Example Rituals

This week we share two examples of a high level ritual. These rituals are far more powerful than those found in the Mundus RPG Quickstart. The scaling damage on Black Aurora and the duration of Avatar of Bravery are the norm in Combat Rituals in Mundus RPG. In the Quickstart these values are pre-calculated to match each character’s abilities.

The Avatar of Bravery is a support ritual of Inmicus, god of war and the Black Aurora is a more straightforward ritual from Lumia, Goddess of Moon. The elements are more meaningful for high level ritualist as they are able to specialize to rituals of elements of their choosing.

Avatar of Bravery

Level Requirement: 11
Cast Time: 5 seconds
Range: Self
Element: Manipulation

The caster summons a heroic avatar of herself which is blessed by the god of war. This avatar is a Clone of the caster and the avatar’s Strength and Health is increased by Charisma (maximum of 10) points. This shining avatar cannot use ritualism and it attacks with full power against the strongest foe she can think of. The avatar cannot defend against attacks. Roll all attacks against the avatar to medium hit locations regardless of aimed attacks. The avatar has unlimited Stamina pool but it cannot over-channel. The avatar lasts Charisma Bonus minutes (minimum of one minute).

Black Aurora

Level Requirement: 9
Cast Time: 4 seconds
Range: 50 Meters
Element: Shadow

The caster summons a stygian aurora. The Black Aurora discharges through the landscape and slices open the earth. The ritual deals Ritualism x2 + Concentration x2 (maximum of 40) Energy damage. Black Aurora deals its damage in a straight line from its caster up to its maximum range.

These are two examples of Mundus RPG’s over 150 Combat Rituals.

See you next Sunday!

The Void

Yesterday, during our development campaign session, we had this spontaneous one hour long talk about the Void. And that’s what we are going to talk about today.

So, the Void. Where to start with it? Basically the Void is a great nothingness and all the planes exist in it. And when I say they exist in the Void I don’t mean they physically exist in the void. If you take a stroll in the Void you can’t just bump into a plane floating there. The non-physical existence of every plane is in the void and they overlap with each other. All the three main planes (Ascendes, Mundus and Acernos) overlap almost perfectly and other smaller planes might overlap only partially with the three main planes. The almost perfect overlapping of different sized planes is possible because the Void warps time and space.

Okay, here is what the Void does in the gameplay of Mundus RPG. Firstly, and most importantly, it is possible to travel between the planes using the Void.  If you just open a void rift and jump into the void trying to get where you want, is possible but hazardous. Doing it uses extensive amounts of Genki and arriving to where you want is almost impossible to anyone besides Kage Oni demons. If you want to get effectively from one place to the other it is best to use a bonfire. Bonfires are basically anchor points linking two planes to each other. Using a bonfire is relatively easy and safe for those who know what they are doing. Secondly the Void can be used in high level rituals. What these kinds of rituals usually do is that they open miniature void rifts inside people. And void rifts are rather effective at rending matter.  

See you next Sunday!

Shinrinki Ranger Corps

Two weeks ago we discussed about demon hunter organizations in Tentaika. In today’s blog post we talk more about the Shinrinki’s Ranger Corps.

The Ranger Corps was originally founded to reinforce the defense of the northern border of Hohiro Prefecture and to patrol Kuro no Mori. From the beginning the Ranger Corps accepted recruits outside the samurai caste. The bulk of the new recruits every year are skilled hunters from the peasant caste and poor rōnins. In Hohiro prefecture the samurai magistrate might give a choice to a criminal to join the Ranger Corps instead of suffering the normal consequences of the crime. However this choice is not given to those who committed serious crimes such as murder.

Anyone wishing to join to Ranger Corps is required to have sufficient skills in archery or in any other way of fighting. The training in Ranger Corps is very similar to actual samurai combat training. However this training is packed into two years of basic training. The recruits are trained in the most essential skills and nothing more. In case of the Ranger Corps this usually comprises of combat and survival training. Bushido is briefly introduced to new recruits and the virtues of courage, honesty and loyalty are emphasized during the training. Despite this bushido is almost non-existent within the Ranger Corps.

An average patrol to Kuro no Mori lasts from three days to a week. Each patrol consists of eight to twelve rangers and their job is to lay traps, ambush demons and scout for large demon hordes near the border. Ranger patrol usually encounters demons, often akuma or gaki, every other trip to Kuro no Mori. Each patrol goes Kuro no Mori once or twice a month. Anyone who survives two years in service is allowed to serve the Shinrinki Clan as a full-fledged samurai.

Samurais from other prefectures are often unaware of the extent of the dangers rangers encounter in their daily life. The fact that Ranger Corps are filled with peasants and other members of low ranking castes increases the disdain. Even the samurais who gained their samurai position in the Ranger Corps are often looked down to because of their low birth.

See you next Sunday!

Update and Patched Quickstart

Mundus Website & Quickstart Patch

Today we are announcing the Mundus RPG website! The website will launch in the near future. We also have an official feedback mail which is taken care of by our most hard-working PC Nana-chan.

Please tell us about any errors, missing rules and general feedback about Quickstart. We also answer any questions about the game, lore and the project here in the blog, in Facebook and via the feedback mail.

Quickstart Updated

We updated the Quickstart, here are the patch notes:

Mundus Quickstart 16.08.2013:

• Bookmarks added
• Tables revised
• Traits revised to present overall scores and stacks
• Added content to Gameplay chapter
• Armor Encumbrance is now Equipment Encumbrance
• Blindness Rules added
• Group Attack Bonus added
• Injury and Fatigue effect tables added
• Trailing the Calamity NPC values fixed
• Errors fixed from Character Sheets
• Kita Goro now has Leadership skill, which was mistakenly given to Murakami Kenji
• Murakami Kenji Ice Shard ability fixed
• Nitta Shiro Stealth level fixed
• Shirakawa Ryo Martial Arts skill fixed
• Overall look of the Quickstart fixed here and there

See you next Sunday!

Demon Hunters

Demon Hunters

Anyone can call herself a demon hunter, but it is usually quite simple to distinguish real demon hunters from those that only call themselves one. Experienced demon hunters are well respected because simply surviving as one requires considerable skill. In addition to private demon hunting groups, Tentaika also has two large organizations that specialize in demon hunting. These organizations are Shinrinki Ranger Corps and Warrior Priestesses.

Shinrinki Ranger Corps is a military organization under Shinrinki Clan. Their main job is to patrol Kuro no Mori and its border regions and thus prevent demons from entering Tentaika from the north. Ranger Corps enlists large amounts of rōnins and skilled peasants. Anyone who survives two years of service in the Ranger Corps is allowed to serve Shinrinki Clan as a samurai, this applies even to peasants. Unfortunately the mortality rate during these two years is over fifty percent.

Warrior Priestesses are priestesses and priests who specialize in demon hunting. Even though Warrior Priestesses are still technically speaking priests and priestesses they are also taken into the samurai caste after their graduation. Unlike people in Shinrinki Ranger Corps, Warrior Priestesses are not a part of a military organization and they do not serve under any clan. Exceptions to this are the Warrior Priestesses who serve in the city of Genkaisha as they are a part of Genkaisha’s military.

See you next Sunday!

Ropecon 2013

Back from the Ropecon 2013

Hello everyone! Last weekend we were at Ropecon 2013 and we hosted four games during the weekend. Almost all of our games were full and all in all players seemed to like the game. We would like to thank all the players for trying out Mundus RPG!

At Ropecon we game mastered the campaign from our Quickstart. Each of the four parties took a very different approach to the problem at hand. If you are planning to play the Quickstart campaign and you don’t want to spoil yourself, stop reading now (See you next Sunday!).

The basic plot of the campaign is that the players are demon hunters who are tasked to find and kill a Gaki demon on the island of Akusekijima. The campaign guides the player characters to search for a rōnin who presumably works for the gaki. The players are informed that the rōnin has probably used one of the two tea houses in the town. From either of the two tea houses the player characters find information about the rōnins whereabouts and with the “help” of the rōnin they can find the gaki. For more detailed description of the campaign check out the Quickstart’s Game Master chapter.

In one of our games the plot didn’t follow the script at all. The player characters ignored the tips about the tea houses and the rōnin and focused in finding the demon. They followed the rumors about the demon’s attacks against samurai and travelers across the island. One of the characters was a samurai from the local Murakami clan and he used his influence to arrange a small weapons shipment which the player characters then used to lure out the demon.

The trap was a success and the characters managed to capture the rōnin leader Noboru. The players managed to make a deal with him and he revealed the gaki’s hideout. Once the player characters reached the temple of water god Agura they shouted a challenge to the gaki. One of the player characters challenged the gaki into a duel, but he soon discovered that he was no match against he gaki. His not-so-honorable demon hunter friends rushed to help him and defeated the demon after many rounds of combat.

See you next Sunday!

Quickstart Release!

We’re excited to announce that the Mundus RPG Quickstart is now available!

This quickstart is made to present the Mundus RPG’s core mechanics. It also includes a short campaign “Trail of Calamity” and eight unique sample characters.

We offer this quickstart in two qualities, print and web quality.

Print Quality Download (48,5MB) - Web Quality Download (8,9MB)

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Mundus RPG Team

Ropecon Crunch & Trailer

This week we don’t have a proper blog post, because we’re preparing for Ropecon (http://2013.ropecon.fi/en/ ). If you are in the area during the convention please drop by. We are also GM:ing four games during the weekend. Also because the convention lasts form Friday to Sunday we won’t have a blog post next week.

Here is a teaser trailer for Mundus RPG

See you soon!

Nanaken

This week we’ll shortly introduce the special group of people working directly under the Shogun. This group is called Nanaken and it consists of seven people hand-picked by the Shogun himself. All members of Nanaken are extremely skilled warriors and they are deemed living legends. Nanaken members are usually given jobs that fit their expertise. Even though they are all extremely skilled warriors their specialization may be assassinations, politics or anything between.

Originally Nanaken was formed to battle rogue demigods but since then it has transformed into a Shogun’s personal elite fighting force. Nanaken members are usually dispatched to handle rebelling clans or other internal disputes. Because of this Nanaken members are required to be highly loyal to the Shogun in addition to their top notch fighting skills.

See you next Sunday!

2nd Anniversary of Mundus RPG

2nd Anniversary

Last Wednesday was the 2^nd anniversary of Mundus RPG. So we decided to look back to when we started the project.

Happy mob of Gorai celebrating the anniversary.

Two years ago I was having a shower and got an idea about an Asian themed roleplaying-game. So I pitched the idea to my three flatmates. On that same evening we had a raw concept of a post-apocalyptic Asian themed roleplaying-game with zombies and kung-fu fighting.  During the first week of development we iterated the core gameplay concepts of the game and had our first gameplay sessions where we tested the rule set. Few weeks in to the development, the idea of post-apocalyptic theme, and zombies, started to wither away.

First Draft of the Map of Mundus. First development day

In early development our goal was to create fun and deep gameplay system for our own roleplaying needs. None of our four man development team saw this as commercial product. During the next nine months our development team shrunk to two members and somewhere around the nine month mark we were told that we should consider commercializing the game.

Now, after two years of development of Mundus Roleplaying-Game, we are set to release the game in digital format this fall!

Ville Huohvanainen

Lead Designer

See you next Sunday!