Fourth Age of Arda

Introduction

Yes, it's another module concept (which has basically replaced Pipedream as my module du jour).

This takes a slightly different tack to Pipedream. It's less of a feature tweak than a complete thematic rewrite, even if hauntingly familiar. This /Prologue story sets the scene.

World

Yes, it's Arda, but not the Arda that we left at the end of Return of the King. This Arda has fallen under tyranny, and the most unlikely shifts, alliances and rebellions have ocurred.

As dynasties do, the house of Aragorn, son of Arathorn has fallen into sophistication, corruption and oppression. Still, the Throne of the White Tree has dominion after almost all of Middle Earth. Armed with Dwarvish steel and having taken the great herds of Rohan for their own in conquest, the armies of Gondor are the fiercest, best armed and trained. Even more powerful is the network of control and surveillance which have been organised. Not a sparrow falls but that the King sees it from his tower in Minas Ithil, its place marked and its associates known.

Elves have left Arda, as shown at the end of the Third Age. Some stragglers are still resident in Middle Earth, but do not exist as a unified people. Much Elvish lore has been lost, and all elven power extinguishd

Dwarves have thrived since the fall of Sauron, furthering their grasp of all forms of craft. Whilst they do not work Orcscraft, they are stlll clever with machines and forge the finest weapons and armour in Arda. THey are Arda's pre-eminent manufacturers, and have grown wealthy on trading with humans. They are still worried for their security against human encroachment, and many mountain kings pay tribute to the White Tree.

Hobbits are still based within the Shire, but now they are effectively prisoners within it, by decree of the King. Being a prisoner in a gilded cage is predictably accepted by the more comfort-loving members of the race. Still, hardy and stubbornly rebellious individuals escape the ring of guards and are (as is usual for Hobbits) interested in a bit of everything.

Orcs have been hunted for many generations now. Initially wars of pacification and defense, the focus has shifted, with the King determined to eradicate Orcs from the face of Middle Earth as abominations. Orcish strongholds have been shattered and orcish nations destroyed. The libration from being pawns of Sauron has paradoxically invigorated Orcish culture. As their number dwindles, their sohpistication, guile and technological prowess grows.

Characters

Skills / Abilities

The skill tree is similar to TOME's current set-up but with some key dfferences

Skills

Combat                
 Archery
  Bows*
  Slings*
  Crossbows*
  Thrown
  Dodging
 Melee
  Hafted*
  Pole Arms*
  Small arms*
  Swords*
  Shieldmastery*
  Unarmed Combat*
        
Sneakiness
 Backstab
 Lockpick*
 Stealing
 Stealth

Magic
 Air*
 Conveyance*
 Divination*
 Earth*
 Fire*
 Meta*
 Mind*
 Nature
 Necromancy*
 Temporal*
 Water* 

Devices
 Device-Construction*
 Device-Use*
 Disarming      

Spirituality

Miscellaneous
 Literacy*
 Mimicry
 Monster-Lore
 Symbiosis
 Woodscraft

As you can see, several lof the skills have been reassigned to a different tree. Several schools of magic have been pruned and there are some new skills. Many skills work in quite similar ways, but some have had their emphasis changed.

Others work quite differently to anyone used to consulting Killerbunnies for developing their character, so pay attention! ;)

Any of the skills above which have an asterisk next to them have their "maximum" skill level limited. In 4AA, the more intellectual skills require the player to have read the appropriate book in order to understand the greater requirements of some of the skills. To understand these books, the player will need to put some skill-points into the "Literacy" skill as well as a day or so to study it. (this essentially is there to discourage the player from boning up on their fireflash skill mid-battle by devouring a complex magical text).

For an example, let's take the Fire magic school.

Learning up to level 20 is unfettered. However, at Level 20, the player will be unable to increase their skill any further until they have read "Stormcrow's Guide to Fire-working" (available in most magic shops). This spellbook requires a skill of at least Literacy 10 in order to read. At this point, the player's maximum skill is re-set to 40. Once the player has reached this level, they will need to find "Journey of the Salamander". In order to read and understand this work, the player will need a Literacy skill of at least 25. Once done, the player can learn the Fire skill up to 60.

And so on...

If this system seems cumbersome to mages, fear not! For magic is bookless once the pinnacles of learning have been scaled.

Other books will give access to other skills and even to activateable abilities. Therefore literacy becomes a gateway to knowledge and power in a way which is not reflected in standard TOME. The learned warrior will also be a fearsome, careful foe if he has mastered "Defensive Techniques by Thorin Oakenshield VIIth" and "Combat Habits of the Orcs".

Other skills will require a teacher. For the most part, these teachers will be available in the larger cities. These experts will charge you HEAVILY for the privelege of learning their secrets. One of my aims in 4AA is to not have any millionaires. ;-)

Others will be gained by wandering monsters (NPCs). Initiating conversation will lead to an offer, either for money, or a quest of some sort to prove your worthinss. There will be ample opportunity to raise your skill cap, but waiting for the opportunity to arise will lead to either skill-point hoarding or creating more generalist characters.

Abilities

The other half of this list is abilities. There are signifcantly more abilities than in standard TOME, and they can be extremely useful.

Abilities

Pts

Pre-Requisite

Description

Ammo Creation

8

ARCHERY@20

Similar to previous versions, however Ego-Types are not available.

Assassination

15

Backstab@50, Stealth @50

See Pipedream's description

Befriend Animal

5

Woodscraft@30

A charm-animals only zero-cost ability. Requires the expenditure of a food item, the animal to be asleep and for the player to be standing next to them.

Bolt-Catcher

10

Shieldmastery@60

Gives a “Reflection” ability to anyone with a shield. The Reflection chance is equal to Shieldmastery skill divided by three

Complex Devices

10

Device-Construction@50, INT 18

Any devices constructed by the player automatically have a good ego-type applied.

Extra Max Blow (1)

5

Melee@20, DEX 13

Extra Max Blow (2)

5

Melee@40, Extra Max Blow (1)

Extra Max Blow (3)

7

Melee@60, Extra Max Blow (2), DEX 18

Extra Max Blow (4)

10

Melee@80, Extra Max Blow (3) DEX 20

Far-Reaching Attack

5

Polearms@20, Melee@20

Jury-Rig

6

Construct Device@40

This allows a player to create a random device part from junk.

Language: Common Tongue

1

Literacy@10

Ability to read the common human tongue

Language: Dark Tongue

8

Literacy@40

Ability to understand the dark tongue of Mordor

Language: Dwarven

2

Literacy@30

Ability to understand Dwarvish runes

Language: Sindarin

4

Literacy@30

Ability to read the sagas and songs of the elves

Perfect Casting

6

Magic@70, INT 20

Gives the player the ability to reduce their spell-fail rate to zero

Perfect Device Use

6

Device Use@60, INT 20

Gives the player the ability to reduce their device-use rate to zero

Pick Target

10

Archery@40

Allows you to fire a single missile as a 0-radius bolt spell.

Pilot Pukelmen

5

Riding@30, INT 13

Ability to pilot the Dwarvish monstrosities

Shadow stepping

15

Stealth@70

Gives the player invisibility when their light-radius is zero and they are standing in an unlit square.

Spread Blows

7

Combat@30 DEX 17

Same as current

Touch Of Death

15

Necromancy@50, Combat@40, DEX@30 STR@30

Same as Current

Trapping

10

Disarming@30

Same as current, however traps can now be constructed with the Device-Construction skill

Tree-Walking

7

Woodscraft@40

Somewhat different to the current implementation, there is a movement penalty to go through the trees of 20-(Woodscraft@60). Yes, this means that at sufficiently high levels of Woodscraft, the player moves FASTER through trees than along the ground. Call it the Tarzan effect

Dragons

Dwarvish dragons are instantly recognisable as the locomotives of Middle Earth, linking the major cities by long tracks. In game terms, these represent a similar function to the between gates created once the Minos Amor-Gondolin question have been completed.

The main differnce is that you will be charged by the dwarves for the use of their machines. Heavily.

However, if you are lucky, you may find a Ticket scroll that will enable you to board...

Magic

Magic will have a mild re-write in the fourth age, somewhat along the lines of Pipedream. One of the key differences from the old Magic is that all spells are bookless. But before the cheering dies down, there are also a key pair of limitations on the power of mages.

Firstly, your own spells will affect you. If you target a Fireflash right next to you, you will suffer the commensurate damage. This extends to such luminaries as Noxious Cloud and Firewall. This doesn't absolutely cripple mages, but "the mage shall run away" has never been more apt.

Secondly, as discussed above in Skills, to learn the mysteries of magic, a player will need to find and master strange and rare texts. These will be slightly rarer than spellbooks are currently, but the "bookless" aspect should make it more or less even this out.

Within the skills described above, there will be a few changes, amonst them the fact that many more spells (possibly a slight majority) will have multiple school pre-requisites.

Spells will be commensurately more powerful to balance out these limitations somewhat. The end effect should be that combat-oriented mages HAVE to be tactically astute. Holding down a macro for Manathrust or Fireflash is a one-way ticket to a down-under holiday. Six FEET down to be precise.

Technology

Technology has come a long way on Middle Earth. In some ways more than our own world. But it is a strange, contrary beast.

The tone is steampunk, even if the setting is still feudal, and familiar faces have the overlay of iron and a mesh of mithril wires. This technology ranges from the massive Dwarvish dragons whose tracks criss-cross the land and whose smoky breath fouls pristine forests to the artificial limbs and implants of Orcscraft, where iron is grafted onto the very bones of its wearer.

The Orcs and Dwarves have most fervently embraced technology, although individual humans are also fascinated. The King of Gondor remains suspicious, and has banned Orcscraft from his lands. The lure of dwarvish technologies has been irresistable, however, and a limited number of sophisticated dwarvish machinery is in use, particularly in Minas Ithil itself.

Devices

All manner of odd weapon and device have been devised by the ingenuity of Dwarf, Human and Orc alike. These devices are sometimes fragile and temperamental, but have miraculous and sometimes devestating effect when correctly utilised.

Broadly, they fall into two technological camps.

Firstly, the Orcs are masters of explosions and the tame lightning harnessed by dissolving certain metals in certain acids. Their devices bubble and simmer with deadly intent and should be used with care.

Secondly, dwarves are the kings of clockwork and steam, their manner stately, precise and predictable. Their ingenuity tends to run along linear lines, however, and rarely makes the (sometimes literally) explosive leaps that Orcish craft shows.

Humans draw from both schools.

In practice, these items are the magic devices of 4AA. They are commensurately more powerful than their TOME equivalents, but somewhat more temperamental. Incorrect use can break a device, requiring that it be repaired. Recharging devices can also be a lot more conditional than in standard ToME. Some devices require oil or acid to fuel their miraculous effects, whilst others require even stranger tinctures.

Some examples:

Orcscraft

Orcscraft is the technique of bonding surrogate limbs and body-parts onto living flesh.

This is irreversible, essentially REMOVING the body part in question and replacing it with the Orcscraft appendage. This appendage may only be replaced with another appendage. Most orcscraft appendages will prevent the use of any other (temporary) items on that same hand. In the story, Arigoden's crude claw-arm is incapable of either wearing a ring or wielding a sword.

Players can often do very high damage in unarmed combat with Orcscraft attachments.

The wise adventurer replaces both arms at his peril, and to do so, must venture deep within Orcish territory to find a body-smith.

Some examples:

Pukelman

Not to be confused with ToME Pukelmen, these constructs are piloted by sturdy dwarves and powered by dwarvish steam engines. For modern eyes, the resemblance to both Anime-style mecha and the power-loader from Aliens is somewhat irresistable. These are the tractors and tanks of Arda, and are not to be taken lightly. They are tough, extremely strong, and are often fitted with dwarvish devices of war.

However, for the most part they are quite slow and cumbersome and are only truly fearsome when up close.

Later in the game, players will have an opportunity to pilot such craft. The pistons and gears of Pukelmen are generally fuelled by reservoirs of oil. Once these reservoirs run out, the Pukelmen is for practical purposes, junk. This is one reason they are most commonly seen in dwarvish strongholds, rather than out in the open plain, and why the Throne of the White Tree's cavalry remains unchallenged across most of Arda.

Pukelmen are "worn" like symbiants for game mechanic purposes, and often have 'a'ctivatable abilities which use the Device-Use skill as their skill activation

Sample Pukelman: 

name = "mountianeering pukelmen"
level = 2 rarity = 1
desc = 
{
        "This small Pukelmen is used by dwarves who enjoy climbing the high",
        "peaks of Caradhras.",
}
color = color.WHITE
speed = 0 life = {40,40} ac = 0
aaf = 2 sleep = 99
exp = 10
weight = 1500
blows =
{
        {"CLAW","PIERCE",{5,8}},
        {"PUNCH_OFFHAND","CRUSH",{6,6}},
}
flags =
{
        RESIST=getter.resists{CRUSH=20 SLASH=15 PIERCE=10}
        REGENERATE=0 SPECIAL_GENE=true CURR_FUEL=10000 MAX_FUEL=10000
        FUEL_REGENERATE=-1
        SYMB_BONUS=getter.flags{
                                        to_a=-12 
                                        STATS=getter.stats{[A_STR]=8 [A_DEX]=-6}
                                        PASS_CLIMB=15
                                        SPEEDS=obvious(getter.speeds{WALK=-8})
                                }
}
spells =
{
        ["Jumping"] = { level=50 chance=100 }
}

Note the absence of any AI flags. Without a pilot, this beast is a hunk of metal. The other point of interest is CURR_FUEL, MAX_FUEL and FUEL_REGENERATE. These represent the starting fuel, the maximum fuel and the rate at which fuel is consumed. Use of the powers of a pukelman may also drain the reservoirs at a faster rate. Another point is that the spell level advertised may be modified by the complainant's Device-Use skill.

Device Skills

Weapons and Armour

Weapons will be fairly similar to currently, although the ego-tpes will be technologically rather than magically derived.

Blows

One major diffeence (which really is more of a character/skill limitation) is that players will be limited to two blows per round initially. This shifts the focus away from the lighter weapons and towards the heavier armaments. Further blows may be purchased as abilities, as seen above. However, it should be added that this only purchases the POTENTIAL for further blows. To qualify, the player must still meet the STR/DEX benchmarks required.

Weapons AC

To steal... er... borrow from Steamband, most weapons will have an AC modifier. This represents the ability of weapons to keep an opponent beyond arm's reach. Polearms, for example, will have large modifiers to AC, as will swords, whilst daggers will have zero modifier.

Some large, unbalanced weapons will even have a negative modifier. The Great Hammer is a wonderful weapon (for example), but its unbalanced nature actually requires you to be even more of a target than usual.

AC benefits can be multiplied by sufficiently high Weaponmastery skill (up to 3x). A master spearman or swordsman will be extremely hard to hit.

Activatable weapons

There will also be other weapons and ego-types which will require activation. Activation may require either a certain level of STR or skill in device activation. This could either be a an immediate activation or as a once-off on-hit effect. The obvious disadvantage of this is that if you miss the hit, you lose the effect and have to "prime" the weapon again.

For example:

"Good" weapons will no longer exist. You will have normal weapons and Ego-Type weapons. In some cases, this will entail tradeoffs. A "well-balanced" sword may also have reduced damage dice.

Ideas

Identification

Identify and *Identify* will not exist as standalone spells / effects. Instead, identification can be performed by three methods.

1. Using the items - sip 'em, read 'em, activate 'em, and accept the consequences. Using them in this manner will automatically *ID* the items (with one or TWO exceptions).

2. Research the item - large libraries (essential Minas Tirith and perhaps one or two other locations) offer enough knowledge that if you pay their keepers, you will have a chance, based on your Literacy skill, to identify a selected item. Want to know what this strange device does? Pay your money, look up dusty old scrolls and you may find that it is the Automatic Arbalest of Bard... or possibly the Blood-Drinking Parasite of Wormtongue.

3. Find a scroll describing the item. Old scrolls and books offer detailed descriptions of all manner of device, artifact and potion. If you are lucky enough to find one of these very specific items, you will learn all the secrets described within, whether or not you have the item in your possession at that time.

HP Regeneration

First, the good news. Rates of HP regeneration will be increased markedly, based primarily on your CON score. Now the bad news, you must be resting to regenerate. If you are running, casting or fighting, your HP regeneration will be zero (this may be overridden by magical, orcscraft or device-based regeneration). Hit and run will become a far more important tactic rather than long slugfests.

Stealth

This will be revised very much along the lines of Pipedream. Eventually, I hope to separate visual and auditory stealth so that we can have a sophisticated stealth system which incorporates terrain, player equipment and behaviour (sneaking, running) as well as monster perception abilities (smell, sight, ability to hear).

Ideally, I would also like this to be a true two-way system. Players should also have their character's ability to detect monsters made conditional. On one level, this is a bonus, as players will be able to "hear" monsters from a distance.

Here are a few non-core ideas which would be implemented a bit later.

Spatter

From DoomRL, this involves a bit of spatter across the dungeon/desert/forest floor.

Purely a visual effect, this turns the ground around big hits or deaths red.

Factions

Since there are no Vala in this brave new Arda, the idea of piety will be replaced by a series of "faction" scores which will work in a similar way. These will be (roughly) divided into three, Gondor, Dwarves and Orcs - thus representing the main three powers in 4AA. These three faction scores will exist more-or-less independently of each other. However, your actions will have consequences which afffect more than one factional score (Loyalty). How high / low these faction scores are affect several things throughout the game:

These three factional scores operate concurrently, and a player may not be aware of the consequences of their actions until informed of it later... possibly at the point of a sword. Mass-killers be warned, you may find yourself trying to survive with EVERYONE trying to kill you and no access to shops!

Non-regenerating Mana

In this conception, Mana does not regenerate naturally, but must instead be "harvested" from particular dungeoun squares which have a high "natural" level of Mana. Mana detection would become a zero-cost line-of-sight detection ability available to anyone with Magic skill 1.000 or greater. The capacity of any individual square would vary from 1-100. At Magic 80, absorption would be "automatic" when crossing over a square. Prior to this, it takes a turn.

In addition to this, lesser-effect "Restore Mana" potions would become available, probably at about the same rarity as Restore Foo Sanity potions at the present moment.

The end effect of this is to make magic users far more strategic in their use of spell. Having Mana as a finite resource would make those who rely on it far more careful in its use. If this was implemented, spell effects would have to be increased additionally to make the use of spells attractive enough. A "juiced up" mage in a dungeon full of untapped mana squares will still be a fearsome foe.

FAQ

Q: Hang on, there's machinery in that story!

A: Yup. Dwarves are clever people, and with increased human contact, they've developed an affection for the gear and the steam piston.

Q: The King of Gondor appears a fairly nasty character -

A: Correct. A megaloamaniacal, genocidal tyrant.

Q: This is one of Aragorn's decendents, though!

A: Heredity doesn't totally determine character. One hero doesn't necessarily beget another.

Q: So are Gondorians the good guys?

A: Yes and no.

Q: The Dwarves?

A: Yes and no.

Q: Well surely not the orcs at least...

A: Ah, we can be definitive there.

Q: Excellent!

A: Yes, they're definitely NOT the bad guys.

Q: You're making Tolkien spin in his grave, you know.

A: Maybe. There were bad Gondorians and bad Hobbits even in LoTR. I'm merely expanding this ambiguity a bit. On one level it's revisionist but on another's'level it's a logical extention of the world that was left. Except for the steampunk. Tolkien would definitely hate that.

Q: Define steampunk for me here.

A: Steampunk is more or less a cyberpunk attitude transplanted to the Age of Steam. Technology has very often taken unexpected turns and twists which certainly aren't possible or desirable in our world. It's wild science...

For some examples of influences for this module, see Looking Glass Studios "Thief" series of computer games, Phil and Kaja Foglio's "Girl Genius", and of course Courtney Campbell' wonderful "Steamband" roguelike. Also, read Bruce Sterling's "The Difference Engine".

Q: So can anyone become a cyborg using Orcscraft?

A: Absolutely, but as the descriptions show, there are distinct disadvantages as well as advantages to them. One of the bigger ones is that you'll earn the enmity of any Gondorians you encounter. This may not present a problem to most people, of course.

Chatter

NerdanelVampire: Just FYI Tolkien actually had elements like yours in his early drafts. :) In the original Fall of Gondolin Morgoth's dragons were mechanical and transported Orcs inside them. In later stories Morgoth's dragons were flesh and blood. Also, in the first version of Akallabêth Ar-Pharazôn's ships were powered by steam, while the version published in The Silmarillion had them using human galley slaves instead.

RavenRed: Interesting. A pity in some ways that he abandoned that, as it certainly would have conveyed his Luddite (using the term as neutrally as possible) / William-Blake style message...

NerdanelVampire: But on the other hand, slave galleys give a much stronger impression of evil to a modern reader than steam power, no matter how you cut it. Anyway, there is one place for relatively high tech still left (notwithstanding the magical gene technology of certain prominent bad guys). The Númenorean armies were famous for their steel bows. It's just possible that the "steel bows" were in fact firearms, the secret of which was forgotten after Númenor fell. Firearms would have gone a long way explaining why Sauron's armies folded like a deck of cards even though he ruled nearly the whole Middle-earth at the time. Or perhaps the steel bows only were arbalests or something...

TheremHarth: Or crossbows - IIRC those were never mentioned directly.

NerdanelVampire: Wikipedia says arbalest is a type of large crossbow with the bow part made of steel. (No, I wouldn't have known it, but I checked Wikipedia if there have been any bows or non-gun bowlike thingies made of steel just in case some weapon expert decided to pop up.) But no, Tolkien never mentions directly any crossbows.

Modules/Fourth Age of Arda (last edited 2008-08-20 00:09:27 by RavenRed)