Brittania World

Setting

It's been two generations since the Romans pulled out. In your grandfather's day, a merchant could take his cart from one end of the island to the other without fear. The Legions maintained the roads and kept bandits at bay. But now, you can't ride out of sight of the town walls without guards, and you may as well plan on conquering the land as try to cross the country. The one is as easy as the other.

Much knowledge has been lost. The Romans could make true steel, but now, even where there's a forge hot enough to produce it, the smiths can do no better than brittle steel or hard iron. A few isolated sites have preserved great horse bloodlines, but most places you go make do with ponies or small-framed riding horses. War and famine have eliminated many settlements and vast tracts of land lie fallow. Famine and disease threaten everyone, though not every season. There's no true security of person or property. All that matters is the reach of your arm.

I will be inspired by history but I honestly don't care much about verisimilitude. If they could get away with it in a B-movie, it's good to go here.

Game Logs

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Recent logs:

• Killing Allies, the 5 December 2013 session log
• The Horde Approaches! Part Two, the 22 November 2013 session log
• The Horde Approaches!, the 21 November 2013 session log
• Time for War!, the 14 November 2013 session log
• Cows & Bears & Cows, the 26 September 2013 session log... further results

Player Characters

• Corr, Hocus, played by Selnaric
• Exuperata, Hardholder, played by Mer
• Senica, Horseman, played by Jacko

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NPCs

Name	Role	Harm	Armor	Gang Size
Amb	Midwife	1	0	A guy or two
Beren	Civilian	1	0	A guy or two
Bevan	King of Deganwy	3	2	Large
Caddog	Hothead	2	1
Cenric	King of Mercia	2	1	Medium
Delwyn	Steward of Caerlegion	1	0	A guy or two
Derwin	Leader of Bevan's scouts	2	1	Small
Dubnas	Stupid teenage dude	1	0	A guy or two
Einion	Bevan's favorite captain	2	1	Medium
Elbin	emissary to Caerlegion from Cissa	1	0	A guy or two
Emrys	Bevan's heir	2	2	Small
Galith	Watch commander in Caerlegion	2	1	A guy or two
Grigor	Second heir to Deganwy	1	1	Small
Luccy	Exuperata's guard captain
Megwin	Exuperata's maid	1	0
Nouanti	Sherrif	2	1	A guy or two
Olondus	Mayor of Cissa	1	0	A guy or two
Prasto	Blacksmith	2	0	A guy or two
Totia	Wife	1	0	A guy or two
Tyffanwy	Exuperata's other maid	1	0
Yorath	Dissolute lord in Bevan's court	1		Small

House Rules

• You only get XP for rolling a highlighted stat once per scene.

• Healing times without an Angel are ambiguous in the book. The default rate for healing damage at or below six o'clock will be one slice per five days. However, I don't want damage to take six months of real time to heal, so if our sessions aren't covering much game time, I reserve the right to shorten that to one slice per session.

• If you use an advance to take a move from some other playbook, and that playbook is in play, you must obtain the permission of the person using the playbook first.

Custom Moves

When you travel more than half a day's ride from Caerlegion, roll + Sharp.

On a 10+, you arrive at your destination as you hoped.

On a 7-9, choose one, unless the GM decides to choose for you:

• You get lost and have to find your way back to the path. You arrive later than expected and out of provisions. Restocking will cost 1-barter for your group if you trade for supplies.

• There are bandits on the road and you know it - what do you do?

• This wasn't a toll road before but it is now. Pay 1-barter for the toll. Or don't, and see what happens

• It's raining. A lot. All the time. You arrive soaked to the skin, cold, and exhausted. Mark one more segment of harm up to 6 o'clock. If you were already at 6 o'clock or worse, no change, you have worse pains than a little chill.

• It's not you, it's them. You arrive fine, but the last people on this road were such utter bastards that the people you're trying to visit won't even let you in.

On a miss, the GM makes a move, as usual.

When you travel the southeastern road out of eyeshot of Caerlegion, roll +Weird.

On a 10+, the ghosts show no hostile intent.

On a 7-9, you see the ghost Legionnaires, but pick one:

• You have the drop on them and can Go Aggro

• You spot them and can avoid them if you Act Under Fire - the fire being getting spotted and attacked.

• For whatever reason they hesitate and you have a chance to say something before it all goes wrong. Talk fast.

On a miss, you have just been ambushed by ghost legionnaires. They are a medium-size gang, 2-harm, 2-ap.

Gear & Weapons

Horses replace cars. Knives, swords, bows, spears, and other primitive weapons replace guns. AP just means your weapon's forged better than the ordinary stuff.

I'm messing with range a little to make the weapons more distinct. The new "arm's" range category refers to anything that gives you a significant range advantage over a short sword. If you're at a reach disadvantage, you'll need to overcome it via the Act Under Fire move or some other cleverness. On the other hand, if you slip up and let someone get to knife range, you'll struggle to effectively employ your bastard sword and may need to use a similar move to get some distance. These weapons also have important meaning in the fictional world. If you show up to a negotiation with a short sword on your belt, you're cautious. If you show up with the biggest sword in all the land, it's an implicit threat.

Since arrows are bulky but I don't want to worry about counting them, attacks with ranged weapons add a fifth option to seize by force, "you have plenty of arrows left." If you don't choose that as one of your two or three, you're out of arrows for the moment.

Common Hand Weapons

• big scary knife (2-harm hand)
• many knives (2-harm hand infinite)
• short sword / arming sword / gladius (3-harm hand)
• hand axe (3-harm hand messy)
• Long sword / bastard sword (3-harm arm)
• Spear (3-harm arm)
• Dane axe (3-harm arm messy)

Items with identical stats may still have different game effects. Many knives look more effective than a big scary knife, but if you put your knife to someone's throat and say, "tell me where you buried the hoard, or I'll watch you bleed to death," the big scary knife works better. It's scarier. It says so! The difference between that and many knives says a lot about your character.

Common Ranged Weapons

• short bow (2-harm close)
• long bow (3-harm close/far)
• crossbow (3-harm close/far reload)

Since the crossbow has to be reloaded anyway, it doesn't have the "out of arrows" issue that bows do. Since a crossbow gets mechanically cocked, you might choose one despite the reload tag because of its speed and resulting flexibility, especially at close quarters.

Armor

Good leathers give you 1-armor. Multiple layers of heavy boiled leather, a metal breastplate, or a mail coat all amount to 2-armor. Articulated plate really belongs to the late Middle Ages, not the post-Roman period, but it would be 3-armor if you found or made some.

The Psychic Maelstrom

In the standard setting, the apocalypse has created some sort of ongoing psychic turmoil, which affects everyone, though in different ways. In this hack, call it the spirit world instead. The Romans imposed the forms of worship but suppressed actual faith and devotion, which had the effect of eliminating the numinous from everyday life. Now, the old religions are back, and for some people, they work just fine. Prey to the old gods, or your ancestors, or the spirits of the land and sky, and things might happen. They might even be good things. You're free to tweak this and say that your character experiences it differently.