/smb/ - Symbaroum general

My guess is some sort of troll

It's a troll.

It's a troll!

Lol, just came in hereto post Wardruna.
youtube.com/watch?v=YA38ffX1AHo
last.fm/music/Wardruna/ similar

I guess you could also go for pure ambience with a creepy vibe to it, for when shit starts to get real and such
In general - youtube.com/watch?v=0fNMRtjTzs0
youtube.com/watch?v=AlDivIaiuMU
Caves - youtube.com/watch?v=7zRIc1Y7-PQ

Also, I just remembered the scales might differ quite a lot between and this untranslated original.

Nah, the scale only differs slightly. I made an error and corrected that in the same thread.

...

I couldn't wait, so I saved all the pics that I knew was or looked like it could be official art, that had been posted in this or the last thread

mega.nz/#!2YZ0iRAJ!PHx40V9AWGBl6efOPLjp_FlK26uGm8M7ge5u4cacM4s

I spoke with Järnringen, and they said they're gonna print new GM screens (at least in Swedish) in late fall!

Hmm... 230k SEK on the Kickstarter. I hope they can claw up to 400k to unlock the artbook.

I might pledge. But it's always the same shit on Kickstarter.
>Creditcard only

The in-universe report that world map is from is very interesting. I might see if I can translate it for you guys.

Please do, I am very interested

Great, I was waiting for one. Thanks!

Please do, I'm much more interested in the lore than the mechanics.

Was thinking of making a separate thread for this, but might as well ask here;
What makes dark fantasy? Like, is it just the atmosphere, or is there something else, story tropes and such? I'm thinking, what is it that makes Symbaroum dark fantasy rather than just fantasy?

I'm just hoping for 300k so we'll get both the extra adventures.

Pretty much the atmosphere, the art and some mechanics for insanity/corruption/being nasty/getting screwed by evil forces. Also high lethality (allegedly) though in practice there isn't much difference between dark fantasy and regular fantasy. The world is supposed to be more dystopian.

Generally (i.e. outside /smg/) it's the tone. Instead of Gandalf sweeping in and saving the day in a firework of bright colours, there's a bad harvest and the whole countryside meets the winter starving, uneasy and at each others' throats.

The PCs aren't chosen heroes, they're a bunch of rogue fortune seekers that shake up what little peace the villagers have laid low enough to enjoy for a short time, and go against unknown odds where trained elite troops sent by local lord have failed.

Shit's bleak.

What's the original pdf called? Available anywhere?

butik.jarnringen.com/digitala/rapport-22-01-08.html

It's a free PDF to download.

The mechanics for corruption are a large part of it, as is the permanence of death. And while magic leads to power, it takes a toll on the soul.

Everything else is kind of just horrible to some degree, either highly or just abstractly. The whole Ambrian Empire is doing evil shit and trying to edge in on and plunder a forest full of corruption that they don't understand, and it's getting a whole lot of unwary or otherwise innocent people killed, while the barbarian clans aren't themselves of great reputation because they take slaves and kill without mercy.

Still, even then there's room to navigate and appeal to greater understandings and knowledge and good, even at a price, which I think solidly places it in Dark Fantasy and keeps it out of Grimdark territory, where absolutely everything is irredeemable forever.

can't buy a prepaid credit card in a shop?

At least when they went through Amazon I could use Amazon gift cards and credit card cash back to pay.

Hm I guess that might work. But goddamn it it's [CURRENT YEAR] why do they have only one option to begin with?

lol. Shit sucks, eh?

Has anybody who ran Symbaroum have any advice? Specifically, how to really make the setting come alive, and set it apart from other Dark Fantasy games. Any general tips are welcome, too.

Here we go. Transcribed in flow, and not really proof-read, but it should mostly make sense.

You are doing the work of Prios, son

Praise the Sun!

Seems there's a lot of undead Mad Max going on, in some kind of arcane post-apocalypse outside of the Titans...

>some kind of arcane post-apocalypse outside of the Titans...

If I'm getting this right, Ambria and perhaps some ally empires were at war with some enemy called "The Dark Lords," or something. The resulting conflict seems to have left the Empire's original homeland a blasted landscape and hellhole full of corruption and blight, unfit for human life.

It's the whole reason Davokar is being colonized in the first place, the remains of the Empire packed up and moved as much as they could over the Titans and they're trying to plunder Davokar for riches to replenish the Empire. The Empire's new seat of power, its capital, is inhabiting the ruins of a great city that's been abandoned for 200 years prior, having been wiped out by some horrible weeping plague.

Symbaroum takes place at around year 15 after the recolonization or definitive end of the war from what I can gather.

Has it been explained why so many people seem to wear masks in the art?

One of the vectors is spores and post-apoc is meant to dehumanize things a bit

>tfw I thought this was the Degenesis thread

I have no idea, but it looks cool.

I think I'd fluff it as superstition. Spirits and evil mystics or stranger beings might be able to fuck with creatures they know the true face of. With shit so mysterious in this setting I wouldn't put it past it.

Also consider that shapeshifters and changelings are an actual part of the setting. Like, changelings are a core race and pixie-like elves and spirits and stuff can have the ability to change shape. Keeping your face under a mask might offer a means of protection from that.

Even those without masks tend to have blurry faces.

>Has it been explained why so many people seem to wear masks in the art?
There is one sentence in the description of one clan that indicates the barbarians often wear masks:

>GODINJA
>Many of the masks carried by barbarians are >crafted by the craftsmen of clan Godinja.
CRB, p.27

That is literally one of three occurrences of the word "masks" in the entire CRB. One other speaks of masks in the context of relics found in Davokar, the third regards a named character and doesn't seem related.

So my guess is they added the masks because Rule of Cool, and straight up forgot/didn't bother to explain them.

>So my guess is they added the masks because Rule of Cool, and straight up forgot/didn't bother to explain them.

Or it's the artist doing their own thing and the writers not really paying attention.

>Or it's the artist doing their own thing and the writers not really paying attention.

Entirely possible, entirely avoidable, and a little bit sad.

I've read up on some scifi authors and they've suffered much the same. Artists getting everything wrong about what the author wants to portray, to the point where authors seem surprised when they talk to an artist who seems halfway intelligent.

The thing is, artists who work professionally, especially those with a distinctive style that a lot of publishers in a specific genre like, they're going to be overworked to a huge degree. Often they don't have the time accurately portray what their image needs to, and many a time administration never gets them the reference material they need, or gives them enough time to read the description of what they need to draw.

However, this seems like it has a distinctive visual feel in order to make it seem both dark and unearthly, so we have masked men and beasts, with a few men not wearing masks at all only to reveal their inhuman features. I think it might be intentional, and simply not mentioned as much because it's not a huge component of the setting.

I'm subscribing to (and pushing) the "superstitious" theory about hiding one's true face, especially when shapeshifters exist fairly commonly in and outside of society. Still, hiding one's face while in a "civilized" setting might be acceptable only for those of higher societal standing (who reveal their faces in private settings) and arouse suspicion to most others.

Yeah, that all makes sense, and

>hiding one's true face
until I hear some kind of Word of God on the issue, I'm going with some explanation like the above, too. I posted a question on a semi-official forum though, will report any new findings.

I think it might be purposeful, masks are specific equipment listed under Clothes for 5 orteg. That's cheap enough that they're probably pretty commonplace. Maybe some even wear masks to show their fealty to Queen Korinthia?

Prios's theurge priests seem like they wear masks pretty specifically in the artwork, and I can see that making sense if it's a priestly custom. Yeah, odd that a mask would be specified under basic clothing in most settings, but I think it's in for the reason that it's commonplace or at least often depicted in the art.

Though plague has also been a factor in the setting, to the point that whole cities have been lost to them, so it could potentially be a defense against it. And they must have developed some strange customs in the war against the Dark Lords, not least of which is the church of Prios's very ingrained distaste for magical corruption of the body and soul. Might just also be Ambrian culture that goes back longer.

The world is seriously fucked up, but that's weeks of travel away from Ambria. Tough as shit might be inside the Titans, Ambria's probably one of the better off places in the world with something of a "normal" situation and way of life. Also, noone knew shit of what happened a few farms away in ancient times: This global situation report is only in the hands of the highest royalty and the spy ring it has sent out to survey. Ordinary people just keep their heads down, glad that there's not too much strange shit happening on these sides of the mountains...

I'm going the route of:

>It hides corruption

But then there would be a social stigma *against* wearing masks, because you always want to make your purity clear.

Or, corruption is so rampant, that masks are common.

Also, one would think, that the artwork is showing the adventurers. Not common folk.

Which ritual should be the next to get the Ordo Magica Codex treatment?

Could you do Magic Cirle or Posses?

As a question for everyone:
If I first use Exchange shadow one someone and then Posses him, he should appear to have his own shadow, right?
Exchange, well, exchanges our shadows so now I have his and Posses then gives him my shadow, which currently is his.

Also: If I use Borrow Beast in my witch circle it allows me to sustain it indefinitely because the circle feeds me, would you guys allow the same for posses?
Maybe requiring another [Resolute←Resolute] test after every 24 hours.

>As a question for everyone:
>If I first use Exchange shadow one someone and then Posses him, he should appear to have his own shadow, right?
>Exchange, well, exchanges our shadows so now I have his and Posses then gives him my shadow, which currently is his.
Yeah, I'd say so. Seems a clever combination.

>Also: If I use Borrow Beast in my witch circle it allows me to sustain it indefinitely because the circle feeds me, would you guys allow the same for posses?
>Maybe requiring another [Resolute←Resolute] test after every 24 hours.
Hmm... mmmmmaybe? Personally I'd lean towards Witch Circle synergizing with Borrow Beast because they're both Witchcraft. Possession is Sorcery so they shouldn't click together. However, I can easily imagine a dark witch character using Possess from the safety of a Witch Circle, so I could see it working thematically either way. Maybe if the mystic has both Witch Circle and Desecrating Rite they could combine those to make a Cursed Glade where they can also sustain Possession (but it attracts abominations like other desecrated places).

Having to combine Witch circle and Desecrating rite seems like a good tradeoff. Nice idea

Exchange Shadow or Seven League Stride would be very cool.

Right now I'm sketching up a homebrew mystic tradition that heavily leans on things like mind control and trickery, would there be any interest in me posting it once I have it fleshed out in a couple of days?

There are two Elite specialisations for Ordo Wizards in the PHB that probably cover what you're after: the Illusionist and the Mentalist.

I think it was said that Queen Korinthia's face was damaged from her time as a captive of the Dark Lords and that she now wears a porcelain mask.
Maybe Ambrians wear masks out of deference for their Queen?

(Though it also was implied that the Queen might have died and it's someone else behind the mask)

Or she's a spooky skellington

Is there an English translation of the PHB yet?

Nope. Still slated for "this year"

Has anybody shared the PHB in any language yet?

There are Stigmas which manifest as a result of corruption, which can be visual or not. Masks and cloaks or clothing can help to hide this to a degree.

Also true that the artwork, for the most part, depicts adventurers more often than common people.

This is also makes sense, that people would wear masks in solidarity with their Queen or to represent their allegiance to her and her authority. Certainly she must have picked up a heavy amount of corruption from her time as a captive to corrupted entities, and it might have manifested itself in the form of visible stigma.

It also makes sense for her to be back the church of Prios so heavily, because they can cleanse corruption through ritual and probably do their best to keep the corruption at bay, even if they can't fix the permanent stigmas she's afflicted by.

>There are Stigmas which manifest as a result of corruption, which can be visual or not. Masks and cloaks or clothing can help to hide this to a degree.
Yeah, but my point is that corruption stigmas can't be the only cultural reason for the masks, because if it was everyone would know that a mask conceals a stigma.

There must be another reason the barbarian and ambrian cultures are so fond of masks, and then troubled adventurers adopt the masks as a way to conceal their stigmas.

Okay, I guess I learned how to clean at least rpg drive thru watermarks.
So, if the PDF is watermarked I can try to remove it, if you are willing to send it to me.
I know sending some user something with your watermark on it is nothing you do lightheartedly, but I have at least some proof. I replaced the watermark on my bought Savage Worlds core book with "Veeky Forums-/smg/" tempsend.com/E9B776CF1B/1631/Sav1.pdf

So if you want to give it a shot you can send me the file to [email protected] or if it's too big zip it up and give the archive a password, upload that somewhere and send me the password.
I swear I'll do no mischief with it. But yeah, the word of a stranger I guess.

Hm, well I could also tell you how to do it I guess.
I used mutool to decompress the file, then searched and replaced all occurences of the watermark text in an Hex editor (I guess there might be a text editor that you could use, but SublimeText3 fucked stuff up while saving, so I used wxHexEditor). And then I recompressed the PDF with mutool again.
the commandline arguments for mutool are
>mutool.exe clean -d -i -f PDFInputName PDFOutputName
-d tells the tool to uncompress the data streams, so they are in a readable format
-i tells the tool to toggle the decompression of images, so they will not be decompressed, since that would just bloat the file size
-f tells the tool to toggle the decompression of the fonts

and for recompressing simply use
>mutool.exe -z PDFInputName PDFOutputName

Well, as pointed out before; changelings and sorcerous spying. Who knows what's watching you when and who knows what power one can be subject to when an ill-intentioned force or entity knows one's face, could a changeling take your face and commit misdeeds in your name? Could a sorcerer subject one to a curse if they know your face or name? Can a ghost of someone known to you seek you out after death, seeking to balance their ledger of slights and grudges, real or imagined? Maybe there's just some common beasts that go for the eyes?

And consider that stigmas might be present and hidden, but for those whose job it is to question and root out or cleanse corruption, witchsight is a more effective tool in diagnosing one's shadow and seeking corruption laid bare, as stigmas in and of themselves might have also come about naturally or through injury or some mundane means.

>Well, as pointed out before; changelings and sorcerous spying. Who knows what's watching you when and who knows what power one can be subject to when an ill-intentioned force or entity knows one's face, could a changeling take your face and commit misdeeds in your name? Could a sorcerer subject one to a curse if they know your face or name? Can a ghost of someone known to you seek you out after death, seeking to balance their ledger of slights and grudges, real or imagined? Maybe there's just some common beasts that go for the eyes?
Yep I think this is it. There are a fair number of spells which require knowledge of a place or a person, so there may be a fair amount of real fear but also superstition about it which makes wearing masks a commonplace thing.

Especially to those who wander the wilderness of Davokar and who might have attracted unwanted attention to themselves.

Inside a city's walls the forest and its corrupted inhabitants have much more limited access, and I can imagine there's more arcane protections and attention paid to those in wealth and power to ensure no one scrys upon their affairs. Those far beneath them are perhaps too numerous to track, their shield is numbers, anonymity, and irrelevance.

So in that sense, the more at-risk you are (adventurers), or the higher the stakes (those in wealth and power), the more likely you are to wear a mask or acquire other forms of security against the conspiring darkness.

Again, this is just my fan-theory with no basis in canon, but I figure it's a nice, solid basic one. And it could be one developed long before the Davokar expedition began, when Ambria fought against the Dark Lords or perhaps long before that as well. I can imagine the Dark Lords presented a similar threat.

I'd be interested in a pdf of the swedish core book, if anyone has it? It's nice having the english one for conversation purposes, but if I am to play the game I'd like to use a swedish one. Everything sounds more more traditional and old-timey in the original language...

neat.gif

PHB translation just got added to Kickstarter stretch goals at 500k SEK.

Hm, so I can get Thorns, the Core book and the PHB in one swoop?
Neat.

Here's hoping they offer a digital version for those of us who don't want to pay an arm and a leg for shipping.

Don't forget the art book.

3 skills or 5?

Does anyone have images of changelings that would work for this setting?

...

It depends on what you want to do. Warriors excel with the 3 ability setup (putting your combat style to the adept level), but mystics and rogues tend to do better with the breadth offered by the 5 ability setup.

When changelings mature, do they become visually indistinguishable from elves? Or do they end up with a sort of half-elf half-human appearance?

They look like
That's official art

Changelings and mature elves do look very much alike, but they are visually distinguishable. Elves are specifically noted as being able to pass themselves off as changelings but that some basic scrutiny can see right through it.

Is there a good summary of the setting somewhere? Like, if I'd pitch Symbaroum to my players, is there something they could read to give them a good overview of the setting, or should I try to write it myself?

Here, that's one of their free PDFs

Thanks!

If a person becomes absolutely corrupt from using an artifact too much, do they still have access to the artifacts powers, only this time without the "risk" of corruption, since they are maxed out already? Need to know for a session I'm working on.

If you max out corruption, you lose control of your character and become an NPC abomination immediately hostile to everything not thoroughly corrupt.

Long before that, though, you should be hunted down by witch hunters, elves, the Empress's Rangers, servants of of Prios... Basically you'd become an enemy of everyone because of your thorough corruption before you become an abomination.

Getting corruption is something to be avoided if at all possible, and when you hit max corruption you're essentially dead, but worse.

Just decided to buy The Black Hack instead of back Symbaroum, sorry bros.

If a character reaches max corruption, they're gone.

Yes, but an NPC, living deep inside the forests of Davokar, who only survives due to an artifact they are using, and eventually becomes an abomination, do they still have access to the artifacts abilities? I'm not talking about a player.

They can still have intelligence and the ability to use stuff if they turn into an abomination, so they could become a dangerous NPC with their artifact's abilities.

Cool, that's what I thought, just wanted some second opinions.

I'm pretty sure that Korinthia wears a mask because her face got kinda fucked up in the rescue attempt.

That's the story. There are rumors she's corrupted, or it's not actually her. We don't know for certain.

Nice.Thanks!

Who else agrees that barbarians are much more compelling that sissy ambarians?

I really like the goblins myself.

How does the Corruption mechanic work? Is it like the spiral of insanity in other games or something like an accumulation of flaws?