Psi Wars: Gotta Collect Them All: Relics as Sets

A common convention in fantasy literature and tabletop games is the idea of items that are part of a set, where the individual pieces may have power in their own right, but the full collection is more potent still. But why would you do this?

One answer lies in the way it lends itself toward a meaningful narrative arc. The desire or need to collect all of the lost regalia of the First Emperor means that the story doesn’t stop with the first piece to be recovered. Instead, there’s more to follow, as the heroes and their rivals race each other to be the first to retrieve the next piece. It also lets the heroes fail occasionally without bringing the tale to a grinding halt, since their rivals may beat them to one piece, but next time will be better!

Taken to an extreme, this sort of collection quest can form the basis of an episodic narrative, where the heroes are trying to find the most recently discovered treasure from the Ancient Starfarer’s lost Ship of Wonders, and perhaps piece together the clues to discover the location of the ancient vessel itself.

Another answer is the way that power grows slowly, a consideration important both for dramatic tension in literature and balance in tabletop RPGs. Instead of immediately gaining access to all the power of the Great Usurper, the treacherous councilor who supplanted the dynasty the First Emperor founded, they instead only gain a fragment of it when they take up the tainted blade he wielded, still burning red with the blood of those he betrayed. For the rest, they need to seek out his scepter, cloak, and mask, each with their own powers.

Given this utility, I would like to propose a few guidelines for creating sets of relics in Psi Wars.

When is a Set a Set?

The first question is what defines a set of relics, and the answer is ultimately “Whatever the GM says it is.” But that’s unsatisfying, and so here are a few questions to ask yourself when considering whether relics are standalone or a set.

1. Do the relics have a shared story?
2. Are they better known as part of the collection, or do their individual stories stand out?
3. Could they reasonably be used together at the same time? Alternatively, are they mutually exclusive, where drawing on the powers of one limits your ability to use the others?

The first question is quite natural, since if the relics don’t share an origin, a wielder, or something else to bind them together, they clearly aren’t a set. The second addresses whether people talk about the Regalia of the First Emperor, or if the First Emperor’s Scepter is something of note in its own right.

The third question is more subtle. A force sword and buckler can clearly be a set, since they’re meant to be used together, especially if their bearer favored that style of combat. The Ten Rings of the Dark Reaches, made as gifts for the queen of a depraved, hedonistic society, might also be a set, even if the power each possesses prevents the others from being used.

Ultimately, these are suggestions, and you’re free to decide what qualifies.

Power Divided

Now that you’ve decided what counts as a relic, you need to decide what fraction of the power of the whole they possess. First, consult my previous posts to determine the point value of the set. Then, take 1/2 of that value, and distribute it evenly among the component relics.

This means that relics of a set are much weaker on their own, but if they’re very old and storied, that can still be a significant amount of power. If you have a 200 point relic, divided among four pieces, they can each have 25 points worth of abilities, enough for a single psionic ability or several levels of Destiny.

Combining Powers

What happens when you start to bring relics together? The number of points that you have for abilities grows, with every piece of the set past one unlocking a number of points equal to the value of a single piece.

There’s several possibilities for how you can use this points and how they interact with existing abilities:

1. New abilities are unlocked
2. Existing abilities become stronger
3. Existing abilities become alternate abilities
4. Identical abilities add their point value to the total

At its simplest, you can add new abilities with the new points. More levels of Destiny or Higher Purpose, new powers, and so on are all appropriate.

Alternatively, you can improve an existing ability, like adding additional levels to a leveled psionic power (Surge, Psychic Hunches, to name a few).

If individual pieces of a relic set have the same ability, and it doesn’t meaningfully add to itself or has a cap on how many levels it can have, then add the value of extra copies of the ability to the point pool.

The most interesting possibility is that the pieces have abilities that can’t be used simultaneous. If you can only use the Aspect power of the First Emperor’s crown or the Suggestion ability of his scepter, but not both at once, then that’s an example of them being alternate abilities.

To decide how many points can be used on alternate abilities, total the number of points in abilities that are mutually exclusive, add in any amount of additional points, and then take 2/3 of that number. Each piece can have alternate abilities worth a maximum of that value.

This is a quick and dirty way to calculate the maximum value for most small sets of relics (2-6 pieces). For a more exact way, determine the total number of points available for alternate abilities. Then, for a set of relics with N pieces, the maximum number of points each relic can have in its abilities is:

(Total points * 5) / (5 + N - 1)

This reflects the fact that the first set of abilities is full cost, while each subsequent one only costs 1/5 of its regular value.

Psi Wars: Balancing Player-Created and Found Relics

After sharing my previous post on empowering artifacts, Mailanka noted, quite correctly, that an artifact should have the same point cost to possess, regardless of how it was obtained. I’ll counter by noting that the point cost for player created artifacts is spread out over the course of play, while a found artifact has to be paid for all at once, and a player created artifact ends up being much more fine tuned for their character.

That said, this is still a fair objection. Let’s take a look at the existing rules for artifacts in Psi Wars and see how we can adapt them for use in play.

The ground rules for buying relics (which I’ve been calling artifacts for some reason) as Signature Gear are quite simple. For every character point you spend on Signature Gear, you can have a relic with a cost of up to $25,000. The cost of a relic is determined by the base value of the object, plus its value as a self-powered psychotronic generator based on the rules on Psi-Tech p. 13-14.

To buy a player created relic with points, you still need the “Relic of Communion Perk”, but now the relic’s point cost is based on its dollar cost. Since a relic can start with up to 2 points of abilities, you must spend at least enough points to cover that amount. For example, a force sword costs $10,000 on its own, and as a Small, self-powered psychotronic generator, it costs an additional $3,750 per point of abilities it possesses. Thus, 1 point of Signature Gear lets you have a force sword with up to four points of abilities, more than enough to cover a starting relic’s two points.

Make a note of that maximum value, though, since relics grow in power over time, using the rules in my previous post. If they exceed that maximum, the player must spend additional points on Signature Gear sufficient to cover its full value. For convenience in determining the number of points of abilities each point in Signature Gear gets you, see the following table.

Size	Points of Abilities Per Point of Signature Gear
Mini (SM-6)	6
Small (SM-4)	7
Portable (SM-2)	9
Semi-Portable (SM 0)	12
Large (SM+2)	17

If this kind of book keeping seems more trouble than it’s worth, assume that the initial investment in Signature Gear covers up to 4 points worth of abilities and each additional point of Signature Gear allows up to 8 additional points in abilities. This reflects the likely bias towards portable, personal objects as player-created relics.

Psi Wars: Empowering Artifacts in Play

Last time, I looked at how to assign point values to Psi Wars artifacts on the basis of their age and significance. A player may look at the Recent Events modifier and say, "Hey! I'm part of recent events! Can I say that one of my things is an artifact?"

To which I say: Sure! If you've bought the item in question as Signature Gear and buy the perk "Relic of Communion", then it can have up to 2 points of powers, no questions asked. Since a player character is by definition a Major Free Agent, their possessions have a base value of 4 points, modified by 1/2 for being part of recent events.

This represents the beginnings of a player character's legend, and the investment of power by a Communion that is just now taking an interest in their deeds. Which form of Communion powers their artifact is up to the player to decide, though be warned that artifacts of Broken Communion are always corrupting!

Milestones

Now, what if players want to increase the power of their artifacts? Two possibilities are using the rules for Named Possessions from GURPS Fantasy or enchantment in GURPS Thaumatology. Unfortunately, I don't have either book myself, so I can't comment on how useful they would be.

What I do have is the concept of milestones from Mailanka's Building Paths post. These are significant events that represent important parts of an archetype's legend, and after achieving one, the character can investment more points in path-related abilities. Extending the concept to player created artifacts, a milestone is an event that reinforces the object's legend.

The question then becomes: What qualifies as a milestone? The paths have examples already given, but what's a suitable milestone for the scavenger's favorite pistol that they've modified time and again over the years? To judge whether an event qualifies, use the following criteria:

1. Is the event significant?
2. Does the event fit with the character's concept and story?
3. Is the artifact's presence important to the outcome?

If it's something that people will be telling stories about for years or generations to come, then the answer to the first question is yes. For the second, a character using their template's abilities to accomplish a major plot point in a way consistent with their personality and stated goals counts. For the last question, the artifact's role may be active or passive, but either way, it must have meaningfully contributed to the outcome.

To continue the example of the scavenger, using their pistol all the time doesn't count as a milestone, since that's not what people will tell stories about. Using it in a climactic duel with the marshal who's been hounding them for years, resolving the conflict once and for all? That definitely counts!

For another example, a spy may have a necklace handed down from her mother. If she was wearing it as she charmed her way into gaining access to Imperial archives and then stealing the blueprints for an Imperial superweapon, that would count as a milestone for the artifact.

The effects of a milestone are several. First, the player may spend character points up to half the artifact's base value per milestone achieved to improve its abilities, to a maximum of twice the artifact's base value. Second, if the milestone impacts events on a planetary level or greater, it may increase the base value of the artifact accordingly. Third, if the milestone belongs to a path and the artifact is part of the character's regalia, then the artifact becomes aligned to the path and the player may spend an extra 2 points.

So, after their duel with the marshal, the scavenger can spend 2 points to improve the powers of their pistol, since the event was primarily of personal significance. Our spy, on the other hand, has taken part in events that have ramifications for at least an entire planet! Accordingly, the base value of her necklace rises to 6 points, and she may spend 3 points on its abilities.

The intent of these rules is that after three milestones, an artifact can be considered to be of historical significance, and so can have abilities worth up to twice its base value. Those will also be more significant to the player, since they earned them through play and the artifact is specifically suited for their character.

A final note: at the GM’s option, the character points spent on artifacts can be given as a bonus for the session in which the milestone is achieved. This allows them to be much more immediately impactful, without having to worry about whether you have enough points saved up to take advantage of it.

Psi Wars: Empowering Artifacts

There's been a discussion of history over on Mailanka's Musings for the Psi Wars setting, focusing on determining an appropriate span of time and how to break that down into manageable chunks. One of the measures that Mailanka used to set bounds on the stretch of history was based on enchantment through age from GURPS Thaumatology. This turned out to be a difficult measure to use, since it either gave rather small stretches of time or it allowed for artifacts of absurd power.

This led me to wonder: why bother with using the exact age of an artifact in years to determine its potential growth? Instead, since Psi-Wars is conveniently broken up into eras, you can use the number of eras that the artifact has been around for to guide its growth.

However, simply assigning a point value to each era would give unsatisfactory results as well, since it's not just age that determines whether Communion will invest a given artifact with power.  No, artifacts that gain that power are always significant in some way, whether because of the events they're involved with, the individuals, organizations, or families that owned them, or the path of a legendary archetype that it's associated with.

In that vein, I would like to propose a system that takes into account an artifact's age, its historical significance, the length of time it was in continuous use, and whether it was associated with a legendary archetype.

In brief, the concept is:

1. Determine the base point value from the most significant person, event, or organization the artifact was involved with.
2. Add modifiers for continuous use and legendary archetype as appropriate
3. Apply the multiplier for the artifact's era of origin.

Base Value

Galactic - 10 points

Sector/Large Galactic Region - 8 points

Planetary - 6 points

Major Free Agent - 4 points

Modifiers

+0 for 0-5 years of continuous use, +2 for 6-75 years of use, +4 for 75-200 years of use, +6 for 201+ years. Use only the highest applicable value. Add an additional +4 if it is part of the regalia for a path.

Era of Origin

Recent Events - x1/2

Living Memory - x1

Recent History - x2

National History - x5

Dawn of the Current Era - x10

Mythic History - x15

It's important to note that the final point values for artifacts are guidelines, and that it would be reasonable to vary the value by up to 25% either way. If you have a good idea, don't let yourself be constrained by a budget, or feel obligated to use every point that it could have if this means adding abilities that doesn't fit the concept.

The first table is derived from the Admistrative Ranks that Mailanka uses for Psi-Wars, since that acts as a reasonable proxy for how important the artifact's associations are. The artifact's owner need not have any formal rank for this to apply, like a notorious bounty hunter famous for their use of an archaic vibrosword. Since they're known on a galactic level, but actual impact on events is limited to a more individual level, their signature possessions have the potential for power investment, but it's limited to 4 points of base value.

Use some discretion here. Just because an artifact was involved in a battle for the galaxy doesn't mean that it itself is of galactic significance. Save the full value of such events for the major leaders and items that played a pivotal role in the battle, without which it would have gone very differently. Other notable figures like famous aces and commandos should use smaller values, down to free agent for those known to be involved in a significant way but who didn't direct the course of events themselves.

The modifiers come from my desire to make heirlooms and national (galactic?) treasures more significant than an artifact that's only had a single notable owner. The scepter of a planet's royal family, handed down from generation to generation, carries with it the stories of many individuals, and so is correspondingly more powerful.

The final modifier for being used as part of the regalia of someone following the path of a legendary archetype represents the power of Communion that already exists around those paths. This deep connection means that they gain power much more quickly than an otherwise similar mundane artifact.

Finally, you have the crux of my system, and that's the multiplier for era of origin. An artifact that's only recent begun to build a reputation hasn't had the opportunity its legend to spread or for Communion to invest power in it, and so it only has half the base value. As it ages, the multiplier increases, roughly doubling each time, tapering off in the mythic era to keep them from growing too extreme.

So how well does this work out?

The good luck charm of an ace pilot who played a key role in a battle for the fate of a sector a few years ago has a base score of 4, divided by 2 for recent events, and so could have up to 2 points of abilities. Since she was a notable figure of the battle, but didn't lead it herself, this is quite reasonable.

The personal blade of the First Emperor, who united the galaxy under one banner in the Mythic Era, established one of the paths, and was then lost shortly after his death has a base value of 10. Adding +4 for being the regalia of a path and +2 for 40-50 years of use gives 16. Applying the x15 for a mythic era artifact gives a final value of 240. Powerful, but appropriate for an artifact of this age.

The crown of the leader of a house that eventually helped to found the Federation originates in the dawn of the current era, and has likely been handed down for several generations. As leaders of a large region of a galaxy, the base value is 8, plus 4 for 150 years of history, and then multiplied by 10 for dawn era. This gives 120 points. Again, this is powerful, but it has great historical significance.

The founding of the Federation was commemorated with the creation of a set of ceremonial regalia. Unfortunately, it was stolen shortly afterwards. Since it marks an event of galactic significance, it has a base value of 10, and a multiplier of 10. Thus, the regalia could have 100 points of powers.

The rifle used by the assassin to kill a sector governor in an incident that would help to lead up to the conflict that birthed the Empire is from Recent History. Since it's of sector significance and was only used briefly, it has a base value of 8, multiplied by 2 for recent history. This gives 16 points of powers.

The dark throne of the Emperor himself, said to sap the will of any who would even think of defying him, is an artifact of living memory. Its owner has Rank 10, and has likely been using it for more than 5 years, but much less than 75. Base value is 10, plus 2 for period of use, and x1 for living memory. This gives a final value of 12 points.

On the whole, I'm satisfied with these values. I think that they need some more tinkering, but it gives a solid basis for building artifacts from all eras of history without them being ridiculously powerful or unreasonably weak.