Fire – Challenges of Invention

For those who set hands and minds to the impossible. An element of change and transformation, Fire harnesses the essence of Cultivation itself.

Alchemy

Alchemy is the Cultivation of raw materials into powerful artifacts. It allows you to create, transmute, and deconstruct these artifacts for a variety of benefits.

Much of alchemy relies on the Crystal Cores harvested by Challenges of Earth. By your talents, you will tease forth the power within these Cores to work wonders!

Jury Rig

Jury rigging is any form of ad-hoc crafting. Examples would include rigging up a raft, creating a barricade, setting up a lean-to, and so forth. This kind of alchemy prioritizes immediate usefulness over long term durability. Using materials at hand, creativity, and a bit of luck, jury rigging can cover for many other issues in a pinch.

When you jury-rig, you Challenge Fire and consume raw materials from the surrounding scene. Describe to the storyteller how you plan to use the materials on hand to solve your problem.

Then you replace Air, Water, or Earth with Fire for this Challenge. Success and failure follow the rules for whatever element you have replaced.

Jury-rig comes with a cost, however. The Difficulty of the Challenge increases depending on the situation.

  • Baseline Difficulty increase: +2
  • Targeting your Bane element: +4

Other suggested difficult modifiers:

  • Creative and appropriate use of available materials: -3
  • Honestly just sounds like fun: -3
  • In a hurry: +2
  • Stolen or karmic tainted materials: +3
  • Seriously in a hurry! +5
  • Rotted or worn materials: +5

An Example:

  • You wish to use Jury Rig for a Performance (Water)
  • You explain to the storyteller that you want to put on a fireworks display using the alchemical reagents left in the lab
  • The storyteller agrees that this is plausible. However, the performance is about to start.
    • The storyteller adds +4 to the Difficulty: +2 for the base increase and +2 for being in a hurry
  • You Challenge and Succeed!
    • You process the Success as a Performance (Water)

Limitations:

  • You may only Jury Rig once per Scene
    • We assume that you make use of the untracked available materials in your scene to jury rig and thus consume them
  • The storyteller may reject attempts at Jury Rig that do not fit the logic of a Scene

Synthesize

Alchemical synthesis is the polar opposite of jury rigging. While jury rigging is a quick patch, alchemical synthesis is a slow and deliberate process of expressed mastery.

Since the luck of Fate is much less present, Synthesize does not require Challenge rolls.

Instead, crafting recipes will state a required Standard Result. This is the degree of mastery required to synthesize the matching component.

Example:

  • You wish to craft a delicate flower of glass
  • The storyteller informs you that this Synthesis requires your Fire Standard Value be 10 or greater
  • Scenario A: Your Fire Ki are 3d8 + 5 and thus your standard value is 3 * 4 + 5, easily enough to accomplish this feat
    • You spend the time and craft the object
  • Scenario B: Your Fire Ki are 2d6 + 3. A standard value of 9 is insufficient for this Synthesis
    • Instead, you go to your Hearth to make use of the Fire bonus from a crafting forge. Gaining +3 from your Forge, you reach a Standard Value of 12 and may proceed!

Alchemical Synthesis strives to express the prowess of your inner spirit; most forms of transient bonus have no effect.

  • You may not add Bonus Dice to Crafting Challenges
  • You may only Boost your Fire Standard Value for Synthesis through your own Arts, equipment, and Hearth

Crystal Core Alchemy

Crystal Cores are more than mere batteries of elemental energy. They are fragments of Creation, ready for the shaping!

As potent fragments of elemental energy, crystal cores are the raw material by which cultivators may shape marvels.

These Cores come in a variety of elements:

  • At Circle 2, you can harvest mixed cores such as AirFire and WaterEarth
  • At Circle 3, you learn to harvest cores including a mixture of ephemeral and concrete, such as LightAir and DarkEarth
  • At Circle 4, you can extract powerful, pure elemental samples such as Air and Water
  • The Harvest of crystal cores is an Earth Challenge (rules in that section)

Once in your possession, these cores act as your crafting currency. You expend the number and type specified by the recipe as part of its Synthesis.

  • You must exactly match the crystal cores listed
  • When multiples of the same core are required, the recipe will state “Core x2”, “Core x3”, et cetera

Deconstruct

You may break down unused equipment to recover reagents from their crafting. This is a quick process and requires only a single Challenge. In return, it offers lesser returns than its cousin, Desynthesis (under Emblems and Essences).

  • Select a piece of equipment in your possession
  • Challenge Fire
    • Disaster: You destroy the equipment
    • Failure: You fail to salvage the equipment
    • Success: Choose one non-metal reagent from the equipment’s crafting recipe to gain; the equipment is destroyed
    • Flourish: You may select to salvage a metal reagent (if any)

Difficulty:

  • Base: T * 8

Modifiers:

  • In a hurry: +5
  • Silent deconstruction: +5
  • Includes metal components: +3
  • Includes your Bane: +2
  • In combat: +10

Foe equipment may not have a matching craft recipe. In that case, the storyteller should choose an appropriate mystical reagent of the same Circle.

A few categories of items are immune to Deconstruction. Most notably, cultivated weapons cannot be destroyed through mundane means.

Did you need that?

For a fun time, steal your foe’s weapons and Deconstruct the items in front of them. Did you even need that reagent? Nah, you just wanted to see the look on their face.

Identify Cores

Equipment comes with special properties known as Cores. Product of crystal core crafting, these cores grant abilities such as extra Reach, the ability to cut through metal, or the ability to hide a weapon on your person with supernatural efficiency.

The power of a weapon may be completely disconnected from its appearance. One sword might be studded with dozens of crystal cores yet gain zero benefit; another might be a worn strap of steel and yet worthy of a master.

The system assumes you share this information with your allies; all allies become aware of the Cores once a single ally succeeds.

To identify the Cores within weapons and equipment:

  • Base Difficulty: 10 * Circle of the item
  • Adjustments:
    • The item is renowned in legend: -10
    • It bears well-known inscriptions or identifying markings: -5
    • Item recently used: -5
    • A weapon that has tasted blood in the last day: -10
    • The item is common or otherwise unremarkable: +5
    • The item has many counterfeits in circulation: +10
    • The item has the Disguised Core: varies by the Core, at least +5

Outcome:

  • Disaster: You drastically misattribute the Cores, such as believing a powerful sword is cursed
  • Failure: You cannot identify any Cores in the item; you do not know how many Cores might be present
  • Success: You identify the number of Cores in the item and the power of one Core
    • Once you have succeeded, further Challenges identify additional Cores
  • Flourish: You learn the following:
    • How many Cores
    • The effects of each core
    • The Ki signature of the last wielder of the item, if any

Repeated attempts:

  • The act of inspection clouds the signature of the weapon
  • Only one character may Identify Cores each day; this resets at dawn of the next day
  • Repeated attempts worsen matters; for every attempt after the first, suffer a cumulative -1 for each Challenge
    • You may reset this counter by setting the item aside for a season
    • This is shared across all characters

Geomance

Drink your fill from the subtle river beneath the land.

Geomancy is the central Kingdom technology. By wards and careful measures, cultivators control the character of the ley lines, redirect storms, and guard the stability of the Kingdom itself.

Challenges of Geomancy are akin to working with a live power line. Mind your hands!

Identify

To Identify a ley line, Challenge Fire

  • Disaster: Your fumbling occludes the ley line; all allies that attempt to identify the same ley line take a Penalty. This does not apply to foes.
  • Failure: You gain no information
  • Success: You identify the strongest point in the ley line. You or an ally may move to this location to draw Charge from the ley line
  • Flourish: As success, but you or one ally of your choice draw from the ley line automatically

When you identify a ley line, you also identify any places within this Scene where the ley line draws close to the surface and thus can be used by cultivators to Draw Power.

Follow

The Whistlers have long known how to walk the best paths

Once you have identified a ley line, you may follow it.

  • Walking the ley lines is an excellent means for finding places of power and other wonders of Seln
  • There is no guarantee that the places of power you find will be friendly or invitig
  • Other cultivators and the creatures of Seln often walk the ley lines too

While following the ley line, gain the following benefits:

  • Double your Speed
  • Add +C to any Challenges against exhaustion or exposure

You do not need to literally walk; any form of terrestrial movement suffices.

  • The person walking the ley line needs to be able to make contact with the ground once a kilometer or so to stay on track
  • You may not follow a ley line across a large body of water such as a lake or sea

Draw power

Strong points in the ley line exist where you may draw Charge to fuel yourself further.

You do not require a Challenge to draw power; however, you must be aware of the ley line from Identify (above).

  • You must be in the same zone as the ley line’s strong point
  • At the start of your turn, you may draw up 1 Charge from the ley line for free
    • This Charge must apply to the matching element
  • This does not require an Action

Restrictions:

  • You may not draw from a ley line that contains your Bane

Beware a surge of ley power, though! In a ley line surge:

  • You must immediately draw C charge
  • If you exceed your Charge maximum, you take 1d4 damage for each Charge in excess
  • Elemental effects can cause the ley line to surge

Exhaust

Ley lines exhaust after enough Charge has been drawn. The storyteller tracks how much Charge the ley line can handle.

You are automatically aware when an identified ley line exhausts.

Fouled ley lines

Ley lines polluted by evil deeds reverse their effects.

  • You drain Charge into the ley line instead of Charging
    • If you do not have enough Charge, you take 1d4 damage for each Charge you cannot pay!
  • Certain evil characters become far more powerful when drawing on a Fouled ley line

Each fouled ley line has a secret Stealth score. When you challenge to identify the ley line, the storyteller compares. You only find out the ley line was fouled if you exceed that secret threshold…or when you attempt to use it!

Traps and Restraints

Okay, hear me out. We’ll put him at the bottom of a giant pit with no way up except a single pulley, guarded by a thousand rhinos, and Ki-locked by a jade tortoise acupuncture shell!_

Where in the world are you going to find a thousand rhinos?!

Traps

Traps are any form of remotely triggered effect or consumable. Examples include mines, tripwires, or hidden pits.

You craft traps ahead of time and deployed to the Scene with the hope that a target will trigger its effect.

When you deploy the trap, Challenge Fire twice. Then assign:

  • One Result as the Stealth defense of the trap (how hard it is to detect)
  • One Result as the Defense of the trap (how hard it is to disarm)

In general, deploying a trap consumes it; the item is expended and cannot be reset

Triggering

The most basic forms of Traps simply trigger against the first unfortunate soul to enter the Trap’s zone.

  • The major tactical advantage of a Trap is that it does not require a Challenge against the target’s Defense. Your foe blunders into it for you!

More advanced forms of traps may have conditional triggers, delayed execution, or other fun toys.

Detecting

To detect a trap, the target Challenges Fire against the Stealth defense. This happens automatically when the target enters activation range of the device but before it triggers.

  • Disaster, Failure: The trap triggers
  • Success: The target dodges, triggering the trap to no effect
  • Flourish: The target recognizes the trap without triggering it

Disarming

To disarm the trap, the target Challenges Fire against the Defense.

  • Disaster: The trap triggers now
  • Failure: The trap cannot be safely disarmed
  • Success: The trap is disarmed, though it is destroyed in the process
  • Flourish: The trap is disarmed intact
    • An intact trap can be redeployed by its new owner!

Restraints

Restraints are equipment designed to neutralize and capture a target. Many restraints operate as Traps; these are deployed and executed according to the rules in the previous section.

Restraints can lock all Chakra in an element and apply standing Penalties to all Challenges in that element, making them ideal for bringing down dangerous foes.

  • If all four concrete elements are Restrained, then the target loses the ability to take Actions

Weaker foes only require a single Restraint and never contest it once applied. Stronger foes require Restraints targeted to individual elements, same as you. The strongest foes can weaken or even burn out Restraints by sheer spiritual pressure.

The fastest way to remove a Restraint is to Challenge Fire as an Action as usual

  • Disaster, Failure: You cannot remove the restraint
  • Success: The restraint is removed and destroyed
  • Flourish: The restraint is removed and recovered

Additionally, you can help allies remove Restraints during tense situations by spending Actions.

  • The Storyteller rolls Cd4 based on the Restraint
  • Any ally, including the Restrained ally, may spend an Action to reduce this total by 1
  • When the total hits zero, the Restraint breaks
  • If another Restraint is applied, the storyteller resets this counter to full

At the end of the Scene, you and your allies automatically destroy each’s Restraints as long as you are still capable of action.

For a list of Restraints, see that appendice.

More difficult restraints

Storyteller, if you want to increase difficulty, use the following rule instead:

  • After combat, one player may try to remove the restraints
  • They Challenge Fire.
    • Take the higher of the Challenge or standard result
  • Disaster, Failure: The restraint is stuck and you must seek help to remove it
  • Success, Flourish: As the usual rule above

Engineer

Fire embraces technology and engineering. Remember the mantra: when the demolitionist starts running, keep up!

Analyze object

Equivalent to Assess (Water) but for objects, use this to determine the weak points of objects, structures, settlements, and other constructs.

Challenge Fire as usual. On a Success, choose one from the below. For each 5 you defeat the Defense by, choose an additional one:

  • Foot traffic, usage, wear and tear
  • Recent repairs, reinforcements, and other construction
  • Factors increasing the target’s Defense
  • Knowledge of one weak element for the target at assessment
  • Knowledge of one element that, if targeted, would empower the target
  • Rough market value and rarity

On a Flourish, you may also choose:

  • Historical context – who constructed the object
  • Elemental resonance

Destroy object

You may use Analyze object to focus your destructive skills into precise weak points.

Challenge Fire.

  • Disaster: You drastically misunderstand the situation. Take Penalty 5 to your next Challenge
  • Failure: Gain a Bonus Ki
    • This is a consolation prize for your focus rather than the result of understanding
  • Success: Gain a Bonus Ki
  • Flourish: Gain a Bonus Ki; you may Challenge twice when you act upon this object in the same scene

Most mundane objects can be destroyed with a single Challenge.

Sabotage

Sabotage destroys an item under the pretense of misfortune or accident. To sabotage an item, the character Challenges Fire twice.

  • First, to destroy the item
    • As above
  • Second, to cover up the evidence
    • Stealth = the Result

Repair

Cultivators face no meaningful Challenge in repairing a roof or crafting a small toy. Mundane, cheap items are generally repaired through a simple expenditure of time and perhaps a small amount of money.

If you have crafted the target item or a close facsimile before, then you do not Challenge to repair it. Instead, spend:

  • One downtime action
  • One mystical reagent involved in the items’ creation
    • By default, you may choose any of the items used in creation (such as the cheapest!)
    • Badly damaged items may require the most expensive reagent instead

If you have not crafted the target item before, then you must learn its secrets.

  • You may choose to destroy the damaged item to gain a Bonus Ki to your next attempt to craft the real thing

Martial Arts

Fire rules the ever-shifting dance of martial arts.

Gauge skill

You may gauge the strength of your foes by observing their martial arts.

Outcomes:

  • Disaster: You instead grant your foe insight into your own strengths!
  • Failure: You gain no insight
  • Success: You identify one Art or equipment synced to the opponent’s Chakra
    • Some foes are simplified for storyteller convenience. In that case, you learn one of their foe abilities.
  • Flourish: As success. Additionally, you automatically Assess (Water) the target successfully.

Copy Art

While many martial artists loudly proclaim that they would never steal, “creative borrowing” and “inspiration” are both endemic.

The best way to learn an Art is to suffer it!

When you are hit by an Art, you may choose to begin copying it. You may work on at most C+1 Arts at once this way.

Valid Arts must:

  • Be of your Circle or lower
  • Not be under your Bane element
  • Be theoretically learnable
    • You may never learn Path, Grace, or foe-specific powers outside your own

Each time you experience one of your target Arts, roll 2d6 and keep track of your total.

  • Target: 15 * Circle of the Art
    • -10 if the Art is in your Primary element

You may copy Arts even if you cannot afford them right now or if they have prerequisites that you do not yet meet.

You must still pay for the Art during Cultivation as usual; this only provides you a source of knowledge.

Floran Soccer

What are you talking about? I barely touched him! – Words of a Floran Breaker, standing in a crater

Floran Soccer is a wild affair, only tangentially related to the soccer we know. The storyteller may choose to use standard Encounter rules (including combat!) to represent the field.

Here is an alternative to combat meant for quick resolution.

Five zones:

  • Enemy goal
  • Enemy field
  • Midfield
  • Your field
  • Your goal

Player positions:

  • Three positions
    • Earth – Breakers
      • Start in their own field
    • Air – Interceptors
      • Start in midfield
    • Fire – Strikers
      • Start in midfield
  • Field 2 Defenders, 2 Strikers, and 1 Breaker

Beginning of round:

  • Pay one Charge of your matching element to maintain your position
    • If you cannot pay, you must move to another position or leave the field

Determine movement first:

  • Storyteller dictates which foes, if any, want to move zones
  • You may assign Strikers to intercept, 1:1
  • If more than 2 are moving, you must pick only 2
  • Interceptors Challenge Air against the foes to prevent movement
    • Disaster: One foe may move for free
    • Failure: The foe moves
    • Success: the foe stays in their zone
    • Flourish: As success, and pick an additional target to prevent movement
  • Next, declare your own move
    • Enemy Interceptors may intercept you as well
  • Finally, resolve movement:
    • Each player pays one Charge of any element for each zone moved

Next, the referee moves.

  • Storyteller orders players 1 to 10
  • Storyteller rolls 1d10
  • Move the referee to the zone of the selected player
    • If a player is missing, reroll until the referee targets a player
  • All players in the referee’s zone must Challenge Water against the referee
    • Failure: Skip your action as the referee watches closely
    • Success: Proceed as usual

Next, Breakers pummel

  • Each Breaker Challenges Earth against every foe in the same zone
    • Disaster: No effect
    • Failure: No effect
    • Success: The target must pay 1 Charge of any element
      • If the target cannot pay, they are pummeled to exhaustion and leave the field
    • Flourish: The target must pay 2 Charge of any element(s)
    • Next, the foe Strikers
  • Have each Breaker Challenge; resolve all Charge payments at once.

Third, Strikers choose:

  • Score
    • You must be in the opposite team’s zones to attempt to score
    • Challenge Fire against the foe with the highest Fire
      • Take a Penalty equal to the cumulate Fire Charge of the enemy team
      • Success: Score for one point
  • Reinforce
    • Grant one ally 2 Charge

Finally, players within the referee zone may attempt to interfere with the referee

  • Air – Argue Rules
    • Disaster: Grant the enemy team 1 Favor
    • Failure: No effect
    • Success: Lower enemy team Favor by 1
    • Flourish: Lower enemy team Favor by 1d4+1
  • Water – Fake injury
    • Disaster: Grant the enemy team 1 Favor
    • Failure: No effect
    • Success: The referee jumps to your zone and remains their next round. You may not move next round
    • Flourish: As above, but you may move out of zone
  • Earth – Intimidate
    • Disaster: Grant the enemy team 1 Favor
    • Failure: No effect
    • Success: The referee may not enter your zone next round; if your zone is targeted, the referee stays put
    • Flourish: You choose the zone the referee moves to next round
  • Fire – Show off
    • Disaster: Grant the enemy team one Favor
    • Failure: No effect
    • Success: Grant your own team 1 Favor
    • Flourish: Grant your own team 1d4+1 Favor

Finally, the referee plays favorites (next section).

At the end of round, if one or both teams scored, reset each position to its starting zone.

Play continues to 5 points or until one team has 3 players leave the field from exhaustion.

Referee

The referee in Floran Soccer is impartial and absolute…except for when they aren’t.

  • The referee blatantly acts in favor of whichever team has higher Favor
  • Storyteller rolls 1d6
    • 1, 2 – Favored team ignores Charge costs to move and hold positions next round
    • 3, 4 – One player on the favored team may instantly move to a zone of their choice for free
    • 5,6 – Grant a Bonus Ki to all Challenges for the Favored team next round

The referee is also responsible for making sure games last an appropriately exciting period of time.

  • At the end of round 4, the referee destroys midfield. This zone may no longer be occupied
  • At the end of round 6, storyteller rolls 1d6
    • 1,2,3 – Destroy the enemy field
    • 4,5,6 – Destroy your field
  • At the end of round 8, destroy either the enemy field or your field, whichever was not targeted before
  • At the end of round 10 and every round after, the referee picks one player at random. That player must pay 2 Charge or immediately leave the field with a red flag

Cheating

No such thing in Floran Soccer!