[Homebrew] Persona nWoD Sample: Orpheus

As requested, here’s a follow up on my homebrew with a sample conversion of a Persona:

Orpheus

Power: 2
Finesse: 3
Resistance: 3

Influence: The Fool

Numina:

• Blast (“Agi”) As per the Blast Numina, with special effect of using Fire to do damage.
• Drain – (“Tarunda”) As per the Drain Numen, enabling Orpheus to steal Essence of Willpower from a being.
• Regenerate – (“Cadenza”) Orpheus can regenerate damage.

Essence: 10
Initiative: 6
Speed: 10
Defense: 3
Willpower: Shared with User
Health Levels: Shared with User

Orpheus is the Protagonist’s initial Persona in the Persona 3 videogame.  In order to call on him, it was necessary for the Protagonist to use an Evoker Pistol and shoot himself in the head with it.  The Evoker doesn’t actually do damage, through the visual effect of actually using it is pretty disturbing.

—-

In Greek mythology, Orpheus was the son of Thracian king Oeagrus and the muse Calliope (some versions have Orpheus’ father as the god Apollo). Apollo, fond of Orpheus, gave him a small golden lyre, which he quickly mastered. Taught verses later to sing by his mother, Orpheus was so skilled at making music that he was called “Master of Strings” and “Father of Songs”, capable of such music that even rocks and animals would be compelled to dance.

Upon the death of his wife Eurydice, Orpheus was so distraught that his mournful singing brought nymphs and gods to tears. Traveling to the underworld, he used his music to soften the hearts of Hades and Persephone, who allowed him to bring his wife back to the upper world on the condition that he walk in front and not look back until they had both arrived on the surface. In his anxiety, Orpheus looked back, and saw his wife vanish, this time forever.

At the time of his death, Orpheus had become an apostate, spurning all gods save for Apollo, whom he thanked for his golden lyre. For this he was ripped apart by Dionysian Maenads, only his head and lyre remaining. His head floated down the Hebrus, continuing to sing sad songs until it was buried on the island of Lesbos, while his lyre was carried to the sky by the muses and placed among the stars.

[Homebrew] Persona nWoD Conversion

If anything, Persona is one of those videogame series that has truly had an influence on my GMing style.  As such, I’ve made it sort of a hobby for me to convert the game into as many gaming systems as I can.  While it won’t be a perfect fit, I’m pretty sure that nWoD would make for a remarkably good conversion for Persona.

System:

Vanilla nWoD.  Build characters as normal starting characters, with zero additional experience, and the free Merit: Persona User (**), which would then enable them to see, analyze and summon Persona.  Game-wise, this merit may be tied to a focus of some sort, such as the Evoker Pistols of Persona 3, or the Glasses of Persona 4, depending on what suits the campaign more.

Personas:

As for the Personas themselves, they should be built as Spirits, though with a few changes:

• Personas start at Rank 1
• 8 Attribute Dots to Distribute among Power, Finesse and Resistance Attributes (Max. 5)
• All Personas have an Influence over their respective Tarot Arcana
• All Personas start with 3 Numina powers
• Starting/Maximum Essence 10
• All Personas do not have a Corpus score, instead using their User’s Health Levels

Bans:
Bound to the Persona User, May not stray beyond Line of Sight of the User

Numina:
May not use Possession-Type Powers
May use Mage Rotes as Numina (with GM permission)

As per the standard Persona rules, only those with the Persona User Merit can see Personas.  Persona are capable of affecting the physical world without having to Materialize.  Damage done to a Persona translates to the User completely.  Also all monsters in a Persona campaign can only be hurt by Persona Users.  Furthermore a Persona may act separately from it’s User, effectively behaving as a second character, for as long as they remain within line of sight of each other.

L5R in Spaaace! #2 Non-human Races

Continuing where we left off yesterday in the fevered vision of L5R set in space, we’re tackling non-human races now:

[L5R] Dammit, now I gotta write this down…

L5R in Spaaace!

I’m certain people have seen me write this down before, but not as a campaign setting, not as an idea on how to take my favorite Faux-Samurai game and throw it into the Space Opera Genre in one fell swoop.  Sure it sounds  Star War-sy but I’m sure that Rokugan’s uniqueness will shine through.

Oh, and if you’re looking for a culprit: blame Mass Effect

Go, Sentai L5R!

The following is an old Setting Mashup that me and Silver Countess came up with on a whim WAAAY back in 2004, I’m reposting it now as a little bit of nostalgia… and an example of a remarkably amusing combination:

I was having lunch with my girlfriend in a Japanese restaurant one day when she looked at me as said with a perfectly straight face, “You know what would be cool? A modern-day Rokugan with Sentai teams!”

I don’t know if it was something in the Sushi or the Miso Soup, but deep inside me, a gong rang in enlightenment.

—-

It is the year 2004.

Rokugan is a progressive nation, having opened it’s borders to the gaijin and subsumed the foreign technology and making it their own. It has been centuries since the forces of the Shadowlands have been sealed away in a dimensional rift formed by the cooperation of the Empire’s most powerful shugenja.

But now, that rift has been breached. Fu Leng is slowly gathering his strength, sending out his forces to slowly repopulate his army, using vile Oni to spread evil over Rokugan once more.

All is not lost however, for the blood of the Thunders still runs true. While the Clans have long since disappeared, their descendants still carry with them the mark of heroes.

—–
The Thunder Rangers!

Red Lion!
Star athlete and daring leader of the team!

Blue Crane!
Ladies man and the fastest member of the group!

Green Dragon!
Mysterious loner that speaks words of wisdom.

Orange Phoenix!
Intelligent girl with a heart of gold!

Purple Unicorn!
Tomboy biker chick that never misses a shot!

Together, they are the team that fights 30 foot Oni and their fierce Bakemono footsoldiers!

When danger strikes, they summon The Emerald Champion! Secret Giant Mecha designed to protect Rokugan from all threats, from the Shadowlands and beyond!

—-

Of course, none of this would be worth it if we didn’t have additional characters.

Black Scorpion:
Ally or Foe? This Wildcard seems to display the powers inherent with the Thunder Rangers but serves his own selfish ends!

Grey Crab:[spoiler!]
Replaces Blue Crane after he gives up his life to save the rest of the Thunder Rangers in a battle against Kyoso no Oni.

Experiment: Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure HERO – Conclusion

Enrico Pucci and White Snake

And so we come to the end of this conversion experiment.  From what we’ve seen over the past few days, it seems that HERO 5th Edition Revised is solid enough to tackle even the weirder powers from Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure.

So, what’s there left to do?  File this away in my GM notebook of campaign ideas for running it in the future.  That being said, there are a few things that struck me over the course of fiddling about with HERO in this setting:

Experiment: Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure HERO – Full Build

Dio Brando and The World (art by Falcoon)

And the conversion continues as I try to figure out a complete build for a Stand User.  So far results from yesterday are promising, with the HERO system holding up rather well with regards to a normal-ish Stand.  My primary concern in running this kind of game would most likely lie in regulating the powers, as I’m certain that some players will probably take the setting as an excuse to do some rather outrageous things.

Experiment: Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure HERO – Creating a Stand

Giorno Giovanna and Gold Experience

Welcome back to my current conversion experiment, wherein I attempt to push HERO 5th Edition, Revised’s limits using one of the strangest settings I could think of: Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure.

One of the most defining elements of the Jojo’s setting is the presence of Stand Users and their bizarre powers.  Stands are anthropomorphic psionic projections of the Stand User, and enable the Stand User to perform anything from odd tricks to impossible manipulations of reality.

That being said, let’s get down to business and work out a HERO build for a Stand and see if the system can take it:

Experiment: Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure HERO

Jotaro Kujo and Star Platinum Fanart by Falcoon

Ladies and Gentlemen, today, I decide to break my brain.

Deliberately.

I’ve decided to take a moment out of the usual messing about with rpg theory, and see if there’s a means to actually translate the world of the quirky (and surprisingly popular) Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure.  With that in mind, we’ll be taking a look at the baseline material, and see if it’s actually possible to mangle HERO 5th Edition revised enough to make it possible.

4e Homebrew Setting: Illyria – A Renaissance Magitek Setting

I know I’m late for the homebrew carnival, but I’d like to take this spot to heartily promote a homebrew setting cooked up by RV, a fellow GM from my gaming group who came up with an amazing setting that mixes Final Fantasy with Alexandre Dumas and with a little bit of the Elizabethan Era thrown in for fun, all with the use of the 4e D&D ruleset!

Illyria is a setting where magic, fantasy and technology exist side by side. Magitech. Portals and Magical skyships, espers and engineers, summoners, and gunknights. Illyria is an unforgiving monarchy where the blood of dragons promote a person’s identity and social status. But still heroes arise in the name of the Queen, or in the name of the Country. Never both.

Please check out the full document HERE (PDF 1.6mb)