Arab Campaign Redux

Borrowed from Fabula Ultima

5 min read

Borrowed from Fabula Ultima

These are house rules borrowed from Fabula Ultima (Need Games) for this 5th-edition (5e) campaign. The decision to stay on 5e is recorded in docs/adr/0001-stay-on-5e-borrow-from-fabula-ultima.md.

Campaign words used here

  • the party: the player characters, demigods who carry the Dyad. They have plot armour; their reserve characters do not.
  • the Dyad: a bond the party carries, and the First Caliph carries with the Beast. It lets its bearers wield the Pact to punish a god. See The Dyad.
  • the Pact (of Solomon): how Dyad-bearing humans humiliate or kill a deity. The punished god is forced back into its place and bears a grudge for a future instance.
  • the First Caliph: the party’s boss. He carries the Dyad with the Beast and needs Dyad-bearers to use the Pact. See First Caliph.
  • a front: a threat with a goal and a method. The campaign is a list of fronts, and the party chooses how to answer them.
  • the loop: Saturn’s kingdom of souls. He takes souls with no anchor and forces them to replay their lives in fixed roles.
  • the Way Down: a realm beyond this one, walled off by a barrier. Stagnation weakens the barrier.

Surrender

A main character who drops to 0 hit points is not killed. They go to the ICU: out of play until the end of the chapter. See Characters. Each player also has a reserve character, a backup who steps in while their main is out. Reserve characters use the normal 5e death rules and can die. See Reserve Characters.

Sacrifice. At 0 hit points, a main character may instead take one final action (a last resort) before they are out. Once per chapter.

Dyad points

Dyad points are the party’s currency for bending fate. Each player starts with 3 and can gain more through play: when a villain makes an entrance, when they fumble a check, or when they choose to fail one.

Spend 1 Dyad point on one of the following. You may invoke only one Trait or Bond per check, never both.

  • Invoke a Trait. Reroll a check that falls in one of the Trait’s domains.
  • Invoke a Bond. Reroll a check that pertains to the Bond, and add a narrative effect tied to that Bond.
  • Alter the story. Introduce or change an element of the scene; see below.

Traits

A Trait is who a character is: an identity, a background, or a role, written as a short phrase (“Hunted Atlantean Historian”, “Last Sword of Awar”). A character has up to 3 traits.

Each Trait is tagged with one or more domains, and can reroll a check only if the player can tie that check to one of its domains. The domains across all of a character’s traits total no more than 3 (the cap can grow over time). So one trait might carry all three domains, or three traits might carry one each.

Domains

A domain is a loose area of play. A player invokes a Trait by explaining how one of the Trait’s domains fits the check; if the table accepts the explanation, the Trait applies. The domains are not exact rules terms, so the argument is what earns the reroll.

  • Combat
  • Might
  • Grace
  • Wits
  • Presence
  • Wild
  • Craft
  • Arcane
  • Spirit

Bonds

A Bond is what a character feels toward one person. Every Bond is equal; there is no rating. This campaign’s Bonds are the First Caliph, the Pact, and the character’s paracausal rival (the arc’s villain, linked to them by the Dyad). See The Dyad.

Invoking a Bond rerolls a check that pertains to the Bond and adds a narrative effect that follows from the relationship. Because the Bond is the character’s own, that effect can reach the bonded person; see below.

Alter the story

Alter the story is the broad narrative spend. It can introduce or change anything in the scene: a tool within reach, an ally who arrives, a weakness in the enemy, a detail of the room. The GM can veto it, and changing a character the GM already owns is usually vetoed.

A Bond’s narrative effect is narrower but carries ownership. It can only do things that follow from that relationship, and within that it can touch the bonded person. So a general Alter the story cannot rewrite the First Caliph, but the Bond with him lets you say what he remembers or how he reacts.

Villain points

A villain is an arc’s antagonist, run by the GM. Its pool depends on its rank: minor 5, major 10, supreme 15. It can spend 1 point to:

  • Escape. Get away alive in some plausible fashion, and return later.
  • Invoke a Trait. Reroll a check, using the same rules a player does.
  • Recovery. Remove all conditions on itself.

The pool resets at the start of each arc, not between fights.

Villain ranks and escalation

Tier every villain: minor, major, supreme. Escalation is a one-off power-up: a defeated villain may return as the next rank up, rebuilt with new abilities and a bigger pool. Supreme is the ceiling.

Clocks

A clock is a visible countdown with 4 to 12 segments. Use one to track a front, the war, the loop, or the barrier to the Way Down. Fill a segment when the party ignores the front; clear one when the party acts against it. The war is the later arc, after Saturn, when the powers start skirmishing.

NPC Traits and Bonds

Give key NPCs and villains a Trait and a Bond, using the same rules: a Trait rerolls a check it covers, and a Bond rerolls a check that pertains to it and adds a narrative effect. A villain spends a villain point to invoke one.