I have a bunch of floating backgrounds for Troika! and they aren't going in my zine anymore, so have at them. I might illustrate some more and put them up on itch at some point, but at the moment I'm making little worlds for the Great Troika! Pocket Sphere Jam and finishing off the last bits of content and the layout for the first Realms Zine (which be more worlds, really, but bigger and with spells and backgrounds).
I'm pretty excited about finishing Realms. The first one is Irifice, a city of towering spires so tall they span between planes of existence. Irifice is a setting I've been playing in and writing about since I was a kid, inspired by Tanelorn in Moorcock's Eternal Champion books and every high magic metropolis I've daydreamed about on visits into the city. With any luck, you'll soon be able to join me in adventures up and down it!
In the meantime, here are the six new backgrounds! These guys were written for specific places that I'm not planning on visiting immediately, or else were leftovers when I had enough backgrounds already in place for a world. Hope you enjoy them!
1 Attentive Waiting-staff
There are dining halls in Troika and Irifice so strange, so avant-garde and so busy that they become a kind of stress-fuelled crucible for the staff working there. You've made ten lattes at once, each with a different metamagical syrup infused, and carried the lot across the room without a tray. You've navigated the fraught tensions and politics of the kitchen pass and you've tried almost everything on the menu. Eventually, though, everyone working in hospitality starts looking for a real job.
Possessions
- Worn Apron, tattered but remarkably hardy- as Lightly Armoured
- Serving Tray, as Shield
- Tea Set or Coffee Flask
- A fixed Rictus Grin which no customer, however determined, has managed to crack (+1 to Etiquette while worn)
Advanced Skills
2 Etiquette
2 Awareness
2 Run
1 Balancing
1 Drinks Preparation
Special
You've definitely got a degree in something, but it's been a long shift and you don't remember what it was you studied right now. When you do remember, mark it down as an Advanced Skill with 1d3 Ranks in it.
2 Breaker of Worlds
You are one of the many souls who rise up, throughout the endless Spheres and Realms, to grasp at something bigger than themselves- grasp at it, and pull it tumbling down towards them. You are a would-be conqueror, a ruler-in-the-making. All you need now is a suitable site to stamp your boots and stick your flag. Once you have yourself a flag, that is...
Possession
- An over-sized Axe, Maul OR Greatsword
- A second-hand suit of Medium Armour
- The last 2d6 silver pennies of a haul of loot, along with the story of how you won it.
Advanced Skills
2 Fist Fighting
2 Weapon Fighting with chosen weapon
2 Intimidate
1 Awareness
1 Climb
1 Run
1 Public Speaking
3 Calligrapher-Assassin
There are those who want a target killed and care not for the bloody details, and there are those who might hire a member of your own ancient and noble order. Calligrapher-Assassins are honor bound to record as much detail as possible from their assassinations, and over the years have perfected a range of strange effects they can use their inky skills towards.
Possessions
- Fine Calligraphy Brush and 2d6 Vials of Ink
- 1d6 Vials of Poisonous Ink
- Dagger
- Dark, form-fitting robes (as Light Armour)
Advanced Skills
3 Calligraphy
2 Poison
2 Sneak
2 Locks
1 Dagger Fighting
1 Spell- Ink Minion
4 Dedicated Rationalist
You know that magic is make-believe, no matter what those pyramid-scheme “Wizards Schools” try to tell people. Any time there’s a tangible magical effect that you can’t outright deny, you know that it’s nothing more than a symptom of Chaos itself worming its way deeper into Reality. Your sharp, axiomatic wits are the best defense against that particular problem, you’re quite sure.
Possessions
- The not-insignificant wits of a trained debater
- Book of handwritten notes, all detailing specific spells and how they aren’t really magical at all
- Suit of clothes, once expensive but now tattered
- Smoking Pipe with 2d6 charges of an obnoxiously odorous dried herb to put in it
- Duelist’s Rapier, damages as a sword but looks much flashier.
Advanced Skills
2 Evaluate
2 Awareness
1 Sword Fighting
3 Spell- Undo
Special
When you cast the spell Undo the Stamina cost is only equal to the cost of the spell to be undone, rather than double it. This effect is only usable while you cling to the tenets of Rationality- if you ever waver in your disbelief and cynicism, you have to pay full price just like any other slack-jawed idiot.
5 Verisimilicant
You stumbled out of a mirror in a strange land after getting lost in the Desert of Shards. You have no idea how to get back to wherever it is you came from, and you’ve been different ever since, shifting and changing in response to the places and people you meet. Are you even the person you remember being, or are you just a reflection now?
Possessions
- Clothing that is bland and neutral
- A Knife
- A Pocket Mirror whose reflections are always just a little… wrong
Advanced Skills
4 Disguise
2 Awareness
2 Sleight of Hand
1 Run
1 Climb
Special
You can use your Disguise advanced skill without any make-up or costumes to change into. You can also Test Your Luck to “fit in”, whether that’s your name turning up in some paperwork or your face seeming familiar to a stranger.
6 Weird Knight
There are souls who spend too long in certain strange limbos and demi-planes, and are forever changed by those places. You are just one such soul, a mortal pressed into the service of abstract processes you can barely understand. Your kind often travel either to return to their strange home, or else finally escape its influence once and for all.
Possessions
- A Weapon of your choosing, seemingly made from the same matter as your physical form.
- Strange Armour which melds seamlessly with your physical form (as Heavy, but only taking up 2 inventory slots) when worn, but fits no-one else
- An inconsequential Memento of your long-lost mortal life. Perhaps a locket or an old child’s shoe.
Advanced Skills
2 Astrology
2 Second Sight
2 Fighting with your chosen weapon
1 Awareness
1 Strength
Special
You are at once more and less than mortal. Whenever you are in an environment similar to the Limbo you came from, you gain an extra 1 rank in all your Advanced Skills. Resting in this environment restores 3d6 points of Stamina instead of the usual 2d6.
