ftp.ee.pdx.edu/2014.02.ftp.ee.pdx.edu.tar/ftp.ee.pdx.edu/pub/frp/torg/liv_land

Text File | 1993-01-08 | 18KB | 306 lines

    While there are World Laws in the Living Land, they were not
presented as such in the Living Land sourcebook; instead, they were
presented as "Game Rules" and are rather disjointed and incomplete
when compared to the World Laws are they are presented in later
sourcebooks.  This is an attempt to reinterpret and redefine the
World Laws of the Living Land.

THE DEEP MIST

    The Deep Mist is a natural feature in the cosm of Takta Ker;
why it did not appear in the Living Land until the third month of the
invasion is unknown.  One theory is that Baruk Kaah somehow managed to
withhold the Deep Mist until such a time as he felt the need for it,
but the ability to negate a part of a realm's reality is not something
easily accomplished, even by a Darkness Device as powerful as Rec
Pakken.  Plus there is the fact that such a long-range strategy is not
Baruk Kaah's style.
    The Deep Mist completely covers Takta Ker and the Living Land;
it is a thick, grey fog that extends in all directions and reaches a
height of over a mile.  The Deep Mist is warm and humid, and creates
what Core Earthers consider a hot and muggy day without sunshine (the
mist diffuses sunlight sufficiently that while everything is well lit,
no actual source of illumination is easily detectable).  However, the
natives of the Living Land, including transformed Core Earthers, find
the Deep Mist quite comfortable.  The Mist also affects sound,
muffling it over long distances and causing strange echoes, so that it
is difficult to determine the direction a sound comes from.
    On a "clear" day (a day without cloud cover) the Deep Mist
reduces the range of normal vision to 30 meters; on a cloudy day the
range of normal vision drops to 20 meters.  In either condition,
details can only be discerned within 10 meters; beyond that, out to
the range of vision, objects only appear as silhouettes and shadows.
    Note that the See Through Mist miracle of the jakatts does not
extend the maximum range of visibility, it just improves the quality
of vision within the affected distance (so a blessed jakatt who got a
result of 15 meters would be able to see details out to that distance
instead of being limited to 10 meters).  A Minimal success on this
miracle has no real effect (gives a range of 10 meters) other than to
enhance the details already visible to the jakatt, but not by an
amount that actually affects anything the jakatt does or senses.
    At night, visibility is limited to within 10 meters regardless
of how powerful of a light source is being used; past that range, the
Deep Mist diffuses light effectively enough to create a "wall" of
whiteness.  Those who are not within 10 meters of a light source at
night will be able to see the "white wall" created by a light source
due to the diffusion created by the Deep Mist at distances up to 20
meters away (ie, they will see where you are before you see them).  On
"clear" nights, the Deep Mist will diffuse enough starlight to allow a
person to see a few meters around him without a light source; if there
is a moon overhead then the person can see out to 10 meters if the
moon is full (note that, like the sun during the day, the location of
the moon will not be apparent).  The See Through Mist miracle has no
noticable effect at night.
    One obvious effect of not being able to see very far is that
it increases the chances of people getting lost while travelling
through the Living Land.  This is detailed in the description of the
skill Direction Sense in the Living Land sourcebook (pp 66-67).  The
Deep Mist further confounds attempts at travel by interfering with
such things as compasses; in the Living Land, compasses will not work
EVEN IN REALITY BUBBLES because the Deep Mist has effectively
scrambled the magnetic fields that pass through it.  All a compass
will do is spin madly as the Mist swirls around the person holding the
compass.
    The Deep Mist is also uncomfortable enough to people who are
not natives of the realm that it increases the difficulty of all
Survival skill uses by five, taking the base difficulty up to 10.
People of the Living Land reality only have a difficulty of 5 as they
are not as uncomfortable with the Deep Mist as everyone else is.  This
is assuming that the people are attempting to live off of the land
(eating berries, roots, small game, etc) instead of hunting for food
(ie, big game/dinosaurs).  People who have sufficient rations to feed
themselves with (dinosaur drumsticks, canned food from Core Earth,
etc) are not subject to the +5 penalty (but note any possible effects
on food by the Love of Lanala below). [THIS IS A CHANGE FROM THE
MATERIAL IN THE LIVING LAND SOURCEBOOK.]
    Suggestions for trapping and hunting big game are given in the
Living Land sourcebook on pages 68-69.

    This is of course a passive World Law that does not affect a
Living Land character when he is not in the realm or the cosm.

LOVE OF LANALA

    Lanala loves life; it is her source of sensations and death
causes a loss of those sensations.  As a result, this World Law gives
a bonus to life-affirming activities that a person might undertake in
the Living Land or in Tatka Ker.  [THIS IS ALL NEW MATERIAL.]
    A person who performs an activity that is devoted to
preserving life receives a +3 bonus to their action, plus a
pleasurable sensation (a minor gift from Lanala) if the action is
successful.  The bonus can be applied to many things, such as the use
of the First Aid or Medicine skills, the performing of healing
miracles, a person's healing roll that they make to recover from Wound
damage, resisting diseases, and even certain things that are
contradictions in the Living Land, such as the use of Psychology to
treat mental damage or the use of the Awaken spell to heal someone of
their shock and KO damage (note however that if the person rolls a one
the bonus will NOT prevent that person from disconnecting).
    Because experiencing sensations can be dangerous, Lanala also
provides a smaller bonus to people who are undergoing an intense
experience but are in danger of losing their lives as a result.  A
person who the GM feels is in a situation where he is experiencing
such an experience gets a +1 bonus to actions that will keep the
character alive, such as an active defense in combat or an Acrobatics
skill check to swing across a deep ravine on an overhead vine.
    Note that this bonus is only granted if the person is in
danger of being killed; using Acrobatics to swing on a vine over a
placid river would not apply, nor would it apply to a character in
combat unless that character is in a battle where he is experiencing
great enough danger to kill him (so an Akashan Monitor in a reality
bubble fighting a stalenger will not get any bonuses to his active
defenses against the stalenger; now if a borr aka were chasing the
Monitor that would be a different story).
    If a character is eligible for a +1 bonus to an active defense
his minimum bonus is still +1, not +2; the bonus from Lanala is added
to his result before the determination of 'minimum +1' is made.

    This aspect of the World Law is active, and a Living Land
character is affected by it even when he is not in the realm or the
cosm.

    Another effect of Lanala's love is the rapid decomposition of
dead material.  Anything that dies in the realm or cosm is subject to
a rapid breakdown, fast enough that within a day even a borr aka
corpse will be reduced to nothing more than a compost heap.  In this
way there is a quick turnover in life, and it serves to quickly remove
dead things from the sight of Lanala (through her worshippers), for
death is a sad thing to Lanala, even when it is necessary (for
example, hunting for food).
    Some materials brought into the Living Land from outside (Core
Earth for example) are affected by this World Law, but not all.  Once-
living materials that have been heavily processed into some new kind
of material (like certain fabrics, particle board, or "synthetic"
foods like Twinkies and sodas) are immune to the effect.  Materials
that have been processed to some extent (cotton fabrics, wooden
planks) will still decompose, but at a much slower rate.  Materials
that are basically unchanged (furs and leathers, lumber, food) will
decompose only slightly slower than if the item had been killed in the
realm.  [THIS IS A CHANGE FROM THE SOURCEBOOK.]
    It is possible to use technology to avoid the rapid
decomposition of materials, although this of course runs the risk of
disconnecting.  Vacuum-sealed containers of metal or opaque glass
(Tech 18?)  will preserve materials until opened.  This is because
while the container is sealed Lanala does not know that there is
anything inside the container and so it escapes her "love".  Note that
a transparent glass container will not be sufficient as it is quite
likely that Lanala (through one of her worshippers) will be able to
see the material inside the container and will cause it to decompose.
    To determine how long a once-living item from outside the
Living Land will take to decompose, it is necessary to know roughly
how long it has been since the item died and how much processing it
took for it to reach its current state.

Heavily processed (particle board, Twinkies, etc): will not decay.

Processed (cotton fabrics, wood planks, etc): Figure out how old the
item is in terms of weeks and figure out the value of that age (do not
use the Measure Conversion Chart - four weeks would be a value of 3,
not 32).  Subtract this value from 38; that is how long the item will
take to decay (now use the Measure Conversion Chart).
    EXAMPLE: A Spartan enters the Living Land wearing cotton
underwear (under his completely synthetic outer clothing).  The
Spartan just bought them before he entered the Living Land so the GM
decides that its been about five-six months since the cotton was
picked and assigns a week value of 7 (25 weeks).  Subtracting this
from 38 gives a value of 31, which converts to only 2.5 weeks before
the Spartan has to visit the department store again.

Basically unchanged (leathers and furs, lumber, food): Figure out how
old the item is in terms of days and figure out the value of that age
(as above).  Subtract that from 25; this is the value of time that the
item will last in the Living Land.
    EXAMPLE: Our same Spartan picks up some 'fresh' fruit at the
grocery store before entering the Living Land; the GM figures that it
has been about two weeks since the fruit was picked (day value of 6).
Subtracting this from 25 gives a value of 19, which converts to 1.5
hours before the fruit rots away.
    EXAMPLE TWO: An Ayslish thief enters the Living Land wearing
leather armor that the GM determines is at least a year old (day value
of 13).  Within minutes the thief has no more armor (25 - 13 = 12,
which is a time value of four minutes).

    Please note that if a GM does not want to bother with all this
extra work he may ignore the effects of Lanala's love on anything but
things killed in the Living Land and food brought in from outside the
Living Land and use the table and rules in the Living Land sourcebook
on page 67.

    This aspect of the World Law is passive and will not affect
Living Land characters when they are not in the realm or cosm.  (So
you cannot have an edeinos rot food simply by standing close to it.)

LAW OF LIFE

    There are three kinds of objects in the Living Land; living,
unliving, and dead.  Living objects are just that, alive.  The
distinction between unliving and dead objects is also pretty simple;
dead objects were once living objects, unliving objects have never
been alive.
    Most jakatts will not make a distinction between unliving and
dead objects; anything that isn't alive is obviously a "dead thing".
Non-native people are often called "dead things", even though they are
obviously alive, because to most jakatts the only living things in the
universe are all part of Lanala and anything that is not part of
Lanala must be "dead".
    Jakatts feel that it is their duty to bring "dead" people to
life, which usually involves exposing the "dead" person to an intense
sensation which Lanala will receive and reward the person for if he is
in the realm or cosm.  If the person accepts Lanala as his lover
(responds favorably to the reward Lanala gives him), then the jakatts
have succeeded in bringing that person "out of his dead existence".
    In game terms, whenever a non-Lanala worshipper is exposed to
an intense physical (or even emotional) sensation while in the realm
or the cosm, there is a chance that they will have a "religious
experience" because of it.  It will usually be entirely up to the GM
to determine when this happens; a seasoned combat veteran may feel
minor amounts of fear when confronting an edeinos in battle, but
usually not enough to count as an intense sensation.  However, if that
veteran has no functioning weapons and panics when he's jumped by a
flame warrior the GM may feel that is an intense enough sensation.
    When a religious experience occurs, the GM generates a bonus
value and adds it to 11 (the average faith of most jakatts in case you
are wondering).  This is compared to the Faith value of the character
experiencing the sensation (Spirit if the character has no Faith
skill) and the result points are used on the General Success table:

Minimal - Good result: the intensity of the experience is increased to
    such a point that the character is stunned for one round by
    the sensation; treat the character as suffering a Knockdown
    result.
Superior result: In addition to the above effect, the character may
    receive from Lanala a beneficial miracle as reward for the
    sensation (GM's determination).
Spectacular result: In addition to all the above, the character feels
    the effects of Conversion; those with Faith lose one add in
    the skill, those without any Faith must purchase an add in
    Faith (Keta Kalles).

Note that when this happens, any jakatts in the area will not attack
or interfere with the character in any way other than to encourage
them to take Lanala as their lover (ie, during the round the character
is stunned no jakatt will attack the character).

    This aspect of the World Law is rather unique in that it
primarily affects only non-natives of the realm or cosm (since
practically everyone of the Living Land or Tatka Ker possess Faith in
Keta Kalles they are not affected).  A character of the Living Land
reality who does not worship Lanala will eventually be converted to
Keta Kalles by this world law, as he cannot escape the effects of it
except by disconnection in an alien realm.

    The distinction between unliving and dead objects is an
important one, as the other aspect of the Law of Life affects the
unliving (dead objects are affected by the Love of Lanala).  Simply
put, the World Law encourages the use of only living objects by
causing unliving objects to become seperated from living ones.  In
other words, people lose unliving things very often in the Living
Land.  (Dead objects can be used, but the Love of Lanala will
guarantee that the object doesn't get used for very long, and jakatts
will not use dead objects due to their beliefs.)
    Note that unlike the jakatts, the world law does not consider
those outside Keta Kalles to be "dead", so people cannot get around
losing items by claiming to be non-Lanala worshippers (and thus not a
living object).
    Objects will not just vanish into thin air, but the World Law
will affect situations enough that there will be plenty of
opportunities for unliving objects to be seperated from the person
carrying it.  Examples of methods the GM can use are on page 70 of the
Living Land sourcebook.

    This aspect of the law will affect Living Land characters
outside of the realm or cosm as it is not in their nature to use or
possess nonliving objects.  So don't give the edeinos anything you may
need at a later date, as he will more than likely have "misplaced" it.

Rec Pakken, Gotaks, and the World Laws
--------------------------------------

    Rec Pakken and Baruk Kaah have made two alterations to the
World Laws of the Living Land.  These changes have been made so that
the Darkness Device can perform its functions without interference
from Lanala.
    The first change they made was to the Law of Life; Rec Pakken
is not a living thing, nor is it a dead thing, so it must be an
unliving thing - the Law of Life kept trying to seperate Kaah from
Pakken and that was not acceptable.  The law has been modified so that
Rec Pakken is considered to be a living object.  The stone knives that
gotaks use to perform sacrifices are actually pieces of the Darkness
Device itself ("leaves from the trees of the Black Forest"); besides
being immune to the Law of Life the knives also provide a direct
conduit for the Possibility Energy given up by the sacrifices back to
Rec Pakken.
    The second change was made to allow the existence of stelae.
Living Land stelae are made up of the remains of living creatures
wrapped in vines and other now dead plant materials.  The Love of
Lanala would normally turn stelae into compost within a day of their
creation, which is not very useful to the Darkness Device.  The
solution is the Make Stelae miracle that gotaks use.  The power for
the miracle comes from Rec Pakken and not Lanala.  The miracle has the
effect of tricking the world laws into considering the stelae to be a
living object (which is why it bleeds during the ceremony used to
activate a stelae).  The packets of remains that are blessed by this
miracle are also energized by the Darkness Device, and may be used
immediately as stelae if necessary, or stored for later use.