Fate of the Serpentine

Campaign Overview

Daring deeds of derring-do in the exquisitely evanescent empery of Eversink!

Helpful Resources

• In Character Thread
• Out of Character Thread
• Recruitment Thread
• Fall of DELTA GREEN 1960s French theatre weapons types
• FoDG Combat Options Summary
• Organisation Claude

System Details and Special Rules

Sorcery

The sorcery system works as follows. Sorcery is powered by the Lore skill, and in most cases, consists of straight Lore-based attacks against physical or mental Stress. The Sorcerer rolls their Attack roll based on their Lore skill level plus any modifiers, and the target rolls their Defend roll - if any. (GM decides what skill is appropriate for Defend rolls, if any - default is Physique for physical Stress, and Will for mental Stress. Ingenious Sorcerers may be able to devise a spell form that gets around a particular defence.

For spell-casting where there is no specific target or harm intended, the action is an Overcome against a Difficulty set by the GM. Create Advantage can be used to boost chances of success. The GM will also balance the Difficulty against the power of the intended effect - greater power means greater Difficulty.

The detail comes in the different Spheres of magic which govern the description and nature of the magic, as well as the sorts of magic the Sorcerer could perform outside straight Attack spells. For instance, a Sorcerer whose Sphere is Water could fill opponents' lungs with liquid - or drain a canal to allow allies to walk across it. A Sorcerer whose Sphere is Plants could ensnare and strangle foes in creeping vines - or grow strange and reviving fruit to heal injured characters. A character gets one Sphere for each level of the Lore skill they have.

Sorcerous Spheres

Aging

Air

Animal

Blades

Blood

Chaos

Curses

Death

Decay/Entropy

Demonology

Disease

Earth

Fear

Fire

Flesh

Ghosts and Spirits

Ice

Illusion

Lightning

Love

Luck

Memory

Music

Necromancy

Plants

Possession

Secrets

Serpents

Shadow

Statuary

Swamp

Transformation (Physical)

Transmutation

Transportation

Trickery

Water

Worship

Unfortunately, using Sorcery isn't a free ride. Each use of Sorcery exposes the Sorcerer to Corruption.

Corruption

Corruption is the result of exposure to, or use of, the warping energies from outside mundane reality that power magic and Sorcery. They steadily degrade and denature a person, place or other object, until the target becomes totally unnatural, twisted, and malevolently alien.

Each character comes with a Corruption clock - usually with four segments, although a gifted or lucky, or exceptionally powerful Sorcerer may have more. Each time that a spell is cast - or that certain special Corruption stunts are used, or as a result of certain curses and magical attacks - the character fills one segment of the clock. Once all four segments are filled, the character has to rewrite one aspect into a Corrupted aspect, a twisted version of what came before, and then clears their Corruption clock. The process continues until all five aspects are Corrupted, finishing with the Trouble aspect and finally the High Concept. Once all a character's aspects are corrupted and they have used up their last empty Corruption segment, they cease to be a playable character and become an NPC monster.

If a character can make it through a session of play without taking a single instance of Corruption, they can clear one segment on their Corruption clock. There may be other ways of clearing Corruption, or even purifying Corrupted aspects, but these are not part of normal play - the more usual intervention by the Church in Eversink is to burn the offender.

For some magical effects, including range, damage, etc., in Attack spells, a Sorcerer can boost the effect by adding one more segment on their Corruption clock per extra instance of effect: 2x, 3x, etc.

Internalized and Externalized Corruption When a character Corrupts an aspect, they can try to conceal the effect, or even project it onto another member of their bloodline. This is called internalizing Corruption. Externalizing it is blasting either their immediate allies and neighbours, or the immediate vicinity.

Every time a character Corrupts an aspect, they have to roll their Physique against a Difficulty equal to their current Lore. If they succeed, they contain the Corruption in their body, and some small unobtrusive physical change happens - a wart, a new patch of discoloured skin, etc. If they fail, the change is far more obvious - a plain offensive blemish.

With certain rites that may be learned in the course of play, Sorcerers can transfer Corruption to their bloodline, and remain scot free themselves. This is a capital offence if discovered.

When externalizing Corruption, a Sorcerer rolls an Attack equal in power to their current Lore against the mental Stress of everyone in the immediate vicinity - friends, allies, etc. Meanwhile, the vicinity is also Corrupted, with an intensity equal to the current Lore of the Sorcerer, and a highest level of 6.

Important People

• Mr. Green, your ice-cold and so far utterly mysterious DELTA GREEN handler
• Pascal Carbone, Unione Corse capo and sometime ally