Dante Direct J U L Y

Hai Hai! It’s the 15th of the month you know what that means! Another Dante Direct!

What’s up. 
Nothing! :3 

Ok in all seriousness though. I am hard at work on the GM side. Last month I mentioned the GM side would be the longest/hardest push. Safe to say, I was right. So let’s get into why. 
Say it with me, FACTIONS!!!!
Lemme explain. 
Part of my goal with Field Guide to Dante is actually to make examples on how to write about factions beyond just “here is who they are, here is their thoughts and roleplaying”. The reason why for this is discussing with other GM’s, Players, and even people who may want to try doing things in Dante, it helps to have a quick easy to find reference that gives simplified thoughts and things to keep in mind for making groups, running NPCS, and more. So what does this mean? This means I’ve been functionally rewriting the factions in a specific way. Lets take the Asphodels for example:

Each section covering my factions starts with a 1 paragraph synopsis of the group:
The Asphodels are the “bruisers” of the Fractal Moon. Staunch xenophobes with an avid distrust of the government, big business, and corporations. They come from the “orphes” of Dante: those who exist in the periphery. The guttertrash, the punk youth, the grizzled factory worker. When they aren’t using direct physical violence to champion their causes or warn others to fuck off, they can often be found “kicking it”, chillin with the homeboys, or working.

Following this, there is a small bit on faction mentality, which ends with 3 things to keep in mind: 

1. An Asphodel is Never alone. 
Asphodels travel together. There’s always at least 3 for those who are truly initiated. They prefer pack tactics to fighting alone, but if one leverages an Asphodel’s pride or mocks them to their homies, the Asphodel can be baited out or goaded into doing stupid shit alone. Asphodels are loyal to each other, and dogged in their protection and attacking of the other. 

2. An Asphodel will ignore Astra-an
Asphodels are xenophobic to Astra-an. Outsiders are worthless, they are scrats, and they are less willing to talk to Astra-an and the corporations than any other group on Dante. As such, they have a hostile distance by default, often glaring or even attacking Astra-an who walk into Asphodel spaces. 

3. The Only thing an Asphodel hates more than an Astra-An, is a fucking cop. 
Warders and Asphodels have a hated relationship. They do not get along at all, and often, target each other. They need the barest of excuses to fight and even kill each other. 

Right underneath this are 2 bonds, 2 flaws, and 2 ideals. Following that, 3 NPCS that can be used for reference.  Following that, a table of locations. This is a d10 table that if your players are looking for asphodels or if you need a place, you can use as a quick reference, or even base locations off that I have given.  Critically, after this, is the part that is going to probably be the most helpful: The fighting tactics. 

This will not be ready for 2.0 (will explain) but each faction will come with a little blurb of narrative and mech tactics, as well as tables that list out what NPC types and templates each faction prefers from CORE.  Finally, each section includes a part on subfactions or groups that share the umbrella, as well as 3 final guidelines for making your own. 
The other part in this however, is longer. 
The faction rapport system. 

This will be explained later, but the idea is to bring more weight and emphasis to player decisions when dealing with corporations and various groups. Faction rapport is a way to keep track of relationships between players and the larger entities of the galaxy, as well as entity relationships to themselves. 

Why is this not going to be in 2.0? The reason why is quite simply. This is long. 
Doing the NPC templates, plus the faction rapport system and fleshing out every relationship or bucket of relationships will take far too long, most likely this would take me an extra month of blocking and writing. Not only do I have this to do, but i still have the worlds to flesh out with locations,weather tables, and random chance encounters or thoughts on running the world/narration. As a result, I have decided to split my focus differently. 

Release 2.0 is focused for the players and some GM tools. 
This includes all the lore, the quick references for factions and worlds for GM’s. In addition, the revamped mechs (whcih I have yet to do), reference to the 2 downtime actions, and some backgrounds unique to Dante. 

After probably a 2 or 3 month break, i will come back with fresh eyes and work on the GM chunk. This will be the faction system fully, as well as some templates I want to work within/start figuring out how to do. 

With that being said….

Where the hell is RedXi?

RedXi is halfway through the People’s Party. This is faction 5 out of 15. About a third!
With this, my work is going to be sparse. TLDR: leaving my job, plus getting ready to go back to Master’s school. July and June have been tight on time, plus, i ain’t going to front. Energy level has been low because of perceived instability in my positions. 

But! The work continues. What else have I been up to? 

Well! My friend got me to read Crime & Punishment. Which has been a very….interesting read. 
In addition I have started playing FF13 (this is a game ever and i’m so on board) Finally….

A sidequest fulfilled (?)
For those who are on pilot net and frequent Cantina, you may see me in there from time to time. But notably, you may have noticed a KTB house poppin up. 
This is me! 
In particular, this is the House of Tombs which started as a little outlet and fun side project for me to release stress.  The result of this release is going to be a very small player/background supplement for Lancer. The House of Tombs! 

It’s simply a revamp/refresh document, as I am going to be running a hack’d module for the game. It’s about time to get this nice and fancy, as my brain has thought of 2 or 3 other side projects I wish to do after release 2.0! 

With that being said, 
See you in a month! 
Bu-bye! :3