The Authority
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JESSE JOHN JOHN MATT SCOBLE CHAMBERS SNEAD FORBECK TM TM Prepare yourself for the first “widescreen” superpowered role-playing game! Based on The Authority comic written and illustrated by Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch, this comprehensive resource guide covers the first 12 issues in exquisite detail, showcasing the spectacular art, larger-than-life characters, vibrant setting ... and so much more! TM d20 System game material requires the use of a Roleplaying Game Core Book published by Wizards of the Coast, Inc and Silver Age Sentinels d20 from Guardians Of Order, Inc. The Authority © 2004 DC Comics WRITTEN BY COVER ARTWORK BY John Chambers, Matt Forbeck, John Snead, Jesse Scoble Bryan Hitch ADDITIONAL WRITING BY INTERIOR ARTWORK BY Matt Keeley, Mark C. MacKinnon, Bryan Hitch, John McCrea Jeff Mackintosh, David Pulver LINE DEVELOPING BY SPECIAL THANKS TO Jesse Scoble Dana Kurtin and Demetri Detsaridis at DC Comics and EDITING BY Ben Abernathy and Kristy Quinn at WildStorm for their time, energy, and efforts at keeping us honest and right. Mark MacKinnon, Jesse Scoble Christopher Kindred for his hours of fact checking ADDITIONAL COPYEDITING BY and late-night hours of WildStorm research John Davies, Chris Kindred, Daniel Ksenych, And the insanity and brilliance of Warren Ellis & Bryan Anthony Ragan, Rich Spainhour, Devinder Thiara, Hitch, who created it all in the fi rst place. Jeremy “Bolthy” Zimmerman INFLUENCES ART DIRECTION AND GRAPHIC PRODUCTION BY We would like to make a special mention of the following game designers whose work infl uenced the development of this game. Jeff Mackintosh Steve Kenson, Robin Laws, Greg Stolze, John Tynes, Erick Wujcik © 2004 Wildstorm Productions, an imprint of DC Comics. All Rights Reserved. TRI-STAT SYSTEM © 2004 Guardians Of Order, Inc. All Rights Reserved. THE AUTHORITY and all related characters, names, and elements are trademarks of DC Comics. GUARDIANS OF ORDER, TRI-STAT SYSTEM, and SILVER AGE SENTINELS are trademarks of Guardians Of Order, Inc. 'D20 SYSTEM' and the 'D20 SYSTEM' logo are Trademarks owned by Wizards of the Coast and are used according to the terms of the D20 System License version 3.0. A copy of this License can be found at www.wizards.com/d20. d20 Modern™ is a trademark of Wizards of the Coast, Inc., a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc., and is used with permission. First Printing — August 2004 Printed in China All right reserved under international law. No part of this book may be reproduced in part or in whole, in any form or by any means, without permission from the publisher, except for Open Gaming Content and personal copies of the character sheet, or brief quotes for use in reviews. ISBN 1-894938-04-6 • Production Number 19-001 Guardians Of Order, Inc. • P.O. Box 25016, 370 Stone Road, Guelph, Ontario, CANADA, N1G 4T4 Phone: (519) 821-7174 • Fax: (519) 821-7635 • [email protected] • http://www.guardiansorder.com PAGE 2 Foreword SHIFT SHIPS! “Are you reading The Authority yet?” “What’s that?” “The new Warren Ellis comic, spilling over from the end of StormWatch.” “I like his Transmetropolitan stuff a lot, but I don’t know about another superhero book.” “Brother, this is not just another superhero book. You have to be reading this.” — Lou to Jesse, Pre-Millennium D20ising That was back in, oh, about September of 1999. So I plunked the Authority down my $3.95 (CAN) and cracked open The Authority #5, The Authority RPG is an excellent companion sourcebook to “Shiftships,” One of Four. And I was blown away. Bryan Hitch’s Silver Age Sentinels d20. The rules herein are 100% compatible art was stunning, complemented and accentuated by Paul with SAS d20. While this book is not a stand-alone d20 Neary’s inking and Laura Depuy’s colouring; Warren Ellis’s rulebook, all of the characters and new equipment presented A Higher Authority writing snapped and crackled; the whole book was electric. here are given d20 stats. Why wasn’t I reading this book? How had it fl own beneath By the very nature of the d20 license, certain options cannot my radar? It soon became a must-read, acting as a startling be included in this book. If you are not familiar with the steps counterpoint to my normal reading fare. It was hip. It was for creating a character, or applying experience points, you pulp. It was extreme. WildStorm was doing exciting things, will need the Player’s Handbook. In many ways, this book is and The Authority, and Warren Ellis and John Cassady’s sister- analogous to the DMG — it does not contain everything book, Planetary, rode the crest of that wave. within its pages, but when combined with Silver Age Sentinels Old archetypes we’d seen a thousand times before suddenly d20 and the Player’s Handbook, it creates a complete game. looked fresh and new, glowing with inner confl ict and wonder. On first glance, there are many things you may not The action was dramatic, and thrilling, and intense. “The recognise, for the heart of The Authority RPG is built around storm broke here,” Grant Morrison said, and so it seemed. the Tri-Stat System. Instead of Strength, Constitution, Now, how could we make a game about it? Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma, Tri-Stat uses In July and August of 2002, we released Silver Age Sentinels Body, Mind, and Soul. There are no saving throws, and the in Tri-Stat and d20 editions. It was once again a year of “classic heroes” and we felt we needed to ground our superhero RPG Skill list is comprised of modern skills. What is important in the tropes and values of traditional supeheroes, but we to understand, however, is that the power system (the always knew that SAS could easily be ramped up to deal with Attributes and Defects) translates directly over to d20, and the powers and threats of an Authority-style game. Skills are used in almost exactly the same way. All character What better way to do that than by adapting The Authority sheets are presented in dual-stat format, and pages 342-343 itself? DC/WildStorm liked the Silver Age Sentinels material give more detailed instructions on how new rules are handled we had published, and gave us a crack at “turning the volume in the d20 system. up to 11.” Statting out Apollo, and Jenny, and the Doctor was All the d20 characters in The Authority RPG are based on great fun, both in seeing our system handle them effortlessly, the Adventurer Class from SAS d20, although a variant of the but also watching the game pushed to new limits. How exactly class is presented on page 342. Their Power Points sometimes does one rip Italy away from the world, in game terms? make them far more devastating than simple character Level, We’re thrilled to have been allowed to play with Warren however, so all are given an Effective Character Level worthy of Ellis & Bryan Hitch’s toys, and terribly excited to let you come their effect in a superpower game. in to a playground that spans from normal space to the Higher Welcome to The Authority RPG … let us help you redefi ne Dimensions, and from Los Angeles to Sliding Albion across your superhero d20 game and take it to the next level! the Bleed. It’s time to step out of the shadows, light up one last cigarette, and change the world. Somebody has to … who better than you? — Jesse Scoble, Toronto, 2004 PAGE Table of Contents 3 5 Introduction to the Authority 190 CHAPTER 4: 5 What is a Role-Playing Game? GAME MECHANICS 8 CHAPTER 1: 191 Introduction A HIGHER AUTHORITY 196 Combat A Higher Authority 9 Prehistory 202 Movement in Combat 10 The Circle: Issue #1 204 Non-Combat Actions 11 The Circle: Issue #2 204 Defence 12 The Circle: Issue #3 206 Damage 12 The Circle: Issue #4 212 Mind Combat 15 Shiftships: Issue #5 213 Recovery 16 Shiftships: Issue #6 213 Using Powers in Combat 17 Shiftships: Issue #7 216 Character Advancement 19 Shiftships: Issue #8 220 CHAPTER 5: 20 Outer Dark: Issue #9 EQUIPPING THE CHARACTER 21 Outer Dark: Issue #10 221 Weapons 22 Outer Dark: Issue #11 228 Vehicles 23 Outer Dark: Issue #12 238 Body Armour and Protective Devices 24 Jenny Sparks: The Secret History of the Authority 240 Supertechnology 25 Doctor’s Orders 241 The Authority’s Technology 25 Rough Trade 246 Gamorran Technology and Installations 26 A Tale of Two Cities 247 Sliding Albion Technology 26 Many Happy Returns 249 Living Cities 27 There’s Nothing I Haven’t Sung About 250 God and its Heralds 28 CHAPTER 2: 252 Breaking Objects CHARACTERS 254 CHAPTER 6: 30 Apollo PLAYING A SUPERPOWER 32 The Doctor 257 Archetypes 34 The Engineer 259 Origins 36 Jack Hawksmoor 260 Motivations 38 Jenny Sparks 261 To Be as Gods 40 The Midnighter 272 Advice Summary for Players 42 Swift 44 Secondary Characters 274 CHAPTER 7: 58 The World of Authority GAME MASTERING THE 60 The Authority AUTHORITY 62 Clan Gamorra 275 Game Mastering Basics 64 Crisis Points: Earth 280 Campaign Architecture 68 The British Space Group 295 Classic Bits: Simulating the Authority 69 UNSSIAO 300 Contributions and Bonus Points 70 Parallel Universes 300 Character Quiz 70 Sliding Albion 302 Moving Beyond d12 Tri-Stat 76 Outer Dark 302 Advice Summary for the GM 76 Alien God 78 The Higher Dimensions 304 CHAPTER 8: AUTHORITY SUPPLEMENTAL 80 CHAPTER 3: 305 Meta-Attributes in Play CHARACTER CREATION 309 Character Stats 81 Playing a Higher Authority 336 Random Character Creation 84 Character Creation 342 d20 Notes 84 Step 1: GM Discussion 344 Index 87 Step 2: Character Outline 88 Step 3: Assign Stats 90 Step 4: Character Attributes 161 Step 5: Select Skills 173 Step 6: Character Defects 188 Step 7: Derived Values 189 Step 8: Background Points INTRODUCTION PAGE Introduction 5 to The Authority Seven modern gods.