Frontier From daemon Tue Feb 18 15:59:54 1992 Date: Tue, 18 Feb 92 20:59:54 EST From: Robert Maxwell Subject: Western Cosm The cosm that I am going to describe was created about 1 1/2 years ago. We have used it for more than 7 months, and it has been revised since it's original conception (which was soon after we started playing TORG) I am at school right now, so I don't have my books with me, so most of this will be coming from memory. COSM: Frontier Realm(if it ever invades): the Badlands High Lady: Agnes Archer Magic: 17 Spiritual: 16 Technical: 18 (I think) Social: 17 (I think) The Cosm was mainly based on Tex Arcana, but to some degree on Stephen King's Dark Tower series (very minor part). The world is basically a desert. There are five main rivers, and one body of water. There are vast underground resiviors though, so wells are common. It is believed that the water was taken away because of the mis-use of magic (and in many ways this belief is correct). Magic and religion run peoples lives, but they normally do not work in unison. One of the major religions of the Cosm states that magic is evil, due to what it did to the world, and thus should never be parctices, or even acknowledged. Many wizards feel the same way about this religion. As you could guess, the rarest of all of the knowledges is the Water Knowledge. There are four groups that commonly deal with magic: Wizards (from the College of the Elder Arcana) White Witches Indian Shamans and wise women Gun Knights There are three religions practiced on Frontier 1) Indian shamanism: In this religion, the person believes that there are spirits that control the major forces of nature, and that ones ansectoral spirits will protect and nurture the tribe. This is a rare religion, due to the fact that most of the other people of the world view the Indians with disgust, and thus have tried to kill them all off. This form of religion is very powerful as the spirits can be asked to perform specific tasks, including teaching the priest about magic. 2) Metra In this religion, the person believes in one supreme force of the universe. In the distant past, this was not a monotheistic religon, but held that there were many gods, each governing a specific aspect of the world. Overtime, the concepts of the multiple gods were distilled into one all powerful force, called Metra. This force can not be concieved of though, and to even attempt to do so would cause major problems in the worshipper (because it would be a sin). Under this force though, there exsists a hierarchy of helpers. Now one thing that should be known, Metra is neither good or evil. Metra is beyond that. Metra is in a state of constant balance, but his servants are not. In our world, his servants would be either angles or demons. Followers of Metra try to live up to the ideals of Metra. They try to remain balanced in all they do, but this is more than most people can do, so most people say that they follow Metra, but in fact they follow their own lives. Metra is the major religion of the world, and is the one that denies the use of magic (actually it is the priesthood that does this). 3) The sacred rose: This is the religion of the Gun Knights. The Sacred Rose is their symbol and their ideal. It is said that the first Gun Knight came to a town that was thirsty, and under the rulership of a cruel mage/priest. With his power, he killed the ruler, but was mortally wounded in the prossess. With the last ounce of strenght though, he called on his power, and performed a great miracle. Where his blood struck the ground, a spring appeared. When he died, his body disappeared, and in it's place stood a single red rose. It is said that The spirit of this knight sought though the land until it found men and women who he could train. He led them to this village, where they learned knights secrets in their dreams. This religion is basically animistic (i.e. everything in the world has a spirit). The gun knights view the world as consisting of spiritual energy, trapped in the physical world in the shape of animals, plants, rocks, etc... In this world, there is no evil and no good. Death is just the release of the spirit, thus it brings no shame. Death is only shameful when the spirit had not learned the lessons of this incarnation (yes, they beleive in a form of reincarnation, but a rock is still a rock, and a person comes back as a person....the spiritual energy has different forms). This belief actually goes back to one of the World Laws, which I will get back to later. Like their world views, Gun Knights are neither good not evil. When a person is elevated to Gun Knight status, the person must choose a personal goal, that will then rule their lives. They must always try to achieve this goal. In game terms The gunknight is similiar to the elven monk, but they can only use their consecrated guns or their fists. they can use miracles and spells though. ***there are a few minor religions, such as people worshipping the old gods (such as white witches). But these are few, and their power is normally taken for granted (which at times is a mistake). It is late, and I am sleepy If you want to see more, tell me and I will post more or if you want another Cosm, I have a few others. Robert From daemon Thu Feb 20 13:02:58 1992 Date: Thu, 20 Feb 92 18:02:58 EST From: Robert Maxwell Frontier Part 2 (World Laws and Feel) This is the second posting of the western cosm known as frontier. It is my hope that this posting will help you to understand the basic qualities of the Cosm. The World Laws: As with the last posting, this one is mainly from memory, as I realized that my notes on frontier were borrowed (with out knowledge) by a friend who was playing a character from this cosm. So bear with me. 1) The Law of the West. Well, this one is kinda obvious partner. Good guys wear white hats and the villians wear black ones. You go after the guys that shot your brother, and save the damsel from the evil Range lords. To put it simply, you follow a code of honor, and a system of personal conduct. This Law affects people differently, and at times resembles the law of inclination from the NILE. But there are some subtle differences. If you remember from my last posting, most of the religions of this cosm hold that balance is the most desired state. That no one is either good or evil, but that their exsists a balance of these attitudes in all people. This law does not counter that belief. This law mainly deals with what happens to people that choose to live their life by one of these aspects. Each attitude has specific bonuses that apply to them. If a character performs an action that is contradictory to this attitude, then they loose the bonuses for the rest of the scence ( Originally, the character lost the bonus for the rest of the Act, but this can be to harsh). White Hats: White hats are people who are "good." They help the underdog, try to help neighbors, would never shoot someone in the back, would never lie nor steal. Advantages: Once during an act, the White hat can become inspired. This will allow the White Hat to refill his hand with cards. He will also be healed of all shock and K/O damage. The White Hat always has his horse just a whistle away. The White Hat's comrades will always find him before he dies. If the White Hat is in trouble, then he can send someone to go get the Calvalry (a strange group of men, prob. related to the gun knights, who have bases all across the world). If the person can get through, and if the White Hat stays behind "to hold down the fort," then the calvalry will come to save the day. This can only be attempted once per adventure, and only during a dramatic encounter. Once per act, the White hat can spend two possibilities to counter the effects of damage. Disadvantages: The WH can never be deceitful or evasive. The WH is more suseptible to tricks when he first encounters a new villian. The Villian will receive a +3 bonus to trick the WH during their first encounter. The WH can never refuse aid to a person, unless they are a black hat. The WH will only save a black hat if it is a life and death situation. The WH will never kill for a whim. He will only kill when neccesary. Black Hats: Black Hats (BH) are basically the bad guys (but they can still be player characters). They are unscrupulus and corrupt. Advantages: The BH can call upon an UP condition once per act. During the round that this was evoked, the BH can roll an extra die to generate skill totals. The BH can perform a special "TRICK" once per adventure that will cause all foes to be set back. This "trick" is based one the Trick skill, and is dependent upon the situation. Example: The Heros are about to win, when the villian informs them that he has a young woman of their acquaintance. A henchman then appears holding a gun to the girls head. *to be successful, the villian must make a generate a trick total above the highest trick total in the group. The BH always have at least three henchmen around to do his dirty work (kidnapping, killing, stealing, etc...). These men are just a whistle away, and are used for canon fodder. The BH gains a +2 to all actions that deal with stealing, double dealing, and shooting in the back (damage value only). Disadvantages: You will never help someone in need, not even one of your own men. You will always take the time to kill anyone that annoys you. You will always take time out to cause some misfortune or problem, but only it is advantageous to you. Such things include roughing up the local newpaper man who said bad things about you. You will never fight fair (in a shoot out, you will draw first, and try to shoot the person in the back). Grey Hats: Grey hats are epitomized by the Gun Knights. They are people who are in balance with their emotions and with their duel nature of good and evil. They never fit any one set of rules and as such are independent. Advantages: The GH can use one an extra possible to withstand damage at any time. The GH can nullify any ability gained from being a WH or a BH. Disadvantages: The GH must define and uphold his own code of honor. this code may not duplicate either the WH or the BH. The GH, being independent, can not trade cards with other players. No Hats: This includes most of the people of the world. They are not heros, nor villians. They are average people that are concerned with worldly matter, such as getting the fields plowed, the cows to market, getting food on the table, etc... The Law of the West has one Cocorollary: Revenge. This works exactly like the law of revenge from Nippon tech 2) The Law of Belief Belief is a strong force in Frontier, and people are gullible. All attempts at persuasion gain an automatic bonus of +3. But there is another use for this Law, and that is the Law of Belief. This is normally bought by starting characters, but can be gained later. At charcter creation, it costs two possibilities to purchase. The Skill Belief is spirit based, and represents the fact that the character beliefs something so intensly that it actually has an effect in the real world. The skill not only represents the persons personal belief, but the belief of those around her. Example: the Character believes that the spirits of her anscestors protect her from harm. Her belief is made manifest, and thus soon other say that the spirits protect her. This reinforces her own belief that she is protected. The skill adds in this skill will add on, point for point, to the action that the belief revolves around. Example: the Character above, Fox, believes that the spirits of her anscestors portect her (more precisely: from magical harm). When ever a spell is cast against her, she can add her adds from the skill Belief (protection) to her attempts to withstand the effects of the attack. If an attempt to use belief fails, the character must generate a belief total. If it is below 10, they will then loose one add from their skill. (I actually think that this is to powerful, and would suggest that instead of point for point, the skill value is used to generate a result from the power push table. This way, the skill could become more general(i.e. a great gun fighter, protected from all harm, etc...), and the skill use would be less powerful. No loss of points would occur if an action failed also. To help you understand, I will give an example. Fox, has a Belief(protection) at 15. Her toughness is a 14 (due to spells ect..). Her belief in her spirits is compared to her toughness to determine how much protection her belief generates. The result is a +1, thus her toughness is now a 15. It is important to remember that the GM has final control over the use of this Law. 3) The Law of Mystical creation. This law states that magic is the primary motive force for creation and destruction in this cosm. As magic forces are summoned (or dispelled), matter is created (or destroyed). It is getting late, so I will cont. with this latter. I will give you more information on the Law of Mystical Creation in my next posting. Until then, Robert P.S. if you have comments, please reply.