Hello all. I am posting this to see if there is interest in joining a dystopian urban based campaign set around a mile-high city fallen under the rule of haughty Aelfir (High Elves) and where players take on the role of a Drow elven Resistance movement.
Here is a preface from the pdf I have:
WELCOME TO SPIRE : This is Spire. A mile-high city in the land of Destera, ruled by cruel high elves, in which the drow – you, and your family, and your friends – have been oppressed for centuries. A nightmare warren of twisting passages and structures, built and rebuilt, atop itself. A city of a thousand gods. The furthest bastion of a terrible and burgeoning empire. A structure of unknown make that houses a blistering, rotten hole in reality at its centre where the sane dare not tread. You have joined the Ministry of Our Hidden Mistress, a paramilitary cult that worships a forbidden goddess, and sworn in blood to avenge the wrongs placed upon you and your people. You have made an oath to fight the high elves, to subvert and capture their resources, and to take Spire back into dark elf hands once more. It is a cruel and thankless task, and your family would most likely report you to the city guard if they found out what you did at night. But it is a task you have sworn to perform, and you will kill for it. You will die for it, too.
Have you dreams of revolution, treason, resistance, making a Name for yourself or becoming a Martyr for 'the Cause'.
Would you like to be a half-spider Midwife responsible for nurturing and shaping the destiny of the unborn and raising a new generation of cultists to Our Mistress from the dark side of the Moon? Perhaps become a custodian of ancient portals and a wrecked underground rail system of trains to Nowhere and Everywhere. Are you a flag waving Partisan keen to rally the discontent and dysfunctional to your cause, sacrificing them on the altar of expediency and collateral damage. Are you a Merchant of Death, bribing guards with silver and souls, buying favours from the gods in absolution for your sins and extorting 'tithes & dues' to fund the Resistance.
Rogues, Priests, Guns for hire ... all and more are included and welcome.
So, this is posted to provoke interest and hopefully we, as the game is cooperatively run, can journey together to liberate the city or die trying (most likely), go mad (entirely possible) or slink off into the shadows in shame (hopefully not).
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Spire: Wanted: Dead or Alive
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Last edited by Bluetongue on Fri Mar 10, 2023 6:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Thanks for the interest. I was just going to edit my post above to include some additional info.
The Spire RPG has its own ruleset but from my understanding, it is similar to Blades in the Dark in that the action and narrative is Player Character driven and the resolution to those is by using a 'dice pool' vs a difficulty check.
This is explained below in a bit more detail but the basics are a number of d10's are rolled by the group and the highest dice number scored equates to a success or failure of the action which could bring about a level of 'stress' or 'fallout' as a consequence. Minor stress might be allocated as a personal injury to a Check specific character trait; jump off a bridge during a chase and fail, you might break an ankle and have to limp on or critically fail a negotiation between gangs might cause your patrons warehouse to be raised by the militia. Stress & Fallout can be taken individually or affect each group member or be passed in the various bonds, patrons and associates (which could then lead to other ongoing consequences). Successes work the same way. You can achieve an objective at a standard level or critically succeed which pushes a change in the environment.
Characters roll a d10 to resolve an action. If they have a skill that pertains to the roll, they can add an extra d10. If they have a domain (an area of expertise where they are comfortable operating that applies to the roll), they can add another d10. Sometimes equipment, circumstances, or character abilities will allow the character to roll with mastery, adding another d10. Since mastery can only be applied once per action, most die rolls will cap at four dice, although some character abilities play with this cap.
More difficult tasks remove a die from the die pool, so that four dice pool, against a difficulty 2 task, only allows the character or group to roll two dice. The highest die resolves whether the action is a critical failure, a failure, a success at a cost, a normal success, or a critical success.
Failure usually results in stress, which is tracked under five main resistances (some characters might also have an armor resistance added to the list as well):
Blood (Physical health)
Mind (Mental well-being)
Silver (Wealth and resources)
Shadow (Ability to operate secretly)
Reputation (Social standing)
The stress taken will vary depending on the stakes of the initial action, and might be generated with a d3, d6, or a d8. As soon as a character takes stress, they roll for fallout, which has minor, moderate or severe levels depending on the total amount of stress the character has taken.
What this means is that some failures don’t have immediate consequences, but every failure starts to add up. It also means that the rules for taking a hit to your personal funds are the same as taking a blow to the body in combat, although the fallout, when it happens, will be different.
As to the Drow trope. In this setting they are an underclass of people. Millennia before they built and lived in The Spire but for centuries past the city has been under the rule of High Elf overlords. Apart from a standard 'Drow have mostly white hair, have an affinity for spiders and hate sunlight', everything else is subverted from the typical D&D race.
The Drow, even while living in their own city, serve their overlord's via 'The Durance', which is a period of indentured servitude that the drow serve under the aelfir to “repay” them for what the aelfir contribute to society. Depending on the specific Durance selected, your character might gain more skills, or special traits which they can add to their resistance that doesn’t count against their normal stress levels.
The character classes available in the core rules are the following:
Azurite (A well connected mercantile priest) Bound (A vigilante with items that have minor gods dwelling in them, boosting their power) Carrion-Priest (Death worshippers with pet hyenas) Firebrand (True believer revolutionaries) Idol (Famous, well-regarded artists who influence politics and society) Knight (A member of a once proud martial organization that now operates more like a thuggish gang) Lajhan (A priest of the moon goddess of the drow) Masked (A drow that learned subterfuge and espionage while serving under the aelfir) Midwife (A drow that is part spider and protects the young and the future of drow society) Vermission Sage (A drow sage that has learned secrets of the city’s extradimensional spaces, a mage skilled in librarian antiquities and gnosticism.)
I would encourage folk to read through a pdf of The Spire: the City must Fall which can be bought from various online RPG sites or even downloaded free as a flip book pdf.
It sounds very similar to my idea at the time though reversed in roles.
So yeah, this looks a very unique campaign idea and more collaborative in strategy and game play. That could make some interesting scenes and in Spire, there are certainly strange 'classes' to have for your character! And I note that each has unique skills that can be gained at advanced levels. I like the idea of being a covert Vermisson Sage operating in extra dimensional space or a Knight which I understand to all purposes is nothing more than a drunkard, bar-room brawling paladin seeking redemption and hustling for territory, owning a skill or trait that says 'you have an encyclopaedic knowledge of where to get drunk'.
It sounds a great project and if the main thrust is roleplay rather than just a dungeon crawl through an urban setting, I would be interested to join in.
This sounds very good. A clandestine group slowly gaining territory and influence until a greater uprising to retake a city. I can imagine lots of urban themed adventures.
I probably can't commit to joining as I am fully stocked but wish you well to get it off the ground.
As I am responding to a few private messages, I thought it might be good to link to a very good YouTube review of Spire which so much more eloquently sets the scene and background to the game.
At the moment, I am following up expressed interest, still recruiting here and via a few "reach out' messages of invitation. Once a few players are confirmed (I have two currently and would reasonably start with three or four, making room for others as the game progresses), then I will get a forum thread organised and 'World Build' the setting, Rules and Character Creation information.
I have gone ahead with asking Admin to open up a forum thread for this game. So I hope those players who have expressed interest will be able to join. I am keeping recruitment open so readers, please do express your interest here or ask any relevant game questions.
I will probably spend a few days to 'world build', setting scenes and creating specific threads and will add players to the group profile as you confirm
interest.
Thank you for your support. I hope it will be a fun adventure to all players and GM alike.
Great. We have a forum thread on the campaigns board and I am currently World Building and setting the scene for players to make their characters and begin some starting adventures.
The Ministry of our Hidden Mistress,
A covert paramilitary cult dedicated to the overthrow of Aelfir overlords and taskmasters and oath sworn devotees to the 'Dark side of the Moon'.
Player characters are Ministers, secret agents leading resistance movements, tasked with espionage; industrial, spiritual, educational, martial.
Assassins, extortionists, magicians and thieves, excelling at their artisan crafts to paint the Spire Arcology red with blood or Spireblack if necessary, in order to restore a new era of Drow nationalism and pride.
There are just some rules for those willing to participate in this 'project mayhem'.
The first rule of the Ministry is: you do not talk about the Ministry. The second rule of the Ministry is: you DO NOT talk about the Ministry! Third rule of the Ministry: while someone is taken in the Durance, while our worship is banned, while our babies are birthed premature, the Resistance is never over. Fourth rule: everyone comes to the fight, there is equal risk and equal reward. No Minister gets left behind and none taken prisoner. Fifth rule: Subvert don't destroy. We want our city back not burned to the ground afterall. Turn them rather than burn them. Rob the rich to feed the poor. Give the Poor a hand up not a hand out.
So, calling all drow aspirants, the Ministry needs You!
Nuns with Guns, Priests with Hyenas, Masked Vigilantes bearing sawn off gods dwelling in double barrelled blunderbuss, social media Icons who can melt a person's heart (or face, your choice) with just a look. Azurite priests who twist minds with a spin of silver coins and wager sanity and immortality. Lore Maesters seeking ancient drow wisdom or integrating human steam-punk protakratos. Militant urban pastors who can shepherd the sheep to green pastures or martyrdom.
For those who have read this far and wish to accept an invitation to join the Ministry:
Just a public shout-out to my very patient players.
I envisioned this game getting off the ground by the beginning of May but it hit a very serious hiatus because of an incident with my work which impacted real-life in consuming the majority of my time and energy.
I am committed to get this off the ground and will add to the 'Spire : world' in the thread over the next couple of weeks with a view to have the game in full swing by the end of the month as I free up work commitments.
I say this as I field a couple of private messages from newer players interested but to be fair to the current players who have and who have yet to post a character action or roll, I will place those interested on hold for now until I can manage what I have effectively.
