Shaintar - Legends Unleashed.pdf

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Evil Beagle Games Presents
Shaintar: Legends
Unleashed
Created, Designed, and Written by
Sean Patrick Fannon
Additional Material and Assistance
Clint Black, Barry Goldblum, Norm Hensley, Shane Hensley, Chris Kucsera,
Michael Nuckels, Sean Preston, the Silvermeet Gaming Crew
Editing
Carinn Seabolt, Al Bear
Cover Illustration
Tomasz Tworek
Interior Art
Aaron Acevedo, Chris Bivins, James Denton, Jason Engle, Johan Lindroos,
Stephen Najarian, Alida Saxon
Graphic Design & Layout
Aaron Acevedo, Jason Engle
Permission is granted to print this ebook. No site license is given.
Shaintar is copyright 2008-2014, Sean Patrick Fannon. All rights reserved. Shaintar, Epic High Fantasy, and all associated trademarks and logos are
the property of Sean Patrick Fannon DBA Evil Beagle Games.
This
material is protected under the Copyright Act of the United States of America. Any
reproduction or unauthorized use of the material or artwork contained herein is prohibited without the express written consent of Sean Patrick Fannon.
This
game references the Savage Worlds game system, available from Pinnacle Entertainment Group at www.peginc.com. Savage Worlds and all
associated logos and trademarks are copyrights of Pinnacle Entertainment Group. Used with permission. Pinnacle makes no representation or warranty
as to the quality, viability, or suitability for purpose of this product.
Some Reality Blurs’ material is used in whole or in part with permission and is copyright Reality Blurs, LLC.. Reality Blurs makes no endorsement or
judgment as to the quality of this product.
1
Table Of Contents
What Does He Have Against Dungeons?............................3
Chapter One:
The
View from On High...............................5
The
War Of Flame...................................................................6
The
Blasted Land ....................................................................6
The
Unchained........................................................................6
The
Builders.............................................................................7
The
Merchant...........................................................................8
The
Red Store...........................................................................9
Other Outsiders......................................................................9
Chapter Two:
Legends Of Shaintar....................................10
The
Paths Of Legends...........................................................11
Leaders and Commanders...................................................11
Advisers and Diplomats.......................................................11
Emissaries and Insurgents....................................................12
Liberators..............................................................................12
Adventurers...........................................................................12
Teachers.................................................................................13
Paragons Of
The
Races.........................................................14
Aevakar..................................................................................14
Alakar.....................................................................................14
Brinchie .................................................................................15
Dregordian............................................................................16
Dwarf......................................................................................17
Eldakar...................................................................................18
Goblin....................................................................................19
Human...................................................................................20
Korindian..............................................................................21
Ogre........................................................................................22
Orc..........................................................................................22
Techniques of the Masters...................................................23
Combat Edges........................................................................23
Leadership Edges..................................................................26
Power Edges...........................................................................27
Professional Edges................................................................27
Social Edges...........................................................................33
Weird Edges...........................................................................33
The
Tools of Legends............................................................34
Additional Weapons andArmor........................................34
Potions, Concoctions, and Such.........................................38
Arcfire Devices......................................................................40
Great and Powerful Magic...................................................41
New Powers...........................................................................41
High Magic............................................................................42
Delving Into Ritual Magic...................................................43
War Magic..............................................................................75
Chapter
Three:
Game Mastering Legends........................78
Rule Number One – Cheat .................................................79
Rule Number Two – Raise the Stakes................................80
Rule Number
Three
–
These
Are Games
That Thrones
Play
.................................................................................................81
The
Long View – Faction Play for Epic Campaigns.........82
The
Structure of Factions.....................................................82
Faction Play............................................................................87
Planes of Conflict .................................................................94
Good vs Evil .........................................................................94
The
Northlands vs the Southern Kingdoms......................94
The
Starfather vs the Mother Of Night...............................95
The
Quest for Power..............................................................96
The
Merchant vs Shanais and Targon.................................98
Change vs Stability................................................................99
Darkness vs Flame.................................................................99
Life vs Light..........................................................................100
Freedom vs Order................................................................101
Chapter Four:
Epic Challenges for Legends...................102
Challenge Arcs....................................................................103
The
Crimson Crusade.........................................................103
Never Surrender..................................................................105
A Return to Honor..............................................................106
The
Patchwork Conspiracy ...............................................108
Denizens..............................................................................111
New Templates....................................................................111
Advanced Racial Templates...............................................112
Acolytes................................................................................115
Adepts..................................................................................116
Builders................................................................................117
Builder Golems...................................................................118
Celestials..............................................................................118
Childer..................................................................................120
Corrupted............................................................................123
Criminals.............................................................................125
Demons ...............................................................................126
Kalinesh (Kal-a-Nar Empire)............................................127
Life Spirits............................................................................128
Necromancers.....................................................................131
Prelacy Forces......................................................................132
The
Red Store.......................................................................132
Shayakar...............................................................................134
Soldiers................................................................................135
Sorcerers..............................................................................136
Undead.................................................................................136
Dramatis Personae...............................................................139
Appendix:
The
Shaintar Epic Battle System....................154
What About Villains?.........................................................159
2
What Does He Have Against
Dungeons?
Shaintar developed primarily from my hatred of
dungeons.
Yes, it’s true. I’ve never enjoyed dungeons. I accepted
them at an early age because “that’s how the game
was played”; note that it was 1977, and the hobby was
very much in its toddler years. Dave Arneson had
run his Blackmoor setting with a special dungeon;
Dave Meggary had fallen in love with the board game
aspect of it (and became the driving force behind the
“Dungeon” game); and that very structured, reveal-
as-you go aspect intrigued Gary Gygax (and a ton of
other players at a certain very early GenCon) enough
to lead to the creation of “The Fantasy Game.”
Of course, someone with a keener sense of
marketing (the story I got from the Man Himself,
Gary, was that it was his
first
wife, Mary) suggested a
much catchier name - “Dungeons & Dragons.”
So, yeah, with half the name of the core product of
the hobby enmeshed in the minds of the players, and
a great deal of the earliest stuff published oriented on
these strange underground lairs full of monsters and
treasures, it became nearly impossible to escape the
dungeons. Not literally, of course – unless it was the
Tomb of Horrors or the Temple of Elemental Evil.
But I hated them. I had visions of standing atop
hills, sword raised, facing enemy armies with the
sun at my back.
The
sun doesn’t really get down
into dungeons, you know? I wanted to ride across
the plains with my companions, spiriting away the
princess or the Amulet of Carne from the Darkmist
Riders. I wanted to sail the seas, fending off terrible
serpents and heading off to far lands where lost
compatriots needing rescuing.
Maybe they were in a dungeon, but it was of the
“cell underneath the Evil Lord’s Keep” variety, not
these inexplicable mazes full of alien creatures that
managed to be both terrifying and silly at the same
time.
So as I looked at the Keep on the Borderlands, I
turned away from the “Caves of Chaos” and took a
good look at what it would take to create a setting for
gaming that supported the kinds of stories I wanted
to tell. At the time, it didn’t seem anyone else wanted
to. I didn’t know about M.A.R. Barker’s Empire of
the Petal
Throne...
and sadly, hardly anyone else did,
either.
It was a very long time before the name Shaintar
came into play. To begin with, it was simply called
“The Realm.”
The
dregordians, korindians, brinchie,
and aevakar (called “avanar” back then) were the
first
races I created. Early on, I chose to throw out the
idea of “high elf ” and “wood elf ” for something that
I thought had more
flavor.
I always wanted things to
sound better, to look better, and to feel better.
And to make more sense.
Internal consistency was important to me long
before I even knew the term. I needed rules – not
game rules, but rules of the story – to work internally
for me. Only then did I feel I could convey the level
of verisimilitude that I wanted. Yes, a
five-dollar
word
I came across in my childhood that stays with me
today.
Internal consistency meant rules for magic that
everyone had to go by. It also meant monsters that
made some kind of sense within the setting; I threw
out most of the tomes of creatures popular at the
time and focused on a slimmer, concise bestiary
that spoke about the nature of the world and the
influences upon it. Variations on a particular species
of creature gave the necessary diversity, and also
allowed for independent development of individuals
within a category of beast. Common now, yes, but a
novel concept, if I may say so, for back then.
As well, I focused heavily on the evil that men (and
elves, and dwarves, etc.) could do. Most of my really
great stories focused more on the machinations of
non-monster foes, just as you would
find
in most
great adventure stories.
The
monsters serve as tools
and means to an end; the one holding their leashes is
the one to be feared the most.
I reined in the gods while I was at it. No more 31
Flavors of Deity.
There
was to be a clean, concise
cosmology. From that foundation sprang the Powers,
the Ascended (and their corrupted counterparts),
and the rest of it. Eventually, more would
flow
out
and upwards, as well.
Which brings me to my most interesting revelation.
3
Shaintar teaches me who she is. Yes, there’s a gender
– the Silver Unicorn is the embodiment of Shaintar in
all ways, and she is most certainly a female. At some
point, the setting stopped being a playground for my
imagination and my design ideas. She came to life,
and she insisted I work with her in further defining
and developing her.
Not only her, but her origins, as well. Enter the
Starfather, the Mother of Night, the Scions, the
Offspring, the planet of Starfall, and all of the other
realms that reside upon it.
And all that lies beyond.
Shaintar is a living, breathing place, just on the
other side of our own Veil. If you visit, a part of you
becomes a part of her. Her lands thrive through
your victories, and bleed when you are defeated. She
honors your Fallen, and reveres your Legends. You
are meant to journey across her green and blessed
places, her snow-covered ridges, her deep and lush
jungles, her wind-blasted dunes, her blue, churning
waters...
… and, yes, even through her deep, underground
realms...
… to discover your place among the ranks of
Heroes and Legends that have fought to keep her safe
and help her grow to her potential.
You were never meant to kill kobolds for their
copper pieces. You were never meant to poke at
floors
with poles, map the next ten feet, and repeat as
needed. You were never meant to save against instant
death gasses in hopes for a potion or a scroll in some
wooden box. You were never meant to be digested by
cube-shaped blobs or have your armor scragged by
bizarre psuedo-bugs.
Those
are challenges for others, in other lands.
Here, in Shaintar, you’re meant for greater glory,
and more terrible challenges. You’re meant for high
adventure, epic contests, and outcomes that bards
will sing of and poets will chronicle.
I created Shaintar not for Adventurers. Not for
perfectly-balanced parties of Dungeon Delvers. Not
for Self-Centered Rogues and Murder-Bent Warriors.
Shaintar is a land for Heroes. Shaintar is a crucible
of Legends.
Leave the dungeons for the grave robbers and the
mercenaries. You have greater,
finer
things to do.
Liner Notes – What Is This?
In all ways, Shaintar: Legends Unleashed is the
sequel to Shaintar: Legends Arise.
Thematically,
it builds upon the foundations of that
first
book.
Mechanically, many of the Edges and other game play
elements derive from and advance similar elements
from Arise. Narratively, the story and timeline of
Arise continues into Unleashed.
Truly clever GMs can
find
ways around needing
Legends Arise to use this book, but I feel essential
continuity of the experience will be lost for them and
their players if they try that.
The
experience would,
I feel, be like starting your Star Wars experience by
watching “Return of the Jedi”
first
and not really
dealing with “A New Hope” or “The Empire Strikes
Back.”
4

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