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thelogbookproject · 1 year ago

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The Unity of Skovlan, Entry 31: The General

The Unity of Skovlan is an upcoming unofficial supplement to Blades In The Dark about the fall and rise of the Skovlander people. This series explores what it is all about in the leadup to its September release.

As we enter the Fracturing Period, the final coastal fortress of Reaxh on the western coast has fallen. Queen Alayne, now attempting to avenge her late father King Aldric, has accepted that there is no longer a path to victory. All there is left is spite. For every inch the Akorosi take, the Skovlanders will make sure they pay for it with lives and treasure and leverage. Without any of the coast left, it is only a matter of time until Stonetable is captured, but that’s not going to be easy. Until that time came, the Skovlanders would fight, all the way up the bitter end. These were the days when the Skovlanders began planting the seeds of future revolution. If Skovlan was going to fall, the Skovlanders never would. The Unity War was ending, but even then, Skovlan looked to the future. One day, this would all matter.

What if the Skovlanders let a castle fall with the Squad hidden deep inside so they can sneak up and assassinate the fusion of Major General Armstrong and Ned Stark? That’s this Mission.

Seriously.

For real.

I conceived of General Teaves, the Ox of Akoros, as mostly Olivier Armstrong, a towering woman whose cold eyes and relentlessly brutal patriotism led her to success after success after success, all while wearing the huge black wolf pelt cloak of Ned Stark and wielding their enormous greatsword. Teaves is probably the single most powerful soldier the Squad will ever have to fight, and if the players still happen to have any qualms about outright assassinating enemy officers, this one is going to be extremely difficult (or the players may just want to give this Mission a pass).

As is introduced in the Opposition section, this is the Imperium’s Southern army, not the only army. Given my lore of Stonetable being the ancient and definitive capitol atop the mountains that cover the northern half of the island, losing the south or forcing the Akorosi out for now won’t change the course of the war — it would have long-term supply ramifications, and obviously affect the lives of the remaining Skovlanders there, but even if this Mission pushed back the entire Imperial army it wouldn’t be enough. That said, Teaves is also likely to be replaced if killed, which is why this Mission is so much more about costing the Imperium something and exacting personal vengeance on a hated foe — not that buying time while the southern army regroups isn’t a benefit.

As we enter the Fracturing Period, there are no longer any Valor rewards for making it back with anyone alive. Come back a failure and there’s no consolation prize. You’ll still get whatever you might earn from the Optionals, but Last Stands are really on the table now.

Additionally, kidnap is a permissible end state for Teaves, but this is a bit of a trap. It is very hard to take Teaves alive, and a couple of the Optionals will be ruinously hard without killing The Ox Of Akoros. It’s there if the Squad is still clinging to a moral objection to being assassins, which is a valid mindset, but at this stage of the war it really limits what can be done, and the players should feel that.

I’ve revealed one of a couple of Optionals that will get the Squad sidetracked from just tracking down and killing Teaves, pushing them to explore Castle Adriack further. I like this one because it emphasizes how the whole strategic point of this is delay. Picking up the pieces of the southern army and restoring it will take time, and the Skovlanders can try to regroup in that window or push their luck hitting the disorganized remnants. The longer the Skovlanders can keep the Imperium split between the two fronts (southern tundra and northern mountains) the longer Stonetable will hold. The Sneaking Mission Optional is going to take a ton of resources, probably accepting a ton of stress from Resisting alarm-increasing Consequences. I’ll say that while all five Areas of the Mission have Clocks, none of them is actually an alarm! This is both blessing and curse. On the one hand, the GM is going to have a bunch of things to tick that aren’t raising an alarm. On the other, the GM doesn’t have to wait to fill a Clock — any Consequence could rain guards on the players’ heads. Of course, given the situation, that would basically be an instant Desperate Position so it would eat up a Risky Consequence to impose that, but the players are always one bad roll from jeopardizing this Optional Objective. The last one is a big danger, as it requires alerting the army that something is happening, but it doesn’t inherently expose the Soldiers. There should be some leeway on this one, in that the literal killing doesn’t have to be obvious, the staging can do it. It’s not actually that tough (as we’ll explore in a minute, The Ox is on the roof turret, and pushing them over onto the soldiers working far below would do it) but it will make escaping much harder, and figuring out a way to do this while also doing the Kidnap path will be challenging.

This is how the players stowed away during the takeover of the Castle, and with a Controlled or Risky Position they’ll probably still be hidden in the Passages leading to the low levels. Finding and using the Passages is the key to the Sneaking Mission, but their unpredictability gives the GM a ton of flexibility to put together setpiece moments. As mentioned here though, don’t get bottled up in the passages or risk a quick death.

This is, ultimately, a bit of staging ground for the final encounter. If the Squad gets in and disables the guards, they’ll have a bit of time to breathe and put things together. The safe represented by the Clock is, ultimately, interesting without being strictly helpful. It isn’t an Optional Objective. If the GM has an idea for a reward, go ahead, but it’s mostly a narrative victory and a thing to have to choose to carry or leave behind. If you’re really looking for a mechanical boost from it, I’d suggest +1 to the next Engagement roll for the morale improvement. The final Feature is a “shortcut” to victory if the players try it. They’ll need to stay hidden as the General comes back in and eventually goes to bed, easier said than done, but if they get there it will make quietly killing Teaves much easier. It’s still no instant-kill, as Teaves’ reflexes and strength will keep them from being flawlessly murdered, but it’s much easier than the next Area’s Clock. That said, if the players do this, they have definitively embraced being assassins, and the “immediately panics and terrifies” Optional is blown, as Teaves likely wouldn’t be discovered until morning, which is hardly immediate.

Teaves knows something is up the moment the Squad is on the stairs to the roof. They don’t know what, and don’t immediately find the Squad or anything, but they’re not at ease. Fighting them is an absolute nightmare — a 12-step Clock is huge for killing a single person, and their immunity to Group Actions will keep everyone on their toes. If the Squad skipped the side Objectives and took the least Stressful paths up, they can probably take Teaves on. If they’re already getting tired, this fight is going to suck. Beyond the Group Action immunity though, the rules are still normal, so it’s not like instantly Desperate or anything. Play carefully and don’t get too unlucky with the rolls, and the General can be whittled down. Plus, once on the roof, the howling wind and the private bedchamber below means the players don’t need to worry about alarms. It’s as close to a private showdown as the Squad are likely to ever have, and the Ox is balanced to fight a full group alone.

The amount of focus the escape requires is very context-dependent. If the players are trying to take Teaves with them, or if the alarm is raised (whether from previous action or from the final Optional Objective) and the way is especially blocked, play it out. If the players are still succeeding on the Sneaking Mission Optional, play it out. Otherwise, probably cut past it.

Next time, we’ll take on a very different Mission: The Siege.

The Unity War releases for PWYW on September 1, 2023. Check out https://tinyurl.com/tuos-details for the rest of this series! Sign up for my Patreon at https://patreon.com/thelogbookproject for a preview, and full early access to the game! See youWednesday!

#the unity of skovlan #prerelease series #ttrpg

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marblecottage · 4 years ago

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thelogbookproject · 1 year ago

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The Unity of Skovlan, Entry 20: The Mend

The last of the three new playbooks is The Mend, and I’ve already discussed them quite a bit in Entries 4 and 12 on The Legacy of Stonetable (and its main character, the Mend Aia Astareth) and the Unity War’s Mend character, Fane. As a quick summary, the Mends were historically repair-people in Skovlander communities, but when the doctors all stood by the Akorosi who trained them, the Mends were forced to step up and apply The Mending Way to people as well. In the wake of the War, after 38 years of their new role, it’s stuck, and is now a permanent element of the position, making the Mend the single person to fix any problem. Unfortunately, while that sort of self-sacrificing do-it-all vigor is desperately needed in wartime, it’s not a particularly sustainable reality. The Mend playbook is about discovering that truth — and either trying to mitigate it or lean into it.

This is how the Mend gets xp — by sacrificing themselves. This is a playbook about burnout. The difference between real-world burnout and the Mend’s burnout is that if you burn the midnight oil in real life, all you get is more tasks. Life always keeps coming. For the Mend, or at least a Mend in an Echoes crew, there is an end to reach: revolution and freedom. Can the Mend imagine escaping the wartime mindset after that? Maybe, maybe not. Play to find out.

I’m going to discuss the mechanical chunks before I get to The Mending Way, which I think should inform how the Mend is played in a lot of ways and help them differentiate more fictionally from a Leech with Physician (which, if you remember my story about Indigo Rowan in Entry 8, is where this comes from at all). But this here is the mandatory Mend Ability, Preservation. The downtime action possibility lets you trade coin for healing, taking the guesswork out of the healing roll, though it can be a bit expensive if you’re only going for Level 1 Harms. That’s the most straightforward mechanical use, but the ability to Finesse items and wounds in the middle of a fight is very good. I say it there in the support blurb, but don’t underestimate the object repair element. You can go a long way with that.

The first Ability on the list (after the mandatory Preservation) and thus the default, Busy is the most iconic Mend Ability in my head. The Mend is always stressed, and can get more done than anyone else, but it’s dangerous. You need to manage your stress better than others or you’ll get swallowed up by the crushing enormity of your responsibilities.

I think Trusted Items is one of my most clever and interesting Abilities. I have a couple of Abilities that connect the Mend to the Load system, as they’re an item-fixer and I wanted more hooks into that system. Trusted Items trades sustainability now for a lack of flexibility later, and actually introduces some continuity to the Gear system. You still get the thing, so it’s not like you have less stuff the next score, you just don’t get a choice. Dropping Stress while getting to pull out Gear is still giant though! It just probably forces you to take on something easier next. If you’re in a “every job is critical” situation, you can set yourself up for a lot of trouble. Thankfully, some of the other Abilities can synergize super well with this.

Here are three of the Mend’s five unique Gear options. The Rapier is a hint to the past, the indicator that Mends had a military role, even if your character didn’t. It’s also a precise weapon, easily wielded with Finesse rather than Skirmish. Stims have a guaranteed anti-Stress effect but inflict Harm. It’s just a Level 1 Harm, but if you’ve already got Harms (and if you’re so stressed you need Stims, you probably do) it could be much worse. Stim someone with two Level 1 and two Level 2 Harms and you’ve got someone ODing in a mania. In a way similar to how the Chronicle gets to choose who gets to borrow their Artifacts, the Mend has to weigh when to offer someone Stims, deciding if their body can handle the problems and if the stress loss is worth it. The last item is narrative, for Position jockeying and narrative detail. It’s a little bit of worldbuilding about how the Mends operate and how others think of them. The detail that doctors, Skovlander or not, respect the mark says something about how effectively the Mends have been handling their “new” role.

And at last, The Mending Way. This is the creed Mends adhere to as a guiding light in their profession, stretching back long before they ever put scalpel to skin. This set of principles is why they were considered a good fit for doctor work as a whole category, not just individuals who might’ve been good with their hands. The Mending Way has three tenets.

First, prioritize function. The Mend is about repair, first and foremost, not embellishment. Allowing an object to fulfill its purpose is the most critical element. Importantly, emotional and social purposes are functions. Sure, a hammer has to be able to hit a nail and a cup needs to hold liquid, but a torn tapestry needs to continue to fulfill its sentimental and cultural functions as well. For this reason, Mends pay extra attention when fixing faces, as they fulfill such a range of functions that only critical organs are of higher importance.

Second, preserve the original material. Creation and invention are the territory of other jobs. Introducing new elements changes the object’s nature, and thus the Mend tries their best to work with what they have, keeping its core identity intact as much as possible. If function cannot be restored without addition, the first tenet takes priority, but keep it to a minimum. Mends are not fans of amputation if at all possible. Still, they are practical.

Third, protect the memory of the damage. Mends do not want anyone to pretend the damage never happened. On objects, this can highlight the beauty of imperfection and change. On bodies, the scars Mends often leave are worn with pride (and wounds are sometimes allowed to scar if it would not violate the first or second tenets), and many Skovlanders tattoo around them. This has a little bit of the kintsugi philosophy/practice of the real world, extended to a medical level. This is in contrast to the idea of trying to minimize all markers of illness in modern medicine, which I think is the IRL more humane concept, but the Mends are trying their best and applying a creed meant for objects to humans.

It is important to remember that The Mending Way is not a mechanical rule. As a player, you may violate it openly, but I’ve designed the sheet and book to remind you of it, and you’ll have to remember how you’ve fallen from your principles. Playing a Mend who strictly adheres to the Way is interesting, especially if it gives you limits! Playing a Mend who has abandoned the Way is also interesting, especially if you are affected socially by your choices. Everything in between is interesting because it means you’re developing your own take on the Way and what is okay or not.

The Mend completes a trifecta of playbooks about the conflict between the tradition and future of Skovlan. The Chronicle is a role from the long past, forced to confront if their traditions are actually right and if they should be building something new instead. The Ground is a role that is brand-new, within the last couple of years, an evolution of something past and forgotten but intrinsically tinged with other cultures, something new and never-before-seen. The Mend has a traditional place, and a modern place, and the War changed them, and they need to decide if the War gets to change them for good and what it was all for. Tradition and Possibility. Where the Echoes land on this scale will say a lot about a group’s path and experience, and I’m excited to see if it evolves for people as they have to grapple with these concepts in action. Can you handle disrespect as the changes you advocate for offend traditionalists you thought were on your side? Can you accept injustice and repeat mistakes to keep the historical chain of your culture intact?

Next time will be a bit shorter than this one, and will hit a whole bunch of random stuff before we start delving into the Missions of the Unity War!

#the unity of skovlan #prerelease series #ttrpg

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