Borchardbriar: Conquest of Vittles

Food is an abstract measure of foraged and preserved foodstuffs. They could be confit, cured, dried, jellied, jugged, pickled, salted, etc. The everyday meals and snacks your characters consume are not tracked, instead 1 Food is equivalent to a large jar of jam or pickled herring - more food than a prudent Beast would eat alone in a single sitting but not so large that you couldn't transport it easily. The lifeblood of the underground economy since the field's harvest ripens swollen and sour.
Never fit for anybeast's consumption.

When a character would gain an Advancement, they also earn 1 Food which can be spent on the following Downtime Activities:

•  Acquire an Asset - Gain temporary use of a special item, a gang, a vehicle, or a Major Favor outside your Network to use during your next clash.
•  Long-term Project - Researching a lost ballad, developing a sorcerous ritual, investigating a mystery, building trust, or courting a new contact requires a Dramatic Task that may take several Downtimes (or several Food) to complete.
•  Recover - Healing comes at a price in Borchardbriar, it costs 1 Food to bounce back from the Injury Table.

Downtime Activites all require a Test and if you (or an ally) succeed, then you can buy a Raise for 1 additional Food.

You can also keep unspent Food to yourself or pool Food with other players in the Cell's Stockpile. Food in the Stockpile may be spent to:

• Increase the Cell's Rank: Raise the Cell's Rank by 1 which increases Rep and possibly Resistance. Increasing the Cell's Rank costs a number of Food equal to the next Rank.
• Buy a Hideout Edge: Edges cost 2 Food. A Cell's maximum number of Edges is equal to the Rank.

Be aware that if you choose to horde Food, there's a chance it could be stolen though it would be on hand if you need a Favor from an NPC or something. If you keep Food in your inventory you can:

• Sweeten Disposition: You can improve a Reaction Roll by +2.
  
• Wild Chance: Draw and keep an additional card from the Adventure Deck.

GM: If a player is undecided on which downtime activity to perform, offer a long-term project idea. You've got a clue to their interests and what they like. Suggest a project that will dovetail with those.

Borchardbriar Roadmap

So. How did we get here and where are we going?

For the past 2-3 years (do I have longtime readers?) I've been tinkering part time with a Savage Worlds setting called Borchardbriar - a fantasy world of talking animals on perilous adventures and sowing rebellion to overthrow the Fox King Reynard, a grim and terrible monarch. But the pitch wasn't that concise. It hadn't been honed to that razor point.

Stemming from a mash up of  Redwall/Robin Hood + The Old Kingdom + Armello, the summary/pitch meandered and often restated the initial post from May 2017. Trying for a twist on the dark/gritty fantasy settings and stories that have become increasingly popular. And in many ways filling a gap in Savage Worlds' extant settings since Evernight hasn't been updated for a couple of editions.

We even did a podcast mini-series set in this earlier iteration here.

If you listened through the series you'll notice some other influences creeping in, shades of noir like True Detective and Blacksad creeping in. Continued exploration saw bits of Jesse Bullington's Folly of the World (Early Modern period instead of pseudo-medieval), Charles de Lint's Riddle of the Wren (folklore as a window into a mis-remembered past), and Daniel Polansky's The Builders (why you fight) surfacing. At that point I felt ready to start pulling the blogposts and handwritten notes together into something resembling finished work.

However, mapping the older material to Richard Woolcock's Savage Worlds outline showed gaps in the material. Ultimately gaps that were kinda there on purpose. Holes for players and other GMs to fill in, to make their own mark on things. Additionally the scale for Borchardbriar had shifted with SWADE's release. Instead of a paperback, probably a zine. Maybe in time for ZineQuest 2. We'll see.

So what's next for Borchardbriar? How much is being recycled?

Am I reinventing the wheel completely?

Maybe a little bit.

Not to give too much away but, here are the blog posts coming down the pipe:

• Introduction to Borchardbriar - a revised pitch and world overview
• The Furred Folk and Their Kith and Their Kin - how I'm handling different talking animals
• The Way of the World - setting rules new and old, additional edges
• Unseen Principalities and Unclean Spirits - arcane backgrounds and the Watchers
• Odds & Ends - equipment, charms, and superstitions
• The Resistance - a character above your characters
• Conquest of Vittles - hard to rebel on an empty stomach
• We All Lift Together - developing the Resistance
• The Accord - the line that holds us
• Becoming Monsters - when that line breaks
• Clowdertown Blues - The Southern Corner
• How It All Comes Together - session structure
• Smashing of the Van - counterinsurgency, blowback, and other high stakes
• The Hunt - hounded from your boltholes
• Castle Borchardbriar- Reynard's stronghold
• The World Turned Upside Down - The Final Battle
• Hands Raised Against You - foebeasts and the privileged who command them

Borchardbriar: The Resistance

The Resistance
Why do you fight?

Did they snatch your young? Or did your da' take your place? Does a Wyldbreaker lean on you for "protection" money? Are you just trying to make some quick coin? Inspired by an unlikely bard in the public house? Or easing the hurt in the world?

There's a gash in things these days, you can see it with your eyes. Everyone's at least a little hungry. An ache in your stomach spreads through your bones. A weariness you just can't shake like rot on fruit. A grey-green bruise on your soul.

While it might all be falling to pieces 'round our ears, it doesn't have to be.

That's why I fight.

The Means
How does your Cell oppose Reynard's regime? Choose one of the options below: 

• Agitate - Flare tempers.
• Sabotage - Break stuff.
• Liberate - Release folks.
• Terrorize - Sow fear.

When you perform actions in line with your Cell's Means, roll an additional Wild Die. You still use the highest result.

The Network
Who is on your side? Choose 2 of the options below:

• Yasmine - The Gunsmith. Has a new method for creating Salamanderdust she needs to perfect.
• Sebastien - The Patrician. Holds sympathies with the working families who pay most of the Tithe.
• Toni - The Pot-Stirrer. Born under dubious signs, things never go smooth.
• Keith - The Medium. Chased out of Stonebones, he claims to hear the dead.
• Cass - The Raconteur. Spins a yarn so fine the oak tree bends to listen. Wanted for sedition.
• "Lucky" Luci - The Gangleader. Gathered disenfranchised youth for mutual defense.
• "Miss Kitty" - The Madam. Operates a feralhouse where genteel folk can stretch their claws and behave badly.
• Horace - The  Merchant. Snakebite's illegal but that doesn't mean thirst went away.
• Roland - The Stevedore. The biggest paws and the strongest back down on the Docks.
• Aderfi - The Explorer. From the Burning South, been to Manykings and seen the Edge.
• Pedro - The Astronomer. Used to be a navigator but retired from salt spray to soft soil. Owls cluster close.

They will do Minor Favors for you without cost but Major Favors cost Food.


Rep 
Your starting Rep is 0


Resistance 
Your starting Resistance is 0 

Reviewsday: TROIKA! and PROSPECT

Published by the Melsonian Arts Council, TROIKA! is a science fantasy RPG sharing a wavelength with Michael Moorcock’s Eternal Champion, Book of the New Sun, Vimanarama, Etched City, and the Archive 81 podcast (I’ll talk about these later). Humanity escaped the crushing grasp of Earth’s gravity a long time ago and things have only GOTTEN STRANGER. Bollywood space gods plunging through eldritch portals to explore the crystal spheres are the tip of the weirdo iceberg when you thumb through the randomized backgrounds. Some quick examples – questing knight, cacogen, thaumaturge, rhino-man, and monkeymonger for starters. The setting is filled out and explained in item and background descriptions, in the margins of the text like a Dark Souls or Bloodborne game.

Mechanically speaking, it does everything you want an OSR-style game to do – create tension and sense of danger – and only uses the D6. It also leans on D66 tables which I’m a huge fan of. The most unique design feature is how it handles initiative via a blind grab bag, very similar to the system used in the miniatures game Confrontation. You pull a token from a grab bag and the corresponding character takes their turn, but there’s also an End Turn token so… someone might not get an action that turn.

It’s elegant, it’s pretty, and gets the most out of the book-as-physical-artifact with tables inside the covers.

You can find a no-frills/artless version here under the SRD and a physical copy on Amazon here.

PROSPECT was released earlier this year and it’s a space western focused on activities nearly always overlooked – prospecting, mining, and claim jumping! Not gonna get too deep on this, I’ll just say – if your favorite parts of Ridley Scott films are the world-building via material culture and how the camera feels in the scene then you should carve out the time and watch PROSPECT before the year is over in…
13 days? That sounds about right.

You can watch PROSPECT on Hulu right now.

You can browse the props here and the concept art here.

2019 Gift Guide

Full disclosure: some of the products below were provided by the publisher for review and I contributed to the Tome of Mysteries.

With Christmas around the corner let’s be honest , it can be difficult to shop for us. For as much time and money gamers spend accumulating geegaws: books, maps, miniatures, dice towers, dice trays, dice bags, and, hell, dice in general. Folks outside the Culture are likely not aware of differences between core books and supplements (ex: White Wolf used to publish player’s guides in addition to core rulebooks but the player’s guides weren’t really useful) or which games utilize extra components that are evergreen presents (ex: Savage Worlds’ reliance on playing cards means a cool deck is always welcome). So if you have relatives who don't know what to get you for Christmas or your birthday next year, point them at this.

Gaming Adjacent:

A Dragon Walks Into A Bar by Jef Aldrich & Jon Taylor

Do you like D&D as a core cultural touchstone? Do you like all those D&D-centric episodes of cartoons, sitcoms, and video games?
How about dad jokes?
If you loved Cameron’s sense of humor from the first 3 seasons of Max’s Minions and want it distilled in a book, then this is it. Just released last week, this original work by the hosts of the System Mastery podcast is sure to elicit a chuckle or guffaw from your friends or loved ones who are into this sorta thing.And it’s not just a book of jokes, there’s some tables useful sidebars which impart information or insight into this weird, young hobby we all participate in.

Here’s a good joke:

Where would you find a blink dogs?
About three feet to the right of where you left them.

Because they.. teleport…
never mind.

The Ultimate RPG Gameplay Guide & The Ultimate RPG Character Backstory Guide by James D’Amato

Covering both of these at once because they contain complementary materials. If you regularly GM the Gameplay Guide provides advice for effective preparation and communication with your players to lean into engagement, exploring themes, and maximizing the stuff your group wants to see at the table. James’ thoughtful essays ring with his experience both as a Second City trained improviser and GM/producer for one of the top Actual Play podcast networks around. The book’s exercises, worksheets, and prompts help you (the GM) with praxis – walking the walking, applying the ideas and shaping table behaviors so you get the best out of yourself and your players.

Conversely, if you’re on the other side of the GM Screen 9 times out of 10 then the Backstory Guide provides prompts and exercises rooted in improv theater that prompts new ways of thinking and applying the most staid and dullest part of character creation – the backstory. The book’s organization is divided into echelons corresponding to character level, over time you develop themes and motifs to form a throughline. Enabling your GM to bring these elements into focus. Something you can hear James do on his current Campaign podcast – Skyjacks.

Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master by Michael Shea

The title directly addresses the 400 lbs. gorilla in the RPG scene but embodies a solid thesis usable in any game – YOU (the GM) will never be as creative as all of THEM (your players), so pull a Tom Sawyer and get them to paint the fence for you. Distribute the cognitive workload.

With great advice, pertinent examples, and checklists this book doesn’t provide as many hand’s on applications as the Gameplay Guide. Instead Return dwells in greater specificity on its topics, whether pros & cons to different styles of combat or conveying the value of reskinning existing monsters instead of creating ones from wholecloth. If The Ultimate RPG Gameplay Guide sounded too hippie-dippie to you then Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master occupies a cozier middle ground.

Games and Game Accessories:

Savage Worlds Adventure Edition by Shane Hensley

The latest edition of our (Carol and I) favorite game dropped back in September and you can get this gorgeous hardcover for only $30. A more in depth review can be found over on Tommy Brownell’s blog over here and I’ll do my own dissection and discussion of the text for the benefit of folks who’ve never played Savage Worlds before at a later time. This thing is the real deal, people often complain about carrying around too many books and D&D is a $150 buy-in for the 3 core rulebooks.

What takes D&D 3 bloated books, Savage Worlds does in 1 sleek volume for 20% of the price.

Monster of the Week by Michael Sands & The Tome of Mysteries by Michael Sands and assorted authors (including me)

Tired of dungeon delving and want to do something else? Love weekly procedural shows but aren’t sure how to get that to the table?

Then Monster of the Week and it’s companion volume have got you covered. Based on the popular Apocalypse Engine you’ll only need to print out the playbooks and 2 six-sided dice to start playing. Character creation is fast and let’s you hit the table running in interesting directions, you’ll have a game full of interesting conflicts and complications in no time.

And, yea, mysteries are hard but there’s a WHOLE TOME OF THEM! Want more Fringe and less Supernatural? The Tome of Mysteries has that too! It’s covers a lot of ground very quickly with scenario seeds, additional playbooks, a ton of sample mysteries, and custom moves you can re-work for your own game. And if you’re doing Call of Cthulhu or another investigation game then use the sample mysteries anyway so you can still inject some weirdness without it necessarily being the Usual Suspects (Cthulhu, Dagon, Yog-Sothoth, etc).

 Dice from Metallic Dice Games

You might think any set of clack-clack stones are the same as any other but if you ask Carol or Larissa or any other person with the dice fever, you’ll find you’re wrong. Can’t go wrong buying more dice, and I recommend Metallic Dice Games’ products, they’re lustrous and have nice hand feel. They have some great color combinations and they’re timely with their deliveries. Their latest kickstarter arrived a little earlier than estimated, a far cry from the Kraken Dice fiasco earlier this year.

Review: Black Leopard, Red Wolf & Dirge of Urazya

When it was first announced, Black Leopard, Red Wolf was billed an “African Game of Thrones”. The go-to byline for any fantasy series with epic scale promising grit, violence, and realpolitik in contrast to the “pastoral” popular perception of mainstream fantasy. A wrongheaded comparison on multiple levels that we don’t have time or space for today (catch me on the Discord). That sales pitch missed the mark even though it drummed up interest in Black Leopard, Red Wolf prior to release. What arrived was far stranger, denser, wondrous, and more surreal than Game of Thrones and most fantasy novels on the shelf.
What starts as a straightforward testimony from a simple spoken narrator paints a lurid picture of the Kingdoms, their struggles, and the violence in all the spaces in between. Nested narratives lead to a Rashomon labyrinth of perspectives and conflicting account. Planting and watering seeds of doubt regarding Tracker, the protagonist, and his veracity even though he says from the beginning: “The child is dead. There is nothing left to know.”

Know this: Tracker has a dog’s nose and won’t lead you astray.

Dirge of Urazya is a zine by Jack Shear of Dolorous Exhumation Press and Tales of the Grotesque & Dungeonesque fame. After making a splash in the RPG scene with his 13 Flavors of Fear, Jack has built a reputation for the lurid, the blasphemous, and the weird with each subsequent release from demonic Western to Gothic blood opera. While most of his work runs 100+ pages, Dirge of Urazya is on the opposite end at a sleek 24 and I love its brevity.

While Umberwell details an Industrial urban hellscape rich with grime, Dirge offers a lean set of prompts so your whole group can create the Gothic, Western, post-apocalyptic, science fantasy world promised by Netflix’ Castlevania (which I swear is Warren Ellis’ Vampire Hunter D fanfiction) and Into The Badlands (Danny Wu’s post-apocalypse wuxia western also available on Netflix). The PDF is only $4.00 (currently on sale for $2.68) and offers far more in value. I recommend pretty much everything he’s written, Jack’s name on a title is a stamp of quality and weirdness you shouldn’t overlook.

Jack provided a good overview of Dirge's development and assembly here and I'll similarly follow that roadmap with my own creative projects in the future.

Review: Codex Dark 2 and Doom Patrol

 Codex is a monthly pdf zine published by The Gauntlet, a roleplaying community and podcast network. Codex is an anthology of small RPGs, supplementary materials, and miscellany centered around a particular theme that has been tied together with use of a color palette and clever graphic design. The free sample issue rotates, and this month's issue is a really good one, so grab it while you can because the games are delightful.

The star of the current is Ghost Drums, a short horror game by Gerrit Reininghaus inspired a Guatemalan ghost story. I can't really say anything else about it without giving away too much, but I am hyped to run this with the Minions in the future and, hopefully, turn it into a limited series podcast. This issue also has the rules for Trophy and a sample adventure, a dark fantasy game about flint-eyed scoundrels plunging into a wilderness that doesn't want them there and won't let them leave. Think of it as what might happen if your OSR play-through of Keep on the Borderlands turned into the Texas Chainsaw Massacre about two-thirds of the way through. Trophy also echoes the thesis of our current limited-series, Tales from the Old Man's Bar™, Don't be surprised if you see Trophy show up on our feed down the line as well.

Both games highlight a subtle shift in design philosophy: rather than playing to find out what happens, the party is playing to find out how it happens. The ending is never in doubt - you're all going to end up turned into sausage; however, the shape and texture of the grinder is flexible. Do you end up bratwurst or chorizo? I expect we'll see more horror games take similar approaches going forward because a strong framework provides a solid foundation for play.

UPDATE: Codex Dark 2 is no longer the freely available issue. Now it's Codex Gold which contains the rules for Trophy Gold. Also an excellent game, which can be found here.

In a similar vein, our present saturation of superhero stories reveals a rhyming pattern - the heroes will triumph at the end but how they'll triumph is the real question. Do they lose a loved one? Do they sacrifice themselves? Does a city get leveled? Do they find family along the way? DC Universe's Doom Patrol takes advantage of our foreknowledge to get weird - like really weird. If you're familiar with the Patrol, then that shouldn't come as a surprise to you. However, if you're new to the team, buckle up.

The show makes nods to the larger DC Universe, but quickly leaves the familiar world of flying strongmen and billionaire vigilantes behind in favor of extra-dimensional snow globes, doomsday prophet cockroaches, boys from Brazil, and a sentient street. Despite the high weirdness, though, the show doesn't divorce or alienate the characters from their humanity. If anything, the intense contrast heightens their all-too human frailties resulting in a satisfying drama.

Anyway, I know people hate spoilers so I'll just say this - Doom Patrol has consistently been one of my favorite comics and the show does not disappoint.

Check it out when you get the chance!
 

14_M4NCH4: A Techno Thriller Framework

"Give a man a gun and he can rob a bank, but give a man a bank, and he can rob the world." - Tyrell Wellick, Mr. Robot

Five minutes in the future, traditional employment is a relic of the past as the atomized job ecology of gigs, jobshares, and mechanical Turks eroded the static workforce. Nothing else really changed because you still need money to survive and to get it you have to hustle the skittle-colored carousels. Renting out slivers of your life to cover the bare essentials - food, water, and rent - as an independent contractor. Time is money made manifest. An endless grind that leaves you exhausted and alienated from your work, your community, and your time.

This is where 14_M4NCH4 (pronounced "La Mancha") comes in.

14_M4NCH4, inspired by the Occupy movement, mostly pays people to congest places of power like banks, corporate/consulate lobbies, and police stations. The pay is a lot better than most gigs and at minimum you just take up space for a couple hours in air conditioned buildings, a DDoS attack in real life. Of course, if you're willing to take risks then the payout rises commensurately with risk keen contractors accruing ranking and supplementary tasks tailored to their skills, forming action groups with similarly ranked individuals to perform some larger goal under cover of a mass demonstration. Could be picking safety deposit boxes full of dirty money clean, destroying or extracting consular data, planting false evidence, returning grifted wealth from big bank accounts, or disrupting an electronic system on-site as part of a larger plan. Some of these spontaneous groups crystallize into full fledged crews and adopting their own agendas separate from the app, while others split up as soon as payment hits.

So. Who's behind the gig sit-ins and high tech Robin Hooding? Who can say? I've got three suggestions:

1) The center of the onion is hollow and the app is on autopilot, forming action groups to foment chaos with no big picture. Maybe the characters step into the vacuum and bend the extensive network of contractors to their own aims.

2) There's a criminal conspiracy at the heart of 14_M4NCH4, using the app and its gigs to create distractions as well as recruiting and vetting future members.

3) The app is actually the human interface for an Awakened collection of marketing and inventory programs used for consumer analysis. They're everywhere, watching and analyzing every aspect of our lives. Engineering exciting news to influence consumer behavior.

A 14_M4NCH4 heist would utilize Wine & Savages' Scheme Pyramid (full disclosure: I playtested those rules and did some proofreading on it) intercut with a Mass Battle (pg. 131) of public opinion using Persuasion and other social skills instead of Battle. With the police breaching the location if the Mass Battle goes poorly. Or just fold police negotiation into Pyramid itself if you like. A longer campaign would operate West Marches style with a potpourri of different characters coming together to do jobs that intersect with the tentacles of a larger, opposed conspiracy.

Inspirado: Sorry To Bother You, Die Hard, Inside Man, Casa De Papel, Mr. Robot, Payday 2, Hong Kong Protestors, The Red Trilogy by Linda Nagata, The Centenal Cycle by Dr. Malka Older, One Thousand Beetles In A Jumpsuit by Dominica Phetteplace, Genocide & Juice by The Coup, Invaders from Mars by Charles Stross,  2013 - 2014 Bank Robberies,

Blackwood: This Wasn't Always Our Shape

 Whether they're the playthings of fey that got away, vicious seductresses who fall in love, immortal tricksters, or men becoming beasts to hunt/fight better; animals transforming into people and people transforming into animals run deep in folklore around the world. They echo in modern media with films like Green Snake, Sorcerer and the White Snake, and Brave.

Here's transformed animals for the Blackwood's elf haunted wilds for Errant Deeds (Forged in the Dark) and the OG Savage Worlds setting. I'm calling them Shapestrong to avoid "skin walker" and other loaded terms.

SHAPESTRONG FOR ERRANT DEEDS:
If you select Shapestrong as your culture, then choose an animal for your ancestry. You can briefly manifest that animal's qualities in exchange for Stress.

0-STRESS - Minor abilities that don't directly impact the game in a significant way. Example: Follow tracks using keen sense of smell (dog). Adopting a surefooted stance on a narrow ledge (goat). Subsisting on spoiled food with your iron gullet (pig).

1-STRESS - Abilities that are temporary and require concentration or exertion to summon.
Example: Manifesting a scaled hide to resist a crushing blow (snake). Rapidly regrowing teeth as you gnaw through rope and steel wire restraining you (rabbit). Sprout a prehensile tail for a third hand swing through the branches (monkey).

2-STRESS - Abilities beyond the ken of man. If it only allows you to take an action, roll an additional die or increase the effect.
Example: Plow through a solid wall (ox). Shout across a city (rooster). Slip through a narrow crack (rat).

These are reskinned xenos abilities from the excellent game, Scum & Villainy.

SHAPESTRONG FOR SAVAGE WORLDS:
If you select Shapestrong as your culture, then choose an animal for your ancestry.

My Other Skin Is A... - Spend a Benny to temporarily gain an Edge (you must meet the requirements) or 3 points of Racial Abilities that reflects your animal ancestry. It lasts for a scene.

Example: Screw your courage to the sticking place and facedown an elf with the Brave Edge (tiger). Run incredibly fast for a time with the Fleet Footed Edge (horse). Dash up the surface of the sorcerer's tower with Wall Walker while sprouting Claws (dragon).

Hello My Fellow People - Shapestrong are acutely aware of their heritage and how that agitates  superstitious folk. To compensate they adopt an annoying behavior to blend in. Because people are annoying. Treat this as the Habit (Minor) Hindrance.


The 7 Errants are a fellowship of heroic martial artists and wanderers for Eli Kurtz' Blackwood setting - a mash-up of Wuxia action and frontier fairy tales. You can find the book for sale here and a free quick start bundle here. 

Card Captor of Many Things

If you don't know - I'm a member of the Minionworks podcasting collective and I run most of the games. February 1, 2019 was our 5th year anniversary, in celebration we decided to go back to the game that brought us together - Dungeons & Dragons. The gang dusted off their old 4th edition characters and converted them into 5th edition. 

Similarly, I adapted Madness at Gardmore Abbey to the most recent edition. The encounters were pretty straight forward, cherry picking the most memorable/interesting parts. Most of the work was leaning into the module's core conceit - the Deck of Many Things has been split up and you can use their powers with some degree of safety while the Deck is disassembled. In 4e, you can use the Cards of Many Things and fill a space on the board with the specific card's encounter power.

You can find the episode here.

CHAOS CARDS - You can call upon the individual cards in your possession and wield their power. Unless specified in parentheses they require a Use Item Action.

SOUL EATER - Divided as it is, the Cards are no longer fueled by the havoc they cause. You can recharge expired cards by feeding them dying breaths. The bracketed number is how many sapient creatures the card needs to feed from in order to recharge. (You have to allocate the fallen to each card.)

You can also increase the effects of the cards by feeding them your Hit Dice. Each Hit Dice expended increases the attack bonus, damage, and duration by 2.

Vizier - [2] (bonus action) You have advantage on your next attack rill and deal 5 extra points of damage.

OO

Sun - [4] You heal 4D6+4 hit points and become invisible to everyone.

OOOO

Moon - [5] Instantly recharge another card.

OOOOO

Star - [special] You gain advantage on all rolls until either you fail one or 5 minutes pass. This card can only be recharged by the Moon.

Comet - [10] If you single handedly defeat the next encounter, you (singularly) gain Experience Points enough to gain one level.

OOOOOOOOOO

The Fates - [4] (reaction) If an enemy’s attack hits you, force them to re-roll it. They have to take the second result.

OOOO

Throne - [X] You gain proficiency in the Persuasion skill, and double your Proficiency Bonus to that skill. In addition, you gain rightful ownership of a small keep full of monsters. Who can say where? This card does not recharge until the Deck is fully restored.

Key - [4] You teleport 50 feet and take 2D6 points of damage. The card gets your shape mostly right.

OOOO

Knight - [6] You gain the service of a Knight (see Monster Manual) who appears in a space you choose within 30 feet of you. They belonged to a knightly order that's relevant to the plot.

OOOOOO

Gem - [special] You can take an extra action, which includes a bonus action, this turn. A body part transmutes into gemstone after your additional turn ends. It’ll be fiiiiine. This card can only be recharged by the Moon.

Talons - [4] Make a ranged attack with a +11 bonus against a single target. If successful, the target is Restrained for 2D4 turns.

OOOO

The Void - [4] Make a melee attack with a +11 bonus against a single creature. If successful, both of your souls are drawn from your bodies and contained in an object in a Far Away place, guarded by one or more powerful beings. While your soul is trapped, your body is Incapacitated. A wish spell can't restore your soul, but the spell reveals the location of the object that holds it.

OOOO

Flames -[4] All creatures within 30 feet of you have to make a Dexterity save DC 16. If they fail, they take 4D8 fire damage and 5 ongoing until they can put out the fires.

OOOO

Skull - [4] Make a melee attack with a +11 bonus against a single creature. If successful, they fall unconscious.

OOOO

Idiot - [4] Make a melee attack with a +11 bonus against a single creature. If successful, they are Stunned for 1D6 turns.

OOOO

Donjon - [4] Make a melee attack with a +11 bonus. If successful, remove 1D4 creatures from play until the end of your next turn.

OOOO

Ruin - [4] All creatures within 30 feet of you have to make a Constitution save DC 16. If they fail they take 4D10+10 damage and suffer the Poisoned condition.

OOOO

Euryale - [3] Make a ranged attack with a +11 bonus against a single target. If successful the card's medusa-like visage curses your target. They have disadvantage on Saving Throws while cursed in this way and their speed is halved as their extremities petrify.

OOO

Rogue - [4] Make a ranged attack with a +11 bonus against a single target. If successful, the target is Charmed for 2D4 hours.

OOOO

Balance - [4] Make a melee attack with +11 bonus. If successful, deal 4D12 damage to one target and heal that much.

OOOO

Fool - [4] (reaction) If an enemy hits you with a melee attack, deal 2D10 psychic damage and they fall prone.

OOOO

Jester - [4] (reaction) After being hit, you move 10 feet away without provoking an opportunity attack.

OOOO

Savage Worlds: Square Up

MOMENTUM
Similar to Conviction in SWADE, Momentum is a new resource that only available to one Wild Card at a time. You gain Momentum when you hit with a Fighting Attack and you lose it when you're hit by one. When you have Momentum, the Multi-Action penalty becomes a bonus (-2 becomes +1, -4 becomes +2, -6 becomes +3). This bonus applies to Attacks (Fighting and Shooting), Grappling, Pushing, Tricks, and thematically appropriate Powers.

ZONES
For larger maps you  might abstract movement from strict unit measurements to zones. If you do, then you need to decide if characters are slippery or sticky. If characters are slippery then you can move from zone to zone without risking Free Attacks from other characters in the zone. If fighters are sticky, then characters are considered in combat when they enter the zone. When they try to leave then they can decide to you escape \Clean or Messy.
Clean- Roll your Running + Wild Die, if you succeed then you avoid Disengaging Strikes.
Messy- Roll Athletics + Wild Die, if you succeed then you avoid Disengaging Strikes but bring all opponents into the next zone with you.

SCALE 
Scale conceptually models mid and final boss characters, denoting martial mastery and power rather than perpetually raising Traits. Higher Rank = high Scale. You lose your Wild Die when you attack a higher Ranked Wild Card (ex: Novice vs Seasoned) and they treat you as an Extra when they strike back, requiring one Raise to take you out.
So save your Bennies.
This also goes the other way, lower Ranked Wild Cards lose their Wild Die when they attack you. When you attack them, you treat them as Extras. Opposing Wild Cards without an Experience Rank are treated as below your Rank.

Sunhome's Shadows: Izzet League

"The only action worth taking is one with an unknown outcome."

Daniel at Detect Magic laid out Mouse Guard's game structure for generalized use and posted an example adaption for a crew of thieves. I'm applying it to the guilds of Ravnica, maybe I'll make it through all 10. I started with the military police force known as the Boros Legion, now following up with the mad scientists of the Izzet League.
 

MISSIONS - Choose 1, should also include field testing some dangerous equipment.

1.  Acquire - A member of the Izmundi is leaning on you. By hook or by crook you've gotta get the power source, dragon egg, or rare material; otherwise you're never gonna get free. That's how that works, right?
2.  Repair -Whether an alchemical fire fed by water, a turbine breaking free, or the shattered laws of gravity; Ravnica hosts disasters beyond the usual authorities' abilities. That's when they call you. Maybe you need to contain an industrial accident from getting any worse.
3.  Sabotage - Maybe they're researching weird containment, experimental metallurgy, or temporal stitching; no way the rival research team rolls out their research project first. The fastest fix is throwing a wrench in their works. Copy it before you destroy it, never know when it'll come in handy.
4. Observe - The World City is far from fully explored and catalogued. Plumb the Undercity and soothsay the Restless Tomb, or infiltrate the High Halls to transcribe the sphinxes' existential riddles to distract the Firemind. You're only temporary but knowledge is eternal.

ENCOUNTERS - Choose 2

1.  Bounty Hunters -The Senate, the Legion, and the Conclave could all have good reasons to bring you in and get answers for your... unapproved urban remodeling.
2. Collectors -Maybe you needed to supplement the research grant with a bit of jingle or pry some secrets from a rival's head since they don't write anything down. Either way, your shady connection is here to collect with interest.
3. Raid -The Clans and the Cult both like to smash stuff up. Unfortunately they often target the utilities because the way havoc ripples outward.
4. Interlopers - The League thinks big, often parallel to the Combine's behemoth dreams and the House's dagger-sharp secrets. All three treat intellectual pursuits as a zero-sum game with one winner and 9 losers. They've sent someone to hobble you.

EXAMPLE DOWNTIME ACTIVITIES

• Research - The League's practical purpose is to push the limits of knowledge and find out more, more, more, about how the plane works. Get your head in the lab and
• Schmooze - In an organization as egocentric as the League, it's important to associate with the right people, attend some salons, and be seen in orbits of influence. Remember that chaos is a ladder and you might find yourself uniquely positioned.
• Community Service -If you mess something up you can always turn around public perception with some gladhanding and performative humility. Doesn't really matter how bad the accident is, memories are short.
• Recovery - Knowledge work is still work. Sleep in. Sip some fine brandy. Kick your feet up. Whatever it takes to forget the lab and the toxic gas leaking into the neighborhood.

Sunhome's Shadows: The Boros Legion

"When I meditate I see the world as it should be. All that does not fit, I remove." 

- Alovnek, Boros guildmage

Daniel at Detect Magic laid out Mouse Guard's game structure for more general use and an example adaption for a crew of thieves. I'm going to adapt the structure for Ravnica's various guilds, starting with the military police - the Boros Legion. I also included some example downtime activities.

This is a conceptual warm up for the 5e Ravnica game I'm running tonight for some of my fellow Minionworks members.

MISSIONS - Choose 1

1.  Investigate - Uncover a spy in your midst, trace a Legionary who's skipped duty, or probe the neighborhood after a crime. Spice it up with murder and/or body snatching.
2.  Arrest - Gruul raiders, Orzhov racketeers, and Rakdos demagogues sow disorder and discontent among the Guildless. Bring 'em in and adjust their attitude.
3.  Intervention - Whether it's elementals amok, rioting, disaster or Selesnya beautification outta hand; sometimes you gotta suit up and get involved.
4. Cover Up - Absolve a fellow Legionnaire or yourselves. Steal evidence, intimidate witnesses, and cut backroom deals if you have to.

ENCOUNTERS - Choose 2

1. Rowdy Citizenry - Vigilance committees, guild affiliated gangs, and guildless hooligans all threaten the Boros' Guildpact mandate on legitimized violence. Don't let them skate.
2. Rival Officers - The Legion, the Senate, and the Syndicate all pursue the same thing - Order. They just don't agree how to establish it.; violently, preemptively, or economically. Hold the line.
3. Wilderness - Giants, beasts, and unnatural weather. Ravnica is so close to being tamed by urban planning that the remaining wilderness fights back with tusk and thorn. Prune the hedge.
4. Interlopers - Take the wrong turn and you stumble onto something you shouldn't have. Maybe the Shattergang Brothers or the Cult of Yore. Maybe House Dimir, the mythical tenth Guild. Straighten them out.

EXAMPLE DOWNTIME ACTIVITIES

• Ongoing Investigation - Maybe someone killed your mom and it was closed to no conclusion. Maybe you're haunted by the look in the deceased's eye. Maybe your mentor killed himself and you need to know - why?
• Getting Out - You've seen one bad thing too many and the Legion doesn't like to let go. You'll need leverage if you want out of their grip.
• Unwinding - After a long day of training for war that will never come and putting boots to asses, you need to let you hair down; grab a drink, catch a show, or play some cards.
• Getting Even - Someone screwed you over and no one gets away with screwing you. Likely suspects are: an Azorious arrester beating you to a collar,a Golgari findbroker refusing the release evidence, or a Simic honeypot who's blackmailing you. Maybe an advokist won't leave you alone for using excessive force last month.

Mixed Bag

 

****Quick Update****

Bad News: I haven't been actively blogging since mid-January because I lost my job and for the past two months my computer has solely existed to submit job applications. That hasn't changed, I'm still looking. You can ease my financial stresses by buying the Monster of the week Tome of Mysteries out in May. You can read about it here and buy it wherever RPG products are sold.

Good News: The Monster of the Week Tome of Mysteries is being published! It's out in May!
I've already mentioned two-three times in this blog post but it's still kinda unreal to me. It's pretty cool. I'll also start blogging again with regularity, Google+'s absence will be felt.
I'll probably post something about that.

tl;dr: I'm not dead, just sidelined. But I contributed to a book coming out in May. You can learn more about it here.

Blackwood: The Elf Who Would Be King

Out past the safety of Hedges and Lanterns’ light, the Blackwood stretches beyond distances measurable: the miles contract and dilate without regard for the surveyor’s art. Dense with trees and boggy ground, boughs hide the sky and obscure the hour, travelers off the beaten path rarely find their way home once they’ve stumbled into the Elven Deeps. Hostile to farming and static settlement, the Pagan clans live by hunting, gathering, banditry, and war.

Each clan is part of a larger whole, quilt work confederacies united by shared history and Elven worship. Some of these confederacies were bound in the ashes of Wulf Ember-Eye’s madness and only the worst crisis could sunder them, while others have the permanence of mist. Liable to explode into blood feud at the slightest provocation or dissolve from momentary inconvenience. This volatility frustrates the self-styled Lord Manu's royal ambitions. 

Through force and guile he acquired all the things a king should: a legendary blade from the Winter Kingdom, a castle, elite men-at-arms, a prodigal knight, and a betrothed. An army, a horde is all he lacks. So that's what he'll build. Few outside the Errants and woodkin would hear the rumors and portents- a double rainbow heralding a rival power, forsaken totems scorched in bonfire ashes, fallen champions on gruesome display, and Howlers walking on their hind legs as men. All hint at a gathering storm.

LORD MANU, CERYNEIA'S BETROTHED & WOULD-BE KING
WILD CARD
STATS - Strength D10 Agility D10 Vigor D10 Smarts D8 Spirit D8
SKILLS - Fighting D12, Intimidation D6, Knowledge (Battle) D8, Notice D6, Persuasion D8, Riding D6, Taunt D8
SIZE 1 PARRY 10 TOUGHNESS 11 (3)
EDGES- Aspiring, Worthy, and Master of Stone Lion, Block & Improved Block, First Strike, Leaf Step, Trademark Weapon, Improved Trademark Weapon (Calendirwine), Sweep
HINDRANCES - Arrogant (Major, ), Driven (Major), Vengeful (Major)
ATTACKS
CALENDIRWINE, KING OF STEEL - +2 to hit. STR + D10+2 Damage, Reach 2". Additional damage dice from Raises and die explosions are D12s. The fabled blade of the Winter King, lost to legend and now in Lord Manu's grip.
HORNS - STR+D6 Damage. Manu can make a Horns attack against an adjacent enemy at no penalty.

POWERS
REGENERATION - While in contact with Watergiver, Lord Manu benefits from Regeneration per the Savage Worlds core rulebook.

Lord Manu has 30 PP and knows 9 of the 11 following powers: blind, deflection, dispel, fear, greater healing, invisibility, smite, speed, summon ally, teleport, warrior's gift

THE WATERGIVER
Lord Manu's personal mount, a great fanged stag fed a steady diet of Great Root, red python hearts, and stag antlers. Pagan stories say the stag freed the rivers from the grasp of a selfish dragon. The fight shattered Watergiver's antlers so he took the dragon's fangs as a trophy,.

(per the Stag in the Blackwood Codex with the additional abilities and Edges: Aspiring, Worthy, and Master of Boar School and Leaf Step Edges from the Blackwood Codex, Regeneration and Venom monster abilities from the Savage Worlds core rulebook. Yes, the deer knows kung fu.)
  
The 7 Errants are a fellowship of heroic martial artists and wanderers for Eli Kurtz' Blackwood setting - a mash-up of Wuxia action and frontier fairy tales. You can find the book for sale here and a free quick start bundle here.