Sable Game characters are the trusted agents of the King of Sable, rather than necessarily being of the Royal family, and are included in the day-to-day running of the Kingdom, as well as occasionally being asked to perform specific services for the Power that Be.
Sable characters are created on 75pts, but with all stats starting at Chaos. However, partial buy-ups and sell-downs between Chaos and Amber, or Chaos and Human are available, e.g. Chaos+5 would be better than Chaos, but not up to Amber level.
Pattern and Logrus, per se, are not available to Sable Game characters - they are human rather than family (unless game circumstances dictate otherwise). Apart from those, most powers are available, with the exception of conjuration, which is a speciality of sorcery (see the Sable Magic System) and doesn't work in quite the same way.
Full Pattern is not available to Sable Game characters. However, Broken Pattern is an option, and is administered largely as per the ADRPG. Neither Pattern nor Broken Pattern is required to get around Sable and the Commonwealth, as there is an extensive system of Royal Ways. However, it might be useful for anyone who is ever likely to stray outside of the Commonwealth Veils.
| Item | Cost | Comments |
| Broken Pattern | 10 | This is a tiring and difficult way to get around the Shadows, but it does at least give you some ability to move under your own steam. It does allow you to take other people with you, within reason, although you have to be cautious not to lose them along the way. |
| Advanced Broken Pattern | 25 | This is a slightly more efficient method of travel, and also includes certain (but not all) of the ABP abilities from the ADRPG. |
A mage does not have specific spells, and lynch-pins as per the ADRPG system do not exist. Instead, a mage will usually have a basic grounding in magic of all kinds, and at higher levels will have specialised in one, two or three specific areas, for example offensive magic, defensive magic or healing. Full details are available in the Sable Magic System section of this site. Within Sable, there are two main sources of a magical educations: Sable Mage College, which gives a full grounding in the subject, and Sable College of Military Magic, which tailors its teaching towards matters military, although there are one or two less influential colleges in the Commonwealth..
Costings are as follows:
| Item | Cost | Comments |
| Bachelor of Magic | 15 | This is pretty much the book version of sorcery, although without the existence of lynch-pins. All spells detailed in the magic system under "basic" are available at this point value. The mage's signet can work as a racking item, but at this level will cost an extra 2pts if it is to be used in that fashion. |
| Master of Magic | 20 | The major differences here are that spells only take 5-10 minutes to cast from scratch, and in addition, can be racked mentally - thus dispensing with the need for racking items (and a refund of any racking item cost) - although about ten spells remains the upper limit of what can realistically be maintained. Development of new spells is faster, and the mages have a lot more flexibility in what they can do. |
| Doctor of Magic | 25 | Here spells take just a couple of minutes to cast from scratch. The mental racking is again available, with maintenance taking slightly less time, and can be less frequent. However, the ten-ish spell limit still applies. Mages are also even quicker at working out new spells, or variations on old ones. |
It is possible to go back to college, rather than having to take the whole course at once, so a character taking 15pt bachelor's level could study further, pay another 5pts, and advance to the next level, although it would take the appropriate amount of downtime to do.
About 5% of the population have the genetic marker which, if activated, could allow them to become a shapeshifter. Of these, in approximately 1 in 10 (0.5% of the population) the gene is active to the extent that they will rarely get sick, they will heal quickly from injury and they can survive wounds which would kill a normal person (aka inherent crisis management, or ICM). Of these, 1 in 10 again (0.05%, or 1 in 2,000) have some measure of active control, be it merely the ability to take another form, or the full suite of basic shapeshift abilities. It is unadvisable to have an endurance lower than Chaos if you wish to learn shapeshift.
Shapeshift is split as follows:
| Item | Cost | Comments |
| Inherent Crisis Management | 10 | This level of shapeshift is the most basic, and the user has no control over their ability whatsoever. However, it will ensure survival of injuries and hostile environments. with the proviso that it takes about 1 minute for this to kick in and work. So you need to avoid situations which will get you dead faster than that, or you will still die. |
| Basic 4 forms + Auto-shapeshift | 15 (or 5+ ICM) |
The basic starting position from which controlled shapeshift develops. This lets the user switch between his human, animal, demon, and elemental forms, and provides the auto-shapeshift ability for coping with rapidly changing environmental conditions (or injuries). Remember Auto-shapeshifting is not a conscious thing. You just let go, and hope for the best. |
| Shapeshift Wounds | 5 | This is a conscious self-healing exercise. It can keep going till you run out of steam. Bear in mind that wound shifting is not instant - it takes up to a minute to stabilise critical wounds. |
| Modify Extremities | 5 | Do you want a claw instead of a finger, or longer arms, shorter legs? This is the one for that. |
| Shift Facial Features | 5 | Want to change what you face looks like? Here we go. It is risky to let this one loose without a mirror available - unless you have practiced a particular shift before, it might not come out perfect first time. |
| Animal Forms | 5 | This ability lets you assume the forms of normal animals of about the same mass as you were to start with. |
When you move up from ICM to the basic shift, the 10pts for ICM is refunded. Basic shapeshifting (15pts) is necessary before any of the other powers can be taken. To take them all will cost 35pts.
'Pilots' is the general name for initiates of the Aurellis Transport System. This is a relatively recent development within Sable, and is an expensive, but almost instantaneous form of transport. Pilots come in three classes: Courier, Master and Grand. The Pilot initiate has no control over which of the three he or she will become during initiation, but strength of will (read Psyche) is a contributing factor. Courier allows the Pilot to carry a load about the size of a stagecoach, or about 12 people; Master allows carriage of the equivalent of a train in weight and load; and Grand Pilot allows the transport of something up to the size of a fully loaded cruise ship.
Piloting happens in two ways in the Sable Game. You either choose to be a Pilot on character creation, which gives you some control of how good a Pilot you are, or it happens in game and you don't have control of what you get. I'll cover the character creation version here. As for in game...
Piloting has three elements: strength of will (with endurance secondary), an ability to shape shift and the level of Piloting. Strength of will directly affects whether you come out of the ATS initiation as a Courier, Master and Grand. As far as shape shifting is concerned, ICM is the bare minimum which is necessary, but would enable you to survive Pilot transit. Rough costings would work as follows:
| Degree of Piloting | Cost | Psyche requirement | Combined cost |
| Courier | 10 | Up to Amber | Up to 20 plus shape shifting and endurance |
| Master | 20 | Amber - +10 | 30-40 plus shape shifting and endurance |
| Grand | 30 | +10 from Amber or greater | 50 minimum plus shape shifting and endurance |
Trump is not particularly known of among the general population of Sable, however, Sable PCs will potentially have access to training as several of those for whom they might work are capable of teaching them.
The following basic powers exist:
| Item | Cost | Comments |
| Draw People and Places | 20 |
This is the basis of all Trump ability. Without this, nothing else can be done. |
| Caller ID | 5 | Lets you check through your deck to see who's calling you. |
| Trump Defence | 5 | Speaks for itself. It requires a Trump of one's self to do this. |
| Trump Sketches | 5 | Quick and dirty Trumps which take about twenty minutes to draw, but will only work two or three times. |
| Trump Scrying | 5 | The ability to attempt to interpret a scrying of cards done in the manner of a Tarot reading |
To buy all the options costs 40pts, once you have bought the basic ability to draw people, you can choose to take any or all of the other Trump abilities.
Power Words in Sable are handled differently to the ADRPG rules.10pts buys the ability to form Power Words, but does not give you specific "words". Instead, you'll have two or three phrases or concepts, which may be added to later, if circumstances allow - for example, a desperate situation, where you end up using the power of your mind to dominate the surroundings to make something happen. Once you have formed a Power Word, you always have it for the future - however, GM agreement is needed to add new words to the list.
Examples of Power Words are:
| "Don't die!" | A shout of desperation to stop someone or something you care about dying. |
| "Dammit, I was supposed to look perfect!" | For when you really need to look your best, but fate is conspiring to stop that happening. |
| "Get away from me!" | The person you shout at gets somehow pushed away - for example, by a gust of wind. |
| "Work, damn you!" | A way of getting something which isn't working, to start working there and then. |
(With acknowledgement to Justin Parsler for the concept)
Items are also handled somewhat differently within Great Expectations, as Conjuration does not exist in its ADRPG form. Items are available in two kinds: Personal Items and Items of Power.
| Item | Cost | Comments |
| Personal Items | 5 |
This covers items of significance to the character, but without actual Power. Examples would include swords, parasols, armour, magical gadgets. Details of what they can do must be agreed with the GMs. Living creatures cannot be bought as items. |
| Items of Power | 10 | Items such as Greyswandir and Werewindle - with real Power in them. These are only available with GM consent, and Sable PCs are highly unlikely to have them. |
Allies in Sable, Family Friends and Devotees cost as per ADRPG. A Devotee doesn't necessarily mean you're a member of the Royal Family (either Sable or the Reich), but it can have interesting consequences.
A PC can buy one or more skill for 1pt per skill. The benefit this gives is that they will be exceptionally good at a particular skill or in a particular field. Had they been trained in Shadow, they would probably be considered the best on the Shadow at what they do. Within Sable and the Commonwealth, taking a skill means that you have studied that skill to the highest level available, and that you are considered enough of an expert that if people find out about your ability, they may wish for your advice and assistance in that field. There is no particular benefit to having more than one skill in a given subject.
Suggestions for skills include: acting, administration, business knowledge, diplomat, etiquette, gambling, investigation, sense of style, tracking, weapons master, xenobiology, etc. If a skill is bought in a specific weapon or combat style, then effectively the PC uses that form of combat only at a higher equivalent warfare/strength than their basic stat (call it roughly 5-10pts better, depending on circumstances). Powers-related skills such as magic or a specific Pattern ability cannot be bought as skills in this way.
(With acknowledgement to Justin Parsler for the concept)
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This site © Trish Hart 1999, 2004, 2006, 2008.
Writings
and original artwork exhibited on player pages
are published with the author's permission.
Trumps based on photographic originals
use photographs obtained in the public domain.
Website administrator: Trish Hart (sable at fugue.org)