AsenRG
#FuckWotC #PlayNonDnDGames
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I'm now in need to add a level of domain management to my game set in the setting of Exalted...in the year of the disappearance of the Scarlet Empress (and two years before it was officially known). Solars are only going to appear in months.
(Game is heroic mortals, though, and is mostly set in Kirighast).
Why? Because my player is making her own crime gang. Which is likely to start doling out justice.
In Kirighast*. That's going to be fun.
Did I say I'm really proud with her?
So my question is going to be short and to the point:
If you want to use only the domain management rules, and have a choice between An Echo, Resounding (written for the Crimson Tide setting, OSR-based except it's way more abstract than, say, ACKS), the Mobsters RPG (An Amoral Roleplaying & Strategy Game - Mobsters in New Orleans during the prohibition), Reign (Greg Stolze's ORE game about the PCs being leaders) and Dogtown (crime in the 70ies), which one would you use?
The main rules are Cepheus Engine.
For the record, I have access to the Great Game in Weapons of the Gods as well, but I'm looking for something lighter!
Some background:
The main PC, the one who initiated this, is a Cathak Patrician (un-Exalted, for now, Imperial citizen with good standing). She works for one of the young Cathak Dragon-Blooded of lower standing...and was recently recruited by another Cathak, an archon**, to help them with contraband - for a sizable portion of the profits. So she's also making a lot of money.
And she wanted to deliver something the people of Kirighast are lacking. So she asked one of her bodyguards, a Totikari and former Bride of Ahlat, what the people are lacking. She got a really short answer.
"Justice. Security".
And now she's setting up now a gang of justice-bringers who are going to work as guards as well. With money she receives from the contraband of items that the Immaculate Religion would disapprove*** of.
*A colony of the Realm in the South, where jade deposits were recently found (suddenly making it a Point Of Interest for people that weren't slavers to begin with). Disunited by the tribe allegiances as well as interpersonal rivalries, and corrupt administrators - and you need a lot to earn that title in a place where corruption and nepotism are the expected mode of governance.
Kirighast is what happens when a colonial force installs its administration as "overseers and advisors" of the actual administration of the conquered state...and yet doesn't touch on the local religion to avoid an all-out rebellion. Despite said religion contradicting important tenets of the Realm's own religion.
Can you say "gangs, corrupt officials and power-mad colonial rulers"? Now make some of the former Dragon-Blooded as well. And, if you can imagine a mix of Colonial Powers in China/India/Africa in the 19th century, a turn-of-the-20th-century town like Chicago/New Orleans where gangs are vying for control, and India while a revolt against the British Empire is being prepared...that's the vibe I'm going for!
**Mortal Patrician who went to serve an Imperial Magistrate in an South-Eastern city in the Threshold. Almost as if he didn't want to remain in the Realm! And he's helping contraband in the Realm, although Magistrates are supposed to prevent crimes from being committed...and are hand-picked by the Empress and her representatives.
So far, she's assuming they are gathetring illicit funds for a Thousand Scales "black" operation. No way that could be a lie!
Of course, the only problem is, the archon is my PC from another game-in-progress that she doesn't know about. As it's well-known, my PCs don't lie to relatives...but if a relative has a mistaken opinion, might choose to not enlighten her.
***She already knows they've been crafted by ghost crafters...which, of course, have been using Essence in the endeavour, and have perfected their expertise over centuries. Putting it simply: those are all masterworks, and many would stand in a pile of masterworks of the same kind.
She hasn't yet asked herself how comes that mortals, and possibly a single DB, consider it a good deal to receive 50% of the price of such items. (She's getting 21% of the rest, and is almost swimming in money...no way somebody might ask for a share)!
(Game is heroic mortals, though, and is mostly set in Kirighast).
Why? Because my player is making her own crime gang. Which is likely to start doling out justice.
In Kirighast*. That's going to be fun.
Did I say I'm really proud with her?
So my question is going to be short and to the point:
If you want to use only the domain management rules, and have a choice between An Echo, Resounding (written for the Crimson Tide setting, OSR-based except it's way more abstract than, say, ACKS), the Mobsters RPG (An Amoral Roleplaying & Strategy Game - Mobsters in New Orleans during the prohibition), Reign (Greg Stolze's ORE game about the PCs being leaders) and Dogtown (crime in the 70ies), which one would you use?
The main rules are Cepheus Engine.
For the record, I have access to the Great Game in Weapons of the Gods as well, but I'm looking for something lighter!
Some background:
The main PC, the one who initiated this, is a Cathak Patrician (un-Exalted, for now, Imperial citizen with good standing). She works for one of the young Cathak Dragon-Blooded of lower standing...and was recently recruited by another Cathak, an archon**, to help them with contraband - for a sizable portion of the profits. So she's also making a lot of money.
And she wanted to deliver something the people of Kirighast are lacking. So she asked one of her bodyguards, a Totikari and former Bride of Ahlat, what the people are lacking. She got a really short answer.
"Justice. Security".
And now she's setting up now a gang of justice-bringers who are going to work as guards as well. With money she receives from the contraband of items that the Immaculate Religion would disapprove*** of.
*A colony of the Realm in the South, where jade deposits were recently found (suddenly making it a Point Of Interest for people that weren't slavers to begin with). Disunited by the tribe allegiances as well as interpersonal rivalries, and corrupt administrators - and you need a lot to earn that title in a place where corruption and nepotism are the expected mode of governance.
Kirighast is what happens when a colonial force installs its administration as "overseers and advisors" of the actual administration of the conquered state...and yet doesn't touch on the local religion to avoid an all-out rebellion. Despite said religion contradicting important tenets of the Realm's own religion.
Can you say "gangs, corrupt officials and power-mad colonial rulers"? Now make some of the former Dragon-Blooded as well. And, if you can imagine a mix of Colonial Powers in China/India/Africa in the 19th century, a turn-of-the-20th-century town like Chicago/New Orleans where gangs are vying for control, and India while a revolt against the British Empire is being prepared...that's the vibe I'm going for!
**Mortal Patrician who went to serve an Imperial Magistrate in an South-Eastern city in the Threshold. Almost as if he didn't want to remain in the Realm! And he's helping contraband in the Realm, although Magistrates are supposed to prevent crimes from being committed...and are hand-picked by the Empress and her representatives.
So far, she's assuming they are gathetring illicit funds for a Thousand Scales "black" operation. No way that could be a lie!
Of course, the only problem is, the archon is my PC from another game-in-progress that she doesn't know about. As it's well-known, my PCs don't lie to relatives...but if a relative has a mistaken opinion, might choose to not enlighten her.
***She already knows they've been crafted by ghost crafters...which, of course, have been using Essence in the endeavour, and have perfected their expertise over centuries. Putting it simply: those are all masterworks, and many would stand in a pile of masterworks of the same kind.
She hasn't yet asked herself how comes that mortals, and possibly a single DB, consider it a good deal to receive 50% of the price of such items. (She's getting 21% of the rest, and is almost swimming in money...no way somebody might ask for a share)!
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