SPECIAL EFFECTS
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.