The Maiden Saga: Role Playing Game Read online

  Title Page

  THE MAIDEN SAGA:

  ROLE PAYING GAME

  By

  Aishling Morgan

  Publisher Information

  Copyright © Accent Press Ltd 2011

  Digital Edition converted and published by

  Andrews UK Limited

  www.andrewsuk.com

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the written permission of the publishers:

  Xcite Books

  145-157 St John Street

  London

  EC1V 4PY

  A long, dim chamber lined by pallets and illumuniated by moonlight slanting in through the windows. A group of four women stand at the door, their clothes in tatters, their skin filthy, but there is no mistaking the pride in their faces, especially one with hair the colour of polished ivory and swirling patterns of red and blue tattooed across her chest. As she speaks there is a faint sound, at the limit of consciousness, perhaps merely imagined, the clicking of dice -

  “‘Now, you men, listen. I am Sulitea Mund, a powerful witch. Outside the wall of your compound waits a great demon, able to lift you over the wall with ease. To whoever wishes their freedom, I grant it, and in return I ask only that you tell me what you do, here at Julac.

  ‘You, tell me?’

  She pointed at the man they had first spoken to, who was still staring blankly at her breasts. Beneath his blanket his cock was erect.

  ‘What do you do?’ Sulitea demanded. ‘You process nitre, yes?’

  ‘I am a dung boiler,’ he answered.

  ‘A dung boiler?’

  ‘I boil dung.’

  ‘To what purpose?’

  ‘If I do not, the pushers will beat me.’

  ‘What of you others?’ Sulitea sighed. ‘A trifle of knowledge for your freedom.’

  ‘We are slaves,’ one said.

  ‘Beyond the wall is jungle,’ Sulitea said, ‘enough to hide in for years, or band together, raid a harbour, steal a ship.’

  ‘We are slaves,’ the man repeated.” Innocent

  Sulitea is attempting to make the men reveal the secret of gunpowder, with limited success. The men have other ideas.

  Who will come out on top? That is a matter for the dice.

  The Maiden Saga is a series of four erotic fantasy novels: Maiden, Captive, Innocent and Princess. They were originally published by Virgin Books between 1999 and 2004 and have sold over 34,000 copies. All four novels are now being re-released in e-book format to support this new role playing game (see Support Pack).

  The storyline originally set out as an erotic pastiche of works by fantasy writers such as J. R. R. Tolkien, Robert E. Howard and John Norman, while stylistically influenced by Jack Vance, but quickly took on a life of its own. The content is unashamedly erotic, some might even say perverse, so if you believe in cold baths, good clean fun that an author should close the bedroom door when things start to get fruity*, then you should probably go away, now.

  If you’re still with me, then I hope you enjoy the ride. The first thing to take in is that this is not our world but a fantasy. Nobody was axed, raped or devoured by demons in the making of the Maiden Saga RPG. So -

  Rule 1 – leave your 21st century morals at home.

  In fact, leave as much of the modern world behind as you can. This is a world of barbarian giantesses, lecherous slavers, avaricious dwarves and worse, so if you want to play a mild mannered clerk who believes that everybody could get on if they just sat down and talked for a while then you probably will get axed, raped and devoured by demons, and serve you right.©

  * This is not necessarily a euphemism.

  © Game Masters please take note.

  The World of the Maiden Saga

  Imagine yourself drifting in intergalactic space, far above a galaxy not so very far away, because it is our own, but considerably removed in time. At the end of one of the great spiral arms hangs a cluster, like a wisp of smoke or a silk handkerchief tugged somewhat abruptly from the breast pocket of a dandy. As you draw closer, moving at the speed of imagination, it becomes apparent that this cluster consists of thousands upon thousands of stars, most of which are rather old and rather small. Come closer still and you will see that each controls a system of planets. Most of these are great balls of gas, smoulderting cinders or lumps of rock and ice, but a significant proportion are amicable to human life. Many of these have been colonised for tens of thousands of years, long enough for evolution to have worked on their inhabitants.

  The more civilised planets – i.e. those capable of destroying each other – have grouped together in a lose alliance and provided themselves with a navy to enforce their edicts. These edicts are rather general, but include proscriptions against murder, slavery, piracy - in each case as defined by local custom - and interaction with those planets on which the human genome has become irreversibly corrupted – as defined by loss of sentience. For example, on Arcadia Fructis the original colony of strict fruitarians has expanded to populate the entire plant and lives an idyllic life. The climate is temperate, the food abundant and free, with the consequence that the once high-minded population are now to be found grazing the lush meadows or high in the fruit laden trees, where they communicate with melodic hooting noises, while for both males and females the height of cultural interaction involves the mutual inspection of respectively chalk blue and vermillion buttocks.

  At the inner edge of the cluster is another forbidden planet, named many times but officially known only by its serial number, and to its inhabitants simply as the World. This is the world of the Maiden Saga. Smaller and denser than Earth, three major continents cluster together; Kora in the north, running up to the edge of the ice sheet; Apraya and Cypraea straddling the equator. The climate is much like our own, with bands of tundra, temperate forest, plains, desert, savannah and jungle.

  This world was one of the first to be colonised from the main body of the galaxy. The first two attempts met with harsh conditions, leading to rapid and drammatic evolutionary changes. The first attempt produced big, powerful, partially sentient and only roughly anthropoid beings known to future humans as apes, trolls and ogres; the second to more delicate creatures, human in appearence but again only partially sentient, the nymphs, and later a grotesque, parasitic form further removed from the original human stock than any other and known as goblins.

  The third attempt was a crash landing in the northern part of Kora. By then Earth flora had colonised the planet, decreasing the evolutionary pressure and allowing the newcomers to establish primitive but recognisably human cultures, and to remain sentient. Three peoples derive from this era, all confined to the northlands and known as the Aeg, Mund and Hai. Two thousand years passed before another ship arrived, a scientific expedition from a hot climate planet, Aprinia, which set up in the jungles of central Cypraea. A local collapse of civilisation cut these people off, but they managed to retain at least some of their science and culture. Next came a big colony ship from another sector of the cluster itself, which set down in Apraya. The rigidity of their social hierarchy led to speedy decline, resulting in the creation of the big, populous slave states of Venjome and Oretea. These people then mingled with renegade Aprinians to colonise the island of Makea. The sixth landing came much later, a ship from a high gravity planet, whose squat, dwarfish people populated northern Apraya and mixed with theit southern neighbours to produce the people of Ythan
. Another collapse followed before the rise of the current civilisation and the edict banning contact. Few outsiders now visit, at least not if they can possibly help it, and that is how the world stands for the purposes of the game.

  Core Rules

  In order to play the Maiden Saga RPG, or any other RPG set within the Cluster, you need to create a Player Character, or PC according to a simple set of Core Rules designed to allow PCs to function within any game but without imposing too many creative restrictions on the designer. The games are designed to be played by a group of people together, one of who is the Game Master and oversees the game. Players may work towards a goal, together or separately, or simply enjoy the scenario, but unlike most RPGs, each player is ultimately out for themsleves, seeking to discomfort their opponents, be they fellow PCs or otherwise, and to gain Glory.

  Think of Glory as a combination of reputation, self respect, and innate ability to be treated with respect by those around you. People with high Glory will be deferred to by their inferiors and people with low glory snubbed by their superiors. When one PC interacts with another, a Conflict, the winner stands to gain Glory, expressed as Glory Points. Being reduced to zero Glory Points may or may not knock a PC out of the game, but at the end the winner is whoever has the most Glory Points. In the case of the Maiden Saga, these can then be converted to filthy lucre or, more properely, forfeits or a comic or erotic nature, preferably both. More of that later.

  At the beginning of a game the PCs Glory Points are calculated according to their attributes. A PC must have twelve attributes, which are divided into two groups as follows -

  The four Basic Attributes -

  Experience – how much have you been about?

  Dexterity – are you physically skilful?

  Intelligence – does your mind work well?

  Constitution – how tough are you?

  The eight Additional Attributes -

  Power – are you big and strong?

  Allure – are you physically appealing?

  Pride – are you noble, regardless of rank?

  Craft – do you possess specialist manual skills?

  Greed – do you crave the satisfaction of gut and gland?

  Guile – are you silver-tongued?

  Wisdom – do you know thing others don’t?

  Wealth – are you rich?

  In order to define the abilities of your PC, you have a set number of Game Points to divide between these twelve attributes, typically 100, with a minimum of 1 and a maximum of 20. Let us consider, for example, Oily Jansen, a con artist from the advanced world of Laconia. His Game Points are distributed as follows -

  Experience

  8

  Dexterity

  7

  Intelligence

  8

  Constitution

  5

  Power

  5

  Pride

  4

  Allure

  2

  Craft

  12

  Greed

  9

  Guile

  20

  Wealth

  10

  Wisdom

  10

  Total

  100

  Glory Points are then calculated by adding together the Game Points devoted to the Basic Attributes, so for Oily Jansen 8+7+8+5=28, dividing by 10, to make 2.8 and rounding up or down. Oily Jansen therefore starts the game with 3 Glory Points.

  The game moves from conflict to conflict, with each PC seeking to gain Glory either from other PCs or Non-Player Characters, NPCs, controlled by the Game Master. The basic aim is to achieve a goal by making other characters do what you want, one way or another, or if you prefer you can play for Glory Points. Most conflicts between characters involve persuasion rather than violence, at least at first.

  Basic play is simple. It is your go and you are in Conflict with another character an NPC.

  Choose one of your Additional Attributes. This become the Conflict Attribute.

  If you are in conflict with another PC, roll single dice to determine who chooses the Conflict Attribute.

  If you have chosen the Attribute, your opponent has first throw of six-sided dice and vice versa.

  Each 6 thrown counts as a Hit Point.

  The number of Hit Points is subtracted from the opponent’s total of Game Points in the chosen Conflict Attribute.

  Exchange dice and repeat the process.

  Whoever runs out of Game Points first in the chosen Conflict Attribute has lost.

  The winner gains 1 Glory Point and the game continues along his chosen path, unless the loser chooses to restart the Conflict.

  To restart the Conflict, the loser must sacrifice 1 Glory Point and chooses the new Conflict Attribute.

  Any player who has run out of Glory Points cannot restart a conflict, but this does not mean they are out of the game.

  This basic system works for all games, each of which has its own individual characteristics. To learn to play the Maiden Saga, read on.

  The Peoples of the Maiden Saga

  There are eight different peoples in the Maiden Saga, each with their own distinct culture and each absolutely convinced of their own superiority. They do not merely think that those with different religious beliefs are fools and heretics, they know it, just as they know that people from less advanced cultures are murderous barbarians or even cannibals« and that people from more advanced cultures are effete, self-righteous poseurs. Worlds beyond their own are, at most, a rumour, irrelevant to day to day life. These peoples are – Aeg, Mund, Hai, Ythan, Makean, Oretean, Vendjomois, and Aprinian – and their approximate ranges are shown on the world map. Some are related, some entirely distinct.

  « They may be right.

  Roles of age and sex are important, but be assured that if you are a seven foot Aeg maiden you are nobody’s victim, although cunning and knowledge can be just as effective as brute force. The world is also full of half-men and dire beasts.

  Individuals can be as complicated as your imagination allows, but each culture has a Primary Drive, one of the eight main attributes that govern the way different people think and act, not only in the Maiden Saga, but through the Cluster.

  Power (Aeg) – you exalt in your raw, magnificent strength.

  Allure (Hai) – even the gods are in awe of your beauty.

  Pride – (Mund) – you innate nobility sets you apart.

  Craft (Ythan) – your skill and dexterity raise you above the common dross.

  Greed (Makean) – the satisfaction of your desire is the only worthwhile goal.

  Guile (Oretean) – as you persuade others, so you control them.

  Wisdom (Aprinian) – knowledge separates men from beasts and you from lesser men.

  Wealth (Vendjomois) – if you have enough money, everything is for sale.

  Each culture is developed across the four books of the Maiden Saga but the brief descriptions and key words below should be used when considering the character and likely reactions of each people. In keeping with the nature of the books, the stress is on eroticism.

  Aeg

  “You intend to fight? Good.”

  The Aeg are huge, often over seven feet tall, pale skinned and red haired. They are ferocious fighters and enthusiastic raiders, but prefer to avoid combat with an obviously unworthy opponent. Most are pra
ctical and down to earth, but all are superstitious and some are fey. Save for a very few Mund, only the Aeg are sufficiently in touch with nature to produce witches and warlocks, who can distil potions, talk to the dead and in rare cases summon demons. Everybody else regards the Aeg as barbarians, but there their few sea ports are relatively cosmopolitan and have adopted many of the customs of Mund.

  Primary Drive - Power

  Social – primitive, hunting and gathering, some agriculture. Chieftainship using Mund titles.

  Slavery – incomprehensible.

  Technology – iron.

  Armament – heavy axe, hunting bow, mace. Crude armour.

  Clothing – fur, leather, simple cloth. Practical garments.

  Religion – ancestor worship.

  Erotic Congress – the Aeg mate more or less as they please. Although a naturally beautiful people, strength and size are considered the prime physical attributes, so that anybody approached, male or female, may put up a fight in order to show pride, warm up a little or make sure their prospective partner is worthy. In the sea ports and especially among important families Mundic customs have been adopted with enthusiasm but incomplete understanding as they find it hard to equate sex with shame. Prostitution is unknown, but potions made from the musk of nymphs or goblins can be purchased by those who need assistance in gaining the object of their desire.