They say that the Earth was a shining jewel. Blue oceans, green forests, and enough food, water, and air that everybody could get what they need. More types of plants and animals than you could count in a thousand lifetimes. In the thousand years we've been travelling the stars, we've never found another one like it.

So we must have had a good reason for leaving it behind, right?

It was so long ago that nobody really knows what happened anymore. I've heard some people say that there was some sort of disaster; the environment turned bad, or maybe a meteor hit us. Or maybe we were invaded by aliens? Or maybe there was a war. Or maybe we just used it all up?

Or maybe, nothing happened to it, and we just left because we wanted to see what was out here! I like that one best. The others are really sad.

Either way, it doesn't really matter anymore. The Starlight Express is our home now!

A thousand years ago, humanity took to the stars, launching three great colony ships out into the great beyond, fleeing some sort of disaster that has been lost to time. Against all odds, these colonies survived and even thrived, and today millions of human souls travel the spacelanes. The original mission of the colonies was to find a new home, but today each of them is an enormous society in itself, and the UEN Space Colony Starlight Express is only home you've ever known.

There's a lot of work involved in keeping this many people fed and breathing in the depths of space, of course, but that's not something you need to worry about yet; right now you're more worried about homework, sports, and navigating the fraught social landscape of middle school.

But all of that is interrupted when a pair of strange fairies quite literally falls out of the sky. The Starlight Express is no stranger to alien visitors, but nobody's ever seen anything like these two; and they've come here from a faraway world on the brink of collapse. A marauding gang of space pirates has been draining the planet dry of life, and they've crossed the stars to find the only thing that can save it: the World Heart, and the legendary warriors who protect it: the Pretty Cures.

Only problem is, none of you have ever heard of a World Heart, or a Pretty Cure. And the pirates that devastated their world have followed in their wake, and are looking to make the Starlight Express their new project. It's all up to you: become Pretty Cure, defend your home, and save two worlds!

The UEN Space Colony, Starlight Express

Hoplite-Class mobile fortress, registration number CNL-0710-D

When the Starlight Express was launched over a thousand years ago, it was a spartan and military vessel, originally designed to take and hold a star system while sustainably hosting a garrison. Some of that is still in evidence in the design of the colony's exterior, and the original blueprints can still be seen, imprinted on a plaque commemorating its launch, in what is now the Command City Hall. But if the engineers who designed and built the Starlight Express could see her now, they wouldn't recognize her. Over the last thousand years, the central habitation ring has been expanded multiple times, and has transformed from a simple oxygen factory and hydroponics farm into an enormous artificial environment mimicking Earth's great outdoors...or, as best as they could, anyway.

Located around the central ring are four main cities, each named for the colony systems that they connect to. There are smaller settlements scattered between them, and even in the habitation ring proper, but the vast majority of the Starlight Express's two million souls live in one of the following:

Command City: The largest settlement in the colony, and the seat of its government. Appropriately, the city is so named because it's connected to the primary bridge, from which the colony's course can be set and its various systems controlled.

Engine Town: The smallest of the four primary settlements, Engine Town is so named because it lies in proximity to the colony's labyrinthine engine rooms. Its occupants are primarily those who work to keep the colony's Space-Time Fold drive and Neutrino Reactors operational.

Cartographer's Rest: Located in proximity to the vessel's Stellar Cartography systems and laboratories, Cartographer's Rest is the seat of research and knowledge aboard the Starlight Express. Boasting the colony's greatest universities, the people who live here work tirelessly to study new phenomena encountered between the stars, and to develop new ways to improve the lives of the colony's occupants

Lifesupportshire: Built around the enormous air reclamation and water purifier units that keep the colony habitable, Lifesupportshire is also home to most of the colony's agricultural workers who keep it fed, as well. it also has a vibrant culinary scene, taking advantage of those fresh-grown crops

In addition to the Starlight Express proper, there is a small fleet of smaller craft that follow in its wake, piggybacking on the colony's enormous fold drives whenever it makes a jump.

Who lives on the Express?

Unsurprisingly, most of the population of the Starlight Express are human descendants of the original colonists, who were drawn from all over the Earth. But humanity has never been alone among the stars, and over the centuries each of humanity's colonies have picked up some additional travellers.

On the Starlight Express, it was decided a long time ago that citizenship would be extended to anyone willing to join it on its journey and abide by its laws. It takes a certain kind of person to commit to a life aboard a space colony, surrounded by strange aliens, as they wander the stars. Still, over time, enough have done just that that the population of the Express is visibly diverse.

Here are examples of some of the types of alien travellers who now call the Starlight Express their home:

Amiliens: The Amiliens are a slender, four-armed species that is heavily integrated into the Starlight Express's population...and most other spacefaring societies besides. For whatever reason, one of this species' strongest social instincts is to build social bonds between groups by exchanging members. So, when they went to space and discovered other spacefaring societies, they rapidly spread out and integrated themselves essentially everywhere in the galaxy that was willing to welcome them. As a result, Amiliens can be found almost everywhere, and make up the bulk of the Starlight Express's non-human population. Immigrant Amiliens retain their family ties from their old home, which means that they're often well-positioned to work as merchants, diplomats, or in other positions where being able to call on those ties would be advantageous.

Maxmans (Pronounced like 'freshman', rather than like 'fresh man'): A long, long time ago, a technologically advanced species created the Maxmans to serve as shock troops in a long-forgotten war. The Maxmans decided that they were not interested in doing any such thing, and today have long since outlived their creators (or so the story goes). Maxmans have pointed ears, brightly colored hair, and in their natural state, a Maxman is 2-3 times the size of an average human. Because this is inconvenient for someone living in a space colony built to a human scale, Maxmans living on the Express almost always undergo a reversible process called minification, which shrinks them down to human size. Ironically, this tends to leave them the size of very short humans...although they're also correspondingly heavy and very strong. All that mass didn't go away, it just got compressed!

Mushijin: The Mushijin don't look that different from humans, apart from the skin color, antennae, and wings. But looks are deceiving; they're actually technically more closely related to insects like bees and ants. Mushijin live in colonies that they construct together, only splitting into a second group when there's no more room for the colony to grow (or, much more rarely, when there is some sort of deep schism within the community). A common misconception about Mushijin is that they have a hive mind which they all obey. The reality is that through electrical signals transmitted through their antennae, a colony of Mushijin can reach a consensus very quickly. In practice it's not much different from a large community meeting to decide the next course of action, with each member of the community participating, except that it happens in minutes rather than the hours or even days that such a meeting would take for a human community, and happens almost completely invisibly to outsiders. Once a consensus is reached, member of the colony will generally defer to it...unless they feel very strongly opposed, of course. Mushijin wings are not quite vestigial, but aren't strong enough to properly fly with; adult Mushijin are only able to maintain a hover for at most thirty seconds. Mushijin children, on the other hand, can flit around with ease, much to everyone's irritation. Mushijin from different colonies are often testy with each other, because their antennae communication only works within a colony, and the signals given off by Mushijin from other colonies are offputting; one described it as like 'listening to nails scraping on a chalkboard, but autotuned to the worst melody you've ever heard'.

What is a Pretty Cure?

To pull back the curtain a little bit, Pretty Cure is a franchise of magical girl anime series. Each runs for a full year, and then is replaced the next year by a new series, with a new cast, in a new setting. They've been doing this for twenty years now.

Because the show is different every year, it's gone through a lot of iterations, but there are a few common themes that show up (almost) every time:

Main cast are in the second year of middle school (by Japanese standards, so 13-14 years old). Some cast may be a bit older or a bit younger but that's where the center of equilibrium lies.

The cast receive the power to transform into Pretty Cure from one or more fairies, which came from some magical world into our own on a mission. Note: it's a different magical world each time.

Pretty Cures (or just 'Cures') have names in the form 'Cure Blank': Cure White, Cure Black, Cure Sky, Cure Mint, Cure Etoile, etc. The second word is always in English or, for some reason, French. Very occasionally Italian. They each also have a color associated with them, sentai-style: a very common team color scheme is Pink, Blue, Yellow, and Purple, with Pink being the group's leader and Purple joining the team later, but this is not universal.

While they may also have a number of magical abilities, the Cures generally also fight their enemies physically, with bare-handed martial arts. Tokusatsu shows like Kamen Rider were a big inspiration for the series.

Corollary: Pretty Cures are strong and can jump VERY high

The villains are intruders from another world, generally a different world from the fairies. They may or may not engage the Cures in combat personally, but whether they do or not they also summon spirits that possess people and everyday objects and turn them into big monsters for the Cures to fight.

After a fight, anything that was damaged during the fighting magically repairs itself

The naming sense is INCREDIBLY on-the-nose. An example: in the original Futari wa Pretty Cure, Cure White's family name is Yukishiro...which in Japanese means 'snow white'. They've met writers who use subtlety, and they think that they're cowards.

For this campaign, the theme words for the cures will be cosmos, discovery, and friendship.

Parabellum Magicis is a tabletop campaign set in an alternate America where magic is as commonplace as electricity is in ours, and where monsters and magical creatures lurk constantly at the fringes of human society. The players will take on the role of freelance monster hunters, keeping humanity safe one fell creature at a time.

The Setting

Magic

The power of magic is the power of imagination, focused by the human mind. Everyone possesses a certain degree of imaginative power, but normally this is insufficient to affect material change on the world around them.

Classically, magic was performed by specially trained mages, who trained their minds to focus their imagination into the proper shapes and concentrations to affect the world around them. Their mind essentially becomes a mold, into which they pour their imaginative power to form it into the proper shape. Many used incantations and rituals as aids, not because these acts carried any intrinsic power, but because reciting a series of words or performing a series of gestures helps them get their mind into the proper shape. More experienced mages may choose to eschew these conveniences, at least for simpler spells.

All of this changed just shy of a hundred and fifty years ago, when an immigrant wizard living in New York devised a system for gathering ambient imaginative power using complex crystal lattices, so that it could be used to power single-function magical artifacts. Although there have been a number of advances since their creation, the same basic principles are still used, and today there are Tesla Leyline Power Stations (named for their original creator) operating all over the world, ushering in a new era of commonplace magic. They gather massive amounts of power that would otherwise simply go to waste, store it in crystalline batteries, and beam it wirelessly to houses and businesses to power magical refrigerators, microwaves, water heaters, and other devices, which come with all the spellwork built into them. Instant magic; just add power.

Traditional mages still exist, of course. In fact, there are more of them than ever, thanks to demand for them to develop and implement new Tesla-powered spellwork. The basic principles of magic are taught in most schools, and although not everyone has the patience and aptitude necessary to learn it, discovering that a friend or neighbour dabbles in magic is not much more unusual than learning that they play the piano or paint - and much like those examples, what’s truly rare is finding someone who has learned enough magic to make a living doing it.

Magical Beings

Humans have the ability to use magic, but magical beings are magic. It’s built into their very beings, the way carbon and hydrogen are built into ours. They take many forms; some are kindly and benevolent, some are wicked and malicious, while still others are wild or mischievous. From fairies to vampires to eldritch beings too alien for the mind to comprehend, magical beings run the whole gamut.

It is commonly believed among experts in the field, although still not proven, that magical beings are created and sustained by a collective human unconsciousness. Known as the Bernhard Hypothesis, this holds that while individual humans need training and focus for their imagination to affect the world around them, large groups of humans may unconsciously use a collective imagination to project these beings into reality, as avatars of social beliefs, fears, anxieties, and traumas. Although this hypothesis is as yet unproven (and, indeed, many critics accuse it of being untestable), it is generally agreed upon as the most likely explanation for the existence of magical creatures.

In recent decades, the number of magical beings has increased precipitously, leading to more and more conflicts with human populations. The exact cause of this increase is not clear, but many have pointed out that the increase coincides with the spread of Tesla Leyline Power Stations and their attendant magical devices, and it has been suggested that the relationship may be causative. This is not nearly as generally-accepted as the Bernhard Hypothesis, however.

Not all magical beings are actively hostile to humans, but many are feral and territorial, and in recent years even those indifferent to humans may have been brought into conflict with them as the number of beings increased dramatically, while the territory available to them shrank. This has led to the rise of the monster hunter as a profession.

Monsters, and Those Who Hunt Them

'Monster' is not a strictly legal category, but rather a subset of magical creatures whose presence is dangerous to nearby human populations. Most of these are feral creatures, but there are some, such as vengeful spirits, which exhibit some intelligence but still cannot safely coexist with human populations.

Monster Hunters are people who manage monster populations for a living. Some are mages, some are demihumans (see below), and some are magical beings themselves. Some are essentially contractors who work to manage known and ongoing infestations, others make their living off of bounties posted and paid for by city and state governments, or sometimes by private individuals. There's never any shortage of work.

The Iowa Exclusion Zone

Forty years ago, an disaster, the nature of which is still unclear, occurred along the banks of the Cedar River in Iowa. Magic-infused mist, emanating out from a point along the river's edge, filled and permeated the surrounding areas, and out of the mist came an incredible number of hostile creatures, attacking anyone they came across. After a series of battles between these creatures and the National Guard, it was decided that the best way to deal with this crisis was to evacuate those still inside the affected areas, including the communities of Palo and Cedar Rapids, and contain the effect by sealing off the area. Army mages erected magical barriers around a circular area about fifty miles across; barriers which are still maintained to this day. Ten years ago the barriers were moved outwards by about a mile; authorities insisted that this was simply the safest way to replace the magical structures that were hastily erected in the middle of a crisis with barriers built to last.

Exactly what happened in Iowa is still unclear. The results of a congressional inquiry were largely redacted, which fueled speculation until the full report was leaked and contained very little that wasn't already public knowledge. Many believe that the incident began at the Tesla Leyline station several miles outside of Cedar Rapids, which had been shut down for maintenance; this theory is borne out by the station being near the center of the exclusion zone, but a lack of a clear explanation after decades of academics considering every possible way a Leyline Station of that model could create such an event, as well as decades of continuous operation by hundreds of similar Stations around the country without any similar occurrences, has somewhat discredited this theory.

Access to the exclusion zone is heavily restricted. There are occasional expeditions into the zone for the purposes of academic research and similar, but they're always rebuffed before they can penetrate more than a few miles. The hostile creatures are still in there, and time has made them no more friendly.

The Mikhailov Process

The first monster hunters were mages, but it soon became apparent that this would not be sufficient as an answer to the increasing monster problem. Mages simply took too long to train, and an aptitude for magic did not necessarily translate into an aptitude for combat.

A solution was discovered by Alexander Mikhailov, a Russian mage, in the mid-twentieth century. Mikhailov was studying vampires and werewolves; magical creatures that can convert regular humans into new versions of themselves. He discovered that, just as magic is performed by shaping imagination in the correct mental mold, magical beings have ‘molds’ that define their forms and powers, which he calls the creature’s ‘essence’. Werewolves and vampires convert humans by overlaying this essence on to their victims’ bodies, inducing transformation. Delving further into this discovery, he developed a method for extracting the essence of any magical being, and applying it to a human body, granting them that creature’s powers. Humans who have been subjected to this process are known as demihumans.

Today, there are any number of variations on the Mikhailov process, each with different outcomes. The top-of-the-line and most expensive procedures, performed by the Mikhailov Institute itself or by similarly prestigious corporations, produces a demihuman that can banish the changes at will, resembling a normal human until their demihuman powers are needed. Cheaper versions of the process may leave permanent changes to the demihuman’s base forms, or even leave them perpetually transformed.

One thing that is constant across all versions of the process is that the body cannot tolerate more than one monster essence being forced upon it. Everyone who has tried to take on a second has died slowly and painfully as the two essences inside them fought for dominance.

The Mikhailov Institute

This transnational organization, a non-profit dedicated to resolving the ongoing monster crisis, was founded by Alexander Mikhailov, the inventor of the Mikhailov process, using funds raised through his wildly successful process. It trains, certifies, employs, and equips hunters all over the world.

Although exactly how monster hunters are certified and regulated depends on region, the Mikhailov Institute has arrangements with nearly every nation-state’s government. A Mikhailov Institute-certified hunter is considered the industry gold standard. A hunter employed directly by the Institute is the diamond standard. They employ an awful lot of badasses.

Fusion

While no one person can handle multiple essences in their body, two demihumans are able to briefly combine their essences, forming a new, third person, with traits from the two originals. This fusion is unstable, and will last only a few minutes before splitting back into the original two demihumans. It’s believed that this process is facilitated by the fact that demihuman bodies have already undergone substantial morphing as part of the Mikhailov process, and as a result are somewhat unstable.

Strictly speaking, the Institute does not recommend this procedure, as it is a new discovery and largely untested. However, this has not stopped its use from becoming widespread among demihumans.

The Game

Parabellum Magicis will be played in Valor. We will be using some prototype rules for fusions between characters. The game will be played over Roll20 via its text chat. The party will be made up of 3-4 players, preferably four.

If you have any interest in playing, let me know by filling in the following form and leaving it in a comment on this page:

"Thousands of years ago, the Builders constructed an enormous monument to their own glory. Using means that are lost to us, they erected a great tower, dozens of kilometers across, stretching from the depths of the earth into the heights of the heavens.

They took up residence within this tower, and used their strange technologies to create lesser species to serve them and maintain the comforts of their civilization. And then, quite abruptly, they vanished, leaving behind their tower and their servant creatures to fend for themselves.

Those servants were, of course, our distant ancestors, and the tower they built is the Tower in which we all live. In truth, nobody knows who the Builders were, why they created us, or why they disappeared. What we do know is that they left behind a boundless hoard of treasures; ours for the taking, if we only have courage enough to claim it." - The Delver's Handbook, 6th Edition, Introduction

Pillars of Heaven is an online tabletop roleplaying campaign that is seeking players. It will be run in text over Roll20, and played in the Valor roleplaying system (with some house rules to allow for loot).

The Tower

This campaign is set within an enormous tower, known simply as The Tower, which was constructed thousands of years ago by a technologically advanced species known as the Builders. The tower is dozens of kilometers across, and impossibly tall. Nobody has ever seen its top. Nobody has ever seen its base. As far as anyone can tell, the Tower stretches on in both directions forever.

Each floor of the Tower is different. Some contain jungles, or rolling plains, or mountain peaks. Others are labyrinths, filled with traps and monsters, while still others contain great engines of unknown purpose. Some floors were created to be one way, but were overrun by a neighbouring climate when the Tower's climate control systems malfunctioned after millennia of disrepair.

The tower is full of danger, from wild beasts to territorial Builder-worshippers to mechanical traps. But it is also, in equal measure, full of treasure; gold and jewels, aye, but also historical artifacts and Builder tech so advanced that it can be better described as magical.

Delvers

The further you travel from Median and its surrounding floors, which have been made safe through no small expenditure of effort and human lives, the more dangerous the journey becomes. But also, the more lucrative. Builder artifacts sell for a pretty penny, to say nothing of precious stones and metals that can be found. More than one technological revolution has been kicked off by the recovery of Builder technology.

The brave souls who journey afield in search of wealth are known as Delvers. Those who venture upwards, towards the heavens, are known as Astral Delvers, while those who descend towards the earth are known as Infernal Delvers. There is wealth aplenty to be found in both directions, and indeed, most Delvers alternate trips above with those below, to mitigate the effect of Time Distortion.

Membership in the Delver's Union is not required to be a Delver, but it helps. Of the services they provide, probably the most helpful is the sale of artifacts on their behalf. Most delvers are not business-minded and have little desire to spend their time hunting for a buyer for the treasures they uncover. Members of the union can bring their discoveries to the nearest Union outpost, where a trained assessor will provide an estimate of their sale value at auction. The delver will receive 50% of this value immediately, with the remaining amount - minus a hefty 20% commission - coming after the final sale. Some delvers prefer to sell their own findings to avoid that 20% fee, while others take commissions from wealthy patrons to seek out specific artifacts, but most simply choose to let the Union take care of the business side and take that immediate payday.

There have been rumors of corruption within the union, of assessors conspiring with buyers to rip off delvers, but no cases of this price-fixing have ever been proven.

Time Distortion

Beyond the traps and monsters and etcetera, the Tower has an additional property that makes Delving dangerous: the higher you climb, the faster time moves. And conversely, the deeper you descend, the slower time moves. Astral Delvers, who climb into the heavens, return to find that hardly any time has passed...but they have still aged beyond their friends and loved ones. Infernal Delvers, who descend towards the earth, return home to find that time has passed them by.

Most Delvers alternate trips above with those below, to try to balance out the effects of the time distortion. But of course, there are those who never return at all. Delve deep enough into the tower, and you will find yourself meeting the survivors of expeditions which set off hundreds of years ago. Climb high enough, and there are rumours of a city of the descendants of a former expedition who, with all that extra time, have cracked the secrets of the ancients’ technologies and wield godlike powers.

Median, The City at the Center of the World

There are many settlements scattered throughout the Tower's many floors, but there is only one true city as far as anybody knows. Median straddles five full floors of the Tower, and is gradually expanding to encompass the surrounding floors as well.

Floor numbers are counted relative to Median’s middle floor, with positive numbers ascending and negative numbers descending.

Floor Zero

Officially, the floor at the very center of Median is floor zero, and the city district contained within it is known as True Center. In practice, however, most people call the floor and the district Midtown, and use True Center as a synecdoche for the city government.

True Center contains the seat of city government. For hundreds of years, the city was ruled by a council of ruling families descended from the city’s founders. Fifty years ago, however, following a widespread famine, the council bowed to public pressure and, in an act of self-preservation, dissolved itself and transferred power to a democratically-elected Assembly. Currently, there are three significant political parties vying for control of the city: the People’s Traditionalist Party, a right-wing party whose leaders are mostly members of the old ruling families, the Liberal Republicans, a socially liberal party popular in the Twos, and the Labour Party, a smaller party which draws on trade unions for its voter base. Power tends to pass back and forth between the Traditionalists and the Liberals, with Labour extracting concessions for their votes on the government’s agenda.

As you may imagine, Midtown is extremely upscale. Only the wealthy can afford a Midtown apartment, let alone own property there. Midtown boasts beautiful parks, cultural centres and museums, and the finest research university in all of Median. If you enjoy the finer things in life, and can afford them, you’ll probably spend a lot of time in Midtown.

The Ones

Although Floors 1 and -1 are very different from one another, they have enough in common that they are often lumped together into a single unit. Both are rural areas devoted to resource production, but each has their own area of specialty. Floor -1 is Median's bread basket, covered in rolling fields of wheat and other crops, while Floor 1 is devoted to mining its mineral wealth and fuel reserves. What they have in common is that both are populated mostly by wealthy landowners and the people they employ to work that land. These landowners form a substantial part of the Traditionalist base, but the Ones also provide a few Assembly seats to the Labour party thanks to the influence of the Farmhands' Guild. The mine owners have thus far managed to successfully resist labor organization, although it feels like it's constantly on the cusp.

The Twos

Floors 2 and -2 were both initially settled for the purposes of industry, but have since grown well beyond that. Floor -2, which is half-covered in ocean (don't ask; as far as anyone can tell it's simply bigger on the inside), was initially settled as a fishing village, to provide delicious seafood to the rest of Median. However, over the past few decades, a number of technology firms have moved into the area, leading to a increased urbanization of the land mass. Floor 2, on the other hand, was developed as an area for industry, and fairly covered in factories, and high-rise apartments containing the workers. For decades, Floor 2 was heavily polluted, but the completion of the Fume Vents, which expel industrial fumes to the tower exterior, have made it much more livable, and lead to a boom in housing construction, as well as an increase in middle-class amenities, including a (smaller, less prestigious) University of their own.

The Outskirts

The five floor comprising Median proper have been completely denuded of treasure as well as traps, but the next few floors afterwards in both directions are mostly, though not entirely cleared out as well. This is frontier land, occupied by the brave and the adventurous, as well as archaeologists from the Delver's Union. There are grants for building on Outskirts land, as well as for people who want to move into it, but there's no mass settlement effort yet, and likely won't be for another few decades at least. The Delver's Union maintains outposts on the outskirt floors, where Delvers can stock up in preparation for their next venture, and turn in their findings for rewards.

The People of Median

There are myriad varieties of people currently occupying Median. In the distant past, the Builders crafted each one to serve them in different areas of their lives. Today, however, nobody is sure exactly what those roles were. There is speculation, of course, and it's the subject of much academic debate, based on physical traits, oral history, and historical documents. But nobody really knows for sure, and unless you're doing a degree in Builder-era history, caring too much about who used to do what is generally seen as unseemly at best.

In the distant past, these different species of humans lived separately, and had limited contact with one another. However, since the founding of Median, this has changed significantly. As many as 20% of Medianites can trace their ancestry back to more than one group; despite their differing appearances and anatomy, the different human species of the Tower are genetically compatible, although conception is often more difficult. The children of such unions may take after one parent or the other, or have a combination of traits from both.

Below is provided a selection of six of the species of human commonly seen in and around Median. Your character may be one of them, or you may invent your own (in which case I as DM will do my best to include them in the pool of NPCs as appropriate), or it may even be that your character is not part of a species, but some sort of singular creation forged for a specific purpose, or recovered by delvers as an artifact, or...you get the idea. Don't be afraid to go wild.

Please note: Your character's species/race/whatever you want to call it has no mechanical implications. There is as much diversity within each group as there are between groups. It's up to you to build your character to reflect the abilities you want them to have. Likewise, feel free to play against type; these descriptions are not intended to be read as universal statements about each human species, but rather a bird's-eye view to help you familiarize yourself with the differences between them.

The Aloi

It's generally believed that the Aloi were created to be the Builders' personal servants. They have four highly-dexterous arms, and tend to be tall (average height of 198 centimetres), slender, and red-skinned. A ridge of bone runs from the bridge of their nose all the way to the back of their neck.

The Aloi are generally non-gendered. Although they do have two sexes, their external appearances are almost identical, and the vast majority of Aloi do not attach a great deal of their identity to their sex. In general, you won't know whether an Aloi is male-sexed or female-sexed unless and until you get them in the bedroom.

The Darman

It's believed that the Darman were created to be the Builders' craftspeople; to do the physical building of the tower and its contents. As such they tend to be tall, with an average height just slightly shorter than the Aloi, and muscular. Two horns jut out from their foreheads, and while their skin comes in all colours, it changes colour towards orange when their emotions run high.

'Darman' means 'child of the forge' in the language of the Builders, and they live up to it; when their emotions are roused, their skin can actually be hot to the touch. This heat is the result of the Darman rapidly metabolizing fat and sugar reserves, generating energy for a burst of strength that leaves them exhausted afterwards. There are even stories of particularly passionate Darman breathing flame, although this is generally regarded as myth.

The Kinder

What role the Kinder played in Builder society is unclear, but it's speculated that they were created as entertainment. They are the shortest of the human species, with the tallest capping out at around 140 cm. Their bodies are covered by a layer of fur, their ears are pointed and positioned on the top of their heads, and they have sharp fangs and retractable claws on their hands.

Kinder are natural acrobats, with powerful leg muscles that allow them to leap surprising distances. They say that a Kinder, launched into the air, will always land on their feet. Actual Kinder, however, tend to disapprove of people trying to prove this hypothesis.

The Kala

The Kala have dry, scaled skin, three fingers to each hand, and an unusually shaped head, with eyes pointing in opposite directions. These eyes can move independently, and a Kala is capable of processing and reacting to images from both directions in parallel, making them exceptional multitaskers. It's believed that the Builders created them to process data on their behalf.

Kala lack the ability to regulate their own body temperature; they thrive in the heat, but tend to get very sleepy and low-energy in cold environments. There's a thriving market in Median for space heaters and other devices to help Kala manage their temperatures.

The Holta

Holta are physically unremarkable; they're not as tall as a Darman or Aloi, but taller than a Kala or Kinder, with skin tones ranging from a dark brown to a pale pink. They are not particularly strong, or particularly dextrous, and they have no remarkable physical abilities. However, they have at their disposal a unique mental power. Holta are born with low-level telepathy, which can be developed into a potent weapon for a disciplined mind. By the time they reach adulthood, all Holta can project their thoughts into the minds of others, and skim surface-level thoughts from the minds of those around them; in fact, during their adolescence, Holta need to learn to filter out the thoughts of those around them. A skilled Holta telepath can do far more, reading memories, detecting truthfulness, even performing mental attacks.

It's unclear why the Builders gave the Holta this ability, but it has been proposed that the Holta were intended as taskmasters over the other servant species.

The Samm

The Samm are the most recent human species to take up residence in Median, and the most unusual. While the other varieties of human are bipedal, the Samm are many-tentacled blobs surrounding a central core covered with eyes and a mouth. Their bodies are extremely soft, and can compress down into incredibly small spaces...which is exactly what the Builders had in mind when they created them. The Samm were created to maintain the Tower's many mechanisms - a task which many Samm perform to this day.

The Samm have their own society which lives inside the external walls and between the floors of the tower. They live among the mechanisms there, and maintain them, just as they have since the age of the Builders.

The other humans only became aware of the existence of the Samm when their construction of the Floor Two Fume Vents brought them into contact with one another. There was a tense confrontation that, thankfully, ended peacefully, with the city government agreeing to pay the Samm for the rights to build the Vents through their territories.

Since then, a number of Samm have chosen to immigrate to the city proper, mostly taking up residence on floor 2. Despite their unusual appearance, scientists have confirmed that the Samm were created from the same base stock as the rest of the human species, and are not fundamentally different from the others.

The Game

Pillars of Heaven will be played in Valor. We will be using some prototype rules for loot and other mechanics that suit the game's flavor. The game will be played over Roll20 via its text chat. The party will be made up of 3-4 players, preferably four.

If you have any interest in playing, let me know by filling in the following form and leaving it in a comment on this page:

The Spaces Between is an upcoming tabletop game, run in Monster Of The Week over Roll20. I will be serving as the GM (or 'Keeper' in Monster of the Week's terminology), and I am looking for 2-3 players to make up our party of monster hunters, who will roadtrip across a monster-infested United States of America, meeting strange folk and solving their supernatural problems, all in the service of tracking down an ancient and impossibly powerful evil and putting an end to it.

The Spaces Between is loosely based on the weekly webcomic Sword Interval by Benjamin Fleuter, but no knowledge of Sword Interval is necessary to play here. I'm taking from it the general concept and aesthetic, but none of the plot or characters.

The World

In many respects, the world of The Spaces Between looks a lot like ours. People have jobs, cities are still standing, and most people's biggest daily concern is getting a good cup of coffee in the morning and making sure their kids make it to soccer practice on time.

But there's a rot creeping in around the edges. This world was always more visibly touched by the supernatural than our own, with Golems fighting in the trenches of the Great War and small towns being built in the skeletons of long-dead giants, but over the past few decades the supernatural has stopped hiding in the shadows altogether. Monster attacks have become regular, the dead don't seem to stay as dead as they used to, and the witches and warlocks of the world grow steadily bolder by the day. What more, it seems like it's getting worse. The center has not fallen apart just yet, but it's hard to see how it'll hold much longer if nothing changes.

Monsters

'Monster' is a catch-all term for hostile supernatural creatures. A ghostie, a goblin, or a golem may not be monster, but if it's a danger to the humans around it, it qualifies. Just about every kind of monster you can imagine exists out there somewhere, from the skin-walkers of Native American folklore to basilisks to youkai, imported from Japan.

Some intelligent creatures live among us - in particular, dragons now represent a fairly large part of the investment market - and there's more than a few small towns that have made a deal with a local Fey creature or god, paying a regular tithe in exchange for protection.

Still, even seemingly benevolent creatures should be dealt with carefully. Even if they look human, they are fundamentally different from us, with alien, even unknowable motivations and goals. They may do harm to those around them without even realizing.

Atlas

Atlas is a secretive organization with agents all across the world. Originally created - at least according to their official publications - as an institution for the study of supernatural phenomena, Atlas has in recent decades reinvented itself as the foremost authority in identifying and disposing of supernatural threats. When monster attacks began sharply increasing, Atlas was a storehouse of expertise in dealing with these new threats, and so it stepped in to protect the people.

That's how Atlas presents itself, anyway. There's a lot about Atlas that nobody knows. They're very quiet, for example, about the organization's history, or where its seemingly bottomless resources come from. And while they may style themselves as the protectors of the common folk, there's large parts of the country that feel ignored by them. Resentment is pretty common.

Here's the facts on what can be confirmed about Atlas: They are at least a century old, but probably older. They have a small army of highly-trained Agents in their employ, and apparently endless funds to keep them equipped. These agents get deployed against major threats, and they pay a bounty to any freelancers who deal with smaller threats that are brought to their attention...as long as they're deemed worthy of notice. Finally, they'll pay a premium for magical artifacts, and for monster body parts with useful properties, like skin-walker hides and dragon teeth.

Monster Hunters

Technically speaking, anyone can be a monster hunter. There's no certification process; if there's a monster causing trouble nearby, grab a shotgun and get to work, and you can call yourself a monster hunter.

In practice, though, any amateur going off half-cocked is liable to get themselves killed. Monster hunting is a dangerous line of work, requiring specialized knowledge, an arsenal of gear and weapons, and the ability to think on your feet. Not to mention a heaping helping of good old-fashioned luck.

Most monster hunters start off learning at the side of a more experienced one, although it's not unheard of for someone to just jump in feet-first and learn on the job. They tend to prefer to work alone, though, or in small groups. It takes a certain kind of personality to want to spend your life hunting fell creatures, and a lot of the time those personalities don't play very well with others.

Freelance hunters make their living by collecting bounties for their quarry. A lot of the time Atlas is the one footing the bill, but it's not uncommon for a town to get fed up waiting for Atlas to notice their problems and pool some money to post a bounty for themselves. Either way, they send notice to the Hunter's Guild (a loose professional organization that mostly serves as a job board), who forwards it on to hunters in the field. Some hunters specialize in particular types of monsters (in particular, there are so many cases of ghost infestation that there are a fair number of hunters who do nothing but bust them), but most just take whatever cases come in front of them.

Magic

Magic is real. Anyone can be taught to do it, although learning takes such dedicated practice that few bother. All it takes is the right words, a medium to act through, and a source of power. Sometimes that power is ripped from the earth, sometimes it's taken from the user's own body.

Magic is dangerous. Used carefully, it's a powerful and versatile skill, but magic abused will run its own course, often with fatal results. Many's the tale of an amateur magician who conjured a servant for themselves by binding a disembodied spirit to an earthen body, only to have their creature turn on them when the binding slipped. Even a simple fire spell can turn into an inferno if not carefully maintained.

That being said, magic is perfectly legal, and Atlas itself keeps a fair number of mages on staff. Just use with care, and bear in mind that anything done by magic that would be a crime if done mundanely...is still a crime.

Witches

Witches are an underground order of magic users who draw their power exclusively from their own bodies and have adopted a common creed: to take what they can and give nothing back. They are thieves, murderers and mercenaries, using their powers as they will for their own self-interest.

Witches usually choose a particular medium to exert their power through, and then specialize in that form of magic. Sometimes this medium is a body part, such as hair, teeth, or blood. Other times, it may be external; a familiar animal, or even flame. Regardless, once a witch has mastered their chosen medium, they tend to adapt it to suit the purposes they are trying to achieve rather than learn a whole new form of magic. They are magical specialists, and each chooses a special name for themselves (typically of the form 'the [adjective] [noun]' reflective of their area of specialty.

Although in casual speech it's common to refer to any female magic user as a witch, the term is only accurately applied to a specific subset of mages who have pledged themselves to the order of witches, which accepts new members only on recommendation from an existing member. That being said, the order is a pretty loosely-knit organization; witches recognize one another as peers and extend all due courtesies, but are generally solitary, working together only when the promised rewards are truly exorbitant.

Despite the name's implications, anyone can be a witch regardless of gender.

Some witches live among us, while others hide in the wilderness and quiet places at the fringes of society. There are only a handful of true witches, but they are powerful, wily, and experts at remaining hidden. Atlas has a substantial standing bounty on all known witches, worth twice as much alive than dead.

The Hanged Man

In a world full to the brim with monsters, The Hanged Man is the monster. Nobody, save perhaps the upper echelons of Atlas, knows where he came from. He's believed to be an ancient warlock, kept alive through dark sorcery, in possession of magical arts unknown to modern mages. Despite his power, he is not invincible; he has been killed several times, in fact. The problem is, it never sticks. Within a few months, he rises again, as powerful as ever.

Just as mysterious as his origins are his goals. The Hanged Man seems to be searching for something, but what and why remain obscure. What is clear is that anyone unlucky enough to be standing between him and his goals will be torn asunder by his magic.

The first appearance of the Hanged Man coincided with the beginning of the uptick in monster attacks, and many members of the public place the blame for the world's current predicament on his shoulders. But is that truly the case, or is the increased monster activity responsible for the Hanged Man's emergence from his slumber?

How to Join

The campaign will begin as soon as my schedule permits, most likely in mid-April. If you want to join, leave a comment to this post, filling in the following form:

The Valorous X-Men takes place in a world much like our own in many ways, but with some pretty significant differences. The nutshell take: the political and social situation of the early 1980s, but with modern technology. So you've got smartphones and the internet, but also the Soviet Union. Online services on the other side of the Iron Curtain are pretty heavily censored, but they do exist, especially in large urban centers like Moscow. Japan's economy is in the middle of a seemingly unstoppable boom. Rap music has not yet hit the mainstream, but is growing in popularity on YouTube. That sort of thing.

Thrown into the mix with this are mutants and other superpowered beings. This is a world in which superheroes and supervillains existed before mutants, but were fewer in number. The basic distinction is: mutants were born with their powers, while other superpowered beings were given their powers by circumstance. Non-mutant supers do not generally face the same kind of targeted discrimination as mutants do, although it's not uncommon for them to be mistaken for mutants. The rise of mutants, however, has meant that societies not only need to deal with greater numbers of super-powered individuals, but that these supers were now becoming a social class unto themselves, with all the upheavals that come with that.

Existing hate groups were quick to jump onto the anti-mutant bandwagon, of course, but whole new organizations have cropped up around the theme, the most prominent of which - at least in the United States - is the American Human Rights Fund, which has chapters in every state and what seems like bottomless pockets thanks to some very wealthy anonymous donors. On the other hand, mutant extremist groups such as the Mutant Revolutionary Army (led by Susanna Kunstler, an old associate of Professor DeGaulle) recruit disgruntled mutants and uses them to terrorize the civilian population, fighting for a mutant separatist agenda.

Most mutants, however, are normal people who simply want to live out their lives.

Significant Figures:

Professor Jules DeGaulle is a world-famous geneticist and advocate for mutant rights, who runs a private academy for gifted children out of his family's estate in upstate New York. Unbeknownst to most of the world, however, he is a mutant himself, with the power to see into the minds of others and influence them psychically, and his 'gifted children' are mutants...and not all of them children. The mansion serves as a safe haven where his students can be themselves while learning to control their powers, and also the base of operations for the X-Men. DeGaulle believes firmly in a future in which humans and mutants can coexist peacefully, and created the X-Men to fight for that future; fight against anti-mutant hate groups as well as those mutants who would misuse their powers.

Susanna Kunstler is the leader of the Mutant Revolutionary Army (the world's most prominent mutant terrorist group), and also the world's most wanted woman. Two years ago, she shot to the top of that list by attempting to use her powers over tectonic forces to publicly assassinate the President of the United States - a plot which the X-Men narrowly prevented. She's lain low since then, although her organization is as active as ever, and she pops up every now and then to cause trouble. She and Professor DeGaulle were friends and confidants a long time ago, but they went their separate ways when it became clear that she did not share his desire for peace, nor his scruples concerning human life. She believes that peaceful coexistence is impossible, and that the only solution is a separate nation just for mutants - created by force, if necessary. An incredibly powerful mutant, Kunstler has control over the inner workings of the earth itself, and uses them to great effect.

Player Characters

Given all of that, who are your characters? Well, for one thing, they should be new to the X-Men, and probably to the school in general. I'd like to have a maximum of one character who is already a member of the X-Men when the game starts. The player of this character will have a little extra to do, plotting-wise. If nobody wants to play a character in that role, that's fine too! Just, a maximum of one.

They should be a mutant, and in most cases relatively young - the school does work with adult mutants as well, but they're the exception rather than the rule. They can come from anywhere in the world, and in fact I'd like to have representation by a bunch of different nationalities if possible.

Outside of that, go nuts! I'd like for everyone to submit a character backstory and short questionnaire to me before the game begins; find the template for that here. You can share this with the other players if you want, but you can keep it secret too, just let me know if you do so I'll know to keep my big mouth shut.

Mutants. Homo Superior. Humans born with extraordinary powers, which manifest at puberty. Some say they are the next step in evolution, a replacement for old-fashioned homo sapiens. Others call them divine punishment for modern man's hubris. Nobody knows where their powers come from, but since the world became aware of their existence twenty years ago, they have been the subject of prejudice and fear across the world, with tensions only exacerbated by the appearance of mutant terrorists, who use their powers to cause destruction in the name of mutant liberation.

Cut to: Salem Center, in Westchester County, New York. As you pull up to the laneway to a stately old manor, you see the sign by the gate: DeGaulle's School For Gifted Youngsters. As far as the rest of the world is concerned, this is a simple private academy, founded and administered by the wealthy Professor Jules DeGaulle, world-renowned geneticist and advocate for mutant rights. Secretly, however, the name is a euphemism: the students and headmaster alike are all mutants, and in addition to the usual school subjects, they learn how to control their mutant abilities, and how to cope in a world not yet ready to accept them.

And whenever humans threaten mutants, or mutants abuse their powers over humans, the students of Xavier's institute will be there, ready to fight for a future in which human and mutant can co-exist peacefully. They are...The Valorous X-Men!

What is this?

This is an online tabletop campaign based on Chris Claremont's iconic (and frequently goofy) run on Uncanny X-Men. It'll be run in Valor, an indie roleplaying system built for big dumb action and super character customization.

I've never played Valor! Or any roleplaying game, for that matter!

Don't worry! I'll provide all players who don't already have it with a copy of the Valor PDF, and guidance on how to make your character and play. I love this system a lot and it's my pleasure to push it onto new people!

I don't know jack shit about the X-Men!

That's fine, too! All I'm actually taking from Claremont's X-Men is the tone, the name, and the basic concept. All the characters and stories will be different. No familiarity with the events of any X-Men comic is required.

I want to play! What should I do?

Respond to this post with the following form:

"We stand today on the edge of a New Frontier — the frontier of the 1960s, the frontier of unknown opportunities and perils, the frontier of unfilled hopes and unfilled threats...The New Frontier is here whether we seek it or not. Beyond that frontier are uncharted areas of science and space, unsolved problems of peace and war, unconquered problems of ignorance and prejudice, unanswered questions of poverty and surplus."

Ten years ago, in 1948, it was a golden age of superheroes in America. Brilliantly colored, superhumanly powerful, endlessly courageous, they saved thousands of lives and inspired hundreds of thousands more. But as the Cold War intensified, and tensions rose across the world, these supermen and superwomen were not immune to the political climate. The golden age of superheroes came to an end with the Bradley Act, which required that all superheroes register with the FBI and be approved by the House Un-American Activities Committee, or be subject to charges equivalent to treason. With only a handful of exceptions, the superheroes of old chose to retire rather than participate in this new social order.

But the winds of change are blowing again. It's an age of scientific discovery, of social upheaval, and new heroes are rising to meet the challenges of this new era. If the golden age has come to an end, then a new, silver age is beginning. And not a moment too soon, for something else is blowing in the wind as well: something impossibly old and impossibly powerful is rising, and humankind will need all of its heroes if it is to survive.

Details

The Valorous Frontier is a tabletop campaign based on DC: The New Frontier by Darwyn Cooke and run in Valor (with some basic rebalancing house rules). Players will take on the role of new Superheroes in the tradition of of DC Comics' silver age heroes (Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, The Flash) in the final years of the 1950s, taking up the mantle from a generation of Golden-agers.

I'm looking for 3-4 players. This is an interest post for the future; I won't be able to actually run this campaign until a couple of the ones I'm in right now end, which will probably be a few months from now.

Interested?

If you're interested in playing, leave a comment on this post with the following information:

1. Name
2. If your availability is stable and you know what it'll be in 3 months or so, leave it. Otherwise, don't worry about it.
3. A character concept or two. Or three. Or four. There's really no limit!
4. Any questions you might have, or the word 'tweak' if you have none.
5. A picture of someone who is definitely a superhero in civilian clothes.

"Your world is now CON-NEC-TED. Welcome to Psyren."

It seems like a dumb joke when you first hear of it. A secret society responsible for hundreds of disappearances across the world, led by someone with a name as dumb as 'Nemesis Q'? And the only way to get in touch with them is by using a special red phone card in a pay phone? Ridiculous. But that's how the story of The Secret Society of Psyren goes. And while you may be sure that it's just a dumb urban legend, one thing about it's for real: a wealthy woman offering a million dollar reward for anyone who can find her information about it.

And then you find yourself in possession of one of those red cards. Maybe you're in it for the money. Maybe you have some other reason. But regardless of the reason, when you decide to actually use it, you're drawn into a twisted game: transported to a monster-infested hellscape, forced to make your way from one payphone to another in order to get back to your world. And you have to do this again and again.

What's worse, though, is what you realize shortly after this begins. The world of Psyren isn't an alien world at all; it's the future of our world, and a mere ten years away at that. In the next ten years, something is going to happen that wipes out human civilization altogether. And it's up to you to figure out what and put a stop to it.

Details

Psyren Valor is a tabletop campaign based on the manga series Psyren by Toshiaki Iwashiro and run in Valor using the unofficial errata (just some rebalancing house rules). Play will be done in text over Roll20. Players take on the role of characters who are repeatedly drawn ten years into the future, when human civilization has ended and the world is a monster-infested wasteland. Using psychic powers granted to them by the journey, they need to survive the wilds of the future while also trying to to figure out what happened to the world, and how they can prevent it in the present.

If you're interested in playing, leave a comment on this post with the following information:

Vancouver

The eighth-largest city in Canada and the largest in the province of British Columbia, this coastal seaport city on the West Coast is home to more than 600,000 people. Repeatedly ranked as one of the top five most livable cities in the world, and host of the 2010 Olympic games, it's a pretty sweet place to live, all told, although like any other city it has its dark side, like the drug-addled Downtown Eastside district. Major industries include lumber, its bustling seaport, and film; lots of Hollywood movies are actually shot in Vancouver.

In most respects, the city of Vancouver as seen in Valor Trigger is the same as the real-life city, but with one big exception: the West End has been more or less leveled, and in the center of the field of rubble stands the BDA Headquarters complex, seven stories tall and as broad as several city blocks. The destruction zone is surrounded by another zone of empty houses, the people who lived there relocated to other parts of the city for their own safety.

Despite this, and despite the fact that the city technically comes under attack every couple of days, life in Vancouver has more or less returned to normal. That's not to say that the attacks haven't left their scars; if you were looking, it wouldn't take you long to find someone who had lost a family member in the big attack, or been injured, or lost their home. But the threat is so thoroughly contained by the BDA that normality has more or less asserted itself over the rest of the city.

The biggest difference between our Vancouver and this Vancouver is, of course, the presence of the BDA. Not only physically, but also culturally; the BDA holds voluntary recruitment sessions at local schools, successful agents can become minor local celebrities, and in recent years the Rank Wars - a tournament of mock-battles between squads, with rank and advancement on the line - have been televised as a wildly successful spectator sport.

Trion, Triggers, and Side Effects

Right next to the human heart is an invisible organ called the Trion Gland, which produces a form of energy called Trion. That Trion is what is used to power Triggers, weapons adapted from neighbour technology and used by BDA agents to defend the earth.

One's trion gland can be strong or weak, and you can strengthen it through heavy use. However, around the age of 21 it stops growing altogether, so you want to start working on it young.

People with really strong Trion sometimes develop what's called a Side Effect, which occurs when all that extra trion starts interacting with the brain. Side Effects are some kind of enhanced perception, which might be as minor as improved hearing or as major as the ability to see the future.

The Border Defense Agency

The details of the BDA's origins are not well-known to the public, or even to most of its agents. What is generally known is that they were a private group researching trigger technology long before the big invasion. They somehow knew about the existence of Neighbours and triggers before anybody else did, and when the Neighbours invaded en masse they rose to the occasion, beating back the invaders and saving countless lives.

In the aftermath of the invasion, the Canadian government was left in an awkward position. They now had a paramilitary group operating openly on Canadian soil, which they obviously couldn't let stand, but the BDA was not willing to hand their technology over to the government. They couldn't easily take it from them either; conventional weapons are just as ineffective against Trigger-users as they are against Neighbours. Given time and sufficient manpower, they could perhaps wear them down eventually, but nobody wanted to stick their hands into that hornet's nest...especially given that another Neighbour invasion could come at any time, and as the heroes of the hour any sustained military action against them would be politically unpopular.

The solution, arrived at after weeks of tense negotiation, was to legitimize them. The BDA was folded into the Canadian Armed Forces, receiving official status and government funding, contingent on them accepting the authority of the Prime Minister and the Queen's Governor General. In practice, however, the BDA's internal operations are pretty much completely autonomous, and their structure is nothing like any other branch of the military. Their official status is merely a fig leaf to allow them to continue operating without damaging Canada's sovereignty. The only real leverage the government has over their actions is threatening to slash their funding. It's an uncomfortable compromise that nobody's really happy with, but it's the best anyone's got.

The effect of this was to allow the BDA to expand massively. Within a few years they had constructed an large base, as well as several branch offices in the surrounding areas, and recruited more than a hundred full agents, with even more trainees under them.

The BDA may technically be part of the military, but it's sure not structured like one. There are two basic divisions: Support and Combatants, and within those divisions agents are broken up into four rankings: S-Rank, A-Rank, B-Rank, and C-Rank. Because the Trion gland, the invisible body part which produces the energy which makes Triggers work, grows the more it's used until you're about 21 years old, the BDA tries to recruit young, so that its agents will have more opportunity for growth. Most are recruited at the age of 14-15, although there's occasionally been recruits as young as twelve.

C-Rank, which makes up the majority of BDA agents, is made up of trainees who have yet to earn their wings. They are issued a basic trigger which does not have bailout functionality and is equipped with only one combatant trigger. They are not permitted to use these triggers off-base without permission. In order to move up to B-Rank, they need to earn it by participating in weekly training exercises and doing mock one-on-one fights with other C-Rankers. While in C-Rank, agents are monitored for performance. Those who have good combat instincts and trion levels are directed towards the Combatant stream, while those whose talents lie elsewhere are directed towards the Support stream.

Once a C-Rank agent has demonstrated sufficient individual proficiency, they are promoted to B-Rank, and become a full agent. B-Rank agents are organized into squads (generally consisting of three or four combatants and one operator who coordinates them), and participate in defense patrols of the Emergence Zone around HQ, earning cash rewards for each Neighbour taken out. Once you get to this level, your individual skill rating doesn't matter much, although many B-Rank and above agents do continue to participate in solo contests for bragging rights or just for fun. Instead, rank within B-Rank is decided through regular mock-battle tournaments known as Rank Wars between the different B-Rank squads. For the past year or so these tournaments have been televised and have become a wildly popular spectator sport.

At the end of a Rank Wars season, the top two B-Rank teams get a chance to challenge A-rank squads for a chance at promotion to A-Rank. It doesn't work out very often. A-Rank are the elites of the elites, the top 5% or so of all agents within Border. Generally speaking, every A-Rank agent is at least strong enough individually to be the ace combatant for a mid-level B-rank squad. Breaking into A-Rank is hard, but it comes with substantial rewards: A-Rank agents receive a regular salary in addition to the usual bounties for taking out Neighbours, are able to customize their triggers and have access to new prototype triggers that aren't approved for mass production yet. Also, everyone will talk about how cool you are. Rank within A-Rank is decided in much the same way as for B-Rank agents, with a separate tournament running in parallel.

S-Rank agents are a category apart. This designation is given to those who use one of the BDA's two Black Triggers. Black Triggers are special and incredibly powerful weapons which can only be used by someone who is compatible with its creator's personality. S-Rank agents do not fight in squads or participate in Rank Wars. They just hang out and tear shit up when Neighbours come a-calling.

Above all the agents are the administration; the Commander-In-Chief, HQ and Branch Commanders, and a board of directors. They're mostly old and kind of grouchy, and they handle policy and strategic decisions for the whole of the BDA, as well as liase with the Canadian Government. Some, though certainly not all, of them were agents during the pre-invasion days, now retired from field duty.

Neighbours

Nobody knows for sure how long the Earth has been a target for Neighbour attacks, since prior to the first large-scale invasion they were usually low-key and stealthy. As far as the population at large is concerned, in fact, Neighbours are just white-colored monsters who come through from gates to other worlds in order to attack and abduct us. Most people never put any thought into why they do that, or what it's like on the other side of a portal. They certainly wouldn't guess that the people on the other side are just regular people like us.

Imagine a world where nations are not divided by border, but by an infinite black space. Planet-nations, as they're called, move through this blackness in orbital patterns. When two nations come close enough, they can send ships back and forth until they travel too far. Got that in your mind? Well, that's more or less what the Neighbourhood looks like.

These planet-nations are constantly at war with one another. Resources are scarce in the Neighbourhood, and whenever two planet-nations come into each other's range, you can bet that they'll send forces to attack each other to try and take some of theirs. The most valuable resources are people with strong Trion: while on Earth, Triggers are used exclusively as weapons, in the Neighbourhood they are also used for everything from construction to agriculture, and having more people with strong Trion in your nation gives you a big leg up over your rivals. The objective of most Neighbour invasions, then, whether towards Earth or other planet-nations, is to acquire trion; those with strong trion glands are abducted and taken back with them, while those whose trion is weak, they harvest the trion gland directly and leave the body behind.

Because launching these expeditions costs Trion in itself, it's not usually efficient to send people. This is why almost all Neighbours encountered here on Earth are 'monsters'; these autonomous trion soldiers are disposable units created from capsules no larger than an egg, which makes them cheap to transport between worlds. If a humanoid neighbour is deployed, you know they mean business, and that person is probably going to be tough as hell.

This post is a breakdown of the weapons and tools available to BDA agents, and some suggestions on what their Valor equivalents would be! Although BDA agents' loadouts are pretty standardized, these tools can be combined in a variety of unique ways, so I suggest that if you're not familiar with World Trigger's weapons and systems, you model your techniques in Valor first, and then afterwards look at what weapons and tools would be a good match.

Important Note: The contents of this post are intended to be descriptive, not proscriptive. Part of the charm of World Trigger is that the heros (mostly) use a standardized set of mass-produced weapons, but their personal styles come through in how they use them. This guide is here as a starting point to try to capture that feeling, but: I get to make up that standardized power set, and I can include whatever I want in it. So, if you have something in mind and you can't see any way here to capture it, talk to me. This guide is not here to limit you in any way.

And if you find the amount of information overwhelming, feel free to ask for help and it will be my pleasure to work with you. You should probably read the first two sections, though.

Triggers and Trion Bodies: The Basics

Fundamentally, Triggers are weapons powered by Trion - a special energy people generate using an invisible gland located near their heart. If your Trion gland is robust, you'll be able to get more out of your Triggers. Fortunately, the more you use your Trion, the stronger this gland becomes...although it stops growing at around age 21, which is why the BDA starts recruiting so young; they want to give their agents as much time to develop as possible.

When you activate a Trigger, it swaps out your body with a Combat Body made of trion. Your regular squishy form is safely tucked away in a pocket dimension and your consciousness takes control of the Combat Body, which is impervious to conventional weapons and super strong. When you deactivate the Trigger, or if your Trion body is destroyed, you swap back.

Normally, these Combat Bodies just look like your regular body but in a uniform, but technically they can be anything you want, and some people do make cosmetic adjustments, like shorter hair. It's generally recommended that the Combat Body be fairly close in shape and size to your real body, though, since the last thing you want in the middle of combat is to be disoriented by a body you aren't used to. Any illness or disability the user has is not carried over to the combat body; if you see a BDA agent in glasses, they're just for show.

The Triggers themselves take the form of small chips, which you slot into a holder small enough to be held in your hand, like so:

Each chip corresponds to a tool or weapon. Standard BDA trigger holders can hold up to eight of these chips, four to a hand, and you can switch between them at will. Technically you can only use two triggers at a time, and they have to be assigned to different hands to do so, but...honestly I'm not going to bother keeping track. If you want to map out your character's full trigger sets then more power to you, but mechanically it's not going to mean anything.

Bailout

When a trion body is destroyed, the user's real body gets unceremoniously dumped out on the spot where it was taken out. If that spot happens to be in the middle of a combat zone, the now squishy and vulnerable trigger user is liable to die for real. Fortunately, the BDA's engineers have found a solution to this problem, which they've named the Bailout system. When a BDA agent goes down, Bailout automatically activates, and uses the last of their Trion to send them shooting across the battlefield into another agent's Trigger. They are stored safely in the recipient's trigger, running repair protocols until they are able to safely emerge once again. Agents can also manually activate this system, which will self-destruct their combat body and send them shooting away.

Bailout's incredibly useful, but it's not perfect. For one thing, it has a limited range; you need to be within a certain distance of another agent, or it won't work. It also takes a big chunk of the user's trion when equipped, and won't protect you from getting, say, captured unless you manually activate it. Still, it'll probably save your life at some point, so I wouldn't tamper with it if I were you.

Mechanical effect: When BDA-affiliated characters are brought below 0 HP, at the end of their next turn after one full round passes they are removed from the battlefield if there is an ally within five spaces. If there is no ally within five spaces at that time, their civilian body gets dumped out in the middle of a combat scene, and can be targeted and killed by enemies. The exact mechanical effect of that is yet to be determined, but it means you're out of the fight but still vulnerable. Either way, they cannot be revived for this scene after this point.

Once your combat body's destroyed, it takes time to make a new one. The amount of time required depends on how much Trion you have, with lower-Trion people returning to the battlefield sooner.

Weapons

Weapons are broken down into three basic categories: Attacker, Shooter/Gunner, and Sniper. Attacker weapons are melee weapons, Shooter/Gunner weapons fire bullets at midrange, and Sniper rifles fire bullets at long range. BDA agents are officially classified according to which type of weapon they've best mastered, with the title of All-Rounder going to those agents who are proficient in more than one kind.

Attacker

Attackers are the guys who get right up in your face and apply pressure. Attacker triggers are blades of concentrated Trion which will slice right through shields and bodies alike. Agents with lower Trion values often become attackers, because they (hopefully) will only need to spend Trion on their weapon once, but it takes good reflexes and a lot of guts to close the distance and get right up in an enemy's face.

There are three Attacker triggers: The Kogetsu, the Scorpion, and the Raygust.

01. Kogetsu

Kogetsu is just a regular old sword. It doesn't have any particular special attributes (apart from the Whirlwind sub-trigger, but we'll get to that in a moment), and can't change shape or be put away once activated (unless you want to spend the trion to make a whole new one the next time you need one), but it's sturdy, reliable, and simple to use, which means it's the most popular of the three attacker triggers. As useful on offense as on defense, the Kogetsu is a strong all-around tool.

Although the default shape for the Kogetsu is a slightly curved sword, there's no reason why it couldn't be a spear, an axe, or even a Bat'leth if you really wanted. The shape has to be set when the trigger chip is implanted in the holder, though, so you can't change shape on the fly.

Suggested Attributes: STR, AGI
Suggested Tech Modifiers: Whirlwind, Rush Attack

01b. Kogetsu: Whirlwind

Kogetsu doesn't have any special properties of its own, but if used in conjunction with another trigger, the Whirlwind, it gives attackers a ranged option. The Whirlwind allows the user to spend trion in order to extend the blade, resulting in ranged slashes.

Here's the unnecessarily detailed nitty-gritty of how it works. When you activate Whirlwind, it spends trion to put a buff on your Kogetsu for a short period of time - usually 1.5 seconds. Any swings you make during this time period will be extended and turn into a ranged attack, with the range of the swing being inversely proportional to the buff duration. So if you set your Whirlwind to activate for 1.5 seconds you get a 15 meter slash, if you set it to a 0.5 second active period you get 45 meters...but in exchange it's harder to use, because the timing is more demanding.

Did you not read or follow that? Don't worry, it's not anything you actually need to know. Just know that the Whirlwind lets attackers spend trion to make ranged attacks. It'll never be as good as a proper mid-ranged combatant, but it can help close the gap.

Suggested Tech Modifiers: Ranged attack, Line Attack, Muscular Strike, Destruction, Ranged AND line attack
Suggested Tech Limits: Immobile
Suggested Skills: Empower Attack

02. Scorpion

Taking second place in terms of popularity, Scorpion trades power and durability for lightness and flexibility. The Scorpion can take any shape the user wants, and can be altered at will. You also don't necessarily need to hold it in your hand; it can emerge from any part of your body. Fun tricks you can pull with this trigger include having it pop out of your body in unexpected places, running it through the ground or a wall and having it emerge near your enemy, and using it as a replacement for a lost leg. Unfortunately, the trade-off for this flexibility is that the Scorpion is fragile, and not well-suited to defense.

If you take two Scorpions and use them together, it turns into a long whip-like blade called the Mantis, which you can use to strike at enemies from a distance (although this is hard to aim and does leave you open for reprisals, so most people don't bother). The Scorpion, all told, is the weapon of choice for agile fighters.

Suggested Attributes: AGI
Suggested Tech Modifiers: Ranged attack, Dextrous Strike, Multiple Targets, Accurate Strike, Piercing Strike, Rush Attack
Suggested Skills: Reckless Attack, Feint, Versatile Fighter, Dirty Trick

03. Raygust

The Raygust is the final and most unusual of the attacker triggers. The Raygust itself is a small round-edged handle the user holds in his hand. This handle projects a transparent trion blade around itself, which can be shaped according to the user's needs. Unlike the Scorpion, however, which rapidly becomes brittle as it's extended over long distances, the Raygust is solid and durable. As a result, most of the time it actually takes the form of a shield the user can hide behind.

The Raygust is heavy and difficult to use as an offensive weapon, so it's not very popular, but it's a flexible tool well-suited for defense, especially when combined with the Thruster subtrigger, which lets you use your Raygust like a rocket engine.

Suggested Attributes: STR, GUTS
Suggested Skills: Cover, Counterattack, Interrupt Attack, Push Away, Versatile Fighter, Unmovable
Suggested Tech Limits: Mercy, Initiative

03b. Thruster

Not everyone who uses Kogetsu takes the Whirlwind attachment, but if you're going to be using Raygust, you're going to want to use Thruster as well. Turn it on and it'll start turning your trion into forward momentum. You can use it for mobility, use it to turn the Raygust into a decent thrown weapon, or even use it to shove an enemy away from you. The Thruster turns the Raygust from a poor man's shield trigger to a truly flexible tool.

Suggested Tech Modifiers: Ramming Attack, Dash, Reposition, Throw, Ranged Attack, Launching Attack
Suggested Tech Limit: Push

Shooter/Gunner

Shooters and Gunners are the BDA's mid-ranged combatants. They use fundamentally the same Triggers, but in different ways: Gunners use weapons which look conventional firearms (everything from a pistol to a semi-automatic rifle) while Shooters generate their bullets themselves, in the form of trion cubes which hover around them until set off. Shooters have more flexibility, since they can manipulate their bullets before they actually fire off, allowing them to pull off all kinds of tricks. However, Gunner weapons get about 20% better range than their shooter counterparts thanks to the gun form.

There are four Shooter triggers: the Asteroid, the Hound, the Viper, and the Meteor.

01. Asteroid

Asteroid is a very basic bullet. You fire it off, it travels in a straight line until it hits something or dissipates at the edge of its range. It does have one interesting property, though: the user can modify its power, range, and speed of travel on the fly. Drop the range and increase the power, and you've got a shotgun blast. Increase the range and drop the speed, and you have a high-calibre rifle round. Naturally, the higher those parameters, the more Trion the bullet will take to generate, so it's a tradeoff game.

Suggested Attributes: SPR, MIN
Suggested Tech Modifiers:Ranged, Multiple Targets, Aura Strike

02. Hound

Hound is the BDA's fire-and-forget bullet. Once launched, the bullet's path will bend towards the target it was set on, automatically homing in. It's not that smart of a bullet, mind, and has a fairly large turning radius, so it's not that hard to dodge. As a result, this bullet rarely gets a lot of kills on its own. It's still popular, however, because it forces your opponent into a defensive stance; either they shield up or they start moving, either way creating an opening you can exploit. A fair number of attackers will take Hound along to keep their opponents distracted while they chase them down.

Suggested Attributes: SPR
Suggested Tech Modifiers: Ranged, Persistent Effect, Aura Strike
Suggested Limits: Minimum Range

03. Viper

Viper is a directed bullet. Whereas Hound curves automatically towards the enemy, Viper follows a path programmed by the user upon firing, and follows that path perfectly until it either reaches the end or hits something. Viper bullets are clearly identifiable by their sharp angular paths.

Most people who use Viper just have a handful of preprogrammed bullet paths, and they choose between them at the time of use. However, a small handful of particularly gifted agents are able to program these routes on the fly, allowing for them to create precise bullet patterns tailored for the circumstances.

Suggested Attribute: MIN
Suggested Tech Modifiers: Ranged, Multiple Targets, Indirect Attack, Line Variation, Smart Area of Effect

04. Meteor

The other bullets are just that, bullets. Meteor is a rocket-propelled grenade. It's the slowest of the four bullets, and the most Trion-expensive, but also the most powerful, with each bullet generating a powerful blast. If you take a direct hit from a Meteor shot, you're probably dead, so it's a good thing it's so slow and easy to dodge. Even so, Meteor's presence on the battlefield demands respect.

Suggested Attribute: SPR
Suggested Tech Modifiers: Ranged, Blast Radius, Reposition, Destruction,
Suggested Tech Limits: Push, Ammunition Limit

Special Case: Composite Bullets

If a shooter generates two bullet-cubes at once, and then smushes them together, the resulting cube will be a composite bullet with the properties of both components. Composite bullets are extremely powerful, but they're very trion-expensive. Furthermore, creating them takes time and leaves the user vulnerable (since if they have two shooter triggers active, they can't use their shield at the same time), so they're the domain of expert shooters, and not used that often. I'm not going into detail about these bullets' properties, but I'll list the ones we have official names for. Feel free to use these or come up with others!

Suggested Limits: Reload Limit, Immobile Limit, Ammunition Limit, Slow Limit
Suggested Skills: Reckless Attack

Asteroid + Asteroid = Gimlet (Armor-Piercing)
Viper + Meteor = Tomahawk (Guided Bombs)
Hound + Meteor = Salamander (Homing Bomb)
Asteroid + Viper = Cobra (Properties Unknown)
Hound + Hound = Hornet (Homing bullets with a narrow turning radius, very difficult to evade)

Sniper

Snipers are, as you might imagine, the BDA's long-range combatants. Ideally, Snipers don't want to ever be in the line of fire; running and hiding is as important a part of this group's skillset as shooting. Some snipers carry attacker or shooter triggers as well, so that they can fight back if pressured by opponents, while others go for a full sniper kit and are forced to play extra-cautious. Whatever the case, Snipers are powerful but can get chased down very quickly once their position is revealed, so be careful!

There are three sniper triggers; The Egret, the Ibis, and the Lightning. Each of them has a special property that increases the more trion you pour into it.

01. Egret

The Egret is a standard run-of-the-mill scoped rifle. The rounds it fires are powerful enough to blow a hole in someone, but not strong enough to do much environmental damage. The Egret rewards precision and careful aim.

The Egret's standout feature is its effective range. In fact, the more trion the sniper has, the more range it'll have. With careful aim, you can pick enemies off from extreme distances.

Suggested Attributes: SPR, MIN
Suggested Tech Modifiers: Ranged Attack, Accurate Strike, Ranged Interrupt
Suggested Limits: Minimum Range
Suggested Skills: Extended Range

02. Ibis

The Ibis is an anti-material rifle. The bullets it fires are slow but powerful. It's difficult to use as a sniper rifle against nimble opponents, but if you can land a hit it'll go straight through their shields. Generally, it's used against larger, slower Neighbour soldiers. For expert snipers, however, it's possible to use data about your surroundings and your opponents' position to shoot them straight through walls.

The Ibis's standout feature is its power. The more trion you put into it, the more powerful its shot becomes. In very extreme cases, it might become a shockingly powerful cannons.

Suggested Attributes: SPR, MIN
Suggested Limits: Minimum Range, Set-up
Suggested Tech Modifiers: Ranged Attack, Piercing Attack, Destructive, Line Attack, Indirect Attack

03. Lightning

The Lightning is a mid-to-long range rifle. Unlike the other two sniper rifles, which look more or less like conventional weapons, this one looks weirdly sci-fi. It doesn't have the Egret's range or the Ibis' power, but the Lightning has its own speciality: bullet speed. The more trion you pump into it, the faster the bullets come flying out. Good for harassing enemies at range, or for use in firefights.

Suggested Attributes: SPR
Suggested Tech Modifiers: Ranged, Multiple Targets

Utility and Special Triggers

Triggers aren't just for opening up holes in other people and letting all the juices out. The triggers in this category are designed to move you, protect you, or otherwise help you with miscellaneous tasks. Some of them have combat applications, and some don't, but none of them are straightforward weapons.

01. Grasshopper

This special trigger lets you create a bounce pad. Anything that touches the pad will be sent flying at an angle perpendicular to the pad's surface. Mostly people use this to give themselves momentum in a given direction, but you can also use it to give your allies a boost, launch rubble around, or even trick enemies into stepping on it.

Suggested Tech Modifiers: Dash, Reposition (Push)
Suggested Skills: Nimble Movement, Jump, Rolling Recovery, Swift Step

02. Spider

When you active this trigger, it creates a small trion cube with a tiny harpoon on either side. When you fire this tiny bullet, the harpoons shoot out and attach into whatever they hit, connecting two points with a wire. The wire color can be adjusted at will, and you can coordinate with your squad's Operator to make sure that your allies can see the wires clearly, while enemies will find it more difficult. Although it's rare for a wire trap to catch a combatant directly if they're expecting it, just knowing that the wires are present will slow enemies down and force them to proceed carefully. You can also attach shooter triggers (most commonly Meteor) to wires so that they trigger when the wire is tripped. Furthermore, light and agile combatants can swing on the wires and use them to enhance their mobility.

Suggested Tech Modifiers: Terrain Disruption
Suggested Skills: Attack Node

03. Shield

Shield is such a fundamental trigger that pretty much every BDA agent uses it. When activated, it generates a transparent hexagonal shield made of trion in energy form. The more trion the user had, the stronger the shield will be. The size of the shield is inversely proportional to its strength, so it's common practice to defend against powerful shots with small, precisely positioned shields. You can also have the shield appear anywhere you want in about a 20 meter radius, so you can use it to cover your allies...so long as you don't mind leaving yourself vulnerable.

Suggested Skills: Cover
Suggested Overdrives: Teamwork on defense rolls

04. Radar

A trigger built into every trigger holder, the Radar gives you a map of nearby trion signatures, giving you some idea where everyone is. Your squad's operator can help you keep track of who's who once they're identified.

05. Bagworm

Most agents have it equipped, but it's most commonly used by snipers and by attackers who are chasing after those snipers. All this trigger, which looks like a grey cloak, does is hide your trion signature from the radar. You can only use one other trigger at a time, though, so it doesn't have much use in combat. Mechanically the use of this trigger will be modeled through stealth checks; details TBD

06. Chameleon

This trigger makes you invisible. Invisibility isn't invincibility, though; using it consumes trion, it doesn't hide your radar signature, and you can't use any other triggers while it's active, so you have to reappear in order to attack or defend yourself. Still, used properly the Chameleon is a really potent tool. Note: On NPCs this trigger will be modeled using the NPC-only Invisibility skill. However, because running combat scenes where the GM doesn't know the player's locations is pretty difficult, it's still verboten for players. Sorry!

07. Escudo

Before the BDA developed Shields, this is what they used for defense. It's still used by a few old-timers, but it's mostly fallen out of favor. Instead of an energy shield placed wherever you like, Escudo generates a physical wall out of a nearby surface. It's a lot less trion-efficient, and a lot less flexible than the newer shield triggers, but it's still got its uses, and the barrier it generates can take a lot more of a licking than the Shield trigger's.

Suggested Tech Cores: Barrier

08. Repair

A newer trigger model, Repair (which takes the form of a pair of tubules which emerge from the forearm and plug into the target's body) allows a BDA agent to use their trion to patch up another agent's combat body. It can't replace lost limbs, but it can add to their reserves and shore up the overall structural integrity of the body.

Suggested Tech Cores: Healing

09. Drone

Neighbours aren't the only ones who can use soldiers formed of Trion. BDA's engineers have been hard at work creating their own trion soldiers, and this trigger is the result. Of course, 'Drone' is a very generic name for what is in actual fact a variety of creatures, from surveillance drones to bombers to agile harassers. Some of them can function autonomously, while others need to be given direct orders to function. They're all pretty small, though, unless you're willing to pour an ungodly amount of trion into them.

Suggested Tech Cores: Summon
Suggested Skills: Companion

10. Lead Bullet

This special trigger is used in concert with a bullet-based trigger, usually (but not necessarily) Asteroid or Hound. The color of the bullet turns black, and upon impact the bullet converts into a large and very heavy metal weight, disabling the target. The best part about the Lead Bullet is that since it doesn't actually do damage, Shields let the shot pass right on through.

There are big downsides to the Lead Bullet, though. First, it consumes way more trion than a regular bullet. Second, the bullet is slower and has a shorter range than a standard bullet. And finally, because it takes two triggers at the same time to use it (shooter trigger + lead bullet) you can't use shields or bagworm at the same time, leaving you vulnerable.

Suggested Tech Modifiers: Immobilizing Strike, Debilitating Strike
Suggested Tech Limits: Immobile, Slow

Black Triggers

All of the above are standard run-of-the-mill Triggers. But there are a small number of very special triggers which easily outclass them all: the potent class of trigger known as the Black Trigger.

Black Triggers have special powers because of how they are created. In times of great crisis, a trigger user with exceptional trion can pour their life and power into creating a Black Trigger. Very few individuals possess the capacity to create one, and it is generally only when they are pushed to the very edge of desperation that they will choose to lay down their lives for their people. The results, however, are spectacular; in more than one case in the history of the Neighbourhood, the emergence of a Black Trigger on the losing side of a war has completely turned the tides and brought them to victory.

Each Black Trigger is unique, and can only be used by someone whose personality is compatible with the creator's. Some Black Triggers have tremendous firepower, while others are host to myriad special tricks and abilities. Competently wielded, though, they are all exceptionally powerful weapons equivalent to a small army apiece.

The BDA is currently in possession of two black triggers: one created by a founding member during the early days of the Vancouver Invasion, and one stolen from a Neighbour nation during an away mission. The agents who wield these triggers are given a special S-Rank designation, and do not participate in Rank Wars or fight alongside a squad.

BDA protocol upon encountering a Neighbour wielding a Black Trigger is to fall back, observe from a distance, and await reinforcements. Only engage in the event of an emergency with civilian lives on the line.

You guys ain't getting a Black Trigger any time soon. Shit is WAY too strong for a balanced party.

The city of Vancouver, population 603,000. Four years ago, a gateway to another world opened here, and an unstoppable army came through from the other side. These invaders from another world, eventually dubbed "Neighbours", destroyed everything in the vicinity of the gate, and spread terror throughout the city.

Their technology was different from ours, and all of our weapons were useless against them. But just as hope seemed lost, a group of people appeared wielding stolen Neighbour technology against them, and drove the invaders off.

"Leave them to us," they said. "We've been preparing for this day for a long time."

Valor Trigger is an online tabletop campaign based on the weekly manga series World Trigger and run in Valor. Players will take on the role of agents of the Border Defense Agency, and defend the city of Vancouver from continuous invasions from other worlds, all the while dealing with school work and participating in mock battles with other BDA squads for rank.

Details

This game will be run in Valor, which is a super customizable system dedicated to modelling the most anime fights possible, plus a couple more house rules to tweak the system. No experience with this system - or any other tabletop roleplay system! - is required, nor is knowledge of World Trigger. I'll be providing a PDF copy of the game's rules to any players who don't already own it. Play will be done over text in Roll20.

I'm looking for 3-4 players, whose characters will be a new squad starting off at the very bottom of the BDA totem pole, and climbing up to the top over the course of the campaign.

Setting

If you're familiar with World Trigger, take pretty much everything about its setting and transplant it to west-coast Canada. If you're not familiar, and want the full deets about it, click here to read my in-depth setting post. If that's way too much reading for you, here's a compressed version:

Other universes orbit around ours in a weird black inter-dimensional void. When they come close enough to send a ship across, the people ("neighbours") from these worlds send soldiers to ours to abduct people who can power the weapons they use. Four years ago, they invaded en masse for the first time, and caused massive panic until a group of earthlings calling themselves the Border Defense Agency, who had already been studying and using Neighbour technology, showed up and fought the invaders off.

Today, a massive BDA base stands at the site where the Neighbours first emerged, in what used to be the city's West End district, and a special device within the base draws all Neighbour gates to open in the area around it, where BDA agents can easily dispatch them before they hurt anybody. This has made the area around the base uninhabitable, and an awful lot of people needed to be relocated, but has meant that the rest of the city can more or less carry out its business like nothing ever happened. Four years later, despite being technically an ongoing war zone, the city of Vancouver is oddly peaceful...for now.

You are a squad of fresh-faced young new recruits, most likely around 14-15 years old, new to the BDA and just finished with your training period. You will fight alien invaders, protect the people of the city, wrestle with the BDA's internal politics, and even compete with other squads for rank within the organization.

There's money and fame to be had for the top squads, but maybe that doesn't interest you. Maybe you lost a family member in the invasion, and want revenge. Maybe you're motivated by a genuine desire to protect people. Maybe you just like a fight, and this is the best place to find one. Or maybe, just maybe, you're secretly a Neighbour yourself. Whatever your reason, it's up to you to climb that ladder and keep the people of Vancouver safe.

If you have any interest in playing, let me know by filling in the following form and leaving it in a comment on this page:

Title: Just Fine
Fandom: World Trigger
Rating: G
Characters/Pairings: Nasu Rei, Narasaka Tohru, Shinoda Masafumi
Summary: Nasu's always been sickly, but in her trion body she's a powerful warrior. This is the story of the first time she got her hands on a trigger.
Word Count: 1050
Notes: Deals with chronic illness. This was written for the first challenge round of fandomweekly on Dreamwidth. The fact that Narasaka and Nasu are cousins hasn't been mentioned in the manga itself yet, but comes from one of the agent profiles in the volume extras.

Click here to read it on Ao3!

FTL: Faster Than Light is a recently released space-simulator roguelike game from two independent developers. 'Roguelike' means that the game world and encounters within it are randomly generated, and that death means starting over fromt he beginning; there is no loading an old save. They also tend to be highly unforgiving with rapid deaths. Despite this, they're a lot of fun, with each playthrough (usually ending in disaster) presenting its own little story.

FTL is a ton of fun, so I thought I'd do a little diary of a playthrough for you guys. Sort of a mini-Let's Play. As it turns out, it wound up being my most successful attempt to date.

FTL is ten dollars, and can be purchased directly from the creators here. It works on WIndows, Mac, and Linux, and can be redeemed DRM free through Gog.com, or on Steam, at no extra cost.

( It's been a long road getting from there to here )

I have a lot of Thoughts about the recent Support Group RP meme. Here I describe them in a 1800 word post.

( hey, I did say a LOT of thoughts! )

Of course, that's all just my perspective. Other people may feel differently. My biggest hope is that the RP community will look at this meme and learn from it, because it clearly has a lot to teach us.

So there's a DC Comics miniseries called Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures In The 8th Grade". It's a continuity-free goofy little title for kids, and it is...pretty much exactly what it says on the label. It is adorable and really good in general. I heavily recommend it.

And because I love it so much, I've begun systematically iconning it from top to bottom. This batch covers the first issue and the first ten pages or so of the second.

TOTAL ICONS: 50
DC Comics - 50 icons
Belinda Zee - 04
Lena Luthor - 01
Lex Luthor - 01
Supergirl - 42
Superman - 02

PREVIEWS

Link

- the usual policies apply
- like what you see? Then watch this comm for future updates! Seriously whenever I see the number of watchers tick up it gives me warm fuzzies inside.

Making Unsounded icons is like eating pringles. Once you start, it's difficult to stop.

TOTAL ICONS: 100
Babylon 5 - 15 icons
Londo Mollari - 15

Unsounded - 85 icons
Duane Adelier - 03
Elka - 12
Ephsephin - 09
Matty - 12
Quigly - 03
Sette Frummagem - 46
Toma - 04

PREVIEWS

Link

- the usual policies apply
- like what you see? Then watch this comm for future updates! Seriously whenever I see the number of watchers tick up it gives me warm fuzzies inside.

Title: Commands The Night Sky
Fandom: Soul Eater
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairings: Blair
Summary: A Portrait Of The Nymphomanic Cat As A Young Kitten.
Word Count: 1301
Notes: This is technically manga-verse, but the only way you'd know the difference is one offhand reference that is utterly unimportant. Written for

kuroshiro_neko as part of

se_ladyfest

( Warm. Warm. A dark figure envelops her, holding her and her sisters in place, a great black wall surrounding them. Not frightening. Reassuring. Warm. Safe. )

Title: No Witch
Fandom: Soul Eater
Rating: G
Characters/Pairings: Eruka Frog
Summary: Eruka gets her freedom, but finds the conditions of her release difficult to bear.
Word Count: 1068
Notes: Manga-verse, spoilers for the last few chapters. Was written for

aztec as part of

se_ladyfest.

( The creak of rusted hinges roused Eruka Frog from a light and restless sleep. )

Like I said in my previous post, I've just put up a post for icon requests. Everyone can have at it! The more the merrier!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

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Peter MacDonald

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