June 2010
1 post
1 tag
It Ain't What You Do...
As characters increase their Ability scores they gain access to certain traits that grant them enhanced performance in certain areas. These traits, which vary in behaviour depending on the linked Attribute, are acquired automatically as the Ability rank increase and can sometimes be exchanged or expanded upon.
Body
The traits for Body-linked Abilities are called Knacks. They represent a...
February 2010
2 posts
2 tags
Crystal Clear As Mud
One of the so-called outlier races who breathe neither oxygen nor hydrogen, the Warlocks are generally known for being somewhat amoral, extremely self-centred, enigmatic to a fault, and very, very powerful. They herald from the outermost planet of an ancient red dwarf that hovers precariously within the dim halo stars beyond the edge of the Galaxy. Their world, listed as Karys in the...
1 tag
Mad Skillz
Small note: Henceforth instead of “stats and skills” Heaven’s Reach will use the terms “Attributes and Abilities”. Thank you White Wolf.
Following on from a (much) earlier post, each of the three Attributes that a character has is linked to eight Abilities. These Abilities are themselves grouped into thematically-linked pairs. The following is a list of the Abilities linked to each of the...
November 2009
3 posts
1 tag
With Apologies to Douglas Adams
The problem of adequate communication between cultures has always bedevilled humanity. It became a thousand times worse once it became necessary to communicate with non-humans, the hydrogen-breathing species and outlier races like the Warlocks or Kneptish.
Early, pre-Conclave, solutions required a sorcerer to cast the appropriate translation matrices. This rapidly proved unworkable since the...
1 tag
The Will to Power
Sorcery.
The ultimate expression of the mastery of magic. The purest way to manipulate the fundamental building blocks of the Universe. An incredibly dangerous method of working magic that kills three out of every four who attempt it.
Sorcery.
At the most basic level a sorceror is someone who has managed to unlock and control his sheut, the wellspring of mana in his soul. This description,...
October 2009
7 posts
1 tag
Becoming the Dragon
“Dragon” is an old word, found in pre-Conclave records on a hundred worlds, used to describe entities of great personal magical ability, whose very presence would cause local political structures to take note. Sorcerors, clockers, binders and other traditions that have been lost, all were given the appelation “dragon” if their power, or notoriety, reached a certain level.
...
1 tag
The Joy of Stats
All human (and mostly-human) characters have three Stats that rate basic ability in certain key areas (ie: they provide the number of dice rolled in tests): Body, Magic and Tech, and each stat is linked to a number of Skills (fodder for a later post).
Characters who decide to follow one of the transformative Paths (or who have already done so at character generation) do not, however, have this...
A Small Note on Gender
While for the human and human-like races gender dimorphism is the rule there are other species for whom the standard concepts of gender are irrelevant or inapplicable, such as the Singers and the Warlocks. For these entities this text will use the Spivak pronouns:
Subjective: He, She, E
Objective: Him, Her, Em
Possessive adjective: His, Her, Eir
Possessive pronoun: His, Hers, Eirs
Reflexive:...
2 tags
Anatomy of the Soul
The human soul is described by those who study such things as a “self-organising multi-phasic mana field”. It contains all of a person’s memories and feelings, their hopes and dreams, and it dissipates into the generalised mana field of the Universe a few minutes after death. For some people this was not enough.
Research into the nature and structure of the soul was always...
1 tag
Voices in Eternal Song
Awakened in nests of sparkling crystal to life and power, Singers are one of the Conclave’s proudest achievements and one of its deadliest weapons. In their first hour of life they learn the Songs needed to protect their otherwise fragile structure from all harm and to bend space and time to their needs. Within a day they understand the delicate harmonies that permit safe interstellar travel...
1 tag
Celestial Mechanics
Heaven’s Reach (HR from now on) has a relatively conventional Stat/Skill split and uses blackjack roll-under d10 dicepool system for all resolution. The number of dice in the pool is equal to the Stat being tested (more on these later) and the Target for the dice is, usually, the Skill being used. The value (or Degree in HR parlance) of the roll is equal to the single highest die that is...
Well, here we go...
It’s yet another game design blog. Go me.
Heaven’s Reach is something I generally describe (buzzword alert!) as “transhuman magitech hyperfantasy” To put it another way, imagine if Iain M. Banks’ The Culture was based as much around magic as technology, taking both to very high levels.
It is a setting where the dying (or not so dying) can have portions of their...