Smotify
Archons have great power, but they do not always use to shape the world to their desires. This is for any of several reasons. Archons are beings of spirit, and the material world is difficult to interact with, especially if their interference is not wanted. If archons are constantly helping humans, then humanity will grow complacent instead of simply growing. Archons may not like their followers, and even more may not like those who are not followers. Archons also often have inhuman motivations.
Connection is a measure of how much you as an archon wish to and are able to miraculously interact with the world around you.
Miracles[]
Each of these is a miracle that you can spend three connection as an archon to perform, as a free action, any time you wish.
Twist Fate: Immediately after a roll on a standard action, you reroll all dice that did not grant a success. Or force an enemy to reroll all successes they got.
Intervene: You as an archon miraculously intervene. Pick a skill that matches how you want your miraculous intervention to function, and roll three times the associated aspect. You can cast any spell any of your followers knows by rolling lore times two. When intervening, ignore resource costs for actions.
Manifest: You simply show up, and may take a number of actions equal to your level before leaving, and you may cast any of your champion's original spells. Your manifestation can take physical damage, can be injured, and cannot be healed. As an archon you are immune to social pressure; having lived for millenia you are too set in your ways to be swayed. If your physical form dies, you are no longer able to manifest that session, but you are otherwise unaffected. You roll your aspect times two to accomplish things, as if you had a skill equal to your aspect.
Unique Miracles[]
Every archon gets to choose one and only one of these miracles that they can do. Choose from the list below, or make one up on your own.
Overrule: As a reigning archon you may spend 3 points of connection to immediately nullify the miracles another archon just used. No roll is needed.
Return: You may spend 3 connection to immediately return a deceased follower of yours to life, at injured.
Summon Creature : This allows you to summon your creature a particular area. It remains there for an entire scene, or until it has performed 5 actions, whichever comes first. After it has finished its tasks, has taken enough damage to eliminate it, or has its attitude dropped below negative, it leaves. This could mean it is teleporting away, temporarily dead, bored and running off at great speed, or something else. The creature is immortal and cannot be killed by normal means. An archon may only summon its creature once per session.
Summon Servitors : This allows you to summon a number of servitors to a particular area, enough to form a rating 6 faction. This can be by disappearing in a puff of obsolescence, returning to the astral realm, or something else entirely. An archon may only summon its servitors once per session.
Gateway: This creates a gateway that stays open for several minutes, and goes from any location to any other location. You may close it sooner at your discretion. It can be wide enough to let dozens walk through at once or small enough to only permit a single arrow to slip through. You cannot create a portal inside a solid object.
Entice: You may spend 3 points of connection to get a new follower with level equal to your charisma plus 2. This could represent a newcomer coming to know the archon better in a way that the newcomer realizes the greatness of said archon, the newcomer falling in love with a current follower of the archon, or a mind-control effect that forces obedience, or something else.
Empower: Restore all uses of a particular follower's spells. If it's a champion, you may restore all uses of spells or all vim.
Prophesy: Make a prophecy. The GM rates it, and its worth between 1 and 4 points. The more open to interpretation it is, the better described, the less game-breaking, and the more fun it would add to the session, the higher the GM rates it. You may also talk with the GM at the beginning of the campaign to factor in his plans or have him add in details that hint at things to come. The prophecy adds its rating to any action that would help fulfill it for the remainder of the session.
Wisdom: You may spend a point of connection to ask the GM for advice, and she should give you the best option available to you at that point.
Trickery: You may retcon in a trick. After someone has done something you did not like, roll social plus stealth against the stealth plus perceive of the being that earned your wrath. If you roll higher, something they thought they succeeded at is retconnned as a trick that you pulled. (insert example)
Heal: You may immediately restore full health to a character without need for a roll.
Conceal: All your followers in a zone immediately gain concealment equal to your stealth for one turn, and this concealment decreases by 1 each turn.
Catastrophe: Roll combat x2 against every target and structure in a zone, friend or foe. Living things treat this as a melee attack, non-living as a destroy, and everything nearby as a ranged attack.
Inspire: For a single artistic or creative action your target gets your charisma or labor as appropriate as a bonus to creating an item or performing.
Forbid: Pick something that is either anathema to you or sacred to you when you buy this power. You may forbid it from a single zone. This could be iron, flowers, violence, the letter "e," or something else. Anything of the sort already in the zone takes a -3 penalty. Anyting forbidden trying to enter hits an unbreakable wall of force.
Refresh: All of your followers in a particular zone have their mood set to positive again.
Enchant: You create an enchantment on something that gives a bonus equal to your lore. This enchanment draws its energy from you and does not require the follower's vim.
Gateway: Create a path from one point to another, using space-bending portals if necessary.
Provide: Immediately grant resources equal to your labor aspect plus 2 to any follower.
Great Miracles[]
Great miracles are world-changing miracles that you can do occasionally as an archon that will go down in legend. Instead of providing set mechanics for these, we recommend you discuss between sessions with the GM the miracle you want to do and how it will affect the world. The cost of a miracle is generally calculated as follows:
5 + size cost + effect cost = total connection cost
Size is how big of an area or how many people the great miracle deals with and follows this scale:
- Affects an individual
- Affects a family line
- Affects a town
- Affects a country
- Affects a continent
- Affects the world
Effect is how world-shaping the miracle is and follows this scale:
- Trivial
- Small
- Moderate
- Potent
- Intense
- Cataclysmic
The point of a great miracle isn't to give your champion a new gift or grant your city an improvement to a development. In fact, players aren't even allowed to suggest mechanics for how a miracle would play out unless the GM specifically asks. The point isn't to provide a mechanical edge but to make roleplaying more interesting.
Some examples.
Destroying a City: This is a cataclysmic event on a city-wide scale so it costs 5 connection to start with plus 3 for the size plus 6 for the effect for a total of 14. This is cataclysmic because it completely reverses what the area is like and has a major effect on story.
Creating a New Moon: This is a potent event on a worldwide scale so it costs 5 connection to start with plus 6 for the size plus 4 for the effect for a total of 15. It is potent because it changes the tides and demonstrates your power as an archon, plus has other astrological effects which would change how prophecies are determined.
Creating a New Monster in the World: If you start off with a single breeding pair, it's probably a moderate event on a family line scale, so it costs 5 connection to start with plus 2 for the size plus 3 for the effect for a total of 10. We assume a moderate event if it is a decent change in the animal's nature. Smaller changes like making pink rabbits would be one connection less in cost, while a flying, fire-breathing, colossus of a rabbit might be an intense event, or even cataclysmic if it completely changes how the nearby ecosystem functions.
Every time you gain five levels you get a free great miracle which you can use. Using it reduces the cost of a great miracle by 10 connection. Great miracles take intense planning, preparation, and work to pull off. You cannot send them down on the fly, getting some champions out of trouble or smashing an enemy army in one swift disaster.
To counter the effects of a great miracle, you must pay the same connection cost that the original archon. Unless your archon can perform the overrule archon miracle, you cannot directly cancel out another archon's great miracle. You may, however, create an effect that undoes most of the harm. For example, if an archon causes your city to be perpetually under a rain of fire, you can make its citizens immune to fire. If an archon causes someone to be horrendously mutated into some hideous form, you can surround that individual in in illusory glamor so the hideousness is undone.
Gaining Connection[]
To perform miracles your archon will need connection. Connection means you are more willing and more able to aid your followers and interact with the physical world.
As an archon, you earn connection each session equal to the rating of your education development.
The GM can also award connection for actions that make the game better. Usually these involve an archon doing one of the following:
-Doing something funny while staying in character. It's easy to quote Monty Python or break the 4th wall, drawing people out of the game for a quick laugh. A good jokester can draw people deeper into the game while being funny, and this is worth a few connection.
-Good description. It makes the game better and might be worth one, maybe even two points of connection.
-Good roleplaying. Especially if this means staying in character to your detriment. If you roleplay your character doing something you know is stupid, you might let the GM know so you don't cheat yourself out of connection you earned. This can be worth half a dozen points of connection if it's detrimental enough.
-Bribes. If the GM wants to push you to act in a specific direction, and it fits your domains, he can offer you a connection bribe to act in a specific way.
-Moving the game forward. When the game has slowed down and everyone's become stuck in a boring scene, the GM should award connection to whoever gets things moving again.
-Awesomeness. Doing something memorable and epic is worth a point or two of connection.