Gutted Like a Trout

The last day of a bad year, and it got worse.

I had less than an hour on my shift left, and then I was going home, relaxing, paying my bills for the month and basically enjoying my evening. Naturally, something goes wrong.

My day job is cook at a crappy restaurant. On Monday, I went into the freezer to open a case of hamburger meat. I place my left hand atop the box to steady it, my right hand has a box cutter, which I plan to open the case with. You can probably guess where this is going. Fucking blade slips, slices open my left hand something fierce, and my hand turns into a fucking special effect. Blood everywhere, tissue lay open, and I’m screaming in agony.

I end up at the ER, where I spend the next six hours. I end up with a tetanus booster, a shot of antibiotic in my ass and 20 stitches closing an 8 cm long gash, which runs from the tip of my left thumb all the way to the center of my left palm. I manage to miss the tendon and the radial artery, though, so the wound, while bloody does not seem to be critical. The pain seems to be under control- they prescribed me 20 Hydrocodone, which I’m leery about. There is a bad history of addiction in the men of my family so I’ve always been cautious of even prescribed narcotics and I’ve never touched anything else. I took two last night, and might take one again tonight before going to bed, but I want to avoid the pills as much as possible.

The upshot is I’m off work for a while, and for this month will be more dependant on PDF sales than usual. I also may have to delay some existing projects as my art budget goes into living expenses. Yes, workman’s comp applies, but I still have to pay out of pocket for some things and get reimbursed. And my company’s HR department is…well, fucked is a comprehensive adjective. I’ll get reimbursed, but likely later rather than sooner.  

I will try to get out some other stuff in the meanwhile, less art heavy projects that I can illustrate purely with stock art or with existing illustrations. Before the injury, I’d already sent Mark two PDFs to start off the New Year.

The first is Autorun, a Shadowrun/Cyberpunk style virtual reality hacking minigame for D20 Modern. I did that one basically on a whim. While I’ve been writing the SF Citybook, I’ve been rereading my Shadowrun collection for inspiration, and one night I finally came up with a way to do a fun, fast and intuitive VR hacking minigame.

Second, Solomon Station is out and ready. This big, beautiful 50 page location sourcebook will be out soon. Solomon Station is  a huge, gritty sci-fi environment to explore- a blue collar vision in space similar to the Aliens franchise or old school Traveler games. It’s got a unique feel- claustrophobic, high tech, with racial and sexual tensions simmering under a falsely cheerful, pseudo-Brady Bunch façade. It’s also home to the Wrench, a race of metal skinned humans designed for deep space survival, and the ‘race book’ aspect of the book really ties the Wrench into the Solomon Station setting.

Anyway, you’ll notice I typed this with my injured hand. I can still work, even though typing sorta hurts and is a bit slower than normal. My hand’s bandaged up pretty tightly, so I keep hitting the wrong keys and have to correct myself, so it’s slow and slightly frustration going, but at least I can still work.

Anyway, hopefully the hand heals quickly.

CHRIS

Partial Index: SF Citybook

Okay, here's a look at the index for the upcoming SF Citybook. It's extremely incomplete, but it gives you an idea of how I want to break everything down. Over on the right is an awesome abstract map of the city I found online, and have been referring to constantly. I actually emailed the artist to ask if I could license it for the book, I like it that much.

In other news, I'll be getting Shane O'Conner to do a professional editing pass on all the stat blocks in the Lifer Army Book, which is great. I'll be referring to this book throughout 2013 and beyond, as it will be one of the definitive 'monster books' of the setting, so having perfect statblocks for it is definitely a good thing. I'm also talking to one of the fans of the setting about him possibly writing a sourcebook of his own for Otherverse America. If that happens it'll definitely be interesting, letting others play in my setting and taking an editorial rather than a primary author role.

Anway, enjoy a very, very preliminary first look at San Francisco, circa 2107.

Aradia’s Isle

The Aradian Crypts

Aradian Wineries and Breweries

The Fairy Bridge

Womb of Heroes

Woven Circle Council Chambers

Berkley District

UC Berkley

Chinatown

The Bat Market

Chang-Sing Palace

Consolidated Six Bio-Medical

Year of the Panda #13445

Financial District

Stonecutter Consulate

Transamerica Pyramid

            Sublisted Bastian Cultural Sites

            Sublisted Megacorps

Foxjoy Circle

AIDS Memorial

Alehouse Row

Engineered Chimera
Soft Palace: Helix Shooting Houses

Hunter’s Point Enclave

The Barricades and the DMZ

CAPA Customer Service

Checkpoint Baby

Christian Bounty Farmer’s Market

Grave of Those Unchosen

Haunted Corner

Red Reindeer Arms

Rescue Mission Gospel Church

            Sublisted Lifer Businesses

New Sutro Tower

Pacific Heights

Tankhill Park

Women’s Community Health Center

            Sublisted Choicer Shops

The Presidio

The Algard Assembly Hall

The Battery

The Campus

Earth Guard Barracks and Midwife’s Apartments

Golden Gate Freeway

Lifer-ville Live Fire Area

            Sublisted Schools and Academies

Rhinehart Tower

            Sublisted Shops and Tenants

Sanger Tower/Fluxing Brenna Medical Center

The Sunset District: Kassa Veltawinne

Alchemy 2204B

Cloisters               

The Court of Candles

Nathal Restaurant

Line Works Design Offsite 1

Memorial Whispering

The Procyon Crèche

The San Francisco Zoo

Xenological Wing

Short Preview: San Francisco Citybook

Just thought I'd share another exceprt from an upcoming book- one last preview before Christmas. Here is some of what will be in the upcoming San Francisco sourcebook. 

Blessed Be,
CHRIS

Rhinehart Tower (The Tower)

            “After I moved out here, after..... I watched them put up that Tower. The first entirely meta-human ‘scraper. Imagined by a Powered architect, erected by Powered crews working triple shifts, designed around engineering techniques made possible by studying Powered biology..... it went up in sixty three days. No cranes, no construction equipment, just them.”

            -Dr. Marlene Barron, 2061

            Rhinehart Tower is one of the most recognizable landmarks in Earthspace, and has joined Aradia’s Isle, the Golden Gate Bridge and the Transamerica Tower as one of San Francisco’s iconic structures. Erected in 2027, the 164-story monolith instantly became one of the symbols of the “Powered Age”, in addition to reclaiming the title of world’s tallest building for America. The gleaming chrome and glass spire dwarfs the city’s lower buildings, standing nearly twice again as tall as the next tallest structure. The mega-scraper was briefly the seat of government for the young Covenant, before Aradia’s Isle was complete.

           

            The Tower is an impressively decorated structure, despite its clean lines and stark design. Gigantic pentagonal silver shields float in an endless, languid orbit around the Tower’s central spire, held in place by multiple layers of magnetism. The 13 heroically proportioned shields depict bas-relief images of early meta-humans and extremely stylized sigils which represent the Wiccan wheel of the year. Holographic advertisements crawl up and down the Tower’s sleek outer hull, their images color-coordinated to match the day’s changing light.

           

            As of 2107, the Tower is a multi-function structure, practically a city in its own right. Thousands of San Francisco residents live and work in the tower. The first ten layers are given over to a massive shopping arcology, one of the largest shopping complexes in North America. The Tower’s central mall includes the Rhinehart Heritage Center, a museum of early Powered history that is free of charge and open to the public. The mall’s facilities are comprehensive, and include on-site medical facilities, several theaters, several small Covenant chapels and even a sterile, sparsely attended Grave of the Unborn.

            The next ninety floors are dedicated to corporate offices. Many of California’s wealthiest companies have office space within the Tower. Floors 101 through 105 are given over to maintenance and logistical facilities, and the remaining floors are lavish apartments for the city’s ultra-wealthy. The maintenance floors act as a security buffer between the public and semi-public areas below and the private areas above.

            As is to be expected, the Tower has a top-flight security service on sight, and their staff includes several mid-range Powereds and cyber-enhanced soldiers. Older combat veterans view a career with Rhinehart Tower to be a comfortable semi-retirement, while neophyte metahumans find the job a favorable (if usually dull) balance between risk and reward. The Tower’s internal security forces are more concerned with theft-prevention and corporate espionage than personal protection, though members of the Woven Circle and other important pro-choice activists maintain apartments here. These VIPS usually provide their own protection, in the form of Covenguard defenders.

            Some of Rhinehart Tower’s Tenants

• Full Freedom Gym, Parking -2 level (old Bastian-run dojo)
• Rhinehart Transfer Station, Parking -1 level (major bus terminal for the Financial District and SoMo areas)
• Quickie Coin, Parking -1 level (Lifer-owned currency exhange/cash kiosk)
• Hemlock One Cinema, 1^st floor (multiscreen dollar movie theater)
• Houndstooth Coffee, 1^st, 5^th and 21^st floors (first shops in the popular coffee franchise)
• Prism Theater, 1^st floor (fairly popular live theater for plays, ballet under simulated micro-grav conditions, and concerts)
• Teenybopper, 2^nd floor (fast food cynically targeting Choicer kids)
• Runes of Sister & Soldier, 3^rd floor (fashionable light and medium body armor)
• Freehold Steak & Ale, 5^th floor (exclusive steakhouse, importing Australian or Delight-raised beef rather than dealing with Lifer-run American ranches)
• Knowledge & Light Restaurant, 5^th floor (five star vegan restaurant with fruit and veggies imported fresh from Delight)
• The Gettyhawk Gallery, 5^th floor (upscale art, antiques, including pagan artifacts)
• Venus’ Bedroom, 11^th floor (secular bordello)
• Cyberchoice LTD, 13^th floor (cyber-parlor offering full disassembly repairs and full cybernetic conversion, contract with the Choicer military)
• Andromeda Antiques, 23^rd floor (specializes in xeno-artifacts, especially Half Grey and early ‘second universe’ Senator-technology)
• Soft Palace Regional Offices, 57^th floor (meta-porn media giant)
• Varthan Cybersystems Corporate Offices, 81^st floor (cybernetic exports)
• Lestada Group Branch Offices, 97^th floor (insurance and pro-choice lobbying)
• Whiteash Mendoza’s suites, 104^th floor (Dianic Rite idol singer)
• Lady Sylvia Moondark’s suites, 109^th floor (Woven Circle member)
• Cameron Nicellos-Bryne’s suites, 115^th floor (auto industry billionaire of the House Nicellos)

Chinatown

            Chinatown is still, well, Chinatown. While every neighborhood around it suffered demographic shifts, the neighborhood’s mostly Chinese inhabitants stayed resolutely, stubbornly put. Chinatown weathered the Big Trib, and the Abortion War exactly as it had weathered similar quakes, fires and wars throughout the first century or so of its existence.

           

            Chinatown is resolutely apolitical, only a part of the Choicer Covenant because it’s forced to be. The neighborhood’s borders are patrolled by citizen watches and the occasional gene-cut combat volunteer, usually under the employ of one of the local Tongs. As San Francisco went to hell around it, Chinatown’s unelected elders sealed off their own little corner of the world. After all, the Abortion War was a matter for Christian and Pagan to settle, and most in Chinatown were neither.

Outsiders, especially ones with an obvious Lifer or Choicer allegiance are obviously unwelcome. Most are turned away at the Union Square Dragon Gate, either politely or not so politely. Choicer and Lifer visitors are tentatively welcome on the weekends- at least, the sullen eyed, tattooed post-humans manning the gates tend not to turn away quite so many. Natives who embrace one of the pseudo-nations are obviously unwelcome and are ostracized until they either return to the fold or get the hell out. A Chinese-American Midwife would be flatly ignored by clerks or in restaurants, stared out hostilely by housewives and flipped off by teenagers, but so would a Chinese-American sporting Lifer purple or a tattooed Sigil. Violence against outsiders is relatively rare, and usually confined to the occasional tonfa or asp-beatdown at the gates, but the district-wide silently treatment is usually enough to drive away believers from either side.

Chinatown has been run by the Kwong-Shen Consortium since the mid 2050s; originally an alliance between the mid 21^st century’s two largest Tongs, the Kwong-Shen Consortium is now almost legitimate. Donald Kwong (Male FCB Fast 5, Powered-reflex/peak human 10) is the same man who brokered the original treaty, today he is a slender Full Conversion Cyborg of sinister black angles, proud of his custom-built stealth chassis, and possessed of more than 100 years of criminal experience and cunning. By contrast, his opposite number on the Consortium is Fae Shen, the granddaughter of the man he shook hands with in a little tea room back in 2057.

Sites around Chinatown

• The Bat Market: An informal night market that springs up around the Union Square Dragon Gate every night around 2200 and runs till dawn. Connected locals can pick up guns, including Valiente energy weapons and military grade gene-mods. Everybody else can get fish, produce, duck, ect.

• Chang-Sing Palace: One of the city’s finest restaurants, and Donald Kwong’s private sanctuary. He hasn’t needed to sleep in 30 years, and he lounges here, alone except for his most trusted men, during the darkest hours of the night. The meticulous, computer-planned paintings he creates during the long, sleepless night hang in the restaurant, and in many neighboring shops. Kwong often gives away his paintings as gifts to his neighbors, and out of either fear or love, nobody has ever refused one. 

• Consolidated Six Bio-Medical: Firmly under control of the Kwong-Shen, this ultra-modern, six story hospital (with a comprehensive onMesh and augmented reality presence, all in Cantonese, of course) offers genetic upgrades to the tong’s best fighters. Consolidated Six Bio-Med offers the Genetic Enhancement and Meta-Athlete enhancement protocols, but only to trusted Tong enforcers. As far as most San Franciscans know, the facility simply performs over-the-counter genetic engineering- specifically, anti-aging and cosmetic genecutting. 

• Year of the Panda #13445: Legally, nothing’s stopping the Lifer nation from opening one of its Chinese franchise restaurants in Chinatown. Of course, legally, there’s nothing that would ever compel a native to dine here. Often graffiti scarred or marred by vandalism of ever more imaginative variety, most of the booths are empty save for the occasional tourist who doesn’t know any better. Chinatown kids dumb enough to take a first job here usually get their asses kicked until they quit.

Neverborn in Chinatown

            If you’re Neverborn, and if you value your….life…you won’t go anywhere near Chinatown. The locals aren’t on friendly terms with either the Lifer or Choicer nations, but hold an undying hatred for undead post-humans. The gate guards are pretty good at spotting Neverborn in their human state (though they don’t catch everyone, particularly the more lifelike).

While the ordinary Lifer will likely get turned away with no worse than a shove, Neverborn are going to take a beating. If a Neverborn transforms within Chinatown’s borders he’s probably going to get killed. The lucky ones just get stomped to death- the unlucky ones are tortured and humiliated first. Locally ‘hopping vampire’ means breaking a Neverborn’s kneecaps, tying his legs together and seeing how far he can ‘hop’ before collapsing. It’s not necessarily the Tongs doing the violence either; ordinary Chinatown civilians are more than willing to put down a Neverborn. The SFPD rarely investigates the death of Neverborn, even in the rare instances where the bodies turn up. And by the way, Neverborn with an obviously Chinese phenotype get it about ten times worse than white Neverborn.

Lifer Anthro: Pronghorn

One of my fans, Kodyax, has been asking me if I ever plan to include an anthro-specific version of Otherverse America, run using the Fursona system and a kind of military sci-fi version of all anthro fiction like Omaha the Cat Dancer or Usagi Yojimbo.

It's just such a bizarre idea it sorta appeals to me- you've got this super-grim setting about abortion, terrorism and religious warfare but the protagonists are cute fuzzy river otters or something.  I've actually got an idea in the back of my mind how to run a setting like that (plus keep it true to the themes driving OA) and one day I might release it as Otherverse America: Lions & Lambs. However, it is such a radical departure from the other stuff I've done, and somewhat a distraction from larger projects like Black Tokyo Unlimited, Endara and future Otherverse releases I want to get to first, like a San Francisco citybook (including the Taker of the Unborn adventure I previewed a few blog posts ago), a comprehensive cyborg book and a Boston citybook.

That said, my upcoming Lifer Army Book will include new statblocks using all sorts of content, including stuff not originally built specifically for Otherverse America. I've included at least one Lifer Modern Spellcaster and may include more, and I'm including a few Lifer anthros, built using Fursona. When I eventually do the corresponding Choicer Army Book, expect a few pagan anthros there too. I'm treating Anthros in OA as basically another breed of genetically enhanced supersoldier, just one more powerful and cool thing the players can be if they want. Most of 'em have their origins in Sanger Genomics, Kodiak Island or the Patriot Medical center at Atlanta.

So here you go, a Lifer supersoldier built as an Anthro: Pronghorn.

Lifer Combat Anthro: Pronghorn (CR 10)

Medium Humanoid (Anthro- Order: Capricornis)

Fast Hero 3, Powered Hero 7

XP

Init +3 Senses lowlight vision

Languages English

Defense

AC 25 (+3 DEX, +6 class +6 equipment)

HP 72 hp (3d8 +7d10 + 20 hp)

FORT +8 REF +7 WILL +2

Resist Cold 1

Weaknesses -4 racial penalty on FORT saves against thirst or environmental heat ; -6 racial penalty on Disguise checks

Offense

Spd 40 ft

Melee +11 horns (1d6+2 slashing, 20/x2)

            +14 unarmed strike (1d6+5 bludgeoning, crit 20/x2, automatic crit when inflicting non-lethal damage)

Ranged +12 Mossberg shotgun (2d8 ballistic, crit 20/x2, 30 ft range increment, single shot, 6 round internal mag)

            +13 Farrar 5.7 mm SMG (2d8+1 ballistic, crit 20/x2, 40 ft range increment, full auto, 60 round box mag)

            +12 frag grenade (5d6 slashing, 20 ft burst radius, 10 ft range increment, DC 15 REF half)

Special Actions Hoof Stamp (30 ft radius, all targets must succeed at DC 16 REF Save or be knocked prone and suffer 1d6 points of subdual damage)

Statistics

Str 18 Dex 17 Con 15  Int 12 Wis 9 Cha 11

Base Atk +9 CMB +13 CMD 27

Feats Armor Proficiency (light, medium, heavy), Personal Firearms Proficiency, Point Blank Shot, Power Attack, Combat Martial Arts, Brawl, Knockout Punch, Powered Hero Plus, Run

Feats Acquired via Gunslinger I Talent: Advanced Firearms Proficiency, Burst Fire,  Double Tap, Point Blank Shot, Strafe and Two Weapon Fighting

Starting Occupation CFL Kid

Starting Talents Ultra-Specialized (receives competence bonus on Stealth checks equal to total number of Powered Hero talents, currently +6)

Talents Increased Speed I-II, Gunslinger I-II, Peak Human I-III, Healing Surge

Skills Climb +14, Drive +5,  Jump +12, Knowledge (tactics) +11, Perception +9, Stealth +13, Tumble +13

Gear Farrar 5.7mm and 4x spare magazines, Mossberg shotgun and 24x shells, 2x frag grenades, rations, survival gear (bedroll, canteen, 1-2 days rations)        

            “Soldiers are born, not made! Please join our geneticists and military foster families in welcoming a beautiful new baby rescuer to our ranks! Baby boy “Pronghorn” was born yesterday at 0001- you can watch him take his first steps on the Helix73 Mesh Channel and soon you’ll be able to follow his training, along with his brothers and sisters in the rescue at the Babies Savin’ Babies Mesh Channel. Pronghorn is an absolutely adorable sheep-baby, one of our “Lambs of the Pre-Born” series of hybrid warriors.”

            -Birth Announcement promulgated throughout Kodiak Island’s mesh, Summer 2090.  

Appearance

            Pronghorn was force-grown in a Kodiak Island womb tank, bred to be the ultimate Lifer supersoldier. His augmented genome was liberally laced with goat, antelope and sheep DNA, making him visibly inhuman from the moment he was decanted. Cloaked in a wooly white and tan pelt, the muscular Pronghorn stands well over seven foot tall, and weighs twice as much as a big human. A pair of thick, gnarled horns rise from his forehead- these black spikes can dent ballistic armor, as more than one overconfident Choicer has realized to their chagrin.

            Pronghorn’s eyes are strikingly blue against his white fur, and his reverse articulated legs can deliver a punishing, super-human kick. In battle, he wears a production line set of tactical body armor; his back dominated by an airbrushed portrait of a little human girl hugging a lamb and the slogan “All Animals Have a Right to Life”; Pronghorn is a dedicated vegan. He carries a shotgun and a Choicer-built submachine gun, taken as a battle trophy and beloved above all other guns. He is a superhumanly adept shot with either weapon.

Campaign Use

Pronghorn is often assigned to Moonshot’s squad, and the sheep-human hybrid has blossomed under Moonshot’s leadership. Despite his genetic aptitude for gun violence, Pronghorn is surprisingly mellow, and has mastered multiple ‘less-lethal’ fighting styles. In battle, Pronghorn is an efficient and merciless gunslinger against armed and armored Choicer military targets, but prefers to headbutt mouthy Choicer civilians or local Covenant cops into unconsciousness rather than going for his guns.

            Knowing little other than the rescue, Pronghorn is none the less fairly level headed and non-confrontational. His great size gives him the enormous confidence that enables him to turn his back on cruelty. He’s proud of his augmented strength and superhuman anthro physique, but is nowhere the bully or psychopath that Comstock is. Moonshot and the other moderate rescuers like and trust Pronghorn, and he’s one of the few CFL Kids on base trusted with solo missions. The young anthro has done black ops missions across Russia and Northern Europe- it was on one of these missions the young man acquired a Chocier-built Farrar SMG from a KOed Ásatrú, and the unconventional weapon has quickly become his favorite gun.

Special Abilties

Ability Push (EX)

Four times per day, as a full round action, Pronghorn can increase his DEX score by +2 and his STR score by +1 for up to one hour. Pronghorn’s peak human talents allow him to use his ability push ability more often and to greater effect.

In addition, if Pronghorn is suffering temporary ability score damage, he can expend a daily use of Ability Push to immediately restore the temporary ability score loss. While Pronghorn’s Ability Push is active, anytime he fails a saving throw or skill check that would result in his death or serious injury, Pronghorn may choose to may end the Ability Push as a free action. Doing so allows you to succeed at the saving throw or skill check, assuming success was ever possible in the first place.  

Cold Climate Adaptation (EX)

            Pronghorn is comfortable even in the coldest temperatures. He receives a +8 racial bonus on FORT Saves made to resist environmental cold.

            Gunslinger (EX)

            Pronghorn is genetically programmed to be a superhumanly excellent gunfighter, with an instinctive awareness of fields of fire. In any battle where firearms are used, either by Pronghorn, his allies or his adversaries, Pronghorn adds his WIS modifier as an insight bonus to his Armor Class/Defense score.

            This bonus is lost if Pronghorn is flat footed, helpless or otherwise unable to add his DEX bonus to Defense.

            Healing Surge (EX)

            Any time Pronghorn expends an action point for any reason, he also recovers 1d6 HP in addition to the normal effects of the action point. This healing effect cannot raise his HP above their normal maximum total.

Horned (EX)

            Pronghorn’s combat nickname is an obvious one. When attacking at the end of a charge with his natural weapons, his horns inflict double damage, or triple damage on a critical hit.

            Hoof Stamp (SU)      

            As a standard action, Pronghorn may slam one of his massive, cloven hooves down onto the ground, causing a localized earthquake, which affects all creatures within a 30 ft radius. Creatures in the tremor zone must make a DC 16 REF Save or be knocked prone, suffering 1d6 points of subdual damage in the process.