Sound Vision: Elves
have what they call "the extra room" in their head
where sounds are seen in three dimensional relation to their own
body. Somehow in the process of reconciling both the elves'
sound vision with their normal vision, their spatial perceptions
are warped. To the other races, halflings have large feet
for their size, but to an elf they have very small feet.
Crashing waves on a beach look like a Tsunami to the elf, and the
silent heavens seem a thousand times deeper than any other race
can imagine. The real advantage to all of this is that
elves can sense walls, obstructions, and living beings by sound
and pressure waves in the air. They are only at DX-4 in
total darkness, DX-2 to attack through darkness, DX-2 to attack a
blurry figure, and DX-4 to attack an invisible figure. The
only real disadvantage to this is elves don't like to be around
gunpowder weapons, explosive gems, or blast traps. They
particularly despise lightning. Explosions have a kind of
blinding effect on them,
and acts as a dazzle spell. See Elves.
Dark Vision:
The light of the body is the eye: Therefore when thine eye is single, the whole body also is full of light; but when thine eye is evil, thy body also is full of darkness.
-St. Luke 11:34
This is like an Orc having an extra eye
inside the brain. This eye can consider and "see"
the effects of having split vision. Literally it is the
perception of "two faced" behaviour, or the
ability to recognize one who "speaks with-a-forked-toung." To an
Orc it is natural for everything they
see to have dual meanings, both facade and hidden agenda.
This ability makes Orcs best qualified for the study of
Demonology (if only we could teach more Orcs to read so they
could write it all down for us). The mutation of their
physical eyes that has evolved from this is very
impressive. The Orcs do not see in the spectrum of light
that the other allied races see. The see none of the
colors as we see them, and one would be safe in saying that the
surface world of the Orc is like a black and white movie.
This is reflected in the shades of grey clothing they wear.
But what they do see is beyond the visual range of the other
races, and this is both the infrared and ultraviolet
simultaneously. The rods of an Orcs inner ey perceive black
and white with incredible amounts of detail and with wider ranges
of grey that give them excelent night vision (DX-0, while other
races get DX-1 to -3). Orcs have pits on each side of their
nose and just below each eye that allows perception of
temperatures with a form of infrared vision (which also shows the
Orcs something similar to the "blush" response in
people) and the overal concave saucer shape of their iris (as
opposed to the slightly bulging convex shape of the other race's
iris) it shows the ultraviolet radiation that bombards the earth
day and night (which allows limited x-ray vision through cloth,
fur, and skin to a depth of about 2.54cm). Combine these
and what do you get? A race of creatures that can both see
the hidden dagger up your sleeve, and the wildly surging hot
blood of your vengeful heart; the other races would only see a
smiling person who wanted to shake hands. See Orcs.
One spell or talent at cost: The dynamics of the human motive, psyche, and adaptability are manifest in their ability to maintain open societies. Just as the human proliferation of literacy has made it cost one IQ point to learn for both wizards and warriors, any human may start with one spell or talent at cost. Normaly a spell cost 3 IQ to a warrior, and a Tallent costs double to a wizard. With man one will frequently find a wizard with a sword or a warrior with the blur spell. In addition to this, a human may change their professional class entirely. For example they may stop with the warrior gig and convert to preist, or study magic. One could give up the way of the wizard for becoming a preist, or a warrior. Normaly to forget a spell or talent takes a year. Just as a person can only have up to three talents/spells studied, they can only forget a maximum of three. For humans they can repent in total and forget them all save one. A human can even give up the calling to the preisthood and learn war or magic. The giants say this is because humans can change their minds about what they think is good or evil, and sometimes wind up changing their outlook as a reaction to what they see. Elves say it is because humans always think the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. Orcs say it is because humans live too long, and they think they still have time to start over. Halflings think it stems from an emotional imbalance. And the Dwarves say its just a bad habit. Regarless, this is how it works. There is a one year period of time where the character slowly loses all of his old benifits, followers, possessions, etcetera, and slowly gains all of his new ones. The catch is that at some point during the year the character must hit his "low point" and will not have anything from either the old or new persona except the one spell or talent they began chose to keep. At this time the character will be most vulnerable. If a dragon assists the time period can be cut down to fourty days, but will require a 4D6 save vs. strength, dexterity, and intelligence over these days or become the dragons robot. See Men.
Low Metabolism:
Elves have the longest life span of any of the six allied
races. But there is a draw back. They only heal one
point of injury every third day (instead of every two
days). The rythm of life which allows them to live so
long is low and they have to rest up all of the their fatigue
over three watches (one half of a day) instead of two watches
(eight hours). On the positive side, it takes poison twice
as long to effect them because every function of their organs is
so slow! The poison will still have full effect. It
will just take the slow elven heart rate longer to bring it
somewhere where it can do damage. It also takes an elve's
organs longer to filter out the poison and let the body
recover. Thus a drunken elf will stay that way much longer
than any other race. As a result the elves refrain from
many vices, which also contributes to their long life
spans. The most curious thing about elves is they will sit
for a long time over a meal before they eat it. Some people
say this is because they are waiting for their stomach to fire
up, but others say it 's because they are eating the entire meal
with their noses first, so they can enjoy it twice. Orcs on
the other hand have been known to eat while in combat. See Elves.
High Metabolism: The
candle that burns brightest burns shortest. Orcs have a
high metabolism rate, and as a consequence they heal one point of
wound each day (instead of every two days) and they rest up all
fatigue in one watch (instead of two watches, where there are six
watches in a day). They also have the shortest life span of
any race. If a character is going to play an Orc, they had
best start funeral plans as soon as possible. As a result
of the short individual life span of Orcs their family names have
become their only claim ot lasting glory and haveing a prolific
amount of children is the best way to ensure that glory
continues. Ina an Orc clan a child who dishonors the family
name is disowned immediately and without pity. There are
many rhonin Orcs sent to the hell wars in Branya. When ever
an oath is made by an Orc in their family name, not only will
they do everything in their power to honor the oath, but they can
be assured that fellow clan members will help because it is a
matter of family prestige. This has caused many proplbems
for some Orc clans and as a result it is now traditional
for an Orc to get permission from the elder of the clan before
they can make a family oath. If an oath is made in the
family name without permission the clan will disown the
character. The elder of the clan is never sent to Branya,
but if a character on Branya inherits the possition of eldest,
the entire family will migrate to be in their presence and assist
them. See Orcs.
x2 encumberance capacity:
Dwarves are short, but they are also solid. The stronger a
Dwarf gets the denser their muscle and tissue mass gets.
This means they have a greater ability to absorb poisons
harmlessly (like strong drink or drugs) and they can handle heavy
weights easily. They have a low center of gravity and a
cultural history of carrying heavy burdens from an early
age. Dwarves roll one less dice to save vs poison.
They can cary twice the weight of a normal character before
becoming encumbered. The disadvantage to this is Dwarves
have to roll one extra dice to swim or stay afloat. See Dwarves.
Giantism: Divide
natural strength by natural dexterity and round to the nearest to
detemine the giant's ground area. The
typical begining giant is 25/8 = 3, or three hexes in size.
Thus a giant may grow larger as their strength increases. See Giants.
Fire Resistance: The
probability of a burn victim becoming a fatlity can be predicted
by determining what percentage of the skin surface is
covered in burns. Giants are much larger than every other
race so the same burn on them is automatically over a much
smaller pecentage of their skin. As a result, giants take
1/3 damage from fire for a three hex giant, 1/4 for a four hex,
1/5 for a five hex, and so on. Giants have a belief that
the only reason people "burn" at all is because humans
brought sin into the world. While the Giants feel partially
responsible for helping to spread it around, they do not burn
quite like any other race does. Because they don't really feel
the
heat (giants never get DX modifiers for wounds recieved from
fire). Lastly, giant hair is not flammable, and while this
is great for giants it also has one major drawback; many wizards
and alchemist want giant hair for fire resistance enchantments
and potions. As a result Giants have started boycotting
this process in an attempt to make wizards face their own
sins. The Orcs are quick to point out that whales have been
boycotting blubber for a while now, and minks have ben boycotting
fur coats, but has it helped them? Giants are very proud of
their hair, and they grow it as long as possible. The
disadvantage to all of this, resistance to being burned, is giants pay
double for character
points. They have to spend twice the number of experience
points to get one character point for their attribute total. See,
never really getting their fingers burned, they don't learn as quickly
from experience. See Giants.
+1/-1 reaction: This
is called a control modifyer, and it works the same as a
charm. It is restricted to reaction rolls. They
Halfling character may add one, subtract one, or leave unaltered
any reaction roll made towards them. Thus they
"control" the result by one point. In the case of
halflings, the inventor of the Halfling (Tolkein, 1965) had one
of them carry the ring of power to the crack of mount doom and
not decide to take over the world on the way there. This is
an indication of their unique control over emotions. A
control that has eluded the other races. Maybe it stems
from being the smallest and generations of being picked on by the
bigger bully races. Maybe they learned to hide their own
negative feelings while showing others their cute side.
Maybe they are just charmed. Either way they also get +/1-
on any saving throw vs. control or possesion. See Halflings.
DX+3 with ranged or missile
weapons: Ranged attacks are any attack to a
non-adjacent foe. The ranged attack rules are calibrated
for play in an earth type atmosphere with an earth type
gravity. To a halfling a persons fist could be as big as a
mans head. Halflings also have very steady hands. In
addition, halflings have an instinctual need to fight at a
distance, as survival has dictated that htis is the best course
of action for them. All three of these factors combined,
the size, the steady hands, and the instinct for distance gives
all halfling characters DX+3 for ranged attacks (halflings only
get DX+2 vs. creatures their size or smaller.) See Halflings.
Detect life and enemies:
"5 For God Doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil."
Genesis 3:5
Human characters can cast detect life or detect enemies if they have the necessary inteligence. The DX rolls are made by the GM. Detect Life requires and IQ of 9, and costs 2 fatigue for a 2 mega hex radius. If the DX roll is failed the GM should mislead the character. The radius can be increased by 1 mega hex per 1 extra point of fatigue. The ability to Detect Enemies requires a minimum IQ of 10 and cost the same as Detect Life. Except it costs 2 extra points of fatigue to increase the range by 1 mega hex. The closest the other races come to this ability is Disbeleif of Illusions, a spell that all creatures have. See Men.