| Intro | Locale | Mythology | Religion | History | Races |
| Mechanics: | Mechanics | Combat | Char Gen | Characters | |
| Powers: | Powers | Body/Mind | Dragon Blooded | Virtuous Follower | |
| Maps: | Overview | Local | Stockade | Village | |
| Story: | Session 1 | ||||
The Dragon Initiate is a master of the five elements in their raw form. Using their personal Essence they shape the flow of elemental energies around them.
The base mechanic of the Dragon Blooded is shaping an element via it's Primal Aspect or Words of Power.
The Primal Aspect of the element reflects its fundamental nature. It is the easiest action associated with the element and the first control a Dragon Blooded learns
Words of Power are the suble aspects of the elements. These words combined with Essence invoke the element to accomplish an effect. The words of power associated with one element can be used to a greater or lesser extend in combination with other elements. Such combinations require more Essence to control and have less energy associated with them.
| Element | Primal Aspect | Words of Power |
|---|---|---|
| Fire | Evoke | burn, illuminate, consume |
| Air | Dispel | erode, move, dissipate |
| Water | Alter | freeze, adapt, cleanse |
| Wood | Animate | impale, grow, flex |
| Earth | Shape | crush, support, protect |
Dragon Blooded have the ability to supplement their personal Essence with environmental Essence. They are also limited by the environment. The elemental relationships define their powers as follows:
| Harmonious | +1 MoS shift +1 area/range, 1 ambient Essence |
|---|---|
| Resonant | 1 ambient Essence |
| Discordant | -1 penalty to skill roll |
| Silent | Using power inflicts harm upon the adept |
| Dead zones | Areas with no ambient power, provide no benefit or penalty to Dragon Blooded. |
| Wild zones | Areas with untamed Essence, can be tapped by the Dragon Blooded with unpredictable results. |
It takes a Dragon Blooded one action to sense/attune the locale. Until this action is taken the environment is unknown and unusable. Attempting to use a power in a Silent environment without attunement still causes harm to the initiate.
Invoking any Dragon Blooded power requires at least one personal Essence be used. Fate Points used as Essence count as personal Essence.
Example: Shiko Bi is facing off against a Mefun guard (surprise!) He has already attuned himself to the locale (heard the guard coming), and is a water zone (the big river nearby is kind of a hint, or is it?)
The Mefun is rushing forward so Rabbit invokes the Primal Aspect of water, Alter, to the bushes and shrubs in front of it. He spends 1 personal Essence for basic effect, 2 Essence from the environment to increase the area of the power from single target to a 10' radius area, and increases difficulty of the power by one for multiple effects (alter + impale). He rolls his Great Dragon Blooded skill (+1 for harmonious environment) and and achieves a Superb result.
The Mefun is surprised when he charges through the bushes and they are razor sharp and rigid! He desperately tries to Dodge, but his resulting roll is only Good. The spines and razor-like leaves inflict a Superb+1 - Good MoS attack on the Mefun (3 MoS Hurt).
The base structure of any Dragon Blooded power is:
The base results needed to invoke the power is an Average success. Failing by 2 or more will result in harm to the initiate.
A sample base spell effect might be:
The basic "I hit it with my fire" power. Roll as an attack vs. the target and apply the result as damage. The initiate's roll must be at least average or the power fizzles.
Changes to area, duration and range adjust the base difficulty upward one degree per rank of adjustment. Adding multiple effects does the same.
A bigger spell:
Additional Essence can be spent (to the appropriate limit) to reduce difficulty to a minimum of Average. For example the Fireball above could be reduced to Average difficulty by spending 3 additional Essence.
Invoking powers, even attack powers, do not oppose incoming melee attacks. Attacks directed at the initiate while they are invoking are either undefended (meaning they are rolled against a result of Mediocre), or Dodged, which applies the multi-action -2 penalty to the Dodge and the power roll.
Direct damage powers are not opposed by melee attacks. The effect is either undefended, Dodged normally (as an action), or Dodged in addition to a normal attack (-2 penalty to both actions.
Example: Shiki Bo is now face to face with an angry Mefun. He decides to unleash a base fire blast while the Mefun goes for an overhand blow with his pole axe.
Shiki is cocky so he elects to both Dodge and cast. The Mefun is stupid and just attacks. Shiki gets a Great result -2 for multi-action for a Fair result vs. the Mefun's Mediocre defense. That's 2 MoS Hurt. The Mefun swings and rolls a Great result, then invokes its Strength aspect to raise that to Epic. OUCH! Shiki Dodges and achieves a Great result -2 to Fair, and ends up taking a 4 MoS Hurt.
Had he not chosen to take two actions the results would have been much worse. Shiki would have gotten a Great result for a 4 MoS Hurt on the Mefun, but he would have been hit for a 6 MoS Injured results against his Mediocre base defense.
Living creatures contain elements of all five elements. As such they are very difficult to directly affect by elemental powers. Dragon Blooded adepts can use elements to aid, protect or harm living things using outside force, but altering their fundamental nature is much more challenging.
Example: Raising a spinning mass of earth and stone as a shield is much easier than transforming flesh to the hardness of stone to achieve the same level of protection. Altering water to form a bubble of replenishing air around the adept's head is easier than transforming his lungs to breathe water.
FINI
All material Copyright (C) Mark A. Thomas. All rights reserved.