TROIKA! Character Set #2 (Version 1)

More Troika!, since that's where my mind's at! Who knows, maybe I'll get to my own d66 table? Probably not. Trying some fancy stuff with specials and new spells. Let me know what you think of it!

1. Angel Amnesiac

You are like a human, but with wings. You have a golden band floating above your head. It’s cracked. You don’t remember anything but your name and what you can do, but not why you can, or why others can’t. Time to find out I guess.

Possessions:

• Cracked Aureole

• Flaming Sword (how do special weapons?)

• Billowing White Robes
• Strangely Melodious Robes

Advanced Skills:

4 - Sword Fighting

3 - Singing

1 - Language: Celestial
1 - Angelic Spell: Fear (Assume frightening presence with loads more wings and loads more eyes and smoke and lightning and holy choruses)
1 - Angelic Spell: Random

1 - Angelic Spell: Random

Special:

Angelic spells and memories are locked until a way is found to repair the aureole. A fun option might be to wait with rolling the random Angelic Spells until this is managed, discovering them together with the character.

Spell List: 1d3 (tens) + 1d6 (singles)

11. Babble
12. Banish Spirit
13. Befuddle (hearing heavenly chorusses in the mind)
14. Coal Resolve
15. Ember
16. Exorcism
21. Fear (so many wings and eyes etc.)
22. Fire Bolt
23. Flash
24. Invisibility
25. Light
26. Peace

31. Presence
32. Sleep
33. Teleport
34. Thunder
35. True Seeing
36. Undo 

2. Initiate in the Mystical Order of Janitors

You look like a normal janitor, but you hold the keys to secret knowledge granted to you by Janus.

Possessions:

• A Mop and Bucket OR A Toolbox

• Blue Coveralls.

• A keychain with 20 keys of different sizes and materials.

Advanced Skills:

2 - Secret Signs (Mystical Order of Janitors)

2 - Small Repairs

3 - Cleaning

1 - Janitorial Magic: Looking Through the Door (Looking into the now, the past, or the future, either here or elsewhere, as long as there is a door or window to look through.
1 - Janitorial Magic: Skeleton Key - The key used can open any lock, if the spell succeeds.

Choose One: 1 - Pole arm Fighting // 1 - Maul Fighting // 1 - Knife Fighting 

Spells:

11. Astral Reach,
12. Breach,
13. Find,
14. Grow,
15. Helping Hands, 

16. Ironhand, 

21. Levitate, 

22. Light, 

23. Lock, 

24. Open, 

25. Protection from Rain, 

26. Quench, 

31. See Through, 

32. Sentry, 

33. Shatter, 

34. True Seeing, 

35. Undo, 

36. Ward.

Special:

Mystical Janitors can use keys to enhance certain spells, if they can be somehow be used as a normal key should in the casting of the spell. 

Roll on each table for each key:

1. Iron: substitutes 1 stamina

2. Iron: substitutes 1 stamina

3. Iron: substitutes 1 stamina

4. Silver: adds +1 to spell skill level

5. Gold: substitute 1d6 stamina

6. Ivory: opens hidden knowledge

1. Small: +2 to spell level, but lesser effect of the spell.

2. Large: Fills a small slot on its own.

3. Antique: opens to the past, but not farther back then the age of the key.

4. Found: looks/opens to another location, on the same sphere.

5. Found in the Humpbacked Skies: looks/opens to to another location, regardless of sphere.

6. Heavy: fills a small slot on its own.

Other keys might be used to different effects, based on the GM’s discretion.

3. Simian Bass Player

You’re a primate that plays the bass.

Possessions:

• Either an Electric Bass or a Contrabass

• A fancy suit with a floral shirt.

• A Knife

Advanced Skills:

3 - Play the Bass

2 - Climb

2 - Etiquette

1 - Knife Fighting

1 - Brawling

1 - Acrobatics

4. Unwilling Messiah

People believe you are the Messiah, and you actually might be, but you just want to sleep in and play video games. You wish they all would just leave you alone. They don’t. Will you get away from your calling or will you succumb?

Possessions:

• Portable Video Game System

• Nondescript Trench Coat

• Soft, Downy Sleeping Pillow

• Cozy Blanket

• A Baseball Bat

Advanced Skills:

3 - Playing Video Games

2 - Sneak

2 - Sleep

2 - Spell: Mystical Visions

1 - Being Pursued by Devoted Followers

New Spell: Mystical Visions:

Every Time the Unwilling Messiah has an exceptional experience, test Mystical Visions. 

Exceptional Experiences include but are not limited to: A Good Night’s Sleep, A Very Fine Meal, Falling in Love, Being Knocked Out, Being Dumped, Receiving a Compliment from Someone You Look Up too, Being Robbed, Watching a Cat Video, …
The Visions might be of things to come, that have already happened or that are happening right now. They might also be a calling by a god or demon or other mystical entity (like the mystical three eyed goat on the top of Mount Granola.)

Special: 

Every time you enter a new location, roll Being Pursued by Devoted Followers to see if you’ve been found out. The GM might include bonuses or negatives for the locations, like if it’s crowded, or if you are not in civilized lands, or …
Remind your GM about is at the start of the first session. After that, it’s their responsibility.

5. Infernal Bureaucrat

You are a devil that likes contracts very much and are traveling the spheres for someone wanting a hellish contract made. You can use the souls gained with these to power your magic.

Possessions:

• A Jar containing 1d6 floating Souls

• Form Fill Contracts (5)

• Parchment (5) and Blood Red Quill

• A shadowy, black cloak

Advanced Skills:

2 - Bureaucracy

2 - Etiquette

1 - Spell: Random

1 - Spell: Random

1 - Spell: Random 

1 - Spell: Random

1 - Spell: Random

1 - Spell: Random

Special:

Infernal Magic can be used by substituting a soul for the cost of stamina. Each regular, human soul used counts as 1d6 stamina (roll when used). Some special souls might give more, some might less.

6. Royal Beautician

Your customers might already be kings, queens and emperors, but you make them look the part.

Possessions:

• A beautycase filled with the tools of your trade (Large)

• Either a Brick Filled Handbag (damage as club) or Brass Knuckles (damage as club)
• A Taser (as Pistolet, but non lethal)

• 100 Business Cards (Small Item)

Advanced Skills:

4 - Trade: Beautician

2 - Gossip

2 - Etiquette

1 - Brawling or Fist Fighting

1 - Pistolet Fighting

TROIKA! Character Set #1 (version 1)

So, recently I've been thinking about Troika a lot again, and I've gotten back into creating characters for it.  This time I'm going about it, thinking how interesting it would be if they showed up at the Blancmange & Thistle Hotel (the adventure in the back of the book). So I've been treating it a bit as a psychedelic version of the joke where some people walk into a bar. Thinking which types of characters would be fun to play in that adventure. I'm grouping them in sets of six (because you can roll a d6 for them in that way).

Anyway, here they are:

1. Forest Wild Man

Dressed in leaves and your own hair, covered in dirt and rippling muscles, you are a man or woman of the woods. Civilization is confusing, but intriguing. Will you endure the strangeness of it or will you flee back to the trees?

Possessions:

• A Wooden Maul
• Clothing made of leaves

• A small animal friend that lives in your hair. (tell us which animal and give it a name)

Advanced Skills:
3 - Animal Friend 

3 - Wrestling

2 - Maul Fighting

2- Surviving Nature

2. Misplaced Teenager

You were just minding your business, trying not to get bullied while also catching the eye of that classmate you find pretty and cool. You should’ve never walked into that new curio shop and bought that mystical book. Somehow now, you are in the book. Will you ever get out? Do you want to? You never finished binging that series! 

Possessions:

• Backpack full of school supplies

• Packed Lunch

• 1d6 of loose change

• Weird book. (Describe it)

• School Uniform or Leisurely Teen Clothing.

• Choose One: A) A football, B) Glasses, C) A Sketchbook and pencil or D) A Skateboard.

Advanced Skills:
3 - Hormones

1 - Sports

1 - Maths

1 - Foreign Language of Choice (limit: normal school taught languages. French, Spanish, Latin, Greek, German, …)

1 - History

1 - Science

1 - Social Studies

1 - Arts

Special:
• Add +1 to one of the school subjects and -1 to another. If you want another language, you can add that as well.

• Change one of the subjects to Hate [Subject]. For example: 2 - Hate Maths.

3. Blob

You are a gelatinous blob. You have no bones, no face, no pockets. You are a simple life form. 

Possessions:

• Half digested skeleton

Advanced Skills:

4 - Absorb

2 - Assume Shape

2 - Sticking to things

2 - Digest

4. Intergalactic Junkyard Scrounger

These vagabonds scour the multiverse, scrounging in the garbage left behind by all civilizations, looking for treasure. 

Possessions:

• A bundle of trash-treasure (heavy)

• Knife for prying

• Lead Pipe for bashing (as Maul)

Advanced Skills:

3 - Scrounge

2 - Wayfinding

2 - Repurposing

1 - Awareness

1 - Climb

1 - Acrobatics

1 - Secret Signs: Junkyard Scroungers

1 - Maul Fighting

Special:
You may Test your Luck to just so happen to have exactly the (common) discarded tchotchke, bauble, or gewgaw the situation requires.

5. Traveling Door to Door Salesman

Traveling door to door and sphere to sphere to sell your goods, you can be encountered practically anywhere.

Possessions:

• A cheap suit

• A suitcase of novelty snow globes (or pots and pans, screwdrivers, encyclopedias, pocket gods, …)

• A crumpled picture of their family

• A cheap, rundown car

Advanced Skills:

3 - Sales Pitches

2 - Fist Fighting

2 - Smiling

2 - Driving

6. Snail Pilgrim

Bound by mystic contract to carry a small giant snail on their back until it finds a place it is satisfied with to live these poor souls can be seen carrying their large burden throughout the spheres. When more than one of them is in the same spot in the same time, things can get sticky, as a battle of dominance over potential spawning grounds commences. Once a spot is claimed and approved by the snail, it will be terraformed for them to inhabit.

Possessions:

• Small Giant Snail (heavy)

• Walking Stick

• Good Walking Shoes

• A terraforming starter kit.

Advanced Skills:

4 - Hiking

2 - Localized Terraforming

2 - Stick fighting

2 - Following Directions

Braindump: JRPGs

 JRPG: Japanese RolePlaying Games

This usually mainly refers to computer games like Final Fantasy, Dragon Warrior/Hero Quest, Grandia, etc. They all have several tropes that I like and have from tim
e to time been trying to emulate in our regular TableTop RPG system. Being immersed in Troika! as I've been, trying to meld it with Keep on the Borderlands, I think Troika! might be one of the best contenders to highlight the weird and whacky that these games often have. Player Characters are completely out there, as are the monsters/adversaries and the general story line is usually really weird as well.

Grand Mage by Eoghan Kerrigan: https://www.deviantart.com/eoghankerrigan

So yeah... I guess, be prepared to see an overhaul again on the work I already did on my Keep on the Borderlands work.

The main thing I like is how they take a concept without much context and create their own context for it. That and hilarious mistranslations and misconceptions and the melding of cultural concepts. I've been listening to a Flemish podcast about the history of these lands (specifically the house of Burgundy) and think I might use that as a starting point for my knights and the realm in which the Keep will be. It might mean having to do some research, but again, not too much, as the JRPG weirdness sauce needs for it to be misunderstood a bit and taken in a completely different direction.

Backgrounds of the Borderlands: 1d6 Wanderers or Travellers

 1d6 TROIKA! backgrounds for travellers around the Keep on the Borderlands.

2.1 - The Lost Valkyrie
This Valkyrie has lost the brave warrior she came to claim. She cannot return to Valhalla before finding him. Despite looking for many years she cannot find him. The more she experiences the human world though, the more she questions wether she really wants to find him. If she finds him, she’d have to leave the human world behind again.

Special:
When rolling to find her way, The Lost Valkyrie does not count her skill stat.

Possessions:
• A Favorite Human Food/Drink (something they wouldn’t have in Valhalla, like herbal tea, cake or frog legs in garlic sauce or something)
• A Spear
• A Shield
• A Flying Horse
• A pet Raven that is supposed to guide her but constantly comments on her inability to find her charge.
• Swan Themed Valkyrie Armour.

Advanced Skills:
3 Flying Horse Flying
3 Spear Fighting
2 Shield Fighting

2 Speak With Dead
1 Opera Singing

2.2 - The Artisan
This diminutive man with a coloured hat and a magnificent beard is called a dwarf by some and a gnome by others. What they all know and agree on though, is that he’s a master artisan, as is proven by his wagon, which does not need any beast to pull it, but rather puls itself on arms of wood and iron. 

Possessions:
• Mechanical Wagon
• Mechanic Tools
• Boomerang

• Beard Oils

Advanced Skills:
4 Dwarfen Engineering
3 Mechanical Wagon Driving
2 Boomerang Throwing
1 Whistling

2.3 - The Itinerant Priest
This priest travels from place to place, ministering to the faithful, bringing light and healing through words and actions to show the mercy of Christ.

Possessions:
• Portable Shrine
• Sacred Oils
• Quarterstaff (worn by walking)

Advanced Skills:
3 Forgiveness
3 Medicine
1 Preaching
1 Listening
1 Healing Miracle
1 Blessing: Create Holy Water

2.4 - The Hired Help
This person hires themselves out to do mundane tasks for adventurous types. Through doing that, they have learned some adventuring tricks themselves. They are recognizable by their very large backpacks.

Special:
This character is very skilled at carrying things. They may carry eighteen (18) things without issue instead of the standard twelve (12). Additionally they always add a +6 to their item retrieval checks.

Possessions:
• A very large backpack
• A lantern with oil
• A prodding stick
• A crowbar (as club when used in battle)
• A shovel
• A Hammer and Spikes

Advanced Skills:
1 Searching
1 Safe Carrying
1 Hiding
1 Trekking
1 Crowbar Fighting
1 Camping
1 Gathering
1 Watch keeping
1 Moving silently
1 Cooking

2.5 - The Boar Rider
There are villages in the chaotic lands where small people live that cannot be tamed by either Law or Chaos. These Gaul warriors are as brave and fearless as they are small, and their warriors ride wild boars.

Possessions:
• A Boar Mount
• A Maul
• Sling
• A bag with 10 Slinging Stones
• A Torc

Advanced Skills:
3 Boar Riding
3 Heckling
2 Club Fighting
2 Sling Shooting

2.6 - The Escaped Princess
Tired of waiting to be rescued by a brave prince this princess escaped on her own, using guile, trickery and charm she can outsmart many a monster. Her weapon is her wits.

Special:

The Lost Princess can improvise with found objects for a skill without any penalty. (a hair clip or a needle will do to pick a lock, a frying pan will do for a club, etc.)

Possessions:
• A fancy dress
• A Big Chest of make-up and clothes (Large)

Advanced Skills:
3 Gossip 

3 Charm
2 Impersonation

1 Move Silently

1 Deception
1 Lock Picking

Backgrounds Of The Borderlands: 1d6 Fighter Types — Take 2 — Knights

 

1d6 Knightly Types of the Keep on the Borderlands.

1.1 - The Roaming Knight 


A knight that has sworn to protect the weak and helpless from the forces of Chaos.

Possessions:

• Chainmail Armour (Medium Armour)

• A Tired but Stalwart Horse

• Sword

• Shield

• A Weathered Map

Advanced Skills:

3 Draw Enemy Attention

2 Sword Fighting

2 Shield Fighting

1 Traveling

1 Awareness

1.2 - The Vengeful Squire 


Having lost his Knight to the monsters in the Caves of Chaos this youngster will not take another master before having avenged his master.



Possessions:

• Master’s Longsword that provides +1 to Longsword Fighting and Damage while using it. Only you may benefit from this bonus; it’s not magic, just sentimental.

• Training Armour (as medium armour)

Advanced Skills:

3 Longsword Fighting

1 Awareness

1 Climb

1 Run

1 Swim

1 Vengeance

1 Basic Chores

1.3 - The Swallow Knight

A knight decorated in images of swallows and flowers. Romantic and poetic, this knight is loved mainly by the amorous in courts everywhere.

Possessions:

• Chainmail Armour (Medium Armour)

• A Pretty Horse

• Lance (Damage as Spear)

• Sword

• Shield

• A Lute
• A foolish promise to a love-interest to prove their love. (honor demands you do it)

Advanced Skills:

3 Romantic Poetry

2 Sword Fighting

2 Spear Fighting

1 Shield Fighting

1 Lute Playing
1 Jousting

1.4 - The Grail Knight

A knight in gleaming armour questing for the Holy Grail. It is said that only the most pure and knightly knights are allowed to find and obtain the grail. Will they be able to obtain it?

Possessions:

• Heavy Armour

• Horse

• Lance (Damage as Spear)

• Sword

• Shield

• A Quest

Advanced Skills:

3 Purity

2 Sword Fighting

2 Spear Fighting

1 Shield Fighting

1 Awareness

1.5 - The Beetle Knight 


A knight from the realm of fairy that looks profoundly otherworldly in their completely covered plate armour that is shaped like a stag-beetle and made out of a strange metal that has a greenish-pearly sheen.

Possessions:

• Heavy Armour (Beetle Shaped)

• Horse

• Lance (Damage as Spear)

• Big Mace

• Shield

• A talking beetle that only he can understand.

Advanced Skills:

3 Beetle Control

2 Mace Fighting

2 Spear Fighting

1 Shield Fighting

1 Jousting

1.6 - The Master Archer


A master with the bow and arrow, this fellow can do things that should be impossible with bow and arrows.


Possessions: 

• Longbow 


• 20 Arrows 


• 12 Trick Arrows (3 bladed, 3 blunted, 3 whistling, 3 sleep powder)


• Fame

Advanced Skills: 

4 Bow Shooting


3 Bragging


3 Showmanship