P&P: Rails and Slime - Session 2

This was the first game set in my personal GLOG hack, Plaster and Pulque. I finally put together a rough rules document under pressure and it's not horrible, I think? Anyways:

The adventure takes place on a train bound for the urban battleground of Palenque, a Mayan city. The train consists of 7 cars (from front to back): The conductor/engine, 3 troop transports, 1 officer's quarters, and 2 cargo cars at the end. Conductor's car is #1, the first troop transport #2, etc.

The players:

Werd, a human Soldier who is thoroughly paranoid of all things unnatural after the introductory session.

"Skitters", a tiefling Thief with a penchant for investigation. Rolled spider legs as his beneficial mutation. (Skitters isn't his actual name, but I'm using it in place of the player's name.)

Ixcuina Quiahuitl, a tiefling Radiomancer who likes cards. He is a plant. 

The session opened with soldiers gambling, drinking, and completely eschewing their duty, chugging tequila and munching cacao bars with abandon. 

A man walked through the cabin, and the only noticeable thing about that was the other man with the exact same face who followed him a minute later. 

After that, a disheveled captain walked hurriedly into the room, and Skitters noticed his clothes were not entirely put on. Skitters deftly tripped the captain with one of his legs, catching the man and inquiring to his well being. Meanwhile, Ixcuina dodged a flask of tequila spilled in the rush to hide illicit substances from authority. 

Skitters, after being solicitous, took the chance to pick the captain's pocket while the man was distracted by the fresh puddle of tequila. While the captain gathered himself to tear the unfortunate lass a new orifice, one of the same-facers walked in and whispered in the rumpled man's ear. The party caught the words "conductor", "barred", and "unresponsive". 

Same-face and the captain rushed off, and Skitters examined the purloined papers, finding one to be a telegram directing the biological samples acquired by Werd in the intro session to be brought back as a top priority, superseding even the return of personnel. The other paper was simply a manifest of the cargo cars, listing such fascinating items as a mechanized macahuitl, jellied fire-water, and some fast-hardening rubber with special molds. Skitters filed away the papers for later.

Around that time, the second same-face walked back through the train car. Werd and Skitters decided to chat with the captains and observe their reactions. Werd, burdened with normal legs, walked through the train cars while Skitters crawled underneath the cars until he reached the captain's cars and then lurked on the outside, watching through the windows. Ixcuina wandered off to find another wizard.

While observing his superior officers, Skitters saw a slime trail that ran from the cargo hold to the front of the train or vice versa, and after inspecting the trail, determined that it ran from the cargo hold to the engine.

Werd knocked on the door to the captain's quarters and lied to his section's captain about hearing a noise near the cargo hold. She responded by offering him a drink from a flask and drawing her revolver. Werd then chugged some gutrot tequila and went off to investigate the hold with his captain. When the captain's argument resumed, Skitters noticed it had calmed down somewhat, although he noted the field surgeon had joined in.

Werd and Skitters briefly talked on top of the train, and Werd noticed a purple blob atop the train behind the thief. Skitters whipped around and quickly trotted over to the blob, revealing it to be a small wormlike creature with a toe on a segmented tail and fingers poking out from a central orifice. It popped up at him on thin legs and he whacked it off the train with the butt of his rifle. Peeking inside the open window (which was covered in slime) he discovered that the floor was covered in a sticky goop and saw a pulsing thing lurking in the shadows by the engine. The conductor was piloting the train, but his face was slack and unresponsive, lolling on his neck.

A cdkcdkckd-ciii noise erupted in front of Skitters and he saw several more grubs approaching him. The closest on popped up at him, landing on the arm he swung at it with, and proceeded to pull his lips open with its fingers.

Werd entered the cargo bay with the captain. They found the light off and the soldiers assigned to guard the car gone. Lighting a lantern, they began to explore the car until they heard a chittering noise. Panicking, Werd fired once at the shadows atop the cargo crates over his captain's orders. She ordered him to stand down and they retreated from the car back into the captain's quarters to secure backup.

Ixcuina saw a person huddled in a corner playing with a ball of water and noticed Same-Face passing by again. As they brushed by, Ix got splashed with a bit of water, and noticed the previous owner of the water snickering. Suddenly, Same-Face's face began to blur and smoke, and Ix cast Annihilation, cancelling the magical effect. The surprised face of a curly-haired woman was revealed behind the illusion and Ix noticed some soldiers rolling their eyes. Sitting down, Ix discovered that the woman was probably a member of the Smoking Mirror, counterspies devoted to Tezcatlipoca embedded in every regiment. Ix broke out some scrip and started a hand of cards with the soldiers, noticing a new slime trail on the window.

Meanwhile, Skitters decisively whacked the grub off his mouth (and the train) with his rifle. He broke the window he was observing through, which had closed, and tossed a lit lantern through the hole, which shattered, spreading burning oil on the slime-coated floor. The conductor convulsed, and his organs melted out of his skin, crawling away from the fire towards the back of the train. A wave of chirruping arose and Skitters noticed more grubs crawling towards him. One jumped at him and Skitters introduced it to the his rifle's stock. It tumbled off the train, but then ejected its tail with a splorch and grabbed back onto the train's sides. Skitters chose this moment to decamp for safer parts, crawling under the train while noticing that the wind had picked up.

As he crawled underneath, Skitters felt a thumping rhythm from inside the car. The rhythm stopped as he neared its source. A large bone spike erupted with a metallic screech from the floor of the car, narrowly missing him.

As they moved towards the troop cars, Werd and his captain noticed some cooing noises coming from the cars. They opened the door to find the troops clustered around a small creature. It had a segmented tail, an oval torso, and three legs. Its face was doglike, with beautiful eyes and long eyelashes, and it was covered in dark brown fur. Some soldiers were petting it as it nuzzled up to them and arguing over its gender, as its underside was smooth.

Werd decided the thing was probably a threat and asked where it came from. A few people pointed to an empty bucket. (Last session, Werd stored a dead biological sample in a bucket.)  He tried to shoot it, but some soldiers blocked him. The captain ordered them back, and they reluctantly fell into inspection stance. Werd then perforated the small thing with half a clip of bullets. He pulled on some rubber gloves and poked around in the creature's guts, finding that its internals were mostly a semitransparent non-Newtonian fluid very similar to the slime trails.

As he inspected its belly, he discovered that the creature's inside was composed of serrated, segmented bone strips that ran from head to tail all the way around the creature. Its organs were lurid yellows and greens. As he pulled his hands back, he noticed that the goop was slowly moving up his gloves. Choking back a yelp, he quickly shucked the gloves and called for a mop to clean the creature up. Some soldiers went at the corpse with soap and water but only succeeded in smearing the goop around. A soldier successfully scraped the slime off the floor with her dagger and went to wipe it on a rag. Werd stopped her and had her toss the dagger out the window along with the thing's corpse.

Ix, after winning a couple hands of cards, went over to the window and tentatively touched a scrap of old slime, carbon dating it. It appeared to be extremely old and yet very new. He suddenly noticed some soldiers clustering around an object and discovered another small doglike thing. It rubbed up against him and he petted it, deciding to rejoin his companions.

He met Werd poking through the creature's guts and decided to date the fur, which was very young, and confirmed that the fur was dead.

Werd and Ix discussed their next move, and the session ended there.

Notes:
It was nice to finally use my system. Somehow, people have avoided getting hurt so far. That may change tomorrow. I like how investigative my players are, it's more entertaining than "I shoot everything." Allows for more horror, too. I managed to actually disturb Werd enough to shoot at shadows (he didn't Crack from stress!) so I consider that a plus as a DM.

Tune in next week!

One Page Setting Primer for P&P

This is something a player of mine and a comment on a previous post both requested. Below I deliver!

Diego Rivera

"Welcome to Requiem. Across the Salinum, the polar expanse of Alkalaquipeg, the blasted deserts of Nishburnaprigal, the fetid swampland of Tennisippa, and the drenched jungles of Chuptagul wrestle and sweat their way through a burgeoning industrial movement and social upheavals.

On our side of the Salinum, Texak, the Comanch, and Fearann Ur feud, bargain, and scrap for possession of the Upper Olmecad. The Triple Alliance stands firm in the heartland of the Mesolmecad, linked by blood, trade, and heritage to the Mayan Confederation, and fights alongside the cities of the Confederation to repel the offensives of Sapa Inka Mancoti of Tawantinsuyu, lord of the Lower Olmecad.

The Long Count rolls over to 12.13.16.0.0 and the war entrenches itself over roughly half the Yucatan. As the Inca spearhead an offensive into the Highlands, Palenque falls under siege. The Confederate railways are strong points of contention as each side strives to deliver troops, materiel, and weapons magical and mechanical, living and dead, into the humid, fern-choked fray.

Politicians in occupied Chichen Itza proclaim the establishment of the 5th part of Tawantinsuyu while Independance forces stage guerilla attacks on Inca strongholds and occupied cities throughout the Lowlands. In the plastered chambers of the Parliament, Mexica agitate for the annexation of remaining Mayan allies to protect their lands while the Mixtec defend the sovereignty of the diminished Mayan Confederacy.

In dry, chill chambers away from the humid noise of Mesol cities, scientists devise and test new ways of reducing humans to raw, steaming meat. To fuel any technological edge, expeditions delve into locations rumored to house elvish ruins throughout Mesolmecad, plunging deep into the war-wracked jungles of Yucatan and traveling to the Chichimec deserts. Beyond the deserts, Texak beats trade routes through Comanch territory with blood, steel, and Aurist devotion, eyeing the fertile lands of the Triple Alliance beyond.

The Red Serpent and Smoking Mirror find and eliminate enemies of the state, and Huitzilopochtli’s congregation swells with ranks of freshly drafted soldiers, shaved and prepared to lay down their lives in defense of foreign cities. Oil is transported by trains and pipes from Tututepec to fuel the war effort while twins, berzerkers, wizards, and believers, among others, are incorporated into traditional army hierarchies for the first time.

This is a time of fire and water, a time of madness in sweltering jungles and calculated outrage in the chambers of Parliament. Guns are drawn and fired in darkened rooms and the light of burning maize fields. Spells are woven over people, artillery, and crops. Oil slides down the eager throat of Mesol foundries and distilleries and out as marvelous objects wrought from metal and plastic. Things long buried are uncovered by grasping hands human, mechanical, and magical. In the midst of war, Mesolmecad thrives, but fissures threaten this growth and obscure clear purpose with smoke and mirrors."

P&P GLOG Class: Soldier

All my previous classes are part of my GLOG hack Plaster & Pulque, based off of preapocalyptic/postapocalyptic Victorian-era Mesoamerica where the Triple Alliance (Aztecs, main focus), Mayan city-states, and Tawantinsuyu (Incan empire) were never conquered or colonized. This is the first class that I feel reflects some specifics of the setting.

Some music to set the mood.

Veli Nystrom

GLOG Class: Soldier

All glory to Lexi, Spwack, and Type1Ninja for reviewing this for me.

A: Barter, Ground Pounder, +1 Attack

B: Training or PFC, Connection, +1 Fighting Style

C: Specialist or Captain, Stoic, Mandate, + 1 Attack,

D: Special Forces or Sergeant, Requisition, +1 Fighting Style

Bartering is second nature to you. You can exchange luxury items (tequila ration, cacao bars/powdered cacao, pulque, tobacco) for other luxury items, rumors, gossip, privileged information, ammunition, drugs, and more instead of using regular currency. You can even trade with people whose language you don’t know or hostile soldiers if you’re a prisoner of war. 

You’re a Ground Pounder. You can ignore up to Soldier [templates] of exhaustion from being encumbered, forced marches, or eating half rations. You can also stand 2 night watches without incurring exhaustion.

Exhaustion Sidebar: You gain exhaustion when undertaking strenuous physical activity without a break (usually a Con Save) or when you’re overencumbered. Each point of exhaustion takes up a slot of physical inventory that you choose without mutations, and if that slot is occupied, you have to get rid of whatever equipment is in that slot or take a cumulative -1 penalty to all rolls involving physical activities. If your number of exhaustion points takes up half your physical inventory, you must Save versus Con or collapse, unable to move until a point of exhaustion is removed. 

A full meal and a good night’s sleep removes all exhaustion.

You’ve caught the attention of someone who wants you to get some Training, if you wish. You may choose or roll one option from the list below. 

Training: (1d8)

1. Combat Medic: As long as you have your medical satchel on hand, you may remove fatal wounds on a 3 in 6, halt the progress of fever, apply medication to prevent gangrene, and apply painkillers. 
2. Mechanic: With a toolkit and necessary materials, you can fix damaged or malfunctioning machines (including guns) that you’ve seen before, and if you don’t have the needed materials, you know what they are. You can repair unfamiliar machinery with a 2 in 6 chance. You can also sabotage machinery, creating faults undetectable to casual inspection.
3. Loader: You can operate and tow a field gun, howitzer, mortar, or cannon along with 3 other people. You can submit a request for special ammunition and have an exquisite pair of binoculars, earplugs, and a rangefinder. 
4. Demolitionist: You can plant, set off, and defuse familiar explosives, and identify weak points in buildings and fortifications. You can defuse unfamiliar explosives with a 3 in 6. You have a small supply of blasting caps, safety fuses, and 6 sticks of dynamite or 6 gobs of blasting jelly.
5. Field Engineer: You can direct the building of entrenchments and fortifications, divine rough floor plans of buildings you look at from 2 sides in 3 in 6, spot weaknesses/blind spots in fortifications, and create plans to remedy those blind spots. You have a scratchpad, charcoal, and a slide rule.
6. Marksman: You have a scoped rifle that reduces penalties for aiming to 1/8th and one clip of sniper rounds along with a special uniform that helps you blend into either urban or jungle combat zones. You can sight for snipers, counter snipe, and divulge the directions of enemy movements or the possible locations of enemy commanders on 2 in 6. You can submit a request for special ammunition.
7. Experimental: You’ve been assigned to test out experimental military technology/magic.
8. Arcane: You’re given a rudimentary education in magic. Gain the cantrips and perk of a wizard school of your choice and the ability to detect combat magic like inverted goosebumps.

Experimental Technology (1d8):

1. Flamethrowers
2. Grenades (or special explosives)
3. Guns (submachine guns, special ammunition, etc)
4. Drugs (meth, regenerative, etc)
5. Magical gear
6. Enchantments
7. Rubber gear or equipment 
8. Petroleum derivatives

Giorgio Baroni

You’ve been promoted to a PFR (private first class, used liberally) and are put in charge of a 5-soldier unit, including yourself, that answers to a captain. You are responsible for your unit’s wellbeing and their behavior, and may give them orders that further your own and do not contradict or obfuscate any orders from higher ups except in extreme circumstances. Your soldiers will use hireling stats unless they’re other PC’s.

Despite your promotion, you don’t have to move any further up the command chain if you don’t want to.

You know a guy who knows a girl who has a Connection, enabling you to buy and sell contraband on black markets. Every time you buy or sell something, make a black mark and roll a d20. If you roll equal to or under the number of black marks you have, military police will show up (almost always in disguise) and investigate. For every week that goes by without you transacting via your Connection, remove a mark gained from your Connection.

Choose a Fighting Style from Mimics and Miscreants. Choose well!

You’re now a Specialist! Improve your Training to the corresponding Specialty if you already have one, choose another Training if you don't want to improve yours, or choose one Training if you don't already have one. You retain all the previous features of your Training unless otherwise noted.

Specialist:

1. Field Surgeon: You have 2 combat medics to assist you and a portable surgery. When you have access to your surgery and an assistant, you may do anything a combat medic would do, amputate infected limbs, treat severe burns, reattach severed limbs successfully with a 1 in 6, cure gangrenous wounds with a 3 in 6, and remove fatal wounds with a 4 in 6. You can submit a request to use/carry special drugs or substances.
2. Technician: You can design and construct mechanical devices and divine the function of unfamiliar machines. You can sabotage a machine to break down at a time within a day of your choosing with a 4 in 6 and jury rig a broken machine for one use or 1d6 rounds. You have a mechanic to assist you.
3. Artillerist: You can operate any sort of artillery with 2 other people and are in charge of your own artillery piece, to be used at your discretion while following orders. You can diagnose malfunctions in artillery and detect unseeable faults in your artillery piece and its ammunition, and have access to special ammunition. With trained loaders, you can repair a damaged artillery piece with 2 in 6.
4. Demolitions Expert: You oversee the destruction of strategic buildings and fortifications, infrastructure, and sapping efforts. You have 3 demolitionists under your command. You can also estimate the integrity of a damaged building and any weakened parts. You can also detect evidence of sapping operations, direct counter-sapping efforts.
5. Engineer: You can plan and construct fortifications, buildings, and infrastructure. Additionally, you can identify hidden redoubts, bunkers, and artillery pieces. You have a field engineer to assist you.
6. Sniper: You gain access to a sniper rifle and can manufacture a ghillie suit (camouflage suit) from surrounding materials while out of combat. You can acquire special ammunition.
7. Experimental: You’ve survived testing the new innovation; it’s now yours to keep barring significant misconduct. Choose another thing to test!
8. Arcane: You gain the drawback of the wizard school you chose, 1 MD, and 2 spells from that school. You can activate wizard vision in a 2 in 6 for one turn. 

If you were a PFC or performed an extraordinary feat, you’re promoted to Captain to oversee a team of 20 soldiers: 3 PFC’s, 12 accompanying soldiers, and 5 specializing soldiers to be distributed among your forces as you see fit.  You may give your forces orders that further your own.

If you take this feature but don’t have the PFC requisite, you gain the PFC feature instead.

You're Stoic, and can ignore one compulsion, phobia, and the like resulting from insanities while in an active combat zone. If you’re using this feature, Save versus Will with disadvantage after leaving an active combat zone or immediately suffer a breakdown.

You’re given a Mandate: permission to carry out your orders and preserve the lives of your forces as you see fit. For every time you publicly violate official regulations, disobey orders from higher-ups, or the like, make a black mark and roll a d6. If the d6 is equal to or less than the numbers of marks, your actions are subjected to review and you will be disciplined. If you ever acquire more than 6 black marks, you are subjected to discipline at the earliest possible opportunity.

Disciplinary Results: (1d6, 1d6 + black marks if you’ve acquired more than 6 black marks, including marks from your Connection.)

1. 1 black mark. Keep track of these.
2. 2 black marks.
3. Demotion one rank (Sergeant → Captain, Specialist → Trained, etc. Please note that you don’t lose skills, just equipment and privileges. If you have rank and a Training/Specialty, you lose rank first.)
4. Demotion one rank and 1 week of menial labor.
5. Demotion two ranks. 
6. Demotion one rank and imprisonment for 1d4 weeks.
7. Demotion one rank and 2d4 weeks spent doing menial labor around the camp.
8. Demotion two ranks and assigned to a non-combat position (cook, janitor, etc) for 1d6 months.
9. Demotion to private.
10. Dishonorable discharge. Lose everything except your skills.
11. No punishment. Instead, a powerful figure will handwave your punishment and try to blackmail you into aiding their scheme.
12. Imprisonment for 2d20 20-day months (or 2d12 months if your campaign uses a more Gregorian calendar). Time to plot an escape, prove innocence, or try another character.
13. (13 and up.) The death penalty, to be carried out in 1d4 days. Escape or last-minute stays are never impossible.

Ryan Meinerding

You’re offered a chance to join a Special Forces team that operates on special assignments alongside friendly forces or alone. Upgrade a Training to a Specialty or choose another Training. You can choose a Soldier with 2 or more soldier templates to accompany you and gain access to special equipment to use on all your missions.

If you were previously a Captain, you’re promoted to Sergeant to oversee 4 captains with all their soldiers and either 4 specialists or 4 auxiliaries of your choice. If you were a PFC and took this feature, you become a Captain.

Auxiliary Forces:

1. Sanctioned warlocks or wizards (Combat Mages)
2. Sanctioned believers (Zealots)
3. Sorcerer
4. Sanctioned berzerkers
5. Assassin
6. Artillerist
7. Prisoners of war fighting because you’re keeping loved ones hostage
8. Mercenaries (can really be anything)

In the course of your mission, you may temporarily Requisition soldiers or materiel from lower ranking commanders.

Special ammunition for artillery/guns will be detailed in a separate post along with more complete encumberment/exhaustion/inventory/gun/artillery/etc rules.

Design Notes:

I’ve tried to create a class with a lot of career flexibility - one could either advance up the chain of command, improve individual capabilities and operate on a smaller tactical scale, or a little bit of both. The larger scale domain play (becoming a PFC, captain, and sergeant) requires more abstracted rules for combat to avoid lots of individual nitty-gritty dice rolls; probably lite wargame rules that work on at least 4 scales - individual (sniper duels!), PFC, captain, sergeant, and potentially higher.

This class is designed for maximum replayability. A captain with demolitionist training should feel and play very differently than a sniper with arcane training on a special forces team. Ideally, an entire party composed of soldiers would have a great time, while still feeling distinct from a group of thieves and wizards.

My hack doesn't have a class triad, but the Soldier is one of my Fighter analogues, along with my Veteran. I think there should be oodles of options for Fighterlike classes, to prevent the most interesting point of the class becoming "which weapon should I choose?" 

GLOG Class: DRUID

If you haven’t already, please read these two posts, then come back.

So you want to be a druid.

Why?

Druids have an elemental opposition to metal, language, and spells. The overwhelming majority of classes deal with those three. Druids set themselves against the concept of concept, the arching spires of cities, the parched, mellow scent of illuminated tomes. They fascinate specifically because they cannot be described, because we will never understand why they conduct mighty wars against zondervozes and civilization.

Ours is a bloodless, cool understanding, born of schools, letters, and math. We can conceive of the concept of druidism, and that is what damns us, because we know of no other way to elucidate understanding except through concepts. We can never understand the thirst quenched by fresh blood, the sticky, buttery flavor of wolf marrow roasted by wildfire, the pleasure in a packmate’s warmth while tucked away in a small burrow dug under fresh snow.

To understand druids more fully, we can turn to philosophy. There is a curious parallel in the pinnacle of symbolic thought and the utter depths of druidism, a concordance at the point where everything and yet nothing is understood.

A sign, as we think of it, is composed of three parts: a sign-vehicle, an object, and the interpretant. The sign-vehicle is the object which we see: smoke, a pedestrian crossing sign, four letters that spell rose. The object is the thing signified by the sign-vehicle: fire, people cross the street here, a flower. The interpretant is the connection between the sign-vehicle and the object, the translation which allows us to understand what the sign-vehicle is saying.

The following statement is to be treated as a metaphor and not fact, for one cannot describe nega-philosophy with philosophical terms.

Druids have no need for sign-vehicles. For druids, there is only the interpretant and object, intertwined. Understanding the existence of a molehill and what it means are the same thing. There is no ambiguity in the interpretation of natural signs.

This is why druids are excellent trackers and why they can tell at the very first opportunity if civilized people have intruded into druidic territory. Archdruids can even detect the skunky stench of wizard magic, and smell the faecal musk of philosophy.

This is also how druids can have absolutely no idea how a street works and get killed by traffic. Though druids rarely venture into cities anyway.

Druids are not limited to this natural knowledge, either, because druidism is not a casting off of knowledge (it’s very hard to forget things) but rather an accumulation of itself that gradually overwrites all unnatural impulses. This is why druids can venture into a city and claim asylum from unnatural horrors infesting their forest, and why some druids operate openly in civilized areas, because they understand how to work in the grey areas of the law. And yes, these druids are damned, but when the cities fall, there will be no need for literacy or concealment.

This unique universalism of signage druids possess can also extend to other creatures.

“When they vocalize their grunts and spit their black spittle, there is no ambiguity of their intent.  They harness some primeval part of our brains, dredging up the cold, unmistakable tonnage of instinct.  They don't need to speak our language or read our minds.  Our intentions are already printed on our face and in our movements.”

- Arnold K, from this post.

However, druids have one weakness, and that is the unnatural.

Magic is unnatural, yes, but has rules. If it possesses rules, it can be broken.

No, what druids fear, what we all fear, is the intrinsic corruption of what is real. The unperceivable other manifesting as tangible perversion, as madness and howling through blood-drenched nebulae and stars with thin, lisping cilia that whisper things beyond our ken.

Soft, warm things with sucking fur look at us with inverted eyes and chew on their intestines, suckling the fluid of reality from their wounds, fattening, growing mandibles and muscles that can vocalize in our aural range, preparing to enter our world, ambassadors of the end of days.

Because druids are nature, they have no defense against its fundamental perversion. This has led to the only real schism between druids, with some believing that civilization can at least seal these wounds, and some holding that civilization causes them. And schism is also unnatural, so all druids feel this pain (except for archdruids). It lodges like a splinter, and festers in parts of the brain not locked away yet.

You wish to play something set against civilization and the very concept of itself?

Excellent. Kill me, and ascend.

Biagio D'Alessandro

GLOG Class: Druid

Offered up with fresh deer kidneys and happiness to Spwack, Lexi, and Madilynn, all of whom joined me in gorging on the carcass of proofing.

A: +1 Nature Dice, +3 Symbolism Dice, Biome, First Biome Commune
B: First Biome Union, Second Biome Commune
C: Second Biome Union, Third Biome Commune
Ø: Archdruid

Your Nature Dice is your d4 “spellcasting” dice. It never expires and will never abandon you unless you gain any other sort of spellcasting dice. (wizard, bard, warlock, sorcerer, etc) When you use your ND to affect natural things, roll your ND plus all of your Symbolism Dice and consult the relevant table to determine the power and duration of the generated effect.
Please note that these ND effects are not “magical” in nature, are therefore not affected by antimagic fields, can only be produced by manipulating natural (e.g, non-magical and unrefined) substances, and cannot be “unnatural” effects. For example, a heart attack or encouraging someone’s skin fungus to grow overwhelmingly is a natural effect. So are roots strangling a person. Mutations and people turning into trees are not natural effects.
You may only have one ND effect active at any given time.

For damaging effects consult the following table:

X damage/Y rounds is equivalent to X damage per round for Y rounds.

1: Up to 20 damage/1 round
2: Up to 8 damage/2 rounds
3: Up to 4 damage/3 rounds
4: Up to 4 damage/2 rounds
5-7: Up to 2 damage/3 rounds
8-10: Up to 1 damage/4 rounds

For effects that change natural things rather than damage, please consult the following table:

X size/Y distance is equivalent to affecting a thing of X size or less around Y distance away.

1: Redwood size/line of sight
2: Whale size/pond distance
3: Elephant size/whale body distance
4: Horse size/crocodile body distance
5-7: Dog size/human body distance
8-10: Bunny size/armspan distance

Your Symbolism Dice are what hold you back from the true power of druidism. They are d4’s, and represent your attachment to filthy things like cooked meat, math, and language. Whenever you roll doubles while using your ND, remove any SD’s that show the doubles. Whenever you roll triples while using your ND, remove an SD permanently. If you roll quadruples, remove one SD permanently and remove all SD from the ND’s effect. If you roll two doubles, remove all SD’s that form a pair with another dice.

The permanently removed SD have character effects:

• The first SD lost is metacognition and the like. Things like philosophy, complex math, metaphorical devices, and any arcane and scientific knowledge are now alien to you. 
• The second SD lost is language and math. You can no longer conceive of counting or speaking, but you may communicate perfectly well nonverbally.
• The third and last SD lost is symbolic thought itself. A rose is a rose, nothing more or less. To lose this SD, you must embark on a long spiritual journey involving lethal hallucinogens, fire, fasting, and ritual combat with a powerful animal. If you succeed, you become unfettered from all the chains that previously bound you to civilization. If you fail, you will be killed and eaten.

Your Biome is where your first forged your link with nature. You will gain different communes and unions based on its climate and ecology and a perk unique to that biome.

Example Biomes:

Fungal Grove:
Perk: You can cause any sort of fungus or slime mold or mold that you’ve eaten to spontaneously grow over a duration that you set by touching a surface.
First Commune: Fungi
First Union, Second Commune: Fungi, Flora
Second Union, Third Commune: Flora, Water

Rain Forest:
Perk: You can replicate any sort of natural noise you've heard at a volume of your choice coming from an area you can see for an indefinite duration.
First Commune: Fauna
First Union, Second Commune: Fauna, Flora
Second Union, Third Commune: Flora, Earth

Desert:
Perk: You can survive on nothing but sunlight if necessary.
First Commune: Water
First Union, Second Commune: Earth, Wind
Second Union, Third Commune: Wind, Flora

Tundra:
Perk: When you are viewed against a heavy background of snow, rain, or fog, you are invisible to sentient creatures.
First Commune: Fauna
First Union, Second Commune: Fauna, Wind
Second Union, Third Commune: Wind, Flora

Chaparral:
Perk: You can superheat the moisture in living plant matter by touching it. The longer you maintain contact, the hotter it becomes.
First Commune: Flora
First Union, Second Commune: Flora, Fire
Second Union, Third Commune: Fire, Wind

Bog:
Perk: You can hibernate under a thick layer of soil for up to 100 years.
First Commune: Flora
First Union, Second Commune: Flora, Earth
Second Union, Third Commune: Earth, Water

Huitatlauhco (Lightning Canyon):
Perk: You can ground lightning strikes without any danger to yourself.
First Commune: Wind
First Union, Second Commune: Water, Lightning
Second Union, Third Commune: Lightning, Water

Communes are your ability to communicate with the various natural forces, being flora, fauna, fungi, those in-between creatures, earth, wind, water, fire, and lightning. When you commune, you may choose to either initiate a conversation of sorts with the selected biota/force or view the world through the biota/force’s perspective.

Senses for all biota and elements:

Fauna: Taste, touch, sight, smell, hearing, space
Flora: Touch, sound, light patterns, space, growth patterns, soil nutrients
Fungi: Touch, vibrations, nutrients, space, light patterns, growth patterns

Fire: Vibrations, light, growth patterns, flammability, space
Water: Space, sound, displacement, dissolved material, boundaries, temperature
Wind: Space, sound, distance, passengers, weather
Earth: Vibrations, hollow spaces, differentiated material, displacement, liquid content
Lightning: Conductivity, objects near point of contact, magnetism, object resistance, electric rhythms/biorhythms

When using an ND to commune with different creatures, consult the following table:

X duration/Y senses/Z distance represents communing with a creature/natural force of up to X duration utilizing up to Y of its senses at Z distance.

1: Any duration/all senses/any natural thing you’ve touched
2: 1 day/4 senses/any natural thing you’ve touched in your current biome
3: 1 hour/3 senses/any natural thing touched within 2 miles
4: 10 minutes/2 senses/any natural thing touched within 1 mile
5-7: 1 minute/2 senses/line of sight
8-10: 3 rounds/1 sense/touching within line of sight

Unions represent your ability to become one with the forces of nature and shapechange into either a creature or a natural force. Your physical characteristics, including HP, Str, Con, and Dex, may change while you unite. If you are reduced to 0 HP or less while uniting, Save versus your character’s Con. On a success, you change back into your normal form with the HP you had before you transformed. On a failure, you change back into your normal form and keep your current HP.
You may only unite as a biotal (flora/fauna/fungi) that you’ve either shared a meal with or killed and eaten. To transform into an elemental form, you must be reduced to 0 HP directly by that element and survive.

The duration and power of your union is represented by the following table:

X HD/Y rounds/Z damage represents transforming into a form of up to X HD for up to Y measures of time. Z damage only applies when dealing direct damage in elemental forms. One can only transform into elemental forms on certain better rolls.

1: 4 HD/1 day/10 damage
2: 3 HD/1 hour/6 damage
3: 2 HD/10 minutes/3 damage
4: 1 HD/5 minutes
5-7: 1 HD/1 minute
8-10: 1 HP/6 rounds

Ricardo Padierne

Archdruids are creatures beyond mortal ken. They can be killed (all natural things can be killed) but they cannot die of old age or natural disease. The best thing to kill an avatar of nature is another avatar of nature, or an artillery shell.
Archdruids differ from regular druids in that they can deal damage to creatures based on symbolism and higher thought. They can cause cancers and heart attacks, yes, but they can also give wizards aneurysms using the wizard’s MD as damage or cause a creature to forget what words are. These are the most imminent of their tools, though, because what has more power - a burst appendix or a glacier?
Archdruids can commune with any natural thing, and may compel any creature they commune with to obey them. They still must follow the requirements for unions, though.
You can only become an archdruid by killing one. If you have any SD left and attempt to challenge them, they will rot you from within.

Design Notes:
Well, this was a class a long time in the making. I worried at the negative spell dice casting mechanic for weeks, and thanks to Spwack, finally pinned down some averages based off Python that gave me a framework of sorts to finally kludge the abilities around.
I used a negative casting mechanic because I feel that the central conceit of the druid is self-imposed limits rather than the “well, you’re going to explode eventually” take of GLOG wizards and similar casters, and based said mechanic off of d4’s for two reasons: to give players a way to mechanically progress without having to level up and to make doubles and triples more frequent.
The first glance I had at this was with d6’s, which change the tables math and frequency of doubles but most importantly dramatically lower the prevalence of triples. My fix for that was simple: remove one SD per template gained, which might work well for another sort of negative casting class, but not druids, which I wanted to have a more natural progression based around using central abilities.
The usage tables are completely untested. The power scaling for abilities will be adjusted, thankfully, I have a druid player in my campaign already. The effect of these abilities is limited by the creativity/flexibility of the person using them, so I encourage you to modify these tables as necessary to suit your players.
This class will require a lot of rulings to be made. I encourage DM’s to adjudicate each situation as its own as opposed to slowly building up an “acceptable” framework of usage via stare decisis. (Of course, I’ll probably be disobeying this principle myself occasionally. Rulings not rules.) The reason why? Druids thrive on adaptation, and while guidelines to their power usage would make the class a bit more intuitive, it’s not supposed to be. Druids are a very different psychological construct to play, and have no set code of conduct, like the animals they strive to emulate. Putting yourself in the “purge the city, live the instinct” state of mind is, to me, part of the fun of playing the druid.
The biggest source of conflict I foresee is the debate on what is “natural”. Depending on what rules your campaign world has, if any, “natural” could be a definition only accessible to the DM. I’d encourage any DM’s running this druid to take them aside and enlighten them on any “natural” parts of their campaign world that conflict with common sense.
I’m not remotely a scientist of any sort, so my take on the various “senses” of biota and mineral conglomerates/energy forms could benefit from some enlightenment. I hope that each different thing offers enough options to make it a viable source to commune with, even lightning.
Archdruids aren’t intended to have many limits. They’re going to be the most powerful mortal casters in both the short and long run in my setting. If you want wizards to be more powerful in the short or long run, I’d tune down the lowest results on the ND tables. Archdruids are also able to do more or less whatever they want, only limited by other archdruids or challengers. They don’t have much reason to cooperate with non-druid parties and might be best suited as NPC’s or questgivers, depending on your campaign.
Biomes are flexible and don’t have hard lines unless you’re running a hexcrawl. They’re more for flavor than actual mechanical utility.Take a tundra druid into a desert, though.
I’m most proud of how I executed the concept I had of this class. It’s my favorite finished project so far.