RPG Superstar 2012 Top 16
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Some of you might recognize me from the various RPG Superstar competitions over the years, in particular from 2012 when I placed in the top 16. Hi!
I am pleased to announce (as I have quite heavily hinted in this thread on the GitP forums) that I have been working on a new subsystem for Pathfinder under Dreamscarred Press' oversight loosely based upon the concept of Truename Magic from D&D 3.5's Tome of Magic. I say loosely because while the project began as a skill-based magic system, we quickly came to the conclusion that wouldn't be very controllable and would end up with the same issues that the poor, poor Truenamer had. So it's undergone some revision. Think of the Advocate, presented in the playtest document, as sort of a Warlock/Swordsage hybrid with Psychic Warrior elements. That's probably the best 3.5 approximation of how the class works, though there's no real analogue.
The playtest document is available here. You can leave comments on the document itself or on this thread: I will see both and make any changes as necessary to the final document.
The playtest includes (for now, this may be expanded later):
A new base class: The Advocate, who changes the universe through the power of his words.
A new archetype: The Paladin of the Holy Word, a holy knight who exchanges his spellcasting ability for a limited ability to speak edicts.
A new prestige class: The Rhetorical Blade, a warrior who fights with his razor-sharp wordplay.
25 new feats: Ranging from suffixes that alter edicts as they are spoken, to benefits for speaking the true name of your weapon.
49 edicts: Words of esoteric power spoken by an advocate that invoke his will upon the world around him.
28 litanies: Mantras spoken by an advocate that provide long-term personal effects.
This is not the entirety of the final product. There is more completed or still being worked on: this is merely "phase one".
I hope you'll still be able to taste ice cream after playtesting this material. I know I'm still able to, but maybe I have some sort of weird racial immunity.
I appreciate your support and your feedback, and wish you the best with the playtest!
Bit disappointed mechanically this ends up appearing at a glance extremely close to what Interjection Games has already released: Libram of the First Language
Would have been nicer to see something a bit more distinct and perhaps capable of using side by side rather than competing products. Pity.
Sounds interesting. I will check it out!
Having read through Libram of the First Language, I don't really agree with you on the similarity. They work off the same fundament, but they don't really share much in common beyond that.
No, they're not really similar. What I'm seeing here is the base concept of truenaming being mixed with the base concept of shadow magic. The strong points of both have been hammered together, with the weak points being discarded. Seams are indeed present in the work, but, mechanically, it works fine. Then again, I've seen it all before.
You're also limiting yourself with canned cadences on non-scaling abilities. That's either going to let specific abilities blow up or fall flat unless you're very, very precise the entire way through. Divorce the two, and you'll find gameplay improved!
You treat your cadences as your scalars, effectively, and as your scalars are not merely flat bonuses, but targeting abilities, descriptor adders and removers, and other fun little crunchy bits, they really seem to be more of a throwback to the psionics that you fellas already knows works rather than an attempt to get truenaming to stand on its own legs.
The hallmark of truenaming is it doesn't scale in the traditional sense. Even moreso than the fancy rolls to check for casts, this is the full stop thing that makes it a system and not a gimmick. The way you add in your scaling is fairly prosaic and won't get the sort of build density and replay value that, if I may reference myself, the inflections system provides. You have my book, apparently, so compare that.
Well I for one won't complain about having two versions of an extremely cool concept that wasn't mechanically well executed in its original portrayal. Color me interested at least.
Well, sure, it's going to do several things mine can't. If executed with a wider spread of cadences, each ability can be made to have some real meaningful choices. It's just the amount of work needs to be increased dramatically or some hybrid needs to be manufactured. A list of universal cadences, and some cool specifics on certain abilities, maybe? Now THAT would be cool.
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RPG Superstar 2012 Top 16
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Okay, yeah, I can sort of see what you're saying. Emphases are direct scalars, and cadences are "spend your check to buy this effect" effects, so there's a tradeoff between, say, a longer duration weaker effect or a shorter duration stronger effect, based upon your check result. Emphases are "if you beat by X, do Y"; cadences are "if you beat by X, you can subtract X to change the edict to do Z".
I mean, there's definitely some linearity, especially in the case of emphases (because that's what they're supposed to do), but cadences can completely change parts of (or the entire) edict: take, for example, mandate of impaired senses, which lets you burn your extended duration to inflict different status effects. Or frost ray, which lets you burn down the damage to change from a ray to a line.
Also, this is only about half (maybe a third? somewhere between the two, anyway) of the total edicts, with some of the more complicated ones still in "wrangle this some more to make it work" or "vague notes in my notebook" phase.
EDIT: and as far as universal cadences go, that's what the suffix feats do. They're, for all intents and purposes, metamagic.
Okay, yeah, I can sort of see what you're saying. Emphases are direct scalars, and cadences are "spend your check to buy this effect" effects, so there's a tradeoff between, say, a longer duration weaker effect or a shorter duration stronger effect, based upon your check result. Emphases are "if you beat by X, do Y"; cadences are "if you beat by X, you can subtract X to change the edict to do Z".
I mean, there's definitely some linearity, especially in the case of emphases (because that's what they're supposed to do), but cadences can completely change parts of (or the entire) edict: take, for example, mandate of impaired senses, which lets you burn your extended duration to inflict different status effects. Or frost ray, which lets you burn down the damage to change from a ray to a line.
Also, this is only about half (maybe a third? somewhere between the two, anyway) of the total edicts, with some of the more complicated ones still in "wrangle this some more to make it work" or "vague notes in my notebook" phase.
EDIT: and as far as universal cadences go, that's what the suffix feats do. They're, for all intents and purposes, metamagic.
Color me suspicious of direct scalars in this system. It can work, but whether it does will all depend on how tightly you "bound your accuracy", so to speak :)
Okay, yeah, I can sort of see what you're saying. Emphases are direct scalars, and cadences are "spend your check to buy this effect" effects, so there's a tradeoff between, say, a longer duration weaker effect or a shorter duration stronger effect, based upon your check result. Emphases are "if you beat by X, do Y"; cadences are "if you beat by X, you can subtract X to change the edict to do Z".
I mean, there's definitely some linearity, especially in the case of emphases (because that's what they're supposed to do), but cadences can completely change parts of (or the entire) edict: take, for example, mandate of impaired senses, which lets you burn your extended duration to inflict different status effects. Or frost ray, which lets you burn down the damage to change from a ray to a line.
Also, this is only about half (maybe a third? somewhere between the two, anyway) of the total edicts, with some of the more complicated ones still in "wrangle this some more to make it work" or "vague notes in my notebook" phase.
EDIT: and as far as universal cadences go, that's what the suffix feats do. They're, for all intents and purposes, metamagic.
Missed those. Be back with ya shortly!
And I'm back. They do the job, but need an active opportunity cost.
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RPG Superstar 2012 Top 16
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Color me suspicious of direct scalars in this system. It can work, but whether it does will all depend on how tightly you "bound your accuracy", so to speak :)
Oh, believe me, I know. I have some very strict math for "expected Tzocatl check results" set aside that I've structured this off of.
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RPG Superstar 2012 Top 16
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And I'm back. They do the job, but need an active opportunity cost.
Like psi and expending psionic focus sort of opportunity cost? Well, using them is effectively lowering your opportunity for advanced cadences and/or lowering your emphasis' effectiveness, so it actually is pretty similar in function to a decreased caster level, as opposed to vancian metamagic's higher slot cost model.
And I'm back. They do the job, but need an active opportunity cost.Like psi and expending psionic focus sort of opportunity cost? Well, using them is effectively lowering your opportunity for advanced cadences and/or lowering your emphasis' effectiveness, so it actually is pretty similar in function to a decreased caster level, as opposed to vancian metamagic's higher slot cost model.
I must admit I'm being skimmy because I'm supposed to be finishing a 100-page layout right now, but I assume you have the whole +2 to the DC each time you recite it thing going on so it doesn't go infinite, yes? Rather no-brainer for truenaming. Safe to assume it's there.
That said!
Your biggest issue is the swift action one. You could make it a -20 and it's still the biggest no-brainer in the book. People will be happy to throw the weakest spell imaginable if it's close to free to do so, particularly once they know enough abilities to make the +2 not matter. A good truenamer is more powered-up than a mystic theurge and this particular flavor of truenamer can pop the higher-level abilities significantly more readily than that theurge.
That said, I can't make any specific suggestions for it, only point at that spot and jump up and down. If I make a fix for one class, why, it may invalidate your inevitable psychic warrior expy.
Edit: With that, I really have to finish this feats section before it's too late! Good luck to you! I'll be sending my truenamers to beat up your truenamers shortly. May the most OP designer win!
I'm not too certain what Truenaming is, I don't know who you are, and I think Tzocatl is very hard to pronounce... however you have been hired by Dreamscarred Press and I trust them as a company. Hopefully soon I will love the power of words, we'll be good friends, and I'll be able to pronounce the book's title :)
Nice to meet you! I'll be looking over this class and I'll try to get feedback to you in a few days!
I'm not too certain what Truenaming is, I don't know who you are, and I think Tzocatl is very hard to pronounce... however you have been hired by Dreamscarred Press and I trust them as a company. Hopefully soon I will love the power of words, we'll be good friends, and I'll be able to pronounce the book's title :)
Nice to meet you! I'll be looking over this class and I'll try to get feedback to you in a few days!
Fax is one of the designers who taught me, Dragoon. He's done some rather brilliant work for a very long time, and I'm pretty excited to see how this project will develop.
And now you know.
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Zoh-caht-el is not correct, but close enough.
Or Tso-cah-tel. Or So-kaht-le. All near enough for me.
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Fax,
It's late where I am so I will look through this in detail later. I was a fan of your 3.5 homebrew so I am looking forwards to this.
The title made me hesitant because I really like Bradley Crouch's truenamer, but the clarification you and he made that this will be a different subsystem got me excited. In my opinion, the best part of d20 is the way completely different subsystems fit together. There were a lot of subsystems in 3.5, and for awhile most of the subsystems in pathfinder were just updates to WotC subsystems.With Bradley's upcoming conversion/re-imagining of Shadow Magic, the old-subsystem-conversion process is coming to an end. I was worried for awhile that I wouldn't be seeing many more subsystems added to pathfinder.
But I don't have to worry about that anymore, because you are bringing in a fresh new system....
...
Bit of a hijack, as I'm apparently a horrible marketer (and anyone wanting to be friendly can give me some pointers).
Hi there, Ben. The shadow magic rewrite has been out for nearly a month. Here it is.
As for the end of the rewrites, I doubt it. If there can be two truenamers, well, I'd love to expand the nucleus of the plane-touched of mine Amora Game is working with and make a 100-page incarnum redesign out of it. It's a thought, but my hands are tied until 6 months after the Latin Libram's release.
I'm not too certain what Truenaming is, I don't know who you are, and I think Tzocatl is very hard to pronounce... however you have been hired by Dreamscarred Press and I trust them as a company. Hopefully soon I will love the power of words, we'll be good friends, and I'll be able to pronounce the book's title :)
Nice to meet you! I'll be looking over this class and I'll try to get feedback to you in a few days!
Fax is one of the designers who taught me, Dragoon. He's done some rather brilliant work for a very long time, and I'm pretty excited to see how this project will develop.
And now you know.
I'm sorry, what I said came out sounding really... bad. I meant something more like "I haven't gotten a chance to know you" or "This is our first introduction." I hope that I didn't offend either of you by messing up my attempt at a witty introduction.
Anyway I finally have a chance to sit down and look at this class, so I'll read it right now and report back initial impressions. Within a week I'll try to make a level 11 character and post the build along with some more feedback.
Note: These musings may be a bit disjointed as I wrote them over the course of the last few hours when I had moments free.
I notice that in the bonus feat section there are some feats cited from non-core Pathfinder books. Generally I've noticed that DSP books usually just reprint said feats in their release (See Piranha Strike in Ultimate Psionics).
9th level Bonus Recitation: Should they get something else if they already have the Recitation?
So far I'm liking the flavor of this class! It reminded me of a particularly cool term from Fate/Stay Night "Conceptual Items." Items that can be used to alter/damage/erase/create concepts. One example used in that series was the destruction of the concept of "being locked" on a doorknob, instantly the universe "corrected" this incongruency between the deadbolt being in a locked position and the door being "unlocked" by changing the doorknob to an unlocked position.
I'm a little fuzzy on some of the working for this class, but when I make a character later I'll find that it's probably just that I haven't explored the rules in depth.
If my interpretation is correct it seems like this class would spend its point buy similarly to a Wizard? Maybe a little less in Int, but with a priority of Int>Con>Wis>Dex>Cha>Str? I put Wis and Con so high because those two saves are more likely to inhibit an Advocate's ability to speak.
Anyway, what I like:
-Flavor
-I like the idea that you check against yourself to do your Edicts
-Intelligence based
-How you word things. I love seeing words like Advocate, Edict, Litany, Cadence, Emphasis, ect used as ability names.
-Class Skills
Things I don't like:
-Surprisingly I am not too sure if it needs 4+ skills per level since it has such an intelligence focus.
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RPG Superstar 2012 Top 16
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Okay, added two archetypes to the playtest doc, the Stalwart Speaker for the Fighter, and the Acolyte of the First Word for the Monk.
Working on porting changes from the playtest so far back into my master doc, and will likely push out some new edicts and litanies within the next few days. Thanks for the support, guys.
Not crazy about the name Advocate for the class (feels like I am playing a Lawyer in D&D), have you thought about maybe calling it the Orator or something of that nature?
Also, why doesn't the class have a capstone ability?
Conversly I love the name Advocate and absolutely love every naming convention in the book.
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RPG Superstar 2012 Top 16
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Not crazy about the name Advocate for the class (feels like I am playing a Lawyer in D&D), have you thought about maybe calling it the Orator or something of that nature?
Also, why doesn't the class have a capstone ability?
It does, via the only grandmaster esoterica it acquires.
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RPG Superstar 2012 Top 16
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Okay, so I just updated the playtest document with the Knight-Scholar base class, a couple more edicts, and a bunch of feats.
I am also now accepting direction for (or wholesale submission of) archetypes and prestige classes that mesh with Tzocatl.
I am particularly interested in hearing about what you think the class is missing, whether it be edicts or litanies that do a particular thing, feats to shore up certain things or allow you to substitute a Tzocatl check for something else, or items in general.
Thanks for the help thus far, guys: it's made a lot of difference (as I'm sure you can see by the surfeit of yellow highlighting on the doc).
So far, my only suggestion is for the Knight Scholar's Expertise ability. I think you should define Encounters in the same way that Path of War does, so as to ensure consistency.
I look forward to looking deeper into these classes. I was only able to give them a once-over, and skim edicts and litanies.
Thank you very much for working on this though! I am very fond of alternate magic systems. Especially cool ones like this.
My favorite part is that the Tzocatl Check is used to decide how awesomely you succeed as opposed to a Pass/fail system.
Also Unlimited Magic systems make me happy.
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RPG Superstar 2012 Top 16
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So far, my only suggestion is for the Knight Scholar's Expertise ability. I think you should define Encounters in the same way that Path of War does, so as to ensure consistency.
I look forward to looking deeper into these classes. I was only able to give them a once-over, and skim edicts and litanies.
Thank you very much for working on this though! I am very fond of alternate magic systems. Especially cool ones like this.
Yeah, I'm going to steal that whole sidebar.
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I just noticed this product thread hasn't had a new post since November, is it still being worked on?
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Hey all! So, here's the deal-
James has unfortunately had to drop out of this project to deal with some real life issues, so I'll be taking his place to run this thing through the finish line. I have a few goals-
1) Maintain the integrity of James' work so far.
2) Tighten up both base classes and get them ready to wrap. This may include beating the Knight-Scholar into something that looks a fair degree different than it does now.
3) Add in some new archetypes that I feel this project would benefit from, particularly the Bard, Ranger, and Witch.
4) Finish, and possibly make a few tweaks to, the existing Litanies and Edicts.
5) Finish the product in a timely manner with the highest possible quality.
I'd love it if you all could help me meet these goals with playtest and feedback data. Some of the things that I'm considering doing to meet these goals include-
1) Reevaluating the role of litanies and edicts. I've seen a few comments on how the progressions of the Advocate and Knight-Scholar are a bit wonky, and I think making Litanies just another type of Edict with the [Litany] keyword is a step towards resolving those problems. I don't believe we need two separate progressions for Edicts and Edicts-that-are-really-just-sustainable-buffs.
2) Switching the Knight-Scholar to a full BAB chassis. This is actually going to involve a lot more work than that simple mission statement would indicate, but I think it's important to establish the Advocate as the "master" of Tzocatl/Truenaming, and that involves strengthening his facility with the new subsystem a bit and shifting the focus of the second class.
I'm also looking at some other options, such as a class or archetype that actually inscribes names into totems or tattoos, using them in a slightly different way, but I'll talk a bit more about that when it's ready.
For now, I'd love to hear what everyone has to say, whether it be about my projected goals and ideas, issues or compliments for the existing materials, or what have you. Anyone worried that this will derail one of my other projects, like Psitech - don't worry. Those are proceeding apace, though I do anticipate that Psitech and Tzocatl will probably have some time where both are playtest simulaneously.
Thank you everyone!
I would prefer the Knight Scholar move to a more 'dabbler' style in exchange for recieving full BAB, like the Paladin, Ranger, and Bloodrager.
Also yeah a totem archetype sounds kick ass!
I think you may have a point with Edicts as long as you can avoid dead levels.
Oh, man, I'm so sad to hear this :(
Fax is such nice guy.
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I would prefer the Knight Scholar move to a more 'dabbler' style in exchange for recieving full BAB, like the Paladin, Ranger, and Bloodrager.
Yeah, that's kind of the idea.
Also yeah a totem archetype sounds kick ass!
I definitely thought so!
I think you may have a point with Edicts as long as you can avoid dead levels.
I've got a good plan for this, I think you'll like what I have in store.
Oh, man, I'm so sad to hear this :(
Fax is such nice guy.
Yeah, James is a good one. Unfortunately his life just isn't leaving him the opportunity to work on projects like this at this time, or in the foreseeable future. We're definitely recognizing and respecting the work he's done so far though. I was hoping that maybe I'd be able to just help him do the lifting and allow him to maintain the lead on this, but he just doesn't have the room in his life currently.
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I played a Truenamer once where the only change we made to fix it was to change the check DC for influencing creatures to "15 + creature's CR/HD." It seemed to work just fine. I also did some hypothetical number-crunching on this rubric once, and I determined that, at least on paper for all that that's worth, it would work 50-75% of the time even if all you had were 18 Intelligence and maximum ranks per level.
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Hey all,
So there's a couple tweaks I'm looking at making and I'd like your input-
1) I'm looking at making several adjustments to the Knight-Scholar, including a bump to full BAB, changing the class name to Warspeaker, and making it Charisma based. Thoughts?
2) Which would you prefer- the option to change the type of element an Edict or Litany uses by increasing the DC, or the ability to learn an Edict multiple times, with a different element associated with each version? There's been a few notes about how limited the system is in some areas and a lack of certain synergies (like the ability to increase fire damage but little ability to deal fire damage), and I think one of these two options will go a long way towards addressing that.
I can't really respond to the second part, but I do think Knight-Scholar is a much cooler name than Warspeaker.
I would prefer it be Charisma based since it's cool to have classes around that don't dump charisma to 7, so part of me wants to say "screw the stereotypes! Call it the Knight Scholar anyway!" Maybe give him bonus skill points based on his Charisma modifier, or let him use charisma instead of int on some int based skills so that he's some sort of charismatic scholar!
Glad to see this project is going to be brought to completion - I like the flavor of it quite a lot and Fax had a great start to it.
Warspeaker, I would say, is better than Knight-Scholar, simply because Knight-Scholar doesn't really have any... it doesn't sound like a class to me, it more sounds like a description of someone. Like say, something that would be said of Saladin or something.
I did playtest this material as a martial focused Advocate (heading to rhetorical blade) for about five to six levels in the Skull and Shackles AP. I found that one issue I had was that I had almost no way to realistically meet the cadences even with an intelligence score of 20. My Tzocatl check bonus was never enough to have any feel that my edicts would ever get improved - it was my assumption that they would just provide the base effect, which is alright, but quickly was falling off. I'm not sure really how to fix this, but I feel that there's something to be said for a little bit more predictability when it comes to using your edicts and improving them - especially with the rules saying that you have to choose which cadences to use before you roll your tzocatl check. I really wanted to light tzocatl, but had a lot of trouble to do that. Often times, I simply felt like a worse fighter that could cast worse spells than if I had been, say, an inquisitor or bard or other d8 class. Not that the Advocate has to match that same balance level, of course. Just an example of how I felt constrained by the checks and rules.
I really wish I could offer some concrete suggestion, but basically all I have was that experience.
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So, planned changes that I'm working on-
1) Removing Tzocatl Training as a class feature and rolling it up with Edicts and Litanies so there's one solid base that all the little pieces of the subsystem can refer directly to. This is largely to streamline things and make the system easier to grasp. Will have a version of what this looks like available shortly.
2) Knight-Scholar is being converted to a Cha-based full-BAB chassis, as I've kind of talked a bit about earlier. As part of this, some of his class features, like Scholarly Knowledge, are being shifted to the Advocate to emphasize that class as "the Intelligence guy" and some new class features, like Warcries, are being written in to take its place. Think of it kind of like the difference between a lecturing professor and a motivational speaker- they both have to know what they're talking about enough to make a point, but one guy uses a huge depth of knowledge and an expansive vocabulary of precise terms, while the other guy uses a narrower lexicon of attention-grabbing keywords. I'm pondering whether or not to have a general rule that you must have a minimum Intelligence score of 10 to make Tzocatl checks at all- I don't want to make classes and archetypes that rely on different mental ability scores too MAD, but I'm also very much against the idea of bumbling idiots who can still pronounce the words that define existence.
3) Minor changes and additions to the core rules and feats to accomodate points 1 and 2.
4) I'm going to be trying out something called Elemental Affinity, similar to the psionic mechanic of active element types. Whenever you learn an edict or litany that interacts with a particular element, the default of that element is always the one selected for your Elemental Affinity, the aspect of creation you are most attuned to based on your character and personality. You can select a different element by increasing the DC of your Tzocatl check by 3, or 5 if the selected element opposes your affinity (so, for example, if your natural affinity is water (cold), you could speak an Edict to instead deal earth (acid) damage with the edict by increasing the check by 3, or you could deal fire damage by increasing the DC by 5. The goal here isn't to turn the Tzocatl characters into yet another type of bender, so I'm not looking at adding many more elemental themed powers, it's to give the Tzocatl system itself some much needed versatility and increased synergy within its own chassis.
5) And of course, archetypes. Bard and Ranger are coming up as soon as I finish my projects on the Advocate and Warspeaker.
I'm working on getting these changes ready for playtest and review now, aiming to get them out to you all ASAP. When I do, I may need to start a new thread so I can take over the OP and post any updated links or similar necessities. If that happens I'll post a link to that new thread here to try and head off any confusion.
This is a super minor complaint, but I can't help but wonder if there is a better name than Tzocatl? Reading it I don't get a "true name" vibe, but more an Aztec vibe, which magically I tend to associate with things like blood magic.
It's just a cosmetic complaint, but I prefer names for major rule components to have a real world/existing word basis. Same reason for preferring Knight-Scholar over Warspeaker.
This is a super minor complaint, but I can't help but wonder if there is a better name than Tzocatl? Reading it I don't get a "true name" vibe, but more an Aztec vibe, which magically I tend to associate with things like blood magic.
Well it IS meant to give an Aztec vibe.
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Well it IS meant to give an Aztec vibe.This is a super minor complaint, but I can't help but wonder if there is a better name than Tzocatl? Reading it I don't get a "true name" vibe, but more an Aztec vibe, which magically I tend to associate with things like blood magic.
It's just a cosmetic complaint, but I prefer names for major rule components to have a real world/existing word basis. Same reason for preferring Knight-Scholar over Warspeaker.
Basically this. It is supposed to have Aztec influences at its core, and any art we add will probably reflect that to one degree or another. That's something that was very central to James' concept and something that Dreamscarred really wants to run with, so I don't see it changing.
While there is a certain amount of "blood and sacrifice" associated with the historical culture of the Aztecs, they also were developing complex written languages and calendars far in advance of what their geographic peers were known to utilize, which is a big part of why they were selected as a primary influence of this project. There's also the fact that their language is so ridiculously complex and full of unexpected vowels and almost incomprehensible grammatical rules and structures that it's fairly easy to convert to a fantasy "language of creation" without making any real changes.
That's actually part of why I want to change the Knight-Scholar to the Warspeaker. Advocate, as a word, doesn't have a whole lot of connotation attached to it, so it's a nice, generic English word that doesn't bring a lot of preconceptions along with it. Conversely, I feel like Knight-Scholar is freaking loaded with connotations and preconceptions, and people will judge the class based on how it conforms to them. I'd rather do something with a nice fantasy ring to it that carries only the connotations I've invested it with, like Warspeaker. Warspeaker is also structured similarly to other Native American concepts that are fairly familiar to the average English speaking audience, like the Navajo windtalkers from World War II, so it also kind of helps support the over-arching theme.
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Much prefer Warspeaker to Knight-Scholar - I agree that the cultural and techno-social specificity of both Knight AND Scholar make them less usable across campaign settings...
Fair enough...I didn't see the background associated with it, and my most recent exposure to "naming magic" was via Patrick Rothfuss's books, so sort of assumed the intended vibe was closer to that.
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Fair enough...I didn't see the background associated with it, and my most recent exposure to "naming magic" was via Patrick Rothfuss's books, so sort of assumed the intended vibe was closer to that.
I love those books. They're actually pretty similar to the way name magic works in Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea novels as well. I definitely want you to be able to go that route with the system if that's the flavor you prefer, but the kind of base flavor, if you will, is going to be Aztec and other Native American influences.