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Monday, February 9, 2015

Axis Mundi Playtest Packet



So I've been daydreaming about Axis Mundi again.  8000 years of degenerate civilization inside a crumbling ark-ship, while the last humans in the universe kill themselves worshipping greek gods.

Anyway, I want to stop daydreaming about it and start playing it.  I spend the weekend typing up some rules.


They're pretty shitty rules, and they're pretty incomplete, but I think they'll be enough for me to start playing an Axis Mundi game.  And I'm pretty excited about that.

You start out with about a 30% chance to hit things (sort of like Warhammer RPG, I guess) and eventually replace all of your body parts until you either become a synthoid or a cyborg.  Then, you've got about a 50-60% chance to hit things, probably.

There's no XP or levels, which is pretty weird.  There's not even any sum HP, since each body part has its own HP total and must be destroyed piecemeal.  (After total body replacement, it's possible to get your head blown off and keep adventuring.  If that's not power progression, I don't know what is.)

I'm also looking forward to seeing players trading body parts like pokemon cards.

Or eating them.

There are no defensive stats.  Armor reduces damage that you take, shields are ablative and can be restored with power cells.

The idea is that all of your resources will deplete.  Since loot is procedurally generated, you'll probably run into shortages of things.  You'll have to cannibalize your robo legs to repair your laser gun, or eat your own bee hive graft to avoid starving.  You'll run out of scrap metal and drugs sooner or later, forcing you to kill, steal, explore, or trade.

I don't know how well balanced this stuff is, but I'll find out.


Here's a loot generator, because the one in the book is pretty obtuse.  A raiding party might carry 1-2 of these items, while a more significant cache might have 3-4.




2 comments:

  1. I'm pretty excited about this - I have been since I first startted reading your Axis Mundi posts. At one point I tried expanding on your Stragimen system, but it eventually turned into a generic sci-fi BD&D... Anyway, it looks really neat.

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  2. Do you ever plan on returning to the Axis Mundi setting? I love everything that you put out for it.

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