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Weapons of the Gods is an RPG based on a wu-xia comic. Its basic resolution mechanic is very similar to ORE: Roll a variable number of d10s and look for matches. A set of matching dice is converted to a numerical result equal to width*10 + height. Thus, for example, a 3x1 is read as 31. (Sets of only one die are allowed and 10s are read as 0s, so the worst possible result is a 1x0, which is read as 10.)

My first take on a quick-and-dirty Magic: the Gathering RPG aimed at playing Planeswalkers would be a Nobilis conversion with the five colors as your ability scores. If I deemed the "land generates mana" mechanic of the card game something that should be reflected in the reality of the world, then I'd introduce some kind of mechanics where you need to ritually bind locations to achieve regeneration of miracle points (which would be renamed to Mana).

It is the nature of The Broken-Winged Crane that it never will be written. It is always going to be written. Creation is simply not big enough to contain its blasphemy in the same way that death was insufficient to contain the Primordials. Only the barest glimmers and fractions of it can exist at once, and even then, far apart and away from each other, never to be read in combination—to bring too many of them together would begin the act of its formation, which cannot happen, so it will not happen.

"Zounds, the Visigoth has kidnapped the members of the Senate and is holding them ransom unless we pull out from Gaul! Quick, light the signal pyre to call the Justice League. The Gladiator, the Praetor, the Fascist, and Purple Toga will make short work of this problem!"

So on a flight last weekend, they showed the new Charlie and the Chocolate Factory movie, and it got me to thinking…

Fading Suns has an interesting setting, but there's several details that range from boring to nonsensical to infuriating. As such, when I ran it, I made several changes as follows:

Languages

According to the book, everyone, on all forty or fifty known worlds, which have only in the past half-century been unified under a common empire, speaks Urthish. This is so far beyond the bounds of credulity as to be impossible. In general, I think the worlds under each house should have a common language, due to common settlement history (though this will vary in cases of conquest and such). While still not that realistic, it's a reasonable balance of flavorful and gameable.

The Inquisition utilizes a variety of ships in carrying out their duties. Some of the better known include:

Needle of Inquiry

A fast medium-small ship used by groups of Inquisitors to get to destinations quickly and investigate matters.

Instrument of Correction

A capital warship used by the Inquisition for both naval engagements and escorting convoys.

Vessel of Manna

A heavy cargo ship used to transport supplies.

Sacrament of Penance

When I ran Fading Suns, I decided that I was displeased with the rules. Not only were they another set of combat rules for my players to learn, they have some serious issues for my tastes. They rely on a single die roll for action resolution, yielding a much higher variance than die pool systems, and an ostensibly competent character actually has an unreasonably high chance of failing at tasks that should be simple going by the rules as written.

Cost: 10 Motes, 1 Willpower, 1 Health Level
Duration: One Scene
Type: Simple
Minimum Archery: 5
Minimum Essence: 4
Prerequisite Charms: Piercing Ghost Barb

The Abyssal cuts off her pinky finger and tosses the wriggling digit into her quiver. It grows and grows in length and is joined by a host of identical writhing arrow-length fingers. For the remainder of the scene, they may be loosed as arrows that ignore armor and do a base damage of zero. Whenever she needs to shoot a foe, she always has a still-twitching deformed finger available. At the end of the scene, she will have fired just enough to leave her with one more in her quiver, which she grabs hold and re-attaches to the stump, where it takes root and regains its original size, leaving no mark of its transformation.