ALTERNATE
CREATURES & ARTIFACTS
RULES

V 1.1




     Remember the "Agents of Benedict" template in the Core Book? The idea was great, but I hated hox it was done: Why didn't wujcik use the standard C&A rules (OK, my rules are not precisely standard, but...)?

     He could have done it with the "usual" rules. Moreso, I HATED the fact that, no matter what your PCs invested in Warfare, some agents were always "between the 2nd and the 3rd PC", "better than the first PC"... Again, it was a system specifically invented for a NPC in order to give him an edge that the PCs could NEVER have (i.e. Benedict is cool). Oh, well, maybe they COULD try to emulate these agents with the standard rules, but the point cost was HUGE.

     But the idea was so cool, I wanted my PCs to be able to have specialized agents, just like him.
     So, here I am, with this simple (Yes, I can do it!) system I'm calling "Agents of... YOU".



     But there is another thing on this page: once, a player asked me: "OK, I don't have sorcery or conjuration, but why can't I find in Shadow some sneaky little sorcerers that will do the dirty work for me?".
     Of course, the immediate response would have been to tell him: "One Word: Spell Processor".

     But... One, it was not exactly what he required. Two, Spell Processor was a little too powerful for what he wanted. Three, Spell Processor required either a Create (power type) Artifacts ability, either the creation of a Constructs, which he couldn't do. Four, his idea was coherent, logical and COOL.

     Grmbl, I thought. And then, IDEA! I made my Creatures Sorcery Rules, and felt better for it.



Agents of... YOU



     WARNING: Untested System. I've been careful in designing it (the usual Fixer®©™ quality. Yes, I'm throwing flowers at my megalomaniac self) but it may still pose problems in the hands of careful and Power-Hungry players (Such as my pal SilverSylvain).

     The principle is simple: a character can choose to use this system instead of the standard rules. This costs him 05 character points. Once this is done, all of his C&A rules operate under this system. If he wishes to come back to the basic system, he loses all the benefits of the "Agents of... YOU" rules (and, of course, doesn't get back his points).

     In essence, the character choose 1 quality. When he creates, search for, whatever, a Creature or Artifact possessing this quality, its effects are inreased by one level: 2 points in Vitality will have the same effect than 4 points. For example, You will pay 2 pts for its Vitality (as per Amber Vitality), but it will in fact have Ranked Vitality.
     The Quality must be one of the following:
               -VITALITY
               -STAMINA
               -AGGRESSION
               -INTELLIGENCE
               -PSYCHIC QUALITY
               -PSYCHIC DEFENSE

     You MUST also choose a quality that will suffer from this overspecialisation: Its effects will be decreased by one level, 4 points invested in it having the same effect than 2 points. For Example, it will cost you 2 points instead of 1 to have a creature with Combat Training.
     The Quality must be one of the following:
               -VITALITY
               -STAMINA
               -AGGRESSION
               -PSYCHIC QUALITY and PSYCHIC DEFENSE (and no, this is not an error).
     Note also that a Creature or Artifact cannot have a level less than 0 in a quality. So, even if you don't want your C&A to have a given quality, you may be forced to invest some points in it.

     If sharing points with another PC, you and your buddy must decide, for each couple of qualities, if it will be bought as per your system or as per his system. Also, If 2 or more PCs got the same qualities increased or decreased, you may increase or decrease the cost by up to 2 Levels.

     Example: you've got +Aggression/-Vitality, and your Buddy's got +Intelligence/-Stamina. Aggression and vitality can only be bought as per your OR your buddy's rules, and it is the same for Intelligence and Stamina.
     Example: you've got +Aggression/-Vitality, and your Buddy's got +Stamina/-Vitality. You may choose to have creatures with +Aggression/-Vitality, or with +Aggression/+Stamina/-Vitality/-Vitality. If you choose this, you may pay 1 point and have a creature with Combat Adept [4], but you'll need to pay 4 points for it to have Chaos Vitality [1], and, even if you don't want it to have any vitality, you'll need to invest 2 points in order for it to have "level 0" Vitality.



     But let's say you also want your troops to be different, just like Benny's? How the Hell do you do it?
     Well, after much testing and BrainCrushing, Me and I are finally OK with the following: First, you must pay 05 more points, and it only works for Creatures. Then, you decide how many points will be "hanging" (i.e. will be free to be put in any Quality or Power). You add 1/4 of these to the cost (round to the nearest whole number), and apply the cost multiplier.
     The number of troops with the same Qualities and Powers will be based on the Quantity Multiplier lower than the one you've chosen. The number of different troops will be Named & Numbered. That is, if you've got a Horde (x3) of different troops, you'll in fact have several (up to 12) different groups of identical Named & Numbered (x2) Creatures. If you've got Shadow-Wide (x4) troops, you'll have different Hordes (x3) of identical Creatures. The points unspent when designing a sub-group are lost.

     Example: You want a Shadow-Wide army, but with specialised units. You begin by buying the common features of your troops: Chaos Vitality [1], Chaos Stamina [1] and Combat Training [1]= 03 pts, x4= 12 pts. Then, you decide to have 8 pts hanging. 08 + 8/4=10, x4= 40 pts!!! You may then have a Horde of shock troops with Chaos Vitality [+0], Ranked Stamina [+3], Combat Training [+0], Impervious to Normal Weapons [4] and Extra-Hard [1] damage, another Horde of Generals and Spies with Chaos Vitality [+0], Chaos Stamina [+0], Combat Adept [+3], Extraordinary Psychic Sense [4] (the communication version) and Chaos Resistance [1] for mental defense.

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Creatures Sorcery



     OK. This is very short, and very cool. Note that this may seem an exception to the usual C&A rules, as you may spend up to 10 points on Creatures Sorcery. But, in fact, you would spend 4 points, + 2 points, +2 points, +2 points, just as if you'd bought separate qualities or powers.
     This is only available for sentient creatures, who must also be able to speak and move arms (or whatever) as a "normal" spellcaster would. Of course, it doesn't have to be living: a kind of golem would do.

     It costs 4 points to have a creature able to cast spells or conjure things. If able to do both, cost drops to 6 points.
     For 2 points, it is able to use Ritual Magic or, if it knows Conjuring, Compulsion.
     However, this doesn't confer any Spell Storage ability, which must be bought separately.

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