Hey Veeky Forums! I am the creator of a tabletop game called Nyra. I made this thread to talk about the game and to let people know about its existence as I plan to create a Kickstarter soon. The game’s core rule structure is thoroughly developed and has been beta tested for years. The world is the result of 17 years of creative development. It has been a side project of mine for a very long time and it is finally within striking distance of being finished. I’d like to hear your questions and criticisms and if I’m lucky, get some help from you when you know the right way to proceed.
Nyra is a dark fantasy tabletop game based around a d10 instead of a d20 and has skill-based progression instead of level-based progression. Nyra is a dark and unforgiving world, much closer to Lovecraft than Tolkien. Although the fantasy aspect plays a significant role in the lore, the dominant struggle for characters in this world is survival. This is not only set out in how the lore is written, but also by way of how the rule system has been structured. When your character dies in Nyra, they die for good. Although there are mages, they do not have resurrection spells. And to make this even more pressing, the damage done from weapons, when compared to the health of player characters, is purposely brutal (read: realistic). Some of you have probably heard of and experienced the “nomadic murder hobo” archetype that so often plays out in tabletop games. In Nyra, that character dies very quickly. Roleplaying is enforced by way of players being forced to put themselves in the shoes of their characters and make wise decisions concerning their own well-being or risk having a dead character.
This thread will be a kind of story-time thread where I try to flesh out the overarching components of the mythos, while also answering any questions you might have. I am hosting the entire guide on Google drive right now and I will produce public links to answer your questions as best as I can.
As a proponent of old-school roleplaying and a fan of Lovecraft, I feel you've got a good thing going and would like to encourage you to keep it up, for Veeky Forums as a whole can be far from encouraging.
You may wish to let /osrg/ know, for they have others like me there:
Zachary Hill
>roleplaying not rollplaying >realistic combat >no levels superior >OC donut steel
Is..is this bait? I legitimately cannot tell any more.
Cameron Smith
In Nyra, I long ago made an effort not to integrate the classical Tolkien species into the world. Instead I sought to create new species with their own unique cultures and biologies. The only species that should be familiar to you are Humans and the Highlanders.
The Humans are exactly what we would expect of them. They are Machiavellian, imperialistic, and have maintained their power through a mixture of adaptability and brutal military conquest. The humans have maintained control of one of the largest continents in Nyra. However, their king, King Doran, is too psychotic to even be acceptable to the largely impoverished people of this nation. The kingdom overseen by Doran is shaky, held together by fear and tyranny. There is a sense that it cannot last and that a violent revolution is brewing.
Meanwhile across the ocean are the Ethakkra. The Ethakkra are satyr-like people, with their top halves covered in fur and the heads of anthropomorphic goats (pictured: left). They are the second most powerful species on the planet, vying for their control through economic control. They are focused upon deception to achieve their means. In their society, to deceive someone else is considered good and the person who has been deceived is considered stupid or naive. Despite this, they are very ordered, because what is held sacrosanct, is that those who have gained power deserve to have it. Only if one thinks they can take that power, do they ever disrespect their superiors.
Andrew Diaz
So, I can just write any shitty uninspired "old school" turd and get kikestarter bux?
Since I refuse to be wagie, I am bit short on dosh, how much dolaridos can I expect outa kikestarted RPG per hour of work?
Christopher Sanders
If you have to ask, assume it's not.
It's a thread about something actually creative, instead of some endless general or complaining about the board itself. As far as I'm concerned, bait or not, it's all good.
Luke Hernandez
The humans have descended, like the Highlanders and the Famulus, from a race called the Ponderan.
The Ponderan are a species of highly intelligent, magically attuned academics, currently cloistered away at the southern tip of the Human continent. The Ponderan have created an almost completely automated society, using mineral concentrations of magic to power their machines. Long ago they bred a species called the Famulus to be their workhorses, by selectively breeding those who were less intelligent and more physical muscular.
This gambit paid off for thousands of years, until the Famulus began to organize in secret. In what is now called The Massacre, the Famulus killed a great number of the Ponderan leadership in their sleep and pushed them from the continent. The Famulus now stay on the island of Onus, in the ruins of a once great technological empire, raiding and pillaging the coastlines of cities across the planet. They are massive, brutal, and have very low intelligence on average.
The Highlanders are the result of the interbreeding of Famulus and Ponderan. Their children were large and muscular, but had much of the intelligence and patience of the Ponderan. The Highlanders have a very tribal, but war-like culture. They are split into three large tribal alliances called G’ok, Braggos, and Peridar. These three nations fight centuries old wars to decide who will maintain dominance.
Jack Lee
But you'll also need to put all that money on that old-school game of yours. It's a bad plan.
Grayson Cooper
The Sarkin are a race of under-dwelling bat-like humanoids. The Sarkin are horrifying to behold for most of the other races of Nyra, making them widely hated. Nonetheless, the Sarkin have an extremely harmonious and functional society. They stay away from the other races of the planet and instead focus upon technological development and communal improvement. They have created a massive under-ground cave complex which goes from one end of the human continent to the other. They have developed black-powder and steam technology, although the rest of the world is largely ignorant of how these work and they do not allow others inside of their communities for fear that the chaos of the world above will disrupt their achievements.
The Kaze are tall, slender, bird-like humanoids, living upon an island called Kaem. These Kaze worship knowledge, discipline, and patient consideration. They travel widely, but prefer not to involve themselves in the concerns of other beings. In Kaze society, those who know the most, are most highly revered and hold the highest places of authority. Although not averse to war, when they are seen off of their island, they are widely used as record-keepers, diplomats, and scouts of various sorts. Even though others are wary of them, they are widely respected, perhaps from fear that they know what could hamstring the empires of their opponents with the intel they have gathered over time.
Alexander Green
Lastly are the Utwesh, a race that are similar in appearance to that of the Ethakkra. They are close evolutionary ancestors of them. Long ago, when the Ethakkra and Utwesh had only diverged from their common ancestor very recently, the Utwesh were beginning their worship of nature and life, while the Ethakkra were beginning their worship of social cohesion and commerce. The Ethakkra and Utwesh lived amongst each other, even though their cultures progressed in ideological opposition to each other. Over time, the Ethakkran control of society became supreme and oppressive and the Utwesh became the underclass. This exaggerated the primalism and life worship among the Utwesh, a trend that the god of chaos, THE, took notice of. His subtle influence into their behaviors would form a new religion of chaos worship predicated upon these tenets of individual determination and primitivist reverence for the state of nature. In response, the Ethakkra became highly influenced by the god of order, One. The result of this opposition would form a violent civil war lasting for almost a century. The Utwesh now live upon the southern half of Faydorn while the Ethakkra live on the northern half. Because of the events in the Utweshi-Ethakkran Civil War, many Utweshi formed ancient underground cave communities as well, meaning that the Utwesh are currently an under and over dwelling society.
So that’s the tedious task of explaining each of the species.
Next I'll talk about how magic works in the world of Nyra. There are six elements of magic in the world of Nyra.
