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Chaositech *OP
Chaos seethes with the primal forces of the universe. The strong can harness its power within strange devices unlike anything the world has ever seen: chaositech. This unique sourcebook from 3rd Edition codesigner Monte Cook introduces chaos-powered items that resemble both technology and magic, but are truly neither. Within these pages, discover the secrets of devices like the cohesion blaster, the darkness imbiber, and fleshworkers. Chaositech also contains rules for chaos magic, including dozens of new spells, original skills, feats, and prestige classes. Topping it all off is a rundown of the major chaos cults, a collection of mutation rules, plus details on the chaosomaton, fused aberration, and other all-new chaotic monsters -- including the Galchutt, the very Lords of Chaos themselves. Much of the content of Chaositech comes directly from Monte's long-running home campaign. It's proven material ready to drop into any game. The rules have been designed to suit players of both v.3.0 and 3.5 of the d20 System. Now you too can harness the wild power of chaos with this d20 sourcebook!
- GenresGamingRole Playing Games
Paperback
First published March 1, 2004
About the author
Monte Cook
211 books124 followers
The game designer
Monte Cook started working professionally in the game industry in 1988. In the employ of Iron Crown Enterprises, he worked with the Rolemaster and Champions games as an editor, developer, and designer. In 1994, Monte came to TSR, Inc., as a game designer and wrote for the Planescape and core D&D lines. When that company was purchased by Wizards of the Coast, he moved to the Seattle area and eventually became a senior game designer. At Wizards, he wrote the 3rd Edition Dungeon Master's Guide and served as codesigner of the new edition of the Dungeons & Dragons game. In 2001, he left Wizards to start his own design studio, Malhavoc Press, with his wife Sue. Although in his career he has worked on over 100 game titles, some of his other credits include Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, The Book of Eldritch Might series, the d20 Call of Cthulhu Roleplaying Game, The Book of Vile Darkness, Monte Cook’s Arcana Evolved, Ptolus, Monte Cook's World of Darkness, and Dungeonaday.com. He was a longtime author of the Dungeoncraft column in Dungeon Magazine. In recent years, Monte has been recognized many times by game fans in the ENnies Awards, the Pen & Paper fan awards, the Nigel D. Findley Memorial Award, the Origins Awards, and more.
The author
A graduate of the 1999 Clarion West writer's workshop, Monte has published two novels, The Glass Prison and Of Aged Angels. Also, he has published the short stories "Born in Secrets" (in the magazine Amazing Stories), "The Rose Window" (in the anthology Realms of Mystery), and "A Narrowed Gaze" (in the anthology Realms of the Arcane). His stories have appeared in the Malhavoc Press anthologies Children of the Rune and The Dragons' Return, and his comic book writing can be found in the Ptolus: City by the Spire series from DBPro/Marvel. His fantasy fiction series, "Saga of the Blade," appeared in Game Trade Magazine from 2005–2006.
The geek
In his spare time, Monte runs games, plays with his dog, watches DVDs, builds vast dioramas out of LEGO building bricks, paints miniatures, and reads a lot of comics.
Monte Cook started working professionally in the game industry in 1988. In the employ of Iron Crown Enterprises, he worked with the Rolemaster and Champions games as an editor, developer, and designer. In 1994, Monte came to TSR, Inc., as a game designer and wrote for the Planescape and core D&D lines. When that company was purchased by Wizards of the Coast, he moved to the Seattle area and eventually became a senior game designer. At Wizards, he wrote the 3rd Edition Dungeon Master's Guide and served as codesigner of the new edition of the Dungeons & Dragons game. In 2001, he left Wizards to start his own design studio, Malhavoc Press, with his wife Sue. Although in his career he has worked on over 100 game titles, some of his other credits include Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, The Book of Eldritch Might series, the d20 Call of Cthulhu Roleplaying Game, The Book of Vile Darkness, Monte Cook’s Arcana Evolved, Ptolus, Monte Cook's World of Darkness, and Dungeonaday.com. He was a longtime author of the Dungeoncraft column in Dungeon Magazine. In recent years, Monte has been recognized many times by game fans in the ENnies Awards, the Pen & Paper fan awards, the Nigel D. Findley Memorial Award, the Origins Awards, and more.
The author
A graduate of the 1999 Clarion West writer's workshop, Monte has published two novels, The Glass Prison and Of Aged Angels. Also, he has published the short stories "Born in Secrets" (in the magazine Amazing Stories), "The Rose Window" (in the anthology Realms of Mystery), and "A Narrowed Gaze" (in the anthology Realms of the Arcane). His stories have appeared in the Malhavoc Press anthologies Children of the Rune and The Dragons' Return, and his comic book writing can be found in the Ptolus: City by the Spire series from DBPro/Marvel. His fantasy fiction series, "Saga of the Blade," appeared in Game Trade Magazine from 2005–2006.
The geek
In his spare time, Monte runs games, plays with his dog, watches DVDs, builds vast dioramas out of LEGO building bricks, paints miniatures, and reads a lot of comics.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 29, 2016
I'm a big fan of technology in my fantasy. It has a long gaming tradition going back to Expedition To The Barrier Peaks and a much further tradition in pure fiction back to the weird fiction of the early 20th century. Despite that long pedigree, there's often a resistance to too much genre mixing in gaming--and fair enough, there's no accounting for taste--and Chaositech is billed as a way to add some technological elements to Dungeons and Dragons while still keeping it fantastic, so I figured I would check it out. And it mostly works.
I got a very strong Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay vibe from the content here. The conceit is that there's a particular force in the world called "chaositech," which is ultimately derived from lords of Chaos called the Galchutt. The Galchutt are obviously meant to stand in for the Lovecraftian Great Old Ones, since the example names include Abhoth, Nyogtha, and "Sothoth," but there's no real connection other than the names and the fact that they're antagonistic to the entire universe. The Galchutt stand for Moorcockian-style chaos, where it's a force that wants to destroy reality with no real greater reason for the crusade, and are served but cultists who are obvious analogues of Warhammer's cults of the Ruinous Powers--the Ebon Hand who worship mutation (Tzeentch), the Plagueborn (Nurgle), Deathmantle (Khorne), and so on. This framing story is also used to provide downsides for using chaositech. The various devices and implants are inherently infused with the power of chaos, and using them too long can cause mutation, in addition to the chance that they dissolve into raw chaos or break down at the worse possible time.
So, the actual chaositech itself? It's basically sci-fi tech and cyberware. The "non-intrinsic" chaositech has ray guns ("emitters"), chainswords, bombs, powered armor, blade-covered drones, and even a centipede-shaped giant mecha with laser guns on it. The intrinsic chaositech is all your favorite implants from the Street Samurai Catalog but with a veneer of fantasy. There's bone lacing and muscle replacement, datajacks ("headclamps") that are used to control other chaositech devices or interface with the aforementioned power armor, implanted guns, skillsofts that teach characters skills they don't know, and the ability to replace parts of their body with arms of metal or non-humanoid characteristics like snake bodies, spider legs, or a hoverchair. There's also a category of biological replacements that's pretty similar to the lifeshaped artifacts in Windriders of the Jagged Cliffs, including gill implants, claws, webbed hands and feet, glowing flesh, and so on. If it exists in your favorite cyberpunk dystopia, you can find the equivalent here.
But chaositech is fantasy, so there's a few items in here that would have no place in a more grounded setting. There's a whole section of "new flesh grafts" like attaching chuul flesh to gain extra armor or doppelganger flesh to gain the ability to disguise oneself. And there's Warhammer-style mutation, where using too much chaositech or being exposed to chaotic energy can give you extra limbs, let you set people on fire with your mind, or give you various other bonuses.
So that's the basic description, but how is the balance? That's much harder for me to say. A lot of it comes down to how chaositech is available and how detrimental it turns out to be. The book offers various options, from chaositech being a commonly-available source of power that's produced by legitimate artisans to only being available from proscribed cults to only being found in ancient ruins or directly granted by the powers of chaos, and how common it is will obviously affect its relative power--a raygun is much better when the fighter is the only person in the kingdom who has one.
The other reason it's hard to balance is that, befitting its nature as chaositech, a lot of the downsides are random. When used, chaositech has a chance of "chaotic failure" if a 1 is rolled, it can break down or explode in a spectacular fashion, and in addition, anyone who uses chaositech has to make Fortitude saves to avoid mutating, and then roll on a table of available mutations of varying utility. I'd much rather have +2 Strength always forever than the ability to detect chaositech devices, for example. And in addition, mutations cost XP when they are acquired, which can either be a huge bargain or a massive cost depending on exactly which mutation it is.
I suppose that's an obvious downside when trying to incorporate a large amount of randomness into a system that prizes itself on its balance. Even if that attempt at balancing turned out to be laughably inadequate in practice, rolling on tables and random chances of explosion and mutation are never going to match the wealth by level charts exactly, and while I don't care because I think fantasy adventurers using rayguns to fight orcs who have chainswords is amazing, not to mention something that should be on a heavy metal album cover, it's something the GM will have to take into account. I mean, it is called chaositech, but still.
I think this book is great, for the reasons I stated in the first paragraph and for much the same reasons that I loved Windriders of the Jagged Cliffs. The only reason I'm giving it four stars instead of five is that I would have preferred something that didn't draw quite so directly from cyberpunk and went off a bit in a more chaotic direction. More covering oneself in creepy monster parts or ghost-powered weapons, for example.
The internet tells me that this is drawn from Ptolus: City by the Spire, which I've heard a lot of praise for elsewhere on the internet. Maybe I need to check that out!
I got a very strong Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay vibe from the content here. The conceit is that there's a particular force in the world called "chaositech," which is ultimately derived from lords of Chaos called the Galchutt. The Galchutt are obviously meant to stand in for the Lovecraftian Great Old Ones, since the example names include Abhoth, Nyogtha, and "Sothoth," but there's no real connection other than the names and the fact that they're antagonistic to the entire universe. The Galchutt stand for Moorcockian-style chaos, where it's a force that wants to destroy reality with no real greater reason for the crusade, and are served but cultists who are obvious analogues of Warhammer's cults of the Ruinous Powers--the Ebon Hand who worship mutation (Tzeentch), the Plagueborn (Nurgle), Deathmantle (Khorne), and so on. This framing story is also used to provide downsides for using chaositech. The various devices and implants are inherently infused with the power of chaos, and using them too long can cause mutation, in addition to the chance that they dissolve into raw chaos or break down at the worse possible time.
So, the actual chaositech itself? It's basically sci-fi tech and cyberware. The "non-intrinsic" chaositech has ray guns ("emitters"), chainswords, bombs, powered armor, blade-covered drones, and even a centipede-shaped giant mecha with laser guns on it. The intrinsic chaositech is all your favorite implants from the Street Samurai Catalog but with a veneer of fantasy. There's bone lacing and muscle replacement, datajacks ("headclamps") that are used to control other chaositech devices or interface with the aforementioned power armor, implanted guns, skillsofts that teach characters skills they don't know, and the ability to replace parts of their body with arms of metal or non-humanoid characteristics like snake bodies, spider legs, or a hoverchair. There's also a category of biological replacements that's pretty similar to the lifeshaped artifacts in Windriders of the Jagged Cliffs, including gill implants, claws, webbed hands and feet, glowing flesh, and so on. If it exists in your favorite cyberpunk dystopia, you can find the equivalent here.
But chaositech is fantasy, so there's a few items in here that would have no place in a more grounded setting. There's a whole section of "new flesh grafts" like attaching chuul flesh to gain extra armor or doppelganger flesh to gain the ability to disguise oneself. And there's Warhammer-style mutation, where using too much chaositech or being exposed to chaotic energy can give you extra limbs, let you set people on fire with your mind, or give you various other bonuses.
So that's the basic description, but how is the balance? That's much harder for me to say. A lot of it comes down to how chaositech is available and how detrimental it turns out to be. The book offers various options, from chaositech being a commonly-available source of power that's produced by legitimate artisans to only being available from proscribed cults to only being found in ancient ruins or directly granted by the powers of chaos, and how common it is will obviously affect its relative power--a raygun is much better when the fighter is the only person in the kingdom who has one.
The other reason it's hard to balance is that, befitting its nature as chaositech, a lot of the downsides are random. When used, chaositech has a chance of "chaotic failure" if a 1 is rolled, it can break down or explode in a spectacular fashion, and in addition, anyone who uses chaositech has to make Fortitude saves to avoid mutating, and then roll on a table of available mutations of varying utility. I'd much rather have +2 Strength always forever than the ability to detect chaositech devices, for example. And in addition, mutations cost XP when they are acquired, which can either be a huge bargain or a massive cost depending on exactly which mutation it is.
I suppose that's an obvious downside when trying to incorporate a large amount of randomness into a system that prizes itself on its balance. Even if that attempt at balancing turned out to be laughably inadequate in practice, rolling on tables and random chances of explosion and mutation are never going to match the wealth by level charts exactly, and while I don't care because I think fantasy adventurers using rayguns to fight orcs who have chainswords is amazing, not to mention something that should be on a heavy metal album cover, it's something the GM will have to take into account. I mean, it is called chaositech, but still.
I think this book is great, for the reasons I stated in the first paragraph and for much the same reasons that I loved Windriders of the Jagged Cliffs. The only reason I'm giving it four stars instead of five is that I would have preferred something that didn't draw quite so directly from cyberpunk and went off a bit in a more chaotic direction. More covering oneself in creepy monster parts or ghost-powered weapons, for example.
The internet tells me that this is drawn from Ptolus: City by the Spire, which I've heard a lot of praise for elsewhere on the internet. Maybe I need to check that out!
December 7, 2024
Great for Chaos Cults but only good for short term player games since they go insane so quickly. A lot fo fun to read with many random tables.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews