Lakungdula: the Pearl and Fireleaf Archipelago
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Lakungdula: The Pearl and Fireleaf Archipelago The Pearl and Fireleaf Archipelago is also known as the Lakungdulan Archipelago, residing in the middle of the world. Within it flourishes great jungles and fauna, flourishing under the great temperate weather and the blessing of the Immaculate Sun, which shines life-giving Diwa upon the islands. The Archipelago is part of a greater world known as Sanlibutan, a world of decaying glories, of myths and a past now wished back. To its east is the Continent of Silanan, where the people of the Girin make trade. To the South is Sur Janubia, where the desert burns but hides secrets of a bygone age, and he North is the Continent of Hiraga, and the Mountains of Ice. The people here in the Archipelago are infinitely diverse. The natives have been trading with the other continents since the dawn of time. Now however, the Pearl Archipelago toils under the iron fist of the Conqueror Saints, the Empire of Al-Kaig. It has been a hundred years since their conquest, and most of the people have forgotten or demonized their Old Gods, and worship the God of Light. Despite this, however, the natives hold within their heart the light of rebellion, as the Moon God hearkens to their souls. You live in a Time of Malice, islands of light floating upon a sea of darkness. The trees and forests are angered at the intrusion of the Conqueror Saints. The a Tabi- works no longer. The lambana watch with caution and fear in their emotionless soul-husks, the diwata flee at the sight of man, tamawo fight back and hunt in the forests. The mountains are filled with caverns where bungisngis cyclops tread and rabot ogres rip men apart. Only the barangay are safe, within their bamboo stake walls. Despite all this, you go out to venture. As a Venturer, you are no hero, no great man. You are a lowly mortal trying to make a name in the world, or discover vast wealth. Will you survive? Systems and Rules Rolling and Skill Checks Extended Skill Checks When trying to perform something that would be If it is important to figure out how long something takes to challenging, the referee will ask the player to roll one of their accomplish, make the player roll a normal skill check. If they Skills against a certain Difficulty. fail, the job takes longer than convenient. Otherwise, set a particular amount of time (say, a day) and make the player To make a skill check, the player rolls 2d6 + Skill Rank roll at each interval and determine a number of successful + an appropriate attribute modifier that applies to the skill checks needed. This can also be used when two situation. If the added result of this all meets the target characters are competing in some extended opposed task, number or higher, the player succeeds on the Skill Check. such as political scheming or a foot race. ll Example: Skill Check Difficulties Jed [Playing Liveo]: Alright then, I guess I want to get over the crevice to get to the device on the other side. No This task is something the character might be Check expected to accomplish regularly with their Referee: How do you do that? background, especially if time is not an issue. Jed: Can there be like, rocks and platforms that are jutting out? 7 A task that a trained person usually can Referee: Sure. accomplish, and untrained people even have a Jed: chance. bounce on the jutting rocks and platforms to get to the other 9 These are tasks that challenge a trained side. character. Referee: Alright, cool. This is pretty challenging. Roll a DEX 10 These are tasks that would require true experts Mod/Athletics Skill Check. to accomplish consistently. Jed: Can I know the Difficulty? 12 These are tasks that only an expert has any real Referee: Not right now. Let me see how well you roll first. chance of accomplishing. a 6, plus my Dexterity Modifier of 1 and Athletics-1. 14 These are tasks that push the limit of what a master can plausibly accomplish. Referee: Liveo leaps and bounces on every platform, and hits 15+ The referee assigns this only when a master the momentum. tries something that is only possible theoretically. More entertaining than flat Opposed Skill Checks An opposed Skill Check between two or more people is solved as thus: all parties roll their relevant Skill Checks, with the highest roll winning. If there is a tie, solve it as a tie. If it does not make sense as a tie, make them roll once again. Saving Throws Terrain Speed Modifiers When suffering effects that you did not foresee, your Referee Empire Roads or Trade +50% Speed might deem it appropriate to roll a Saving Throw to counter Wind Paths these effects. To do this, roll a 1d20 against 15, adding the appropriate modifier. As you increase in level, this Saving Plains or the Sea No Modifier Throw decreases by one point. There are three types of Saving Throws: Light Forestry and Hills -25% Speed FORTITUDE Saving Throws are for resisting physical and Dangerous Waters effects, and for feats of endurance. Add the higher of your STR or CON to your Fortitude Save. Heavy Forests and Rainforests or Sailing -50% Speed • Suffocation A character can go for a number of through a Storm minutes without air equal to 4 + the character Constitution Mod. Once you run out of air, you Marshes and Swamps -50% Speed must make FORT saves for every round or six seconds you go without air. If you fail, you fall Mountains -90% S[eed unconscious. An unconscious character will die after 5 minutes without air. Unencumbered travelers move 3 miles per hour. Those lightly encumbered move at 2 miles per hour, those heavily REFLEX Saving Throws are for challenging your physical encumbered can move at 1.5 miles per hour, and those fully quickness, moving out of the way in time to avoid harm. encumbered can manage a mile an hour. • Falling Characters take 1d6 damage for every ten feet that they fall. A successful FORT or REFLEX Encumbrance save halves this damage. Counting Encumbrance is as such: SPIRIT Saving Throws are for resisting against both mental influence and domination, as well as purely magical attacks • heavy armor, get +2 that harm the soul. Encumbrance. • carrying 6 or more different items, get+1 Encumbrance. For every 5 more items you carry, Travel get accumulative +1 Encumbrance. Robes, clothing, cloth, and other worn items usually do not count themselves as encumbrance. There are roads, trails blazed by the Empire leading the • Carrying an oversized item gives +1 natives. However, these roads are small, and these roads are Encumbrance. singular, as the land itself fights back. The most popular travel of choice is still either overland or sailing across the Encumbrance Points sea. It should be noted that these roads are anything but 0-1 Unencumbered safe. Adventurers and caravan guards are now respected professions thanks to the prevalence of dangerous monsters 2-3 Lightly Encumbered known as maligno, the dangerous natural beasts known as halimaw, and even the horrible guerrilla tulisanes that raid 4-5 Heavily Encumbered Empire caravans and kalesas and wagons. 6+ Fully Encumbered Hold An Action is a Move Action, allows you to delay all your Combat actions and activate them as an Instant action. Life is dangerous in the Archipelago. Life-or-death is at the tip of the On Turn Actions are simple but fast acts, such as readying an blade, or at the mercy of the night, or the creatures that live within. But item, dropping something, or downing an herbal remedy blessed by combat is dangerous, and even an accomplished warrior can be felled diwata of fertility. The character may perform as many of these in one to brutal wounds. A maharlika might be protected by his umalagad, round as they but the flames of Al-Kaigian fires could be stronger. Instant Actions are special: the character may use this action even if turn. This is usually some magical capability, Initiative but some combat actions are also instant, such as Total Defense which you cannot When combat breaks out, every participant rolls 1d8 and adds their use Total Defense) and adds +2 to their AC until their next turn. Dexterity or Wisdom modifier. In case of ties, the PC wins. Initiative Making Attacks is only rolled once. Unlike Skill Checks, rolling to see if an Characters move from highest initiative to lowest, and then loops opponent in combat is done with Hit Rolls. A usual hit roll consists of back around to the fastest. One full sequence of this is called a round, rolling a 1d20 (not 2d6!) + Attribute (usually Strength or Dexterity) + which is usually six seconds of full frenzied actions. Skill Rank (usually Brawling, Melee, or Ranged If characters are surprised, the surprisers roll Dexterity/Stealth Class. If it is equal or higher, you hit! get one free round of actions before rolling initiative, also known as a Similar to Skill Checks, if your skill is at Rank-0, you have a -2 surprise round. penalty to your Hit Roll. A character may wish to delay their action. If so, the player must If the blow hits, the attacker rolls their damage dice (usually from say what they are waiting for, and say what they do when that happens, the weapon) and add their relevant attribute modifier. Unarmed like a trigger. When the thing the player is waiting for happens, whatever they plan to do occurs immediately.