An OSR for the heathen — who are the characters? (updated: 2 new origins and art)
Game Design Log #44
I have been working on fine-tuning the details of my OSR/NSR-like game, No Peace For The Heathen (NPFTH).
When doing so, one of the things I realized is that the origins, or “classes”, that players could choose for their characters (originally six) were somewhat restrictive.
The idea behind this collection of six origins is to provide a specific feel, a guideline of the type of world players would experience, by making explicit that:
They are inhabitants of an island being invaded by conquistadors.
Their origins are directly inspired by the folklore of Chiloé (an island in the south of Chile).
They seek the last hidden safe place to hide from this invasion, “Isla Chica” (this may be taken as a mythical aspiration rather than a real and achievable goal).
They have initial objectives to choose from, which the character believes are necessary to find Isla Chica.
All this is fine, and I think that in this regard, the six origins fulfill their purpose, making evident for players from the beginning the type of experience they would or could have playing this game (or what I would like them to experience, if the game is successful in this regard, is another thing).
However, when testing the game, I found that I could make a little more space for players’ creativity, or in-game emergence for the goals characters have. (this is not prevented by the six origins, but some players may feel constrained by them).
So the first thing I did was to make it more clear that this “arch-goal” of finding Isla Chica is a propellant of the game, but not something monolithic that can’t change in-game. Also, that for some characters it may be more akin to an afterlife destination, and the things they believe they have to do to reach it, more akin to aspects of something like a moral code. I did this by adding these questions before the players choose their characters:
Is Isla Chica at the end of your life?
Or is it real land to grab with your hands?
Or maybe a lie you tell yourself to do what you do?
Would you do anything to reach its shore?
So the second thing I did was make explicit for players that they should choose one of the objectives from the list of their origin, and then create one of their own (which can be defined in-game).
And the final and third thing was to create two new origins: the “Survivor” and “The Giref of Many”. They present the option of playing characters that, at least when starting the game, don’t have the aspiration of reaching Isla Chica.
Below I share with you the, before six, now eight, origins (“classes”) that players can play in NPFTH (with more polished art for the first six).
In the descriptions of the different origins, this is how I organized things:
In italic is the background of the characters.
Inside the
code-boxesare the parts of the character that have direct effects on the mechanics of the game (this is an OSR game with six stats → Strong, Resilient, Agile, Sneaky, Imposing, Observant).The last part, in normal text, is a list of initial “quests”, or the things the characters believe they have to accomplish to find Isla Chica, which is the big quest that propels the characters forward at the beginning of the game, or a “mythical” aspiration that they all share.
So without further delay, let’s see who you could be in this game…
Half-Ivunche
You are half human, half aberration. You were kidnapped as a newborn by the witchcraft order “La Mayoría” to be bred into an Ivunche; a legendary creature protector of the caves of witches, magically mutated, of extreme force, resistance, and fury, with one of their legs bent and tied to their neck from behind.
You were rescued by a free witch and grew to become a titan among humans, taller and stronger. Because of the magic that mutated you, you lost one of your legs, which has been replaced by a beautiful wooden carved prosthetic made by the witch who rescued you.
You are unable to use magic and you are immune to it.Your compulsions is: Violence or Fear.You are better at being: Strong (+3), Resilient (+3)This is what you believe you have to do to find Isla Chica (choose one):
Rescue a newborn from being an Ivunche to clear your debt with fate.
Kill the ones that kidnapped you when you were a newborn.
Find a worthy place of power to bury your adoptive mother's ashes.
Rescue your mother from Prime, the Inquisitor's city.
What one more thing do you believe you have to accomplish? (Create one, now or in-game, or choose one more from above).
Ash revenant
Your family was burned to death by one of the many groups of conquistadors that had arrived from the north. You don't remember which king or which god they were serving. Every year is someone new, some new flag that has come to replace the previous one. For you, all of them are just the same. You are alive by something that some call a miracle, but you know it to be a curse. You woke up from the ashes of your town. Your body healed from the burns. The memory of the pain as a white, high-pitched light in your mind. Your eyes and hair are gray as ash. Your blood is pumping with a voracious desire for revenge.
You are immune to pain, and your flesh can’t be burned.Your compulsions is: Cruelty or Martyrism.You are better at being: Resilient (+1), Agile (+1)This is what you believe you have to do to find Isla Chica (choose one):
Kill someone of importance to the conquistadors.
Burn to the ground one of the conquistador’s towns.
Engrave the names of your family in the walls of Port Salvation, the first conquistador fortification, with the blood of one of their generals.
Ransack a dead-holy-wheeled-town, then burn it to the ground so it becomes forgotten.
What one more thing do you believe you have to accomplish? (Create one, now or in-game, or choose one more from above).
Mutilated Artisan
You were a master artisan, an artist. Conquistadors enslaved you to build a giant idol in the name of their man-king-god. You refused, and so they cut off your hands. You were thrown like a dead rag into a common pit. But you were faintly alive. You built two weapons to replace your hands. You became a weapon forged by their cruelty.
Your hands are weapons that do damage like short swords. They are your hands, not something you carry. You know how to forge and repair your weapons.Your compulsions is: Vengeance or Superstition.You are better at being: Sneaky (+3).This is what you believe you have to do to find Isla Chica (choose one):
Burn one valued idol of the man-king-god.
Craft one last beautiful thing.
Cut the hands of those who cut yours.
Steal and destroy a relic from a (dead or not) holy-wheeled-town.
What one more thing do you believe you have to accomplish? (Create one, now or in-game, or choose one more from above).
Exiled Witch
You were a witch from “La Mayoria”, the society of witches that inhabits the Underbelly. Hungry for power and knowledge, you revealed your book of flesh to an Inquisitor for the promise of an old scroll from his lands. He assured you that it concealed secrets beyond the grasp of “La Mayoria”. You sold the secrets of witchcraft for this promised power.
But he broke his promise, and he killed as many witches as he could. He hanged them in front of the cathedral of his town, using the book of flesh you gave to him as proof of their wickedness.
You know magic, and you have learned the six secrets of “La mayoria”, but you are a pariah among the witches of your land, a traitor. You can cast as many spells per day as your Imposing. You know as many magical mutations of the blood as your Imposing.Your compulsions is: Cowardice or Curiosity.You are better at being: Imposing (+1), Observant (+1)This is what you believe you have to do to find Isla Chica (choose one):
Recover the book of flesh you gave to the inquisitor.
Kill the inquisitor with whom you made the deal.
Recover the bones of the witches that were killed because of you, and return them to the Underbelly.
Steal the witchcraft secrets that the inquisitors keep in Prime.
What one more thing do you believe you have to accomplish? (Create one, now or in-game, or choose one more from above).
Orphan of the Sea
You are a child of the sea, a sumpall. There was a time when you swam in her embrace, breathing from her, and feeding on her tempestuous might. You were royalty among the beings of nature. But madmen from the north hunted away the ones like you. You stayed behind, stranded on the shore. You lost your scales, and your tail became two long legs. You have a faraway memory of happiness and power. You desire the sea, and you have tried to be embraced by her more than once. But the fear of death was more powerful, and you broke through its surface to return to the island. Now it all seems like a dream from a previous life.
If you sing, your voice is like a spell. You singing makes people be in a dream like state.Your compulsions is: Lust or Dominance.You are better at being: Imposing (+1), Sneaky (+1)This is what you believe you have to do to find Isla Chica (choose one):
Learn the name of the place where your people escaped to.
Build a ship with the name of this place and give it to someone who has lost their home.
Burn a ship of fishermen and take pieces of their bodies to be buried beneath dry earth, so their spirits linger between land and sea, in eternal sorrow, without belonging to neither.
Bring havoc and devastation to Port Salvation.
What one more thing do you believe you have to accomplish? (Create one, now or in-game, or choose one more from above).
Stranded pirate
You were a king of the seas. You sold your people for a bigger and faster ship. You made deals with conquistadors, and you were cursed by the seas for this betrayal. You can’t sleep because when you close your eyes, you see the faces of the ones you betrayed.
You are immortal, and when killed, your body evaporates, reaping naked in the last please where you pissed. But seawater burns your body and if you are killed at sea, you will be gone for good.Your compulsions is: Greed or Pride.You are better at being: Sneaky (+1), Observant (+1)This is what you believe you have to do to find Isla Chica (choose one):
Trick and scam those conquistadors with whom you made deals.
Use the treasures from the conquistadors to forge enough weapons for a small rebel army.
Free from slavery the child of those you betrayed.
Sabotage or destroy the docks of Port Salvation.
What one more thing do you believe you have to accomplish? (Create one, now or in-game, or choose one more from above).
Survivor
You are an islander. A wanderer driven by pleasure, adventure and curiosity. You live in the now. You have seen the weapons carried by those invaders from the north, their practices, their cruelty and their violence, and in them you have seen just another change of season, another wave of an immense, impassive sea that has come to pulverize and transform the shore. You change your skin like the great ancient serpents, you take what you need to survive, you learn from the invaders if necessary, you use their violence, their pride and their cruelty to your advantage. Exalted, you witness change.
If you have lived through tragedy, you don't talk about it. If you have suffered, you move on. But it builds up inside you, even if you don't want it to. Because you have ears and eyes, you see the blood on the ground, you hear the screams of those like you. But you tell yourself that it is not your turn, not if you are skilled, if you run with the speed and agility of the great serpents, creators and destroyers of worlds. You tell yourself, “I will endure.”
At moments of conflict between different groups, you have a keen eye to know what side has the upper hand. You have an easy time convincing others that you will betray your “cause” if you have to.Your compulsions is: Cowardice or Apathy.You are better at being: Resilient (+1), Sneaky (+1), Observant (+1)You may not be looking for Isla Chica yet, you may have heard about it, as a haven, as a place of respite and endless pleasures, perhaps, as conquistadors say of it, a magical kingdom of infinite treasures.
But your tragedy has not crystallized, your tragedy is yet to come, and when it does, you will brew your beliefs of what is necessary to find Isla Chica.
The grief of many
You don't know what or who you are, as day by day, your flesh and memories are in danger of changing to something new.
Every time you change, the only thread of unity is the memory of the recent events, perhaps you will remember days, months, but before that, the echos of all of those you have been are a turbulent sea, and your present “self” is just one louder voice in the chorus of the many you have been.
Every time you wake up, there is 1 in 6 chance that you will become someone new. You remember what you have experienced in-game, but everything before that is somehow blurry, and the memories of the person you are at that moment are just a little clearer.Your compulsions is: Masochism or kleptomania.You are better at being: Roll 2d4-4 for each tactic, and then add +2 to one tactic. Do the same every time you change to someone new.You may not yet be seeking Isla Chica, you may have heard of it, as a haven, as a place of respite and infinite knowledge.
Your tragedy has not crystallized; it may be yet to come, or it may be the reason for your eternally changing nature.
Past or future, when your tragedy reveals itself, you will brew your beliefs of what is necessary to find Isla Chica.
I'd love to know your opinion about the game and these origins/classes, and if they make you curious enough to play as them.
Would you like to take on their roles, their pain, and explore this dark and magical world of theirs?