Difference between revisions of "The Sheltered Hand"

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(Professions)
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== Professions ==
 
== Professions ==
  
[[Anam:Professions|Professions]]
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AKA Classes. Only classes and class options found in the three main books are allowed.
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Each Culture has preferred and abhorred classes.
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(Cultural Norms Under Construction)
  
 
== The Creed ==
 
== The Creed ==

Revision as of 19:23, 22 August 2022

The Sheltered Hand.png

Acalan

Acalan.png

A Brief History

The Sheltered Hand is a peninsula jutting off a larger continent. Called 'The Hand' originally as it separates into five smaller peninsulae.

It gains the name Sheltered in two ways.

First, the Suntoucher Mountains - a range of large mountains that blocks most travel to and from the peninsula. The Suntouchers extend into the ocean both to the North and South, making travel even by water treacherous.

Second, some three hundred years ago, the great prophet Carran, tired of the near constant war between the gods and their faithful, had the audacity and the courage to upbraid them.

While all know that the gods cannot - or at least, will not - slay mortals directly, as the saying goes, 'you'd be surprised what you can live through'. None doubt his courage.

Nor was his tongue lacking, either, as he convinced some of the gods - eighteen in all - to aid him. He took his followers and others as tired of the war as he, and removed to The Hand, home at the time to a long-isolated peoples - the Saram - who welcomed him and his followers.

The gods with him then put up The Shield. The passes between the mountains and even the water paths, could no longer be traversed by any armies, and no gods, nor their power, could operate from outside.

Several nations formed, but the people of the Sheltered Hand learned a lesson - the intervention of Gods wasn't needed for folk to fight, and fight they did.

The priests of the Gods and the followers of Carran strove mightily to stop the fighting, but all they managed was to limit it.

Until seventy years ago - give or take - when the followers of Carran, now calling themselves The Creed of Carran, showed their hand. In every nation then standing, The Creed had been building power, and they showed that power, stopping the wars and battles that were occurring. The Churches of the Gods, working with The Creed, helped to enforce that peace. Even the Gods, it seems place the Creed of Carran over worship to their own faiths, though they do still ask for worship.

Of course, no peace is perfect. There are still skirmishes, outlaws, and so on, but the Creed prepared for that, as well. They created an offshoot - the Carran Guild - which provides training and some support to the kind of outsiders who can act when others can't.


Character Creation

D&D 5th Edition characters.

PHB, Xanathar's and Tasha's are in play.

People:

  • Human (You can play as either Standard or Variant)
  • Sinandre (Wood Elf)
  • Esinandre (High Elf)
  • Halfling (½ Elf)
  • Tarat (Dwarf)
  • Yryc (½ Orc) - No actual Half-Orcs, the Yryc are an Orcish People, using the ½ Orc rules.
  • Gnomon (Gnome)
  • Havlin (Halfing)

No Tieflings, no Dragonborn.

Basic Array for Stats with a single free +1.

All PCs get 1 Feat free at 1st Level. (Variant Humans therefore have two)

Starting Level is 5th. HPs are Max at 1st level and average for class after that.

Multi-classing - One class only, after 4th level (so all PCs will have 4 levels of their main class minimum)

All PCs get starting funds +35 GP per level (with the assumption that 15 GP per level went to living it up, paying needed dues, etc.)

All PCs can have 4 Common or 2 Common and 1 Uncommon Magic Item.

Weapons and metal armour are assumed to be Bronze or Brass.

Every character may have 3 Iron Weapons or 1 Steel Weapon.

Iron Weapons will have a +1 to Hit or a +1 to Damage.

Iron Armour (including Shields) gain a +1 to AC

Steel Weapons will have a +1 to Hit and Damage.

Steel Armour will have a +1 to AC and reduce armour penalty by 1.

Other items which might benefit from Iron or Steel construction will have similar bonuses.

Any items found in the three allowed books can be purchased with available gold.

Peoples

The Sinandre (Elves)

The Tarat (Dwarves)

Yryc (Orc)

The Havlin (Halfing/Hobbit)

Gnomon (Gnome)

Halflings (Half Elf)

Humans

Additional Information on the Peoples of the Sheltered Hand

Cultures

The Sheltered Hand is in the very very early Iron Age for the most part.

Armour and Weapons are mostly of Bronze, with some Iron here and there.

Two nations know how to make Steel, and do, but neither sells the secret, and costs for Steel weapons are astronomical.

Cultural Information

Backgrounds

Backgrounds from any of the three allowed books can be used.

If you want a custom background, speak to me.

Professions

AKA Classes. Only classes and class options found in the three main books are allowed.

Each Culture has preferred and abhorred classes.

(Cultural Norms Under Construction)

The Creed

The Creed – more properly known as The Creed of Carran – are the primary Church within the Sheltered Hand. Individual gods have their own churches and centers of worship, yet almost all acknowledge the authority of the Creed of Carran.

The Creed takes its name from the agreement that Carran reached with the gods that they would not war against each other, an agreement which they have upheld. As none of the gods who were part of a pantheon were able to convince their entire pantheon to join Carran, the Gods within the Shield represent numerous cultures and belief structures, the Creed gives them all some stability and a framework within which they can work together.

The Creed do not worship any single God, rather they give reverence to the agreement – the Creed – which Carran made, and in general to the Gods for upholding the Creed.

To this end, they have amassed a great deal of temporal power. The various nations are allowed to function as they will, within their borders, saving only that they do not persecute any followers of the Creed, or of Gods who follow the Creed.

Any conflicts between nations are expected to be placed before the Creed for arbitration.

Most of those currently ruling the nations have been put into place by the Creed, either directly or by more subtle means.

Gods of the Sheltered Hand

The Creed recognise 18 Gods – these are the ones who came with Carran and created The Shield.

They are, as noted, representative of numerous cultures and pantheons. Most of these Gods can be found in any nation, though each nation does tend to have favourites.

The Rosseni - Popular amongst the Acalani

The Twins - Most popular amongst the Anlat and the Delisse

The Family of Rehma - Most popular with the Trakken and the Delisse (as well as any fisherfolk, no matter where they live)

Individual Gods

Non-Creed Gods

The Anathema


Essential Rules

Abilities List

When reading the following rules - aside from the Resolution Rules - bear in mind that the primary function of the Anam system is to be a toolkit for GMs, from which they can create their own systems, wrapping everything around that Resolution system. The Sheltered Hand uses the 'Default' method by and large, which is why these rules are included, but they are fairly dense.

Resolution Rules

Attributes & Abilities

Special Abilities

Combat Rules

Conflict in a Nutshell:

This applies to all forms of conflict – Physical, Mental and Social.

Time

Physical Conflict takes place in turns that cover roughly 6 seconds. Any other conflict occurring at the same time as Physical Conflict takes place in the same time frame.

Mental Conflict, when occurring by itself, takes place in turns of 1 second.

Social Conflict, especially when debating or arguing for effect, has turns that can be as much as 5 minutes.

Actions

Free Actions – These take very little time and are not Tested. Activating a Power (Special Attribute), drawing a weapon from a well-fitted sheathe, snapping off a one-liner, etc.

Movement In a given physical conflict round, each character may make a single Move action up to their Move.

Perform a Task Any Tested action is involved here. Picking locks, attacking with a weapon (or with words), or performing an active defense. If the action could require a Test, it counts – and each character can perform only one Task per Combat Turn.

Attack involves a Task against a TD of the defender’s Passive Defense (Acrobatics for Physical conflict, other Abilities as appropriate for Mental / Social conflict.

Active Defense involves taking a Test of the character’s defense ability specifically in an attempt to get a better defense than is available passively.

Manipulation: Attempt to manipulate the conflict by taking advantage of terrain, taunting the opposition, flanking or the like. This is a catchall option. Success provides a special Circumstance modifier (Special in that it stacks with existing Circumstances) with a limited lifespan.

Range

Range is fairly abstract –

Close range is for true ‘in your face’ combat.

Melee range is within 3-6’ generally (some weapons will have stats that extend that).

Short range is for Thrown weapons (not more than about 60’)

Medium range is the ‘average’ range for mechanical ranged weapons such as bows and the like.

Long range is the longest practical range for mechanical ranged weapons.

Extreme range is the farthest that a mechanical ranged weapon can be fired – such shots are always effectively blind.

Damage

All characters have two damage tracks: Bruises and Wounds, as well as a number of Injury boxes.

An attack is successful if its Effect Level equals the defense Level. At that base success, the damage is 1 Wound.

For every Level that the attack’s Effect level exceeds the defense Level, that damage increases by 1.

Some weapons and other options may increase the damage done as well.

The total number of wounds is compared to the character’s Wound Threshold. If the total damage is less than the Wound Threshold, the character takes a Bruise.

If the character’s Bruise track gets filled, any new bruises roll up to become Wounds.

If the total is higher than their Wound Threshold, the character must mark one Wound for each point above that value.

Soft Armour adds to the wearer’s Wound Threshold, but any damage exceeding its protective value reduces that value by 1. (So Leather, with a Protective Value (PV) of 2, loses 1 if an attack does 3 damage). This can be repaired with a little downtime.

Hard Armour has a Hardness Value (HV) which reduces the Wounds a successful attack will do, and can even reduce the damage below 0 – meaning that the armour prevented even a Bruise. Hard armour is tiring to wear and makes some actions more difficult.

The higher the Armour’s HV, the more restrictive it can be for those actions.

If the player doesn’t want to take Wounds, especially when receiving multiple wounds, they can instead take an Injury, which will soak up 3 Wounds.

An Injury is a Condition, such as a sprained wrist, a broken leg or the like. Each Injury inflicts a Circumstance Modifier of -2 for any actions which would be impacted by that Injury.

The Bruise track clears at the end of that conflict scene.

The Wound track clears after a full scene (at least two to three hours) of rest.

Injuries must be treated, either with Scholarship (Medicine) or by magic.