Combining Kill Six Billion Demons with MOSH has been a persistent itch (and Lancer really isn't my speed). At a certain point you just have to get writing and worldbuilding through inventories is a great way to start. Broadly, the goal is a setting with characters who are powerful compared to a random person on the street but dwarfed by real threats. On some level that's consistent with my approach in my implied meatpunk setting: combat sleeves, bonesuits, and cybermagic set player characters above a random NPC but don't really change the fundamentals of combat against real threats. There's no particular reason you can't add magic swords and space kung fu to that mix (and human/meat horrors who also know space kung fu is certainly a concept with legs). But my instinct is that this is a separate setting even if those other elements also stay.
Probably, space kung fu requires some rules supplements but I aspire to keep it about as light as sleeves and lighter than the GLOG magic hack. But that's a problem for another post.
So without further ado and with credit to Phlox and deus ex parabola for the sword names:
WHAT DO THEY HAVE IN THEIR POCKETSES?
Naringit, Fourth Lion of the Golden Dome:
1. God From Ellipses, an elegant tulwar with an oilslick sheen and a cedar scabbard covered in brass charms; its wounds are ideograms that foretell calamities.
2. Nineteen Broken Seals Treatise on archival-grade pulp-paper; margins carefully annotated in black pen
3. Quilted impact suit with a cermet breastplate; filled with titan rocsnake down and thousands of fingernail-sized silicon wafers etched with paracausal ideograms; offers excellent protection against both DEWs and paracausal dangers.
4. Nice robes (still in the drycleaning bag)
5. Travel meditation pillow; buckwheat filling
6. The address to their hotel written on the back of a scrap of paper
7. All-day subway card decorated with tourist-friendly art
8. Black nylon duffel bag
9. Monthly public net terminal subscription
10. Half-eaten faux egg salad sandwich in a takeout box
11. Pine resin (for chewing)
12. Two pairs of sandals
13. Gold necklace depicting the Black Abbess
Tirangle, escaped clone nun:
1. Secondhand OWRE 4300 tapecomp, controller peripheral, and three tapes of bootleg arcade games
2. Flatpack submachinegun still in its vacuum sealed bag along with three single-use magazines
3. Good Noodle! gift card (129 kWh on the card)
4. Secondhand field jacket (standard issue among the forces of the Iron Garden); all insignia removed and small hole in the elbow (badly mended); doesn't match the rest of her outfit
5. Patch (false firefern frond)
6. Spacer's utility knife; prying tool is well-used, blade isn't
7. Zero-gee sleeping bag; rolled tightly
8. Silver nose piercing (she hasn't got around to getting her nose pierced yet)
9. One-way OTV ticket (downwell)
10. Shopping bag full of fresh vegetables and cleaning supplies; it's her turn in the hostel kitchen
11. Hairpins (package of 12)
12. Velcro slippers
13. Small foil sachet of hand cream (a free sample)
Ras the Tailor, wandering blade:
1. None Save Saviors, well-used boarding axe decorated by colorful ribbons; the blackbox cell in the haft drives a highly illegal inertial spike; presently slung over his shoulder
2. Short barreled Iskra 994 automatic pistol in a travel case.
3. Batik shirt; stylized geometric flower pattern
4. Personal inertial compensator concealed in a cloth pouch worn at the waist
5. 13,500 kWh in large-denomination physical tokens
6. A pocket full of energy bars and instant coffee packets and a plastic cup
7. Smart sunglasses connected to a portable computer with a coil cord
8. The receipt from his last night out; folded to fit into his wallet
9. A nice pair of real leather boots (needs a new pair of laces)
10. Cannabis infused gum
11. Military surplus backpack
12. Illustrated Ten Thousand Arrayed Iron Horrors Style manual
13. Well-used sewing kit and a handheld sewing machine
"13,500 kWh in large-denomination physical tokens"
ReplyDeleteHUH. Consider this world built.