Spheres of Existence That Definitely Exist


Palace of Tigers
Or the Palace of Palaces. Debate exists over the origin of the name. "Palace" understandably stems from the infinite expanse and multitude of palaces; you can travel for months through only richly stocked dining halls or pristine hedge mazes. Tigers could be a reference to the anointed semi-divine princes that squat in its halls like glorious warlords, battling across the solariums and through the chapels to assert their authority. Or it could be the suffusion of tigers.

Interesting fact: all tigers originate from the palace of tigers, you can tell the distance of its relation to that place by how verbal they are. The most remote examples hardly talk at all.

The Palace of Tigers is always very clean. Within hours of someone disturbing the decor it will be quietly tidied up by the discrete domestic staff that live in their own apartments across the sphere. These apartments are inaccessible because no one other than the servants can even see the entrances.

The servants themselves are very hard to notice. One could be politely standing against a wall to allow your party to pass unbothered by the burden of accidentally trampling them and you wouldn't even know. To see a servant takes a concerted effort (i.e. the player must state they want to look for servants) and a successful Second Sight or Awareness test.

SECRET: tipping a servant will cause them to die. They never refuse because they are so polite. The body will be swept away imminently.


Goblin Labyrinth
Goblins consider everything to be part of the labyrinth. Where we see a meadow they see a problem to be solved and navigated, just another part of the maze. To help future goblins avoid having trouble themselves with solving the same problem twice they will lay the foundations for a more traditional labyrinth. Goblins are often spied planting hedge rows or digging foundations and laying mortar.

Sometimes whole spheres are integrated into the labyrinth, other times it's just a dash of dungeon here and there. The construct might be very old and abandoned, occupied by ungoblin squatters. It's always a concern when entering what looks like your bog standard dungeon environment only to find out it's an entrance to the goblin labyrinth. Before you know it a week has gone by and you haven't seen the same junction twice and are walking beneath an alien sun through hedge mazes made of ivory.


The Shallow Sea
The World Sea! The Salty Shallows! An ocean which rarely goes past your knees. Natives live in elevated cities on stilts driven into the bedrock. Hazards include droughts followed by tsunamis, unexpected large waves, sink holes and rifts, sharks, poisonous coral, undines and ravenous flatfish. Best place in the cosmos to acquire black pearls, which can be used to pay for spells on a 1 pearl/1 stamina basis.


Empires of Flower & Foliage
The land of the Doles, who live in ignorance under the bountiful blossoms of their forests. The sedative effects of the forest are slow acting, but after a few days you'll be as dozy as the Doles. Luckily fruit is abundant and rain puddles linger and taste of sweetness and light. The place holds a dark secret but everyone is too blitzed to figure it out.


Primary Underworld
The most commonly encountered Underworld, being closest, geographically speaking, to the material spheres. The Underworlds are nested within (on top, beside, they're all innapropriate metaphors for something bordering on the divine) each other, with the climbing nestedness creating inhabitants of orders of magnitude more potent. To illustrate: Shazmazm, a tertiary underworld "prince" has spent recent millennia slowly transporting his essence through tiny gateways between the primary and tertiary underworlds with the intent to set himself up as a god. His mosquito demon servants have patiently drained and deposited him for all this time. In response the demons with minds to do so have been fleeing the primary in preparation for the conclusion of his metastasis and beginning of his Godzilla-esque reign of terror.

The Demon Sea
Physical adjunct to the Primary Underworld, simultaneously contained within like a lake and encircling it entirely, dependant on perspective. Whether it is a separate sphere is debatable, but it is suitably distinct.
The beaches of the demon sea are not sand, but the treasures of fallen empires and arrogant kings. Jewel's, crowns, paintings and statues as far as the eye can sea, buffeted by the waves. For each hour the party digs around the beach they may fill an inventory slot with "treasure". They may continue this as long as they like since the beaches are inexhaustible.

Make a giant list of random treasures for the party to pull out of their pockets later.




The Wall
A cliff which continues up forever. People live on huge "shelves" and clamber from one to the other on large ladders. Well maintained ladders between settlements can bring in a tidy income for the caretaker. Goats are a sign of great wealth since the only common edible wildlife are monkeys, and monkeys are all hair and gristle. Shepards are nobility and monkeymongers are dwellers of the bottom shelves, doomed to be deafened by monkeys for the rest of their days.

Religious authorities argue about the position of god and the direction one must proceed in order to approach them. Some say he is over the wall, with the wall seperating us from the afterlife. Others say his is out beyond the blue sky and built the walls to keep evil at bay. Others suspect he sits stop the wall judging us all, and some unusual sorts say he lounges at the bottom, indifferent to our suffering.

Spell: Altered Beast

Altered Beast (8)

The spell is a complex protean ritual practised by obscure and unscrupulous warrior cults. Barbaric killers gather at holy places under old trees, lead to their knees by cunning men possessing an intimate acquaintance, a personal experience, of the divine. There they wait as the priest-call goes out to the woods, from which creatures soon emerge in hunger to find large and meat-rich warriors knelt, serenely waiting.

The animals satisfy their hunger on the willing men, consuming them entirely. Once they finish with their meal the priest calls for his champions and the man-flesh asserts its dominance over the meat laden animals. Familiar faces contort those of the creatures' and they kneel once again over their own steaming corpses.



Altered beasts can transform into the animal they were eaten by (or vise versa) at the cost of 4 stamina. While in their original form they still possess some of its traits since their alien flesh cannot be as it once was.

What kind of animal did it call and what benefit does their human form gain?


  1. Bear - a huge, a hulk of a man. Your arms are like trees and you hunger like there's a hole in your belly. +4 strength and you may heal from up to 8 meals a day.
  2. Wolf - you can smell flesh-stink on the air with your sleek and angled nose. +2 tracking, +2 stealth
  3. Deer - alert but flighty, your staccato motion betrays your nature. +4 running, +2 awareness
  4. Boar - broader, hairier, angrier. +3 tracking, +2 strength, +4 stamina
  5. Tiger - wise, haute, familiar with the paths between palaces. +4 second sight, +2 strength.
  6. Badger - irascible, thick skinned, burrowing. +1 natural armour through sheer bloody mindedness, +1 sneaking.
All altered beasts can heal as though eating provisions if eating the flesh of their own kind. No limits to the number of times they can benefit from this. Every time they do this they must put an advancement tick in a new skill called "Bestiality". The skill does nothing, but once it reaches 6 the altered beast loses what sense they still had and becomes a raving beast roaming the forests.

D66 monstrous reactions

1

  1. Benevolent. Possibly a deranged example of the beast, considers you to be a mate or its young or other close relative.
  2. Gregarious. Shows no fear and is quite amiable.
  3. Had a good day so far and is looking to continue. Do unto others.
  4. Giving. Possesses something and imparts it. Might be a fresh kill, or some knowledge, or a poetry performance.
  5. Enamoured. Will follow the party in the hopes of making friends.
  6. Excited by their presence. Can barely contain itself at this great fortune.


2


3


4


5


6

SOME RULES FOR KILLING WITH D6S

MELEE COMBAT


  1. The attacking player rolls a number of d6 equal to their FIGHTING NUMBER, keeping the result hidden. The fighting number should be between 4 and 6 I reckon.
  2. They then declare what they rolled. THIS CAN BE A LIE. Looking for pairs, triples etc. and highest value.
  3. The defender then either ACCEPTS the decision and doesn't get to see the attacker's dice (skip to step 5), making what their opponent said true, OR CHALLENGES it.
  4. IF THEY CHALLENGE: The attacker reveals their dice. If the attacker was lying, the attacker takes one hit. If the attacker was telling the truth they get to just keep the roll and the challenger takes one hit.
  5. The defender then rolls d6 equal to their fighting number and tries to beat what their opponent rolled (quadruples beat triples beat pairs etc, high beats low.)
  6. Whoever rolled the biggest and highest set (in that order or importance) deals damage to the opponent equal to 1 plus the difference. (so two pairs vs. would see the loser taking 1 damage, single high number vs triple would see them take 3 damage)


RANGED COMBAT

  1. The DEFENDER rolls dice equal to their DODGING NUMBER (4-6)
  2. The ATTACKER rolls dice equal to their SHOOTING NUMBER (4-6 again probably)
  3. The attacker then compares their dice to the defender's looking for matched numbers. Pick one matched number, if any, and deal damage equal to the number or those numbers you have. 
SO: Bob rolls 1,1,3,5 for shooting Susan. Susan rolls 1,3,6,6. Since Bob matched the 1 and got two 1s, he deals 2 damage to Susan. He could pick the 3 and do one damage, but that's silly.


Retired warriors

The village's local retired adventurer.



  1. He
  2. She

is...
  1. old, almost spent
  2. past their prime
  3. too young for the burden they carry
  4. in what to others would be their prime


and has a reputation as...

  1. the local drunk, harmless.
  2. a raging drunk, don't make eye contact or you'll see the demons.
  3. a broken soul, take pity.
  4. a hard worker that never speaks of their past.
  5. a recluse with an old sword from their days in the wars.
  6. an inveterate story teller, entertaining the adults and terrifying the children.

Their past is...
  1. filled with violence committed for others.
  2. one of avaricious plunder.
  3. warhearted and swordblooded.
  4. adventure and wild romance.
  5. glorious and sung.
  6. a tightly held secret.
Their services can be gained...
  1. with a handful of silver.
  2. for a worthy cause.
  3. for a bottle of the good stuff.
  4. with the chance for redemption.
  5. with the promise of escape from this life.
  6. over their dead body.
If taken on, beware that they will...

  1. break into inconsolable hysterics at the sight of a dead child.
  2. drink every drop of alcohol while you sleep, if able, and stagger the whole day through.
  3. be frozen by the sound of distant howls.
  4. be unable to be in the presence of cooking meat.
  5. constantly count their equipment. Check and re-check. One, two, three, one, two, three.
  6. , if party to the killing of innocents, wander off into the night never to be seen again.


Lechter the Frog Master hurls magic frogs at his opponents, each of which has a different effect on the person struck.  Make a d12 table of random magical effects an opponent suffers from being struck by a Lechter frog.


  1. Plugged and Purple Toad Sire: A large, ballooned, brown toad with a wooden stopper in its mouth. To use the Sire one must jam it firmly between ones legs and yank the plug out with a firm twisting-yanking action. If you aren't careful with your knee pressure a number of toads will spurt forth with great vigour towards your face (Lechter of course never make this mistake).
         Once unplugged the Toad Sire will generate and issue forth from its mouth medium sized purple toads en masse for several (d6) hours. Once unplugged the pressure makes it impossible to stop, either by re-plugging or stomping on it. It is impossible not to step on, and crush, these purple toads, making a radius of 1 metre per minute extremely slippery (test luck or acrobatics not to fall over instead of what you wanted to do).
         For the next 6 years the local insect population will be greatly diminished, but the purple frogs are delicious and breed readily, so the locals will likely learn to love them.
       The Sire, by the end of its spawning, will be a deflated sack of toad that only an expert anuromancer can regenerate and reseed.
  2.  Epulotic Natterjack: The natterjack is tacky to the touch, but not exactly sticky. Like ice, it has a strange adherence and is the reason Frog Masters wear striped cotton gloves at all times.
         When the natterjack comes into contact with flesh it begins to "burrow" itself in, much like a normal toad would in mud. The experience is not painful, nor is it permanent since the frog can leave at will. However one can find a multitude of uses, both beneficial and mischievous. For those with a good arm it can be lobbed into someones face, causing blindness, or suffocation, as it mingles with the face parts. For a more caring individual they could apply one to an open wound and apply a bandage so that the frog can't leave.
        Throw the toad to stick it to people. It does no damage unless with an aimed shot, and then it causes some sort of effect. The frog can also be used to stop bleeding and heal d6 Stamina.
  3. Warty Cynosure: The 

Alternative Ranged Combat In Troika

According to WW2 British officers, dodging and diving from projectiles doesn't help very much and the troops don't like it.

Shooting someone and hitting someone with a thing you are holding are fundamentally different. The shootee has no input in the exchange other than where they happen to be standing.

Consider cover in terms of 6ths of a person. For each 6th of a person covered by non-shootable scenery give the shooter -1 to their skill. So if someone wants to perforate me, but I'm merely sticking my head over a wall they would receive -5 to hit me.

Bob the Bowman has 5 Skill + 3 Bow Fighting - 5 for my cover = 3. He would need to roll a 3 or less to hit me in my curious head.

SHIELDS - Treat them like any other kind of cover

AIMING - Take a penalty to the shot as if the bits you don't want to shoot are covered.

PINNING - When rolling damage with ranged weapons that fire arrows or bolts or similar, if the die roll is even the projectile is stuck in you. It counts as an item for encumbrance purposes and deals d3 stamina damage to remove unless with a Heal test. Some weapons have a better chance of getting stuck in you, like javelins.



There you go +Oli Palmer

Foreign Friendly After Expo Expo

The Melsonian Arts Council was at the UK Games Expo last week, outside the labourers entrance next to the toilets. Unless you were banging for a piss or were that security guard sleeping by the emergency exit, then you probably missed us. I think it's only fair we give everyone another chance to get in here, give us all their money and see how handsome we are, but this time we'll include our hard done-by international customers.

  1. Go to www.melsonia.com
  2. Spend £27 and postage is free, a whole £1 saving on UKGE's entrance fee 'cos we love you more
  3. The password at checkout is GIMMETHATLANYARD
  4. Doors open now and close again on June 11th at 4pm.

It's a digital, invisible expo! Just without all those people and games and fun.

We've got 10ish copies of Troika! left, and general stocks of the Undercroft are looking thin. Everyone that buys something at the Expo Expo also gets one of my special convention badges included. THEY ARE MUCH COVETED!