Inspiration: The Wilderness Sea

In 1987, DC Comics published a 48-page 'special' (with no internal ads) called Talos of the Wilderness Sea.  Prominent creator Gil Kane wrote and illustrated the book.  Writing credit was shared with Jan Strnad, but the premise was entirely Kane's.  Kane intended Talos to be an epic saga that would span twelve issues.  Sadly, the special is the only portion that was published; evidently, there was insufficient reader response to warrant additional issues.

Kane considered Talos distinct from the usual sword-and-sorcery material:

It's not another one of those...In those stories, the barbarian is seldom if ever part of any ongoing environment.  He's always the single heroic figure, but it doesn't matter what background he's placed against.  There, the background is not really important, the secondary supporting characters are not really important  The barbarian becomes just this phantom cowboy dragged in to face a set of difficulties which rarely have anything specific behind them.  There's little to suggest that it's a special kind of world.

The Wilderness Sea is part of “the disrupted environment of a post-holocaust world” – specifically, “a future America after a nuclear holocaust...The oceans in this time would be lower, there would be pockets of heavily radiated areas, mutated life, and so on.”

The story of Talos is “structured after the Book of Exodus in the Bible.”  In an irradiated forest, “beastpeople” dwell; the 'civilized' people of Totthmain raid their settlements and conscript them into slavery.  Due to their greater tolerance to radiation, beastpeople are put to work in the radioactive mines.  (Ore from the mines is “critical for the production of weapons and temples.”)

The ruler of Totthmain is Zar Totth and his queen is about to give birth; however, her past three pregnancies have resulted in stillbirths.  On each occasion, the Zar caused the midwife to be put to death.  The mate of the current midwife is the chief slave-taker and, on a raid, he comes across a beastwoman giving birth.  Strangely enough, the beastbaby appears to be human and the slaver takes it.  (You see where is is going?)

Anyway, the slaver brings the baby into the royal household via a secret passage and, sure enough, the queen delivers another stillbirth.  The slaver and the midwife are successful in making the switch.  (“Look my queen...the child lives!”)  The baby, 'Carn Whitemane,' is raised as the Zar's son.  Characters are introduced which – had Talos survived as a series – would doubtless play important roles; however, for purposes of this summary, we need not mention them further.

Eventually, Carn grows into a young man and must “face the will of the gods” (i.e., partake in a rite of passage).  The rite requires that he enter the irradiated forest – without bringing weapons or other supplies – and spend a month therein.  However, crafting weapons once in the forest is not prohibited.  During his stay, Carn encounters a large, white panther-like animal that saves him from a pack of wolves.  The two form some ill-defined metaphysical connection and Carn names the cat “Star.”  Carn encounters the “beastpeople” and his birth-mother informs him of his true heritage.  Carn accepts this claim without proof (although the slave-taker eventually verifies this) and the “beastpeople” accept him as the incarnation of Talos – the one foretold in prophecy who will take them to a better existence.

Talos (as he is now called) leads his people in combat against an expedition of Zar Totth's legionnaires.  Victorious, Talos ends the book (“The end of the beginning...”) with some observations about fulfilling his destiny.  Had Talos become a series, our hero would have brought his followers “down the continental shelf, down through the Wilderness Sea, in search of a 'promised land.'”

So, in conclusion, submitted for your approval is an Old Testament/Gamma World mash-up from twenty-five years ago.  Inspiration abounds – it's just a matter of keeping your eyes (and your mind) open.

Character Generation and Improvement in Psi World

A rare example of reverse-polarity Kirby dots.

Characters in Psi World are largely defined by six attributes: Strength, Agility, Dexterity, Endurance, Intelligence, and Will. Characters with psionics also have Psionic Power as an attribute. The starting values for each attribute range from two to twenty. The rules provide two methods for determining attributes: random and design. With the random method, players roll 2d10 six (or seven) times in order. With the 'design' method, players roll 2d10 six (or seven) times and assign the six (or seven) resulting numbers to the attributes as desired. So, in effect, the methods are 'random' and 'slightly less random.' Would a point allocation option be too onerous, if only for a player character whose attribute profile as rolled indicates a sub-average individual? In the second scenario in the adventure book, player characters as supposed to be “members of the Psionic Protection Agency (PPA).” When creating these characters, “[d]ue to the academics entrance requirements,” attribute values are determined by rolling 1d12+8. (Why not 2d6+8?)

Psi World uses percentile dice to resolve the success of various actions. Percentile 'attribute saving throws' are determined by multiplying the appropriate attribute value by four. There is no attribute saving throw for psionic power.  If a character rolls an attribute saving throw (other than Intelligence) and the unmodified result is less than or equal to half of the value of the attribute at issue, there is a chance to improve said attribute by one point.  The % 'chance of improvement' equals twenty-five minus the current attribute value.  Characters also receive a 'chance of improvement' by training a number of game weeks equal to the attribute's current value.  This method cannot be used to improve Intelligence or Psionic Power.  Attributes cannot be improved past a value of twenty-five and, according to an optional rule, characters with attributes over twenty must spend time practicing those attributes else their value will decline.

Characters receive modifiers based on their attribute values. For instance, 'initiative factor' is the average of Agility and Will. (In a given round, each character adds 1d6 to 'initiative factor' to determine the order of action.) Two modifiers, 'defense bonus' and 'bonus to hit,' mirror one another. Agility and Intelligence contribute to both. The bonus (or penalty) given by Agility is larger than that given by a comparable rating of Intelligence. The average of Dexterity and Intelligence is used to determine the damage bonus for projectile weapons while the average of Strength and Agility is used to determine the damage bonus for 'hand-held' weapons. The average of Will and Endurance is used to establish both 'shock resistance' and 'heal rate.'

What I find especially irksome is the method for determining hit points. The average of Strength and Will is added to Endurance. Half of this sum is the number of d3 rolled to determine base hit points. Base hit points are modified by low or high values of Strength, Will, or Endurance (attributes already present in the initial formula). The end result may not be favorable; according to page 4...

Note that any character with zero or less hit points after modification is considered to have died at birth. Roll a new character, and better luck next time.

How sad is that? Not even in Traveller can your character die at birth. Given that more than one d3 is rolled, the average of the combined total will be two. Why not just have Endurance plus the average of Strength and Will equal base hit points? For variation you could add a d6 or a d10 or something. Say goodbye to pesky stillbirths!

There are five 'tables' of skills: General, Technical, Military, Spacer, and Academic/Advanced. Characters can 'buy' skills from the General table and one other table determined by an 'educational background' roll. (Characters with a 'spacer' background have a “25% chance of one advanced education skill.”) The 'educational background' roll is modified by intelligence; non-psis receive an additional bonus. The skills in a given table are distinct from skills in other tables; however, there are approximations. For instance, First Aid is a General skill, Emergency Medical Technician is a Technical skill, and Nurse and Physician are Academic/ Advanced skills. Computer Programming must be purchased separately for each computer language. The computer languages in Psi World are: UBL (Universal Business Language), PRIMARY (simple beginning language), SILANG (Scientific Language), MILCODE (Military Code Language), and MECHLANG (Machine code, a 'family' of five groups; each group counts as a separate skill). Computer Repair must also be purchased separately for each group. The five Psi World computer groups are: (1) mini-computer and hand computer, (2) Mark I to Mark II, (3) Mark III to Mark IV, (4) Mark V to Mark VI, and (5) “special systems.” The rules do not specify what the different 'Marks' mean.

Player characters receive 4d10 points to acquire skills.  (For every five of these points, the character's starting age increases by one year.)  Skills are either 'non-level' or 'level.'  Non-level skills cost one point each – it is a matter of “either you have it or you don't” (example: Swimming).  For level skills, one point spent equates to a value of ten (example: by spending five points on Streetwise, the character gains 'Streetwise 50').

Through training, a character can learn new skills or improve the value of current skills.  Learning a new skill requires attending classes; the number of necessary classes is based on the skill's 'Level of Difficulty' (measured as 1, 2, or 3).  A LoD 1 skill can be learned in as few as twelve classes while a LoD 3 skill could take as many as eighty classes.  Improving a skill via training requires a number of classes based on the current skill value; the higher the value, the more classes are necessary.  Improvement, however, is not automatic.  After the required number of classes, there is a % chance equal to one hundred plus half of Intelligence minus current skill value.  If successful, a character increases the skill's value by 1, 3, 5, 7, or 10 by rolling 2d6 and consulting a table.  If a skill is successfully used in the course of an adventure, there is a % of improvement equivalent to that gained by training but with a bonus equal to the number of successful uses.

Skills can be 'mastered.'  Every time during an adventure when a character succeeds in a roll associated with a non-level skill, there is a 5% cumulative chance of mastering that skill.  For level skills, when a character achieves a value of 90, he or she can train others in that skill; a skill value of at least 100 allows a chance of “creative research or tackeling [sic] really tough problems.”