Seventy-Seven Vicious Princes

Devils in Zarkany are firmly in the Hieronymus Bosch mode. They speak Zarkanian, but often have little to say. They delight in confounding humans.  Devil hunters do brisk business trapping devils, then selling them to the Fabrication District barons—burning a devil provides bountiful energy.  Devils congregate at places of power like flies to corpses. Most are no bigger than dogs or rats; but major places of power can coax bigger ones down from the Red Mountain. The largest devil on record was a  7 tonner, 24 years ago. Devils serve a few purposes in VICIOUS PRINCES. As chaos agents they make great sources for dispatches--their destabilization can be a problem or an opportunity in equal measure. Catch a devil and you can sell it to the Fabrication District factories for scratch. Most devils are pocket change, good maybe to bring a prince from  rank 1  to  rank 2 , or give a rank 2 prince some liquid coin. Any person-size...

Version 19 is up  on the carrd.  This is a pretty big one! I'm excited to get it out to you. I think I'm close to wrapping this up. As always, thanks for checking it out. DM me on twitter or find me on Discord if you have any feedback for me! Here's a list of changes in  Alpha Version 19: Part I Magic has gained a couple of untrained spells, usable by anyone. Now you have something to spend your points on even if you don't have any magic traits (as long as you didn't explode!) Part II Changed some GM advice to reflect the importance of rivals. A new section, Section 18,  describes the nitty-gritty procedure of actually running the game. Conversations with NPCs  has additional language clarifying what contacts can and are willing to do for you Running Projects  is complete now, with a baleful little prince illustration. Consequences  have been completely overhauled, and a new GM-facing mechanic introduced--the fallout die. Added some stuff in the FAQ, r...

Rank 3: Gentlewoman. It’s good to be a prince. Life is a song. Theft is sport. Soma has trouble understanding why everyone is so eager to overcomplicate things, but it certainly makes her career easier. Princes crowd around darkened tables in secret cellars, all guttered candles and twisting plots and furrowed brows. Soma is upstairs, stealing their candelabras. A songbook’s worth of ditties have been composed about Soma Sinaros.  Gems in her Pockets ;  The Laughing Prince ;  When Soma Came to Astrabek ; and the unspeakably tawdry taproom hit  Polishing Gems , which would leave an orthodox prince flushed and furious. Soma has memorized all of them. Her carpet-draped, redolent home in Fallaburg is full of uneaten grapes, half-tuned lutes, and a magpie melange of stolen shit. Some of it is useful, some frivolous, some from lordly manors and some from commoner businesses. If you give her a few minutes she could probably remember which is which. She hosts smoky, musical ...

 So this isn't for Vicious Princes. It's just something I've been meaning to try out with a group I play OSR with. They're a sub crew, piloting a demon-powered submarine through an eldritch, haunted water-world called the Bathosphere. To help capture the feeling of a crew with titles and jobs--and to bring back, somewhat, the Gygaxian idea of a Caller--I've made a menu of party roles for them. Each player gets two roles. A role is divided into two aspects: what the player is in charge of calling  and what their duties  are. The call doesn't mean that you're the one who gets to always decide, but you do break ties or cut through arguments to be the definitive "OK, Mr. GM, we're doing this " voice. The duties are an ad hoc mixture of notes you might be in charge of taking, and just a fun little flavor thing. You are probably not playing a game with demon submarines in it (and if you are, let's compare notes), but it might come in handy for yo...

 A recently finished chapter on the Gods (well, God ) worshipped in Zarkany. More on all of these figures (including how their priests function in play) in a subsequent post.

Rank 4: Courtier. Unsparing (adjective) 1: not frugal: LIBERAL, PROFUSE unsparing generosity . 2: not merciful or forbearing: HARD, RUTHLESS An unsparing satire.  An unsparing critic. An unsparing prince. Vanda the Unsparing is one of Zarkany's most prolific money-lenders. Vanda the Unsparing is aptly named. They began as an accountant-knight for the House of Fangs, as its old military grandeur dangled over the cliff of penury. They pulled it from the brink with such adamantine focus that they were made heir. Vanda the Unsparing does not love gold, or even like it. If power came from carrots (which makes more sense to Vanda the Unsparing than useless, soft metal) they'd bedeck themself in tubers. Vanda wants to hold your heart in their hand and decide when it beats. Your money is their consolation prize. Beliefs Morality is God's to decide and partition. We mortals shouldn't distract ourselves with it. A prince has no excuse to come to me for lending; the deck is stacke...

Version 18 is up on the carrd.  As always, thanks for checking it out. DM me on twitter or find me on Discord if you have any feedback for me! Here's a list of changes in  Alpha Version 18: A new cover! Hope you like it better. A whole new font!!! Wowie zowie! Thanks so much to the Velvetyne Type Foundry for their free font AVARA, and to that font's designers, Raphaël Bastide, Wei Huang, Lucas Le Bihan, Walid Bouchouchi, & Jérémy Landes. An attribution and special thanks section. General tweakening and tightening of the text. The GM's section has been updated with a (currently incomplete) section on running projects. Over in the Gazetteer, Knights are updated, and new sections have been added expounding on God and Magic. The mountain in 28: Magic & Devils  is a placeholder right now.