Hello Scoundrels, here is an update for the Typhoon Atolls hack:

Hello Scoundrels, here is an update for the Typhoon Atolls hack:

Hello Scoundrels, here is an update for the Typhoon Atolls hack:

Added this time is the playbook for the Tambour, musician and wanderer.

Why all of the emphasis on musical instruments?

The Encyclopedia of Things that Never Were has the following to say on drums:

“for example, the drumskin should be made of fishskin or birdskin if the ritual is designed to influence creatures of water or air..human skin if the ritual is one concerned with the tribespeople, such as raising the dead or disspelling evil spirits from an afflicted person.”

There’s so much potential in that entry, and when running this world I try to communicate a world where art, oral tradition and magic are one, and all work to bridge the veil between spirit and human.

Per usual, please let me know if you have any feedback or suggestions, the brain trust here is invaluable!

Printer friendly version and card links also attached.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1FOIvHE5HZ8DDxuwPfXZSVY-hA0_AOBK-

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1hC1Vn_VltdE9Ymzt7OcgTICxcNHk53DC

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1aJ189fCLhmbP3sQxB7rtRwnVmI0aHBoj

22 thoughts on “Hello Scoundrels, here is an update for the Typhoon Atolls hack:”

  4. David Bradford Thank you! Not sure quite where to take this next, I want to leave plenty of room for folks to build their own worlds, not tell them where to go.

    Would you all like to see some creature entries? That would be fitting seeing as a bestiary got me in to this community.

    Any requests?

  7. Brandon Perkins Yes! There should be links to the cards and a printer-friendly version in the post above. They’re really the only material break from John’s original rules so take a gander.

  10. Galen Pejeau I love it! The other day, I thought of Typhoon Atolls while musing about Glorantha’s heroquests that tie humanity to the gods. I also was considering the mythic lore of my traditional fantasy campaign, and wanted to use a version of Typhoon Atolls for a session or two to invite my players to play out key myths of the world’s formation and pantheon development.

    I wonder if there could be a way that esteemed PCs could become members of the spirit deck, like demigods, or a way PCs might destroy or put away a spirit. Add a bit of legacy deck-building where the myths the players play out shape the spirits in the long run, so some cards might come out while others are added.

    I wonder if players’ mythic, cultural creativity could use some random tables or lists of tropes and details like all the glorious tables in core Blades with demon/cult features, or objects found in the streets or various types rooms in Doskvol. These would help people create their own world I think.

  11. Adam Minnie, retiring PCs getting a card in the Spirit deck might be a way to model the influence of ancestors and get a generational campaign fueled.

    When I read that line about PCs possibly becoming members of the spirit deck, the prayer of the ‘north men’ from 13th Warrior played out in my head.

  12. I’m not sure if I’m just reading over something important, but how exactly do you gain access to the spirit deck?

    You seem to get two at character creation, which don’t specify their status other than it not being neutral since the faction and contact systems are merged – I assume that’s left up for the player to decide?

    But then, unless the player picks a spirit with the fetch ability, I’m not sure how you add them to your ‘hand’. Do you just have to meet them in-game? You use the word deck to describe them – can I just pick off the top card when I take a devil’s bargain? Are the spirits shared between the group, or assigned to specific players? If so, assuming there’s only a single card, how does that work?

    Otherwise though, I really like the mechanic and the overhall feel of this hack! I’ve seen a lot of systems try to handle summoning, and I think this is defintiely one of the better executions of the idea.

    The little blanks on the world map with its variety of visual cues is also a really interesting twist of the shared fiction ideas that blades uses.

    Keep up the amazing work!

  13. Adam Minnie, Brandon Perkins absolutely! I’ll set out some blank cards, we’ve already got folks coming up with their own Spirits and this is a terrific way to represent the positive end of the retirement table.

    As for the tables, I’ll knock some up and blend them in with the upcoming travelogue/bestiary entries, unless Charles Gerard would like to chime in as well..

    Stephen Davey, I should emphasize that more. There is a spread of cards available in front of all players during a session. I keep mine right above any active clocks. That is the roster of available Spirits. Invoking them requires a roll of the dice and, depending on the Spirit’s feelings towards the players, some kind of price.

  15. Brandon Perkins Awesome idea regarding retirement. I was planning on something similar for an urban fantasy hack I’m toying with — but as a manifestation of a tarot major arcana or court card instead.

  16. Thank you, Eric Brunsell. I think a major goal of a successful retirement mechanic needs to revolve around making the time and emotional investment in a character matter, and these all sound like solid ideas.

  17. Eric Brunsell I’d like to hear more about that! I’ve been also working around Major Arcana, though these are the baddies of a Dreamlands dungeon-crawler.

    I had been using playing cards, but it occurs to me that John Harper had talked about a game that used nothing but resistance rolls once. How appropriate would that be for a game of street mystics ascending to divinity by suffering the slings and arrows?

    Would work pretty well for Fiasco-type black comedy games too, where every move rains punishment down on your character.

  18. Galen Pejeau at this point, I have a ton of notes for an urban fantasy hack, but it hasn’t gelled yet. My goal is to create characters around either the first 8 major arcana or the court cards. Each character also chooses a specific school of magic. The “crew” types would then lead to drastically different styles of play. Street level, secret agent, illuminati.

    I’m always open to collaborstion if it sounds anything similar to what You have in mind.

  20. Galen Pejeau I wasnt thinking of crews as different tiers of illuminati. Instead, I was thinking different types of games. One crew gives you a Dresden or iron druid vibe, another gives a nights black agents vibe, a third iis illuminati, a 4th is TBD (something about hacking reality).

  21. Makes sense, re: reality hacking. I’ve wanted for some time to include some variation on that. Letting a character rewrite one word in a consequence, or on a clock. The game breaking potential would be immense, but what’s cool changeup that would be. Shades of Borges.

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