Kyneros Introduction

image from ArtBreeder

filed under actual play on 09 Nov 2016
tagged solo, kyneros, and overview

For Kyneros, I knew I wanted to feature psionics heavily, along with open world exploration. Basically a psionics-based world built as a sandbox, as randomly generated as I could make it.

I ended up creating a class based on a really neat idea I read for a power-absorbing psionic class that takes its abilities from the monsters encountered. I call it the “mutable” – the end result is a lot less flavorful than the original but I think very playable.

Not actually psionic though, after all. So I dropped psionics from my “things I know about the world” list, leaving me with “sandbox”. And I knew there were mutables, which meant there were monsters.

For character inspiration, I decided on Lord Byron, or more accurately, the statue of him in white marble (I have nothing against playing dissolute rakes but I wanted to go a different direction with this). Anyway, I went literal: the hero starts the game as a statue, probably after encountering a medusa. Straight Scarlet Heroes (well, with my homebrew mutable class), at least as much as I play anything straight.

For stats, I rolled (already deviating from SH) 2d6 + 6, apply to stats in order, swap any two. I’m normally pretty “meh” on stats and stat rolling in general. If I roll well, I keep it, if I roll poorly, I, what, scrap the character concept? Refactor it? Reroll until I roll well? Use a stat array? This character isn’t bad at anything and he’s great in a couple of areas.

The main “house rules” I’m using are the homebrew class and an attempt at two weapon fighting, lifted from 1st Edition (some Dragon article I read that reminded me of Baldur’s Gate).

For my traits, I rolled up a handful of options from the SH book, discarding the ones that didn’t seem to fit. Then I added one that occurred to me, confirming a little of it with the oracle. Grabbed a name from my favorite random name generator, and Kairael Valeyn was ready to discover the world he was about to wake up in.

Whatever it ended up being!