Crownless: Postmodern Tolkien + Arcane + Fallout

"All that is gold does not glitter,

Not all those who wander are lost;

The old that is strong does not wither,

Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,

A light from the shadows shall spring;

Renewed shall be blade that was broken,

The crownless again shall be king."

               -    J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

Basically Postmodern Tolkien meets Arcane meets Fallout. A grim and gritty world where ancient evils bubble up into a world ruined by technocratic madness: a layered tower-city of pipes and gears, fueled by the Divine Engine which burns the body of the god Grond. Outside the walls lies a world of technicolored wastelands, psychedelic deserts rendered into impossible and wondrous forms by roaming Chaos Storms made from the brokenness of magic itself: the tapestry of the world frayed, the mind of creation driven mad and hateful.

The crownless again shall be king.

This is an Free Character Roleplay campaign that I am actively running. This is meant to be played as a play by post game where player characters are not necessarily in a party together but can team up if they please or even conflict with each other. It is one that I intend to fully give to you as much as possible over a couple of blog posts.

By Artem Shashkin, used without permission

 The History of the World 

The Glorious Dawn

In the first age, the glorious dawn, the gods made the world and the sapient peoples of it. There is some debate about this. It is often stated that there were primordial elementals bound by the gods or perhaps the All Mother manifested utterly into the world and became it in an act of self sacrifice. Perhaps a single god stood above the rest in the ordering of creation. To many this would be the High Father. So there were the gods and there were the Others, sometimes called the demons. Rival gods? Children of the primordials? Things from beyond? Fallen deities or angelic servants? Whatever they are, they infested creation soon after its completion and began to corrupt it.

The Age of the Dark Ones 

Thus began the age of the Dark Lords. The Others manifested in the world and grew in power, subjugating its peoples. While manifesting in the world strengthened the Others, it weakened the gods. Some gods took on mortal likeness and did battle with the Dark Lords and sired great heroes who would be the first kings and queens. Many of these gods were slain or gave up their immortality for the love of their mortal partners. Some may yet roam the world.

So the gods tried a different tactic: they empowered mortals with their gifts of magic and artifice. The elves of the first kingdoms called High Elves for their divine ancestry were particularly blessed with the secrets of magic, manipulating the very fabric of reality.

With this power the elven heroes defeated the Dark Lords, sealing or destroying them. The gods then diminished more of their power in crafting the Great Binding, preventing the Others from returning to the world.

The Ascendant Age 

The elven lords became skilled in magic even surpassing the gods. They became known as the Ascendant Masters. They used the power of the gods against them, killing some and binding others. They too subjugated the other peoples to their will. 

Many gods fled into the world to hide from these magicks. Other gods simply left. Some were bound into weapons of terrible destructive power like none ever seen before or since.

Then the Ascendant Masters turned on each other and the Wizard Wars began.

The Wizard Wars destroyed the world. The gods all but vanished utterly. Magic itself became utterly wild and dangerous, roaming over the blasted lands in kaleidoscopic storms that are nothing but hideous distortions of reality itself, leaving behind inexplicable landscapes more suitable to nightmares than the waking world.

The Enlightened Age

In the midst of this conflict, the Ascendant Masters did not recognize their underlings had begun to turn against them. Seeing that magic itself was becoming wild and unreliable, the sharp minds of this midday age began to look deeper into the ancient divine gifts of artifice. Machines and tools are reliable. They require no special bloodline nor terrible sacrifice, at least no obvious sacrifice. These geniuses began to unlock the secrets of the new science. As the Wizard Wars began their final death tremors, these new Enlightened Masters created giant walled cities, some repurposed from the old masters or from the Dark Lords before them. They built huge walls of steel and logic and by cunning beyond me kept the madness out. 

All the peoples of the world huddled in these metal hives, old allegiances lost to the storms outside. Now they must live together. Now they must forge lives for themselves where the gods are dead, magic is out to kill them, and the Great Binding has been loosened by the ruinous arrogance of those that came before.

Welcome to a city powered by the corpse of a god shoved in an almighty engine built over the ruins of a Dark Lord's infernal palace where the best you can hope for is to hold on to hope.

Welcome to Grondburn.

By my player, Harris, who above all else desires weird little guys to adopt

Mechanics 

I've been mainly using my Weirdways system for this, but I've run it very FKR not holding on too tight to mechanics. I've asked players to trust me, bro, and it's worked out quite well this far.

I have not used any means of boosting rolls or results since I have found this slows play. There's already enough to think about.

Read this post for how FCR works. It's much easier that way. If you want to see how to set up a game, I'm glad to bring you into a server to show you how I set things up.

The Roles We Play

Warning for potential players: There is information contained in these Roles that fellow players potentially shouldn't know. Proceed with caution. When you present these to players, best to summarize them without spoilers. 

Role Select Screen: (No spoilers)

Each player will select a Role. Two players cannot play the same Role. You could make this first come first served or you could roll to decide who gets to choose in what order.

The Detective

Grondburn is not just another city but a grand experiment. Never before have so many diverse peoples been forced to live alongside each other. You are here to prevent the city from splitting apart at the seams. You find the truth and you deal out justice so that peace may endure.

An officer of Prevention, investigating the murder of a young woman from a powerful elven family. Hunt down the truth and shake up the gangsters of the city to see justice prevail.

Gnome Detective McKobel by my dear player Hunter whom I cherish as a son

The Torchbearer

You are rebellion. You burn bright and hot and fast until there is nothing left. You are rage, the vengeance of the people ground into ashes by Satanic mills of this city. You are the ember in the ashes and you will burn it all down.

A young adult gangster, leading a pack of youths much like you who have suffered at the hands of Cinder Industries. You take the powerful arcane drug Spark to give you volatile pyromantic abilities. Take down Cinder Industries and evade Prevention.

Elf Torchbearer Ao by my dear player, Lucia, who scares me (positive)

The Engine Priest

You are a member of the secretive order of priests who maintain the Great Engine which burns the divine corpse of the god, Grond, in order to power the city and keep it safe from the storms of chaos magic outside the walls. Something is amiss with the workings of the city. Another was sent out before you to address the problem, but they have not returned. Use your skills in crafting and tinkering with machines as well as your mechanical augmentations to achieve your mission at any cost. The Engine Must Burn.

Street Preacher

Vigilante paladins fighting evil in these dark times. Street Preachers share little in common besides a firm belief in hope. They may stand for different gods. Many hold to the faith of the High Father but they might also worship the All Mother, the many little gods of the wood elves, the ascendant heroes of the high elves, the honored ancestors of the dwarves, or simply hold to the faith in a better world. 

For their faith, they are rewarded with some divine abilities but little fuel. The gods are simply not what they once were. They are too distant or too weak to offer any great miracles. However, Street Preachers can heal others, repel unholy things, and empower their physical abilities, but this always comes at a terrible cost to the Preacher. They are permanently diminished with every use of these powers, giving of their very selves for the good of others.

Street Preachers do have a few more advantages. Their loose organization as a holy order means that Street Preachers will help each other and that they benefit from a lot of support from the religious and generous people of the city. There is also a legendary Dwarven forge master who creates fantastic trick weaponry for the Preachers, weapons that can transform in an instant or fold out impossibly from much smaller forms.

Evil is stirring in the depths of the city once more. Expose it to the light.

The Professor

Knowledge is a dangerous thing. The world has become alien and unknown, poisoned by magic yet not destroyed but changed. The ramifications of this change are only now beginning to be explored and you are one of the pioneers willing to dig into the secret knowledge that once destroyed the world.

Perhaps you can cure this diseased world.

The Waste Warden

The crunch of wheels, the roar of the engine, the howl of reality-bending storms. 

Sounds like Tuesday.

Are you crazy, brave, or just plain stupid? You'd have to be a little of all three to do what you do, and you'd have to be damn tough to survive for more than a day on the job. 

Luckily, you are. Fight off raiders, mutants, and whatever else threatens to devour your city. And try not to die.

The Delver

Dig too deep and too greedily. That's the job. Working for Cinder sucks shit but it's good work. It'll most certainly kill you one of these days but everyone gets killed by something at some point. You've at least made your choice. 

Plus, you got some cool toys to make the job a little more fun. 

The job is about to go south real fast. Escape the depths and warn the surface about what's coming. Pray it ain't already there.

Secret 

A sneaky role with connections.

The Boss

The secretive boss of one of the city's gangs.

Roles with Kit: (With spoilers) 

NO PEEKING CURRENT OR POTENTIAL CROWNLESS PLAYERS 

By Harris

The Detective

Grondburn is not just another city but a grand experiment. Never before have so many diverse peoples been forced to live alongside each other. You are here to prevent the city from splitting apart at the seams. You find the truth and you deal out justice so that peace may endure.

You are the Detective. You are an officer of Prevention, the internal security force and constabulary of Grondburn, investigating the murder of a young woman from a powerful elven family. Hunt down the truth and shake up the gangsters of the city to see justice prevail.

You are Trained in Firearms. Describe your preferred weapon.

You have a Criminal Contact. Who is it and what is their area of expertise?

You are a Skilled Investigator. What case boosted your reputation? What case still haunts your dreams?

You are also... (Pick one of the following):

• Good at Reading People
• Handy with your Fists
• Tough as Nails
• A Bit of a Criminal Yourself (You picked up some skills in theft and lockpicking.)

You have the following:

• A Handgun 
• A Badge 
• Just enough money to get by
• A pack of cigarettes

The Torchbearer

You are rebellion. You burn bright and hot and fast until there is nothing left. You are rage, the vengeance of the people ground into ashes by Satanic mills of this city. You are the ember in the ashes and you will burn it all down.

A young adult gangster, leading a pack of youths much like you who have suffered at the hands of Cinder Industries. You take the powerful arcane drug Spark to give you volatile pyromantic abilities. Take down Cinder Industries and evade Prevention.

You are the Torchbearer. You organized these orphans, urchins, and good-for-nothings into a force to be reckoned with. Cinder Industries took your parents lives literally or metaphorically and you are angry about it. You're parents probably worked themselves to death, sickness or dismemberment in the mines.

You've learned to use the drug that what killing kids just like you to fight back. Cinder is going down and you're going to be the one to do it. What did Cinder take from you?

You've got the Spark, a drug that gives you dangerous pyromancy powers. These powers are risky and liable to run rampant unless you keep control. They can also cause Burn Out with too much use and kill you. Who do you know that died of Burn Out? Who is your dealer?

You have a small Gang of youths just like you, 6 in your own squad and two other squads not under your direct control. Who can you always depend on? Who needs protecting? Who is looking to challenge your leadership?

You have Pyromancy Boosted Parkour, being fast and agile is the only way you stay ahead of Cinder goons and cops. 

You have a Secret Hideout. Where is it? How do you keep it secret?

You are also... (Pick one of the following):

• Disciplined with your pyromancy, helping you have better control.
• Powerful: You can put out more firepower than anyone in the gang.
• Connected: Someone in authority helps you out of jams. Who is it and why?

You also have the following:

• A knife or switchblade 
• Pocket change, probably from other people's pockets
• Something from a parent that Cinder took from you

The Engine Priest

You are a member of the secretive order of priests who maintain the Great Engine which burns the divine corpse of the god, Grond, in order to power the city and keep it safe from the storms of chaos magic outside the walls. Something is amiss within the workings of the city. Another was sent out before you to address the problem, but they have not returned. Use your skills in crafting and tinkering with machines as well as your mechanical augmentations to achieve your mission at any cost. The Engine Must Burn.

How did you enter this order? Why did you choose this life over a more normal one?

You are also the keeper of a Terrible Secret: the Engine is failing. The divine essence of Grond is burning faster than anticipated. Soon it will be gone. You've been forced to ration power and this has come with consequences. You must find a new way forward soon or else the city will be lost. No one can know about this or else there will be panic and people will try to meddle with your work. The order alone is capable of saving the city and outside interference could doom you all.

The order sent out another very zealous priest before you but they have not returned. Who was this priest and what was your relationship to them?

The order sees this as a catastrophic emergency. You've always suspected that perhaps there must be another way to protect the people of the city. What was your hypothesis?

You are Mechanically Augmented. What two things have you gained by this? What have you sacrificed for it? What does your augmentation say about who you are?

Life in the order is lonely, luckily you made a friend. What kind of machine is Your Little Friend? What two things is it good at? What one thing is it spectacularly bad at?

You are skilled in Engineering to an almost supernatural degree. The blessing of Grond. You can construct machines out of scraps with incredible speed. 

You have 1 Scrap. Who saw you stealing garbage?

Your Sacred Mission is to discover a new source of fuel for the Engine. Divine, Other, or Primordial magic would be best to  maintain the Binding. Regular fuel helps but does little to help against the chaos magic storms.

Street Preacher 

You are a Street Preacher

You have fought a mostly lonely battle against darkness for a long time now. Most of those who you once fought beside are lost now.

Who inducted you into the order? Who was a friend who is now a foe?

You use Miracles. It is the last blessing of the gods that mortals might do as they did, emptying themselves for the good of the world. Each time you use your divine power, you lose some of yourself that you can never regain. What does it cost you? How will it kill you one day?

You naturally tap into the Unseen World for you have Eyes to See. You can sense the working of evil magic and the presence of dark creatures. What have you faced before? What scar did it leave?

What do you believe in? Why do you fight? (Pick two of the following)

• Justice: The guilty must be punished and the innocent protected. You can use your Miracles to Smite the Wicked.
• Mercy: The world is sick and the people are too. Feed the hungry. Heal the sick. You can use your Miracles to Heal What is Broken.
• Freedom: Free the captives. Break every chain. You can use your Miracles to Pass Unseen.
• Valor: The strong must protect the weak. You can use your Miracles to Shield the Faithful.
• Wisdom: The world is lost in ignorance. Show them the way. You can use your Miracles to See Through Lies.

You have a Trick Weapon astonishing construction. What is it? Who has felt its wrath?

You are Like Batman in terms of physical strength and agility. Who fears you?

You have Friends in Low Places. Who helps you when you need it?

The Professor 

You are the Professor at least that's what people call you. 

You have no students unless you count your bumbling Research Assistant. Who are they and why do you keep them around?

The people of the Lower Borough and the Muddle know you as a helpful Know-it-all in that you really do know it all. From arcano-zoology, to subterranean botany, to alchemy, to humanoid medicine, you really do have a handle on wife swaths of knowledge. People know to call on you when they can't afford a doctor or when some strange creature is knocking over their trash cans. You do what you can to help while studying all the wonders of this magic-poisoned world.

Pick one area in which you are unknowledgeable:

• History: Now is the most interesting time of all
• Engineering: Gadgets and gizmos have never been your forte. 
• The City Itself: You're a relative newcomer. You get lost pretty easily. Where did you come from before?

You have the following:

• An office on the border of the Muddle and the Low Borough.
• A small garden for reagents 
• Tools of medicine and science 
• Enough money to be comfortable

You also have... (Choose one of the following)

• An Alchemist's Bag: While you have this on your person, you have the tools and materials to immediately identify strange materials. You may also whip up one potion per Turn. Who taught you the art of alchemy?
• An Unusual Little Friend: A small magical creature that obeys your command. What odd ability does it possess? Where did you find it
• A Piece of the Old World: A magical artifact of a forgotten age. Using any magic, even in the city is gravely dangerous but you know that power lurks within this object and it calls to you. You know you could unleash it but at what cost? How did you find this object? What do you suspect it can do?

The Boss

Kragg da Boss by my dear player, Harris, who brings me delight and terror in equal measure (positive)

You are the Boss of the Stoneskin gang. The Stoneskins are called that because they deal and partake of Troll Blood. It causes your skin to grow stony and your muscles to engorge. It turns ordinary people into monsters.

Thing is: the Troll Blood comes from a source: you. You are the Last Troll and you've been pumping your blood for the nerds that make your drugs for a long time now. Primordials like you, dragons, giants, fairies, you're all supposed to be extinct. If the heroes of old didn't kill you to get their princess back, those friggin elves hunted you down for reagents. As a consequence of your Troll biology you are inhumanly strong, tough, and you can spit acid. Downside: sunlight turns you to stone and people might want to kill you for your essence which you turn into drugs. 

What did you do to survive all those centuries? 

Your gang has fallen on hard times lately. You don't got as many guys are you used to. The Shade Walkers are invading your territory and some jabroni is selling this Spark stuff to your dealers that makes kids explode. It's not good for business.

Why did you choose this life in the first place?

You have two lieutenants and one former lieutenant that went over to the Shades. Where did they come from and why do they work for you? (Pick two and the last will be your traitor)

• An Elf Assassin: Quick, deadly, wears silly clothes.
• Old Cinder Goon: Mechanically augmented. Killer attitude.
• Half Troll: Your own child, almost as tough as you are.

All of the above by Harris

Each Turn you can send both lieutenants on a mission and they can be accompanied by 1 Unit of Stoneskin Gangers (About 12 dudes).

You have access to the following drugs which you're people can use to improve their abilities at the cost that you'd expect of doing dangerous fantasy narcotics on failed and mixed rolls:

• Troll Blood: Makes you tough and strong. Cost: Makes you feral 
• Rush: Makes you fast and focused. Cost: Brain damage.
• Wake: No need to sleep or slow down or relent. Negates mind control. Cost: Become a zombie.

You have a pretty big foothold on many markets. Pick one facility you have set up somewhere in the Lower Borough or the Abyss:

• Gun Warehouse: You have ample access to firearms which are not as common as you'd expect in the city.
• Potion Workshop: You can produce some common types of alchemical potions.
• R&D: If you wanna experiment with the drugs, you gotta have a very special lab.

You have a Main Hideout where you tend to be based. How have you kept your secrecy? What is the front for your hideout? Which of your lieutenants operates it?

The Secret 

You are the Spy for the Flying Emirate of Thrandule. Actually you are two spies and there used to be a third. What happened to them?

Unbeknownst to Grondburn or the other fortress cities of the Enlightened Upstarts, the Ascendant Masters of the Elves are not gone. Emir Thrandule remains with the blood of divine Ealoveth in his veins. By his might, the flying city of Vae Karesh endures and continues to use magic despite the degeneration of the Tapestry.

You have been tasked by the Emir to accelerate the downfall of the city by any means possible, expose weakness, and be on the lookout for threats to the Emirate. 

For this purpose, you've been granted magical tools. Pick two of the following:

• A Flying Carriage: A worthy vehicle for traveling quickly and quietly within the city and without. 
• The Veil of Night: You are already quite stealthy, but this makes you impossible to detect unless you do something to draw attention to yourself, allowing for easy surveillance at a medium distance.
• The Suggestion: An amulet that can manipulate the minds of the weak willed (aka NPCs). Place suggestions in their minds that they will obey without even realizing it. They must look directly and deeply into the amulet.
• The Neverending Purse: A purse that is always full of gold. It comes from somewhere but while you have this item, you will want for nothing as far as finances go.

You can split up but you're Better Together. Your teamwork is impeccable as if you share a mind with your partner. You have no need of communicating over distances. You basically have a telepathic link. How did you come to be so close?

You are Stealthy. It is hard to get a beat on you. Disappearing into crowds is easy and disguise is second nature to you. Especially perceptive characters like the Detective might be able to sniff you out though. 

You have Eyes Everywhere. You've managed to create quite a web of informants in the city. Who are your little birds?

The Waste Warden 

You are the Waste Warden, a watcher on the wall, the gun that guards the realms of humanoids.

You go out where no one is supposed to go out not only because unfortunately people do have to travel through the wastes and need protection, but also because the city is always under threat from raiders and chaos magic mutants. 

In fact, the mutants have been getting stranger and bolder as of late. You better find out why. 

Why in the world did you choose to do this? Why would anyone? What unearthly scar do you bear from the chaos magic storms?

You are a skilled Driver and you drive a Rig out in the wastes. Pick one of the following:

• Zippy: Your rig is fast and maneuverable, but it has very little armor or weapons. 
• Tank: Your rig is solid with heavy armor and a top mounted gun. 
• Crawler: Not super fast or not super armored but weird. This scuttling monstrosity gives you a lot of control, prehensile limbs, and the power to climb walls and jump great heights. It's got a grappling hook.

The Gun is Good so what kind of gun you got packing? What tough spot did it see you through?

The Sword is Mightier so what kind of melee weapon do you have for when all else fails? What kind of mutant monster have you killed with it?

You have a Partner. What are they good for? What is a great victory you still talking about?

Pick one of the following:

• Field Mechanic: You can fix up and modify gear on the fly if need be. 
• Survivalist: You know how to survive if you get yourself stuck in the wastes. You can track prey too.
• Mundane: Magic, including the chaos magic of the wastes doesn't affect you as much. Why do you think that is?

The Delver

You are the Delver. It's a hard life but it's yours. 

You might have had big dreams at one point. What were those dreams? But they didn't turn out so good and now you work for Cinder Industries. Why did you fail? 

You dig up metals, coal, and pretty much anything good that comes from the ground but most of all, you dig up Pyrotheum. It's a kind of molten metal that seems to stay hot on its own accord. Incredibly dangerous to mine. Seems weird to you but you know you signed a mighty big stack of papers about "protecting company secrets."

What happened to the last guy you heard about trying to spill the beans on Cinder? 

You've managed to climb the ranks to be a Foreman but you still get your hands dirty. Name two of your crew that you've worked closely with. 

You kept your Personal Mining Rig, a set of powered arms that go over your regular ones. These give your incredible strength and select one of the following:

• Drill Hands: Unfold some handy dandy drills that can tear through stone barriers. Digging whole tunnels will still take a long time.
• Cave In Shield: Deploy a powerful unfolding metal shield that can protect against cave ins and just about anything else.
• Overclock: You've made some modification yourself. You can get even more power out of your Rig but you could burn out your Rig.

Giant Bugs and other nasty things are common down below. What kind of weapon do you keep on yourself?