The Secret of Zir'An Hand of Fate Book, Podreczniki RPG, The Secret of Zir'An
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
Paragon Games
Presents
THE SECRET OF ZIR’AN
FATE BOOK
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
Chapter 1: Running the Game.2
Chapter 2: Environment.....20
Chapter 3: Conspiracies....38
Chapter 4: Magic..............68
Chapter 5: Antagonists......86
Index...........................110
Created By: Chris Hockabout
Written By: Jason Armenta, Martin Caplan, Mar-
cus Flores, Aram Gutowski, and Chris Hockabout
Cover Artist: Steve Ellis and Chris Hockabout
Back Cover Artist: UDON
Art Director: Chris Hockabout
Graphic Design & Layout: Martin Caplan
Publisher: White Wolf, Inc.
Illustrators: Steve Ellis, Jess Hickman, Chris Hock-
about, Joshua Gabriel Timbrook, UDON with Greg
Boychuk, Eric Kim and Jim Zubkavich,
Special Thanks To: The White Wolf Staff, Ales-
sandra Santos
Paragon Games, Inc.
2108 Hayes St #2
San Francisco, CA 94117
www.ParagonGames.us
ISBN #0-9729052-1-9 The Secret of Zir’An is ©2005 and TM Paragon Games. All rights reserved worldwide.
Except for purposes of review, no portion of this work may be reproduced by any means without the permission
of the relevant copyright holders. This is a work of fiction. Any similarity with actual people or events, past or pres-
ent, is purely coincidental and unintentional. The intellectual property known as “The Secret of Zir’An” is owned
by Paragon Games and is published by White Wolf, Inc. under license.
1
A terrifying scene of transmutation from deep within the Tilerian Empire.
CHAPTER 1
RUNNING
THE SECRET OF ZIR’AN
The Hand of Fate
In role-playing games, one person becomes a meta-
player, a combined storyteller, referee, and character
actor who describes the people, places and things the
other players encounter during the game session. In
The Secret of Zir’An,
this person is known as the Hand
of Fate. She is responsible for creating the framework
of the adventure’s plot and antagonists beforehand,
creating an atmosphere, narrating and adjudicating the
game during a session, and visiting the consequences
of player’s action in the adventure’s epilogue: treasure,
experience, tragedy, or all three.
NPCs, timelines, and rewards. Still others make
a few mental notes and dive into running the
game, making things up as they go along. Most
mix all three methods to their own tastes and
what they know their players desire in terms of
a fun gaming session.
Experienced storytellers try to bolster their
weaknesses with preparation. A HoF who isn’t
good at making up names might keep a list
handy for randomly encountered NPCs, while
one who isn’t comfortable with off-the-cuff en-
vironment descriptions would write paragraphs
to read when the players enter a new area. The
main thing is to keep the session flowing and
not lose the suspension of disbelief that allows
the Hand of Fate and the players to immerse
themselves in the adventure.
Suggestions for things to take care of
beforehand include:
Preparation
Each Hand of Fate has a different way of prepar-
ing. Some buy supplements or published adventures
and run them with no modification whatsoever. Others
create their own adventures, complete with maps,
• A map for every important location. It’s
helpful to have the locations of your ad-
venture sketched out on paper so you have
an idea of the environment and resources
available to your NPCs and players in
terms of travel distances, tactics in combat,
hiding and ambush locations, secure areas
with locks and traps, placement and aware-
ness areas of opponents, and so on. Making
maps also is an effective way to concretize
in your imagination how an adventure will
unfold, like scouting locations for a film.
• Create and define the puzzles and
traps that might be encountered. These
are particularly hard to make up on the
fly, so it’s a good idea to define a puzzle
before the session. Traps or hazardous
situations are a bit easier to improvise, but
it’s usually easier to define the how the
trap is activated, how it can be disarmed
or avoided, and what it does to anyone
caught in it so that game play can continue
when it’s encountered without a pause.
• Keep a summary sheet of your players’
characters. Items to include are their Acuity
+ Awareness total (for secret surprise or
notice situations), Vitality & Lethal Wounds,
and any negative Valdreyr so you can
incorporate them into the game (if they
chose to have a Dark Fate, they deserve
to have it affect ‘em during the game!).
• Add up all rolls that NPCs will be likely
to make (Acuity + Personal + Awareness,
Physique + Personal + Stealth, Physique
+ Personal + Weapon Skill, Intelligence +
Knowledge + Runemagic, etc.) and note
them down for reference (you’ll only
have to roll a d10 and add one number
to it to determine their totals this way).
Note one or two Finesse Effects they will
employ if they get the chance. Also help-
ful is a sentence or two for each NPC to
remind you of their goals, their favorite
combat tactics and general role-playing
attitude and style. For spellcasters, make
sure you decide what Runes or Cardinal
Spells they have available and what their
current Fatigue or Animus pools are.
• A list of significant events in the ad-
venture that you can check off to deter-
mine experience awards and skill grants.
Atmosphere
The transition from sitting at a table with drinks
and munchies to feeling immersed in a land of exotic
adventure needs all the help it can get! Since the Hand
of Fate is the nominal authority figure he should
endeavor to create a game session that removes distrac-
tions and enhances mood to the benefit of the game.
Some suggestions:
• Sit around a table if you can
• Have chairs for everyone
• Set cell phones and pag-
ers to silent mode
• Have a private area close by but out
of earshot for 1-on-1 conferences
• Keep the lights low but bright enough
to read character sheets and dice
• Play appropriate music at a low
volume in the background
• Use props that help players visualize, like
Items of Power, maps, notes, telegrams, and
dossiers their characters find in the game.
Narration
The Secret of Zir’An
is all about adventure: heroic
people discovering secrets, challenging adversaries, and
exploring a world filled with excitement and mystery,
guided by the enigmatic designs of Fate. Zir’An is a
big place, and it is possible to create a variety of nar-
rative tones in games that use it as a setting. Scattered
through the following are sections of boxed text with
hooks for adventures for the various tones.
Adventure
Drawing from pulp fiction, action/adventure mov-
ies, and wondrous fantasy stories,
The Secret of Zir’An
has many dangerous places that players can go to simply
explore and see what they find. Underground remnants
of ancient civilizations like Gondolon and Casseonae
4
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]