Zorn: Zero Level Characters

 Zorn has always been a setting about diegetic character advancement, telling stories about the world changing your characters rather than the other way around. To better serve that purpose, I took a note from DCC and ripped the idea of a group of zero-level characters going on a deadly adventure and the survivors becoming the player party.

Here's the overarching process of this.

1. Roll for your stats as you normally would (3d6 down the line for base stats, 2d6 for fortune)
2. Derive Substats as normal, except for HP which is Con-6 for Level 0, and attack bonus, which is 0. This does mean you can start with negative HP, you don't immediately die, but you might soon,
3. Roll 1d50 on the table below for background and note the results down where applicable.
4. Pick one stat off your background's Reroll column, you can roll that stat again and take the better result
5. Write down your background's starting inventory, items denoted with (Light), (Medium), or (Heavy) are automatically considered corresponding melee weapons. Details on these weapons can be found here.
6. Note down your background's starting skill. This provides a -2 bonus to any flat attribute check that would benefit from relevant knowledge or experience.
7. Choose a character flaw. This is a small roleplaying quirk used to spice up your character and to provide interesting complications to the narrative. These are things like "Alcoholic", "Loves Exotic Food", "Anger Issues", "Overly Honest"
8. Repeat this until you have 4 functioning characters.

Once these characters survive their first adventure (or at least escape it with 50 Silver), one of the survivors can level up and become a true adventurer, the remaining survivors decide that this is not the life for them and retire, die, go insane, or otherwise leave the narrative. If a player has zero survivors, they may claim a survivor from another player or generate one zero-level character that can level up if there is enough Silver remaining to do so.

After the campaign is in full swing, dead characters should probably be replaced by level one characters rather than zero-levels, but this is a nice way to set the tone at the very beginning.

The Backgrounds listed below is a quick and dirty list, maybe I'll come back later and rewrite this one to be a bit better, but I really wanted a playable draft as soon as possible. Feel free to add suggestions, comments, or other notes in the comments below as tables like this really benefit from group brainstorming.

I've also provided a few lists of random items and weapons below for posterity's sake.

1d50 Backgrounds

#	Name	Reroll	Starting Items	Skill
1	Farmer	Con/Wis	Shovel (Medium), 3 Carrots	Agriculture
2	Hunter	Dex/Wis	Hunting Shotgun, Bear Trap	Tracking
3	Hobo	ANY	Large Stick (Heavy), 3 Crappy Rations	Survival
4	Nobility	Cha/Dex	Fine Clothes, 3 Pieces of Sharp Silverware (Light)	Courtesy
5	Housekeeper	Wis/Dex	Broom (Medium), Fine Clothes	Restraint
6	Bartender	Cha/Wis	3 Bottles of Mysterious Liquor (Light), Set of Drinking Glasses	Alcohol
7	Distiller	Con/Int	Heavy Keg of Cheap Swill (Heavy)	Brewing
8	Chef	Dex/Int	3 Sharp Knives (Light), Cutting Board	Cooking
9	Sailor	Cha/Wis	Dueling Sabre (Medium), Naval Uniform	Sailing
10	Soldier	Dex/Str	Rifle, 3 Awful Tasting MREs, Active Enlistment	Military
11	Mechanic	Wis/Int	Large Wrench (Heavy), Coveralls, Small Bottle of Oil	Jury-Rigging
12	Detective	Int/Wis	Service Handgun, Handcuffs	Investigation
13	Pilot	Dex/Int	Small Knife (Light), Parachute, Small Goggles	Aircraft
14	Ship Crewman	Str/Wis	Small Club (Medium), Hammock	Navigation
15	Ship Spotter	Wis/Dex	Small Club (Medium), Binoculars	Weather
15	Machinist	Con/Int	Wrench (Medium), Coveralls, Small Bottle of Oil	Manufacturing
16	Industrialist	Int/Cha	Sharp Pen (Light), Box of Paperwork	Capitalism
17	Nurse	Int/Con	Syringe (Light), Book on Natural Medicine	Medicine
18	Doctor	Int/Wis	Heavy Medical Book (Heavy), Doctor's Robes	Medicine
19	Dentist	Dex/Int	Pliers (Light), Hand Drill, Small Tool Bag	Surgery
20	Travelling Salesperson	Cha/Con	5 Cheap Knives (Light), Cheap Suit	Trade
21	Attorney	Int/Cha	Heavy Legal Text (Heavy), Nice Suit	Legal
22	Engineer	Int/Dex	Fancy Pen (Light), Drafting Paper	Engineering
23	Teacher	Wis/Int	5 Children's Books (Light)	Teaching
24	Banker	Wis/Int	Abacus (Medium), Large Sack, Precise Scales	Money
25	Bill Collector/Loan Shark	Str/Dex	Club (Medium), Black Book naming 3 Debtors	Scheming
26	Archeologist	Int/Con	Shovel (Medium), Fine Brush, History Book	History
27	Spy	Dex/Wis	Sharp Pen (Light), Foreign Soldier's Uniform, Fine Clothes	Espionage
28	Thief	Dex/Str	Prybar (Medium), Dark Clothes	Thievery
29	Hired Killer	Str/Dex	Handgun, Stiletto (Light), Cheap 3 Piece Suit, Note with Target's Name	Assassination
30	Cardsharp	Cha/Dex	Stiletto (Light), Deck of Cards, Small Bottle of Ink	Gambling
31	Smuggler	Wis/Cha	Prybar (Medium), Large Bag	Concealing
32	Construction Worker	Con/Str	Heavy Tool (Heavy), Sack of Tools	Construction
33	Foreman	Cha/Con	Clipboard	Oversight
34	Miner	Con/Str	Pickaxe (Heavy), Miner's Helmet with Light	Mining
35	Gardener	Dex/Con	Trowel (Light), 5 Mysterious Seeds	Gardening
36	Lumberjack	Str/Con	Axe (Medium)	Axe Demolition
37	Train Conductor	Wis/Con	Shovel (Medium), Sack of Coal	Steam Power
38	General Laborer	Con/Str	1 Random Weapon, 2 Random Items	ANY
39	Tailor	Dex/Wis	Set of 5 Large Needles (Light), Colorful Thread	Fabric
40	Barber	Dex/Cha	Barber's Razor (Light), 3 Rags	Cutting
41	Delivery worker	Dex/Con	Running Shoes, Backpack	Running
42	Telephone Operator	Cha/Int	50' Length of Copper Wire	Fast Talk
43	Mathematician	Int/Wis	Very Heavy Abacus (Heavy)	Math
44	Artist	Cha/Wis	Set of Paint and Brushes	Artistry
45	Philosopher	Wis/Int	Heavy Book on Philosophy (Heavy), Human Skull, Shiny Rock	Philosophy
46	Writer	Wis/Int	Pencil (Light), Notepad	Writing
47	Priest	Wis/Cha	Religious Text, Religious Icon, Bottle of Sacred Fluid	Religion or Occult
48	Scientist	Int/Wis	Set of Scientific Tools	Science
49	Oil Baron	Cha/Dex	Cane (Medium), Box of Fine Cigars, Fine Clothes	Money
50	Exiled	ANY	Locked Shackles (Heavy), Tattered Clothing	ANY

1d50 Random Weapons

#	Name	Type
1	Hunting Knife	Light Melee
2	Chef's Knife	Light Melee
3	Stiletto	Light Melee
4	Pencil	Light Melee
5	Metal Straw	Light Melee
6	Brick	Light Melee
7	Throwing Knife	Light Melee
8	Small Statuette	Light Melee
9	Pen	Light Melee
10	Scalpel	Light Melee
11	Icepick	Light Melee
12	Small Paperweight	Light Melee
13	Blackjack	Light Melee
14	Very Sharp Fork	Light Melee
15	Very Sharp Spoon	Light Melee
16	Golf Club	Medium Melee
17	Katana	Medium Melee
18	Cane	Medium Melee
19	Suitcase	Medium Melee
20	Axe	Medium Melee
21	Prybar	Medium Melee
22	Shovel	Medium Melee
23	Club	Medium Melee
24	Wrench	Medium Melee
25	Sabre	Medium Melee
26	Rapier	Medium Melee
27	Frying Pan	Medium Melee
28	Rebar	Medium Melee
29	Tire Iron	Medium Melee
30	Baseball Bat	Medium Melee
31	Heavy Book	Heavy Melee
32	Large Rock	Heavy Melee
33	Longsword	Heavy Melee
34	Antique Glaive	Heavy Melee
35	Sledgehammer	Heavy Melee
36	Pickaxe	Heavy Melee
37	Massive Wrench	Heavy Melee
38	Locked Shackles	Heavy Melee
39	Antique Maul	Heavy Melee
40	Long Rusty Pipe	Heavy Melee
41	Service Revolver	Handgun
42	Military Sidearm	Handgun
43	Pepperbox Pistol	Handgun
44	Homemade Pipe SMG	SMG
45	Military Issue SMG	SMG
46	Hunting Rifle	Rifle
47	Sniper Rifle	Rifle
48	Antique Musket	Rifle
49	Hunting Shotgun	Shotgun
50	Antique Blunderbuss	Shotgun

1d50 Random Items

#	Name	#	Name
1	Bottle of Oil	26	Chicken
2	Small Bottle of Ink	27	Sheep
3	Small Bottle of Blood	28	Cat
4	Pen	29	Binoculars
5	Pencil	30	Tent
6	Prybar	31	3 Flares
7	50' Rope	32	50' Thin Wire
8	50' Chain	33	3 Small Handbells
9	Pickaxe	34	10 Pitons
10	Shovel	35	Bag of Ball Bearings
11	Axe	36	Handheld Radio
12	Hammer	37	Pocket Knife
13	Wrench	38	100' Twine
14	Large Backpack	39	Small Bucket of Paint
15	Sleeping Bag	40	Canteen
16	5 Rations	41	Oil Lantern
17	50' Colorful Thread	42	Flashlight
18	Bear Trap	43	Guitar
19	Fine Clothes	44	5 D Batteries
20	Fine Furs	45	20 Bullets
21	5 Bottles of Beer	46	Fishing Pole and 15' Line
22	Parachute	47	Silver Mirror
23	Small Goggles	48	Magnifying Glass
24	Horse	49	Gallon of Gasoline
25	Pig	50	Hammock

Stars Without Number: Making Know Magic Less of a Ribbon Skill

 In Codex of the Black Sun, two skills are added; Cast Magic and Know Magic.

    Cast Magic is very important in that without a sufficient level your spells are essentially ten minute incantations and any distraction will cause you to restart. It's a very important skill.

    Know Magic by comparison is.... very flat. It's the Know skill but for Magic as far as I can tell, which is pretty counter to the previous skill design philosophy for revised, namely that skills are broad and any applications are pseudo-determined by whether it makes sense for your character to know it. A star pilot could use pilot for a spaceship but a racecar driver would struggle to justify the training even though it is still rules-legal. Why isn't Know Magic just another facet of the original Know Skill?

In addition to this, I wanted some more magic rules involving crafting. Something in-between downtime and occult lore and absolutely nothing.

    What I ended up doing was turning Know Magic into a pseudo-psionic discipline in design that anyone could train themselves in, although admittedly non-casters would have much more limited options to use it with. With a core technique for crafting enchantment bases called "Anchors" and gaining optional techniques to modify them, known as "runes".

    Admittedly, it's relatively complicated but no more so than the occult r&d rules and is entirely optional on the player-side. Balance-wise, it can be pretty strong near the endgame for a mage who's entirely invested in it, but it still has its weaknesses, fills a new niche, and requires a great deal of investment to reach that point. So I think it's alright.

Here's what I have so far.

Know Magic

    Creating a spell anchor allows you to extend the duration of your spells and spell-like abilities at the cost of semi-permanent system strain.

    Cantrip-like effects with a duration can be held indefinitely by a Level-0 Anchor, Spells with a duration of Light focus can be held indefinitely by a Level-2 Anchor, Spells with a duration of Deep Focus can be held by a Level-4 Anchor.

    Leveled Spells that do not have possibly indefinite durations are simply stored until a trigger rune causes it to cast the spell.

    Storing a spell in an anchor requires the casting of said spell, the slot used to cast it will not recover until it is expended from the spell anchor.

    The system strain gained by creating an anchor, will not recover until the anchor is destroyed or paused.

    Destroying your own anchors only requires that you are physically close enough to touch the affected runes or objects, any Anchor-Crafter is usually smart enough to leave hidden backdoors in the magic to allow for easy disabling from themselves. Anyone dismantling others' runes can simply smudge or deface the main Anchor to dismantle it.

    However, some users build in security measures against this, such as trigger runes designed to go off when someone touches the rune or attempts to otherwise deface it. Dismantlers attempting to bypass such measures need to roll a Wis/Know Magic check against the creator's Int/Know Magic in order to successfully avoid such countermeasures.

    In addition, you can gain runes or wards that add unique modifications to the spells and abilities of your anchors.

    Writing anchors, runes, and wards take time and equipment. You need either an Anchor Engraving Kit or Consumable Ritual Components. Each part requires (Min. Lvl of Know Magic)x 1 Hour to write, with 0 level counting as ten minutes. Thus a level-0 spell anchor would take ten minutes, but a Level-4 spell anchor with a Level-4 rune would take 8 hours to complete.

    Some anchors generate Heat as described on page 131 of Codex of the Black Sun. The effects of the Heat level extend to the full size of the area affected by the anchor. Thus a Level-4 Spell anchor loaded up with a large ward effect would cover the area in a Hot zone of Heat.

    Every time you level up Know Magic above level Zero, Gain a Technique from Anchor-Craft at your skill in Know Magic or lower.

Level-0: Can create Blank Spell Anchors that can hold up to a small cantrip effect (at DM Discretion) and up to 2 runes at the cost of 1 System Strain. These Spell anchors are considered Cold Archanotech

Level-1: Gain an extra rune or ward.

Level-2: Can create Blank Spell Anchors that can hold up to three levels of spells with Light Focus and up to 4 runes or wards at the cost of 2 system strain and 3 Ritual Components. These Spell anchors are considered Warm Archanotech

Level-3: You may now dismantle your own anchors and runes from any distance with merely a thought.

Level-4: Can create Blank Spell Anchors that can hold up to five levels of spells with Deep Focus and up to 8 runes or wards at the cost of 4 system strain and 3 Pretech Ritual Components. These Spell anchors are considered Hot Archanotech

Level One Runes

Basic Binding Rune: When applied to a spell anchor, this rune aligns the magic therein in such a way that it becomes quite strong and magnetic.

    The next physical object to touch it for 10 minutes will be stuck to it, requiring a DC 8 Exert check to force open by someone trying to pull it apart.

    Examples of usage could be to fix a small trinket, lock a door, or make a handhold on a climbing surface.

Simple Trigger Rune: This is a basic control rune for spell anchors. It can be used to trigger specific runes, trigger stored spells, or dismantle the spell anchor.

    Inputs it can use include: Voice Command, Proximity to people, Being touched or not, Intentional activation within physical contact, Electrical input, Contact with blood, Contact With Magic, Other triggers at DM discretion

    This rune can store 2 commands that are up to a sentence long.

Simple Ward: Wards are a special type of rune that can be used to limit the movement of creatures, objects, and energy.

    Wards may also be left blank, using them as an area-reading effect for other interfacing runes (such as advanced trigger runes) to use.

    The Base Size warded is a 10-foot radius cube or another shape, chosen at creation, with small border-runes placed on the corners of its area. It will only function within the area bordered by the runes, so the area may grow smaller if some of the runes are removed.

    For creatures, a general type must be listed such as "Shadows" or "Humans", for anything more specific than that, one must use a discrimination rune. Any creature blocked against must attempt a Mental Saving Throw at +4 before being allowed to cross into it. If they fail, they cannot attempt the saving throw again for a day.

    For objects, you need a discrimination rune and the warded object must be provided with its own keyrune. Then, when the object is brought into the area, it is magnetically forced back out. Dragging it into the area requires a DC 8 Exert check every ten minutes.

Level Two Runes

Discrimination Rune: This rune is specially designed to interface with other runes, allowing them to whitelist or blacklist certain people or objects.

    In order to add a person to the list, you must include a small sample of their DNA into the rune itself, which is consumed upon creation of the rune.

    In order to add items to the list, you can add specific "keyrunes" to them, small runes that act as a unique id to interact with this spell anchor.

    For example, one could use it to say that all humans except one are targetted by a rune or vice versa, it can also be included with a trigger rune in order to increase the preciseness and complexity of its commands.

Arcanomagical Repeater Rune: This rune is used to extend the range of other anchor effects.

    Runes or Stored Spells that already have an area of effect, it doubles the original radius. Note that stacking additional of these runes still only doubles the radius, thus a simple ward with 3 of these runes will be a 40-foot radius square or sphere instead of a 10 foot one.

    This Rune requires a ritual component and 1 additional system strain to use.

Pause Rune: Pause runes temporarily halt the processes of the anchor or other runes' functions. They can be turned on or off with a physical connection by the creator or a trigger rune.

Level Three Runes

Advanced Binding Rune: When applied to a spell anchor, this rune aligns the magic therein in such a way that it becomes quite strong and magnetic.

    The next physical object to touch it for 1 minute will be stuck to it, requiring a DC 12 Exert check to force open by someone trying to pull it apart.

    This Rune requires a ritual component and 1 additional system strain to use.

Advanced Trigger Rune: This is an advanced control rune for spell anchors. It can be used to trigger specific runes, trigger stored spells, or dismantle the spell anchor.

    It also can interface with wards and other runes to read information about them for possible trigger conditions in addition to the inputs available from simple trigger runes.

    This rune can store 4 commands that are up to a paragraph long.

    This Rune requires a ritual component and 1 additional system strain to use.

Anchor Overclocking Rune: This rune disables some of the heat reduction countermeasures in the anchor in exchange for increased power output.

• Any numerical effect created or altered by this rune is increased by +2 per die or instance.
• Any opposed skill checks against this anchor are done at a -2
• Any saves made against this anchor are at an additional -4

    This rune increases the overall heat of the anchor by 1. If this heat increases it over "Hot" then the effect is doubled. The DM may also add their own side effects for such an overloaded anchor. If additional Heat increases are stacked then it continues doubling with new side effects introduced for each stack. The Spell Anchor may simply cease to stop working at a certain point, usually after it's pushed above Hot more than once.

    This rune requires a pretech ritual component and an extra 2 system strain to use.

Level Four Runes

Anchor Stabilization Runes: This rune's sole purpose is to make more dangerous anchors safe. When added, it decreases the overall Heat of an anchor by one.

    You can only have a maximum of two of these on any given Spell anchor before additional copies lose effectiveness. There's only so much you can maximize your cooling with this rune.

    This rune requires 2 pretech ritual components and an extra 2 system strain to use.

Anchor Dispelling Rune: This rune is unique in that you can apply it to any spell anchor from any point in its area of effect.

    Functioning like a magical virus, the rune will automatically attempt to dismantle the largest spell anchor that it is within the Area of Effect before dispelling itself. For opposed rolls, it counts as a 12.

    This rune requires a pretech ritual component and an extra 2 system strain to use.

Great Ward: Great Wards can provide difficult mental blocks to specific or generalized creatures. In addition, it can block generalized or specific objects.

    The Base Size warded is a 100-foot radius cube or another shape, chosen at creation, with small border-runes on the corners of its area. It will only function within the area bordered by the runes, so the area may grow smaller if some of the runes are removed.

    For creatures, a general type can be listed such as "Shadows" or "Humans". Alternatively, specific creatures can be blacklisted or whitelisted by providing the rune with DNA samples of them as if this anchor was equipped with a discrimination rune. Any creature blocked against must attempt a Mental Saving Throw before being allowed to cross into it. If they fail, they cannot attempt the saving throw again for a month.

    For objects, a general type can be listed such as "weapons" or "food". Alternatively, specific objects can be provided with its own keyrune as if this anchor was equipped with a discrimination rune. Then, when the object is brought into the area, it is magnetically forced back out. Dragging it into the area requires a DC 12 Exert check every minute.

New Equipment

Anchor Engraving Kit: Containing a wide range of hard alloy needles and various tools, this toolkit allows for uninhibited use of the Know Magic skill to create anchors and otherwise engrave into hard surfaces.

    When using this to create spell anchors, the anchor cannot be easily smudged and must be physically defaced from the surface. Weighs 3 Encumbrance, costs 300 credits like other toolkits.

Ritual Components: This is a general category for a number of small, mystical components and materials, such as specific chalks, inks, suspended herbal fluids.

    While an engraving kit is enough to construct simple anchors, some more complex designs may require these to be used in conjunction, and these can be used to construct simple anchors in a pinch.

    Rather than keep a catalog of inks, chalks, and herbs, the mage can use ritual components, subtracting one whenever Ritual Components are cited.

    Alternatively, they can expend one to begin writing a basic spell anchor without engraving tools. When used this way, the resulting spell anchor can be easily smudged and rendered nonfunctional.

    This item can be bundled into packs of three for encumbrance purposes. Weighs 1 encumbrance alone, costs 50 credits like spare parts.

Pretech Ritual Components: Some anchors and runes have a cost in Pretech Ritual Components.

    While an engraving kit is enough to construct simple anchors, and some more moderately complex designs may require ritual components to be used in conjunction, there are yet more complicated runes and anchors that may require pretech ritual components.

    Rather than keep a catalog of inks, chalks, and herbs, the mage can use pretech ritual components, subtracting one whenever Pretech Ritual Components are cited.

    Alternatively, they can expend one to begin writing an advanced spell anchor without engraving tools.

    This item can be bundled into packs of three for encumbrance purposes. Weighs 1 encumbrance alone, priceless due to TL 5 components.

New Foci

Anchor Smith: You are a prodigy at theoretical magic, a renowned scholar, or a master of runes.

Level 1: Gain Know Magic skill, if this improves the skill to a level above level-0 you gain a free technique as usual. In addition, you can now write anchors and runes at 10 minutes per minimum Know Magic level instead of the normal time, 0-Level anchors and runes now only take 1 minute.

Level 2: When you advance a level, Know Magic automatically gets one skill point put toward increasing it or purchasing a technique from it. You may save these points for later, if more are required to raise the skill or buy a particular technique. These points are awarded retroactively if you take this focus level later in the game.

    This focus counts as a general magic focus for the purposes of mage classes.