Silk Road GLoG

 My recent blogosphere obsession has been reading the backlogs of setting-specific classes for Vain the Sword: 2nd Edition and GLoG, OSR games with a wealth of options that exist largely on blogs like Whose Measure God Could Not Take.

I was drawn in first by the blog The Nothic's Eye, with a series of articles on a Mesopotamian-esque setting called Qal Ashen. In a world cursed with "too much life" - manifesting in divine abominations and mutations - the only city left is the City of The Dead. I was super draw in by these articles, and loved the curated, setting-specific classes even as I didn't know how they worked.

Down the rabbit hole I went, until I found and read Vain the Sword second edition. I highly encourage checking this out for yourself, it's a wonderful read. When I got home from work a few days ago I sat  and read it front to cover, just enamored with its flavor, attitude and vibe.

So...having glutted myself on GLoG classes and GLoG hacks, here's my own crack at it.

THE ROAD OF DEAD BUDDHAS

A vaguely Middle East + Central Asia inspired setting, evoking the historical Silk Road in themes and setup for adventure. Few walk it in its entirety; yet spices, silk and expensive goods span its whole breadth. When a traveler speaks of the long road, they call it The Road of Dead Buddhas. Since the ascension of Annuvaran Monasteries over those of The Burning Heart, not a soul can forget the wisdom of the sages: "If you see the Buddha on the road, kill him."

As people travel these lands for gold, certainty and conviction litter the ground like the corpses of so many ruined settlements and the corpses of the very Gods worshipped there.

The moment you achieve a whole picture of the universe, kill the notion that you can see the whole, allow yourself to see just how vast the gulf of your ignorance truly is...and keep moving forward.

The Road extends across several regions or sub-continents, and across just as many kingdoms, empires and city-states. At one pole is Old Marhara, a land of rugged cyprus forests and deserts. At its midpoint, mountains and rocky terrain give way to a great expanse of steppe and river-valleys called Khuralistan. At the far end of the other pole is Khazbaatur, the Land of Heroes. 

In the chaotic aftermath of The Topaz Khan's death, the grandchildren of his Vachiritai Dynasty still vie for power. His granddaughter Subejin - calling herself the Turquoise Khan - is poised to reinstitute The Pax Vachiritai once again. The re-emergence of The City of Brass as an empire in Old Marhara may see the end of uneasy peace, threatening to set the whole road aflame with war.

These GLoG classes are built in the vain (hehe) of VtS 2E, including Kens and Morale as-hit-points. This is somewhat anachronistic since the silk road was a historical environment that came far after the Bronze Age, and gunpowder came way after as well, but who cares?

TEMPLATES

• Merchant
• A noncombatant class that excels in trade-specific knowledge and Credit
• Nomad Champion
• A mobile fighter that can turn monster parts into fermented foods.
• Scythian/Turkic/Mongolic inspired type-beat
• Jundi Hadith
• A slave-soldier that's both an excellent marksman and a social class on par with nobility.
• Inspired by the Turkish Janissary Corps, who were both their greatest soldiers and also I think were so powerful they incited half the coups in the history of The Ottoman Empire?

MERCHANT

You are one of the movers and shakers of trade routes, for you know that the power of coin builds and destroys empires.

Starting Equipment: Silk robes, fancy hat, ornamental jeweled knife. Seal of an influential merchant house that takes the form of your choosing.

Ken: Appraisal OR Courtesy

Templates

A Merchant House

B Credit, Rumormonger

C Influence Abounds

D New Money

Merchant House: When you begin as a merchant, pick an industry that you trade in.

• Spices
• By smell and sight, you can tell if food or drink is poisoned. 
  If you make a meal with at least 5 gold worth of spices, everyone who eats it restores D8 Morale.
• Silk
• The silk trade is tightly controlled, and you are used to relying on deceit and thievery to make your deals: you have -2 DR to deceive, swindle and bargain. It increases to -4 DR if a deal goes south.
• Black Powder
• If you spend an Action advising someone using a firearm, they have -2 DR to the shot and the damage die is empowered (D8 -> D10, etc).
  You always know how to safely store the stuff. D3 fingers missing.
• Furs
• Your business contacts are far off the beaten path. When you spend time in a remote community, you gain D3 rumors about the surrounding area and wildlife.
  While wearing furs, you have -2 DR on GRACE checks in high society, and have -2 DR to resisting extreme cold.

Credit: You rely on the appearance and implication of wealth even more than actual coin.

If you want to make a large purchase (such as buying cargo, or drawing lots on a voyage), there is a 2-in-6 chance that you can receive the goods "on credit".

The GM may allow the spending of actual money, good reactions or sufficient lies to raise this chance to 3-in-6. Repeated use of credit may incur future consequences, as the GM sees fit!

Rumormonger: While you spend a unit of downtime in an area dominated by your house's industry, you learn a rumor pertinent to your interests.

Influence Abounds: When you spend at least 10gp on an event, anyone who receives an invitation must attend.

New Money: If you die, your heir starts with +2 Templates and 25% of your current fortune.

Your credit chance raises to 4-in-6, and your knowledge of your industry becomes a Ken.

NOMAD CHAMPION

You come from one of the many nomadic cultures that span the breadth of The Road of Dead Buddhas. Your people shun settled agriculture for freedom of movement. People of settled agriculture bases think you insane or debased for not being locked into their own lifestyle, but you know that they are the ones who are "locked in" to their own insanity.

Nomad Champions are those that excel in horsemanship and survivalist skills, having inherited ancient recipes and techniques for turning food into victory.

Starting Equipment: Leather armor, show bow, quiver with arrows, your choice of riding spear or a saber (nimcha, talwar, shamshir, fyi scimitars are not real). A horse!

Ken: Sense of direction beyond city-walls, Listening to the advice of animals

Templates

A Carnage in Motion, Barbarian Reputation

B Rationwise

C Mind & Body

D Horde

Carnage In Motion: When you make an attack after having moved at least 20', you roll one extra weapon die.

Barbarian Reputation: You learn to wield the reputation of "barbarian savages" like a blade. When you speak, people can't help but listen (in fear or awe as the situation demands it), and you have -2DR to bribe, haggle and intimidate. 

Careful that you don't cut yourself on that blade: if you fail one of those checks, the consequences will be greater. "Guards, guards, there are barbarians at the gate!"

Rationwise: You are knowledgeable in fermented and preserved foods on the go. If you harvest body parts from monsters, you can ferment them into foodstuffs with certain benefits. This fermentation takes a number of days equal to D6 - [Template].

Only the Nomad knows how to make these safely, but anyone can consume. 

1 fermentation = 1 dose. Consuming is an Action. The brackets have suggested monster-parts, for partial use or in entirety as a kind of 'recipe'.

• Tack Cheese
• [X-Bear Milk, Griffin or Manticore Milk, salt left behind by a wild golem or djinn]
• You gain one reroll to acts of diplomacy, speech-craft or performance using GRACE. Drink 2x rations of water today or you don't restore Morale the next time you eat a meal.
• Ambrosia
• [the milk of any Dire Mammal, honey pulled from urns or canopic jars, runoff from The Dread Yogurt Worms of Khor]
• Double-strained yogurt of the Gods.
• For the next day, you have a Ken to resisting poison, sickness and plague. Addictively delicious, 1-in-10 chance on first trying it your gut doesn't agree with it.
• Tartar
• [eggs of girffon, wyverns or dragons, MEAT]
• Compressed, salted meat that could outlive future generations.
• Restore D4 + [Template] Morale. You breath smells noticeably of the jerky for the next day.

What monster body parts make what ingredients should be a negotiation between GM and Player. Generally, more powerful monster parts should make more powerful (or higher dosage?) versions of these foodstuffs. In fairness, Nomad Champions should need to harvest monsters that have Hit Dice equal to or greater than their own to count for fermentation.

Mind & Body: You can spend 1 wisp to gain a burst of speed (on foot or horseback) = 2D4 x 10'.

Alternatively, spend 2 wisps to give that burst of speed to a nearby ally.

[In games w/out wisps or gigre, you can do this 2/day]

Horde: While at the host of an army they gain -2 DR to attack, making whatever Morale checks they're subject to with Advantage.

Once, you may call for an army of Nomad Champions from your culture/lands to come to your aid. They will not fight a losing war, but are primed to hear why they should lay their lives down for you.

JUNDI HADITH

The elite marksman corps of The City of Brass, the tip of the spear are built on a separate class of slave-soldiers. Since the reclamation of The City of Brass by its rightful monarch, it has extended feelers and outposts across Old Marhara and the lands of Khuralistan. Queen Nahri recognizes that her people - the djinn - fled in generations past from the tyranny of Those Who Would Steal Flame. 

Now, however, it is time for them all to come home. And thanks to the marksmanship of these soldiers taken and trained from birth, home is coming right to them. Everywhere the djinn hold sway is the rightful property of the Brass Empire, and the Jundi Hadith will make that happen.

Starting Equipment: imperial fatigues, dragon rifle, powder horn, two units of musket balls, ceremonial hat, electrum-filigree jambiya

Ken: Cuisine, Decorum OR Real-Politic 

Templates

A Tight Formation, Marksman

B Imperial Herald OR Imperial Bulwark

C Ascension Through Service

D Crackshot OR Take the Reigns

Tight Formation: You and nearby allies have -2 DR to avoid being shot by musketfire, cannons or grapeshot. 

Marksman: Every time you use your Action to reload, it instead counts as 2 Reload Actions (sic. halving the time/turns to reload). By the taste and smell of open air, you can tell when a battle took place and how many firearms were present.

Imperial Herald: Whether you are in your lands or not, diplomats, politicians and merchants will seriously hesitate moving against you. You have -2 DR to persuade, intimidate or attack anyone who has done violence to you and those in your company.

OR

Imperial Bulwark: You do not lose Morale simply from seeing battle.

In addition, when you kill someone with a firearm, you and your nearby allies each restore D3 Morale.

Ascension Through Service: You have hit the apex of your military service, and can receive a moderate pension from the nearest imperial outpost. Your social class raises: Retired Jundi Hadith are their own class higher than merchants and lower-rank nobles (but still beneath powerful nobles and the Imperial family).

You can always find sympathetic ears amongst the nobility, even in lands outside the empire.

Crackshot: If you spend at least 5 minutes setting up a shot (checking for wind, studying the land, getting low, etc) you automatically Crit your next shot.

In addition, all firearms you use have their die-size empowered (D8 becomes D10, etc). 

OR

Take the Reigns: Having risen to such high status through bloodshed, why not keep going?

The next time you assassinate a powerful figure, everyone nearby will assume it was for a good, justifiable reason. 

Once, you may summon a unit of disgruntled soldiers and Jundi Hadith loyal only to you. They cannot break and disband, but for every point below 0 their Morale reaches, they will expect greater compensation afterwards.