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| Nekropol cover art |
Nekropol isn't so much a complete game as it is a system-neutral setting designed to be dropped into a game. Nekropol is a city-state of post-mortals sculpted by surgery to suit the needs of its rulers. If that seems a little dark, you're right. Which reminds me: BugbearSlug is careful to put content warnings in the book.
I'll repeat those content warnings here: Cannibalism, Body Horror, Necromancy.
There are two ways of making a character for Nekropol. The first is to create a character that is part of the setting. Such characters come complete with backgrounds and careers in Nekropol. The second is what I'm doing here - taking an outsider, killing them, and reanimating them as undead.
Onyx is not in for a good time.
Morzana Onyx lived a long, magically-extended life. During it, she searched long and hard to expand her knowledge of necromancy. She reached the diminishing returns stage before tasting the potion that added a decade to her life. Infamous necromancers that knew no more than she did. Fragments that revealed what she already knew. The flow of secrets slowed to a trickle. By the time Onyx was contemplating the choice between becoming a vampire or a lich, she was wasting vast resources for hints of greater knowledge.
Then she learned of a place of where undead flesh was remade to fit the functions decreed by factional leaders. Here necromancy was made into industry. The evidence was before her - an imitation of life made of ivory. The craftsmanship was beyond any she had ever seen. It claimed to be an agent of one of those factions. The creature offered her a journey to this place. All she had to lose was her life.
Onyx is an outsider to Nekropol. Which cuts out about two-thirds of character generation. That leaves me with rolling three dice and making some decisions on exactly what kind of undead horror is coming out of this process. Just the thing for a cold and gloomy Sunday.
Rolling the dice and consulting the tables under the "Deflesh and Reanimate" step, I got: A 4 ("Stately"), 1 ("Abattoir"), and 3 ("Post-Mortals"). This tells me where in the book I can select options from (pages 4, 7, and 15 in this case). If I were making a character from Nekropol, these results would also indicate workforce, district, and faction.
Given the choices available, I pick the "Phasing Skull" from the Abattoir Promenade. It enables Onyx to push any part of her body except her skull through non-organic solid material. Next I choose the "Proto-Phylactery" skeleton from the Post-Mortal faction. Onyx can tear off any of the bones that now make up her body to regenerate a replacement immediately. This ability only applies to body parts that are not a skull or graft (enhancements built into an undead body).
There was no sudden intake of breath or quickening of pulse. Such things were now alien to Onyx's body, but her soul was safely encased in her bare skull. Tall buildings and vast industrial spaces erupted from the blasted earth around her and clawed for the skies.
Where to begin?
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