I’ve decided to start releasing a few of the earlier S.E.A.C.A.T. Ultraviolet Heroes I’ve been writing up and illustrating over the last month or two over on the stratometaship. This is an obvious attempt to entice more folks to join the patreon and give me money. Of course. The other option is to wait until I wrap up the last three or four heroes and release the free art-free version over on DTRPG and itch.io.
Here are some screenshots. The text is further down. Keep a-scrollin’.
All the creatures, spells, and abilities are detailed a little bit more in the companion volume of S.E.A.C.A.T. Rules and Things. Yeah, I know. The book titles are super creative. Give it a break, I’m using brain juice for other things.
Infrequently Asked Questions
So S.E.A.C.A.T. is just some kind of basic d20?
Yes. Because that’s good enough. You roll a d20 for actions. You always want to roll high. And it’s easy to translate to other games, like, y’know, D&D.
Why didn’t you just use an existing system?
Because I didn’t have to.
Why didn’t you make a better system, though?
What do you even mean? There’s no objective measure of what’s a better or worse system. I like rolling d20s. Millions of other people do. I like the bone-crunching impact of rolling a crit with a 20 and the groan of rolling a 1. I’m a simple person. That’s enough for me.
But I want you to make something that will please me?
Tough. This is what I made.
Are you saying system doesn’t matter?
What does that even mean?
A system should make players behave nicely at the gaming table.
I don’t think that’s the point of roleplaying …
Can I adapt the Electric Wizard and S.E.A.C.A.T. to another system?
I mean, sure, knock yourself out. Have fun.
Do I always have to type out the periods?
No, that’d be silly. Just call it seacat. Lower-case. Keep it humble.
Why is it called the Electric Wizard?
Because I thought it was funny. Also because …
So is all this a joke?
Of course not. But it helps if you have a sense of humor. Humor makes you a better human person. I mean, roleplaying is about play. Lighten up. It’s not serious.
But I want to master all the rules and make sure I am playing correctly, so I can win.
I don’t want to play with you.
I really don’t like the jocular tone you use.
Fine. No skin off my nose. Go read High Gygaxian. There’s something for everyone.
Look, I’m just you. You’re talking with yourself.
Yes. Isn’t this fun?
No.
Oh. I’m sorry. Well, here’s the text of the class, skin, what have you.
The Text of the Electric Wizard
So you don’t have to squint at image files.
They have touched the metaphysical live wire of the soul, the Ka of creation. The electromagnificent radiation that underpins motion and change and life itself. Yes, it burns, it scours flesh, it turns mere human desires to ash, but it also creates. Quite certainly. This. This is the divine spark.
Starting attributes
Level: 3, Invested XP: 1500
Life: 20
Aptitude: +2
Hero Dice: 3d6
Magic Cost: 2
Roll Skills
Start with skill 6 and roll d6 twice more for other skills [6 and d6 x 2].
- Roll on another hero’s table.
- Apparatchik
- Energy Warrior
- Engineer Electrical
- Professor
- Acolyte of Mother Electricity
Roll Abilities
Roll d6 thrice for abilities [d6 x 3].
- Roll on another hero’s table.
- Electromagic Hacker
- Lightning Rider
- Position of Power
- Rubberskin
- Sparklefingers
Roll Stats
An Electric Wizard uses the speed of their formidable Thought to cast spells. Stats cannot be negative, so all negative results become 0.
- Strength: 1d6-3
- Endurance: 1d6-3
- Agility: 1d4-1
- Charisma: 1d6-2
- Aura: 1d6-3
- Thought: 1d4+1
Optional Point Buy: Instead of rolling, assign 3 points to Thought and 4 points to the other five Stats.
Electric Wizard Gear
Start with 300 cash, one unit of item 6 and roll d6 twice more for other gear [6 and d6 x 2].
- Roll on another hero’s table.
- Yellow and black synthetic sinew neural whip.#str #agi #reach #energy
Damage: 1d8 electric
Range: melee, Size: 1 stone
Special: stuns for 1d4 rounds on a critical. - Rubberized chitin cuirass, with a defunct corporate kingdom’s proprietary charging ports.
#medium #cool
Armor +4, Size: 2 stone - Ominous black, pedal-powered cargo tricycle. Rugged enough to handle most terrains.
#pedal #machine
Capacity: 3 sacks
Def: 7, Life: 15 - Scuffed red steel mechanic’s chest full of picks, wrenches, nuts, screwdrivers, ratchets, extractors, pliers, hammers, snips, crimpers, files, scrapers, keys, Allen wrenches, bolts, wire, glue, duct tape and suggestive literature.
#toolkit
Size: 1 sack - Two acrylic rods engraved with the runes of the Oh Mega. Used to cast a random spell from Anastasiya’s Canon.
#spellburden
Size: 1 stone
Electric Sidekicks
Per abilities.
- Brains (L2, investigator)
Def: 10, Life: 10, Sum: +5 - Flunky (L1, secretary)
Def: 9, Life: 5, Sum: +3 - Muscle (L2, enforcer)
Def: 15, Life: 15, Sum: +4 - Wirefolk (L2, blank slate)
Def: 13, Life: 13, Sum: +5
Electric Creatures
Per spells of Anastasiya’s Canon.
- Electric Abomination (L1–L5, volt horror)
- Wire Ghoul (L2, electric zombie)
Electric Wizard Advancement
Every time the hero rests in a safe location the player can invest 500 xp and roll d20 once on this table [d20]. Each result can only be applied once. All effects are permanent. When a duplicate is rolled, the player chooses another result.
- No progress. Worse, hero begins to despise a whole field of study that disagrees with their philosophical sensibilities.
- Hero learns a new spell, but their sanity wavers and they lose 3 Life.
- Increase maximum number of Hero Dice by 1.
- Take rest in fellowship of friends and gain 2 Life.
- Roll on ability table.
- Gain 6 Life.
- Roll on another hero’s advancement table.
- Roll on skill table.
- Increase Level by 1. Word gets around of hero’s strange experiments and wird powers.
Every several weeks (roll d6): (1) an undercover wirefolk member of a heretical cult of Mother Electricity comes to silence their evil mouth, (2–3) guardians of the law haul them in for questioning about an unusual case, (4–6) an adventurer visits with a strange electrical artifact. - Increase maximum number of Hero Dice by 1.
- Increase Aptitude by 1.
- Hero savors connection with cosmos and gains 4 Life.
- Reduce a Stat by 1 point, increase another Stat by the same amount.
- Hero is welcomed in the strange houses of seekers after wisdom, and is are heartened. Gain 5 Life.
- Roll on ability table.
- Roll on skill table.
- Increase maximum number of Hero Dice by 1.
- Increase level by 1. Polite and academic society accepts hero as someone committed to Progress and Prosperity in the community. Hero gains claim to (roll d6): (1) disused laboratory facility near the old canal, (2) handsome town house, (3) traveling repair golem, (4) seat on the community council, (5) a position at the local college of useful trades, or (6) membership in the salon of life and death.
- Increase a Stat by 1.
- Hero discovers a mentor willing to induct them into the true secrets of wizardry. They set three tasks and a ritual.
Tasks of Wizardry (d6)
- Spend a week dressed in a rubber outfit in the mentor’s pig sty.
- Half the hero’s wealth for bright blue tiles for the mentor’s roof.
- Spend a week harvesting azure stormbird eggs on Mount Estrelovoy.
- Pay a tenth of hero’s wealth replacing their teeth with metal dentures.
- Live for a month wearing the same moth-eaten kestrel costume.
- For two weeks shock themselves daily with electric eels (each shock deals 1d3 damage).
The final ritual itself is too shocking to describe in writing and is up to the player.
After induction, hero gains True Wizard ability. This permanently reduces hero’s Life by 2 per level (current and future), but, hero’s magic cost is reduced by one. Additionally, the mentor teaches a new spell.
or
They Are All Fools!
The so-called mentor is a madman and a charlatan! Hero abandons this stupid pursuit of magical dreams and find another outlet for their ambitions. Choose (or roll) any new skill or ability (except any with a #pinnacle tag).
Epic Electric Wizard Status
After all 20 results are marked off, the player can invest a final 1,000 xp to advance to level 6.
Gain Status: Epic
Hero is now officially 6th level. People refer to them quite openly as “Master Electric City” and other such polite phrases. The good folk of the community bow down to them. When they die, they will get a memorial plaque and a park named after them.
Hero also gains claim to a position as (roll d6): (1) chief engineer of a heroic industrial concern, (2) abbot of a small techno-cult, (3) mayor of a electromagical generator town, (4) head of post-mortem labor management, (5) executive manager of a lucrative trading line, (6) owner of a dilapidated electromagnificent hover-train.
Dear humans. Thank you for reading this far. Please take care during this coronavirus pandemic. Please be kind. Please stay safe.
Tabletop roleplaying games involve hanging out face-to-face with other humans, and in many places that’s now not such a good idea. There are options online. From Roll20 to Discord and more. Use them. They help fight the isolation.
Peace and health, everyone.