[D&D5e] The Uncannyverse

[Hoid]

Looking forward to it! This is going to awesome!

[MacynSnow]

I'm just in the planning stage right now, but eventually I need to playtest some of these house rules I've seen floating around the net. I have two one- shot campaign ideas. The first is a Mortal - Kombat style tournament, and the second is a Wedding Heist.

Well, you know me & Hoid are up for both so that's two players at least. Can't wait to see final pre-tested product ...

[Uncanny]

I'm just in the planning stage right now, but eventually I need to playtest some of these house rules I've seen floating around the net. I have two one- shot campaign ideas. The first is a Mortal - Kombat style tournament, and the second is a Wedding Heist.

Well, you know me & Hoid are up for both so that's two players at least. Can't wait to see final pre-tested product ...

Looking forward to it! This is going to awesome!

You two have your spots reserved. I can't wait to see your guys character concepts.

This is going to be a slog but I figure I gotta get it out of the way sooner or later. I'm going to attempt to reskin all 10 guilds from the Ravnica 5th edition book for the Uncannyverse. First off is the Azorius Senate. A quick glance at the lore in the book paints this guild as the good guys. I should have mentioned that not all of the guilds are moral organizations, in fact a majority of them aren't. The guild acts as the de facto court system for Ravnica. Most of their members focus on law enforcement. With a few of them actually being emissaries, and senators. There is also a paragraph that mentions precognitive mages who try prevent crimes before they happen.

Some one has to actually arrest the criminals, if the guild is going to have any credibility in the campaign, and that s were I will start



Street Judge Background

Skill Proficiencies. Intimidate, Persuasion
Language: Arcana
Tool Proficiencies: Firearms Proficiency
Equipment: A Federation insignia, a set of manacles, a bottle of red ink, a pen, a scroll of the text of the law important to you, a set of fine clothes, a pistol, and a belt pouch containing 10 gp

Feature: When you take a long rest (7 days) in a settlement, you gain the authority to enforce the laws in the area, and that status inspires a certain amount of respect and even fear in the populace. People mind their manners in your presence and avoid drawing your attention. Additionally you roll with advantage when you make an ability check using the Insight, Investigation, or Perception skills in your settlement

Pistol: 1d12 piercing damage, Range (60/240) reload 2 ammunition

Reload:Load, ram, breech – three steps to get ready for one shot. You have to spent a number of actions indicated by the number after the reload property to get ready to fire another shot

Ammunition: You can use a weapon that has the ammunition property to make a ranged attack only if you have ammunition to fire from the weapon. Each time you attack with the weapon, you expend one piece of ammunition. Drawing the ammunition from a quiver, case, or other container is part of the attack. In case of firearm ammunition, you can't recover your ammo after the battle.

I plan to spend another 2 posts on this one guild. I'll post a new homebrew race next here is a hint



EDIT 1: I'm using the rules for firearms found in the DMGuild pdf Flintlock and Firearms for 5e

EDIT 2: Changed language to Arcana
'

[Uncanny]

Going more in depth on the Azorius Senate. I really like the idea of precognitive mages, but for ideas the book suggests just 2 classes. A divination wizard, and knowledge cleric. I figured I'd would be able to find a race that granted reading minds as a trait or spell, but I didn't have any luck. Instead I cobbled together a few psychic focused abilities by combining the Kalashtar from Eberron, and a Lemurian from the book of Uncommon Ancestry. I will add more lore later on how they fit into the Uncannyverse, but I figure these folks would make good 'Cops' for the law enforcement guild.



Triclops Homebrew

Age: They reach maturity slower than humans, not reaching adulthood until the age of 30, and living to be as old as 300

Size: Medium

speed: 30

Ability Score increase: Your Intelligence by 2, and your Dexterity increases by 1

Third Eye:You have a third eye above the middle of your brow. You have advantage on saving throws against being blinded.

Eye For Detail: You can use your Proficiency bonus when you roll a Intelligence (Investigation) check

Mental Discipline: You have resistance to psychic damage

Mind Link: You can speak telepathically to any creature you can see, provided the creature is within a number of feet of you equal to 10 times your level. You don't need to share a language with the creature for it to understand your telepathic utterances, but the creature must be able to understand at least one language. When you're using this trait to speak telepathically to a creature, you can use your action to give that creature the ability to speak telepathically with you for 1 hour or until you end this effect as an action. To use this ability, the creature must be able to see you and must be within this trait's range. You can give this ability to only one creature at a time; giving it to a creature takes it away from another creature who has it.

Vision Beyond Sight: You can take an action on your turn to open your third eye to vision beyond sight for one minute. While your third eye is open, you see invisible creatures and objects as if they were visible, and you can see into the Ethereal Plane. You are immune to being blinded while this ability is in use. If you were blinded before engaging this ability, that condition ends immediately. Once you use this trait, you must finish a
long rest until you can use it again

[Uncanny]

Alright so now I have a background for the 'Azorius Senate' guild, and I've Homebrewed a iconic racial option for this faction. Which alerts players with
divided attention spans that when the 3 eyed folks with the guns show up either a fight or a chase is coming. Now I need to flesh out the guild some more, a lot of the factions in Ravnica employ monsters in their ranks, Heck one of them is lead by a dragon. I happen to think the Sphinx's fit the 'Azorius Senate' focus on law enforcement. I have been able to find stat blocks for a decent variety of the Sphinx monster, but this being the Uncannyverse I wanted to try my hand at creating a stat block, and I figure the Lying Cat is a good place to start. The magical animal already has some 'Sphinx' qualities, and it's ability to perceive deceptions could be used as evidence, against criminals in a court a law.

The Guilds of Ravnica offer players more magic. By choosing one of the 10 available backgrounds your character gains access to a list of spells ranging in power from Cantrips to 5th level. I'm going to slightly modify the spell list for the 'Azorius Senate' with teleportation magic. My goal is to give the spellcasters from this guild some decent 'battlefield control' options. This would make them decent jailers, and would be lucrative for the faction. Every guild needs a base of operations or a headquarters, and being a fan of the Star Trek show Deep Space 9 I can think of certain floating space station that would be ideal.

[MacynSnow]

Which version of the Station you using? The Fixer-upper? The Minefielder? Or the War Station?

[Uncanny]

@MacynSnow: I'm thinking sorta of the minefield version, but located next to the wormhole, and not the planet. I imagine that it would function as a bureaucratic office, and a supermax prison. I had originally wanted to place the Academy on the space station, but perhaps it should be on the planet somewhere... I wanted the Ibbenesse dwarves from ASoIaF to be more than just hairy sailors. If They have a Starfleet training building in their homeland in the north pole. They will stand out more in the Uncannyverse




Lying Cat
Medium Fey

Armor Class 15
Hit Points (9d10 + 18) 108 Max
Speed 50

STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
16(+3) 13(+1) 15(+2) 14(+2) 15(+2) 16(+3)

Skills Insight +7, Stealth +4, Perception +3
Senses Dark vision 60 ft., Passive Perception 15
Languages All
Challenge 4

Innate Spellcasting The Lying Cats innate spellcasting ability is charisma (Spell save DC 13) It can innately
cast the following spells, requiring no material components

At will Major Image
3/day each: Command, Mirror Image, Scrying, Suggestion
1/day Geas

Keen sense of the truth The Lying Cat has advantage on Insight checks to detect a lie

Actions
Multi attack The Lying Cat makes two attacks: One with it's claws and one with it's cursed bite

Claws Melee weapon attack +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., One target hit (2d10 +3) slashing damage

Cursed bite Melee spell attack +5 to it, reach 5 ft., One creature hit: (1d4+3) piercing damage. The target is magically cursed for 1 hour Until the curse ends, the target has disadvantage on Wisdom saving throws and all ability checks

[MacynSnow]

@Uncanny--Depending on how much of a Starfleet feel you want the Azorius to have, i'd sugget adding Elves(Andorian proxy) and Human's as the main "Political" power of the group. Also add a Blue & White version of the Backula Enterprise uniforms as "Standard Guild clothing"(adjustable look for individual Guild spot). As a LONG time Trekkie, it'd be nice to see a more actively good aligned Starfleet....

[Uncanny]

Alright so I'm adding 3 spells to the 'Azorius guild' spell list. Each spell allows the caster to 'bamf' around that battlefield while bringing along a friend. Thunder step, Dimension door, and Teleportation circle. In conclusion I'm blending Street Judges, DS9, and Lying Cats from the Saga comic book to create the background lore for this guild in the Uncannyverse. The judges form the backbone of the organization, and are more durable then the typical "Red Shirts" from Star Trek lore. Starfleets military hierarchy will be used by the Guild. So players will go from being Cadets to eventually raising up the ranks to become Commanders. The Faction will focus on enforcing laws, housing prisoners, and discreetly teleporting personal. The 'Azorious Senate' will be the United Nations of the Uncannyverse with the Street Judges acting sorta like Interpol agents.

The spell list of this guild is similar to another list granted by a Dragonmark house. I can't help but seeing this causing issues in the Uncannyverse. 2 factions offering similar services to a City state would inevitably be competitors. The Dragonmark in question is the Mark of Storm. The House which controls the airships, and the railways. A conflict between the 'de-facto' leader, and lawmaker of the guilds, and likely the wealthiest great house to offer services to town leaders, and warlords would be interesting to explore. The Mark of Storm is capable of powering vehicles which can haul large amounts of cargo, however the guild is capable of teleporting humanoid, and not cargo. ideally each city would want both, but the upper management of either organization are being greedy. I imagine at the village, and small town level these 2 factions have agents which coexist, but that type of cooperation is rare in a settlement with a large population.

The Lying Cat was created by blending the stat blocks of a hell hound, and a Lamia. Next up the Boros Legion in the Ravnica book. The guild is more militant than the Azorius, and some of it's members having flying mounts.

[Uncanny]

@Uncanny--Depending on how much of a Starfleet feel you want the Azorius to have, i'd sugget adding Elves(Andorian proxy) and Human's as the main "Political" power of the group. Also add a Blue & White version of the Backula Enterprise uniforms as "Standard Guild clothing"(adjustable look for individual Guild spot). As a LONG time Trekkie, it'd be nice to see a more actively good aligned Starfleet....

Thanks for the suggestions. Most of the Elves of the Uncannyverse were going to be a$$hole's. The majority of their city states are ruled by vampires an own 'blood slaves' or the rulers practice isolationist policies. A better bet for an Andorian stand in from Star Trek would either be a Gith, Giff, Triton, Twi'Lek's from Star Wars, or Keldon from the Plane shift PDF. I like the visual advice, and the guild will be vast. Filled with officers with varied alignments.

I actually kind of decided with my last post to make the Dragonmark of the Storm be the de-facto Atreides of the Uncannyverse. The Azorius Senate would be one of their chief rivals, and thus the likely hood of me making them the "Harkonnen' stand of the campaign is a easy fit, A guild with a amoral smooth talking dictator like Palpatine as it's leader. I will keep in mind that players who are fans of Star Trek may want a more positive organization. So I will add some npcs who act like boy scouts in the faction. Kind of like Captain America in Winter Soldier. A few good men, and women who are fighting the good fight, but Hydra agents are numerous and spread throughout the guild.

EDIT 1: I forgot the bretons from Elder scrolls were gonna to workshopped, and re-flavored as Vulcans. Oh well I'll just have to highlight them some other time

EDIT 2: just realized I never gave lore on the Triclops, but the having them act like Vulcans would fit. They have 3 eyes so they already look like aliens, and the vulcan mindset can explain their mental traits. Honestly the Vulcan mind meld ability is giving me fits to homebrew

[MacynSnow]

@Uncanny-- if i remember right(i tend not to play Spellcaster normally, Ranger being sole exception), the UA Mystic has a telepathic ability that might work for the Mind Meld thing.

[Uncanny]

Thanks for the advice MacynSnow, but I don't think the Mystic's Telepathic ability is right for the Vulcan ability. Mechanically I envision the Mind Meld as requiring a grapple check, or at the least a prone or incapacitated victim. Also the ability shouldn't be able to be spammed endlessly so it would need to use up some resource. I'll hunt around the internet. I'm sure there is a Star Trek RPG out there somewhere. Maybe I can find a free resource that focuses on Vulcans, and hopefully I can port it over to 5th edition.


Alright as promised I'm gonna introduce the Boros Legion guild into the Uncannyverse, but first let me explain why I'm including the Guilds of Ravnica, Dragonmarked Houses of Eberron, and the Piety system from Theros. Because they give the players so many options. I've been lurking around multiple PBP forums for months now, and it is rare indeed to find a DM who would allow a couple of these books in the same campaign much less all 3. I believe this is a wasted opportunity, but I also don't want to rush and throw all these options into my own Homebrew world without some kind of structure. Otherwise I fear that the players will only see chaos when I'm trying to give them choices.

I want a way to showcase how the 10 Guilds, 12 Dragonmarked Houses, and 15 Religions all interact with each other in the
Uncannyverse. I figure a large city which is the home of the headquarters of 1 of each would be the best way. Of the 3 (Tamriel, Earth Kingdom, Essos) continents I have mapped out I have a couple options for metropolis's. Asshai from Essos I the biggest city by territory in the entire A song of Ice and Fire world. It's also the perfect spot for my BBEG to call home. All of it's buildings are made of magical black material which absorbs sunight, also the sun is also blocked out by persistent clouds which cast a shadow over the city.

Ba Sing Se from the Earth Kingdom and Avatar fame would also be a logical choice. Except That city might well be the largest one I've ever seen on any map. Not counting Coruscant or other maps were the entire planets surface is a one large city. Ba Sing Se is like the size of the state of Texas, and encircled by 3 large walls. Which leaves Imperial City from Tamriel, and Elder Scrolls Oblivion fame. This city features a giant white gold tower and a diverse population. it wins by default, but I could have picked worst options than fantasy 'New York'

Boros legion = remnants of the Valyrian Dragon riders
Minotaur Daedramarked House = Dragonlance esque Pirate Mintours, and the Mark of Scribing
Covenant Religion = Halo video game inspired religious zealots, Led by Winged Elves

EDIT 1: No that isn't a type I plan to Dragonmark Houses from Eberron with Daedra from Elder scrolls lore

[Uncanny]

Okay so this is the post were I explain why I choose to reskin the Boros Legions Skyjec Roc with scales, and gave the creature a rechargeable breath and re flavored it a dragon, because I can nuff said.

But honestly I'm treating them like dragons because I want to include some Valyrians in my Homebrew. Game of Thrones dragons are a one trick pony compared to the variety of breath weapons available to most D&D dragons. So the only breath weapon option available to dragon riders will be fire. How do I plan to link the Valyrian with the Boros Legion. Well It all starts with Imperial City. Capital of the Covenant Empire. The Empire Invaded southern Essos from the east. However after a short and disastrous siege of of the city of Valeria. The Empire retreated with the Valerian Navy, and a army of dragon riders on their heels.

Across the Mo Ce Sea the Covenant Empires Navy was harassed by the Dragons, showered with arrows from the pursuing ships. The Empire had never faced such a persistent enemy, and within a year the Valyrian military was weeks away from breaching the walls of Imperial City. When unexpectedly the Valyrian's surrendered and signed a peace deal. Within days the Volcanoes around the
Valyrian homeland erupted. The Doom of Valyria was a catastrophe which nearly wiped out of the civilian population, but it's military remained largely intact and independent as a mercenary guild stationed within the Imperial City, and supplied with a shipment of fresh dragon eggs. The last boat which left the harbor of Valeria before the doom.

As far as Backgrounds go for this Guild I have 2 in mind. I should actually get around to creating a 2nd option for the Azorius Senate guild...


Valyrian Wyrmrider

Skill Proficiencies: Arcana, Animal Handling

Languages: Valyrian, Arcana

Equipment: Same as Boros Legionnaire

Feature As the top recruit from your local area. After you completed bootcamp you are given a petrified dragon egg as a gift by your commanding officer. Basically a pretty rock. You keep the gift as a keepsake and often keep it near you when you slept outside by camp fire every night.

At Level 3 your egg hatches into a pseudodragon, Stats similar to a familiar Warlock 3rd level pact of the chain

At Level 5 your Dragon grows big enough to become a mount


for Dragon stats use Skyjet Roc found pg 219 of the Guildmasters of Ravnica book, but add

Fire Breath(Recharge 5-6) The Dragon exhales fire breath in a 30 foot line that is 5 foot wide. Each creature in that line must make a DC 14 dexterity saving throw taking (5d8) damage of a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one




Combat Medic

Skill Proficiencies: Athletics, Medicine

Languages: Arcana

Tool Proficiency Herbalism kit

Equipment: A herbalism kit, one trinket of special significance, a set of common clothes and a belt pouch with 2 gp

Feature: A shot of Morphine Provided you have a herbalism kit, you can heal a creature, When you use this ability you restore a number of hit points to the creature equal to 5 x your proficiency modifier. A creature cannot be healed by you again in this way until after they finish a short rest




EDIT 1: I realized technically the Game of thrones Dragons were Wryms

EDIT 2: Combat is a revamped shipwright from ghosts of saltsmarsh

[MacynSnow]

@Uncanny-- try Star Trek Adventures Core Rulebook if you want a really intresting way to use mind meld(it's a 2d20 system, so it'll blow your mind but it's worth the headache).
Out of curiosity about your world: in Ba Sing Se, there wouldn't happen to be an old man hanging around that sounds ALOT like Mako?

nicleodean

[Uncanny]

Uncle Iroh is one of my favorite characters from the show, and my 2nd favorite fire bender behind Azula, but I had originally intended to reskin the fire nation as a bunch of Tortles, and Dragonborns. I had planned on the Sun Warriors still existing and being humans

Iroh and Zuko are still humans with fire bending hiding in Ba Sing Se, Along with Azula in full Kyoshi war paint. Damn near everybody in that royal family has gone in disguise at one time or another.

I've heard of the 2d20 system I think I heard some folk talking about it on a podcast I listen to. That's the Moebius system right ?

2nd Azorius Senate background


StarFleet Officer

Skill Proficiencies: Arcana, Nature

Languages: Arcana

Tool Proficiency: Vehicles (space)

Equipment: add a set of Blue & White version of the Backula Enterprise uniforms as "Standard Guild clothing"(adjustable look for individual Guild spot), and a phaser

Feature: Ships Passage (Space) As Sailor Feature but with space ships, and not boats

EDIT: Feel free to use a concept you want from the listed source material. We can work something out. This is a work in progress

EDIT 2: Phaser will do 2d8 force damage, and will use 3 actions to reload/recharge