Talking to Dragons

Dragons of all shapes and sizes occupy this world but due to the spread of wizardry, they are most often found on remote islands or on lonely peaks. A solitary race of oviparous hermaphroditic flying lizards capable of parthenogenesis and, when mature enough, breathing fire.

It takes a dragon over a hundred years to go from hatchling to hazard and live for thousands of years. When younger, they are much quicker and only with maturity do they become more sedentary. They consume around 1 hefty meal a month and spend much of their time sleeping while they digest it. Their conflict with people comes from how they source their meals – usually from livestock but it is not unknown for them to take people (as they only consider Wizards to be intelligent).

Dragons speak the True Speech, part of the song which separated the lands from the seas and sky, but their words do not change the world as wizards do. They do not work wonders, they are wonders.

Dragons guard their True Name even more than Wizards do. Their vulnerability to wizardry means they are hesitant to cross Wizards of the Guild. They’ll be much keener to negotiate and keen to share their experience. Dragons don’t just talk, they gossip, building a skein of history lasting millennia.

It therefore takes courage to seek a dragon out and it is a fools errand to do so without a Wizard. Beware of anyone claiming to be a Dragonslayer.

(all this and more on the Patreon)

Patreon Launched

Some small encouragement from people exposed to my first short story set in the “Tales of Distant Lands” world, I’ve launched a Patreon.

You can have a look at it here: https://patreon.com/Lategaming

All new content for “Tales of Distant Lands” will be released on the Patreon first and then updates posted here later.

So, come along, sign up and get your Wizard tier.

In development: Tales of Distant Lands

Tales of Distant Lands is a working title for a game I’ve been dreaming about for decades. The core inspiration is definitely Earthsea, based on my love of “A Wizard of Earthsea” and “The Tombs of Atuan” which I read as a teenager.

I’m currently re-reading Tombs after reading AWoE last week.

The author, Ursula K. Le Guin, died in 2018 and she was not predisposed to her works being used for other purposes, such as games, partly due to her negative experience in having her work turned into films. She believed that people should write their own stories and worlds and not dwell in hers. I don’t know if this is because she didn’t understand roleplaying games or whether the pain of licensing had been too much of a toll. I can certainly understand that.

The core conceit of ToDL is storytelling. I’ll be writing about a part of the world and leaving others slightly undeveloped for others to pursue. There will be a story generator as well as some pre-written situations. Wizards in this world, much like on Earthsea, have duties to society as well as the delving for lost treasures, putting down dragons and pursuing the shadows of the Old Ones. The power of True Names is included, though the function of them differs from Earthsea and they are tied into the mechanics of wizardry.

I’m trying to be deliberate with the names of things. Using the term Wizard and Wizardry. But also trying to remove the implication of gender role – there’s nothing stopping a woman being a Wizard.

The base mechanic is based on a very light implementation of the Year Zero Engine.

The system is based around three Traits

Body – representing the physicality of the person
Reason – representing the mental faculties of the person
Heart – representing the emotional faculties of the person

These start at d8. You get two bumps. you can choose to put them both on one Trait (bumping it to d12) or spread it to the others (making two of them d10)

Around this is built the Trade of the person. The default is d8 but it’s suggested that this may be based on the experience/age of the person starting from age 13.

0 – no ability (age 12 or under)
d4 – the beginnings of ability, more mistakes rather than achievement (age 12-16)
d6 – the apprentice (age 17-18)
d8 – the qualified person (age 19-21)
d10 – the experienced practitioner (age 22-30)
d12 – the experienced veteran (age 30-50)
d20 – the legendary masters (age 50+)

This is then supported by Experiences which act like tags. At the start, each player should describe something from their Past. The past should include a small amount of backstory which then provides a +1 during a suitable moment.

Example: Duny is a goatherd. He once saved his village from a invader attack using magic learned from his aunt but that act seemed to burn the magic right out of him. He has Body d10, Reason d8 and Heart d10. As a Goatherd, he takes that as a trade. His skills will mostly apply to the practical nature of it – handling animals, discerning the weather, survival in the wild. He’s not much use in a fight but he can recognise most simple magic charms even if they don’t listen to him any more. His weakness is his Pride. He tends to go in chin-first and finds it hard to back down.

Example: Cacper is a Wizard. Raised in a wealthy family in the Shining City, he went to the Wizards college and earned his Trade as a Wizard. He has Body d8, Reason d12 and Heart d8. His skills apply to magic…and his part on the appreciation of fine things and making contacts. However, his weakness of Wrath meant he was assigned to a small island where everyone seems to just herd goats.

Example: Macaj has been wounded down to a d4 Body by a devilish wolf-fish; he might grab his trusty harpoon (+1 bump, to d6), feeling it sit comfortably in his hand (+d8 from Fisherman background), and recall the tales of the wolf-fish’s habits that he used to hear from the broken fishermen outside the tavern where he used to beg (+1 bump, to d8), and cast the weapon deep into the maw of the wolf-fish as it lunges (rolling 2d8)

So What’s Next?

It has to be said we are YZE (Year Zero Engine) fans here at Lategaming – you only have to look at our recent releases.

Always interested in new ways to bring the apocalypse. With this latest update, there’s nothing stopping you from having Supersoldiers fighting Dragons on the fields of Poland while psychics battle sorcerors and vampires, in the face of a zombie horde emerging from a Mist-inpsired interdimensional horror.

Yup, we kitchen-sinked it.

So, what’s next (as one of the most prolific Year Zero Engine producing indies?

Well. Stuff we have been asked about

Dinosaurs
Apes
Aliens (not the Xeno kind)

So, that’s all planned for release in the next year.

Here Be Dragons – a new enemy for Twilight 2000

Here Be Dragons – A new Enemy for Twilight 2000
[Scenario][Game Aid][Paid]

Here Be Dragons is a different look at the post-apocalyptic world after a awakening of an ancient enemy brings our civilisation to ruin. This reign of Draconic Rulers brings down a Rain of Fire and destruction by tooth and fang.

Smoke fills the air, the taste of burning is on your tongue and in your nose. Your belly rumbles as you’ve not had enough food these last three days and forever you have one eye on the horizon and one ear listening out for the beat of wings.

On Monday, the 24th of August, 2000, the world ended.

An enemy that had laid dormant for over a thousand years, clawed its way out of deep pits and took to the air. Their time had returned, their world for the taking.
With claw and tooth and fire, they razed entire cities to embers, picked off the thousands who ran and created vast nests in the high places.

The Earth had brought forth Dragons.

Get it at DTRPG

Culture….and reimagining Trek

On one of the forums was the question about building Star Trek from scratch. Of course there’s always Frontier. but I#d really like to run a Culture game

? What rules system?
I’ll likely hack together something on YZE because that’s a comfortable place for me. And I’m halfway through that.

? What sort of characters?
Humans, aliens, drones/Minds

? What sort of mission?
I’d definitely steer it to CONTACT/Special Circumstances type missions. Something where the people get to act doing people things and the Drones get to act (being effectively a combat monster). Boots on the ground are important when dealing with organics. Uplifting cultures. Plans within plans limited by Compartmentalisation. Creating prophecy (based on …effectively psychohistory) that would make a Bene Gesserit blush in order to shunt civilisations in a certain direction. (Shades of the Status Crew from Captain Britain)

? What sort of ship?
A module providing life support and equipment for the PCs which is beholden to a much-larger ship which may not have stopped in orbit. This meams limited local support but when the shit hits the fan they have a GCU or something ready to Displace them at speed.

? What sort of known universe?
A vast supra-galactic universe, procedurally- and player-driven.

? What strange new worlds?
My gut is Places and People of interest.

? What sort of Galaxy Fleet?
Immense vessels hanging out in hyperspace, exiting where and when they need to. Possibly with a little too much ‘lets see how close to the margin we can make this’

? What sort of technology?
Hyperlight speeds, ignoring relativity for the most part as it’s not as important as people think. Weapons of Mass Destruction that fit in a pocket. Displacer tech that organics don’t really truth (for no other reason than they suspect they’re being 3D printed rather than transported)

Whole New World – a Sci-Fi setting using Y23E/YZE as the basis

We’ve started working on (yet another) world. A Sci-Fi setting we are calling “Whole New World”.

Premise

I’ve been a big fan of Interstellar, released in 2014 (and therefore has it’s 10th anniversary later this year) and I’m very keen on the rush of mature Sci-Fi we got around that time. Interstellar in particular was highly praised for being the new gold standard by which scientific accuracy in science fiction could be measured and while everything can be criticised, I did enjoy…

Mathematical Physicist Ikjyot Singh Kohli first published an article defending the physics used in the film. The article was written shortly after the film’s release in response to a number of scientific blogs that criticized the film’s physics for not being accurate, which were shown by Kohli to be due to several misunderstandings by the authors of the blogs in question.

Moon (2009)
Gravity (2013)
Interstellar (2014)
The Martian (2015)
Ad Astra (2019)

For a brief time it was a bit of a renaissance in science fiction.

Last night I rewatched 2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984) and loved the physicality of it. The space suits, the discovery pods, the ships that looked like I can imagine space ships to look like.

In Play

In theory this idea is a little like a game I played years ago (and IMO didn’t play enough); Justifiers. In Justifiers the PCs are anthropomorphised uplifted animals, criminals or ex-soldiers whoa re sent out to ‘justify’ the expense of colonising worlds. They’re catapulted to the orbit through some sort of wormhole, have to land, survive and construct a transmatt system to get themselves home. If they die, it’s seen as a reason not to invest more in that world.

But I want to share and shed some concepts.

This isn’t about corporate greed. The PCs are not the hapless pawns of some corporation wanting to make more value for shareholders.

This isn’t about more world, more stuff. This is about one world, the world that will save us all.

This isn’t about shooting things. It certainly can have shooting but for the most part it’s about exploration.

This is about humanity’s survival. The PCs are the crew on the lifeboat that will save humanity from extinction.

Apocalyptic Endgame: The Gloom, a supplement for Twilight 2000

Get it now on DTRPG

“Everything looks like a monster in the fog.” – Aki Bahrampour

INTRODUCTION: As the last offensive failed, the brass decided to wheel out their last, big weapon. Drawing on decades of research in their secret bioweapons division, they finally unleashed Operation Verdigris in the war-torn fields of the front. No-one was prepared for what came out of the Gloom.

THE WORLD ENDED

AND THEN IT GOT WORSE

Look, you don’t have to take this mission but there’s a lot riding on it. We’ve managed to triangulate the source of the Gloom. It’s at these coordinates. And the eggheads think that a nuclear detonation, triggered at the portal, might be enough to shut it down. We just need a few good soldiers, one with a specialism in nuclear weapons and a good commander who knows the stakes. It wasn’t a long list and you and your crew were at the top of it.I understand if you don’t want to go, but make no mistake. In 3 days we will be utterly overrun by an enemy we struggle to see never mind defeat and they will just keep coming.

Yes, best case scenario none of you are coming back but then again, if you don’t make it there’s nothing to come back to

Make no mistake, we are fighting for our existence.

The Gloom is a supplement for Twilight 2000 4th Edition but could easily work for any post-apocalyptic game or any Year Zero Engine game. Players will have to fight their way out of the Gloom and then, possibly, fight their way back in again.

New and Shiny: Enhanced: Super Soldiers in the Twilight War

We just released Enhanced.

This one has been a long time in the making and, due to the amount of art (all done by humans), the most expensive book we have produced to date. Remembering that all of our books are about recouping costs so we can pay more artists!

Enhanced is a supplement for Twilight: 2000 4th Edition.

Enhanced provides a framework for super soldiers in the Twilight War, based on alien particles discovered in the aftermath of the Tunguska Event. From these mutagenic agents, the Americans build heroes at their secret base in Raven Rock and the Soviets build monsters which roam the forests of the Urals.

In the light from a hundred artillery explosions, I could see the rain lashing off Skipper’s helmet as she peered out of our foxhole.
“I can’t see shit”, she spat.
Somewhere out there, among the ruined trees and scarred fields was the Enemy. Cloaked in an unseasonable storm that seemed as if the elements were angrily punching their fists to the air in protest against our intrusions.
A barrage of rounds whizzed above our heads and we ducked reflexively, too late of course. If they had been on target, we wouldn’t have heard them, only felt them as they thudded into us and tumbled turbulently through our slippery innards.
“We’re pinned here. If they have armour…” She didn’t need to finish the sentence. If they had armour, they’d roll those tanks right up over us and we could do nothing about it. What was worse was I knew they had armour, I’d seen the menacing blocky shapes in the fog earlier. I decided not to mention it, fearful of ruining the optimistic mood.
We settled into a sullen silence, just waiting for something to happen because inevitably it would.
Maybe it was an hour, maybe two, when we first heard something, Footsteps. Quiet footsteps.
I hissed “Red?”
A moment later I heard a confidently spoken “Rum!” and a slightly built young woman dropped into our little foxhole. She said her name was Malt.
For the next hour, Malt kept us company. Her humour was infectious, her confidence like a gentle breeze. She made us breathe again, right until we heard the rumbling of heavy machines. Armour, I realised with dread.
Malt stood up, all 160 cm of her, and faced the mechanical monster as it trundled towards us.
“Time to earn my crust.”
She smiled and we were immediately blinded by a baleful light that came from her body. Refracted a million times by raindrops, I could feel the peril from it. The light sliced through the tank, like a hot knife through butter, and the air was rent with screams of dying men and machines.
When our vision returned, she was standing alone and half-melted tanks steamed and stank around us.
“Let’s go!” Malt sang as she skipped forward. Like an elf she raced across the battlefield towards the enemy, When something reared up to spit death, that terrible light would appear once more leaving only smoking ruins.
We hit their trenches like a hammer; Skipper’s uncanny accuracy found its mark every time. I followed, mopping up as we went.
We collapsed into a shelter and wiped the sweat and rain from our faces.
“We just made 100 metres.” Malt grinned.
She stepped back out into the rain and beckoned us.
“We can do a hundred more.”
I strapped my helmet back on and grabbed my weapon just as Malt’s left eyeball exploded and I heard a single shot ring out, showering us in gore and skull fragments. Skipper swore. I was speechless.
Malt’s body fell, in slowed motion, to the bottom of the trench and the chalice of her brain pan started to collect muddy rainwater. We could hear voices now, speaking in short, staccato bursts, in a foreign language. We’d come too far.
“We gotta run,” Skipper shrieked. She leapt to the top of the trench and sprinted back towards our lines. Even through the rain I could see her ducking and diving as fast as her Enhancement would permit! And me, I couldn’t move. I wasn’t as fast as Skipper. Didn’t have Malt’s light to clear the way.
As the voices closed in on me, I remembered a line from a book or movie. I spoke steadily into my radio, giving coordinates as accurately as I could and finished with that line as I called in the artillery.
“Let it rain. Danger close.”

This rule set is compatible with Twilight: 2000 4th Edition, Blade Runner, ExSanguine, De Occulta, The 23rd Letter 3rd Edition and Rise of R’lyeh. It is directly compatible with other Year Zero Engine (Step Dice) games.

Whither Krull?

In this 1983 science-fantasy movie, the planet Krull is invaded by an extraterrestrial conqueror known as The Beast who moves his space-capable stone dwelling (the Black Fortress) from planet to planet, consuming them. He has wormlike minions who either wear armour (Slayers) or who change shape (changelings).

There’s prophecy that says the Beast can be killed by an ancient weapon known as the Glaive which implies that either the Beast has been there for a long time or it’s movements among the spheres were known about.

It’s been done in an RPG in 2018.

Anyway. It was a cool thing despite it bombing as being derivative at the time. I don’t think reviewers could even have guessed how derivative the future would become.

Rise of R’lyeh Character Sheet

We have a character sheet for Rise of R’lyeh now.

Rise of R’lyeh – Apocalyptic Mythos Horror

Playtest copies currently available
Rise of R’lyeh is designed to work with the Year Zero Engine (Step Dice) shared by games like Twilight 2000, Bladerunner, Terminal Shock, The 23rd Letter and Excession.

It can be mixed with other third party supplements like Deadzone, Twilight Tangents, Twilight 2249 or any of the others out there. Mythos elements can be introduced into standard Twilight 2000 games or even into some of the games listed above.

The system is fast, deadly but ultimately designed for apocalyptic play.

This is not a game where the plucky heroes have to fight against crazed cultists intent on bringing about the end of the world. That’s already happened and the plucky heroes likely died as they failed. The stars were eventually right, R’lyeh rose from the depths and the dark gods clambered their way back onto this plane of existence.

The mood is therefore not heroic.

The Genre might be described as dystopian, apocalyptic (not post-apocalyptic as the apocalypse is currently proceeding) horror.

Your characters are survivors. They’ve all experienced something horrible and lived to tell the tale.

The 23rd Letter, 3rd Edition playtest doc

It’s out there in the wild. We are inviting you to the Playtest.

Either join our little Discord or, if you already own The 23rd Letter 2nd Edition, check your inbox as you’ll have been sent a link.

The highlights are

New character options in a new archetype-based system
More focus on The Network
Explosive escalation of Psychic Talents with Stress
New system compatible with Year Zero Engine (allowing you to take advantage of supplements for Twilight 2000 or even Blade Runner)
Foundation of a new story arc for the mid-21st Century

Where you can help?

Tell us what you like and what you don’t like.
Help us decide the final art style for the game
Find us on the Discord and chat about what you want or need in a game.

Power Armour (Living Steel) for YZE-Step

An M.I. lives by his suit the way a K-9 man lives by and with and on his doggie partner. Powered armor is one-half the reason we call ourselves "mobile infantry" instead of just "infantry." (The other half are the spaceships that drop us and the capsules we drop in.) Our suits give us better eyes, better ears, stronger backs (to carry heavier weapons and more ammo), better legs, more intelligence ("intelligence" in the military meaning; a man in a suit can be just as stupid as anybody else only he had better not be), more firepower, greater endurance, less vulnerability. A suit isn't a space suit—although it can serve as one. It is not primarily armor—although the Knights of the Round Table were not armored as well as we are. It isn't a tank—but a single M.I. private could take on a squadron of those things and knock them off unassisted if anybody was silly enough to put tanks against M.I. A suit is not a ship but it can fly, a little; on the other hand neither spaceships nor atmosphere craft can fight against a man in a suit except by saturation bombing of the area he is in (like burning down a house to get one flea!). Contrariwise we can do many things that no ship—air, submersible, or space—can do.

The Powered Armour suits used by the Seven Worlds, the Starguild and the Dragoncrests.
There are three types:
Heavy – used for front line combat
Medium – used for activities within Cities
Light – used about starcraft

There is a fourth, Skiffdress, which is specifically used for boarding actions. It is uncommon for Starguild troops trained in one type to be experienced in another type though within the Seven Worlds, the chassis is common and only the armour weight is exchanged.

HCPA – 450 kgs of metal, ceramics and electronics designed for front line combat and limited by the amount of ground pressure.
MCPA – 300 kgs of metal, ceramics and electronics designed for situations where flooring and roofs will not support the heavier armour.
LCPA – 150 kgs of ceramics and electronics for the more fragile environments found aboard spacecraft.

Common to every Power Armour variant are:

Power Unit – this unit is sized for the armour. These run off rechargeable packs which lasts 24 hours – HCPA requires 3 packs, Medium requires 2, Light requires only 1.
BiComp – the brain of the armour, handling the control of the servomotors as well as
targeting systems, medical circuits and comms. This is not an artificial intelligence but a well trained expert system.
Life Support – at the most basic, this is air supply and thermal controls but also includes some basic medical attention (supply of painkillers, tourniquets) and basic refreshment for a deployment of 24 hours. The Life Support medical component will also re-seal the suit if it is punctured, has a homing beacon and can, if necessary, excise a limb to save a life.

People without Power Armour are seriously outmatched.

The Armour increases strength and reactions, it enhances perception with automatic target acquisition and contextual holographic interpretation of visuals The suit has passive sensors (video and audio receivers, vibration detection) as well as active sensors (ultrasonics for navigating through smoke, radar for location of other craft and armour users). The suit also possesses seismic sensors for detecting stresses in ground surfaces.

Apart from Armour, the suit provides ECM countermeasures including radar dampening, and spectrum regulation systems which not only allow a degree of chameleon-like camouflage but also can reduce damage from directed light offensive systems. The sensors used to emulate the chameleon patterns will also detect advanced targeting and laser painting. In a non-combat environment, this chameleon technology is used to designate unit colours, insignia, rank and even emoticons.

The suit struggles with Thermal dampening but can reduce heat output to environmental levels for one hour before systems after affected. Usually the rear of the suit is a large heat source. The Thermal Dampening System is refreshed by one minute of complete shutdown of operations (which may cause a significant heat flare).

Each system/subsystem within the Armour can be damaged if the armour is penetrated. The human within is just one such subsystem

System Stats
Against Human Combatants without Armour, Automatic Success (but roll for additional
successes).
Targeting Computer adds +2 to hit in Melee or Ranged
ECMs mean -2 to hit with electronic targeting.
Camo means -1 to hit with optical targeting.

Reign of Fire for YZE-Step

Challenged to make a Reign of Fire game with our current 23rd Letter rules gives us a bit of thought.

In Forbidden Lands (YZE), dragons are pretty nasty. Even the small ones.

MIGHT 32 (that is ridiculous but we will come to it) AGILITY 4 (equivalent to d10) WITS 4 (equivalent to d10) EMPATHY 2 (equivalent to d8)

They have Armour 8 (We can halve that to 4 and they’re still badass).

Skills: RECON d8, Lore d6, Persuade d6

And they attack like ALIENS, Roll d6.

Claw Attack 10 base dice with 2 damage which translates as 2d12 with base 2 damage.
Dragon Roar, everyone has to make a stability/CUFcheck
Dragon Wind 6 base dice with 1 damage which translates as d10+d8 and if you take damage you’re knocked to the ground (Prone)
Fire Attack, Range Short, 12 Base Dice, Damage 1 which translates as Range 2, d20+d12 with fire intensity D plus one step for each success against 1 HEX. Not blast damage.
Tail attack 8 base dice with damage of 1. Roll 2d10 instead and if hit, you’re knocked to the ground.
Firestorm 12 base dice and damage 1 which is Range 2, d20+d12 to hit, Fire intensity D against all PCs within 2 hexes increasing by 1 for each success.

The ‘Might 32’ bit is really their Hit Points. And with Armour 4, good luck scoring that one. There is a special rule for a called shot at -2 (due to size) for the eyes or scales. And that reduces armour to 2. YOU CAN DO IT!

You can get the full details in HERE BE DRAGONS.

Why Yeezy?

So, you know we have switched from out ERIS House System to the YZE for the Third Edition and we have been asked why.

The first reason is that it’s a decent system. It’s pretty grounded, pretty lethal and abstracts a lot of the bookkeeping (reducing crunch while maintaining verisimilitude). We are using the Step Dice version which is used in RPGs like Twilight 2000 4th Edition, Blade Runner, Terminal State, Exsanguine, micro2K, De Occulta.

The second is to take advantage of a lot of great content that’s been created for the Twilight 2000 4th Edition RPG. For a slightly more military campaign, the scenarios and equipment would be invaluable.

The third is making the rules available for games which need psychics but maybe don’t include them in the base game. Could Blade Runner do well with psychics? Hell, yeah.

The 23rd Letter 3rd Edition

So, we have been working a lot on this. The rules are probably 90% complete but we keep finding little places where we think a rule or guideline is needed. Like today it was clarifiying how Hideouts function mechanically in relation to Heat from the authorities.

We are starting to look at design and layout and starting to put together an art list. Art? I mean, there was zero art in the first two editions. Yes, there will be art in this edition. Some of the new concepts need some art to illustrate.

Changes we can talk about?

It’s less of a gun game. We have greatly simplified this.
It’s still lethal. It’s easy to be taken out of the fight.
We have changed the system considerably
Psychics are much more powerful, but still vulnerable
Greatly expanded rules for running the Network
Oh, the metaplot. Play it or ignore it. There’s a metaplot

And we are looking for a couple of playtesters. Get in touch.

Game Dev Discord

We have a Game Dev Discord which we are slowly opening up to a few more people.

Inside is space for asking questions about our existing published games as well as participating ideas for our upcoming books. Understand though that none of us do this full time – it’s a hobby where any money made pays for art. So, if this interests you, come on in!

Once you join there will be a little bit while we assign you permissions to the channels, so come in and ask what you want.

YZE Dice Roller – including Step Dice

AJ built this YZE dice roller on the site so we have a super quick way of rolling dice and collecting successes. It’s the only one that works for Step Dice YZE as well as Pool Dice.

Click the image and add to your bookmarks!

Dark Urban Fantasy I hear?

ExSanguine allows for the playing of Vampir Hunters, Familiars (humans enthralled by vampirs), Fiends (young vampires) and Elders. Plenty of supernaturals mentioned in there, eh?

De Occulta allows for playing of Occultists (magicians). But De Occulta presents the rules on how to magically create a “Frankenstein” as well as declaring that Pneuma can be people. So that’s two more factors (flesh golems, ghosts) in the Dark Urban Fantasy hinted at. The Shem also brings in actual golems, The Belt of Peter Stumpp brings in shapechangers if not actual classic wolf-men. The Fay are more than mentioned with the inclusion of Maleperdys and don’t forget the half-fish people in Y’a-nthlea.

Very quickly we start to build a whole pantheon of supernaturals, each with their own abilities.