#setting sourcebook notes

[somnimouse]

I would really like to know Haru's section! I've been obsessed with this game since 2018 and when I got my laptop the first thing I did was get Nty. Thank you!

No problem! Haru's section is the most thorough section in the NTY!!! setting sourcebook, but it's also probably the saddest. The content of it is along the lines of parade/CLOCKUP's nightmare fuel!

Due to the necessity of it, I will be combining Narimiya's section with Haru's so certain information doesn't get lost. There is also the full introduction of an important character who plays a heavy role in both of their sections--Haru's father, Suemori Yasutaka, the creator and head of the organization.

Warning: Contains references including but not limited to human trafficking, severe CSA, incest, cannibalism, torture, murder, drug use, coprophagy, amputation, etc. This is very NSFL!

To start, I will be splitting this huge post into several sections: the organization, Narimiya Takashi, and Haru.

I. The Organization

The organization is a company that dabbles in human and drug trafficking and caters to rich sadists. It has no name and its headquarters is located somewhere in the Hokuriku region (according to Amemiya). Staff members live in apartments close by and hold all sorts of occupations. They could be health professionals, law enforcement, taxi drivers, shopkeepers, etc. Staff members will go to their "main jobs" as ordinary people do, but when the organization calls them, they have to do their job. Even whole businesses that have ordinary workers have specialized torture rooms, but those not in the know have no idea what goes on.

It didn't just come out of nowhere, though. The organization started with one man named Suemori Yasutaka.

Suemori was a man born a little after World War I. He is a complete sociopath, feeling nothing in terms of emotion and sentiment, and went down a dark path. He wanted to see what made humans so different from him and see what made them tick. Had he not gone down this road, he probably would have become a neurosurgeon or some kind of medical professional, but alas.

Suemori first experimented on animals like birds and small prey before moving on to his own family. Nothing was off-limits to him. He gave off the impression of a simple old man and went undetected. Suemori eventually started up his own businesses and companies, and is currently the owner and CEO of various hotels in Japan. Soon, clients began to pour in from all over the country. These rich sadists were more than happy to pay for Suemori's services and would often request special property to act as their playthings. It didn't matter where they came from. If they wanted anyone in Japan, the organization could snatch them up without a trace. They could even go outside the country and into places like Southeast Asia if they wanted to. However, the organization's policy is to go after people who would not be missed by society, and they do not cause too much trouble. That way, it wouldn't be discovered.

Soon, the organization had a collection of "property," victims who were kidnapped for torture of all kinds and had no rights. They lost their names and were instead referred to by numbers, and are treated just like livestock and refuse. Women are abused far, far worse than men. They're generally forced to take contraceptives to prevent pregnancy, but if one of them were to get pregnant and give birth, the baby would just be killed and tossed away.

Human trafficking is a very, very lucrative business, and Suemori lives in a mansion, pretending to be a normal businessman. As someone who could feel no love, he never married. However, he sired fifty-five children in the course of his life and gave them special serial numbers. All fifty-five of those children died as a result of his experimentation. He did not come any closer to figuring out what made others so different from him, but he never stopped.

"Surely, there would be whistleblowers," you might say. Unfortunately, Suemori loathes betrayal, and all who defected from the organization were swiftly dealt with. They were tortured in ways that made them beg for death, and the end results were not pretty. Once you're in, you'll never come back out.

And one such incident happened in the late 1970's.

II. Narimiya Takashi

Once upon a time, there was a 23-year-old male staff member and a 17-year-old female piece of property. They fell in love with each other and wanted to seek freedom together. The staff member released her, and they both made their escape from the organization. At some point, they got married and had a baby, who they named Takashi.

Takashi grew up to be a kind and intelligent boy, and his parents loved him very much. He knew something was off about his family, though, as they moved homes too often to be considered normal, but he never asked them about it.

Takashi's parents were on the run for a total of twelve or so years before the organization finally caught them. They and Takashi were subsequently taken to headquarters and tortured severely. Suemori forced the parents to have sex with Takashi, both receiving and giving, and brutally mutilated and raped each and every one of them. He used a katana to severe Takashi's left arm and stuff it down the throat of his father, who suffocated and perished as a result. Takashi was turned into property, and subsequently had to watch his mother's slow mutilation. The organization cut off her limbs, her nose, her tongue, her eyes, everything. They turned her into a lump of flesh for sexual use by clients, and Suemori raped her constantly.

Nine months later, Takashi's mother was finally murdered and put out of her misery. Her stomach was swollen with Suemori's offspring. Thirteen-year-old Takashi, who had broken and was severely malnourished, was forced to cut open her belly in search of food... and pulled out a baby boy. The baby's head was a bit damaged from Takashi's removal attempt, and it would become a bald spot on its head in the future.

Takashi looked at the baby. "What should I do with this?" he asked Suemori, who was watching him.

"Eat him, rape him--do whatever you want, Narimiya," was Suemori's reply.

But Takashi looked at this baby--his mother's baby, his little brother. Whether it was out of love, pity or a selfish desire to have something left of his family, Takashi kept the infant and never hurt it.

He and the baby were put under the care of two staff members who played the roles of parents. Takashi was trained to be a staff member himself, but spent what free time he had with his little brother. He taught the little boy his first set of kanji, how to read, how to eat corn on the cob, and held his hand and took him to the pool.

His little brother asked him, "What do I call you?"

Takashi said, "Call me Narimiya."

The little boy grew up rather normal. He said weird things and spoke very slowly, but seemed like a happy child regardless and went to school. For five years, Narimiya and his little brother knew some semblance of peace and normalcy.

And then, one day, Suemori came by and took Narimiya's brother away.

For the next twelve years, Narimiya worked in the organization as a staff member, never knowing if he would see that boy ever again.

III. Haru

The name of Narimiya's brother is never listed in the setting sourcebook, and he probably doesn't know it himself. He first met Suemori around the age of five. He was brought into a room and shown a video of a woman being tortured physically, psychologically and sexually, culminating in her stomach being cut open and a baby being removed. Suemori explained to him that the woman was the boy's mother, and he was the boy's father.

Most children would have been traumatized by that and sobbed. However, this boy looked at him and said, "So what?"

With that, Suemori brought him to headquarters. The boy was given a serial number and was referred to as No. 56. He was to be property and Suemori's personal plaything. Suemori wanted to know if No. 56 was just like him, and spent more than a decade conducting experiments on him.

Around the age of 6-7, No. 56 met another boy his age. His name was Inui Hiroki. Hiroki never lost the hope that his father would come and rescue him, and told No. 56 all about him. It planted a seed of curiosity into No. 56, and he wanted to know what Hiroki's dad, Inui Kouichi, was like, too.

Although he was exempted from disposal events, No. 56 underwent the same torture as other property. He lost his front virginity at age 6 and the back at 7. He was raped by Suemori and others and raped others himself. He was forced to murder, eat human flesh, eat human feces, take drugs, be buried alive, be starved, and so much more. He had a dragon carved into his left shoulder and another tattooed on his right hip and leg. No. 56 was given a dog to take care of and was forced to kill it 3-4 years later. His brain was already abnormal to begin with, but he soon developed PTSD and hypersexuality from all of the trauma he went through.

Something about him stood out from the others, though. Even after going through so much torture, No. 56 never once cried out of sadness. He could feel compassion, but he wouldn't hesitate to put his own life first. He shrugged off hardship and kept moving forward despite it all. No. 56 wanted to live more than anything, even though he held no hope for himself. He knew he would be discarded after Suemori got bored of him or passed away, and only wanted to experience his first and last summer.

At the age of 17, No. 56 participated in the Death Games, a major disposal event in which the winner will be promoted from property to staff and have one wish granted. Hiroki was under the impression they would both walk out the winners and find freedom, but he didn't fully understand the stipulations. They killed the other property until just the two of them were left. And when Hiroki least expected it, No. 56 murdered him to win the Death Games. He was subsequently promoted, and he was now on the giving end of torture toward property. He was also reunited with Narimiya at this point, and lived in Suemori's mansion in the lap of luxury.

But that kind of life was boring. All No. 56 could do was eat, train, watch TV, read books, cook, sleep, and repeat. He learned more about the outside world through TV shows and books, and was fed five-star Western dishes made by top chefs. But he was never allowed outside except for the occasions Suemori sent him out on missions with Narimiya to supervise him, and even then, he'd only be out for three days at most. He played the role of a pampered grandson, but No. 56 wanted to live the life normal people lived.

Then, at the age of 22, No. 56 heard about an investigation into someone who had the procedure to make Melt, a drug that was circulating through the organization. After hearing they would play informant and make contact with Kouichi, No. 56 used his wish from the Death Games. He would take the place of the informant, but instead of the operation lasting three days, he'd take the entire summer. Suemori allowed this, and No. 56 and Narimiya were dispatched to Toshima. Narimiya bought him new clothes, and No. 56 was to wear a dog tag that tracked his coordinates and sent them to headquarters.

No. 56 was set to make contact with Kouichi. However, a car driving straight at his target threw his entire plan off-course, and No. 56 pushed him out of the way and got hit instead. Feigning memory loss, he was taken in by Kouichi and brought to sótano, where he got a job and was given the name "Haru" by Kurosawa Ryu. This leads into the events of "NO, THANK YOU!!!".

There's a lot of trivia regarding both Haru and Narimiya, so here's a bit of it:

Haru

Haru's armpit and leg hair have been removed permanently.

His birthday is December 19th, 1990, making him 22 years old at the start of NO, THANK YOU!!!.

He doesn't have an "actual" name. The organization refers to him as No. 56, but Narimiya only does it around other staff members. Outside of that, Narimiya refers to him as "that boy." Hiroki refers to him as "No. 56-kun," which, in Japanese, is 六十五番くん. Yes, the entire thing.

Haru's dick size is 16cm when erect. For comparison, Hiroyuki's is 14cm, Ryu's is 15cm, Kouichi's is 19cm, and Maki's is a whopping 21cm. Haru's penis is also circumcised.

Haru is ambidextrous but favors his right hand.

He doesn't masturbate.

To Haru, sex is a form of affection and bonding, and he'll have it with men and women. His strike zone is anyone between the ages of 20-60, and he tends to look at boobs and ass first before the rest of their body. The sourcebook notes that, if he absolutely has to for work at the organization or at Suemori's request, he'll do it with children or the elderly, too, but he won't like it.

His memory issue is pretty bad due to the PTSD, and he has a lot of trouble remembering names longer than three syllables. The only exception to this is Narimiya's name.

He's bisexual. Amemiya, the game's director, notes that once he loves someone, he'll never cheat.

He has very limited intensity of emotions. It's noted he only feels about 10% of what normal people feel due to his PTSD.

Haru's favorite fruit is pineapple, and his favorite food is a homecooked Japanese meal because all he eats in the organization is fancy Western food that lacks any sort of love.

Haru is very bad with spicy food and carbonated drinks.

Haru sleeps on his side most of the time, and he'll sometimes curl up.

Of the main cast, Haru is the fastest in terms of speed. The next fastest character is Ryu.

Haru has heavy alcohol tolerance.

Haru has an 80% chance of dying after he goes back to the organization at the end of NO, THANK YOU!!!. However, Amemiya says he's also a very lucky person, so his fate is unknown.

Haru's fighting ability is listed as 9/10 ("assassin" level, which is shared with Maki), and is particularly skilled with knives.

Haru is very appreciative of food and is nice about it even when it tastes horrible. All he'll say is, "Hmm... Something is missing...?"

If need be, Haru can drive a car... with emphasis on the "can." Because he often relies on instinct, it's dangerous, and it's better if someone else handles the driving instead.

He has average singing ability.

Narimiya Takashi

His birthday is October 29th, 1977, making him 35 years old at the start of NO, THANK YOU!!!.

Narimiya is not related to Suemori, and is Haru's older half-brother through their mother. There is zero chance is Haru's father.

He masturbates once a month.

Narimiya's prosthesis is an advanced one and acts much like a regular arm. Amemiya specifically notes in the Q&A section that it cannot shoot rockets.

He is allergic to alcohol and cannot drink, but he also has a sugar addiction. Narimiya can also cook, but Haru is much better than him at it.

He's a surprisingly good singer.

Suemori has a good amount of trust in Narimiya's capabilities, citing his intelligence and craftiness.

Narimiya keeps Haru at arm's length and won't go out of his way to help him with unnecessary tasks, but it's noted there are risks he will take for him. It just depends.

Narimiya's fighting ability is rated 8/10 ("professional" level, which is shared with Kouichi), and is particularly skilled with guns.

The part of a woman that turns him on most is her hair.

Like Haru, he does not feel intensely as other people do in terms of emotions. However, he still feels sentimentality.

[drabasp]

Union Politics and the Karrakin Trade Baronies, or, Why Union Lets the KTB Do All That

Let me open this post with a small disclaimer: what I am saying here is not necessarily meant to be argumentative, nor is it targeted at anyone in particular. Lancer is a TTRPG setting, and as such is infinitely malleable in terms of setting alterations in order to suit you and your playgroup. This behavior is explicitly encouraged in the core rulebook and I encourage you to do it yourself, in order to better set the limits of what you might want to engage with in the course of play.

However, it has been my experience that it is usually best to understand the material that you're bending when you do so and I'm not entirely sure that some people do- an understandable problem to have when you do not just consume guidebooks in one sitting or fixate on the particularly fucked politics of some aspects of the setting. Of particular concern to me is the Karrakin Trade Baronies (henceforth the KTB,) one of two parts of the setting to get its own dedicated guidebook and the subject of the forthcoming module Shadow of the Wolf. It's a repressive aristocratic state that is home to some of the worst sanctioned atrocities in the setting, but also its a part of Union, so why does the "utopian" Union let them do that?

It's simple: the KTB is a vassal state in an extractive colonial relationship. This is text.

(Field Guide to the Karrakin Trade Baronies, p. 3)

The long and short of it is this- the KTB's initial encounters with Union were short and violent, as these encounters were with an expansionist Second Committee who coveted the KTB's rich resources. The first of these wars featured SecComm nearly securing an incredibly quick victory via an initial refusal to engage in ship combat in favor of simply barraging civillian populations instead:

(Field Guide to the Karrakin Trade Baronies p. 33. I recommend reading this entire section actually, as I find few Lancer sourcebooks willing to go this into detail about single events- the Battle of Kantus Void (starting p. 32) is described in great detail and is frankly quite horrific)

Only to retreat at the last minute in order to deal with the Deimos event.  (e.g. the emergence of Ra on Deimos, followed by the First Contact Accords. One of the ramifications of this is that Union gets access to blinkspace and NHPs, which one might consider a Big Deal technologically.) The second war was won via an overwhelming technological advantage from SecComm as a result of the Deimos event , to the point where the Second Union-Karrakin War gets scarcely a paragraph in the book, and the result is the New Prosperity Agreement, as follows:

(Field Guide to the Karrakin Trade Baronies, p. 34.)

So: Union gets a treaty-guarantee that the KTB has no military fleet, a regular supply of the resources mined in the KTB (explicitly to fund the growth of Union Core), and the KTB gets the Dawnline shore, reparations, and the guarantee that Union will not depose their government. This treaty remains on the books with the transition to ThirdComm, because the demand for resources did not end with the end of SecComm:

(Field Guide to the Karrakin Trade Baronies p. 36. Note the term “printers” here, this is not Star Trek, there are no replicators, your mech was built with raw material that was probably sourced in part or in full from the KTB.)

That is to say: why has the Third Committee allowed the KTB to continue doing what it does? Because 1. There is a treaty saying protecting the existing government and specifically the nobility 2. That treaty is the thing that feeds its shipyards, printers, and the resource demands of its core worlds 3. The First Utopian Pillar says "All should have their material needs fulfilled," so any action that threatens Union's supply lines is viewed as a threat to Union's ability to uphold the Utopian Pillars:

(Field Guide to the Karrakin Trade Baronies p. 36, this one is actually a bit more of a stretch but this is the only thing I can imagine "Union relies on the New Prosperity Agreement to... uphold its principles" refers to.)

You may be asking a few questions.

Does this make absolve the KTB/make their existing structure okay?

Absolutely not. The existence of the structure of landed nobility over an ignoble population is a power structure that itself produces the problems like those seen on Free Sanjak- this is something I see a lot of existing ink spilled over and I think this is made explicitly clear just about everywhere. However, I think it is important to understand that the conditions that the Ungratefuls fight against are those involved in resource extraction, and those are ones that they identify as being ultimately in service to union, as Tyrannocleave says:

(Field Guide to the Karrakin Trade Baronies p. 82)

In fact, even the core guidebook notes that the Ungratefuls tend to regard Union as hostile for these reasons:

Lancer Core Rulebook p. 415, notably the edition that contains the GM rules and setting notes. All other citations from this source are the same.)

They also will target Union openly:

(Lancer Core Rulebook p. 415, paragraph truncated due to page limit in source, the opening lines were "Beyond this, Ungrateful activity ranges in scope from the local to the interstellar. Some cells focus on direct...)

The actual politics of the Ungratefuls are their own discussion, though, and this post is far too bloated as-is.

The same conditions that incentivize resource extraction as a precondition of survival also incentivize existing power structures in the KTB to sanction and allow the kinds of abuse on Free Sanjak. Resource limitations (also noted in the early pages of the KTB guidebook as growing) in the KTB are not a result of lack of material but a demand for export, and those limitations are never going to be felt by the nobility, who will inevitably guarantee that they will be fed, but rather the people.

That is to say- the conditions of the nobility existed prior to Union, but the continued abuses are informed by the Treaty obligations imposed by Union, and this is something that the Ungratefuls textually understand.

Is Union doing nothing?

As shown in that second to last rulebook excerpt, also no. However, the actions Union is taking are broadly informed by the necessity of maintaining plausible deniability. Union is funding and maintaining the Ungratefuls, but are unwilling to put pressure on what is an unstable larger diplomatic situation:

(Field Guide to the Karrakin Trade Baronies p. 81)

That is to say- their larger aid to the Republican Houses (Water and Dust) filters into support for the Ungratefuls, and the UIB hires free agents to run support for them in order to make Union's hands in the conflict seem clean. However, this does not mean any sort of direct intervention by any forces that have clear ties to ThirdComm, as they are unwilling to jeopardize diplomatic ties to the KTB writ large. Or, in short: Union Navy and the DoJ/HR are hands off for this one.

Wait, isn't ThirdComm supposed to be utopian?

I read Union as being a government with a complicated history that seeks to act in the direction of Utopianism. I think that what is textually true about the KTB and the way Union interacts with it, however, is proof of how complicated that project can be. To sanction the KTB is to remove the resource flows that make the Union Core a society that can easily uphold the First Pillar. To maintain this relationship is to continue the colonial legacy of SecComm and continue tacitly endorsing both the aristocratic, exploitative present in the KTB and the extraction that it now seeks to maintain. The compromise that Union has come to is to accept the resources while funding freedom fighters, a position that I wholeheartedly disagree with as a citizen under American Empire who finds that this "compromise" uncomfortably echoes similar situations in the real world, but I think that the inclusion of this in the setting serves to pose the question: what should be done, when you are building Utopia on still breathing body of Empire?

There's a larger discussion to be had here about Lancer as a Utopian setting, but that demands a word count that I think this post has no space for. Suffice it to say- I think that discussions of the KTB should consider this context more, because I think that this is a question the setting is asking, and it is one worth engaging.

[vintagerpg]

DL14: Dragons of Triumph (1986) marks the end of the the Dragonlance saga and the War of the Lance. It’s full to brimming — three booklets and a map. Some aspects seem rushed. Diana Magnuson’s art in general seems very sketchy here and the recycling of some illustrations from the 1983 Basic Set seems…odd for what should be a big budget, marquee release, the capstone on three years of campaign releases!

It’s interesting too that for all the series’ experiments in narrative and unconventional modes of play, the climax of the story proceeds along pretty typical D&D lines: a big ol’ hexcrawl, some city exploration followed by the final set piece in Takhisis’ temple, a mid-sized dungeon, where players enact the solution they uncovered in D13. There’s plenty of events, too, but the finish is refreshingly uncomplicated, I think? Also, I get WHY the adventures diverge from the novels, but I still miss the big character notes for Sturm, Flint and Raistlin. I don’t know how you keep those in without making a big mess, but I do wish it was a riddle that these folks figured out.

There’s a pile of extra stuff in the form of a sourcebook, a sort of sequel to DL5, which details the world of Krynn in a way that almost but not quite supports further play. That’d have to wait a few more years. There’s also a collection of all the monsters, which, they all appeared elsewhere, but I like it when monsters hang out together.

Also, old saw, but as much as I like this Caldwell cover, I also think it sucks in the way it diminishes the strength of Laurana’s character. Compare to Elmore’s depiction on Winter Night or Parkinson’s fantastic portrait of her standing over Sturm’s corpse. It bums me out on a certain level that she’s chained and pantsless in typical Caldwell fashion on the cover of the finale. Takhisis looks great tho.

[highrook]

Stories as jigsaws and Games as notebooks

The world and lore of Highrook is rarely presented in linear exposition. In fact most of the writing in the game is peripheral to progress. You can complete the game without even reading the majority of the texts available. I am a huge fan of cosmic horror fiction, rpg sourcebooks, wikis, board games and graphic novels. All of these forms share the frameworks of fragmented fiction. The story and world is delivered through occult scraps, unearthed pages, scribbled notes and scattered imagery.

This way of organising and revealing information really appeals to me as both a reader and a player. It avoids locking the participant into long inescapable sequences of exposition or cutscenes. Instead it allows a different mode of engagement. You can read as much or as little as you feel at the moment, and return later - to revisit fragments and find new revelations or locate missing pieces.

This structure even mirrors the action in cosmic horror tales, where protagonists assemble obscure source material and attempts to piece together a timeline. Juggling fragments might seem stressful for some people, but if there is no time pressure or ‘single true text’ then the experience can actually be quite relaxing.

It's like putting together a jigsaw, you can tackle it at your own pace, apply your focus in different places until the whole picture emerges. You might concentrate on the edges, assemble islands of shared colour, or work one subsection at a time. It's the same reason I love wikis or RPG bestiaries, they are all ways to assemble a world that builds by aggregation not instruction, it's a workshop not a lecture. This kind of assembly also provides space for the reader to include their own ideas, there is more leeway for interpretation and creative engagement with the material. 

Or maybe its just avoidance?… not being confident enough to commit to direct exposition, but I’ve never enjoyed rollercoaster fiction, or on-rails games. As much as Half-life was a masterpiece of its time I feel that it led to an overwhelming rise of set-piece game design (at least for a while). The zones of the Southern Reach or Stalker, or the melancholy landscapes of Fumito Ueda are more my style… places that I feel would exist without my attention or interactions. Places where the story happens in a way that is more topological than hierarchical.

Of course this can make organising content a nightmare! I already have hundreds of separate cards in my game, with descriptions of everything from an old trowel to a broken heart. But wrangling all these items and notes into shape is a game in itself and something I can attack from different angles depending on my mood or the time of day. There's a few months yet before it will all be tied up, but I can feel it slowly coming together.

[cringecompanionapologist]

I Found a Doctor Who RPG Sourcebook and I'm Making It Your Problem

Actually, I found several. It seems that there is a sort of Doctor Who tabletop RPG with sourcebooks for each Doctor that include ready-made character sheets for the Doctors, companions, and major players in each televised story.

I could look into all of them, if I really wanted to, but the thing is, my computer is nearly a decade old, slowly dying on me, and hates screenshots, so taking and storing a fuckton of screenshots of absolutely everything isn't something I can do. So, I'm just pulling a few interesting bits from the Second and Fifth Doctor Sourcebooks. There's no structure to this beyond me thinking "I wonder what their character sheet looks like".

So, the Second Doctor stuff is not much at all. I got the Doctor himself.

I should probably note that I don't have much experience with tabletop RPGs, and none with this one in particular, so I only half know how to read these. This screenshot isn't even very good. I'm working off a free site with a terrible zoom function and I couldn't get the whole thing. The basics are that characters have a set of six Stats, a bunch of Skills, some traits that give them special strengths and weaknesses, and some basic character information. The Second Doctor's got a lot of stuff, some of which even gets explained.

I've deduced that there's probably a separate manual for the basics of how the game works, what the Stats mean, what the Skills do, etc. So a lot of Why These Numbers Are What They Are questions go unanswered.

Any way, this screenshot sucks so much that I can't bare the sight of it any longer, so we're moving on to the next one. Here's Jamie:

Wow! You can actually see things this time.

Most of the stat numbers don't go above 5, from what I can tell. So we can assume that Jamie's strongest stats are Coordination, Presence, and Strength, without any stat being too weak.

The skills are more mixed.

Athletics most likely refers to physical skills, Convince is persuasion, Craft is making stuff, I think, Fighting needs no explanation, Knowledge is...well...knowing stuff, Marksman is shooting/throwing accuracy, Medicine is obviously medical knowledge, Science is...look a lot of these seem like special subcategories of knowledge that are self-explainatory, Subterfuge I think covers "rogue skills" like spying and lock-picking, Survival is the sort of things Boy Scouts learn probably, Technology is computers and technobabble, Transport is driving and the like.

So, when it comes to strengths, Jamie is physically fit, but can't swim. He is very good at fighting because he's a male companion in the 60s that that was like at least 75% of their job. Marksman is apparently based in knife-throwing ability. Subterfuge...well, if you've seen The Enemy of the World, Jamie is actually a pretty good spy.

As for weaknesses, Jamie knows nothing about any STEM field.

There's also a little number for Technology Level. I've seen this number go as high as 7, but the 18th and 19th century characters seem to be placed at a 4. I didn't get a screenshot but Victoria is the same, despite the whole Industrial Revolution thing.

Then we've got some personality traits and such that effect things. Jamie apparently gets points for being attractive and brave, as well as for being accepted anywhere in time and space no matter what he's wearing. There's really not a whole lot to analyze here.

Now, the entire reason I did Second Doctor stuff was because the villains get character sheets and I wanted to see Salamander's. I added the Doctor and Jamie to pretend I had any other reason to be there.

I took this screenshot without using the zoom and it looks pretty good actually.

It turns out that those skill numbers can go above 5 as Salamander scores a 6 in Ingenuity and Presence, as well as a 5 in Resolve. Almost all of his stats are pretty high. As an RPG villain, he's a boss fight.

Instead of a full chart of skills, which only Doctors and Companions get, Salamander just gets a list. His higher points here are Convince at 5, Knowledge at 4, Subterfuge at 5, and Technology at 5. Convince and Subterfuge are his more manipulative skills as a politician, while Knowledge and Technology are because he did, in fact, invent the technology he got popular for inventing. His Tech Level, at a 5, is somewhere between Jamie and Victoria, and some of the more futuristic aliens. That does make sense for the early 21st century, even a slightly more high-tech 21st century than the one that actually happened.

As for Traits, a lot of them give him bonus skills that are actually explained, such as the ability to invent gadgets, resist mind control, menace people into doing what he wants and get even bigger bonuses in Technology and Convince situations, being a tech genius for his time period and a respected authority figure.

So, cool stuff.

The Fifth Doctor stuff I got is a bit more extensive. We'll start with the Doctor himself.

The good news is that it's a full screenshot. The bad news is that it's very hard to read. We can see a very high Ingenuity stat, because he's the Doctor. There's a Tech Level 10, because I'm guessing that's Level Time Lord.

I do have enough info to compare his Skill number to the Second Doctors.

Athletics has risen from 1 to 4 because of all the cricket. Convince drops from a 5 to a 3, because nobody listens to Five while Two was fairly good at getting people to listen to him. Fighting has risen from absolute 0 to 2, which isn't much but it's literally something. You can see a lot of numbers improve slightly as the Doctor has learned more things over time, like Medicine going from 1 to 3.

I actually looked over four different companions this time. We'll go in order of introduction. Here's Adric.

His Tech Level is confusing in the blurry screenshot. But, as for other stuff, his fast healing and ability to control the TARDIS a little are noted, though the reality warping of Block Transfer Computation isn't because it's too damn complicated and has it's own system.

Adric's skills in general are pretty low, but they don't seem to be too unfair. These sourcebooks started coming out around 2013, when the fandom's aggressive Adric hatred had started to wind down, possibly as people realized that all the season 19 companions had writing problems and the confused performances you often get with confused writing, but Tegan and Nyssa stuck around longer so improvements could be made, and Big Finish started doing damage control with them earlier on, especially in Nyssa's case.

I'm actually surprised Adric's Athletics score is as high as it is. His Science score being only a 3 and Knowledge 2 confused me at first, but when I thought about it, it a makes sense. Adric knew a lot about mathematics but basically nothing anything else, even other STEM fields. Nyssa had to tell him what photosynthesis is, which I learned in elementary school science classes. Between this extreme focus on a single subject, lack of socials skills, and somewhat stilted speech and movement, I think I like Adric as much as I do because all this stuff feels like autism and I was an autistic teenager when I first saw him.

He also gets good Subterfuge skills because he can pick locks, do sleight of hand tricks, and overall has a good skill set that was rarely put to use.

And now, Nyssa:

Tech Level 7 explains where Traken is. We'll get to compare several different planets I guess.

Nyssa gets a higher science stat, with an emphasis on biochemistry. She has a more diverse STEM skill set than Adric. Other than that, I don't have much to report here. The fact that she's upper class seems to affect her ability to interact with people who aren't. As you will see, Turlough somehow isn't given this problem despite it being more obvious with him than with Nyssa.

But before that, there's Tegan.

Technology level 5 for the 1980s. These tech levels seem to cover a lot of historical ground. 1746 and 1866 are both in 4 and 1980 and 2018(futuristic version) are both in 5. I wonder what separates these levels from one another.

Tegan is considered fairly ordinary, not a fighter like Jamie nor a scientist like Nyssa, so her stats are kinda bad. Looking at her traits, her skills seem to include running and screaming, with points off for being impulsive, argumentative, and loud. I don't think the people who wrote this liked Tegan very much.

Anyway, of course there's Turlough.

Trion is apparently Tech Level 7, the same as Traken. So that turned out to not be very interesting.

His main strengths are in Convince and Technology. He can half-understand the TARDIS at times and appears to be good at lying to people. The fact that he doesn't get running and screaming in his traits and Tegan does is sexism. He also gets to be charming, though not attractive like Nyssa or Tegan. Men can get this trait, since Jamie did. I think he's commonly seen as average-looking.

Also the fact that he's seen as lucky with all the shit he went through is hilarious.

Finally, as a bit of a bonus, Captain Wrack from Enlightenment has a character sheet. How do you even make stats for an Eternal?

Many of her stats are surprisingly low for basically a low-level god. Though she's got a high Knowledge score and a Tech Level of 12, since Eternals go beyond Time Lords, though it's more power than technology with them, isn't it? Do we just not know how to factor this in?

So when it comes to these tech levels:

18th-19th century Earth = 4

20th-21st century Earth = 5

Traken and Trion = 7

Time Lords = 10

Eternals = 12

That's all I got for now. I hope you enjoyed this bit of fussing over meaningless numbers.

[talenlee]

4e: Spooky Heritages

Sometimes when you’re considering a way to make a character, the kind of thing you might need for say, a Halloween season short campaign designed to give everyone an excuse to sit around, tell a story, throw some dice and fight some things, you’re looking for a way to bring in something spooky. Something that isn’t going to show up in the normal births registry, something that’s going to obviously set the tone of a situation apart from the conventional Dwarf-Elf-Human-Yawn collection that’s been tumbling down the narrative staircase since Tolkein first middled the earths.

What if you want to play a monster?

I did an article on making Horror campaign characters a few years ago. Here’s a revisit to the concept space!

Art Source

Glossary Note: Conventionally, the term used in D&D for this mechanical package is race. This is the typical term, and in most conversations about this game system, the term you’re going to wind up using is race. For backwards compatibility and searchability, I am including this passage here. The term I use for this player option is heritage.

The Shade

You ever have that thing where you have like, a junky toy, and then one day you get a brand new version of the same toy, or the second version and you forget you ever owned the original one? The Shade is a dead human, back from the dead, that sacrificed its vitality to become part of the Shadowfell, which 3e longtooths will recognise as the Negative Energy Plane. Basically, a Shade is a Human full of spooky juice, and their reward for being a living undead is, uh,

Garbage.

The Shade gives up a healing surge and in exchange gets training in stealth, access to a pool of (bad) utility powers, and an at-will power that lets you set up hiding, which sounds like maybe it’d have some use then you find out it’s a standard action, meaning that odds are good you’ll not be able to use that stealth. Going into hiding every other turn means, functionally, whatever you’re using that stealth for is cut in half, and there are just better ways to try and make sure you can hide.

It’s a shame, too, because at its heart, what Shade feels like it should be, it doesn’t really have the means to deliver on. A shade feels like it should be insubstantial in some way, ethereal, at least based on the name. There should be something missing in the Shade, but in the case of this player option, the thing that’s missing is ‘a good reason to use it.’

Still, it’s a place to start. The vibes are a thing you can poach and put onto a different mechanical package. There’s even an example of this whole suite being outmoded in this very article! Oh no, not the next one, the next one is about scary frog people.

Art Source

The Bullywug

I’m a firm believer that in any arrangement of three, you do need to have one complete carry. It’s easy to list trios of things that can be spooky in 4th edition D&D, limiting yourself to the ‘good’ stuff that stands out. But there’s something to be said for reaching into the genuinely monstrous when that requires looking at something that pretty unequivocally sucks.

The Bullywug is a heritage that needs a rework, but seems unlikely to get one because nobody cares. The actual base heritage is from the Monster Manual rather than any kind of other sourcebook, and that means it was designed to not just be less appealing than the Player’s Handbook heritages, but also never supported thereafter because nobody cares.

The Bullywug has an ability that diminishes the ability of others to use healing surges around the Bullywug character. This sucks not because it affects your allies (who use healing surges) but instead because it doesn’t really affect your enemies (who don’t). Essentially, the Bullywug is a creature that wants to deliver on the fantasy of being a scary river monster toad beast, but also doesn’t give you any good reason to play it.

Which is a shame! It’s a shame because this is an otherwise unattended place for player heritages! If you’re running 4th edition D&D, and want to make sure people have good creepy/horror options, consider giving the Bullywug a look and goosing it. I’d particularly recommend adding some variety of swim speed, and really, the aura could be something as blanket as a -2 penalty to saving throws, and while that represents a unique form of a player character option, it isn’t something that works to do anything amazing on its own.

Nonetheless, you can have a big wide mouth and terrifying tongue so you can sing appropriately horrifyingly it’s beginning to look a lot like fish-men…

Revenant

Art Source

The Revenant is something of a cadillac in the heritage options for 4th edition spooksters, in that it is both a good flavour and a good mechanical package that delivers on that flavour. It’s pretty nice when you get that lineup and don’t have to deal with a good mechanical package whose flavour sucks (the Dwarf), or a heritage whose flavour rules but the mechanics are a complete crater (really, the Hengeyokai is our biggest offender here).

In the case of the Revenant, you are a dead person. Back from the dead to avenge yourself, or someone else, Crow style. The way this works is a sort of mechanical layering; the Revenant chooses what heritage they were when they were alive, and then they get the Revenant baseline but can use feats and other options from that former heritage. They can even pick up the heritage powers of that heritage, with feats, which is especially cool as an obvious ‘oh well yeah’ kind of choice.

The Revenant adds Living Undead to their types, they get a nice utility power (Dark Reaping isn’t amazing but it is useful for every archetype), and then something truly ‘weird’ in that they can still act while ‘dying’ through the power Unnatural Vitality. This power seems really amazing in its context – being able to do half-actions while ‘dying’ is pretty cool! – it has to run headlong into the problem of how rarely people spend much time dying compared to being alive. The niche application of it (setting aside funny build options involving drowning yourself), are such that you get to play your Revenant in a very cool, spooky way, knowing that you have the backup of Not Immediately Dying, but it’s also not likely to come up in any situation where it isn’t a reasonably fair thing.

Thing is, even if it only comes up once, the point where a baddie hits you, drops you to 0 hp, and you don’t die, and then continue fighting for three more rounds, and if you save you can keep going, and then if you crit suddenly you’re back in the fight while people around you go: Wait, didn’t we kill you, what the hell is happening here?

… that’s going to last.

That’s going to be a good, spooky memory.

Conclusion

There are more options, more places to go. Don’t be surprised if next year we’re doing this again, as we steadily work through every heritage and slowly but steadily presenting ways to be a Horror Character using each one.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

[open-hearth-rpg]

Call of Cthulhu (1981)

Horror RPGs the First 31 Years

Call of Cthulhu kicked off horror gaming as a standalone genre. You could point to Tegel Manor as the first real haunted house product, but it doesn't put the horror elements at the center and still focuses on the dungeon crawl. Some things, like S.H.A.D.O.W. over Scotland, offer a horror diversion for the main system, but don't rise to the level of sourcebook or core rules.

The big daddy of horror gaming. I remember when my sister first brought home the boxed set with the big blue book. I flipped through it, not really getting what the game was about. I'd only known Cthulhu and Lovecraft from the paperbacks with the terrifying covers on the shelves at the stores. Later, I'd eventually read August Derelth's The Trail of Cthulhu, in some ways the most grade-school of Mythos fiction. It scared me, but led me to read the real works, which really scared me. I was lucky that I had a patient sister who let me play in her CoC campaign even though I was a terrible player and a little kid who didn't get it.

Robin Laws' suggests that CoC's notable for also being the first rpg to really emulate a literary genre. Sure we'd had fantasy games, but those wore the genre trappings rather than trying to act out a specific story form. History as setting, always vulnerable PCs, dangerous magic= CoC brought all of this to the table. It introduced Sanity as a mechanism, offering an abstract system representing non-physical damage- inflicting consequences and disadvantages. Many modern mechanics owe a debt to that.

It is worth noting that Chaosium introduced two "sub-lines" for Call of Cthulhu within the next few years. The first was Cthulhu by Gaslight in 1986, one of the earliest Victorian games. The second was Cthulhu Now in 1987 which tried to bring a modern spin on the ideas.

[vkelleyart]

LONDON CALLING SERIES SPECIAL EDITION

So excited to share this dream commission for Illumicrate/Afterlight Books! Behold the exclusive Special Editions of Alexis Hall’s LONDON CALLING Series, featuring dust jackets illustrated by me! ❤️💙

Details from Afterlight Books:

We’re delighted to announce our Afterlight Exclusive London Calling Set by Alexis Hall in collaboration with Sourcebooks Casablanca!

Our editions of BOYFRIEND MATERIAL and HUSBAND MATERIAL are signed, exclusive B format Hardbacks and feature all exclusive:

Redesigned covers with illustrations by @vkelleyart and overall design by @chattynora

Digitally printed edges by @chattynora

Foil on the hardback by @chattynora

Endpaper artwork by @llstarcasterll

Bound-in author letters

*Please note that these images are mockups and finished copies may differ slightly.

The set is priced at £45+shipping and VAT if applicable, and will be shipping in June/July. This set comes under our ‘Box Subscription’ shipping category and our shipping rates can be viewed at http://illumicrate.com/shipping-rates. General sale starts at 3pm BST on Thursday 18th May.

We will be holding a presale for active Afterlight subscribers. Details of when this is will be emailed out on Wednesday 10th May (the presale will not take place on this day).

More information (and images) will emerge over the coming months, and I will do my best to update this post as I have more details to share. Afterlight Editions can/will be found here: https://www.illumicrate.com/shop/category/afterlight. ❤️

[christiansorrell]

Tacticians of Ahm - Monthly Update #2!

Full spread art by @helenacore depicting Early Graduation's opening field exercises!

Greetings Tacticians!

Tactician of Ahm's Monthly Update #2 is finally here! With it comes the early access version of the setting book, The Ahmian Almanac, which features its first sample region of Ahm, showcasing the style and structure of setting book I am hoping to create with the Almanac. The book will feature lore and locations, of course, but it will also feature more in-depth maps, new NPCs, unique equipment, a complete new Class, and more! I want to create a book that it as much a sourcebook chock full of new things for GMs to bring to the table as it is information about the world of Ahm and inspiration for adventures.

Thanks you so much for the continued support of and engagement with the game! I used more of the raised funds to commission more art from Helena Santana including a new, full-spread art piece for Early Graduation (at the top of the post) and a piece of Dekkin Von Lopesbane character art (also for Early Graduation). Plus, I've worked with Jean Verne on a second preview spread (see above) of our planned look and feel for the game's final layout, this time utilizing some of Helena's awesome art from Monthly Update #1!

Because of my delay of this update (it was originally slated for last month) and the update overall being smaller than I originally was hoping, I am delaying this month's price hike on the game so if you enjoy Tacticians of Ahm now is still a great time to get on board! Tell your friends to do the same! Next update, the price will rise by $5 USD and that will continue apace (barring unforeseen delays like the one I suffered this last month, of course).

Lastly, I recently ran the opening two hours of Early Graduation over on The Weekly Scroll. Check it out if you'd like to see the game in action and see how I run it as the GM!

PATCH NOTES - v0.8.3

Tactician’s Textbook

Clarified Conditions to apply until the end of target’s next Turn (as opposed to confusing wording regarding Rounds).

Renamed “Shield” Condition to “Ward” to avoid having the same name as a shield, the piece of equipment and updated relevant uses throughout the text.

Ward condition now explicitly blocks all damage AND any/all Conditions while in effect.

Updated Mage Ability - Barrier to include “May be cast on self (1 target maximum per use)”

Added clarifying text to Shields in Equipment section: “(does not block Conditions)”

Added clarifying text regarding applying multiple Conditions to a single target: “A target may suffer one or more different Conditions at the same time. If a target currently has a Condition, they may not be affected by that same Condition again (nor does it add turns of effect to the current Condition) until the current instance has ended.”

Gamemaster’s Guidebook

Added Boar (EL1) to Bestiary

EARLY GRADUATION

Added a massive new piece of art from Helena Santana to the title page, depicting the Tacticians sparring with Imperial Army soldiers during the Field Day exercises!

Added Boar (EL1) to “BATTLE: Wolves in the Woods” and adjusted combatant numbers at various party sizes to more accurately reflect typical intended difficulty.

AHMIAN ALMANAC (NEW!)

Lake Traecine region added, includes the following:

5 Major Points of Interest: New locations for your Tacticians to travel to and explore!

20 Calls for Aid: Adventure hooks and strange happenings across the region!

1 Class: New classes, accessible only to Tacticians who prove their worth!

11 Abilities: New combat skills, taught to those favored by a certain faction!

2 Enemies: New combatants, unique to the specific region or faction!

2 Relics: New guarded/lost pieces of equipment, be they mundane, magical, or corrupt3d!

2 Factions: New groups, wielding political, cultural, or magical power!

1 Shop: A New specialty establishment carrying new and rare items!

4 Characters: New NPCs for your Tacticians to meet, interact with, and fight alongside!

More detailed (placeholder) map of the region with travel paths!

[y-rhywbeth2]

I find myself wondering if the Bhaalist kinky dead doves and the 'wedding' traditions seen in-game are realmslore. Like all faiths have their own marriage systems - the vows the couple/polycule is held to, the rituals used, whether monogamy is mandated - or forbidden - by the faith in question, whether or not the union must be capable of producing children to be valid, the degrees of consanguinity permitted (ranging from 'look at your first-cousins and get slapped,' all the way to (supposed) ancient Persian level shenanigans on the other end of the scale): all that varies by the god whose blessing you seek. All 40+ faiths have their own rules on it, which didn't get detailed because TSR/WotC is all 'we're not wasting page space on that, people want cool powers and things to fight, not weddings.'

But products set in the Forgotten Realms are to be based in Ed Greenwood's notes, so the murder-sex with Bhaal and murder-suicide marriage thing could be realmslore. But on the other hand products don't necessarily have all of or adhere to those notes, and video games in particular are notoriously bad at following them and the sourcebooks.

(I've bitched about BG3 enough; NWN2 confused Illefarn with the Phalorm and I am going to beat Obsidian to death with a sign that says 'you underplayed how much of a horror the Mere of Dead Men is and it bugs me'; MotB overexaggerated the Wall of the Faithless; the layout of Baldur's Gate in BG1 in inaccurate and Nashkel is supposed to be a city in Amn; NWN1 got the design of Neverwinter wrong; BG2 got Suldanesselar wrong (starting with 'the green elves should not have a monarch' and apparently that caused paroxysms), etc etc)

But at the same time I can absolutely see that stuff being a Thing.

[somnimouse]

AAAAHHH !! YOU ANSWERED !! i literally squeaked when i checked your tumblr to see that you did !!! such a shame that the setting sourebook doesn't cone in english, but i definitely will be buying!!

oh! and, i appreciate you being willing to tell me about ryu and haru! but can i instead learn about ren? ever since i read your ryu route analysis, i've wanted to learn more about the younger mochizuki :]

sorry about the big ask, and thanks in advance!!!

No worries about the ask! I'm always more than happy to talk about NTY!!! because aaaa I love this game so much. ;_;

Going to put this under a cut because Ren's section has a little bit of heavy stuff, but it's not as bad as Haru's section (which is incredibly NSFL). Ren's section also talks a little bit about Kaori as well, and their dynamic is really, really sweet!

Warning: Contains references to CSA, child abuse, sexual assault and rape. Taken straight from the sourcebook.

To start off, Ren was raised by just his mother, who was a prostitute and wasn't exactly the best example of a loving mother. Ren was bullied in school a lot for this. Other students would insult his mother and insinuate that, because she has sex with a lot of men, Ren, too, must be sleeping with them. He got into fights all the time because of that, and his experience with these bullies was the foundation for his very distasteful feelings toward men.

Unfortunately, his mother eventually got a boyfriend who was also not a very good person. One night, when Ren was in his late-teenage years, this boyfriend snuck into his bed and molested him. Ren took a beer bottle and smashed it over his head to stop the assault, but his mother was enraged and kicked him out.

Ren eventually wandered off and found himself in a hostess club. There was a very kind, beautiful woman there with big breasts who welcomed him. After Ren had spent quite a bit of time drinking, he opened up to her about his life and cried. Much to his surprise, the woman cried as well, and immediately told him, "I will be your family, then!"

... Of course, this creeped Ren out and he thought she was kind of crazy, so he ditched her immediately and resolved never to go back. Who in their right mind would even say something like that to a guy they just met?

At some point, Ren got into a fight with a bunch of guys and lost terribly. They held him down, and a different young woman ended up raping him that night. However, Ren refused to fight back. He thought that, if he refused, he would be seen as gay. He developed a severe defensive response to being assumed gay because of his experience with bullies and his mother's boyfriend. And so, he let it happen.

(Amemiya, the director of NTY!!!, notes that Ren isn't really affected by his rape by the woman and has just brushed it aside. This contrasts with Ryu and Sorato, who have significant trauma and gynophobia because of their experience. It should also be noted that Ren is actually heterosexual, but while his defensiveness at being assumed gay is somewhat understandable, his volatile response is moreso linked to his issues.)

Ren, defeated, eventually returned to the hostess club. The hostess he ran away from never held it against him and welcomed him into her life with open arms, adopting him as her little brother.

This hostess' name? Mochizuki Kaori.

Unbeknownst to Ren, Kaori had a similar childhood. She was molested by her stepfather in the past and ran away from home at the age of 16. She ended up with a boyfriend who was into some shady business, and, one day, she and that boyfriend were targeted and shot by criminals who had it out for the guy. She was saved by Inui Kouichi, and they became good friends. Kaori eventually left her boyfriend and met her future husband, Hagiwara, who loves her dearly and would do anything for her.

It was initially awkward living with Kaori. Ren would turn red and get a boner every time she hugged him because her breasts would push up against him, but after some amount of time, these feelings subsided when he began to truly see her as family. Kaori basically saved him, and that's why he's protective of her.

Kaori eventually introduced Ren to Kouichi, who hired him at sótano as a bartender and a private investigator. Ren has some respect for the old man because of his connection to Kaori, but he ultimately views Kouichi as "too soft." That said, he still obeys his orders.

However, he was immediately awestruck by Kurosawa Ryu, who he views as the only competent man at the bar. He's everything Ren wants to be—cold, composed, ruthless and intelligent. Of everyone at sótano, Ren respects him the most and would follow him without question. He trusts Ryu so much, he even opened up to him about his past. Ryu, seeing himself and his sister in Ren and Kaori, also told him about what happened to Ai. Ryu has a particular soft spot for Ren, but he's also more strict with him than Hiroyuki because Ren keeps getting into trouble with the police by fighting with other guys.

(Funnily enough, after Haru had him drugged and shot him in the arm in the climax of Ryu's route, Ren woke up in the hospital with no memory of what happened. He said to Ryu, "Something complicated must have happened." Ryu vaguely agreed and didn't even mention who shot him or tell him the events that transpired. Thanks a lot, Mr. Kurosawa.)

It should be noted that, due to his childhood, Ren is particularly knowledgeable about the poverty industry and how society preys on the weak and the poor. Despite his harsh, cynical and unfriendly attitude, he's a good guy deep down who also doesn't like injustice. In a sense, you could say he's very much like Hiroyuki in his direct, headstrong approach to issues, and it's why Ryu worries about him just as much.

Some minor trivia about Ren and Kaori that I found interesting:

He really likes rock and visual kei music. Amemiya notes that he tends to really get into the music and "sing with aggressive arm movements" at karaoke bars. Kaori, on the other hand, likes pop music. Her singing prowess is on par with Ryu, who is described as a very good singer, while Ren is just average.

Ren is trying to make himself healthier meals. In the past, he used to survive on things like burgers and spaghetti, but he's learning how to cook.

In Ryu's route, after Kaori's pregnancy announcement, she quits her job as a hostess and becomes a dedicated housewife.

It's noted that Kaori is the only woman Ryu trusts, and this is shown in-game when he rescues Yufumi from the orphanage and hands the little girl over to her.

Ren and Kaori have tried smoking at some point in their lives, but they quit because it was too gross.

[starblightbindery]

Editor's Note from The Black Sands of Socorro by Patricia A. Jackson

While researching Patricia A. Jackson’s entire body of Star Wars work for a short story anthology, I came across the West End Games sourcebook Star Wars: The Black Sands of Socorro (1997.) It’s a crucial work of Star Wars ephemera: The first creator of color writing for Star Wars in an official capacity, writing not just about individual characters of color, but centering entire cultures populated by non-white characters. A young Black woman in the 1990s wrote science fiction for Star Wars, worldbuilding with concepts like antislavery, indigeneity, linguistic divergence, and settler colonialism...while Disney-Lucasfilm in the 2020s ineffectually positions Star Wars as a post-racial fantasy.

I non-hyperbolically refer to Patricia A. Jackson as the “Octavia Butler of Star Wars,” not because fans of color need to be officially sanctioned by Lucasfilm to create Star Wars content, but because of how difficult it is to carve out anti-racist space in a transmedia storytelling empire. Challenging even in transformational fandom spaces (e.g. fan works), to broach race in affirmational fandom spaces—or while writing content for the property holder—is to be unflinchingly subversive.

And Jackson did it first. In an interview with Rob Wolf in 2022, Jackson described her experience writing race into Star Wars in the 1990s as an “experiment.” The planet, peoples, and cultures of Socorro were a way for Jackson to obliquely, yet concretely, center Blackness and racial justice into Star Wars, pushing the racial allegory constrained by the original trilogy to its limits.

Since it’s inception, Star Wars has spent much of it’s storytelling on the fringes of the galaxy (whether it’s Tatooine or Jakku, Nevarro or Ajan Kloss.) The Black Sands of Socorro is an extension of that trope, but where the Star Wars films used indigeneity as set dressing (eg. “Sand People”, Ewoks, Gungans, etc.) Jackson creates a vivid world where indigenous culture and settler colonists collide; where characters are coded with dark skin and central to the action. The planet Socorro is distinct as a Star Wars setting. As one of the only places in the galaxy where slavery is eradicated with a vengeance, Socorro refuses to let go of a plot line Star Wars media often leaves behind. Socorro is a haven from Imperial fascism, a space where readers are invited to imagine a story that does not center around occupation.

When I learned that Patricia A. Jackson no longer has a physical copy of The Black Sands of Socorro, I realized that I had the materials and the means to create a fanbound hard copy for her home library (well, and also for my own home library.) While this handmade book is not an exact reproduction of the RPG supplement, I hope my renvisioning of the supplement as an in-universe travel guide lives up to the original work.

As the idea of creating a travel guidebook based on the original material percolated, I reflected on the State of Race in Star Wars in the year since I compiled Designs of Fate, an anthology of my favorite Patricia A. Jackson short stories. In May 2022, actress Moses Ingram debuted as Inquisitor Reva Sevander, the deuteragonist in the Dinsey+ streaming Obi-Wan Kenobi series. As predicted by Lucasfilm—and any fan sick of alt-right Star Wars related “whitelash”—Ingram was promptly subjected to a firehose of racialized harassment and misogynoir.

Yep, fascist self-proclaimed fanboys complained about a Black woman Inquisitor in 2022, having no idea (or deliberately whitewashing) that one of creators of the entire freakin’ concept of Inquisitors was a Black woman writing for the Star Wars Adventure Journal three decades ago.

Then, a public facing Star Wars account (@StarWars on Twitter) broke precedent and slapped back at the trolls. Lead actor Ewan McGregor filmed a video retort, posted on @StarWars, stating “racism has no place in this world” and telling off the racist bullies: “you’re no Star Wars fan in my mind.” A few months later, Disney+ debuted it’s second flagship Star Wars streaming series of the year, starring a Latino actor as the protagonist. In the opening episode of Andor, a police chief describes Diego Luna’s eponymous lead as a “dark-featured human,” perhaps the closest the franchise has ever gotten to acknowledging out-of-universe constructions of race, to date. The series explored aspects of imperialism with more depth than Star Wars had previously done on screen, such as the Empire’s treatment of the native people of Aldhani. And, in November, the The Acolyte, a Disney+ series co-developed by Rayne Roberts, announced Amandla Stenberg and Korean actor Lee Jung-jae as its top-billed leads. Stenberg will be the first Gen Z, mixed race, Black, Inuit, queer, and non-binary actor to lead a major Star Wars series.

On the Patricia A. Jackson Star Wars front, in 2022, Jackson’s character Fable Astin was an easter egg in the Obi-Wan Kenobi series. Jackson will again write for Star Wars in an official capacity in From a Certain Point of View: Return of the Jedi, due for publication in Fall 2023. A series about Lando Calrissian, the galaxy’s most famous Socorran, is still in production, so I have my fingers crossed that we may soon see Socorro on camera.

I wonder if this past year will have been a fulcrum year for BIPOC fandom. Maybe Disney has finally realized it’s bad for business that the alt-right uses social media algorithms and Star Wars fan spaces as a soft recruiting ground to radicalize young white men? Maybe Star Wars as a franchise will continue to loudly disavow fan whitelash and firmly position performers of color in true leading roles? I really hope so. On the other hand, as much as I am in favor of increased representation in Star Wars storytelling, I am also troubled by Disney-Lucasfilm’s framing of the Galaxy Far, Far Away (GFFA) as “colorblind.” Recently, Star Wars fans have been asked to accept that in the (a long time ago) sci-fi futurepast GFFA, humans have always been post-racial, and it’s just a coincidence that racialized people were not caught on camera the way white characters have been for years. The galaxy is post-racial and it’s just acoincidence that the movers and shakers of the galaxy have largely been depicted as white men for the past 40 years of media.

For example, in the decade since Disney rebooted the expanded universe, fans have learned that Star Wars’s biggest galactic war criminal to never be depicted on screen is Admiral Rae Sloane, a bisexual Black woman who was the leader of Imperial remnant forces, one of the architects of the First Order, and personal mentor to General Hux. Under Disney-Lucasfilm’s post-racial retcon of the Star Wars universe, the allegorical fascists are intersectional equal opportunity employers (at least in expanded universe content like animation, video games, and novels.) Along those lines, several of the franchise’s newly introduced, prominent women of color have been part of the Empire: Imperial loyalist Cienna Ree (Lost Stars), Inferno Squad leader Iden Versio (Star Wars: Battlefront II) former stormtrooper Jannah (Episode IX), First Order pilot Tamara Ryvora (Star Wars: Resistance), Inquisitor Trilla Sundari (Jedi: Fallen Order), Captain Terisa Kerrill (Star Wars: Squadron) and, most recently, Inquisitor Reva Sevander. Once the sole purview of stodgy, very white and very British men (demonstrably so even in the sequel trilogy movies,) now anyone can be a stooge of the Empire.

That’s not to say that marginalized people can’t collude with fascism, or that there haven’t been heroic characters of color introduced in recent years. Rather, I posit that in order to sell audiences on the post-racial/colorblind GFFA, fascist-of-color characters like Rae Sloane or Giancarlo Esposito’s Moff Gideon (The Mandalorian) are created by necessity. The franchise wants to at once be racially inclusive and yet never directly address race. In Star Wars, real world oppression is primarily explored through allegory—such as Solo (2018)’s bit on droid rights, the clone army, or the myriad of non-human alien bodies that nonetheless are coded with racial stereotypes. A lot has been said about how allegory in sci-fi allows audiences to grapple with inequality from a comfortable distance, and not enough has been said about which audience is being prioritized for comfort.

What does it mean when race is supposedly a non-issue for humans in the GFFA, but creators and actors with marginalized identities cannot participate in Star Wars in any capacity without experiencing identity-targeted harassment? In the past ten years, this has been true even for white women like Kathleen Kennedy and Daisy Ridley, but the vitriol has been most strongly directed towards Black women like Lucasfilm Story Group lead Kiri Hart, author Justina Ireland and The High Republic Show host Krystina Arielle. Can the Galaxy Far, Far Away truly be “colorblind” or “post-racial” (never-racial?) if the narrative continually centers white characters and replicates all the common racial inequities seen in commercialized Hollywood storytelling? Upon the release of The Force Awakens in 2015, critic Andre Seewood aptly described Finn’s positioning in the story as “hyper-⁠tokenism,” even presciently predicting that Finn would continue to be hyper-⁠tokenized in Episodes VIII and IX. As the narrative veered away from Finn, it also left unrealized a stormtrooper rebellion plot line where Finn could have been, in effect, a Black abolitionist. Actor John Boyega’s critique of his experience in the sequel trilogy aligns with Seewald’s assessment: “Do not bring out a Black character, market them to be much more important to the franchise than they are and then have them pushed to the side.”

Published in 1997, The Black Sands of Socorro came before Finn, before Mace Windu, back when all the melanin of Star Wars could be found in Billy Dee Williams’s singular swagger and James Earl Jones’s distinctive voice. Back then, the most prominent Black actress in the original trilogy was dancer Femi Taylor, who played Oola, the hypersexualized green twi’lek fed to the rancor in Return of the Jedi. Bantam Spectra, the publisher that held the license for Star Wars from 1991 to 1999, had no leading characters of color in its’ Expanded Universe. The first full length Star Wars novel by a writer of color, Steven Barnes’s The Cestus Deception15, would not be published until 2004. Even though the book featured two protagonists of color, they would not be depicted on the cover. At Comic-Con in 2010, I spoke with Tom Taylor, a white Australian comic book writer who tried to make the lead family in Star Wars: Invasion (2009) a Black one, but was shut down during the creative process. The comic instead depicts a family of blondes, because the publishers did not think fans would embrace leads of color. All this to say, the inclusion of melanated characters in Star Wars has been so, so hard fought. It’s incredible The Black Sands of Socorro exists at all. It’s more than worthy of celebration, and I’m floored that more attention has not been brought to it.

Patricia A. Jackson is a smuggler.

This sourcebook was explicitly written to assist fans in telling their own Star Wars stories, and in it Patricia A. Jackson smuggled in emphatic allusions to the Black Panther movement and the trans-Atlantic slave trade, smuggled in commentary on indigeneity and settler colonialism, and smuggled in multiple ways for fans to envision characters of color. Her writing has consistently added richness to the GFFA, and in The Black Sands of Socorro she envisions multiple histories for multiple cultures coded as non-white. She ensured the existence of not mere tokens, but flourishing societies of people of color in Star Wars.

The coda for The Last Jedi again shows how perilously close to tokenization characters of color, particularly Black characters, are in modern day Star Wars. In this film, the franchise returns to itsprevious exploration of slavery with the depiction of enslaved children on Canto Bight. The last speaking lines of the film are from Oniho Zaya (played by Josiah Oniha, a young Black British actor) who recounts Luke Skywalker’s heroic exploits to the other children. The film then closes out by showing that one of the downtrodden children is Force-sensitive—a future hero in the Star Wars mythos. In a film where every single Force-user depicted is white, the next generation kid with the potential is, again, a young white boy. Once again, the Black character can only serve the narrative in a supporting role. A franchise depicting a colorblind fantasy continually reifies racial and gender hierarchies in America. With The Acolyte, scheduled for release in 2024, it’s possible the franchise may finally be shifting past hyper-tokenism. In the meantime, fans of color and our erstwhile allies will continue doodling in the margins.

In the end, the sequel trilogy left the Canto Bight plot line (and the overarching slavery plot line started in Episode I) unresolved. I’d like to think the Black Bha’lir strafed Canto Bight and grabbed those kids. It seems like something they would do. Out among the stars, Oniho Zaya is adventuring with Drake Paulsen, and his story does not bracket another characters’; he is central. The Black Sands of Socorro is a launching pad for stories like that. It represents how fans of color have always carved out pieces of Star Wars for ourselves.

[vintagerpg]

This is Dark Folk (1983), the Role Aids sourcebook for trolls, orcs, goblins, kobolds and gnolls. Not a great title, in terms of contemporary acceptability. The content fares better, though. Like Dwarves, the authors are trying to portray the societies of these “monsters” and there is a lot of thinking here about why they do the things they do (and, generally, finding fictional explanations for those actions, rather than subverting them). I find that they present these tribal humanoids in slightly more multifaceted ways then vanilla D&D but still basically fall back to essentialism. Chaosium’s Trollpak, a high-water mark in the portrayal of complex non-human sentient species, had come out in 1982, so this book probably marks a step back in this regard, even if it is an improvement on the Monster Manual’s absolutes.

One minor note: I think this might be the first time kobolds are explicitly characterized as reptilian and being hatched from eggs. The Monster Manual is ambiguous and I feel (without any particular evidence) that the dog-like portrayal of kobolds was dominant until 3E.

A cool thing about the book is the structure. Each species gets its cultural profile, which is followed by an adventure that builds on that information. I’m a sucker for that kind of construction, which TSR employed nicely in the Monstrous Arcana series in the late ’90s. And because the adventures and the cultural histories would probably feel unmoored without a larger setting, the first few pages of the book are devoted to a broad description of the continent of Mamaryl.

[richincolor]

We've got a little something for everyone this week! Have you checked out these new releases yet?

I'll Be Waiting for You by Mariko Turk Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Natalie and Imogen are inseparable, and wildly different—Imogen is infuriatingly humble and incredibly intelligent, while Natalie is brave, jumping into danger and new adventures. Still, one thing ties them their love of the supernatural. Every summer, they vacation with their parents at the famously haunted Harlow Hotel. Imogen is a true believer, while Natalie sees ghost stories as nothing but pure fun. Then, Imogen suddenly passes away from an undiagnosed heart condition that no one saw coming, and Natalie is left to take on the summer before senior year alone. Without Imogen, Natalie throws herself into her senior project. Her passion is still horror, so she plans to spend her summer back at The Harlow Hotel recording fun fake footage that will get her on the teen ghost hunting show of her dreams. And her plans would be a lot less complicated if Leander, her irritatingly attractive arch rival from school, wasn’t working on his senior project at the very same hotel. The longer Natalie stays at the Harlow Hotel, the more she realizes that Leander might be helpful for her project. After all, she could use an extra hand to help record her fake footage. But, when strange things start happening at the Harlow, Natalie wonders, could there really be something to these ghosts after all?

The Notes by Catherine Con Morse Crown Books for Young Readers

Claire Wu isn’t sure that she has what it takes to become a successful concert pianist. It’s the fear of every student at Greenwood School of Performing becoming a washed-out performer who couldn't make it big. And Claire's no Rocky Wong, the ace pianist at their boarding school. Then Dr. Li shows up. She’s like no other teacher at mysterious, sophisticated, fascinating. Under Dr. Li’s tutelage, Claire works harder and dreams bigger than ever. And her crush Rocky finally seems interested. Maybe she’ll even be "Chinese enough" to join the elusive Asian Student Society. Everything is falling into place until eerily personal notes about Claire’s bond with Dr. Li appear. Claire starts to feel the pressure. But she isn't the only one. Everyone is feeling the strain. Especially Rocky, whose extreme perfectionism hides something more troubling. As the Showcase tension crescendos, Claire must decide if she’s ready to sink or swim. She may discover who she really is as a Chinese American and learn if she’s ready to give her all for a shot at greatness.

The Poisons We Drink by Bethany Baptiste Sourcebooks Fire

In a country divided between humans and witchers, Venus Stoneheart hustles as a brewer making illegal love potions to support her family. Love potions is a dangerous business. Brewing has painful, debilitating side effects, and getting caught means death or a prison sentence. But what Venus is most afraid of is the dark, sentient magic within her. Then an enemy's iron bullet kills her mother, Venus’s life implodes. Keeping her reckless little sister Janus safe is now her responsibility. When the powerful Grand Witcher, the ruthless head of her coven, offers Venus the chance to punish her mother's killer, she has to pay a steep price for revenge. The cost? Brew poisonous potions to enslave D.C.'s most influential politicians. As Venus crawls deeper into the corrupt underbelly of her city, the line between magic and power blurs, and it's hard to tell who to trust…Herself included.

Prom Babies by Kekla Magoon Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)

A compelling, multi-generational novel from the Coretta Scott King and Printz Honor-winning author of How It Went Down, Light It Up, and The Minus-One Club, Prom Babies chronicles the stories of three teen girls who become pregnant on prom night. Eighteen years later, their three babies, now high school seniors, are headed to prom and facing their own set of complicated issues and questions. Mina, Penny, and Sheryl have the typical expectations of prom night in 2005: dresses, dancing, and of course some coming of age moments. None of them plans to get pregnant, but when all three do, they band together as they face decisions that have the power to shape the rest of their lives. In 2024, their three children--Blossom, Amber, and Cole--are high school seniors, gearing up to go to prom and facing some big decisions of their own. As they seek to understand who they are and who they want to be, they grapple with issues that range from consent to virginity, gendered dress codes, and the many patriarchal, heteronormative expectations that still come along with prom. A generation later, will this prom night change lives too?

Sound the Gong (Kingdom of Three #2) by Joan He Roaring Brook Press

From New York Times and Indie bestselling author Joan He, comes the dazzling and sweeping conclusion to The Kingdom of Three duology, Sound the Gong, the breathtaking sequel to the critically-acclaimed Strike the Zither. All her life, Zephyr has tried to rise above her humble origins as a no-name orphan. Now she is a god in a warrior’s body, and never has she felt more powerless. Her lordess Xin Ren holds the Westlands, but her position is tenuous. In the north, the empress remains under Miasma’s thumb. In the south, the alliance with Cicada is in pieces. Fate also seems to have a different winner in mind for the three kingdoms, but Zephyr has no intentions of respecting it. She will pay any price to see Ren succeed—and she will make her enemies pay, especially one dark-haired, dark-eyed Crow. What she’ll do when she finds out the truth—that he worked for the South all along…

The Vanishing Station by Ana Ellickson Amulet Books

Eighteen-year-old Filipino American Ruby Santos has been unmoored since her mother’s death. She can’t apply to art school like she’s always dreamed, and she and her father have had to move into the basement of their home and rent out the top floor while they work to pay back her mother’s hospital bills. Then Ruby finds out her father has been living a secret life as a delivery person for a magical underworld—he “jumps” train lines to help deliver packages for a powerful family. Recently, he’s fallen behind on deliveries (and deeper into alcoholism), and if his debts aren’t satisfied, they’re going to take her mother’s house. In an effort to protect her father and save all that remains of her mother, Ruby volunteers to take over her dad’s station and start jumping train lines. But this is no ordinary job. Ruby soon realizes that the trains are much more than doors to romance and they’re also doors to trafficking illicit goods and fierce rivalries. As she becomes more entangled with the magical underworld and the mysterious boy who’s helped her to learn magic, she realizes too late that she may be in over her head. Can she free her father and save her mother’s house? Or has she only managed to get herself pulled into the dangerous web her father was trapped in?

What's Eating Jackie Oh? by Patricia Park Crown Books for Young Readers

Jackie Oh is done being your model minority. She just hasn’t told her second-gen Korean American parents yet. They would never understand her unconventional dream to become a professional chef. Just ask her brother Justin, who hasn't heard from them since he was sent to Rikers Island. For now, when she isn’t avoiding studying for AP World History, Jackie is improving her French cooking techniques and working at her grandparents’ Midtown deli Melty’s. Then the most unexpected thing Jackie gets recruited for a casting audition for the teen edition of Burn Off!, her favorite competitive cooking show. Even more unexpected, Jackie becomes a contestant. Jackie is thrown headfirst into the cutthroat competitive TV show world filled with psych outs, picky mom critiques, and dreaded microaggressions to lean into her heritage. All Jackie wants to do is cook her way. But is her way to cook traditional French cuisine? Lean into her heritage? Or is it something more? To advance through the competition, Jackie must prove who she is on and off the plate.

Where Was Goodbye? by Janice Lynn Mather Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

A teen girl searches for closure after her brother dies by suicide in this breathtaking novel from the author of Learning to Breathe and Facing the Sun. Karmen is about to start her last year of high school, but it’s only been six weeks since her brother, Julian, died by suicide. How is she supposed to focus on school when huge questions Why is Julian gone? How could she have missed seeing his pain? Could she have helped him? When a blowup at school gets Karmen sent home for a few weeks, life gets more things between her parents are tenser than ever, her best friend’s acting like a stranger, and her search to understand why Julian died keeps coming up empty. New friend Pru both baffles and comforts Karmen, and there might finally be something happening with her crush, Isaiah, but does she have time for either, or are they just more distractions? Will she ever understand Julian’s struggle and tragedy? If not, can she love—and live—again?

[shadow-fell]

Look, a Map (Locations for BG3)

All credit to Mike Schley for the original Sword Coast map, and the 1990 Forgotten Realms Atlas for additional roads.

Notes for nerds under the cut.

So, the basis of this map is the 2e FR map to the 5e map, as they have the same geography (3e/4e is notably different/stretched). Soubar and The Friendly Arm (from BG1!) are added in from that map.

Crossing the Fields of the Dead are the Thundar Road and the Skuldask Road, meeting at the dwarven/gnomish village of Tempus' Tears. Thundar ends with the Tradeway, while the Skuldask Road continues on through Elturel southwards.

Skuldask Road is clearly the Risen Road (Leading out of Elturel and towards Baldur's Gate. As Waukeen's Rest is supposed to be the halfway point, I placed it close to the intersection, where the broken bridge could easily block off travel to the Thundar Road.

Moonhaven is the Blighted Village; south of Waukeen's Rest, the Selunite Temple is part of it. Anga Vled is a gnomish village of note, mentioned in the game as where Amanita Szarr, the Lady Incognita, was raised.

Moonrise Towers is often placed much closer to Elturel; this is based off the FR Atlas, a defunct and not fully canon map making software. The towers themselves have one sourcebook appearance, all that is said is "West of Elturel". For BG3, it makes sense to put it closer to Baldur's Gate. In purple is marked off the general area of the Shadow Curse.

Sunrise Spires have similarly only been placed through FR Atlas, but are known to be on the Northern Bank. It is generally placed to the west and closer to Baldur's Gate, so I kept a relatively close position (given also the low resolution of the Atlas maps). They're a Lathendarian fortress that fell in the 1170s, and together with Rosymorn paint a whole Lathanderian-Selunite regional shift I find neat.

Waterdeep is well to the north; Athkatla and BG2's setting to the south. That's kind of all the interesting cities.

Travel Times

From the crash site to Waukeen's Rest is 2 days normal travel

Waukeen's Rest to Rosymorn Monastery is another day's travel

Rosymorn to Moonrise Towers is 2 days

Moonrise Towers to Baldur's Gate is 3 days travel

[tavyliasin]

The Scent of Cinnamon 1 - The Cambion, The Gift, and The Contract

Raphael has a new home, but the halls are remarkably empty. Mephistopheles has seen fit to send him a gift, though as with all things in the Hells, nothing is ever quite so simple... Meanwhile, an incubus with no name stands in front of a portal, ready to take the first step in the only plan they have left. One that will either secure their future or seal their fate... 4,301 Words - AO3 Link Click Here

--- The Scent of Cinnamon is a prequel series focusing on Raphael and Haarlep from the moment they meet, continuing through various events up to the beginning of Baldur's Gate 3. Summary: Raphael and the incubus meet for the first time, and the specifics of a contract are worked out between the pair. Pairing: Raphael/Haarlep SPICE Rating: 0.5/5  Content Warnings: Mild power play. There's not a lot of spice in this one, it's the following chapters that will raise that bar~

Spoilers Vague House of Hope and Act 3, but most of this series is focused on what came before. Canon Compliance Most of this is being pulled together from scraps and hints in the game and from the lore of D&D in general. Haarlep's initial physical appearance is based on incubus/succubus lore in the sourcebooks - mostly human features on their bodies, human ranges of skin tones, but they still have wings and tails, and shorter horns than cambions or tieflings have. I also go with a personal HC that Haarlep can only shift into the body of someone they have a deal with. Other Notes An image of a concept for Haarlep's original appearance will be added at the end of the fic, so keep an eye out for that~

Song Pairing (Click the title to open spotify) Play Dirty by Kevin McAllister, [SEABELL] "Do you wanna put up a fight? Or do you wanna get out alive? Everybody is picking a side And this can only end one way

Would you get the Devil this dance? Would you be a part of his plans? Now you got some blood on your hands Well, this can only end one way

If you wanna go, this is how it goes If you wanna roll, heads are gonna roll If you wanna play, we can play all day But we play, play dirty, play dirty"

--- FULL CHAPTER BELOW THE CUT --- ---

The Cambion, The Gift, and The Contract

Fine leather boots paced across stone floors, the click of heels echoing around the halls of the largely empty mansion that floated through Avernus. It was a start. A place of his own, somewhere to work with his own contracts and plans. The owner of the boots was a cambion, son of Mephistopheles, and already a powerful fiend in his own right. Raphael, if you were to ask a mortal, looked like a human in his mid 20s. Chestnut hair was swept back neatly from his brow, the ends curling a little just below his shoulders. His brown eyes were deep set but sparkled with ideas, face clean shaven and expression darkening by the moment. Had he taken his other form, huge red wings would stretch above him, a long tail slapping the floor in irritation behind him, and soft brown eyes would instead blaze with hellfire. His whole form would be larger, and his skin would be a deep crimson, ridges across his well defined muscles more reminiscent of his demonic heritage than the human half. However, it was often easier to remain in the guise of a human man. Aside from not having to deal with the physical logistics of wings, horns, and a tail, potential clients found him to be more trustworthy, and the reveal of his demonic guise was often another powerful tool of intimidation and persuasion. Occasionally, some found him to be seductive, but he tired of trying to please people he had no interest in. There were no fiends in all the hells he could trust to be intimate with, and mortals were so terribly boring, weak, and short-lived. No, they were far better as tools, pawns in his grander designs, so sex was a last resort to seal a particularly irritating deal. This might have been seen as unusual in the hells, for any fiend to have no attraction or desire to act upon their libido, but Raphael did not care. He could satisfy himself should the need arise, and it was safer not to let anyone in to his abode. Not until he had built up his loyal following. 

Unfortunately, so far he only had a couple of apprenticed Warlocks, and one or two debtors scrubbing his floors. And now he had to greet a stranger. The letter had specified a “gift”. Knowing Mephistopheles, this would not be the kind of gift that came with a single catch, but more an entire shoal of red herrings to sift through to find which specific catch he needed to be concerned about.

—

A young fiend stood before a glimmering doorway, uncertain of when precisely they were meant to cross the threshold. They were dressed in a black silk outfit that gave them an appearance of masculine androgyny. Dark tan skin and bright green eyes might have looked human, if it weren’t for the 4 short horns protruding from their brow, slightly parting black hair that cascaded down their back and over their shoulders almost blending with the silks they wore. The other tells of their demonic nature were more obvious, however. Huge wings with blackened edges, claws at the tip, coloured in sunset hues of red and gold stretched out behind them, quivering with nervous anticipation. A long tail with an arrow-tip end pawed at the ground behind them, kicking up a little infernal ash. All they carried was the clothing they wore and the instructions they had been given. A simple enough task, and they were hardly inexperienced, but their first meetings were usually within a dream. Subtly watching their target, learning their desires and their fears, finding every intimate secret they hid in their subconscious before they would ever appear before them physically. They sighed. They didn’t even have a name to bring with them. Whatever it was had been taken, a simple exchange for a promised reward. “Let him name you,” the instructions had been clear, “let him do as he wishes. Get close, learn all you can, and deliver it back to me. You are no fool, incubus, and neither is he. But play the game well, and you will have the life of your dreams in the end. A home all of your own, whatever meals you desire delivered to your door, complete power over the domain I shall grant you.” It was tempting. It would be tempting to any incubus or succubus. They also couldn’t deny a small amount of pride at having been chosen. It sounded like the advances of succubi had already been rejected, so they relished the thought of a challenge. Besides, the son of Mephistopheles was hardly without any power of his own. They took a deep breath, steeling their nerves before they stepped through the portal. 

—

Raphael sat back on his chair, tilting it so the front legs were no longer on the floor, boots on the edge of his desk as he read through pages of another contract. Etiquette might demand he stand to greet the arrival, due any moment now, but Raphael was not one to heed any demands but his own.

He didn’t look up when the familiar electricity of the magic swirled in the air, nor did he pay attention to the polite cough from the guest.

“You’re late.” He lied, thumbing through the pages and moving one to the front, still not looking up from the paper.

“And you’re human.” The visitor stated, all too bluntly for Raphael’s liking. “I was told to expect a cambion, Raphael. Does the master of the house not see fit to handle his own household?”

The cambion bristled. His brow darkened a little, though only one watching very closely would notice the subtle change. “You would do well to remember at least a modicum of respect when addressing your new master, regardless what form he might appear in. Are all gifts supposed to be so rude when accepting hospitality?”

“Hah! What hospitality? There’s barely a thing here, and I am barefoot upon your floor. Gift, indeed, that you do not even look upon me let alone deign to unwrap me.” They were becoming no more humble. If anything, they were becoming more bold by the moment.

The attitude was finally reaching Raphael’s limit. He looked up from the papers to see who would have the audacity to address him so.

For a moment, his thumb slipped, one of the pages almost dropping from the stack as he took in the tall and slender form of the nameless incubus. He quickly regained his composure, but not before they had noticed.

The cambion put his feet on the floor and straightened up the papers, putting them in a neat stack on the table. He stood, walking towards the invited invader in his home, stalking around them to observe and assess them.

“I’m not a piece of meat, Raphael.” They stood still nonetheless, allowing him to pace and take in all of their form. They flexed their wings and tail to put on more of a show. “Do you like what you see?~”

“Passable.” The cambion grunted, the highest praise he had given any attempt yet. “And good you finally recognise your master’s name. So, why are you here?”

“You know that much. Your dear father sent me. You are well aware that many of your kind take ours as advisors, partners in pleasure, or allies for whatever purposes you might have for our abilities.” The incubus grinned, the hint of slightly sharpened teeth glinting in the light as they looked down on the smaller human form of their supposed master.

“You’re a spy.” Raphael said simply.

“Obviously.” They replied, pleased that they were not being expected to work for a complete fool. “Do you wish to refuse me? Send me back?”

“Honesty is a commodity that few of your kind trade in. You may stay. However, ground rules must be set.” He turned to walk away, beckoning for them to follow. “Come.”

“Already?” The incubus laughed at their own humour. “It takes more than that, Raphael.”

The cambion bristled at his name being used so casually, but remembered a key point. “Name. What is it?”

“I don’t have one, not until you choose one for me. Spiteful of your father to take my identity, but at least I kept my good looks.” The incubus brushed off the lingering insult of what they’d had to trade for the opportunity. It would be worth it, eventually.

“Then I should know you first, incubus. I shall choose a name befitting your station.” He continued to lead the way through the halls, keeping a few steps ahead of the honest spy who was taking note of every crack in the walls.  

—

The incubus watched Raphael carefully. Every movement, every time his gait shifted to avoid stepping on a looser stone. Their bare feet felt uncomfortable on the floor, but it mattered little.

They noticed the silence in the halls, only one terrified half elf dressed in rags scurried away as they passed by, busying themselves cleaning some furniture in a side room. There was a lingering scent of cherry that drifted from the cambion ahead, though that was the only note of perfume they detected. Somehow, something so simple hardly seemed fitting.

The door to the bedchamber was large, heavy, and sealed with a magical lock. A simple spell had it opening before the master of the house, who gestured for them to enter.

“There, take a seat.” He indicated a pair of chairs near the balcony on the far side of a huge four poster bed, heavy red velvet drapes skirting the floor, a deep contrast against ebony silk sheets.

They ignored the suggestion of the chairs entirely, and instead took a seat on the edge of the bed, their tail snaking out behind them to smooth over the sheets. “Not bad, I’ve been in softer.”

“That is not for your benefit.” Raphael stood a little taller, crossing his arms and glaring invisible flames towards defiant green eyes. 

“Then for yours? You are aware of my nature as an incubus, if you are to indulge in my many pleasures, I am not one to receive.” They watched his reaction, wings folding carefully inwards to soften the challenge of the statement.

“We shall see. I have yet to decide on that matter.” The incubus smirked at that reply, it was not a no . Raphael continued regardless. “What are your abilities?”

“Aside from near infinite pleasure? I can take the form of any who have made a contract with me.” They shifted now with a spell, appearing first as an elven woman with flowing ginger hair and freckles across her cheeks. The next moment the magical fire enveloped them they became a dwarven man with a long braided beard and dark eyes below a heavy set brow. The third form they took was a dragonborn with sparkling iridescent scales. “This one was a particular favourite, a beautiful rarity. So I may become anyone you wish me to be, so long as I have laid with them.”

“Any form? Including another fiend?” Raphael arched an eyebrow, fingertip tapping against his jaw as he considered the options.

“Another devil taken your fancy?” The incubus laughed, remaining in the guise of the dragonborn for now. “Of my many forms I have not added a fiend, yet…but were I to take yours, there would be some benefits.”

“Benefits? It seems more like a remarkably unpleasant experience from start to finish.” Despite his words, he appeared to be waiting to hear more.

“Any time I take on the body of someone I have slept with,” they ran a claw down their chest, hand drifting beneath their robes momentarily, “they feel it when their form is used. Echoes of pleasure even across planes, though more intense the closer they are. If they were in the room right now, they would feel the sensation of their own hand on their body.”

“So, enhanced pleasure, and a disguise?” Raphael took a longer moment to consider it. “I can see a use for this, incubus.”

“Wait, you actually wish to deal with me yourself?” Their bravado finally slipped away in surprise, transforming back to their original body. “You would give me access to your form, control over your pleasure?”

“Must you be so vulgar about it? This could work to our advantage. Depending…” Raphael stepped forwards. “Tell me, spy, what were you offered?” “Simple. My own domain, power over it, and whatever delicious specimens I wish to devour.” They held his gaze, even as he blocked the light behind him. “I enjoy sex as much as I am sustained by it as my meal. I have known hunger, Raphael, and I have known powerlessness. I have no desire to become intimate with either again.” “So you want power, pleasure, and a range of flavours to sample? That is as cheap as you are to trade your identity, your entire being, devoting centuries to espionage for such pittance?” He was treading a line in his voice between anger and disappointment. The incubus’s tail began to flick with annoyance. “There was hardly anything to trade. What’s in a name, anyway? And a few centuries in the span of immortality, that’s nothing. An easy job, made all the simpler by the particular subject. You don’t even object to my presence or motivations… What do you desire, Raphael?” They prodded back with their question, working out how the pieces would fit together.

“Perhaps not so different, incubus. Power would be a simplification, but an accurate one. First I will expand my influence here, then across the rest of Avernus.” He raised his hand, infernal fire wrapping around him in an instant, transforming him into his more devilish physique. His horns curved above him, crowning his chestnut hair, wings spreading like a wide and regal cloak behind him in the same deep red as his skin. He had grown taller, marginally more muscular, and his own tail swished behind him. Fiery eyes regarded his guest with a new intensity. “Quite simply, I shall become an Archduke. The Archduke. The nine hells are full of infighting and imbeciles, one hand should have a tight grip upon them all. And that hand will be mine.”

The incubus watched the display with interest, contemplating their options. “You’re very sure of yourself, perhaps I should call you Archduke already if that is your goal. Consider it forward payment, if you are to rise to such lofty heights. Are you certain you should be telling your father’s spy all of your plans?”

“That man would be far more than ignorant to not believe that this is my exact aim. I would imagine he would be thoroughly disappointed if his progeny lacked any ambition. You’re welcome to report that back to him if you so wish, but it has as much merit as telling him that rain makes things wet.” Raphael considered the rest of the statement, clawed finger rubbing along the line of his jaw. “As for the title… No. Not until I have what I want. Although names have power in themselves, and we do not yet have one for you.”

“Whatever identity I had is gone, all that remains is my body, and even that is more changeable than the weather in the material realm. So call me whatever you like, Archduke, it matters little. ” The smirked at seeing him bristle at the nickname, the implied insult. “Then you are willing to consider my deal? There are plenty of… benefits to a night with me~”

“You have been ill-informed to believe me easy to bed. I will not lay with any harlot to stroll into my bedchambers.”

It was the incubus’s turn to darken their expression, voice gaining the edge of a growl. “Oh I am well aware of your type, Archduke . Aren’t you tired of primming and posing? Of all this air of I’m so much better than you, listen to me, do this, do that, puny lesser beings .” They stood, rising to their full height, standing just a little taller than Raphael even though he had transformed. The tips of the cambion’s horns were higher, but their eyes were above his. The realisation widened their sinister smile. “You do not need to be above everyone all the time, that is why you didn’t turn me away when I told you I will not lie beneath you.”

“You think yourself more powerful, do you? Need I remind you that I am the Master of this house, I own you, incubus, you are a gift in a pretty bow.” He stood firm, unswayed as they moved closer, the strong scent of cinnamon drifting from their warm-toned skin.

“You feel nothing, even now?” Their bright green eyes glowed more intensely in the face of Raphael’s insults, paying his venom no mind. Their tail began to touch his lower leg as they stepped even closer, faces just inches away. “You do not, do you…but you feel that.”

—

Raphael certainly felt something. Irritation, the searing tip of white hot rage pressing forward like a knife at the front of his mind, and…curiosity. How could he not be curious about a fiend who dared to be so brazen with him? To stand before him without bowing even once, never offering a single thing to gain his favour. They were speaking to him as an equal - that should have been an immense insult, and yet… “You should have more care about where you touch, harlot.” The offensive nickname slipped quickly from his lips, just as his tail slapped away the one that had been threatening to tug him off balance. “I have given you no such permission.” 

“Then if you gave me permission, you would allow it? Very interesting, Archduke. Let me ask you this, if I may?” They kept from touching him again, for now, instead observing his features closer with a piercing gaze.

“Ask. There is little point in asking to ask, aside from wasting my time.” He remained unmoved, tail betraying a hint of his irritation still.

“Your clients, the mortals you deal with. They desire you, do they not? You are a handsome devil, in either of your forms. Your human guise perhaps more attractive to some than your true fiendish self, but I see the appeal in both.” They smiled more sweetly, bringing a hand towards his face, never touching but tracing a line above his cheekbone, his jawline… A mockery of a lover’s caress.

“I am not here to be eye candy to you.” He sneered, faint lines in his face appearing with the expression. “Seduction is merely another card in my deck, mortal beings are too easy to manipulate with desire. Something I am sure a harlot would be more than aware of. You do not need me to point that out.”

“Quite so,” they continued their touchless caress down his neck, along his shoulder, and close to the top edge of his wing. “But I would be more than willing to fill your pointy boots in that regard~”

“I see you do have at least a modicum of sense between your filthy ideas.” He summoned a scroll to his hand, a quill pen appearing in the other, tip glowing with infernal magic. “Rules, incubus, and they will be followed. Without fail. Or I will not hesitate to cast you out of here.”

They sighed, hand dropping back to their side from where it had been hovering above the thinner and more sensitive skin of the cambion’s wings. “ Fine, if you insist we shall have it all in writing. You are to ensure I do not go hungry. Either provide me with partners to satisfy my hunger, or satisfy me with your own body.”

“Agreed.” Lines appeared upon the page in infernal script, glowing on the parchment with the power they contained. “And you shall not lay so much as a finger upon a client without my permission.”

“Then make it simple. This room will be mine as much as it is yours. Those you allow to cross the threshold are by rights my own to take, should they agree to it.” They smirked, adding to the letters upon the page. “The house is your domain, but in this room I am the only Master.”

Raphael’s ego failed to pick up on the edge of their tone as he easily agreed to the term, and moved on to the next. “Then the illusion must be maintained. Once you have my form, you are to wear it until or unless I specify otherwise.”

This time the incubus wavered. “You are asking me to give up the last shred of my personhood, to become you?”

“No. You will retain your personality as you see fit. You are to be my mirror in appearance, I cannot have a stray client or debtor seeing through that. They must believe, at least to a degree, that it is me they are laying with, and not some brothel-hired -” He paused. His finger traced a few letters in the air, moving them around, reforming his own name into something new. “That’s it. Haarlep. A perfect anagram, the version of Raphael that is closer to the Harlot that you are.” “You scorn me even as you wish to use me to your own ends?” The incubus frowned, though the name…was not entirely objectionable.

“The name should be a fitting match for the wearer, should it not? Or do you have a better idea?” He raised an eyebrow, staring directly into the incubus’ eyes. “I suppose I can become accustomed to it, with time.” They looked at the page, filling with more rules as they talked.

—

Some time later the full document was drawn up and signed, befitting Raphael’s side of the deal. Haarlep, as they had reluctantly accepted the name, would require the consummation to finalise things yet.

Both cambion and incubus smirked, feeling as if they had outmanoeuvred the other, their own egos clouding their gaze from the space between the lines. Had they looked closer, they might have noticed the finer details they hid from each other between clever words and half-truths…but it mattered little. The signatures marked the parchment in clear and binding text.

Haarlep, as they were now named, watched the scroll disappear to whatever archive it would be stored in with a wide smile.

“And what is it precisely that you find so amusing?” Raphael’s voice drew their gaze back to his eyes.

“Oh, nothing, Archduke.” They leaned just a little closer to his face. His appearance was by no means distasteful, if they were being honest they found his form to be intensely attractive, their imagination already undressing him as they spoke. “Now, I want you to take a very good look at me. Memorise every pore in my skin, every hair on my head, every little details of me . If I am to give it up, to become you until such time as either we reach our common goal or Mephistopheles decides my work here is done, I would have at least one being remember me properly.”

“I can have a portrait made if you are so particular. And despite your glamour, you will have access to this form should it be permitted.” He pulled back by an almost imperceptible amount, small wrinkles forming on the bridge of his nose.

“No.” The incubus spoke with a growing air of authority. “I will burn every part of my image into your mind and body. Every time you close your eyes you will see me, every moment of silence you will hear my true voice in your ear, every moment your own hands touch your body the grip you will feel upon your throat will be mine.”

Raphael took an involuntary step back this time. The imposing figure of his supposed gift, the toy he was simply supposed to occupy the hours with, the being that was intended to be used for pleasure alone…it felt as if their shadow was about to swallow him whole. Haarlep could see it in his eyes, the way the sweat began to bead on his brow, the breath catching in his throat as they leaned closer again.

They had him cornered like prey, a meal they fully intended to devour, the promise of what the contract could deliver almost as enticing as the low scent of arousal rising from the cambion’s crimson skin. “You needn’t fear my touch, Raphael. I assure you, this can be a most pleasant experience. You feel it already, do you not? The anticipation rising within you, the heat of my body moving closer, that sweet cinnamon filling your senses already…” They grinned wickedly. “It is, of course, more potent from my tongue, but there are ways I can allow the aphrodisiac my body produces begin to affect you from this distance.”

“That…would be acceptable.” The usually proud cambion struggled to find the words, his presence shrinking back with the hint of power in the words he had already signed away.

“Then you accept my lips? You want to feel the kiss of an incubus, to taste my lust upon your tongue?” Their wings fluttered in anticipation.

“Stop talking already. Your master has granted you permission by the terms of the deal.”

“Oh, Raphael, you have forgotten so quickly…in this room, I am the Master now.”

--- --- ENDING NOTES --- ---

Well I did promise the images of Prequel Haarlep, so here they are~ This was made by someone who has a fair few mods for BG3, based on my description. In truth, I far prefer @littleprincepaladin's artwork

Original Work Notes (from the time this was first published)

Haarlep's original form is based on incubus/succubus lore. They are shown to have far smaller horns than cambions, a more human range of skin tones and not blues/reds/etc like cambions and tieflings have. They do, however, still have wings and tails.

The article is written a lot in binary gender terms but I prefer to see it like the original literal meanings of the words: Incubus - to lie on top of Succubus - to lie beneath Concubus - to lie beside

So there could be male succubi, female incubi, and in general they do not necessarily have a fixed gender unless they choose to.

My version of Haarlep here uses they/them pronouns, in the same way that the game does, and prefers a slightly masculine leaning body type. They would consider themselves genderfluid or gender neutral by our terms, though they really do not care for it at all unless it has something to do with pleasure or power.

I do not have an original name for them, and this is intentional too. They will, however, grow into their new role and title as the chapters progress.

CHAPTER 2 HERE