Owen K.C. Stephens's Blog, page 79

Developing to Spec: Part 14b – Devils in the Details

This is the second section of Part Fourteen of a series of articles looking at creating a set of Starfinder feats under specific constraints.  You can read along as we convert every feat in the PF core rulebook to Starfinder (and  share my thoughts on that process, as a developer and writer)— or you can just look at the finished feats (as they are written, and I have time over the holidays to update the list) here.

So, having tackled Scorpion Style, now we can go back and grab Gorgon’s Fist. And, much like Scorpion Style, it doesn’t really need any major revisions. Because Starfinder generally has fewer feat prerequisites than PF, it makes sense to cut the Strength requirement and Power Attack from that list, and we want to use key ability rules, but otherwise the feat works as-is. Those tiny details matter, though, as they help make these feats feel and work like Starfinder feats, which can be an important part of the product being popular with fans and successful.

GORGON’S FIST (Combat)

With one well-placed blow, you leave your target reeling.

Prerequisites: Improved Unarmed Strike, Scorpion Style, base attack bonus +6.

Benefit: As a standard action, make a single unarmed melee attack against a foe whose speed is reduced (such as from Scorpion Style). If the attack hits, you deal damage normally and the target is staggered until the end of your next turn unless it makes a Fortitude saving throw (DC 10 + 1/2 your character level + your key ability modifier). This feat has no effect on targets that are staggered.

Okay, so Greater Bull Rush is next. Greater Bull Rusk works perfectly as written… IF a bull rush doesn’t normally provoke attacks of opportunity in Starfinder. This is a matter of some debate among fans, based on whether there is a difference between a target moving out of your threatened area, and a target being moved out of your threatened area. And, for our purposes, it doesn’t matter which interpretation is right, because a chunk of the fanbase will disagree with that ruling regardless. So if we make a feat that depends on the rules being read one way or the other, even if we are right we lose part of our potential customer base.

We COULD just let you make a bull rush in place of a melee attack, since that’s a difference between many PF and Starfinder combat maneuvers, but we are going to have to do “improved” versions of all the combat maneuvers already, and that seems like something we could keep as an easy way to adapt those without interfering with Starfinder’s combat math.

But one tiny detail we discover when comparing PF bull rush and Starfinder bull rush is that in Starfinder, you don’t get to move with your target. And that can certainly become the basis for a new feat!

GREATER BULL RUSH (Combat)

Your bull rush attacks can carry you across a battlefield.

Prerequisites: Improved Combat Maneuver (bull rush), base

attack bonus +6.

Benefit: When you make a successful bull rush maneuver, if you are able to move and have an appropriate movement speed, you can move with the target of your bull rush. Your total movement cannot exceed your speed. You do not have to travel the entire distance your target does, but you cannot go anywhere but toward your target along the path of the bull rush.

And that is going to define how we handle all the Greater and Improved combat maneuver feats.

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Developing to Spec: Part 14a – Stay Up to Date

This is the first section of Part Fourteen of a series of articles looking at creating a set of Starfinder feats under specific constraints.  You can read along as we convert every feat in the PF core rulebook to Starfinder (and  share my thoughts on that process, as a developer and writer)— or you can just look at the finished feats (as they are written, and I have time over the holidays to update the list) here.

One of the difficult parts of writing for a constantly-evolving game system is that you need to keep current. Every new book released that is considered “official” (such as those published by the game’s original publisher, rather than depending on some 3pp license) can bring new rules, clarifications, options, and styles of play that change how your project should be handled. This can even happen in the middle of a project, which may require you to go back and look at work you have done but not yet turned over.

For example, while there is no “rage” mechanic in the Starfinder Core Rulebook for our Extra Rage PF feat to be converted to work with, the Starfinder Character Operations Manual adds a wrathful warrior fighting style, which is clearly inspired by barbarians. Since Extra Rage was only usable by a small fraction of total characters in PF, it seems reasonable to make our Starfinder version similarly focused only on fighting classes with anger powers.

EXTRA RAGE (Combat)

You are filled with a fast reservoir of fury you can call upon in combat.

Prerequisites: Wrathful warrior fighting style.

Benefits: Once per day as part of any other action you can activate your frenzied fighting ability. You may do this even if you have already used the ability and have not yet rested for 10 minutes to regain Stamina Points since doing so.

This is in many ways simpler than the PF version, and it includes an action economy buff when using this once/day version, but those are intentional choices to try to keep it appealing to players who are, after all, playing soldiers with tons of other options (especially if they have COM options to play with).

That brings us to Gorgon’s Fist, but since it has Scorpion Style as a prerequisite, it makes more sense to do that PF feat first.

Weirdly, Scorpion Style… works FINE in Starfinder. It doesn’t reference rules that don’t exist, it doesn’t impact the game’s combat math, and it doesn’t interfere with any game setting themes or logic. Given how easy it is to make a Starfinder version, I spend a fair bit of time checking things other than feats (such as class features and archetypes) to see if it had been co-opted for those, and the only thing I found I didn’t know about was hampering inhibitor for the biohacker (again, in COM), so we want this to operate a bit differently.

But otherwise my one and only concern is that it doesn’t use key ability score language and seems underwhelming in a game that has jump jets available by 3rd level. Those, however, are easily fixed.

SCORPION STYLE (Combat)

You can perform an unarmed strike that greatly hampers your target’s movement.

Prerequisites: Improved Unarmed Strike.

Benefit: To use this feat, you must make a single unarmed attack as a standard action. If this unarmed attack hits, you deal damage normally, and the target’s burrow, climb, fly, land, and swim speed (if any) are reduced to 5 feet for a number of rounds equal to your key ability modifier unless it makes a Fortitude saving throw (DC 10 + 1/2 your character level + your key ability modifier). Multiple uses of this ability can reduce a target’s speed multiple times, to a minimum of 0.

With that done we can hop back to Gorgon Style… tomorrow.

#VeskGods: Bhel

Bhel, Flame Tongue
Alignment: N


Portfolio: Betrayal, Fire, Knowledge, Magic


Worshipers: Vesk, firefighters, spellcasters, historians.


Favored Weapon: Flaming Taclash


Connections: Akashic, Flamewalker, Overlord

Bhel is a snake-headed vesk with flaming eyes and a long, flaming tongue. She was originally the deity of a race of serpentfolk that opposed the vesk, but betrayed the serpentfolk deities to become a vesk goddess when it became clear the vesk would crush the serpentfolk. She is considered a keeper of secrets, and while Ollothatyra is the writer of the scroll of every mortal’s life, Bhel burns the end of those scrolls to bring about every mortal’s death.



Worshipers of Bhel consider themselves to be students, rather than ethical faithful of her religion, and seek to learn hidden knowledge that she holds control over by following her dictates as rules of her metaphyscial school. While this is considered a reasonable deal in vesk society–obeying a powerful lady because she can reward you–worshipers of Bhel are often viewed with suspicion, given that betrayal is part of her portfolio.


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Writing Basics: Revisions

So, you have a finished draft of a game project. You’ve checked that it meets your wordcount requirements (neither too much nor too little off the mark – I try to hit within 5% of the exact wordcount total, and I consider being off by 10%–whether over or under—to be a failure to hit wordcount), the formatting is what your publisher has asked for (so if you used ANY table function of your program, you have replaced it with what the publisher’s style guide calls for), and you’ve hit all the required topics.

Now what? Now, you get ready for revision.

Revisions can have a number of steps for game writing, depending on the project, time, and circumstance, but here are some common types. A project may have all of these, just a few, or none… though try to avoid not even having time for a reread.

The Re-Read

The best way to get a good revision on your own is to put your writing down for a couple of weeks, work on other projects and then, when it’s no longer fresh in your mind, reread it from the beginning. You are likely to catch a few places where the wording got muddled, or you didn’t type exactly what you were thinking. But you may also find some more systemic problems, such as discussing concepts in length before introducing them in brief, or contradicting yourself because ideas evolved as you wrote them (or you wrote two parts of the same section days apart, and misremembered what you said the first time).

This is also a good time to play developer with your own material. Do you see a simpler way to express the same idea? Is a rule system too complex for the value it gives the game? Is an option obviously overpowered, or under-powered, and you can see a way to fix it? Does something you thought was awesome now seem dull? This is a good chance to fix all those issues.

And if you aren’t sure about something? Just flag it for your developer/editor/producer. Leave a comment explaining your thought process and concern, and that you weren’t sure one way or another. Having comments and thoughts from the author can be a huge help when a developer is first tackling a project, and it shows you’re cognizant of potential issues in your work, but trust the people you are working with. While you are at it, put notes in about anything else that might be useful for your developer. A list of resources that need to be mentioned in a OGL section 15. Which bits of continuity are canon (and where you found them), and which are new elements you made up yourself. Anything that’s an Easter Egg (or even clearly inspired by existing IP—homage CAN be fine, but let your publisher know what you are riffing off of, so they can make that decision for themselves).

Playtest

If at all possible get at least SOME playtest in of any gameable elements. An adventure can be easy to do a quick playtest of—grab some friends (with your publisher’s permission to have people you are sharing the unpublished material with, if under NDA or similar restriction) and run through it once. Single stand-alone elements such as spells or feats can be trickier, but having people other than you use them in character builds can show if they are unexpected synergies, or are valued much more or less highly than similar options. Larger elements, such as entire character classes, can take months to properly playtest, but at minimum it can be useful to run a Rules Rumble playtest – have one set of players make characters without access to the new rules, and a second group make characters required to use the new rules, and pit them against each other.

If you find any glaring issues, fix them. If you find potential issues, leave comments for your developer/editor/producer.

Beta Readers

It can be useful to have people you trust take a look at your work to highlight any potential problems they see. Again, if you are under NDA or similar constraint, get your publisher’s permission for this. Sometimes projects with multiple freelancers working on it provide a way for those freelancers to go over each other’s work as it is created, which can be a great resource (but be sure you give back – if someone gives you useful feedback in that kind of environment, read through their stuff too). You don’t have to take a Beta Reader’s opinion over your own of course, but do consider their point of view. If a Beta Reader says something is unclear, for example, then no matter how obvious it is to you, you know it’s unclear to at least SOME other people.

Publisher Feedback

Publisher feedback is extremely important on any project they have the time and energy to give it to you, which is my experience isn’t that often. Ultimately if you don’t work with your publisher on their feedback, you may not get published. But the degree of how important this is varies from ‘crucial” to only “very important.”

Most freelance work written for the tabletop game industry is done Work for Hire, which means once you are paid you have no further rights to the work. You aren’t even considered the creator, for copyright purposes. When I am working on that kind of project, if the publisher gives me feedback, I consider it part of my job to incorporate that feedback, even if I disagree with it.

I ALSO consider it part of my job to point out why I think bad feedback is bad, but in the end if this is something for which I am providing content using someone else’s sandbox, and I have been hired to fill a certain amount of it with the kind of sand they want, I consider my job to be to give the publisher what they want. I often call this kind of work “content provider” rather than “author,” to remind myself of what my end goal is.

Things are slightly different if a publisher is partnering with you to publish something you retain the copyright to. It’s still crucial to consider the publisher’s feedback—one presumes you picked this publisher to be the venue for your work for a reason, but if it’s ultimately your project any feedback should ultimately be your call. (Though, you know, check your contract. Preferably before signing it.)

In Summation

The point of a First Draft is to get it done. The point of a Revision is to get it right. This can vary from tweaking a few things to realizing you have to tear out the heart of what you have written and start over (which can feel a lot like tearing out your own heart). In tabletop RPG design you often don’t have time for more than one revisions (though a developer may be coming along behind you to make another, out of your sight), so try to get as much feedback as you can, then apply what you have learned, make notes…

And move on to the next project. Never finishing revisions is a form of never finishing, and it’s often said “Game designs are never finished, they just escape their designers.”

Don’t be afraid to change things in revision, but also don’t be afraid to leave them alone if you think they’re good.

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#VeskGods: Grumzati

Grumzati, the War Blood.

Alignment: CG

Portfolio: Freedom, Rage, Strength

Worshipers: Vesk, rebels, liberators, sailors (and thus starfarers), special forces, Pahtra, Ysoki.

Favored Weapon: Fist

Connections: Flamewalker, Geneturge, Star Shaman

Depicted as a dark blue vesk with prehensile, double-long tail, Grumzati lives in a sea of burning blood found where the Abyss overlaps with the Plane of Water.

While the Vesk god of War is the deity of battle, glory in combat, and victory, Grumzati is the god of conflict as a means to an end. Grumzati was a mortal vesk that fought to destroy a cult of slaver demons, and changed his form to adapt to water environment as a way to defeat the most powerful of those demons. As a result he is also seen as a god of change, evolution, and specialized tactics.

Worshipers of Grumzati believe as strict rule systems will, in time, become imbalanced and turn into tyrannies. They exist to prevent those tyrannies from damaging the rights of individual vesk. While the Vesk imperium might normally try to suppress the worship pf such a deity, as a conflict god Grumzati is too well-respected by other militant vesk gods for any direct action to ever be taken against his followers.

Developing to Spec: Part 13d – Know When to Break the Design Rules

One of the general principles of good game development is not to add things to a game’s rules that was explicitly avoided by the core rulebook. For example, even though Weapon Focus gives a +1 or +2 bonus to attacks with one class of weapons in Starfinder, the book specifically didn’t give a better, stacking version of that to soldiers for an even bigger bonus. So, when we adapted Greater Weapon Focus, we avoided adding what the core rulebook was specifically designed to not have.

This is different, in very important ways, than just not adding anything new.

But it’s also a general principle, not a hard-and-fast law. Sometimes, you know better than the people who created the core rulebook. Sometimes real-world play experience shows people want unbalanced options because they’re fun. And sometimes, you are creating something everyone knows is unofficial, so you are in an environment with different needs and responsibilities.

Starfinder clearly doesn’t want to allow people to transfer Resolve Points, or duck the drawbacks of their class features. But maybe we DO want to allow those things, at least in the context of this product, which is most likely to appeal to players who want things the PF core rulebook allows for, and Starfinder doesn’t.

And that leads to today’s feat conversions.

Like Extra Lay On Hands from yesterday, Extra Mercy functions in PF by giving extra uses of an ability that doesn’t exist in Starfinder. So how can we make this feat’s name, which suggests you are already being merciful, feel like the user is *extra* merciful?

EXTRA MERCY

Your healing touch can restore the inner resolve of your patient, at a heavy cost to you.

Prerequisites: Healing touch class feature.

Benefit: When you use the healing touch class feature, you can also expend 1 Resolve Point to grant one target of your healing touch 1 Resolve Point. Under no circumstances can the target exceed its normally maximum number of Resolve Points.

Extra Performance gives us exactly the same problem—there’s nothing you can run out of called a “performance” in Starfinder. So, what CAN we add some benefit to that makes linguistic and thematic sense? Well, envoys have abilities that could be considered performance-related, and they have a kind of ability that takes away one of their normal benefits, the expertise die. There’s nothing in Starfinder that let’s you double-dip (getting both the expertise die and a talent benefit that normally requires you to forgo it), but as a limited, flexible resource you can gain with a feat, that should be balanced (if adding a bit more complexity than Starfinder normally engages in).

EXTRA PERFORMANCE

You can call upon a deep well of performative and diplomatic skill to pull off complex tasks requiring great expertise.

Prerequisites: Expertise talent class feature.

Benefit: Twice per day you can use an expertise talent that normally requires you to forgo adding the benefit of your expertise die to a skill check, and still add the expertise die as normal for that skill.

Both of these re-conceptualize the function of the original feats into a different, though thematically-related, benefit. They also do things Starfinder’s existing rule options don’t allow for, but in a controlled way that makes sense, and shouldn’t break any aspect of the game.

PATREON

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Developing to Spec: Part 13c – Feats that are SO EXTRA

This is the third section of Part Thirteen of a series of articles looking at creating a set of Starfinder feats under specific constraints.  You can read along as we convert every feat in the PF core rulebook to Starfinder (and  share my thoughts on that process, as a developer and writer)— or you can just look at the finished feats (as they are written, and I have time over the holidays to update the list) here.

In our ongoing alphabetical march we have run into another set of feats-of-a-set-type, though in this case they’re all still just general feats. These are the feats that grant “Extra” uses of various PF class features with limited charges per day. Since almost none of those powers even exist in Starfinder, somehow creating a set of feats with the same names as those designed to just boost uses/day is going to take some creativity. (These are another great examples of feat it would be worth checking if you producer REALLY wanted to create Starfinder versions of, but this project considers that question settled, so on we go).

For example, Extra Ki has all sorts of problems. First, there is are no ki points or ki powers in Starfinder. Second, those things that are similar to ki powers have been replaced by a universal Resolve Point mechanic, which already has Extra Resolve that gives you more Resolve Points, and cannot be taken more than once.

And, in that second fact we perhaps find a crack of design space. It’s likely not something the designers of Starfinder intended (aside—nope, it sure isn’t), but it should work well enough.

EXTRA KI

You have a focused pool of resolve to draw of when accessing your trained abilities.

Prerequisites: Extra Resolve, character level 5th.

Benefit: You gain a special pool of 2 bonus Resolve Points, These can only be used to fuel class features you possess that require Resolve Point expenditure.

That solution doesn’t work with Extra Lay on Hands, of course, because there’s no similar broad category of abilities we could reference. But there IS the mystic healing touch class feature, which is close descriptively, so:

EXTRA LAY ON HANDS

You can sooth with a touch more often than most mystics.

Prerequisites: Healing touch class feature.

Benefit: You gain three additional uses of healing touch per day. In a single ten minute period, you can heal multiple adjacent creatures (expending one use of the ability for each target), though you cannot use this to apply multiple uses to a single target.

PATREON

Like all my blog posts, this is brought to you by the wonderful patrons of my Patreon! Want more of this content? Want to suggest specific game systems, topics, of kinds of articles? All of that is only possible if people join my Patreon, help me have the free time to write these things, and let me know what you want to see!

Developing to Spec: Part 13b – Re-conceptualizing

This is the second section of Part Thirteen of a series of articles looking at creating a set of Starfinder feats under specific constraints.  You can read along as we convert every feat in the PF core rulebook to Starfinder (and  share my thoughts on that process, as a developer and writer)— or you can just look at the finished feats (as they are written, and I have time over the holidays to update the list) here.

As the developer for this project, it’s getting clearer and clearer that a lot of feats didn’t get translated from PF to Starfinder because they are connected to game mechanics that have been abandoned or radically changed. (I already knew this, as it happens, and I wrote the first draft of the Starfinder Core Rulebook feats chapter, and remember how many things just weren’t relevant. But for purposes of this series of articles, let’s assume we’re discovering this for the first time.) That means we need to lean on re-conceptualizing those feats to use new mechanics, and possibly to have them create entirely new effects which just match the name of the original feats (and, hopefully, will appeal to the same kind of player).

The same issue comes up with Eschew Materials, since Starfinder doesn’t require material components for spellcasting unless they have a cost. We found a way to use Still Spell and Silent Spell despite Starfinder spellcasting not requiring words or gestures by re-conceptualizing what those feats meant. We didn’t tackle Eschew Materials at the same time, because it’s not officially a metamagic feat, but can we do the same thing to come up with a solution here? And, since it’s NOT a metamagic feat, can we step away from spells entirely to give it a broader utility?

ESCHEW MATERIALS

You have learned to call forth the magic essence of various substances, passing their benefits homeopathically through your form, rather than needing to apply them in traditional ways.

Benefit: As a standard action, you can apply any serum or medicinal in your possession (that you could normally draw as a move action or less) to yourself or an adjacent creature with a touch. The serum or medicinal is expended normally, you just don’t have to have it in hand to use it.

That brings us to Extra Channel, which isn’t too bad – we have a class that has a healing channel, and two extra uses seems reasonable, though since Starfinder only has one “extra” feat (Extra Resolve), and it can’t be taken more than once, we should probably not allow this to be taken more than once either.

EXTRA CHANNEL

You can channel healing energy more easily than most healer mystics.

Prerequisites: Healing channel class feature.

Benefits: Twice per day you can use the healing channel ability without expending Resolve Points to do so.

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Developing to Spec: Part 13 – Keeping It Simple

This is the first section of Part Thirteen of a series of articles looking at creating a set of Starfinder feats under specific constraints.  You can read along as we convert every feat in the PF core rulebook to Starfinder (and  share my thoughts on that process, as a developer and writer)— or you can just look at the finished feats (as they are written, and I have time over the holidays to update the list) here.

The deeper we get into this project, the greater the temptation is going to become to create complex, weighty new rules to help us have enough design space to make a slew of new feats covering common conceptual tropes. But as much as possible, we need to keep things simple.

For example, while channeling feats are going to keep being something we have to adapt, Elemental Channel can be extra easy and simple, since we can just emulate the existing Starfinder feat Harm Undead.

ELEMENTAL CHANNEL

You can use your healing channel to harm elementals.

Prerequisites: Healing channel connection power, mystic level 1st.

Benefit: When you use your healing channel, you can expend a mystic spell slot of the highest level you can cast to also deal damage equal to the amount you heal to all elemental foes (including all creatures of the elemental type) in the area. The elementals can attempt a Will save for half damage, at your usual connection power DC.

Sometimes the problem is deeper, but that doesn’t mean the solution has to be complex. The reason Endurance doesn’t exist in Starfinder is that all of the benefits the PF version grant have been rolled into Toughness (which also does pretty much what the PF toughness feat does). That means if we want to have something that feels like Endurance, we need to come up with brand-new mechanics. There are lots of places we could go with this, but since I know that afflictions in Starfinder turn out to be pretty severe, that’s the first place I go looking for options. And, luckily, there’s a really easy way to adjust a character’s level of enduring such things.

ENDURANCE

Harsh afflictions do not bring you down quickly or easily.

Benefit: You treat the onset and frequency of afflictions that have them as being twice as long as normal.

Patreon

Heya folks–I am back to being a full-time freelancer. Which means, every word I write has to justify itself in time taken vs. benefit to my freelance career and/or money made.

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Just a couple of dollars a month from each of you will make a huge difference, and has already resulted in me upping my blogging rate to be five days a week!

 

Thoughts on Introductory Game Fiction vs game Tie-In Fiction

You can set the tone for an RPG, from an entire game system to a single adventure, with bits of short fiction. The purpose of this fiction isn’t really the same as fiction that exists only for its own sake. You need to introduce a world and show some of the ways it can be used, as much as entertain with prose.

That’s subtle different from game tie-in fiction. God tie-in fiction does work entirely on its own, and may even take liberties with what game rules could handle in order to present a story set in the same world as a game. It’s a balancing act, but the best tie-in fiction tends to be a good story first, and a faithful representation of a game later. (And this is fair – lots of games made as tie-in to fiction are imperfect representations of those fictional worlds. When you change the format, you accept some alteration in the details.)

For example, I’ve been experimenting with what fiction set in the Really Wild West would look like. I’ve done short introduction fiction for some of the RWW pieces, but am thinking I might take a different approach if I wanted to do my own tie-in fiction.

I haven’t had time to write a complete Really Wild West long-form story, but I have written the first scene of one.

THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE RUSTY

The air was dense with smoke and ash, burning Skaff’s throat as he sucked desperately through the bandanna held to his mouth. His eyes watered but he dared not shut them,  glaring deep into the smoke as he ran. The clouds of thick gray ash and cinders were painful, burning his cheeks and hands, but it was infinitely preferable to the oily black vapor that would surely be crawling through the town’s streets by now. Choking, even burning, was a less fearful fate than the horrors he had seen visited on those who had been exposed even briefly to the black gas.

A loud roar, part steam horn and part animal howl, bellowed through town. Even over the screaming of panicked citizens he could not see through the conflagration, the roar was clear and chilling. He felt the need to run from that sound as quickly as possible, but it seemed to come from all directions at once. As its echoes faded, a similar sound rang in the distance. He was unsure how far away the source of the more remote roar could be—a mile?—less?—but he knew it was not far enough. The distant roar seemed to come primarily from the east and so he turned west, the direction only discernible because the low setting sun made one section of smoke glow more than the rest.

A woman crashed into him, running in blind panic, and clawed at his coat. She was tall and thin, with the fine features and sharp ears of an elf, but her face showed none of the serenity Skaff associated with the European clade. Before he could react to her at all, though he knew not if he hoped to aid the woman or shove her away, the elven interloper cried out and dashed out of sight into the smoke. She left a wet sensation on Skaff’s shirt, which he briefly hoped was water, perhaps a result of the woman trying to protect herself from the flames. But the strong smell of iron, wafting up even through smoke and bandana, told him the truth. He was covered in another person’s blood, soaked through her clothing to thoroughly that one impact had splashed it on him. It was a sure sign black gas was nearby. That woman, though running, was already dead. She just had the worst parts of experiencing her end yet to come.

Skaff tried to angle his retreat to move both westward, and away from the direction he thought the unfortunate blood-cover woman had come from. He could no longer see clearly from his left eye, and the stinging in his right forced him to close it even as he desperately fought to keep looking for deadly vapors. Shapes in the ash were vague, and he could only guess at their clades. A human, one of the insectile chivvin, the jerky motions of an automaton. A figure that was a centaur, or a mounted rider, thundered past. Suddenly, in a flash of crimson light and wave of heat, the horselike figure burst into flames, turning to charcoal before it could even fall to the ground.

And then, the dull glow of dusk was blocked from above.

The shape concealing the sun was vast, looming far above him. Even through the smoke its basic form was obvious, three long legs stretching up from the ground supporting a huge disk which writhed with undulating tentacles. Screams echoed down from the top of the shape, and Skaff stopped dead in his tracks. Hot drops of red fell on his face, like hellish rain, and he could taste that they were blood. One of the massive tripod legs lifted and swung forward, smashing some unseen building of brick and glass in the process. A stone struck Skaff, driving him to the dusty street, and the sky further darkened as the leg fell toward him.

Skaff woke screaming.

All around him it was dark, and for a long panicked moment he didn’t know where he was. Instinctively he scrambled backwards, fighting some wet shape that enwrapped him, tangling him and holding him tightly. Then he was falling. He thought he was falling from a great height, but he dropped just a short distance onto a hard, cold floor.

It was the chill air, as he dragged it into his aching throat, that made him realize he wasn’t in the smoke anymore. He wasn’t in that town. The tripod hadn’t crushed him, by the narrowest margin.

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