school 20 A young professional Adult 30 Master of the craft Middle aged 40 Human pinnacle 60 yrs. 50 Superhuman 75 yrs. [/table] The philosopher kings will have two points of affinities and three points of skills for each year of age. A player may leave these unallocated until needed, or choose them during character creation, all depending on preference. For affinities, a character must always allocate points in such a way that the affinities have at most half of the smallest value difference between them. For skills, there is the /skill pyramid/ limiting point allocation: The player will choose for every character skill two /support skills/, which characterize the perspective and approach of the character conserning the main skill. The significance of these is twofold: it's easier to get planning bonuses from the support skills, and the character can never have a skill more than ten points higher than it's lowest support skill. Support skills likewise need their own support skills if they are higher than 10. The supports need not be defined before the character rises to serious level in the skill - that is, over 10. [box] When descripting character action the players should take full benefit from the color provided by the support skills. A character whose Dance is informed by Music and some martial art will approach the art from a whole different direction than one inspired by Religion and Psychology, for example. [/box] After allocating skill and affinity points the players should detail the social web of the character - whose child he is, which party he supports, what others think of him, that kind of stuff. Likewise other character details should be decided, depending on taste. It should be noted that although a character may be married and have a family, the family still won't constitute characters without introduction (as per the campaign chapter). It's up to the GM to decide how much detail to track about personal resources, contacts and such. The player is free to decide character age, but under 20 is allowed only with GM permission. Skill and affinity point allocation is likewise free within the detailed limitations. Remember, points per year depends on character's schooling and heritage. [box] If a player wants a really old character, over 60 for example, the GM may make the player roll aging rolls for the character from for example year 50 onwards before bringing the character to game. Normally these should not be bothered with in character creation. [/box] The last step is for the player to decide on allocation of motivation dice. The dice are arranged in /motivation pyramids/ and are used when the character tries different tasks. Any /player or character motivation/ is suitable for a motivation pyramid, ranging from "being funny" to "saving Atlantis". The motivation can even be contrary to the actual wishes of the character, representing player wishes on the matter. Each pyramid represents one such motivation, although a motivation can also have many pyramids. The motivation pyramids are dice figures on table or paper, arranged with the largest dice on the bottom. The dice used in the game are all types from d1 (constant) and d2 (coin) through to d10, which is always the bottom die in a new pyramid. A new character gets motivation dice equal to character age, or less if the player prefers. Such dice are of any type and allocated freely to any number of motivation pyramids according to the following rules: Every row of the pyramid has one type of dice. Every row is either the same type as the last, or one type smaller. Every row has less dice than the row below. All pyramids are started with d10s. Dice are only ever added to the highest row, or a new row is started above it if possible. Game mechanics The system is task-driven, which means that game is run normally as cooperative storytelling until a character tries some task which could fail in an interesting manner. In those cases the resolution mechanic is consulted to figure out whether the character succeeds or fails in the task. Some of such /task rolls/ are system-determined, while some are originated by the GM or other players. When a character tries to succeed in a task the GM will determine a difficulty rating for the task. The accompanying table has some guidelines. The player won't usually know the difficulty, except by experience in similar situations or guesstimating from the particulars. The table here gives two different guidelines, one for "cultural" tasks and one for "natural" ones. This is because small-scale physical tasks are usually much easier to achieve than large projects, while not being able to benefit from many conditional bonuses. The GM considers freely which kind a given task should be. [table] Difficulty: Cultural tasks: Natural tasks: 0 Automatic Automatic 5 Routine Moderate 10 Moderate Hard 20 Hard Impressive 30 Impressive Unbelievable 40 Near impossible Legendary achievement 50 Unbelievable Locally paradigm shifting 100 Legendary achievement 150 Paradigm shifting [/table] Along with difficulty the skill to be used for the task is chosen. In every roll there is one primary skill a character uses for the roll, but there can be various bonuses, depending on helping characters, relevant skills and other conditional modifiers. The final sum of these is called the /effective skill/ value. Affinities are used exactly like skills. After difficulty and effective skill are determined the player in question gathers his dice for a roll. The goal of the player is to roll a sum total between the difficulty and character skill with the dice. The degree of success is better for higher rolls, but rolling either lower than difficulty or higher than skill is considered a failure. Rolling exactly the difficulty value is however a success regardless of skill, though only a marginal one. All the players whose characters participate in the task can add any dice from the characters' die pyramids to the roll as long as the motivation of the pyramid is relevant for the task at hand. The dice are always taken from either the top or the bottom of the pyramid. The player may assign his dice as either positive or negative values for the sum total before roll, even splitting the pool between the two. The negative option is mainly useful in sabotaging tasks and negating plannings (see the subchapter). Results under the difficulty signify lack of conviction and preparation, while those over skill stem from inexperience and impetuousness. The closer the result is to the effective skill value the better it is, while the difference can be used to guide narration of minor flaws in the task execution. In opposed rolls there may still be a difficulty value against which both sides roll, but the actual winner is in any case the one with the higher result still under skill. Setting difficulty value is appropriate if the conflict is such that both sides can fail. It should be noted that conditions of the task in-game are absolutely essential to the task. Simply having sufficient skill and being allowed by the turn structure is not enough to actually try a task. The character needs all actual resources, time and help a given task demands to try to pull it off. The GM will penalize or outright deny task rolls without appropriate conditions. [subchapter] Die pyramids The players will always have two types of /die pyramids/ for their characters: one type are the /motivation pyramids/, which are character specific and were detailed in the character creation chapter, while the other is the year pyramid which is player specific. The distinction is relevant mainly when a player has multiple characters or shares year pyramids with another player. Year pyramids are like the motivation pyramids except that they are not earmarked for tasks within a given motivation, and they are always removed at the end of the year (see the campaign chapter). Their dice are freely usable in any task rolls. The die pyramids are the sole source of dice for task rolls, so managing them is important for getting anything done. Dice from the pyramids are used solely by player decision, but the player has no say at all to getting new dice. When a player participates in the game the other players should reward that participation with dice for his pyramids. Any other player may give dice, and is never accountable to other players for his decisions in this matter. Dice are always added to pyramids according to pyramid rules, that is, adding to the top and in the correct die type. The players may wish to use simple counters for the rewards and let the player himself change them to appropriate dice for his pyramid. [box] If the players cannot make the freeform system of die rewards work due to misuse by individuals, the GM has ample powers of investigation and jurisdiction. Adults should have no problem, as misuse would require laughably gigantic pyramids and die rewards - if the other players won't notice such, they aren't clearly paying attention. If however the players cannot use the system due to no fault of their own, feeling uncomfortable with the social checks and balances, an alternative can be used: each player (including GM) has ten reward chips translatable to dice, which they give out as reward dice as normal. The chip pools are refilled when only one player has chips left. This system regulates rewards by forcing everyone to reward others and limiting reward amounts given out at once to roughly the same volume others are dishing out. [/box] Motivation dice are given when a player emotes that motivation for the game's benefit. Acts that further the goal in question or express character feeling are worth dice. A player always decides what motivation pyramids he wishes to have, and other players can only give dice to pyramids a player has announced. The year dice are given for generally good roleplaying, including any stuff happening that the player wants to promote, be it in-character or not. Especially year dice are given for task preparation, so that each verse of laudable roleplaying or narration gains a die when a player is trying to scrounge dice for a task. Obviously bribes for game-damaging behaviour damage the game themselves; bribing players to play well is on the other hand a time-honored GMing tactic. The rewarding player specifies always only the motivation rewarded (or that the reward is a general year die); die type and pyramid are for the gaining player to decide, and he can start new pyramids within the same motivation whenever he wishes to. Giving out dice interrupts any other game mechanics, and thus it can be done even in the middle of task resolution. If a character doesn't have sufficient dice for a task it's indeed the only solution for the player to postpone the roll and gain dice by narrating colorful game details. As for suitable dice rewards, they are the purview of the players. If a turn of the events justifies ten dice or you really want someone to succeed, go ahead and give however many you think appropriate. The other players should however agree, being that they are your friends. The following are good guidelines that should probably only be crossed when everyone agrees. *1 die*: These should fly quite constantly, for nice turns of the phrase and effort in characterization. Make a habit of throwing these out, actually. As long as you only reward at most once for each contribution, a one die reward won't be too much. Just remember to cut them off when someone doesn't contribute. *2 dice*: Give these out to distinguish from the common run of reward. In an energetic game one die rewards will flow constantly, so the players won't necessarily notice them as appreciation. Use two dice to emphasize. *3 dice*: Save three dice for what makes you smile. When a player does something you really like, give him three. On the other hand, dice can be used to structure narration, and should thus be meted out with deliberation when suitable. For big tasks the characters will need lots of dice, and every die can then represent some detail of preparation or execution the character takes. Cherish the opportunity to emphasize the task by demanding narration - after all, if the other player doesn't care enough, why should his character succeed? These are the three things which should make the dice flow; good stuff, interesting details and excellent behavior. Whether these mean acute battle plans or great speeches, fun jokes or evocative narration, you the player decide. It can happen that the player cannot scrounge enough dice for an especially hard task. That can happen to anybody with unexpected tasks and uninspiring situations. In those cases the other players should help the player in building the task pyramid by contributing ideas and description that awards dice. Roleplaying is about cooperation, after all, and the greatest pyramids are built by people working together. Some times players might feel like not caring enough to narrate task details. This should be taken as a sign that the character should automatically fail or succeed, as the GM decides, instead of rolling. Only interesting things should be taken as tasks, after all. [subchapter] Conditional modifiers Character skill is rarely the end-all of figuring out a task roll. Apart from scrounging up the dice there are a number of conditional modifiers that can add or substract to the roll. The sum of the skill and these modifications is the actual effective skill for the roll. The most important conditional modifier is the /drama argument/: when the GM is of the opinion that a given non-GM character really should succeed in a task, he can double the character's skill for the roll. This is for when a roll cannot be bypassed due to importance and because failure would be quite cool, too. If failure would be lame, don't roll at all. The drama argument cannot be whined for, and usually the GM just realizes that the sheer quality of passion the players have poured to the task deserves a success. Drama arguments being quite rare, it's more likely that the characters gain bonuses from other things. The sum of these bonuses can only ever be equal to character skill. The maximum effective skill is therefore thrice the base skill value, for cases of optimal conditions in conjunction with the drama argument. Any complementary skill of the character that is relevant to the task at hand adds a tenth part of it's value to the effective skill. It should be noted that tasks are skill sensitive, and although many problems can be solved with for example both technological and magical skills, the details of what the character is doing determine on appropriate skills for the task. Only in rare situations may successful technobabble or equivalent merge the gap. Like with skills, any helping characters can add a tenth of their skill value in the appropriate skill to the effective skill. This possibility is greatly limited by the conditions of the task, and it's up to the GM to set limits for numbers of helping characters, for example. No conditional modifiers may be calculated for the helping characters; only their base skill values in the relevant skill are considered. [box] Usually multiple characters can opt for separate efforts instead of support. In such situation each character rolls independently, and the successes are interpreted. Frequently it's enough for one character to succeed, so for competent characters it's frequently better to work separately (maybe using same resources and other conditional bonuses) than in full support. [/box] Any other factors quantifiable on the same scale can be calculated for tenth of their value. Circumstances and conditions of the task will determine if any such unexpected factors are relevant. If preparation helps in the task, every unit of time used in preparation adds one point to the effective skill. Such an unit may be anything from minutes up to a year with the largest projects, generally echoing the amount of time the task itself takes. The character must have the resources for preparation, too. Usually such preparation is usable multiple times or by multiple characters, especially with repeating tasks. Rest of the bonuses are up the the GM to adjucate. The attached table gives guidelines on extraordinary circumstances and suitable bonuses and minuses. Generally the GM should consider greatly differing circumstances as different tasks altogether, upping or lowering the difficulty instead of giving modifications to skill. The same task with Atlantean equipment is rarely comparable to that used by the barbarians, for example. In any case the base difficulty should assume sufficient tools and resources for the task, while lacking but still possible conditions are to be represented by skill penalties. [table] Modifier: Situation: +1/10 value Any quantifiable bonus +1 Preparation for the task, cumulative -+2 Minor edge or deficiency Tactical decision Quality or lacking tool -+5 Major edge or deficiency Strategic factor Supernatural or unsuitable tool -1/2 skill Skill only marginally relevant [/table] In certain campaign changing situations even doubling the skill rating and working for maximal conditional bonuses won't be enough (can you spell paradigm shift?). Then the only option for the characters is to try to use the high skill rolls to move some of the resources and know-how to suitable support structures. Perhaps some other actor can do what the character cannot. For example, when using magic to lift the whole island of Atlantis from the seabed and flying it to the south (difficulty 150, being a paradigm shifting task) the character can instead use his quite not big enough skill rolls to construct magical satellites that collect energy for the next hundred years for somebody else to try again with better chances. Or he could start a magical society among humans, with the goal of harnessing enough energy to rise his own base skill rating high enough. Where there's the will there's always a way. [subchapter]The planning mechanic As can easily be seen, the difference between difficulty and skill is the actual determining factor in character success. The same difference means however wholly different things on different skill levels. Due to the random nature of the dice a difference of ten is a near certainty with difficulty of five, while being almost hopeless with a difficulty of 50. Almost the only hope in such a situation is to optimize the dice, reap the conditional bonuses and go for the planning bonus. Planning is the mechanic of writing down a die result from a task resolution and adding it to a later task. If the planning value is close to the range of the task it will have a decisive affect, even making success automatic if it happens into the range itself. A character is eligible to do a planning task roll when there is an opportunity for planning and preparing the task at hand before actual execution. The planning mechanic is also used when the character executes many interrelated tasks in quick succession. A character may also sometimes force a planning value to another character. This won't always be beneficial - after all, a character prepared for one thing might be taken by surprise if the unexpected happens. Multiple planning values are always added together to gain the final value. For large scale, long range plans the players may note planning values for different tasks on their character sheets. For quick tasks and possible negative planning the GM takes care of the notes. When making a planning roll (that is, a roll with no other purpose than planning) the player rolls relevant skill against difficulty 0. Success generates the result as planning value. A planning roll can be done when the character has enough 1)time and 2)information on the task at hand. This consideration is apart from the task conditions and conditional bonuses, although generally a character able to do a planning roll will also gain at least one point of conditional preparation bonus. The generated planning value can be used later whenever the plan is put to motion. If the plan is constructive it adds the value to a given task roll, while if destructive, it will subtract from such a roll. Using an existing plan is not an action or task in itself. The second kind of planning roll is the /roll-over/, where a given task immediately affects another task. In such cases, the GM usually rules that the value of the first roll is added to the second. The third kind of planning roll is the /instinct roll/ which can be done instantly during the task itself as a reflexive roll, but only with the support skills of the task skill. The player may roll only one of the support skills, and only if it makes sense for the character's special perspective to be beneficial to the task at hand. [subchapter]Characters and statists Not every person of Atlantis and the world is a character as detailed in the preceding chapters. Most of the people of the world are simple statists, and conform to a different set of rules. Unlike characters, statists do not have a fully detailed complement of skills, affinities and motivations - instead they use year dice and a single /potency/ value denoting their capability in their specialty. Potencies are essentially skills, but with different handling of conditional modifiers. Usually statists won't perform outside their potency. The potency generally has one descriptor for every starting ten points of value. The descriptors are skill-like and convey the specialities of the statist. If a statist does not have a full complement of descriptors any player may assign those while delegating something to the statist. During the play of the game the players get opportunities for /introducing characters/, which is the process of making a character out of a statist. When a character is introduced the usual character creation is possible, although in many cases it's postponed until needed. Statists can support task rolls, but are not cumulative - only the highest potency is used. Likewise statists can sometimes perform tasks, but gain no benefit from conditional modifiers, planning values or motivation dice. A statist performing a task uses full potency value only when performing routine tasks - in all other situations they instead use the support value of 1/10, even if there is no character to lead the effort. In such cases the full support value is used as the base skill value. Statists use always the dice of the player wanting the statist to act. Many players may allocate dice. Additionally the player can have a single motivation pyramid for a given statist as a kind of extension of his character. Such a motivation is named for the statist and spans anything the statist does. Some times it's possible for a player's character to provide the motivation for a statist's effort without himself leading, in which case the character can use motivation dice. Unlike characters, statists need not even be persons. For ease of play and streamlined narration organizations, movements, parties and other abstractions can be handled as statists. The most important of these is Atlantis itself, the greatest power on Earth. Atlantis starts the game with a potency value of 100. It's potency is "Great resources", and manifests in the form of troops, specialist, professionals, technology and magic. The potency can be used for nearly anything, but will nearly always only support. Gaining the use of the full value of the potency takes great political effort as an action. As long as they regain their position as philosopher kings, the characters can always gain the support of Atlantis in any task where applicable. Likewise they can delegate many tasks to the state machine without lifting a finger themselves. At the start of the game the characters can effectively add 10 to all skills (at most doubling skill value) or delegate any task to the bureaucracy to deal with at skill 10. Later on, when the communication and society break down, the characters probably won't be able to draw on Atlantis. Instead they can gain support from the colonies. They have potency values as well, and work exactly like Atlantis in this regard. Other important statists can be different human tribes, Atlantean social movements or even influences of the gods. Atlantis is the greatest of all, though, at least before the Fall. [subchapter]The overview The skill rules are given with such relative detail because it's through them that the characters will affect the fate of the world. Most skill use should be comparatively large scale, as is soon to be seen. The GM doesn't have much leeway in swamping characters with task rolls, as most of the time their number is limited. Instead play should concentrate on detailing single tasks. It's important to be able to differentiate between the different aspects of the task rolls and their requirements. To recap, these are - Minimal conditions - Base skill value - Difficulty - Conditional bonuses - Planning values - Die pools The minimal conditions demanded for doing the job are important - a character can hardly fly to the Ashen mountain without a plane, after all. There are always such conditions which have to be fulfilled for a character to even try. The base skill value is also important, as it degrees largely how well the character can do in the roll. If he doesn't know how to pilot a plane, there's no chance of getting to the air. Difficulty is for many tasks the defining element. The way the game plays, if the player knows or guesses that the difficulty of flying to the Ashen mountain is 30, he will mold his try to the fact. Conditional bonuses stem from boons and banes apart from the minimal conditions. Even if a character has a plane, it's quite helpful to also have a copilot and harmful to have to fly an old model plane. The possibility of the drama argument shouldn't be forgotten, either. Planning values are relevant if the character has the time and knowledge to think ahead or roll his past victories over to the task. If the character has a map, he might well better his changes by taking the time to plan. Alternatively, the map may cause him a negative planning value, if it should be a fake. Finally, character motivation and the general competence of the player play a big role in the dice rolled for the task. For routine tasks the dice most likely have to be big and clunky, while an important feat will enjoy small, almost constant polyhedrons. The campaign [subchapter]Turn order The actual play of the game is structured into turns, which each take one year of game time. Each turn constitutes several phases of play, in which every player makes certain decisions for his character. A given year will always include the following parts: 1) The vignette 2) The reflexive rolls 3) The actions 4) The turning point 5) The aftermath The years should be relatively fast, so the GM is encouraged to use any means available to speed the game up. Make the players perform rolls and calculations to get some speed, if need be. One year will take from fifteen minutes to an hour of play time, depending on how much is happening. The average should be clearly under half an hour. [subsubchapter]The vignette First thing every year is the /vignette/. This is a short ritual-like narration performed by any willing player (mostly the GM). It can be a pure mood piece of exposition, a flashback or explanation of events of the last year; the main purposes are to stress the passing of the year and give the players an unparalleled opportunity for taking a higher point of view. The vignette can be seen as a lectern or stage, and used for sermons, poetics or explanations. Only one player may take the vignette every year, with the GM giving turns. The point is not to prepare the vignette beforehand, but to improvise with concentration. The vignette should really be as short as practical, optimally only half a dozen sentences. [subsubchapter]The reflexive rolls After the vignette will come the rexlexive rolls. In this phase the GM narrates the general outline of what has happened during the year. If there is anything in the report that the characters want to react to, this is the time for the rolls. The GM will modify the report by the roll results, of course. Fast, furious and very out of character at this stage. The scope of things that can happen through reflexive rolls is very limited, but there can be any necessary amount of them in a year. Specifically the other players cannot act during the phase, and no permanent changes can result from the rolls. The limitation from action for the other players means that their characters can only react, not act in the reflexive phase. So any action has to be a response to events introduced by the GM. "Permanent change" is any change affecting unique concepts of the game world. Thus reflexive rolls cannot affect permanent changes to characters, tribes, countries or Atlantis, for example. Note that it's still possible to for example permanently destroy a village, if it's not unique. Thus killing an animal is possible, while extincting the whole species is not. Despite the two limitations of the phase there are many momentous things that are possible: changing conditions for tasks, ruining preparations, making social and political changes, and of course pure narration of the story. In any case the most important limit is that any events and reactions happen in the abstract, without undue personalizing. That should be saved for later. [subsubchapter]The actions After the reflexive rolls each player will announce /one/ action for his character. This is the main consideration of the year for the character, his project. There is a list of likely considerations later on in the chapter, but technically the action can be anything possible in the game world. For minor actions the GM may decide on a case-by-case basis whether an action requires rolling. If it does, it should be counted as an action and using up the yearly opportunity. However, if the action is routine, the roll need be done only once: the character may from then on use the result as a planning value for a reflexive repeat. Thus any routine and repeating acts like dating, political or social presence, upkeep of land property and such must only be done once unless the planning needs to be changed. On the other hand, major, non-routine actions have to be repeated again and again if the benefits are wanted for longer than one year. Differing between these minor and major actions is the job of the GM, and is based largely on their significance for the common interest of the players. If an action is of such minor importance that it never will get done otherwise, it's a clear sign that the GM should consider interpreting it as routine, needing only one year to set up. Example actions are introduced later on, but those are not certainly the only possibilities. It's up to the GM to device any mechanics for other options, as well as making the final decisions about what is really an action and what is just assumed to succeed. When all choices are made, a short scene is played for each action, typifying the details and flavour of the action. Frequently the scene happens before the action (and the roll), and will even emphasize characters and events not really pertinent for the action, if it should be less important than something else. The scene is the only snapshot we get to the life of the character, and while the chosen action will loom large over it, everything else have to be stuffed in, too. A classic is the lover who leaves his fiancé to go do the task. If the order of actions between players matters, the lower difficulty action goes off first. The actual scenes can be played in any order desired in any case, to best suit internal logic of the story. Note that other characters may gain reflexive challenges against an action if they have opportunity to interfere: these are not counted as actions, and are resolved as normal challenge rolls. Success against the action counters any permanent effects of the action, effectively making it a reflexive roll itself. There is an important mechanical limitation for the GM's interpretation of different actions: only one task roll can be made for each action. Any intermediate steps have to be narrated without rolls, and the GM decides which part of the action will actually be crucial. If the task roll succeeds, the action succeeds. Otherwise the actions can accomplish a great range of different things, including paradigm shifts (GM chapter). Especially characters can be killed by an action, although they always gain a reflexive challenge opportunity. However, an action can only always affect /one/ thing, whatever it is. Thus the same action won't both kill a character and repel the barbarians, for example. Actions can effect permanent changes, but rarely the thing affected will resonate to affect other things. [subsubchapter]The turning point The main traditional roleplaying of the year is all situated in the turning point. There is only one per year, and it includes all the actually interesting stuff of the year. The turning point can be bypassed if there is nothing interesting going on, but otherwise it's up to the GM to frame and plan a suitable scenario. The turning point is easiest to characterise as a short, at most half an hour adventure that incorporates most of the player characters. It segues straight into action, resolves, and fades back to high abstraction. Unlike other parts of play there is no limitations to use of the task rules in the turning point: play is carried in the traditional manner, with the GM adjucating necessary task rolls. An important limitation is that although there can only be one turning point in a year, the GM has to choose and link together as many of the momentous aspects of the year as possible. As he has unlimited freedom of framing the scenario, there is no need to limit the events leading up to the action by probability or likeness: rather it's a feature of the turning point that all important things tend to happen at the same time and be somehow interconnected. Thus, if there is both barbarians and an assassination plot afoot the same year, the GM will frame the scenario to cross the two; maybe the assassin is a barbarian, or the barbarians stop the murder. The turning point will always include a /stake/. This is a momentous change for at least some of the characters, the object of the turning point. The actual play decides what happens with the stake, whether it resolves somehow or fizzles. The GM will choose the stake and inform the players before starting the turning point. The stake has to be taken seriously; the GM may not gloss over a failure or success after the stake is set, but has to apply the turning point in the overall narrative. An important point is that the stake can frequently do things that are otherwise impossible by the rules. Characters can be killed, political currents turned, gods rebuffed; once the stake is set, it will have at least a theoretical chance of going off. Certain task difficulties may be lowered by partitioning the task into multiple tasks; in these cases each task generally resolves into two tasks with 9/10 of the original difficulty value. Thus a paradigm changing feat could conceivably be resolved as two tasks of difficulty 135. The GM is however the final arbiter of difficulties in the turning point, and will set them based on the exact situation. The turning point can and will duplicate and resonate character actions. If a character tries to assassinate another, for example, the GM is perfectly within his rights to set up a counterassassination turning point, with everybody's life at stake. There is no limitations to bypassing action rules in this manner, and the GM is the sole judge of what the turning point is about. Conceivably a character might even get two shots at a task in a turn because of the turning point. As there has to always be a stake in the turning point the GM will soon find that there is no real reason for a turning point in many a year. This is intentional; turning points should only happen when and if there is permanent changes afoot. [subsubchapter]The aftermath The last phase of the year is the aftermath. In this phase the GM tells the players how the year went for their characters. Everyone gets the chance to comment and discuss on the actions taken. Also mechanical changes due to time and the Engine (see below) are affected: characters suffer aging results, players assign new skill and affinity points, Ice and other constants rise and so on. Aging rolls are the inevitable result of the soul's journey on this Earth. Each character applies an action task roll against difficulty determined from their own age. Character's Degeneration (see below) is always added to the aging roll difficulty. The roll may cause physical or mental /decline/, as well as death. If death results from an aging roll the character's life is forfeit; GM decides when the character dies, be it now or years later. Decline suffered by a character is always substracted from any appropriate task rolls of the character. The difficulty of avoiding death and decline is presented in the accompanying table; a character rolls only once and applies any failure results. [table] Difficulty: Result if failed: Age-20+D Physical decline Age-40+D Mental decline Age-60+D Death Age = character age D = personal Degeneration [/table] Applicable skills for the aging roll are any that make sense to the GM; necromancy, general medicine, martial regimen even. The roll is a minor action, and thus need only be done once until difficulty or skill change forces a new roll. As any other task, the aging roll can be delegated to Atlantean medicine. Normal conditional modifications from bad habits or playing with nuclear reactors to taste... The aftermath is also the place for the characters to make plans for the next year, before the next vignette or the reflex rolls send their characters all over the world. They can also give feedback to the GM and suggest developments. It is always assumed that any character can get to contact any other during the aftermath as long as a specific action has not prevented it. All in all a given year should take anywhere from five minutes to an hour of real time. This is achieved through focused play and experience in system application. Players should prepare their own actions while waiting their turn and everyone should support others in energetic and fast play. Especially the GM will need all the ideas and activity others can muster for his support, being that he has to keep all the strings in his hands. [subsubchapter]The year summary 1) The *vignette* is for general exposition and aesthetic emphasis. Use it by your best understanding to make a work of art out of the separate events of the years. Think of it as an editor column of the newspaper, where the GM can comment on and emphasize action or mood to his preference. The vignette can be delivered by some other player too, if preferred. 2) The *reflexive rolls* are for events predicated from the game world: GM characters and other forces cause little situations for the characters to react to. It's a play group preference how much rolling and abstract narrative is done, but in any case the limitations stand: any number of events, but none can cause permanent changes, only permutations of situation. 3) The *actions* are the player opportunity for affecting situation. As anything at all they wish to be doing is accomplished with a single task roll, they can do truly astounding things if their skills are high enough. Never forget the short scenes that accompany the action rolls. Actions can affect any change, but may be challenged by others and can only ever cause one consequence per action. And remember, only one roll per action. 4) The *turning point* is a short scenario of intensive roleplaying. It always has a /stake/. Any number of task rolls in the turning point, but only one of them per year. No limits to consequences, except the normal game world continuity limitations. 5) The *aftermath* is the ritual ending of the year, with many repeating mechanical adjustments. It's also the place where the players will have a chance at feedback towards the GM. If any motivation pyramids need filling, this is an opportunity for that, too. [subchapter] The Engine Apart from the turn structure outlined above, the GM has a powerful tool for structuring and focusing game in the Engine. The Engine is a group of abstract game statistics interlocked to affect each other. By modifying the Engine the GM can set up new paradigm sets and model certain in-game megatrends. Relevant parts of the Engine are detailed below, but the GM is free to add to it when necessary due to changes in game direction. All changes to Engine values are always made in the aftermath, in any order GM desires. Character actions can pre-empt or cause various changes at the end of the year. The two types of value changes are /immanent/ and /conditional/ changes. The former are not controllable by the characters, depending instead on another /inducing/ value, while the latter can be prevented from happening by challenging the inductor. Immanent changes are made by the GM rolling dice against the inducing value: the roll becomes new value if both it and inducing value are higher or lower than the current value. If the two are split, the value moves by one towards the roll. What dice the GM uses is up to him, although there are some recommendations in the GMing chapter. Conditional changes always add one point to the value at the end of the year if a character has not pre-empted the change through an action. Such an action is a task roll against the inducing value, with any appropriate skill. The default Engine begins with the /Ice/ value. This is the statistic representing the inexorable progression of cold in the northern hemisphere where Atlantis is situated. Ice always increases by one at the end of the year, and there's nothing that can be done about that without a paradigm shift. When Ice increases to high enough values it will start affecting Atlantean economy and culture, finally destroying the island. [box] The players can control the length of the campaign by agreeing to an appropriate Ice value at game start. A long, leisurely game is achieved by setting Ice to zero, while a frantic 50 will position Atlantis ready for the Fall in few short years. [/box] An immanent value induced by Ice is the /Assault/ value, which represents the agression of the human barbarian tribes against Atlantean farms, mines and even the island itself. The tribes are induced to move against Atlantis because of changing climate and superstition pinning the fault on Atlantis. The barbarians are backwards compared to Atlantis, but their cunning and ferociousness more than compensates; Atlantis hasn't warred for a thousand years, and martial culture is nowadays predicated on technology and some few /artistes/ and historians studying the craft. The hazards are real, and it's possible that barbarians sack the city before ever glaciers reach it. Both Ice and Assault values induce a conditional rise in the /Disintegration/ value. This represents the structural damage Atlantis takes from changing weather and barbarian invasions. An oncoming rise in Disintegration usually reverberates as a turning point if the characters fail to curb it, causing either colorful destruction and disruption or becoming a stake in the form of something valuable in danger of destruction. Disintegration, on the other hand, induces an immanent rise in /Decadence/ score. This represents the cultural decay of the Atlantean civilization as the perfect state turns it's power against outside enemies. Decadence makes itself known through corrupt bureaucrats, slipping philosopher kings, ignorant and rebellious middle class and fractitious political and cultural life. Both Disintegration and Decadence values induce conditional rises in the /Decrement/ values of individual colonies (see below). Decrement represents the lagging of effort in both material and cultural realms when the support of the mother country fails. An oncoming rise in Decrement usually reverberates as a turning point, at least if something else important concerning the same colony is going on, too. Decrement value of a colony induces an immanent rise in the local /Nature/ score. Nature represents the strength of local humanity, wildlife and natural phenomena in resisting Atlantean influence. While Atlantis stands strong it's Temple curbs the inimical powers, but when the island fails human spirit takes to the skies, eclipsing the colonies in time. Finally, for each character the local Decrement and Nature values induce conditional rises in their /Degeneration/ scores. Degeneration is the weakening of heritage that happens to Atlanteans when the worship of their old gods lags and they lose the benefit of their carefully regulated civilization. The main effect of Degeneration is to weaken Atlanteans all the way to extinction if not somehow stopped. Degeneration is a personal score, and children inherit the mean value of the Degenerations of their parents. Characters in Atlantis do not accrue Degeneration, but instead can heal it as a minor action. Humans are immune to Degeneration. The Engine values introduced above have various ties and effects to other things: Degeneration adds to aging roll difficulty, Disintegration is deducted from the potency of Atlantis, Decrement is deducted from the colony potency, that kind of thing. Also changes in the values are frequently reason for turning points and stakes: Disintegration and Decadence are reflected as the slow destruction of Atlantis, for example. By staying in the city characters put everything in danger as stake follows stake. The whole structure of this Engine is given in the campaign sheet. There is no way for the characters or players to change the Engine or it's workings apart from succeeding in a paradigm shift (see GMing chapter). However the GM should be ready to expand the Engine to taste to account for emphasis of an individual game. Who knows, there might even be positive aspects around the corner... [subchapter]Actions There is a number of predefined actions for characters to try in addition to any the players care to think of. The list can be used as inspiration for both GMs and players, and as an example of how different situations are handled. *Resisting Engine*: Conditional changes in the Engine are always resisted as major actions against difficulty equal to the inducing value. The skills applicable depend on the player's notion of how the character goes about such a feat: against Ice major tech and magic projects are likely, but even an organizational expert could lead such an effort. Against Assault military and martial skills are golden, while against Disintegration political skills, against Decadence art and cultural skills, and so on. *Colonizing*: Starting or expanding a colony is a major action. Such a colony gains a potency value of "Colony", representing it's overall resources. The starting potency is the result of the task roll. Subsequent actions are rolled against potency of the colony, and success increases potency by one. The colony's potency cannot support the roll. *Healing*: Characters can only gain Degeneration by spending time outside Atlantis (and possibly from stakes designed by GM). As long as the mystical nature of Atlantis is intact a character can also heal Degeneration by staying on the island. This is a minor action rolled against Degeneration, and lowers Degeneration by one every year the character stays in Atlantis. *Resisting age*: Resisting aging rolls is a minor action, and thus a character can just do it once in a while (to refresh his spells or reconsider life style or whatever). *Support action*: A character may opt to support another in an action, in which case he rolls normally for the action, and if successful, adds 1/10 of his own skill to the acting character's skill as a conditional bonus. Usually the support action is done simultaneously with the actual action roll, so the result won't be known when allocating dice for the actual action. A character opting for support may support multiple actions with the same roll or multiple rolls during the year as appropriate, and support is considered a minor action when applicable. *Delegate*: Delegating is free. The characters can assign almost any action at all to Atlantis itself in the form of various specialist personnel. As long as no other character tries the same task this year Atlantis will do it with 1/10 of it's potency. Obviously it's a good idea to always put Atlantis to work if dice are sufficient and no character can do it. If an action is such that Atlantis cannot do it for some reason other statists can of course be delegated as long as the character has enough authority. Only communities can do multiple tasks in a year, single statists can only be delegated once. *Introduction*: A character may use an action to introduce another character into the game. This can be done for a newborn child or an old friend or even a surprise character. This is a major action and to succeed the character has to roll a task roll against the introductee's potency. Social skills are most likely applicable. [sidebar] Introduction and gameplay Introducing a character does not mean that the player will play that character from now on; who plays who is decided by the players on an informal basis. Every character even need not be played, or the players can change with time if appropriate. Many characters migh be just NPCs, with the GM playing them most of the time. All characters are "in play" all the time regardless of players, though, so they will incur aging rolls and gain skills and all that other stuff. Personalities need not be introduced for the characters to relate to them; introduction implies only mechanical effects (full skills, motivations; capable of full supports and task rolls). It's most appropriate to introduce a person if the player intends for him or her to play an important role in the story of the game. It's perfectly acceptable to introduce someone after playing him as a statist for a long time, or to invent a new character whole cloth. Players should concentrate their introductions to loved ones of their own characters, because the in-game justifications and gaining dice for them are thus much easier. Generally a player chooses a child of his former character to play after one passes on, although there are of course other options. Most players will want to make sure that the former character's work goes on. When a player's character dies and he does not have any suitable new character introduced he will skip a year of play and create a new character. This will be a progeny of the former character if possible. The skip is not a punishment, but rather an opportunity; as the character has not yet been introduced, the player needs the one year to decide what he'll be playing next. As to the potency of a to-be-introduced character, the GM is the arbiter, based on the description. Potency should generally be about the same as the highest skill of the character to be. If nobody has the faintest idea, halve the character age and substract one for every ten years of age. Nothing stops players from playing multiple characters if the other players agree. Although a player with many characters can conceivably affect the game more efficiently than others, this is balanced by the motivation die rules: a player has to still actually take the time to play his characters, so a player with fewer characters gets more dice for him to act. A character can be reduced back to a statist in any aftermath if all players agree. This is useful to reduce the bookkeeping involved when a character really isn't that important. [/sidebar] *Influencing the city*: Characters can try to turn the whole city to do something as a major action. The difficulty is the same as that of the task itself. Should the character succeed, the city acts during the next turn as the last action of the turn. Multiple such actions can be prepared by multiple characters. Atlantis is a statist, but when roused in this specific manner it always uses it's full current potency. *Preparations*: Preparations are a major action where the character rolls any number of dice against appropriate skills to generate planning values. Failed rolls do not count for plans, but there is no minimum for the roll (difficulty value 0). Depending on circumstances these can be transferable to other characters or not. There is no limit to the number of separate projects prepared at once, but the character must be in the position to actually have the resources needed. The plannings can also be used as negative values for others when appropriate. *Condition modification*: The general name for any action preparing ground for other actions. If, for example, a character needs a billion blutoks to attempt a given task, he will need to get them from somewhere. Condition modification is always a minor task for any given one task. It's difficulty and applicable skill depend on particulars. Characters need not always make condition modifications, only when they do not already have the needed resources to go straight to the task itself. *Assassination*: A character can try to kill another character as major action. The details of the try degree a difficulty, and the other character always gets a challenge roll to negate the assassination. Success kills the character in question, while a negated try will at best injure the target temporarily. *Sinking Atlantis*: Characters may wish to try to preserve the island. Sinking saves the buildings and machinery of science and magic, but people will drown unless moved to a colony. Sinking difficulty is 50, and requires significant resources, preparation and manpower. *Preserving Atlantis*: The island can be preserved with a suitable force field or some such, to protect it from the glacier driving over it. Atlantis will be trapped within ice until the end of the ice age, unable to communicate or affect the outer world. Preservation difficulty is 100, and requires significant resources, preparation and manpower. *Destroying Atlantis*: Farthinking characters may wish to destroy the island to keep it away from human hands. Difficulty is 100, but can be divided into multiple smaller tasks freely. *Paradigm shift*: Some tasks are assumed "impossible" as part of the essential theme of the game. These are called /paradigm assumptions/. Examples are "Ice cannot be stopped" and "All Atlanteans are prey to Degeneration". Any such paradigm assumption can however be heroically changed by a paradigm shift, with difficulty 150. This is the only way of saving Atlantis, for example. *Schooling*: A character can gain new capability for learning through different kinds of schooling. Schooling is a major action that has to be repeated enough for the character to benefit. This action is mostly for the stranger kind of characters: children, humans, returning wildlings and the like. A character gains incomplete schooling benefits from five years of Atlantean schooling and full benefits from fifteen. Normally a character starts schooling on the first year of life (Atlantean pedagogy is a wonder), so a 16 year old character is already fully schooled. Note the need for being in Atlantis or the colonies, as well as racial requirements mentioned in the character creation. Humans have no formal schooling, and "human schooling" does not take any time at all. The difficulty for successful schooling is equal to the year of schooling, and age is used in lieu of a skill. *Resisting actions*: Characters may resist each other's actions as free rolls. Resisting is not an action. Resisting character rolls normally and tries to get a better roll than the character resisted. Successfully resisted action won't have permanent effects, and is considered a reflexive roll. [subchapter]Campaign arc The play starts with Atlantis as strong as it ever was. The characters are philosopher kings of one of the great visions of political philosophy just before it's Fall. This is the introductory part of play; the players get to know their characters and Atlantis. Sooner or later the characters are however drawn to take a stand in the matter of the imminent destruction of Atlantis. The changes in the Engine are incorporated into narration: weather ravages farms and the city, barbarians threaten and pillage, godless debauchery and stupid blitheness conquer room. With time even the very nature of the characters is affected when they have escaped Atlantis and it's powerful magics, only to fall victim to the humanity all around them. The characters have to make their choices about what is important: family, ideology, state, culture, personal stature, or something else? They have, at least at the beginning, great power to affect the changes they desire. The characters can protect Atlantis for a generation from the ice age, and they can save the people and the culture in the colonies, at least at the beginning. Later on, after Atlantis is abandoned, the characters face a new choice: whatever fragments of the civilization they have procured for themselves and their progeny, time will start to erode the colonies and other safe havens they rely on. Additionally the Degeneration will start to kill the race off. Will they strive to turn the curse, or mate with humans to avoid Degeneration, or use their magic and technology to turn it back, or simply die with grace? The game can thus be seen as progressing in three parts: 1)The Fall of Atlantis 2)The transition period 3)The Dawn of Human history The last part is about what mark the characters will leave in the emerging history of humanity. Will they identify themselves with it, or try to destroy the human race? How will the humans take the fall of their masters and benefactors? Is there really a curse of MU? In any case it's clear that both the Atlantean high technology and magic will fade slowly, the speed and nature of the fade depending on character action. The GM should take this as a fact of the paradigm, with only a paradigm shifting feat accomplishing rescuing of the legacy in that sense. The culture can be saved, the magic and tech probably not. Magics and high technology can only be learned in the colonies, and never to a level higher than the colony potency. The goal of the game is to consider some heavy transcendental spiritual stuff in the peculiar manner of '60s literature. This will surface naturally through playing the lives of the people of Atlantis; both strong and weak at once, they have little final say in their fate. The game should be ended when the Atlantean story ends for the last time, and the course of human history is finally decided to the satisfaction of all players. [subsubchapter]The endgame After Atlantis is destroyed in some way (that is, Disintegration is so high that nobody even tries to live there anymore) the first inklings of the endgame are at hand. The players personally will have to make some decisions about what they want for the world: should Atlantean people continue to rule the world or should their technology and magic be forgotten? What about the persons of the characters themselves, and their families? Remember the Engine? At this stage the GM will be ready to institute a new Engine for the characters. This time there will be no driving force for it, though; the characters will themselves be that force, whatever the goal. It should be noted that anything relying primarily on Atlantean abilities and special qualities should be judged under the old Engine of Atlantean destruction - only a clean break is possible if the darkness is to be left behind. The new Engine will grow to the direction of character goals: if they strive to rebuild civilication, for example, the Engine will start from an Egypt value which can be added to as a major action (perhaps using remaining colonies for a kickstart?). Other qualities, like Culture and Religion might become immanent or conditional offshoots of the Engine. But if the characters pull of an Atlantean king, they will maybe still have to deal with the curse... In any case, the new engine will either be positive, or an off-shoot of the old, in which case the GM might decide to let the Decrement overflow into the new Engine, to hamper the Dawn. It cannot be emphasized enough that the new Engine is just a GM tool for following the developments. If the characters should swear a compact of nonintervention in human affairs, the Engine will be simple: One single Isolation score that will protect the humanity from the taint. It might even be that the GM won't need any engine, that the focus of the players will stay in the past, or they will be content to end the game after the Fall... All this will however be secondary, only a diverging amusement for the players and characters. The Fall has happened, and every player must decide what more there is yet to achieve. The game will be ended when all players are satisfied. This might be when the last purebred Atlantean succumbs, or when the first halfbreed rises to the throne of a human nation, or when the kings of old finally finish their Commandments, the ultimate wisdom for the humans to live by. This phase might see quite many conflicts between characters, as different players will likely have different notions of the Dawn. These are arbitrated normally, and the new world will emerge from whatever the players manage to do. When all hopes are either dashed or redeemed (including those of the GM) the game is finished. At this stage the GM and other players may sing a short eulogy for the world, perhaps revealing whether modern civilization ever was born; the simple act of the endgame will have answered the question. GMing chapter What the GM should do with this? Clearly there is some point to the game, but it might not open from simply reading the rules above. Let me try to explain. The game is in truth reminiscent of works like Multiverser and the Riddle of Steel in that it is centered on certain kind of character exploration. The player will decide what kind of person his character is by the choices he makes. For this reason it's important to understand Theme and Premise. Theme is something inbuilt in the game, that by it's simple existence affects all. The themes of FADHH are generally bleak: the inevitable destruction, betrayal, anger of the gods and such. There's hope also, but it is predicated on death of wonder and great sacrifice. Premise, on the other hand, is theme on the run. When a theme has not as yet been nailed down, it's called premise. Premise is the question, to which the theme is the answer. There are many such questions in FAHD, of which one example is "What will you do when the world ends?" Now, the idea of the game is largely to posit your own premises and answer them through play. This is no problem for the players - the simple act of playing will bring forth the themes and premises and answer them, that's what is called a story. The GM, however, will have to know the difference because there are some thematic limitations he has to recognize. There is a number of /paradigm assumptions/ in FADHH, issues on which a whole lot is predicated. One of these is "Atlantis will fall". If it were untrue, there'd be a lot less to play about. The paradigm represents the fixed themes of the game, if you will, while the freedom allotted to players is the root of premise. On the other hand, it'd be pretty dull to play if such key things as are usually paradigm assumptions were absolutely decided. That's why there is the possibility of /paradigm shifting action/. The difficulty is always the same (150) regardless of action and meeting it will enable players to restructure practically anything in the game world. Although the high difficulty makes paradigm shifting highly unlikely, the existence of the possibility gives the game added spark. Now, the GM will have to know what the paradigm of the game is, to differentiate between normal difficulty actions and paradigm shifts. The suggested method is to simply write the key points of it down. Some are set here, but the GM is certainly free to device additional points to focus the game to some direction. During play all changes come from the players, but before play the GM can of course plan something a little different. In addition to the normal (if there is such a thing) paradigm shifting action the GM may allow in particularly heroic turning points the /local paradigm shift/. This will always result from a natural action as per the task difficulty rules, and only has a difficulty of 50. The local shift is similar to the major one, except that it's effects are always limited to individuals, can only rarely be prepared for and is not replicable (not that the normal shift is, mind you). [box] The primary paradigm assumptions for the Fall of Atlantis and the Dawn of Human History - *Atlantis will fall*: Ice value will always rise no matter what, resulting in Atlantis becoming unlivable in some way. Deal with it. - *The Engine is untouchable*: Although the concequences of the Engine values changing may differ, the rules the Engine works by cannot be changed. - *There is no peace with humans*: Humans continue to generally fear and hate Atlantis, and only locally can great effort create harmony. - *Atlanteans will perish*: Degeneration can only be lowered by crossbreeding after Atlantis falls. - *Affinities are Atlantean*: Every character ever with affinities is susceptible to Degeneration. - "High tech and all magic will be lost": Without colonies the Atlanteans will slowly lose all abnormal resources to cultural erosion. [any others?] Any tasks contradicting any of these facts have a difficulty of 150. Any task whatsoever is possible in the game with right conditions, with difficulty at most 150. [box] [subchapter]GM dice The GM uses dice in the same way other players do, and arranges them into motivation pyramids and year pyramids like the players. At the game start he has no dice at all. The only difference between GM dice and player dice is that the GM dice come back. After using dice in a roll the GM takes them all back to his pyramids, putting them anywhere he wants to. The GM still always loses his year dice at year end, though. Now, GM surely gets his dice the same way the other players do, but in addition the other players can also take his dice away. Every year in the aftermath the other players can each choose one die the GM has and take it away. Generally the GM has a bit more of a chance to gain dice than other players, so he will probably have quite a bit of dice. This is not a problem, as the others can surely keep him on a short leash if they want to. Also, the dice GM has are not a question of power, but of narration: by keeping the GM with limited dice we make sure that he has always set up the situation before barging on to roll. The dice for him are a tool instead of a weapon. The other players should reward the GM with roughly the same logic they reward anyone else. They gain nothing by denying GM dice: without dice the game falls apart and nobody has fun. The GM's motivation pyramids are a little different from what the other players have. The GM has no character specific motivations; instead his pyramids can be arranged by issue. Thus he most likely has pyramids like "barbarians", "saboteurs", "order of the snake" and "MU" floating around. Certainly really big GM characters might have multiple motivations, but generally one pyramid per big character suffices for the GM. [subchapter]The GM goals The GM's goal is to simply lead the game and the players to address issues they feel interesting. The GM judges impartially and provides adversity. The main reason the game has a GM at all is to make sure the game flows fast enough - the most important task for the GM is to make sure everyone takes his turn with suitable alacrity. The player characters are protagonized by keeping the rest of the world mostly passive (in mechanics, not story). They cannot count on some greater or more experienced philosopher king to deal with the matters - they will, but the potency used is likely under the +10 Atlantis as whole provides. Only named and essential characters will have independent skill values. The most important thing for the GM to do is to confront the players and characters with the society and situations outlined in the above rules. There is much to be gained from considering the Atlantean society and the choices of people deprived of a home land. Are they the saved remnant of some higher purpose, and if so, what the purpose is? Or will the characters win the paradigm and sacrifice all, whole lifetimes to be true, to keep onto something whose time has passed? A main tool for confrontation is the Engine outlined in the campaign chapter. The GM should understand how it confronts the players, and ideally he should be able to retcon and reconstruct it when the players sidestep the Engine through situational means. There is a smaller example of the endgame Engine in the end of the chapter for the GM as an example of how the Engine is changed with situation. Both the original ice age Engine and the endgame Engine are pointed towards the players to give them a shot at the premise through pure character play. [subchapter]Pointers The limitations on task rolls have a profound effect compared to usual. The GM will have to carefully judge where to roll, as most of the time he cannot force more than one roll on one matter. Any and all other considerations have to be narrated with player assistance without rolling. Consequently a multitude of routine matters are considered automatical: births, funerals, personal life and all such come to fore only as narrative scenes and crisis situations. A probable point of contention is keeping task difficulties secret from players. This is however an interesting feature, and should not be left out without due consideration. The players are perfectly capable of judging for themselves the likely difficulty of a task from it's description, so keeping the exact number secret has no real drawbacks. The GM just has to be honest with himself, not changing the difficulty after the roll has happened. This is not one of those games which ask the GM to "fudge". To play it strictly, the GM has /no special responsibility at all/ apart from the general player responsibilities. Any narration or storytelling or character/statist playing can be done by players as well. In a game with many characters and players it's only sensible to put all players to work in various occupations. The only thing the GM is responsible for is to chair the play - he directs speech and keeps the action flowing. Everything else is delegatable. The turning point is the strongest single tool of the GM. He has sole consideration of what these are about, and massive powers of framing them any way he likes. If it's appropriate for a character to find himself floating in the ocean due to a mistake in a shuttle landing, go right ahead. The immanent rolls in the Engine should be handled based on the logic of the motivation dice: if the GM has many dice for a given immanent statistic, that is clearly a result of activity and exposition in that direction. Therefore many dice are a good idea. Generally the GM rolls dice based on how active the given megatrend has been; if the barbarians send an ambassador the characters defame, the next roll for Assault should include quite many dice. In closing, the FADHH is a game suitable for playing deep textured scifi or high fantasy epics, with only passing glimpses at the details of the world sweeping events. At least the GM should build a strong vision of the kind of color he wants for his game, to better invent and improvise.