Legend of the Five Rings – Reflexive Spells

   Reflexive Spells can be used without taking an action – or even during someone else’s action. It’s a part of their design. Sadly, this means that they’re invariably pretty weak. They must be taken as innate powers with no casting roll required, and so only free raises may be used with them. They’re most [...]

Eclipse – Character Construction Cribsheet

. I’ve been asked to put up a specialized index to some of the articles and examples for building classless d20 characters in Eclipse beyond what comes in the book itself – so here it is. If you’re building a character, the usual sequence will be Race – Template (if any) – Basic Build, so [...]

Legend of the Five Rings – Mudra

   Mudra are mystical gestures and postures which focus and channel the trickle of chi that anyone can tap via meditation. They require a meditation skill level of at least three times the level of the effect being used – and most require both hands, sitting still, and several minutes of meditation to activate, although [...]

Eclipse – The Bloodmarked Level One Build

   Here we have another sample level one classless Eclipse d20 character – in this case, one of the common types of cinematic antagonists and occasional heroes – the Bloodmarked.    Some folk have power in their blood. Not the safe, potential, power of those with sorcerous bloodlines or the part-blooded natural-to-the-user power that comes [...]

Legend of the Five Rings – Sagmahi Kashti Madrase (Old Yodatai Divine Bushi School)

   With all the wild powers of the seas and salt waters arrayed against them, the Yodatai Empire is limited to those places to which it’s legions can march. A tidal estuary, a narrow strait, an island a mile or so offshore – or an are of shoreline within reach of a storm waves and [...]

Eclipse – The Level One Fortunate Hero Build

   Here we have another sample level one classless Eclipse d20 character – in this case, one of the common types of cinematic protagonists – the Fortunate Hero.    We’ve all seen them. The heroes who always find a convenient weapon, a stash of oil, or secret door, just when they’d be dead otherwise. They’re [...]

Eclipse – Companions and a Dealing with Dragons

   We’ve looked at some of the ways that Companions can make an Eclipse d20 characters life easier. After all, they basically let you run multiple characters – letting you get around some of the biggest limitations in the game; normally you only get so many actions, and normally you can only be in one [...]

Eclipse – Animal Companions

   Next up, it’s the third part of the information on Companions – in this case, the breakdown on Eclipse-style Animal Companions.    Creatures in this category use the base statistics for a creature of Int of 2 or less and a CR of 1 or less (optionally higher, but reduce the Master’s effective level [...]

Eclipse Thaumaturgy – Machine Mastery and Chaos Magic

   Thaumaturgy, From Eclipse: The Codex Persona, is an open-ended magic system where the user picks a theme, and then names the magical skills that he or she feels fall under that theme. There are a few examples in the book of course – but, since there are as many possible themes as there are [...]

Eclipse – Companions, Flying Steeds, Firehawks, Riding Weasels, and Stormcrows

   Our next group of companions are Companion Creatures and Mystical Mounts – creatures that are still deeply bound with their owner, but less tightly so than Familiars. This allows them more personal power and control than Familiars, and greatly limits the backlash from one being killed – although it’s usually still pretty painful and [...]

Eclipse – Companions, Spirit Fetches, Liflings, and Shadow Guardians

   Companions come in a wide variety of styles. In Eclipse, their basic abilities mostly depend on how tight their bond with their master is, and on what modifiers their master purchases for them. Since the bonuses for them are rather tightly crammed into one of the appendixes at the back of the book, there’s [...]

Eclipse – The Elementalist Level One Build

   Our next sample classless Eclipse d20 character is a fairly popular type of mystic – the Elementalist. Elementalists are fairly powerful spellcasters, but are restricted to magic involving a single element or school of magic. You may thus find Masters of Fire or Earth, Illusionists and Conjurers, and many more variants.    Elementalists are, [...]

Federation-Apocalypse Session 73, The Gates of Eden

   Kevin took a moment to add up the time… Hm. Except for the time spent on vacation (and close on that), this was the longest they’d spent in a single dimension – much less a single city - since they’d started working for the House of Roses.    They’d arrived at Jerusalem on the morning [...]

Eclipse – The Level One Investigative Reporter Build

   It used to be easy. You covered local events, reported accidents and disturbances, covered simple human-interest stuff like community theater, little league, and cute animal stories. But, after a bit, you started to get into the harder news – and things got tough. There were sources you had to protect, powerful people with an [...]

Continuum II – Specters and the Empyrean Plane

   Here’s another segment of the Continuum II rules – in this case, the rules for psychic entities.    The bizarre Empyrean Plane is the interface between a physical dimension and the astral plane – the realm where the bioenergy fields generated by living things interact with concepts. It is the domain of dreams, ideas, [...]

Federation-Apocalypse Session 72: Readying The Assault

   Meanwhile, back in Kadia, Kelsaru had been spending time in the core overlay zone – and with Kevin’s parents in the overlay zone he’d set up for them. It was a relatively brief experiment, and – even if it didn’t work – it was well worth trying; it wasn’t like the dragons of her [...]

Eclipse – The Hotshot Pilot First Level Build

   Our next sample classless Eclipse d20 character is the Hotshot Pilot – whether of sailing ships, cars and trucks, helicopters, light spacecraft, or planes. This character is actually pretty simple; he or she has excellent reflexes and, behind the controls of his or her chosen type of vehicle, can make said vehicle do things [...]

Eclipse – The Tech Wiz Level One Build

   Our next sample classless Eclipse d20 character is the Tech Wiz – a hacker, security breaker, and repairer of equipment. Obviously enough, this particular character is best suited to a high-technology setting; if the best he or she has to work with is water wheels and wooden gears, there just won’t be much for [...]

Eclipse – Templates for Companions

   First up for today it’s a couple of templates for Companions, since – at least in Eclipse – buying templates for them is a fairly popular option. Remember though, when you stack them it’s important to consider their total point cost, since each ECL adjustment bracket covers a range of costs.    The two [...]

Legend of the Five Rings: The Sparrow Clan Calligraphy School

   Here we have another specialist school for Legend of the Five Rings – in this case, an artistically-focused school from the Sparrow Clan. For the purposes of the Sparrow, however, it is a very, very, practical school indeed. The etiquette of Rokugan requires the constant giving of presents, and the meager lands of the [...]