Dice rolls are 1d10 + Stat + Proficiency + any applicable bonuses, such as Boons.
You may spend 3 Tension to Overdrive for a retroactive +5 to your roll (a Determination Overdrive), or +3 to an ally's roll (a Teamwork Overdrive). I will also automatically overdrive to avoid exhaustion or unconsciousness.
It is possible to critically succeed (on +5 on skill checks and +10 on combat rolls) or critically fail (by the same margins), but rolling a 1 or a 10 does not automatically crit in either case. It is possible to crit retroactively by Overdriving.
Your stat bonuses have names:
Vigor grants a Strength bonus.
Agility grants a Dexterity bonus.
Spirit grants an Aura bonus.
Mind grants an Intuition bonus.
Resolve grants a Guts bonus.
Dice are rolled on a first come, first serve bonus. You only roll for Deedee.
...My instinct is to take this phrase as negative feedback and stop, but the rest of the post suggests that you are reacting positively towards my comments. I'm... confused.
...My instinct is to take this phrase as negative feedback and stop, but the rest of the post suggests that you are reacting positively towards my comments. I'm... confused.
This thing about money feels like it's going to tie into the wine production, because that's a high-status product that's going to leave the local area so I don't think it fits into the Guy Economy.
Maybe I'm wrong! But wine seems like it'll leave town and turn into money, and then Tayeb can turn the money into other things the community needs and doesn't have local access to, and I think that's likely to be cash-based; so even if this thing didn't target him it's for sure going to hurt him. In particular, a bad year may leave him struggling to scrape much together to cover his operating costs, at which point he might really struggle to look like a productive member of his community.
I'mma go hunting his first appearances and remind myself of what he's selling. I'd be surprised if he was being targetted, unless we find out more about why people might have it in for him - this tension with his family doesn't look like motive at all, it'd be completely inconsistent to fuck up the thing the town does to get at someone who's seen as not contributing - but he's got skin in this game.
EDIT: Nope, this doesn't look right. The wine basically doesn't show up at all in the dinner at his house, and it's "his wife's family's weaving that fed you tonight." He moves textiles, not wine, which reframes how I was thinking about how he fits in - smaller scale than the town's main industry, and crucially he's selling something that I'd imagine would usually be a Guy Economy thing. Inside Vinyedo, the family are Textile Guys, and it's possible the others are thinking of him as profiting from cutting out another town's Textile Guys (where in fact there might not be anyone else in quite the niche he's filling in Viacruz).
Inside Vinyedo, the family are Textile Guys, and it's possible the others are thinking of him as profiting from cutting out another town's Textile Guys (where in fact there might not be anyone else in quite the niche he's filling in Viacruz).
Three points in regards to this part of this really great post:
1: Textiles are women's work in practically every pre-industrial society, because spinning thread can be done in your offhand while also holding on to a kid.
2: In the original Guy Economy thread on Twitter, someone (I wish I recalled who!) said that mutualistic, monetized urban socities have a Place Economy, where you know a place instead of a guy. And as you've surmised, in Viacruz, if you need clothing, the place is Tayeb's.
3; This doesn't mean the man's above moving other things from where they're easy to make and cheap to where they're hard to make and valuable, so this doesn't mean you were wrong - it just colors the rest.
Chewing over this a bit more: the wine is the town's best-known industry and isn't his, which makes me very curious what the social technology that gets it elsewhere is. Presumably some of it is tax, but - I'm uninformed but I don't think that's going to be the only way it gets out into the world.
I was going to say the Flammite priest would know, but there's a better question here. Is the apparatus of the Flammite faith how wine gets around?
Chewing over this a bit more: the wine is the town's best-known industry and isn't his, which makes me very curious what the social technology that gets it elsewhere is. Presumably some of it is tax, but - I'm uninformed but I don't think that's going to be the only way it gets out into the world.
I was going to say the Flammite priest would know, but there's a better question here. Is the apparatus of the Flammite faith how wine gets around?
Gnomon The Alpha and Omega, The Divine Archivist, Keeper of Letters and Numbers, Scribe of the Heavens, Who Knows All That Is Written
Progenitor of Mutan
God of Writing, Mathematics, History, Pottery, Parchment and Papermaking, Inks and Pigments, Recordkeeping, Memory and Time Concept art by Rukafais
Gnomon is the second of the primordials who joined forces with the gods and their Namer progeny to make Mundus a place worth living in, by giving them a way to pass on what they had learned to future generations: writing. Gnomon is the Alpha and Omega, and every letter in between: the living concepts of literacy and numeracy, who write down the deeds of all in their carefully tended and immaculately organized Celestial Archives and in so doing have become the keeper of time. They bid their followers to learn and pass on all knowledge they can, to preserve the histories of those who would otherwise be forgotten, and to seek both the facts and the truth of all situations...
SUMMARY
Gnomon is the primordial of knowledge, and specifically of quantifiable written knowledge. If your build can benefit from being Mind primary, it can benefit from the boons of Gnomon. Obviously a favorite with Wizards, Enchanters and Warlocks, he also sees surprising utility with Oathsworn and Armsmasters, Scouts and Shamans, and all of the craftsmen classes. A little extra memory capacity never hurt anyone.
Least Boon: All That Is Written
As long as you have done library research on a subject before, this powerful boon grants +3 to knowledge checks having to do with recalling information from that sphere of knowledge. This is more limited than it sounds in a world where there are oral traditions that have never been written down in game, but it allows easy access to a vast amount of technical knowledge, magical theory, and official history. Among other things, this passively increases the amount of information you have about places you've never been but have read about - which can include a number of infamous dungeons. Forewarned about the deadly flame jet traps is forearmed, after all. While never necessary, All That Is Written is always useful.
Valuable Boons
The utility of Like A Book is easy to overlook since it's description draws attention to filling out your bestiary, but it's true value is that once you have sized up a target with this Boon you will always deal additional damage to it, making it extremely valuable for Damage Increment builds. Doubly so when combined with Natural Historian, which applies these benefits across monstrous clades. Written In Stone allows you to extend the lengths of your Boosts and Debilitates, while the almighty Written By The Victors allows you to steal buffs and debuffs cast by the enemy and reapply them to more favorable targets! Perhaps the most powerful Boon earlygame is Erase, which allows you to seal away a troublesome technique.The utility of the raw knowledge abilities - Encyclopedia Omphalica, Runic Mastery, The Written Songs and similar - is handier than it seems and a must for lore completionists, as having that information in context and to hand usually is. The crowning ability of the Gnomic tree is Speed of Thought, which places all purely mental Support actions on a separate cooldown - allowing you to cast two Support Techniques one after the other, a gamechanging if not gamebreaking benefit.
Technique Considerations
The most important decision is whether or not you'll be taking a Copy Technique. Most builds cannot use techniques duplicated from opponents, but a Gnomic build can, with the right Transformation Tension Break, starting at 5th level. Natively, Gnomic techniques have access to the Psychic element, but Gnomics have the unique ability to apply the Elemental Shift ability through Boosts to change the elemental affinity of attacks - which is one reason the Gnomic Wizard is such a classic build. They also have stronger Mind-based spells, including getting that third bolt in an Elfshot Barrage from a single level of Multiple Targets and easy, cheap access to Smart AoE. Simple requirements for damage increment bonuses - from hitting elemental weaknesses and from Like A Book/Natural Historian and, if they can get it, a Feint mean that Gnomics do well with 'poor formula' attack spells - Drains, Debilitates, Saps and Persistent effects - that get half benefit from increasing Attack Damage directly but full benefit from Damage Increments.
DIVINE BEAST - Metatron
Many-winged, many-eyed Metatron is as eldritch and holy an abomination as Glatisant and for the same reasons. It rapidly shifts through a pattern of spells, switching elemental affinities on a set schedule while also benefitting from Speed of Thought. While it's direct attack spells are powerful, even more powerful are the array of buffs and debuffs it has - and, of course, it's ability to copy techniques.
Stay strong, close in to melee, and buff your mobility. Metatron is a glass cannon, and perhaps has the lowest Defense and Health of any of the Divine Beasts; if it's not acting as artillery, it's in serious danger of being overwhelmed in melee. Make sure that it's ability to teleport across the arena won't slow down the close-range hurt. Bring Resistance buffs, Cleanses and - if you can - Written by the Victors to make the support abilities it drops out it's own problem, and the Voice of the Gods will fall under your swords.
LORE NOTES "One of the more intriguing definitions of 'gnomon' in real life is a timekeeping device - specifically, the triangular blade of a sundial, catching the shadow of the sun. On its own it signifies nothing, but in relation to everything around it, a gnomon informs you of the passage of time. Likewise, Gnomon the god is a god of the measuring of time - not time itself, but the ways in which we can infer and deduce that time exists. They are a god of timekeeping, but not of time; of histories, but not of events; of science, but not of nature. Gnomon is about signifiers, and how they relate to the signified."
- Charlene Durante, interview at MundusCon
Gnomon is the primordial of language, first of speech and then of writing. In this regard he is considered the god of time and it's keeping, and a patron of philosophy and the sciences; they are said to have introduced the concept of writing to the world, and in so doing allow for the keeping of records beyond a Namer's lifetime. It is for this reason that they are said to have sired Mutan - the moon, and the source of calendars and seasons - while Aurora was Io's child.
During the Gygan War, Gnomon aided their children in the Gods with engineering and the creation a weaponry and with the sending of messages; afterwards, they dedicated their heavenly demense to the keeping of records, so that the follies that lead to the war and the successes that ended it could be preserved for not only the Gods but those they created. This is the mythological origin both of history and of Aurora's blessing of the Omphalan Empire, which was responsible for sinking Gyges - or so the legends say. Now, it is said that Gnomon is very busy keeping track of the individual biographies of each inhabitant of Mundus, updating their good books as Mutan brings news of their dreams and deeds and keeping a full accounting of their actions in the Great Heavenly Archives.
a thinking being recording things could mean personalised quest logs for everyone?
in fact, with my work hat on I suspect it's a step further than that. "Now, it is said that Gnomon is very busy keeping track of the individual biographies of each inhabitant of Mundus, updating their good books as Mutan brings news of their dreams and deeds and keeping a full accounting of their actions in the Great Heavenly Archives" sounds like an IC gloss on the idea that Gnomon's responsibility is the data tier of the game's architecture: logging relevant states like XP, achievement progress and unlocks, quite possibly with sufficient nuance that they can reconstruct not only the current state but a solid backup history of how things got into the current state. Gnomon may well be the DBA* for Another World Online.
in fact, with my work hat on I suspect it's a step further than that. "Now, it is said that Gnomon is very busy keeping track of the individual biographies of each inhabitant of Mundus, updating their good books as Mutan brings news of their dreams and deeds and keeping a full accounting of their actions in the Great Heavenly Archives" sounds like an IC gloss on the idea that Gnomon's responsibility is the data tier of the game's architecture: logging relevant states like XP, achievement progress and unlocks, quite possibly with sufficient nuance that they can reconstruct not only the current state but a solid backup history of how things got into the current state. Gnomon may well be the DBA* for Another World Online.
He sighed and drummed his fingers against his arm of the couch. "At least we gave Io the ability to partition themself. The others can't. Can you imagine if we'd lost Gnomon?"
Ugh, this is too technical. The easiest but not the most accurate way to explain is that we didn't differentiate between where we put their psyches and your auras, and we think your psyches expanded to fill the space we gave them. And so you woke up.
But that's just our best guess. My best guess, and Gnomon's.
Chewing over this a bit more: the wine is the town's best-known industry and isn't his, which makes me very curious what the social technology that gets it elsewhere is. Presumably some of it is tax, but - I'm uninformed but I don't think that's going to be the only way it gets out into the world.
I was going to say the Flammite priest would know, but there's a better question here. Is the apparatus of the Flammite faith how wine gets around?
I'd like to build on this and, having read a little Debt in my time, add one more thing I'd like to know: How is tax collected in Vinyedo: in kind or in coin?
I don't know if it's what's going on with the Kosmas, but a situation where "our disreputably-employed merchant son is keeping us in coin to pay off the tax man when the harvest can't be sold for enough coin, but he's still the disreputable merchant," is a plausible tension to me! Alternately so is, "sure, he's making "money", but he can't help us with [X,] can he?" a kind of tension.
Whether folks have to sell their harvest and then accept whatever the going rate is and then hope it will pay taxes: that's another kind of tension, etc.
Who will we spend time with and talk to after our business in the vineyards is done? We will also be spending time with Ace. Approval vote, top two win.
[] Alesha.
[] Hikaru.
[] Sekhmet.
[] Siobhan.
We have the opportunity to train under a master. What should we be tutoring in?
[] Reflexes and mobility.
[] Striking power.
[] Blocking and parrying.
[] Magical techniques.
[] Endurance and resiliency.
Who will we spend time with and talk to after our business in the vineyards is done? We will also be spending time with Ace. Approval vote, top two win.
[] Alesha.
[X] Hikaru.
[] Sekhmet.
[X] Siobhan.
We have the opportunity to train under a master. What should we be tutoring in?
[X] Reflexes and mobility.
[] Striking power.
[] Blocking and parrying.
[] Magical techniques.
[] Endurance and resiliency.
