How to Play FATHOM

You've all heard the story before.

Monster meets Girl.

Monster captures Girl.

Knight In Shining Armor rescues Girl.



And then there's this story.

The one where Girl shoots Monster in the face.



FATHOM: Maiden Voyage is a series of island-hopping adventures in which YOU are the heroines.

You fight the monsters and save the day, or save yourselves, or maybe even save a knight in shining armor.

But you can't even save 15% on boat insurance until you have a heroine to play as...

 

So allow me to introduce Team FATHOM, starting with our littlest heroine:

The Fairy is as dinky as your pinky, but her sparkly little wings are covered in some kind of magical dust. She even has a tiny bow that can launch the dust in the form of a golden arrow that must be ten times as long as the Fairy is tall! What else can her fairy dust do? Probably lots of weird things. Magic seems to vary from island to island.



Next, but definitely not least, is the tower of power known as the Amazon.

She's a warrior princess, even though she's dressed like a warrior pauper. Skills include Hitting Really Hard With An Oversized Sword, Hitting Even Harder With Two Oversized Swords, Breaking A Sword Over An Enemy's Head, and Grabbing An Enemy By The Throat And Swinging Him At Another Enemy, but not Dodge Ball. She excels at every other sport, but the Amazon sucks at Dodge Ball.



We do have a knight in shining armor, sort of...

...the Tin Maiden is shining armor, with all kinds of copper wires and things that light up and a soul! It seems this living robot was built with a purpose long forgotten. Maybe others of her kind have answers, if others of her kind even exist...

 

And this is a Huntresses Attack Monsters! off-shoot, so...

...of course there's a Huntress! She's the one character who's completely human. No wings, no elephant-wrestling prowess, no rocket booster attachments. Just pure skill and professional grade monster hunting equipment.



Like Artemis Herself, the Huntress knows there is no hunting companion more reliable than a maiden nymph!

The Oceanid is the perfect nymph to have aboard your ship, as long as you treat her well. When she is calm, the sea around her is calm. Stormy seas are a sign that something is troubling the Oceanid. While content wearing nothing but sea foam, seaweed and sea creatures, all nymphs appreciate wearing whatever the fashionable human ladies are raving about these days.



And for those of you who refuse to believe all monsters are evil...

...you're right. They're not all bad. There are plenty of Monstresses out there: Kentaurides, Harpies, Arachnes... and they all appear to have only one thing in common: they are half woman, half beast. Oh... and rumor has it that Monstresses probably all have another thing in common, like a great great great great great great great great great grandmother who was cursed and transformed into a bestial woman.

 

So at this point, you're probably wondering what all the colorful dice are about. I'll get to that in a bit. I just need to pause for a compliment from a cat...

 

Sorry. It's very rare a cat pays a compliment. Dogs are the yes-men of the animal kingdom, but cats... they're brutally honest.

Anyway, the dice system is a D6 System I thought I made up myself, but it turns out it's a rather standard system strikingly similar to one called "The D6 System." Ask Google.

However, I did--all by myself and without my parents' permission--come up with stats called "Fight," "Shoot" and "Magic." Those represent how well each heroine can fight, shoot or use magic. The Fairy sucks at fighting, so she rolls only one Fight die. There's a decent chance she'll score a hit that will burst in fairy dust and send a wimpy opponent reeling. There's also an equally good chance she'll get clobbered by a sword, fly swatter or other melee weapon. On the other hand, she rolls four Shoot dice. So she should probably fly well out of melee range and use her fairy bow in combat.

More dice means better odds of success. Easy enough to grasp that, right?



Now, here's how combat works. First, you get attacked, unless you want to play a jerk who goes around hitting NPCs who are minding their business in case one happens to be an assh

...

First, you get attacked. There's a GM post that says,

A giant pink fuzzy die attempts to headbutt Li'l Baldy the Chibi Amazon.

YOU, the player, need to roll defense!



Oh my lucky stars! At least one of your Fight dice came up as a 5. You need a 5+ to succeed when defending because the bad guys will never hit you if I make the number any lower. Trust me. This ain't my first D6-based rodeo.

Anyway, your turn isn't over. You roll an attack and say something clever like, "DIE, DIE!" or if that's so deadpan you can't even tell it's a pun, you can go back and edit so you instead say, "Pink Fuzzy Die, my sword will deliver you a pink fuzzy death!" It doesn't really matter what you say because you're charging wildly so your voice sounds more like, "PRRRRRGHFUDDABLAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRZTH!!!!!"

What does matter is that you roll enough 3+s to defeat the enemy.



In summary, there are two rolls in a combat round.

1. Roll defense; 5+ = success.
2. Roll attack; 3+ = success; 6 = combo.

I didn't make a graphic for the combo system, so I'll get into that when we start the game.

Any questions? Please post 'em in the discussion thread.

 

Might and Magic
Each heroine has different abilities when it comes to the physical and the magical.

Let's start with the physical.

The Amazon is the mightiest of the bunch. You can tell because she has the most hearts and fight dice.
Her Fight and Shoot attacks do not require her to be armed, though she can wield any weapon or even two weapons. When unarmed, she can punch, kick, grapple, and throw people—or creatures and objects that are way heavier than a person!

The Tin Maiden and Monstress are stronger than most humans. They have tough hides and usually have one natural attack. In the case of the Monstress, she might have claws, horns or hooves for a natural Fight attack, or she may have a natural Shoot attack if she's an acid-spitter or web-slinger. She should have at least one natural attack, and her human half can carry a weapon so she is able to both Fight and Shoot effectively. The Tin Maiden can use her metal fists and feet as her natural Fight attack, or she may have a built-in hammer or cutting tool.

The Huntress and Oceanid are only human as far as physical strength goes. They can use any weapon a human can wield, and they can throw rocks if unarmed. Unarmed attacks are only effective if they strike the same opponent multiple times. (I'll get into combos later.)

How strong is the Fairy?

She's not.

So you can expect her Fight attacks to be ineffective. The Fairy needs to score a combo just to slap enough fairy dust onto an enemy to affect him. She's way better off using her fairy bow to Shoot. Without the bow, she can drop tiny pebbles from way up, but again, only a combo attack will blast enough fairy dust onto the enemy to do any good.



NOTE: Unless there's a plot that forces you to be unarmed, you don't need to worry about not having the proper weapon on you.

 

When it comes to Magic, the Fairy and Oceanid are the magical girls of Team FATHOM. The Fairy sprinkles fairy dust on friends to be helpful, whereas the Oceanid uses water as her magical source.



Fairy Magic

Attack
• Glitter Rave - the Fairy sprinkles fairy dust, giving the weak minded an uncontrollable urge to dance.
• Raging Eruption - an angry Fairy's dust causes explosions.
• Call of the Wild Flower - a frightened Fairy's dust compels nature to rescue her.

Healing
• Sacrificial Maiden - the Fairy or Oceanid can sacrifice 1HP to heal her friends. Each successful die roll adds 1HP to a friend, and each 6 you roll adds 1HP to both the healer AND a friend. (In other words, by rolling one six, the healer is unharmed, and by rolling multiple sixes, the healer heals herself.)
• Fairy Circle - on any serene and natural environment on an island, the Fairy can heal the party while they relax. Everyone's HP will be full after about an hour, but the healer will feel a little tired.
• Hot Spring - the Fairy and Oceanid combine their healing magic in a natural spring, so everyone can relax for an hour or so, including the healers!

Movement
• Happy Thoughts - the Fairy can sprinkle dust on her friends to make them fly. This only works when her friends are not under duress. If they are already falling, the fairy can only slow one fall per successful roll. No one will be calm enough for the magic to work unless the Fairy rolls high enough to save every flightless friend! (So if 4 allies are falling, you need to roll a 4 before everyone hits the ground.)

Appearance
• Mood Wings - the Fairy's golden glow changes color, depending on her mood. There's even a song about it:

Twinkle, twinkle, golden Fairy
Fade to white when things get scary
Tiny teardrops tap the blues
In a huff, cheeks puff red hues
Green-eyed envy toots a stink
Love looks cute in perfume-pink​

Component Magic
• Shrinking Violet - if the Fairy dons a dress made of violet petals, she can dilate her size an inch or two—or all three of her inches, which would make her microscopic, nanometric, or unfathomably tiny. The violet itself does not shrink, and does not fit a fairy body smaller than 2 inches. The fairy rolls 3 DEF dice to see how many inches tall she ends up. A 3 means she doesn't shrink at all, a 1 or 2 shrinks her to 1 or 2 inches, and a 0 means she keeps shrinking until she's too small for an insect to see! She will grow back at sunrise.

Stats: her height in inches determines the number of Magic dice she has in her shrunken form. At micro-size, the Fairy doesn't roll. She cannot move very far on her own, but will get to wherever she's going undetected and unscathed.​

• Fairy Blossom - if the Fairy plucks a fresh blossom, she can dilate a foot or so larger. As she grows, blossoms sprout around her body. If doll-sized (1-2 ft), the blossoms form doll clothes. If child-sized (3-4 ft), she'll be dressed like a schoolgirl. If as tall as her friends (5-6 ft), she'll be quite fashionable. The fairy rolls 3 ATK dice (no re-roll for 6s), scoring a number from 1-6. That's how many feet tall she becomes until midnight. A roll of 0 means her height does not change.

Stats: as she grows from 1-3 feet, the Fairy loses Shoot dice. As she grows from 4-6 feet, she gains Fight dice. She also gains 1HP for every foot she grows. At 3-4 feet tall, the Fairy can only use her wings to slow her fall. At 5-6 feet, the Fairy is wingless.​

Oceanid Magic

Attacks
• Squirt Gun - the Oceanid blasts enemies with water to wash them away
• Ice Princess Gaze - the Oceanid can freeze an unwanted advance by creating a slippery surface or encasing men in ice.
• Raging Storm - the Oceanid does not like being attacked by sea monsters! She can roll the dice for lightning attacks while threatened at sea.

Healing
• Sacrificial Maiden - the Fairy or Oceanid can sacrifice 1HP to heal her friends. Each successful die roll adds 1HP to a friend, and each 6 you roll adds 1HP to both the healer AND a friend. (In other words, by rolling one six, the healer is unharmed, and by rolling multiple sixes, the healer heals herself.)
• Artemisean Bath - in any serene and natural water, the Oceanid can heal the party while they relax. Everyone's HP will be full after about an hour, but the healer will feel a little tired.
• Hot Spring - the Fairy and Oceanid combine their healing magic in a natural spring, so everyone can relax for an hour or so, including the healers!

Movement
• Mermaid's Kiss - the Oceanid can grant 1 minute of underwater breathing for each successful roll. She can cast this spell all she wants, so if there is no combat, assume she is blowing kisses as the party swims.

Appearance
• Flowing Gown - the Oceanid can form a gown out of water. The current within the gown is opaque enough for the nymph to appear fully dressed, though she feels like she's skinny-dipping!
• Moody Blue - the Oceanid's mood also has a magical effect while at sea. A calm Oceanid on a ship calms the sea, but when things are going rough, the sea gets rough—or even stormy if the Oceanid is enraged.

Component Magic
• Pearl of Wisdom - if the Oceanid finds a perfect pearl or other precious stone or object under the sea, she might learn something from it.

 

Technology is able to harness magical elements. The Tin Maiden and Huntress both have access to state-of-the-art tech, and can start the game with one type of hi-tech attachment or rechargeable trap.



Tin Maiden Attachments

Earth
• Earth Crunchers - the Tin Maiden has advanced mining tools that allow her to efficiently burrow underground. She also has enhanced multispectral vision so she can see what she's drilling toward.
• Magic Attack causes destruction or earth quakes

Electricity
• Lightning Hook - the Tin Maiden can use electricity to magnetically grab, attract or repel metal. She can also send her soul into another metal body.
• Magic Attack zaps with lightning or stuns with thunder

Fire
• Rocket Boosters - the Tin Maiden can use rocket boosters to propel herself high into the air. She can also cook!
• Magic Attack burns or blasts

Ice
• Ice Blades - the Tin Maiden can freeze moisture and sculpt an object out of ice. She can also skate across her ice sculptures or the sea as it freezes beneath her bladed feet.
• Magic Attack freezes enemies or any surface, land or water

Sonic
• Keledone Vocal Cord - the Tin Maiden can sing a song that boosts moral or she can find the perfect diplomatic words and state them perfectly. She can also imitate animal sounds and communicate with any creature.
• Magic Attack stuns with a sonic boom or shatters glass and other fragile things



Huntress Traps

Earth
• Pit Trap - the Huntress can set a pit trap, which will cause the ground to collapse underneath a large creature or a group.
• Environment: land only
• Special: destructive

Electricity
• Shock Trap - the Huntress can set or roll a shock trap, which will stun multiple enemies or keep a large creature stunned for a long time
• Environment: land or sea
• Special: can roll or set

Fire
• Land Mine - the Huntress can set a land mine, which will explode underneath a large creature or a group.
• Environment: land only
• Special: destructive

Ice
• Ice Slick - the Huntress can roll an ice slick, which will spread across an environment, hindering pursuers.
• Environment: land or sea
• Special: can strike enemies or the surface, land or water

Mundane
• Improvised Trap - the Huntress can set a trap using the environment around her.
• Environment: land only
• Special: player's creativity helps determine the effectiveness of the trap!

 

The Amazon and Monstress lack high magic and technology, but they do have a "primal" aspect that some think of as magic.



Amazon Voice

Battle Cry
• Woad Warrioress - The Amazon paints her body to prepare for battle. As she performs the ritual, only she knows he meaning behind the woad patterns. Some italicized text that shares this thought with the GM would be quite helpful. For example, does the Amazon want the enemies to rush to her so that she—as opposed to her comparatively delicate allies—becomes the target? If so, she makes a battle cry—preferably in the form of a brief but dramatic monologue—and a Magic Attack die roll.

Beast Speaking
• Beast Mistress - The Amazon can ride a feral beast and boss it around, assuming some targeted plot leads to her having a beast that will (occasionally) do exactly as told. How well it obeys depends on the Magic dice!



Monstress Voice

Battle Cry
• Primal Roar - The Monstress is basically human from the neck up, and her other half might not even be a roaring animal. But whinnying isn't going to scare anyone, so she shouts out and rolls Magic Attack dice. How her roar effects the enemy is based on the reaction she's aiming for and, of course, the die roll.

Beast Speaking
• Leader of the Pack - The Monstress can rally a pack of wild creatures to do her bidding. Success is on the 0:wtf-10+:ftw scale, but the die roll is doubled when calling on creatures who are either resemble the Monstress' bestial half or naturally fear it.



Huntress Voice

Beast Speaking
• Hawker - The Huntress can send a hawk, falcon or other bird into the air as a scout.

• Hounder - The Huntress can have a dog or other domesticated predator sniff out a target.

• Horse Whisperer - The Huntress can ride a horse or other trained mount, such as a dolphin. The mount takes commands.

 

Health
And now a word on nutrition health.

This is your health bar, which I like to think of as a KOOK bar:
KO♥♥♥OK

It's like those little hearts have invisible letters hugging them like a pair of paranthe the hell am I...?

So the first time something bad happens, like a sword hits you, or you slip on a banana peel, or a nuclear power plant explodes in your face, you are "Not OK."

That means you go from this
KO♥♥♥OK
to this
KO♥♥♥

Make sense? Well, it will after I put up the GM post, which currently displays the heath of our two Monstresses. You'll see they both still have 5 hearts, but are Not OK. Obviously, being shot in the ass with a laser beam (two beams, technically) hurts more then stumbling through a magical door. The OK is like a free hit.

Once you are Not OK, enemies can take away hearts. You will lose ♥ from a normal hit unless you roll a 1+ with DEF dice. A heavy attack will take away ♥♥, unless you roll a 2+ with DEF dice. And some enemies will use combo attacks which take away ♥♥♥ unless you roll a 1+ in DEF and say "C-C-C-COMBO BREAKER!" aloud. (I'll pretend if you roll the 1+.)

 

Combos
And speaking of combos, what better way to learn a combo system than to actually trigger one on your first battle!

If one of your dice—just one!—comes up as a natural six, you have options:

A. Repeat the attack, until you stop rolling sixes:



The result of the above combo is triple damage!

 

B. You can change up the attack, using different attack dice for a Combo Finish.

Switching attack dice means you commit to finishing the combo on that roll, but—if you hit—the hit is extra powerful, or it may have an effect that a normal attack cannot possibly deliver.


The above is as powerful as a 3-hit combo, though in this case, the result was 1 damage plus a major hindering effect that forced the enemy to lose its turn.

Note: the player said the magic effect was designed to enhance penetration. I could have interpreted that as 3 damage, or the effect I went with instead—which I hope will make the fairy's peanut-sized head swell with pride!

 

C. Both! You can repeat the attack until you feel you've pressed your luck enough, then you can switch atk dice for a combo finish.



This attack is as powerful as a 5-hit combo. The result is 2 damage and a major hindering effect made permanent.

...and a quick note on hindering: permanent blindness is a cheap trick (a.k.a., OP). I won't normally shut down a beast's eyes completely... but two successful shots to the eyes plus a combo finish. I can't say no to that.

^Precedence established!

 

Maidens Unfair
In your typical RPG, battle is fair. You kill, maim, destroy... and then it happens to you.

"I messed with the wrong random NPC."
~Sir Joe Black of the Order of the Boring Boar​

I'm running an atypical RPG. Here's the level of realism I'm aiming for:

Advantage: Huntress​

There's no pretense of a fair fight. Enemies have way more HP than you or outnumber you by dozens, but you fend attacks more easily than they do. Also, this is more like a JRPG in the sense that 0 HP means you're KO'd. A healer can bring you back up, or you just wake up with 1 HP after the battle.

As for that enemy HP, it's like this: a huge monster has more HP than you, or possibly the combined total of the entire party's HP. When you roll vs. a monster, the monster has defense either due to toughness or defensive skill. Defense basically means to need a roll > 1 to actually harm or hinder the monster.

Lv.1
Tough: need a 2 to hit
Skilled: need a 3 to hit

As you face more powerful monsters, they prove to be tougher or more highly skilled.

Lv.2
Extra Tough: need a 4 to hit
Tough and Skilled: need a 5 to hit
Highly Skilled: need a 6 to hit

And some are so powerful, you may need to roll a combo just to hit them once.

Lv.3
Skilled and Ex-Tough: need a 7 to hit
Tough and Hi-Skilled: need an 8 to hit

Toughness is a physical property that doesn't go away, but skilled defense is broken once you've rolled high enough to break the enemy's defense.

So against that highly skilled tough guy...

...Spinette didn't roll an 8, but she combo'd, so she rolls again...

...and now her total is 8. That's a hit, and the combo isn't finished yet. The enemy's skill won't help him—just his toughness will. As long as Spinette rolls a 2, she'll land her next attack.



I don't expect you to remember any of that. Hell, I wrote it down so I won't forget.

The easier bit is when you take on a horde of unskilled mooks. Vs. a horde, the number you roll determines how many mooks you kill. So if you roll a 4 against mooks with 1 HP each, you kill four of them in a single roll!

 

Stats Update Coming Soon!

Yes, a bit of nerfing will happen, but there's a reason for it: human nature. That is, there isn't a good reason to not roll your best attack die to attack, so those 3-4-1 stats are a crappy design flaw I intend to rectify in ep.#1.

To get the effect I was going for: if a heroine is versatile by design, she needs multiple stats with a 3. If a heroine is the best at something, she gets a 4, but the other stats are average at best.

Stats update will work out so you get 7 dice, and they mean something.

For the physical:
2 = normal human
4 = extremely well-trained human
3 = naturally stronger or faster than a human
1 = naturally way-tinier or metallically-clunkier than a human

For the magical:
3 = magical girl
1 = not^

And so you're not stuck rolling 1s in defense, you get 2 additional dice for defense:
+2 shoot def for tininess
+2 magic dice for the soft but magical nymph
+1 def to fight and shoot for being made of metal
+1 def to fight and magic for beast hide, whether it's part of your body (monstress) or not (huntress). And the Amazon seems to be just as armored whether wearing full plate or two pieces of string.

The fairy will still end up with 1 die for fight def. Think of a fly going into swatter range. Use the wings and you won't be rolling fight def. She gets a 5 in shoot def because a fairy should be harder to hit than a huntress. I'll also tie stealth to def: roll to see if you don't get spotted.

I'll post the stats later. I want to think it through, in the hope that I won't feel the need to make other changes in ep.#2. I think balance issues are a little thing anyway, since the combo system is fun... though I'm jealous of Xenalite! (Glad your PCs is doing all the work instead of my NPCs, but still... 5 hits!) That said, I want you to just have your characters do their thing and not have to weigh the mathiness so much. So you're great at one thing or just as good at two things. Simple that way... I think.

 

Next Level Sh...oot Dice

*Scoff!* That Amazon is like totally using Fight Dice.​

I drew that today AND updated the stats. Here they are:


FAIRY: a tiny magical girl
♥️♥️♥️
• Fight 1
• Shoot 3 / 5 DEF
• Magic 3

AMAZON: an athletic warrior
♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️
• Fight 4 / 5 DEF
• Shoot 2
• Magic 1 / 2 DEF

TIN MAIDEN: a living machine
♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️
• Fight 3 / 4 DEF
• Shoot 1 / 2 DEF
• Magic 3

HUNTRESS: a stealthy archer
♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️
• Fight 2 / 3 DEF
• Shoot 4
• Magic 1 / 2 DEF

OCEANID: an aquatic nymph
♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️
• Fight 2
• Shoot 2
• Magic 3 / 5 DEF

MONSTRESS: half-woman, half-beast
♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️
• Fight 3 / 4 DEF
• Shoot 3
• Magic 1 / 2 DEF

Spoiler: Notes, If You Want to Know...

...What I Was Thinking:

• Fairy - she gets the best shoot defense because she's dinky

• Amazon - I'm not gonna piss Xenalite off by messing with her fight stat

• Tin Maiden - still a techno-fighter-mage who's too clunky to do stealth well

• Huntress - the best shooter--and this is actually the only change that truly redesigns the heroine. Before, she was versatile, but not the best at anything

• Oceanid - so flawless, she doesn't even have a dump stat; also, she has the best magic defense

• Monstress - the only heroine who is better than a human at both fighting and shooting

• ♥️ = # of FIGHT ATK dice + # of FIGHT DEF dice + Level (6 = max level)

 

See above post. I added HP for Lv.1 heroines.

PS- this post is boring. I'll delete it later.