Lots of interest in our assorted Edges from yesterday. As a reminder, these are just samples taken from the draft manuscript, so there's LOTS more to come in next week's complete chapter download, AND these still have to go through a few rounds of editing and development, so note that some terms may have changed during the writing but will be corrected when the final book comes out.
Still, even in a rough draft, you can start to imagine all of the stories you want to tell with this game. I also imagine all the stories I can read set in this world. And that takes me to our next Stretch Goal.
We haven't *quite* hit our current target, but we're so close. So let me share that and our next bonus reward.
At $30,000 in Funding - READY-MADE CHARACTERS PDF
READY-MADE CHARACTERS PDF - Do you want to game but your players aren’t sure what to play? Looking for inspiration to get you into the world of Jadestorm? These five characters are ready to make their mark in the world of Eos! This PDF will be added to the rewards list of all backers receiving the Jadestorm PDF as one of their rewards.
At $32,000 in Funding - JADESTORM NOVELLA
JADESTORM NOVELLA - A short story written to explore the world of Eos and the play experience will be will be added to the rewards list of all backers receiving the Jadestorm PDF as one of their rewards.
We're all pledging to get this Jadestorm game made and in our hands, but these will be nice bonus rewards for everyone who helped grow this project.
Jade Powers: Sorceries
The Jadebearers of Eos possess a combination of powers, known as Edges, Sorceries, and Chains. This chapter explains each of these power categories, their requirements, and what each one does when wielded. These benefits can be as simple as granting an Enhancement to your character’s action or a Complication to an opponent’s, or as intricate as a succession of spells, dynamic moves, and destructive infernal magics.
Sorceries are born from the cinders a Jadebearer possesses upon character creation and accessible to those Nethers specified in their prerequisite sections. Every character bears the Jade of one of the Malefic at character creation, though as a character’s journey proceeds and they acquire Jades from their opponents in duels and discover it in the Wilds, they may find their possibilities expanding to include new Nethers.
Sorceries
The wonders of Eos are manyfold, but since the destruction of the Malefic, the Sorceries of the Jadebearers have risen to the top. These magics represent the peak of their power, the manifestation of their inner strength and an undeniable sign of their infernal inheritance.
These Sorceries take many forms, each one a representation of an infernal cinder filtered through a mortal perspective. Each Sorcery gives a repeatable effect, and even though the Jade inside fluctuates according to its own chaotic mandate, the Jadebearers know they can rely on the Sorceries of the Malefic to get what they want.
Every Sorcery has a series of prerequisites listed in its description: a character need only meet one of these criteria in order to learn and perform the Sorcery. Sorceries are purchased with experience, just like any other trait. There is, however, one slight exception to this rule: Crown Sorceries. While this is fully detailed in the duels section, a character can only spend experience to learn a Crown Sorcery after they’ve defeated an opponent in a duel. In these instances, the only prerequisite is to have beaten a Jadebearer in a duel.
Activating Sorceries
The Sorceries of the Jadebearers are divided across three tiers: Gateway, Storm, and Crown, however, each of them follows the same rules. Each Sorcery activation requires a simple action, using a pool made up from the listed Sorcery Skill + Jade. The majority of sorcery actions are made at difficulty 1, with certain sorceries that influence, investigate, or attack individuals instead using the Defense or Integrity of the target as the difficulty.
The hits generated are used to:
Meet the difficulty
Purchase Sorcery Tricks
Resolve the Complication attached to the Sorcery’s tier — Minor for Gateway, Moderate for Storm, and Major for Crown
Any Complication left unresolved after spending hits requires a roll on the Dissonance Table. Select a result from the column that matches how much of the Complication remains.
Paying the Jade Cost
Each tier carries a potential Jade cost: 1 Jade for Gateway, 2 for Storm, and 3 for Crown, however, a character needn’t pay that cost every time they use a Sorcery, as Jade is a fickle master, and its fortunes are tied to chance, and this cost is only paid if the dice demand it. This potential cost is paid whether the action succeeds or not.
After rolling, check the Jade dice only:
No 1s showing — no cost paid, regardless of what the Skill dice show
One or more 1s showing — lose Jade equal to the tier’s cost. The cost is flat; five 1s cost the same as one.
While characters cannot cast Sorceries when their Jade pool is empty, they can take the risk of unleashing Storm and Crown tier Sorceries, even if they don’t have enough Jade in their pool to cover the loss of a gamble. In this event, for each point of the cost that they can’t pay with Jade, the character takes one entire injury level (Bloodied, Wounded, etc.) of damage. This bypasses all armor.
All Sorceries can be ended at the caster’s will, regardless of their potential duration.
Gateway Sorceries
Gateway Sorceries are where Jadebearers begin their journey, as these are simple effects that are not likely to tax their soul or cause undue dissonance.
All Gateway Sorceries are made with a Minor Complication and have a cost of 1 Jade should any Jade dice come up as a 1.
As scions of the infernal Malefic, the Jadebearers are well associated with their capacity for both good and evil, and this Sorcery allows them to extend that same drive to another. By gently pulling at the threads of another’s soul, they pull them toward one extreme or another.
After making a successful Sorcery action against a difficulty equal to the target’s Integrity, the character decides which impulse they want them to act on: their good, higher self, or the selfish part that indulges in acts of evil. Every decision the target makes will be driven by this perspective.
Dancing Water Snake
Prerequisites: Artistry 3, Depths, Muse, Queen
Sorcery Skill: Artistry
Difficulty: 1
Duration: 1 scene
Effect:
Water heeds your command and obeys your wishes, flowing into whatever shape your mind can conceive of. Once under your control, the water is no longer bound by the laws of gravity, but it must remain connected to the ground in one way or another.
The Jadebearer can command all water within medium range. Having the water follow complex or critical commands requires the use of a simple action, as the Jadebearer concentrates their focus.
There are those in the kingdom of Eos, especially in the realm of Kir Sento, who believe that statues and carvings of eyes watch over them and keep them safe from harm. When this Sorcery’s in effect, at least one of those theories is true, as they are certainly being watched over. The Jadebearer needs only touch an object bearing a visual representation of an eye (even if it’s a crude drawing they’ve scratched into the soil) and they immediately gain the ability to see through it as if they were there. This sight persists for the duration of the session, or until the “eye” is destroyed, but until then, they see everything as if they were there.
Storm Sorceries
For many Jadebearers, the Storm Sorceries are the absolute apex of their vigor, magics that allow them to release their power beyond their immediate self and into the larger world. At this stage, Dissonance is more common, although perfectly avoidable for the those with the discipline to control themselves.
All Storm Sorceries are made with a Moderate Complication and have a cost of 2 Jade should any Jade dice come up as a 1.
The Jadebearer revels in their infernal nature, leaving the dead with no rest and forcing them to serve a new master. Once activated, every dead creature within medium range of the character rises up as a shambling imitation of what they once were. These creatures follow the will of the Jadebearer and need not hear commands — their thoughts alone are enough to send them forth. Resurrected bodies use their secondary pools in place of their primary, and their desperation pool in place of their secondary. They have injuries equal to the Jadebearer’s Jade pool (or 1, if the Jadebearer lost all their Jade casting this Sorcery) and retain all other traits. They fall to the ground at the end of the scene but can be resurrected again should the Jadebearer wish.
The Endless Vault
Prerequisites: Esoterica 3, Depths, Forge, Queen
Sorcery Skill: Esoterica
Difficulty: 1
Duration: 1 scene
Effect:
This Sorcery creates a pocket of compressed space that only the Jadebearer can open. Upon activation, the character tears open a door-sized portal at any point within short range. This portal leads to a hidden space that goes on forever and exists just outside of reality. Whatever they put in there cannot be detected by any means but can be accessed at any time through the use of this Sorcery. The gateway sits vertically, so while objects can’t fall in, they can be pushed or wander in voluntarily.
People stored in the vault do not age, require sustenance, or die of natural causes while inside the vault, although they experience time as normal. No matter how much they explore, should the vault be reopened, they’ll always be near the entrance.
Each vault is unique, and should the Jadebearer perish, the contents of their vault become accessible to whoever claims their cinder.
Fate’s Cruel Hand
Prerequisites: Esoterica 3, Adjudicator, King, Sovereign
Sorcery Skill: Esoterica
Difficulty: 1
Duration: 1 action
Effect:
Fate can be cruel, but it can also be fickle, and with this Sorcery, the Jadebearer forces its hand, deciding they don’t like what it had in store for them and seeking something better.
This Sorcery is an exception to the normal activation rules, in that it is activated as a reflexive action after any other action has been rolled — this can be one of the caster’s own actions, from an ally, or from an enemy. Having cast the Sorcery, the offending action is immediately rerolled, with the caster choosing which result they wish to preserve.
This Sorcery doubles its potential Jade cost every time it is reused within the same scene.
Ghost Step Ascension
Prerequisites: Larceny 3, Depths, King, Queen
Sorcery Skill: Larceny
Difficulty: 1
Duration: 1 scene
Effect:
The Malefic were creatures of more than just the physical realm, with their power stretching far and wide, across spiritual boundaries and deep beneath the surface of Eos. The Jadebearer, as the inheritor of their power, also learns to cross those physical boundaries. Upon activation, the Jadebearer gains the Gaseous status effect. Due to their intangible nature, they gain 2 Enhancement on all actions involving stealth.
Crown Sorceries
Sorceries of the Crown tier are potent indeed, their infernal power reserved for those Jadebearers who’ve proven themselves in battle and stolen the fractured cinder of another. Crown Sorceries can only be gained by besting another Jadebearer in a duel and internalizing their Jade. These magics have a high chance of causing dissonance, however, due to their bombastic nature, few Jadebearers care unless it affects them directly.
All Crown Sorceries are made with a Major Complication and have a cost of 3 Jade should any Jade dice come up as a 1.
Brand of Infernal Rebuke
Prerequisites: Win a duel
Sorcery Skill: Leadership
Difficulty: 1
Duration: Special
Effect:
The Jadebearer singles out a target, and as they lay their hands upon them and utter words of condemnation, their cinder burns a mark of scorn and hatred into their flesh.
These tattooed markings bear the sigil of the Jadebearer who inflicted them. As long as the inking remains, the Jadebearer knows instinctively where the target is, if they’re plotting against them, and can see through their eyes. This mark also afflicts them with both the Disgraced and Fabulist status effects whenever they interact with allies of the Jadebearer.
Once so branded, this mark can only be removed by the Jadebearer themselves or through invasive and draining rites, the likes of which are rare outside of Temple Diabolik.
Carrion’s Colossus
Prerequisites: Win a duel
Sorcery Skill: Medicine
Difficulty: 1
Duration: 1 scene
Effect:
The Jadebearer stalks the killing fields, absorbing the flesh of the dead and dying into their own body and becoming a gargantuan beast of pure destruction. This colossus is a mass of bulging muscle, misplaced limbs, exposed organs, and the wretched faces of those who’ve been used as a grim sacrament. To activate this Sorcery, there needs to be a supply of bodies — preferably dead, although those suffering the Taken Out status effect are absorbed as well. Once activated, the available flesh is pulled towards the Jadebearer, instantly healing all their injuries, granting them +1 Power and Durability Advantage, and the Brutal, Gratuitous, Splintering, Vampiric, and Wrecking tags to their close combat attacks. At the scene’s end, the Jadebearer sloughs off the excess flesh and emerges whole and unchanged.
The Consuming Masterwork
Prerequisites: Win a duel
Sorcery Skill: Artistry
Difficulty: 1
Duration: 1 scene
Effect:
Writhing tendrils of energy reach out from the Jadebearer, tearing apart everything within medium range — weapons, armor, structures, objects — and sculpting the raw materials into a single devastating creation of their choosing: a wall of fused metal and stone, a stairway that constantly shifts as its passengers climb, an immense automaton forged from a thousand broken spears — if the character can imagine it and the materials are available, this Sorcery can forge it. For the rest of the scene, the Jadebearer can use a simple action (Artistry) to move and reform the creation, their skill so precise that it can even attack foes if so directed. The creation has 6 injuries, either the Durability or Power Advantage, and is as large as the available resources allow, Storyguides may allow it certain tags based on the raw materials (for example, Brutal and Gratuitous are common, Concussive and Crushing are linked with rock and earth, while Piercing, Spearing, and Splintering appear when tools, weapons, and smaller objects are part of the construction). The creation remains in its final shape once the scene ends, assuming it was strong enough to support itself.
Living creatures and their carried possessions are unaffected, but anything not actively held is fair game.
Again, this is just a small sampling from Chapter 5, which will be available for backers to read on September 1st. You'll also get the rules for Duels and Dissonance and more!
