Path of the Black Flag
Roleplaying Anarchy in Your Fantasy Roleplaying Game
Note: This document is a rough draft, suitable for beta reading and playtesting. Please leave comments on spelling, grammar, editing, internal logic, accessibility of material, what material should be added, what material should be discarded, playability, and satisfaction with the overall text and concept.
Welcome to Path of the Black Flag. This book is designed to help you introduce Anarchy into your Pathfinder fantasy role-playing game. It contains new campaign material, new archetypes, new feats, skills, spells, wondrous items, new rules for combat, and gamemaster tips for running Anarchist campaigns. Future editions will provide similar rules for other roleplaying games.
The themes and some of the practices described in this book may be considered controversial, and ‘adult’. The author will not argue against that, but will merely point out that a game that regularly deals with homicides committed by main characters, not to mention demonic possession, already has plenty of adult themes within it. One more won’t hurt.
Introducing Anarchy Into Your Game 7
Hierarchal Political Traits 10
The Hierarchical Alignments 13
Restricted Classes and Archetypes 14
Counter-Insurgent (Inquisitor Archetype) 15
Black Banner, Order of (Cavalier Order) 16
Black Cat (Witch Archetype) 17
Black Turban (Ninja Archetype) 18
Freedom, Spirit of (Shaman Spirit) 19
Gaolbird (Brawler Archetype) 20
Guerilla (Ranger Archetype) 21
Gun Sovereign (Gunslinger Archetype) 21
Liberation Mystery (Oracle Mystery) 22
Nonconformist (Inquisitor Archetype) 24
Nightmare Child (Summoner Archetype) 25
Petroleuse (Alchemist Archetype) 25
Pyrochemical Specialization 26
Sans Culotte (Fighter Archetype) 26
Street Parson (Cleric Archetype) 27
Weapons & Armor Proficiency 27
Syndicate Wizard (Wizard Archetype) 27
Whistleblower (Investigator Archetype) 30
Inexhaustible Printing Press 41
How to Run an Anarchist Campaign 44
Chapter 1- Campaign & Character Basics
For the purposes of this book, an Anarchy is a society that exists without a government, or hierarchy. Since there are different ideas of what living without a government or hierarchy means, there are different types of Anarchies that can be used in your game. There are many historical examples of those different types of Anarchies to draw on for inspiration. Both the different types of Anarchies and their historical examples will be discussed in chapter (XX).
Anarchism is the ideology and methodology of bringing about an Anarchy. There are many different ways that people think an Anarchy can come about. This means that there are, in fact, different types of Anarchisms, even if they are somewhat related. They can be open or hidden in their intentions, and they can be peaceful or violent in their actions, with a lot of other variations besides. The different philosophies of Anarchy may be found in the ‘Traits’(XX) and ‘Alignments’(XX) sections, while the different strategies may be found in the ‘Strategies of Liberation’(XX) section.
An Anarchist is a person who believes in and practices Anarchism. Different classes tend to take different approaches towards being an Anarchist. The different ways classes handle Anarchy are found in chapter (XX).
There are three basic approaches to using Anarchy in your game: Negative, Neutral, or Positive. Anarchists can be the heroes of your game, or the villains, or just part of the landscape. Most games will use a combination of all three approaches, with different groups and types of Anarchists playing different roles.
The Anarchists are a bunch of smelly malcontents, probably paid off by a foreign power, intent on wrecking the great institutions that have given the people so much. They have an irrational hatred of tradition and family, of the gods and working hard, and of the common good. They are crazy, cowardly murderers, who will kill without remorse.
This sort of campaign works well with characters who want to play some version of law enforcement, and with primarily lawful characters. Paladins and inquisitors of Community, War, and Justice deities would be an especially good fit.
The Anarchists mean well, but they are hopelessly naive about how the world really works. They don’t realize that sometimes you need a boss, a king, and a city guard. Their utopian dreams sound nice, but they’re just that, unworkable dreams. They may fight for the right thing, but they refuse to accept reality, and that the best thing they could do is to channel their energies into something more productive, like saving the kingdom from the evil duke.
This approach works best for light-hearted, apolitical groups. If the players are just getting into role-playing games, or prefer a looser style of play, this approach might work.
The Anarchists are right. All the kings and queens, all the high priests, all the greedy merchants, are oppressing and exploiting the poor and suffering. They get the poor humans to fight the poor hobgoblins, to distract them from realizing that the true ally of the poor human is the poor hobgoblin, and that their true enemies are the ones making them fight. The true adventure is joining with the peasantry to throw off the tyranny of the State.
Chaotic groups, and players interested in defying some of the conventions of standard fantasy role-playing games, could find this approach interesting. If the GM is interested in deconstructing some of fantasy tropes, using this approach will be useful.
Political Traits are a new set of traits that help you to define the beliefs and motivations of your character. They are divided into Anarchist Traits and Hierarchal Traits.
Anarchist Traits tell you what an Anarchist fights for, not merely what she fights against. While some traits may be combined, others are not complementary, and cannot normally both be held by the same character. Those non-complementary traits are noted in their descriptions. Also, all anarchist traits may be considered non-complementary with hierarchal traits, and can’t be combined with them.
Hierarchal Traits tell you the motivations and goals of those who champion government. In a campaign that has Anarchist characters, most of the antagonists will probably have hierarchal traits. While some of the hierarchal traits are widely considered despicable, others typically have a more positive connotation, giving the antagonists of your campaign some complexity. Hierarchal traits may also be possessed by allies and other non-antagonist NPCs in the campaign, making the interactions between and the Anarchist heroes more complex as well.
Not having a particular political trait does not mean a character is against or indifferent to that trait; it just means it is not their top priority. You don’t need to have an Anarchist trait to have an Anarchist archetype, or be considered an Anarchist. Someone can be an Anarchist, or defend hierarchy, without having that be a core part of their personality.
Alignment is important for Anarchist characters. They are not the characters in it for the money, nor the ones just happy to see the world, meet interesting creatures, and kill them. Anarchist characters are radicals, true believers, people who will risk life and limb for what they believe in. As such, they take the moral justification for their actions (or lack thereof) quite seriously.
There is one distinction that needs to be made before we get into alignments; the distinction between Order and Law. Anarchists don’t have a problem with Order, per se. They see Order as something that grows, organically, out of the dynamic, peaceful, voluntary interactions of individuals. In other words, Anarchists believe that Order comes from Chaos.
Law, on the other hand, is the imposition of a set of rules over other people. Anarchists believe that this leads to disorder, violence, theft, and misery. This is why Anarchists oppose Law, and why the lawful alignments are not suitable for Anarchist characters. So, although this chapter includes sections on how the Lawful alignments view Anarchy, it assumes that the Lawful Character won’t be an Anarchist.
While an Anarchist may be of a Chaotic or a Neutral alignment, that does not mean that every Chaotic or Neutral character is, in fact, an Anarchist. Even the most chaotic character may profess loyalty to a king or a nobleman. Most characters, most people, simply don’t think about politics much at all, and accept the way things are, no matter what that way might be. What makes an Anarchist character an Anarchist is not so much their alignment, but what their commitment to their alignment causes them to do.
In many ways, this is the alignment that most Anarchists aspire to, if not achieve. Chaotic Good Anarchists believe that orderliness and goodness come about when you stop trying to control people, and let people live their own lives. They strive to be good in their own lives, and fight to give others the same freedom.
Neutral Good Anarchists believe in freedom and goodness, but they feel that sometimes people simply aren’t ready for too much freedom. They will strive to end tyranny, and believe that ultimately the State is the cause of great evil. But sometimes, they feel, you have to be strategic in your thinking, and occasionally tolerate, or even tactically support, the relatively small evil of a particular State to prevent or combat a greater evil.
Chaotic Neutral Anarchists believe that the only good is personal liberty and autonomy. People may use that freedom for good or evil, but the important thing is that they have it, as that is the only thing that makes them truly people. Conversely, they believe that to impose your will on others, to rule people, is the only true evil, and must be ruthlessly opposed- both because it is offensive, and as a matter of preserving their own liberty from the imposition.
True Neutral Anarchists passionately hold to an ideal, such as protecting the environment, learning the secrets of the universe, or making sure no one goes hungry. They believe the State is a threat to that ideal- petty niceties such as good vs evil, personal autonomy vs imposed order, simply don’t enter into it. They fight against the State, and form friendships and strategic partnerships, but they are above all pragmatic in the service of their ideal. They will not hesitate to tactically use the State, or work against it; be kind and compassionate, or be cruel and ruthless, in the service of that ideal.
If Chaotic Good Anarchists are what most Anarchists aspire to, Chaotic Evil Anarchists are what most non-Anarchists fear. They respect no law, and no social convention. They demand personal autonomy, and plan to use that autonomy to fulfill their own base desires, regardless of who they hurt along the way.
Neutral Evil Anarchists are what happens when cynicism replaces idealism, and greed replaces empathy. They mouth the old Anarchist slogans, and certainly see no benefit to themselves of a State, in general. But they will betray anyone, and do anything they can, to get what they want. And if that means tactically using the apparatus of the state to do something horrific to innocent people, then so be it.
Lawful Good
Lawful Good characters sympathize with the rage and frustration of the Anarchists, because it is the same rage and frustration that they face within themselves, every day, as they try to reconcile doing good and following the laws and dictates of others. But they also resent the Anarchists, for giving up on the struggle that the Lawful Good people still go through. When they encounter Anarchists that they consider good, they continually try to channel the energy of the Anarchists into more lawful avenues.
For the Lawful Neutral Character, the law is the highest good. Anarchists spit in the face of that. They are heretics and blasphemers, perhaps literally if the character is a Lawful Neutral cleric. An existential threat, they must be constantly opposed.
Anarchists make Lawful Evil characters nervous, because they don’t play by the same rules as the Lawful Evil characters do. They don’t value the same things. Some might try to manipulate the Anarchists to further their schemes. Some might simply dismiss them as mad fools, like all the other mad fools out there. Some Lawful Evil characters take a perverse delight in corrupting and co-opting Anarchists. But all in all, the Anarchists still make them nervous.
Chapter 2- Classes & Archetypes
The classes that adventurers choose help inform the kind of campaign they play in, and vice versa.If you know you’re going to be playing in a campaign filled with subtle intrigue and magical dueling, then you as a player you may choose not to play the mute, magic-hating barbarian. If your party consists of monks, rogues, and a druid, then as a gamemaster you may decide to nix that whole competitive jousting subplot.
The decision to play Anarchist characters, or to play in an Anarchist campaign, also informs what sort of classes, and what sort of archetypes, players will choose. Because of the alignments restrictions facing Anarchists, classes that require Lawful alignment (paladins and monks) cannot be chosen for Anarchist characters. In addition, there are a number of archetypes that, due to the nature of what those archetypes do and how they work, are normally restricted from being Anarchists. If an archetype is not listed below, it can be assumed to be one that Anarchists can choose. Due to the nature of this book, it is impossible to rate archetypes from 3rd party publishers as restricted or not. Players and gamemasters are encouraged to use their own judgement.
Classes | Restricted Archetypes | Classes | Restricted Archetypes |
Alchemist | None | Ninja | None |
Anti-paladin | None | Occultist | None |
Arcanist | None | Oracle | None |
Barbarian | None | Paladin* | All |
Bard | Court Bard | Psychic | None |
Bloodrager | None | Ranger | None |
Brawler | None | Rogue | None |
Cavalier | Herald Squire; Honor Guard; Order of the Lion; Order of the Scales; Order of the Beast (ISC); Order of the Sword | Samurai | Order of the Black Daimyo; Order of the Eclipse; Order of the Warrior |
Cleric | Cloistered Cleric; Crusader | Shaman | None |
Druid | None | Skald | None |
Gunslinger | Gunner Squire | Slayer | Bounty Hunter; Deliverer; Executioner |
Hunter | None | Spiritualist | None |
Inquisitor | Counter-Insurgent** | Summoner | None |
Investigator | Relentless Inspector | Swashbuckler | None |
Kineticist | None | Warpriest | Mantis Zealot; Divine Commander; Cult Leader |
Medium | None | Witch | None |
Mesmerist | Cult Master; Hate-Monger; Vizier | Wizard | None |
Monk* | All |
* These classes cannot normally be Anarchists.
** This is a new archetype detailed below.
Trained to deal with heretics who rebel against churches that rule their faithful, Counterinsurgents deal with those who would blaspheme against the sacred authority of States and Kingdoms.
Counterinsurgents must be non-chaotic.
The counterinsurgent adds her Wisdom modifier on Knowledge skill checks in addition to her Intelligence modifier, when making skill checks to identify the abilities and weaknesses of Anarchists and revolutionaries.This replaces Monster Lore.
At 5th level, a Counterinsurgent can imbue one of her weapons with the Axiomatic quality, granting a bonus 2d6 of damage against chaotic creatures, as a swift action. This ability only functions while the inquisitor wields the weapon. This ability lasts for a number of rounds per day equal to the inquisitor’s level. These rounds do not need to be consecutive. At 12th level, whenever an inquisitor uses her axiomatic weapon ability, the amount of bonus damage dealt by the weapon against chaotic creatures increases to 4d6. This replaces Bane and Greater Bane.
There are a number of new class archetypes that are strongly associated with Anarchism. They were either invented by Anarchists, or championed by them. While you are not required to be an Anarchist to use one of the following Archetypes, it is rare to find a non-anarchist using one.
Class | New Archetype | Class | New Archetype |
Alchemist | Petroleuse | Ninja | Black Turban |
Brawler | Gaolbird | Oracle | Liberation Mystery |
Cavalier | Order of the Black Banner | Ranger | Guerilla |
Cleric | Street Parson | Shaman | Spirit of Freedom |
Fighter | Sans Culotte | Skald | Mocoso |
Gunslinger | Gun Sovereign | Slayer | Tyler |
Hunter | Vonu | Summoner | Nightmare Child |
Inquisitor | Nonconformist | Witch | Black Cat |
Investigator | Whistleblower | Wizard | Syndicate Wizard |
Those who join the Order of the Black Banner pledge themselves to forsake all loyalty to governments and rulers, and seek their downfall.
The cavalier must seek the downfall of kings & oligarchs, and work towards the rise of Anarchy. She must not aid agents of the State in their duties, unless doing so hastens the first edict.
Whenever a cavalier of the Order of the Black Banner makes a challenge against an agent of a government on their official duties, she gains a +1 morale bonus on attack rolls made against the target of her challenge. This bonus increases by +1 for every 4 levels the cavalier possesses.
The cavalier gains Knowledge (local) and Escape Artist as class skills. Whenever she uses these skills to thwart an agent of the government, she gains a competence bonus of half her cavalier level.
Fueled by the pangs of alienation, a Black Cat collects the distrusted and discarded to her, in order to form a new family.
At 4th level, the Black Cat gains the abilities Collect Strays, which lets the Witch gain a cohort. This feat acts similarly to the Leadership feat, with several exceptions. The Black Cat’s leadership score is determined normally, for the purposes of determining your cohort according to the rules presented in the Leadership feat, but your cohort is always at least three or more levels lower than yourself. When the Black Cat reaches 7th level, this ability automatically upgrades to the Leadership feat (meaning that she effectively loses this ability and replaces it with Leadership). She gains all the normal benefits of the Leadership feat. The Black Cat’s cohort and followers must be people or things alienated from society; perhaps a race, ethnic group, or gender heavily discriminated against, a monster with a radically different alignment than normal, or a creature or character with a significantly low ability score (6 or less). The witch’s relationship with her cohort and followers is different from those of others with the leadership feat. While the witch may be more experienced, she sees those ‘stray cats’ that come to her as equals, and allies in their alienation. If the Black Cat is an evil alignment, and meets the other prerequisites, she may instead decide to convert this ability into the Vile Leadership feat.
This ability replaces the hex normally gained at 4th level.
At 8th level, the Witch gains the hex Black Cat Coven. This hex allows the Black Cat to form a coven with two of her followers or cohorts. These followers or cohorts must be witches themselves, although they don’t need to be black cats. This coven does not need to have a hag as a member. A Black Cat coven may use the spell-like abilities of a hag coven, with the following restrictions:
Black Cats are unable to join any other coven besides the one made up of her cohorts and followers. If the Black Cat is within 30’ of one of her cohorts or followers, and they are witches, she may use the aid another action to grant a +1 bonus to the other witch’s caster level for 1 round, once per day.
This replaces the hex gained at 8th level.
Members of a secret society dedicated to bringing about Anarchy worldwide, Black Turbans form cells of an invisible army to fight tyranny and hierarchy everywhere.
At 8th level, the Black Turbans gain the Leadership feat as a bonus feat. The followers and cohort gained through this feat form a revolutionary cell of Anarchists, known as a Tong. While this tong is devoted to the same cause as the Black Turban, they are not necessarily subordinates of the Black Turban. They are fellow revolutionary Anarchists, and decide on things democratically and using consensus.
This replaces Uncanny Dodge.
Black Turbans have access to two new ninja tricks unique to this archetype. While these are available to the Black Turbans, taking them is not mandatory. They are:
A shaman who selects the Spirit of Freedom has wild unkempt hair in a strange style, and a strut that expresses that she is the equal of anyone she meets. When she calls upon one her spirit abilities, glowing tattoos manifest on her skin.
Liberating Command (1st); Knock (2nd); Aristocrat’s Nightmare (3rd); Symbol of Revelation (4th); Fabricate (5th); Oasis (6th); Crime Wave (7th); Polymorph any Object (8th); Freedom (9th)
The shaman’s spirit animal looks like a feral, unkempt, but happy version of its species. She receives a +2 to her initiative and +2 to her CMD.
Truth to Power- The shaman accomplishes a stunning bit of oratory, rousing the sentiments of the populace against their rulers. She adds a +4 bonus to a diplomacy or intimidate check, if the check is being made to work against authority figures. She may use this ability a number of times a day equal to 3 + her CHA modifier.
Tyrant’s Bane (Su): As a swift action, the shaman imbues a single weapon she's wielding with the Anarchic weapon special ability. The effect lasts for 1 minute. If the weapon already has the Anarchic weapon special ability, the additional damage dealt by Anarchic increases to 4d6. The shaman can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + her Charisma modifier.
Paragon of Freedom: The shaman may cast Freedom of Movement once per day as a bonus spell.
At 20th level, the shaman gains a +4 divine bonus on Bluff, Knowledge, Perception, Sense Motive, and Survival skill checks against lawful creatures. Likewise, she gets a +4 divine bonus on weapon attack and damage rolls against them.
Ex convicts, Gaolbirds are masters of the backstab and the dirty trick, learning how to fight and do whatever it takes to survive in slave pits and prison yards.
Gaolbirds add Stealth, Sleight of Hand, and Disguise to their class skills.
Due to her stance, her walk, her tattoos, or something else, it is obvious the gaolbird has done time. She must perform a successful disguise check versus an opposed Knowledge (local) or Sense Motive check to hide the fact she is an ex- or escaped convict.
Starting at 2nd level, and every three levels thereafter, the Gaolbird receives a Prison Trick. She may choose from a limited pool of combat feats, or any of the rogue talents. The Gaolbird must meet the prerequisites in order to choose the feat or the talent. The available combat feats are:
Starting a 4th level, and every two levels after 4th, a gaolbird can choose to learn a new bonus combat feat or rogue talent, in place of a bonus combat feat or rogue talent she has already learned. In effect, the brawler loses the bonus combat feat or talent in exchange for the new one. The old feat or talent cannot be one that was used as a prerequisite for another feat, talent, prestige class, or other ability. A brawler can only change one feat or talent at any given level, and must choose whether or not to swap the feat or talent at the time she gains a new prison trick for the level.
This replaces the Bonus Combat Feats at 2nd, 5th, 8th, 11th, 14th, 17th, and 20th level..
At 4th Level, the gaolbird gains a sneak attack bonus of +1d6, like the Rogue ability. At 7th, 10th, 13th, 16th, and 19th level, this sneak attack bonus increases by 1d6.
This ability replaces Knock-out Punch.
Striking from their hideouts in the wilderness, guerillas train themselves to fight against governments, not species.
At 1st level, a Guerilla selects a government. This government may be local, regional, or national. The Guerilla treats this government, its agents, and anyone in its employ as favored enemies, like the standard ranger ability Favored Enemy. She gains all the bonuses and advantages against that government that would normally apply to a traditional favored enemy. A 5th level and every 5 levels thereafter, she may expand to other governments, or concentrate on her first one, as in the Favored Enemy ability. Unless the national government is highly centralized and integrated (at the GM’s discretion), selecting a local baron or chieftain will not give the guerilla these bonuses gainst the king or emperor, and selecting the king or emperor will not give bonuses against the local lord; they most both be selected separately. The government chosen may be a traditional government, or any organized hierarchy that fulfills most of the same functions as governments, which might include large merchant houses or religious organizations.
This alters the Favored Enemy ability.
Seeing firearms as a means of liberation, Gun Sovereigns firmly believe in taking a gun to a knife (or sword) fight.
As long as the Gun Sovereign has her gun in her hands, she can expend one grit point to gain a bonus to her intimidate skill roll equal to half her level (minimum of +1) that round. Using this deed is a free action. This grit must be expended before the skill is rolled.
This replaces Quick Clear deed.
At 7th level, the sight of a gun sovereign using their gun becomes inspiring. At 7th level, as long as they have at least one grit point left, have their gun, and are still fighting with their gun (not unconscious, not grappled, etc., and not using a melee weapon or other ranged weapon that round), all her allies gain a +2 morale bonus on saving throws against fear and a +1 morale bonus on attack rolls. At 12th level, and every five levels thereafter, these bonuses increase by +1.This replaces Startling Shot.
At 15th level, the Gun Sovereign becomes supernaturally attuned to her gun, and she will not drop as long as it can fire. As long as she has at least one grit point left, if the Gun Sovereign’s current hit points drop below 0, she does not fall unconscious. Instead, she continues to act so long as her negative hit point total does not exceed the amount of damage she dealt to an enemy with a single ranged attack with her gun during the last round. The Gun Sovereign receives no Constitution check to stabilize while using this ability, and automatically takes 1 point of damage each round. When her current negative hit points exceed her negative Constitution score, the amount of damage she must deal to continue to act is now equal to the difference between her current negative hit point total and her negative Constitution score. Additionally, the Gun Sovereign can no longer benefit from magical healing (save for a wish or miracle spell), and she immediately dies once she can no longer fire her gun due to this ability. If she loses her last grit point, she can no longer use this ability, and either falls unconscious or dead, depending on the circumstances. She can no longer get the Cheat Death deed at 19th level.
Disable Device; Escape Artist; Survival; Concentration
Comprehend Languages (2nd); Anonymous Interaction (4th); Aura Sight (6th); True Form (8th); Passwall (10th); Heroism, Greater (12th); Spell Turning (14th); Protection from Spells (16th); Freedom (18th)
Urban skalds, mocosos play the music of the streets and of the people, speaking to their anger, their desire for freedom, and often their desire to break things.
This is identical to the urban barbarian ability of the same name.
This replaces Scribe Scroll.
The following rage powers complement the Mocoso: Boasting Taunt, Clear Mind, Deadly Accuracy, Lethal Accuracy, No Escape, Quick Reflexes, Perfect Clarity, Sharpened Accuracy, Surprise Accuracy, and Unexpected Strike.
Nonconformists preach revolution, awakening people to the tyrannies of both State and Church.
Nonconformists must be non-lawful.
The inquisitor adds her Wisdom modifier on Knowledge skill checks in addition to her Intelligence modifier, when making skill checks to identify the abilities and weaknesses of guards and agents of nobles, governments, merchant princes, and similar.This replaces Monster Lore.
At 5th level, a Nonconformist can imbue one of her weapons with the anarchic quality, granting a bonus 2d6 of damage against lawful creatures, as a swift action. This ability only functions while the inquisitor wields the weapon. This ability lasts for a number of rounds per day equal to the inquisitor’s level. These rounds do not need to be consecutive. At 12th level, whenever an inquisitor uses her anarchic weapon ability, the amount of bonus damage dealt by the weapon against lawful creatures increases to 4d6. This replaces Bane and Greater Bane.
A Nightmare Childe is a summoner archetype whose power comes from the abuse and trauma the summoner experienced in childhood. Essentially, they can summon their childhood imaginary friends to horrific reality to fight their battles for them. Nightmare Childes don’t declare themselves to be Anarchists as often as some of the other archetypes mentioned here, but they have instinctive hatred against tyranny and cruelty in any form, especially against children.
A Nightmare Childe’s eidolon shares several traits with those beings known as Nightmare Creatures. They gain the following evolutions as bonus evolutions at 1st level, and at 4th, 8th, 12th, 16th, and 20th level. All level requirements and other prerequisites still apply.
This modifies the Nightmare Childe’s Eidolon ability.
Petroleuses specialize in arson and demolition. They are alchemists who work with revolutionary groups, lending their expertise, and firepower, to uprisings.
A Petroleuse treats Knowledge (Engineering) as a class skill. She can also add half her level to skill checks for the purposes of determining the structural weaknesses of a building or structure, if she has at least one rank in this skill. When using a bomb with the fire energy descriptor, the Petroleuse can do full damage against a building or structure, if she has at least one rank in this skill.
This alters the Petroleuse’s class skills.
At 8th level, the Petroleuse gains Demolition Charge as a bonus feat.
This replaces Poison Resistance +6.
The Petroleuse gains Fire Brand as a bonus discovery at 1st level, even if she does not meet the prerequisite. She also receives a fire resistance of 5 at 1st level. This goes up by 5 every 6 levels, to become fire resistance 20 at 18th level.
This replaces Mutagen and Persistent Mutagen as class abilities. Petroleuses may gain those discoveries as normal. They may not take Greater, Grand, or True Mutagen as discoveries until both Mutagen and Persistent Mutagen are discovered.
Both the vanguard and the backbone of many a rebellion, the Sans Culottes fight tyranny street to street, house to house, and defend the soul of the revolution against all those who would seek to counter it.
Sans Culottes make a point of knowing the theory and reasons for their rebellions, and in knowing how to express them. They receive a bonus rank in Sense Motive, Knowledge (Local), Knowledge (Nobility), and Perform (Oratory), and all those skills are class skills. This replaces the bonus feat at 1st level.
Always wary of betrayal and counterrevolution, Sans Culottes develop an almost supernatural defense against sneak attack and surprise. At 5rd level, Sans Culottes gain the Signature Skill (Sense Motive) feat as a bonus feat, although this will not be effective unless the sans culotte has five ranks in Sense Motive. At 7th level, a Sans Culotte is never flat-footed before acting in combat, even if she is surprised (she can still become flat-footed by any other effect or situation that would render her flat-footed). At 11th level, the sans culotte also always acts on the surprise round. If she would have acted on the surprise round anyway, or if there is no surprise round, she gains a bonus on initiative checks equal to half her fighter level. This replaces Armor Training 1, 2, and 3.
At 2nd level, a Sans Culotte may rage. This works identically to the Barbarian Rage class ability, using the Sans Culotte’s fighter level for the needed barbarian level. She may gain a rage power at 6th, 10th, 14th, and 18th levels. This replaces Bravery.
Rejecting the isolating hierarchy of traditional clerical organizations, Street Parsons work and fight for their community and the disadvantaged.
Parsons are proficient with all simple weapons and light armor. They are not proficient with medium or heavy armor, or shields. Parsons are also proficient with the favored weapon of their deities.
This alters the street parson’s weapon and armor proficiencies.
Parsons lose Knowledge (nobility) as a class skill, but gain Knowledge (local.)[a]
This alters the street parson’s class skills.
At 1st level, a street parson[b] must select the Chaos, Community, Healing, Luck, Artifice, or Liberation domain (or any of the subdomains of those domains, if available in the campaign) as one of her domains. If the cleric worships a deity that doesn’t normally grant one of these domains, she gains access to this domain but can only pick this one domain—she effectively loses the option to pick a second domain. As a result, very few clerics who worship deities who don’t grant access to one of the domains or subdomains listed above opt to become street parsons. In all other respects, this works like and replaces the standard cleric’s 1st level domain ability.
At 1st level, the Street Parson gains the ability to share her domain powers with her companions. This ability works exactly like the Caravan Bond ability of the Devout Pilgrim. This replaces medium armor proficiency.
At 8th level, the Street Parson gains the ability to share spells with her companions. This ability works like the Legion’s Blessing ability of the Crusader. This replaces an 8th-level domain power of the Street Parson’s choice.
Often sent to wizarding schools on guild scholarships, Syndicate Wizards show more solidarity and loyalty to their brothers and sisters in craft than to their fellow arcane magic users.
The Syndicate Wizard chooses a craft or profession skill. This is the guild the Syndicate Wizard is a part of. She receives the Skill Focus feat for that craft or profession skill as a bonus feat. At 5th level, the Syndicate Wizard receives the Signature Skill feat for the chosen craft or profession skill.
This replaces Scribe Scroll.
Syndicate wizards must choose to bond to an object for their arcane bond. This object must be an iconic tool or accessory for their guild, and must not be one of the traditional arcane focus objects, or a weapon. The object must be held, or worn, for it to function. If the wizard has the appropriate levels and the Craft Wondrous Item feat, it may be enchanted as normal, and fills the appropriate slot if worn. In all other respects, it functions like a normal object subject to an arcane bond. This changes the Wizard’s Arcane Focus.
Syndicate Wizards focus their studies on how their arcane powers may be used to serve their vocation, rather than on the finer points of specialization. In terms of spell use, Syndicate Wizards are universalists, and cannot specialize in arcane schools. They also gain unique powers due to their guild training.
This replaces all school powers.
The traditional guards of secret societies, Tylers watch the backs of their compatriots.
If the Tyler is familiar with an area, she is able to predict the most likely avenues of an ambush, and develop an almost supernatural sense in sniffing them out. If the Tyler studies an area 30’ in radius for one minute, she gains a +1 bonus on Bluff, Knowledge, Perception, Sense Motive, and Survival checks while in that area, and a +1 bonus on weapon attack and damage rolls against enemies within it. The DCs for opposing the slayer’s class abilities within that area also increase by 1.This bonus lasts until the Tyler is dead, unconscious, or leaves the area. Once an area has been left, it takes the Tyler another minute to reestablish her study of it if she returns. At 5th, 10th, 15th, and 20th levels, the bonuses on weapon attack rolls, damage rolls, and skill checks and to slayer DCs within a studied area increase by 1, and the radius of the area that can be studied increases by 10’. At 7th level, a slayer gains her studied location bonus on Disguise, Intimidate, and Stealth checks against creatures within the area. This replaces Studied Target and Stalker.
The Tyler can take the following combat feats as bonus feats in place of a slayer talent: Combat Reflexes, Bodyguard, In Harm’s Way, Mobility, Combat Patrol, Stand Still, and Pin Down. In order to choose one of these bonus feats, the Tyler must meet the prerequisites for it. The Tyler no longer receives Tracking at first level, but may select another slayer talent (or bonus combat feat) at 1st level instead.
This replaces Tracking, and alters the Slayer Talents at 4th, 8th, 12th, and 16th level.
Masters of dropping out and being left alone, Vonus are very good at not being found.
At 4th level, the Vonu gains the Favored Terrain ability, like the Ranger ability of the same name. At 9th level, and every 5 levels thereafter, she may select an additional terrain. Also at 9th level, the Vonu may extend her ability to not be tracked to all of her companions within 30' of her, while she is traveling. At 14th level, the Vonu and her companions traveling within 30' of her become undetectable to magical scrying. This ability functions like a spell of Communal Nondetection, and may be used once per day, the the Vonu’s level used as the caster level. While the duration is divided among the Vonu and all those traveling with her as in the Communal Nondetection spell, it does not need to be used consecutively.
This replaces Improved Empathic Link.
At 14th level, the Vonu may use her ability to leave no trace to construct camps, settlements, and hideouts that cannot be tracked or detected. When a Vonu constructs a camp or settlement within one of her favored terrains, she rolls a stealth skill check, and adds her level to the result. This sets the DC for anyone unfamiliar with the settlement or camp to find it. If the Vonu is unsatisfied with this DC, she must wait 24 hours before trying again. The settlement also gains the bonus against magical detection and location given with the Leave No Trace ability. This is a separate use of the ability, and the duration of Communal Nondetection used in the Drop Out ability does not affect the duration of the Leave No Trace ability, or vice versa. The settlement must have a diameter of no more than 60', and a height of no more than 30'.
This replaces Greater Empathic Link.
Believing that information wants to be free, and that the truth will set people free, whistleblowers work to uncover and spread the secrets that those in power don’t want the people to know. They combine the inspiration of the investigator with the performance abilities of the bard.
At 1st level, the whistleblower chooses a settlement or region of 1000 or fewer people. She gains a bonus to her Sense Motive, Knowledge (local), and Knowledge (Nobility) skill checks done in that region, equal to one half her level (minimum of plus one). At 3rd level, the bonus for her Knowledge (local) and Knowledge (Nobility) skill checks in the area increases to her full level, due to her Journalistic Knowledge ability. At 5th level, the whistleblower can use this ability in a region of 5000 people. At 9th level, this increases to 25,000 people. At 13th level, this increases to 100,000 people. At 17th level, this increases to encompass most of the civilized world (GM’s discretion.)
This replaces Alchemy.
At 3rd level, the whistleblower adds half her class level (minimum 1) to all Knowledge skill checks and may make all Knowledge skill checks untrained.
This replaces keen recollection and all Trap Sense abilities.
At 2nd level, the whistleblower may use her total Profession (Journalism) skill bonus when attempting any of the following skill checks: Bluff, Diplomacy, and Sense Motive.
This replaces Poison Lore.
At 2nd level, the whistleblower gains a +2 bonus on all saving throws against all mind-affecting spells, abilities, and effects. This bonus increases to +4 at 5th level, +6 at 8th level, and +8 at 11th level.
This replaces all Poison Resistances.
At 4th level, the whistleblower gains the Lore Master ability. This works identically to the bard’s Lore Master ability. This replaces Swift Alchemy.
Whistleblowers can encode their journalistic performances into text. She must spend at least one round creating the text, and must be able to mark on something or otherwise create text. For a creature to be affected by this ability, the creature must be able to see or otherwise sense the text, be able to understand the text, and it must be able to be affected by mind-affecting abilities. Unless otherwise noted, once a creature has been affected by the text (or succeeded in a saving throw to not be affected by the text), it cannot be affected again. Multiple abilities may be combined into the same text. Unless otherwise noted, the area of effect for the text is a 30’ radius. The number of rounds that people are affected by journalistic effects encoded is equal to the number of rounds the Whistleblower uses to create the text. Each round the whistleblower uses to create the text expends a round of the whistleblower’s Journalistic Performance daily use. If the creation of the text takes longer than the number of rounds available for Journalistic Performances to the Whistleblower (if it is, for example, very large text), she may choose how many Journalistic Performance rounds to invest into the text. No text may have more than one day’s work of Journalistic Performance into the text. The text retains the journalistic abilities for a number of days equal to the level of the creator, or until it is destroyed. For the purposes of this ability, the text stands in for the whistleblower, so if the ability requires the affected people to see the whistleblower normally, they have to see the text instead. This ability affects other Journalistic Abilities in the following ways:
This ability replaces Trapfinding.
Whistleblowers are trained to use their Profession (Journalism) skill to produce a number of extraordinary and magical effects on those around her, including herself if so desired. She can use this ability for a number of rounds per day equal to 4 + his Wisdom modifier. At each level after 1st a Whistleblower can use bardic performance for 2 additional rounds per day. Some of these performances are similar to bardic performances, while others are unique. In all other ways, these journalistic performances work the same way as bardic performances, except that wherever a Perform check is called for, the whistleblower uses her Profession (Journalism) skill, and wherever a CHA bonus is called for, the whistleblower uses her Will bonus. The journalistic performances are:
Chapter 3- Anarchist Abilities
Anarchists are for the most part just like everyone else, and for the most part use the normal skills everyone else uses. However, they have some unusual ways to use some of those skills. These uses are not restricted to Anarchists, but they have been popularized by them. They are as follows:
School Transmutation [Earth]; Level: bard 3, bloodrager 4, cleric/oracle 3, druid 4, inquisitor 3, magus 3, shaman 4, sorcerer/wizard 3; summoner 3, witch 3; Domain earth 5; Elemental School earth 5
Casting
Casting Time 1 round
Components V, S, M (trash, detritus, loose stone & earth or other material)
Effects
Range medium (100 ft. + 10 ft./level)
Target All detritus within 100’ of caster
Duration instantaneous
Saving Throw Reflex Negates; Spell Resistance No
Description
The caster magically moves the loose material and detritus surrounding her into a barricade. The spell must be cast on a solid surface. A barricade is 1 inch thick per 3 caster levels, and composed of up to one 5-foot square per level. It can be made no more than 10 feet high. It cannot be made less than 1 foot thick, but the depth can be increased or decreased by extending or lessening the width.
Unlike a Wall of Stone or Wall of Iron spell, you can attempt to cast Barricade in a space occupied by someone else. The spell does 1d6 physical damage per level (maximum 10d6) for every creature within the barricade. A successful reflex save allows the target to dodge the barricade with no damage. While barricades can be of a variety of shapes, if the spell is cast in an area that is too small to hold the volume of the barricade, the spell fails.
The hardness and hit points of a barricade depend upon the level of the caster and the terrain the barricade is being constructed in. There must be loose material in the environment for the spell to work. If the ground within the range of the spell is utterly bare, the spell fails.
Terrain | Hardness | Hit points per foot of thickness |
Cold (ice, glaciers, snow, and tundra) | 2 | 5/in of thickness |
Desert (sand and wastelands) | 2 | 4/in of thickness |
Forest (coniferous and deciduous); Jungle | 3 | 6/in of thickness |
Mountain (including hills) | 2 | 5/in of thickness |
Plains | 2 | 4/in of thickness |
Underground (caves and dungeons) | 4 | 8/in of thickness |
Urban (buildings, streets, and sewers) | 4 | 7/in of thickness |
School Universal; Level Alchemist 1, Antipaladin 1, Bard 1, Bloodrager 1
Cleric/Oracle 1, Druid 1, Inquisitor 1, Magus 1, Medium 1, Mesmerist 1, Occultist 1, Psychic 1, Ranger 1, Shaman 1, Sorcerer/Wizard 1, Spiritualist 1, Summoner 1, Witch 1
Casting
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components S
Effects
Range touch
Target 1 creature or location
Duration permanent until dispelled
Saving Throw Will Negates (harmless); Spell Resistance Yes
Description
The caster inscribes a glowing symbol of Anarchy, no less than one inch square and no more than one foot square. This symbol may be inscribed on a person or object, or it may be inscribed on the air in a location; in the case of the latter, the symbol is immobile. One round after the symbol has been inscribed, it disappears, The caster may set the symbol to only reappear when someone of a particular Anarchist trait, someone of any Anarchist trait, or someone the caster knows to be of a particular organization, approaches within 20’ of the symbol.One round after that person leaves the vicinity, the symbol disapprears again, until next time.
School Enchantment [Mind Affecting]; Level Bard 1, Bloodrager 3, Cleric/Oracle 2, Inquisitor 3, Magus 3, Medium 2, Mesmerist 1, Occultist 2, Psychic 2, Shaman 2, Sorcerer/wizard 2, Summoner 3, Witch 2; SubDomain Cooperation 2
Casting
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S
Effects
Range touch
Target 1 person/level
Duration 1 hour/level
Saving Throw Will Negates (harmless); Spell Resistance Yes
Description
This spell increases the resistance of the targets to demoralization, as well as their ability to work together. For every level the caster possesses, the targets increase their DC vs bluff, diplomacy, and intimidate skill checks. The targets also receive a +2 morale bonus to their saving throws versus fear effects. Finally, the benefits the targets give by aiding another, whether through combat or skill checks, increases by 1.
School Transmutation; Level Alchemist 1, Bard 1, Bloodrager 2,
Cleric/Oracle 1, Druid 2, Inquisitor 1, Magus 1, Ranger 2, Shaman 2, Sorcerer/Wizard 1, Summoner 2, Witch 1
Casting
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S, M (non-living vegetable matter; one text)
Effects
Range short (10 feet plus 1 foot/level
Target one mass of vegetable matter
Duration permanent
Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance Yes
Description
This spell transforms a portion of non-living vegetable matter into a copy of a written text, or graphics. The copy created is made of sturdy, long-lasting parchment, and the text is written with good quality ink, but is non-magical. The text is copied exactly, but none of the special materials of the original are copied- if the original is made of valuable materials, these are not duplicated. If the the original text is magical, this enchantment is not duplicated in the copy. If the magic is a quality of the text itself- as in a scroll- the text is duplicated as gibberish. Only one text may be duplicated, into matter equal to a ½ cubic foot (1’ by 1’ by 6”.) This text of the original may be shrunk to fit onto the duplicate. If the texts or graphics are small enough that multiple copies could be made of the ½ cube of material, then multiple identical copies may be made. Any pictures or graphics duplicated have a high enough resolution to show the exact image, but not enough to be mistaken for the original.
School Transmutation; Level Alchemist 3, Bard 2, Bloodrager 4,
Cleric/Oracle 3, Druid 4, Inquisitor 3, Magus 3, Ranger 4, Shaman 4, Sorcerer/Wizard 3, Summoner 4, Witch 3
Description
This spell works identically to Samizdat, except that the amount of vegetable matter that may be transformed is now one cubic foot for every two caster levels.
Chapter 4- Anarchist Equipment
Outfit, Mocoso (Price: 1 gp, Weight: 3 lbs.)– Typically worn by urban youth (and those young at heart), these clothes are deliberately provocative, violating mainstream rules of fashion and ‘good taste’. Highly individualistic, often borrowing bits from other types of outfits. Often designed to deliberately violate any local sumptuary laws.
Patch, Decorative (Price: 1 sp, Weight: n/a)- Small pieces of thick cloth, sometimes leather, either crudely embroidered or painted. Originally designed to simply mend holes in clothing, decorative patches are often bright and colorful, depicting slogans (often rude ones) or mascots (again, often rude ones.) A way of showing affiliation to a political movement, philosophical position, or fan group.
Copper Wonder– (Price: 1 cp, Weight: n/a) Crudely printed periodicals, cheaply made and cheaply sold. Contents range from muckraking journalism, to personal journaling, to political screeds, to pornography.
Printing Press, Portable– (Price: 50 gp, Weight: 30 lbs.) Contains a small printing press, metal movable type, and a set of small silk screens. Ink, paper, and fasteners sold separately.
Copper Wonders are small, cheaply made booklets run off of printing presses. Popular entertainment for the working classes and often subversive, they are a favorite of many Anarchists.
(Price 5760 gp; Aura faint transmutation; CL 4th, weight n/a)
This slim volume of writing and art has a curiously blank panel in it. Once per day, using the command word, up to eight people and their equipment are transported to an extra-dimensional space connected to the copper wonder. Creatures in the extra-dimensional space are hidden, beyond the reach of spells (including divinations), unless those spells work across planes. The space holds as many as eight creatures (of up to colossal size). They appear as drawings filling in the previously blank panel. People in the extradimensional space may see out of it as if it was a 3-foot-by-5-foot window. The space itself is a bare white room, with a normal environment. Spells cannot be cast across the extra-dimensional interface, nor can area effects cross it. While People looking through the copper wonder may see the panel, the people in it aren’t perceived as moving, and are ‘drawn’ in the style of the rest of the copper wonder. If someone familiar with the people in the extradimensional space and the copper wonder itself look at the pages within, a DC 20 perception check will reveal the panel with the image of the people inside the extradimensional space. If the person looking through the copper wonder is not familiar with the group, the DC of the perception check is 30 to notice anything out of the ordinary. Noticing the images of the people will not necessarily reveal the nature of the enchantment the copper wonder possessed. If the copper wonder is destroyed, everyone inside suffers 5d6 points of damaged[d], and is deposited in a random location within 100 miles of the copper wonder. People within the copper wonder may leave at any time by saying the command word. The duration of the extradimensional space is a maximum of 4 hours. This duration starts when the copper wonder is first activated that day, and may not be started again for another 20 hours after it was used previously. Anything inside the extra-dimensional space drops out when the 4 hours ends.
(Construction Requirements: 2880 gp, craft wondrous item feat, Rope Trick)
(Price 20,160 gp; Aura medium divination; CL 7th; weight n/a)
When found, the copper wonder is blank. The user must possess it for 24 hours to attune it to herself. After that, it start[e] narrating her life, in graphic novel format. The copper wonder covers about one week of her life- as new things happen, older pages at the front disappear, and new blank pages appear at the back, and begin to be filled in. Once per day, the bearer may use the copper wonder to cast Divination. The results of the spell are displayed in the pages.
(Construction Requirements: 10,080 gp, craft wondrous item feat, Divination)
Patches are small pieces of cloth, originally intended simply to mend holes in clothing, but now popular among Anarchists and other as means of decoration and showing affiliation to various causes and groups. Patches may be enchanted, just like anything else of sufficient craftsmanship. In order for the magic of a patch to be accessed, it must be affixed to an article of clothing, and that clothing must be worn. This turns the article of clothing itself into a wondrous item, for the purpose of filling slots. A patch may also be removed from an article of clothing, and affixed to another one, transferring the enchantment. Once the patch is removed from an article of clothing, the article no longer carries the enchantment until another patch is affixed to it.
Patches may only imbue a non-magical piece of clothing with an enchantment. A patch may be put on a magical piece of clothing, but the magic of the patch will be suppressed until removed.
(Price 24,000 gp; Aura faint abjuration; CL 4th, Weight n/a)
This patch has a continuous Protection from Law cast upon it, giving anyone wearing it affixed to their clothing the benefits of that spell. Three times per day, the wearer may cast Protection from Law, Communal. This gives the wearer up to 12 minutes of Protection from Law that may divided up among targets touched, in minute increments.
(Construction Requirements: 12,000 gp, craft wondrous item feat, protection from law, communal protection from law)
(Price varies; Aura faint abjuration; CL 5th; Weight n/a)
This patch offers magical protection in the form of a +1 to +5 resistance bonus on all saving throws (Fortitude, Reflex, and Will).
(Construction Requirements: +1 bonus 500 gp; +2 bonus 2,000 gp; +3 bonus 4,500 gp; +4 bonus 8,000 gp; +5 bonus 12,500 gp Craft Wondrous Item, resistance, creator’s caster level must be at least three times the cloak’s bonus)
(Price 2250 gp; Aura faint universal; CL 3rd, weight n/a)
Created for dilettantes and those who have trouble making up their mind, this patch may change itself to resemble any other patch the wearer has seen. All this takes is a mental command from the wearer. The patch will remain[f] the image of its last command, until change. The patch has 50 charges. After the last charge is used, the patch is stuck in the last commanded image.
(Construction Requirements: 1125 gp, craft wondrous item feat, prestidigitation)
(Price 1,500 gp; Aura faint universal, faint illusion; CL 8th; Weight–)
A ring of black metal, with the symbol of Anarchy picked out on the face with red jasper. The wearer can, as a standard action, embed this symbol on any object (as if using Mark of Anarchy) simply by pressing the ring against it. The wearer may choose the color and other cosmetic features of the image each time she uses the ring. The mark is otherwise permanent unless removed by dispel magic, erase, [g]or a more powerful spell. Once per day, the wearer may cast Mark of Anarchy once per day. (Construction Requirements– 750 gp materials, forge ring feat, Mark of Anarchy)
(Price 18,000 gp; Aura faint transmutation; CL 9th; Weight 30 lbs)
This item looks like an over-sized and over-engineered printing press. It will duplicate any media put into it- copper wonders, shirts, patches, books, etc.- at a rate of six copies per round. The total amount of original material that can be duplicated must be less than ½ a cubic foot. If the original is magical, the magic will not be transferred to the duplicates, and while the duplicates will be recognizable as a copy, the copies will not be hard to tell from the original. In order for the Printing press to function, it must be fed non-living matter, of the equivalent volume of the duplicates desired. All types of material, from metal, wood, stone, or flesh, is converted into the paper or cloth of the original. Living material simply will not be converted, and any attempt to convert magical material will cause the press to stop functioning for one hour. Any dead body converted by the press may not be resurrected.
(Construction Requirements– 9000 gp, craft wondrous item feat, Fabricate, Greater Samizdat)
Chapter 5- Gamemastering & Anarchy
Anarchist characters behave, for the most part, like other characters. They go into the wilderness, into sewers, into dungeons & caves, kill things & people (and things that are also people), and take their stuff. Now, their motivations might be different- Anarchist adventurers might be fighting to save exploited workers rather than a princess, they might lay into evil knights more so than oppressed orcs & goblins- but operationally, they’re fairly similar.
So what about downtime? What do Anarchist fighters and wizards do on their days off? Again, they are broadly similar to their non-anarchist colleagues. The work, they play, they worship, they pursue their interests. There are, however, some variations on the standard theme.
Many Anarchists come from what are essentially working-class backgrounds. Whereas many other adventurers may be the younger children of nobility or the upper classes, Anarchists are much more likely to be the children of the poor, and to the working poor. As such, most Anarchists have at least a nominal training in a craft or a profession, usually one that is considered ‘low class’ by the dominant society. They may go into adventuring as a way to escape the poverty and toil of their backgrounds, but their interest in Anarchy tends to indicate they still identify with those backgrounds.
There are, of course, exceptions. Anyone, from any background, might possibly be an Anarchist. Many upper class people write books and pamphlets on Anarchy, and ironically many of those pamphlets and books help transmit the ideas of Anarchism to the next generation of Anarchists, many of those being working class individuals.
Many other Anarchists pursue no trade, rejecting wholesale the standard social mores of work, family life, etc. They are criminals, vagrants, and artists. A significant number of Anarchist turn towards adventuring not because they want to develop their skills to help their fellow workers, or to fight for some high ideal, but because they don’t have the temperament to hold down a steady job.
No matter how they approach work, or don’t approach it, what broadly unites Anarchists is their dissatisfaction with the state of work, and labor. Anarchism originated as a working class political philosophy, and the exploitation of laborers by bosses and governments tends to be a central concern of the many different types of Anarchism.
Anarchists like to have a good time, just like everyone else. Where they differ is in how far they will go for one. Governments often attempt to maintain control over their subjects by controlling their entertainments. Suppressing[h] some, and promoting others for the propaganda and distraction value. The ‘circuses’ in ‘bread & circuses’ is a standard government strategy.
Bosses also attempt to control the entertainment of their workers. They schedule the times their workers may pursue entertainment, rationing it out so that they have just enough to keep them working, but not so much that they feel relaxed enough to consider ways of bettering themselves. Even then, they tend to manipulate the entertainments to pacify the workers, and to make it expensive enough that the workers need to keep working, just to afford the entertainments.
Anarchists reject these dribbles of joy and play. They reject the limits instituted by governments or bosses. They reject the limits put on people by religions, who say that one type of entertainment is wicked and immoral, and the other is fine. Anarchists tend to favor music, art, and theater that is suppressed or derided by respectable society. They are great patrons of ‘underground’ venues and social spaces. Many Anarchists are artists themselves, and make breakthroughs in their disciplines.
Anarchists tend not to be satisfied people. To be an Anarchist is to desire a political, economic, and social order that is constantly and violently denied, to the best of their ability, by very powerful people. So as you can imagine, there is a certain amount of frustration.
This frustration is often vented as a protest. Every Anarchist has their specific[i], ‘pet’ causes of concern, and often protest the conditions surrounding those concerns. In these protests they are often joined by those who share those concerns, but who aren’t themselves Anarchists. This often leads to conflicts, as while them might agree[j] on there being a problem, they sometimes disagree on the origins of the problem, and often disagree on the solutions that should be demanded.
What happens at the protest depends upon the nature of the society that it takes place in. Relatively liberal governments will tolerate a certain amount of peaceful, well-behaved protest, and populations with a strong tradition of protests, agitation, and organization will tend to get their concerns addressed, or at least receive concessions designed to mollify the protesters. More authoritarian or insecure/paranoid governments tend to overestimate the danger of protests, and are quick to use force and violence to suppress them. Ironically, this usually leads to riots and the organizing of more militant forces, thereby creating the danger they were seeking to prevent. Governments with domestic intelligence agencies tend to implant undercover agents into protests groups, to keep tabs on them, blunt their effectiveness, and manipulate them into actions the government finds politically beneficial.
The effectiveness of protests is a subject of much debate among Anarchists. However, even if a protest is not directly successful, Anarchist[k] often derive many indirect benefits from the act of protesting. They meet, socialize, and network with Anarchists, and learn the basics of cooperation and organization towards a common goal. For many Anarchists, protests serve as a sort of boot camp, training them for more advanced actions.
Anarchists are no strangers to crime. Some rulers consider the very existence of Anarchists to be a crime. Many Anarchists are poor, or come from poor families, and turn to crime as a means of survival. There are also those who find their beliefs, practices, and lives criminalized for other reasons, and so turn to crime for survival as well. Others see crime as a means of rebellion, and every criminal act an attack against the governments that impose them. Still others look at it more practically- there are so many laws, that are so unevenly enforced, that you’re probably breaking a law right now without you[l] even knowing it, so why worry about it?
Still, the relationship is not a completely cozy one. While Anarchists might reject the laws of a government, that doesn’t mean they don’t have their own laws, or at least commonly agreed upon standards for interacting with each other. Those Anarchists who a little too eager to break the laws of governments might drift into breaking other laws.
Then there is the relationship between ‘Anarchist’ criminals and ‘career’ criminals. Just because both groups break the law[m], doesn’t meant they are in philosophical agreement. Many career criminals would react with horror at the notion that their crimes are attacks against the country, and will angrily proclaim that though they may be thieves, they are patriotic thieves! For their part, career thieves tend to mistrust Anarchists because their motivations are different, which makes them unpredictable, which is not an attractive quality in prospective partners in crime.
Still, the gold and silver of Anarchists clinks just like the gold and silver of anyone else, so thieves find customers among them. And while Anarchists might have odd motivations from the perspective of thieves (like not being in it primarily for the money, for example), many Anarchists to have the skills and motivation to do crime, and so are welcome to join up for a cut.
A campaign with Anarchist characters does not need to be run any differently than any other roleplaying game campaign. Anarchists[o] characters can save princesses from dragons, they can defend towns from rampaging orcs, and they can ransack dungeons for sweet, sweet treasure. They might shout the occasional Anarchist slogan as a battle-cry, but it is possible to run a campaign where Anarchist characters are virtually indistinguishable from a campaign where the characters would lay down their lives for king and country.
It’s possible, but it probably wouldn’t be very satisfying for the gamemaster, or the players. Why play an Anarchist character if you’re not going to play an Anarchist game?[p]
To play an Anarchist character, in an Anarchist campaign, is to have goals and priorities, enemies and allies, that are quite different from a normal campaign. Entities and creatures that normally might be trying to kill you might be allies. Kings and high priests that normally might be your patrons, or at least give you quests and rewards, might be hell-bent on driving you out of their domains, or killing you. Your definition of treasure, monsters, victims, and victory- they’re all up for debate.
Oh, and plan on doing a lot more debating. So what does running an Anarchist campaign mean?
An Anarchist campaign is predicated on the belief that those in power (kings, queens, high priests, merchant princes, etc.) are not your friends, are not the friends of your friends, and in fact wish you ill. That[q] in terms of legitimacy, a king is no more noble or righteous than a bandit- both rob and kill people, one just wears a crown.
Obviously this is different from a normal campaign, where so many adventures start out with the king, or the duchess, or the village elder, or somebody in charge, giving you a quest. So many campaigns are about the maintenance or restoration of the status quo. Even if the campaign or quest is to overthrow a tyrant, it’s nearly always done with the idea of putting someone else in charge- it’s always a matter of the wrong person having the power, not with[r] power being wrong in and of itself.
This means some changes to how governments and societies work in an Anarchist campaign. The relationship between the peasantry and the nobility, taxation, the strictures of the church- these are no longer things to be waved away, or presented as background fluff between dungeons. These are now sources of conflict. Adventure.
Adventurers often enjoy the tacit support of the populace. They may be agents of the the local lord or high priest. They may have rescued the darling of the community from the dragon, or receive a parade every time they’re in town because of the orcish invasion they repelled just last year. Even if they haven’t endeared themselves to the people, they’re adventurers, historically a class of people capable of getting away with things that would get anyone else arrested by the local sheriff.
Anarchists often do not enjoy the support of anyone but other Anarchists. They often come from sections of the community that are viewed with mistrust, if not outright hatred, by the powers that be and the upper classes. They often dress, talk, or act in a many[s] that marks them as being outside of polite society. Their friends and family are often poor and/or outcasts. When they[t] find they must break the law to survive, this puts them into conflict with the authorities, which puts the characters into conflict with authorities.
Furthermore, they know that their kings, high priests, and other leaders are lying to people. After all, they lie about the Anarchists themselves to the rest of society all the time. They tell people that their leaders are protecting them, when they actual[u] rob and assault them. The king of one country tells his peasants that the the peasants of another kingdom are their blood enemies, and they must be defeated, even though the peasants of both kingdoms have a lot more in common than they do with their respective kings. Worse still, most of the people believe these lies, and react with shock and anger when you try to convince them of the truth.
Anarchist characters learn quickly not to put their cards on the table, and to treat every sleepy village or bustling city like a dungeon that has a habit of dropping gelatinous cubes on you. They know they can’t count on support for an Anarchist quest. They know that every baron, priest, and guard might have it out for them, and won’t hesitate to use whatever means necessary to neutralize the Anarchists, as ‘threats’ to society. They know that every friendly barmaid or gruff blacksmith they talk to might betray them, either for coin, or because they believe that however bad the king or duke is, they’re better than Anarchy.
Gamemasters should cultivate this sense of paranoia. They should have the players almost convinced that every seemingly helpful person they meet is a paid informant of some sort secret police, every invitation by a baron or princess is a trap, every honor bait, every reward poisoned.
Adventurers are used to taking on impossible odds. That’s what being an adventurer is all about. Adventurers are also used to fighting multiple opponents, many opponents for every member of the party. That’s what being the low-level minion of the villain is all about.
But even with all that, your standard adventurers still have a support system. Kings & queens to give them quests and to reward them for rescuing their offspring. Sages to give them lore, smiths to make them weapons and armor. When they drink at a tavern, they are likely to be met by townsfolk who want to thank them for saving their farm from the dragon. They know that, no matter how bad the odds, no matter how many howling goblins come at them, they have a whole society of patrons and support figures to assist them.
Anarchist adventurers don’t have that. More often than not, they are the targets of other adventurers who quest for law and order, on behalf of a king. Most smiths don’t want their weapons associated with what they consider to be chaos and mayhem. Anarchist adventurers cannot count on the city watch helping them with their quests.
Anarchist adventurers walk into most situations knowing that they will not get the benefit of the doubt. Most normal people will not welcome their help. Most authorities will not only pounce on a reason to arrest them or declare them outlaw, they will make up reasons. The characters should expect to have to scrounge or ‘borrow’ everything they need, whether be it weapons, gear, or food & shelter.
However, this impression is not true. While standard and official channels may be largely denied to them, Anarchist adventurers soon learn that Anarchist adventurers have friends all over the place, just not where adventurers usually look. Anarchy as a philosophy finds fertile ground in all sorts of places, from meeting halls of guilds and trade unions, to ivory towers of philosophers, to the windswept rendezvous spots of smugglers. Anarchists may be found in quilting bees, in drinking halls, in temples that minister to the poor and sick, everywhere. It’s just a matter of knowing where to look.
A major theme of an Anarchist campaign should involve finding and and befriending all these individual pockets of Anarchism. One of the greatest threats to Anarchism, and its greatest weakness in your world, will be its isolation. But the ideas of Anarchism cut across class, across religion, across, language, and across species. Part of the experience of Anarchist adventurers will be helping people realize that.
Most adventurers fight to preserve a status quo, to return things to normal. It’s part of the hero’s journey. Normal person is thrust into strange circumstance, and must strive to return to normal circumstances.
Even if the adventurers cause a great change in the world, such as defeating the lich who has ruled for a millennium, the aim is most often to return the world to a former state, an imagined golden age. The campaign most often has a conservative, if not reactionary, impulse and theme.
Anarchist adventurers are not fighting to preserve the status quo. They are fighting to destroy it. Anarchists fight, adventure, and quest to bring about something new- a society without government, without kings, without hierarchy. There is no thing, no time, that they are trying to return to. There is no road map, no guide of history or tradition to tell them how to do it, or what it will really look like. Part of the challenge of an Anarchist campaign, beyond the standard bad guys and disasters, is the challenge of dealing with and navigating this new landscape.
Anarchist clerics, inquisitors, and warpriests have a wide variety of gods to worship. All but the most order-obsessed deities, with kings and empires in their portfolios, will accept a cleric who is an Anarchist, as long as she does not make too many waves among the priesthood. However, some Anarchist clerics want a deity that not only tolerates Anarchy, but one that advocates for it. A selection of such deities is listed below.
Alternate Names: Discordia, Enyo, Bellona
Portfolio: Goddess of Chaos, confusion, strife, discord
Domains: Chaos, Trickery, War, Madness
Subdomains: riot, whimsy, deception, insanity
Alignment: CN
Favored Weapon: Dagger
Favored Animal: Jackalope
Symbols: A golden apple with a “K” written on it
Heralds:
Eris is the goddess of Chaos, confusion, strife, and discord. How this is interpreted often depends on the alignment of those who worship her. Her Evil followers delight in the slaughter of the battlefield, and instigating quarrels and civil strife in peacetime. Her Good followers are jester-like freedom fighters, combating the dull forces of tyranny by spoiling their plans and poking fun at their self-importance. Her Chaotic Neutral followers tend to be mystics, meditating upon the absurd nature of the universe, and how from Chaos springs Creation.
Eris’ doctrine, what there is of it, teaches that the universe is absurd, and any meaning that can be teased out of it is purely the creation of the observer. It also teaches that the more people try to stop Chaos from coming into their lives, the more it will visit them. Instead, people should welcome Chaos, confusion, discord, and strife into their lives; this won’t lessen those things, but at least people won’t be surprised so much when they show up.
Eris worshippers organize themselves into small groups or cabals, called clenches. These clenches tend to form, break apart, and reform into other clenches rather regularly, as befits a goddess of confusion and strife. There are no ‘typical’ places of worship for Eris, as the individual tastes of the individual worshippers are often too divergent and extreme for any great consensus to be reached.
Alternate Names: The Way
Portfolio: Cosmic Balance
Domains: Darkness, Healing, Sun, Knowledge
Subdomains: Light, Moon, Restoration, Aeon
Alignment: NN
Favored Weapon: Daoist Whisk (same stats as a cat-o-nine-tails)
Favored Animal: Turtle
Symbols: The Yin-Yang
Heralds: The philosophy of the Dao has eight of its practitioners who achieved immortality by their achieving of balance, called the Eight Immortals. They are:
The Dao is not a god, per se. It is instead a philosophy, one that advocates balance in all things. It teaches that all the ills in the world are due to some imbalance between positive and negative forces. When people try to do things, they encounter resistance and create imbalance. When people do things without trying, they act in harmony with the Dao (or “The Way”, the natural rhythm of the universe) and achieve success. Anarchists are drawn to the philosophy because it teaches that the way to govern best is to govern least.
There are many shrines to the Dao, often inhabited by Daoist hermits and sages. There is a strong tradition of monastic Daoism, and Sacred Fist (an archetype of the Warpriest) is a popular choice for Daoist characters.
Alternate Names: Mummu, Thalassa, Omurca, Bis-Bis
Portfolio: Chaos, vengeance, the ocean, the wild
Domains: Chaos, Water, Evil, Scalykind, Strength, Destruction
Subdomains: Oceans, Dragon, Saurian, Ferocity, Catastrophe
Alignment: CE
Favored Weapon: Natural Attacks
Favored Animal: Dragon
Symbols: A wave in the shape of a dragon’s head
Heralds:
Tiamat is the goddess of vengeance, fury, dragons and other large reptiles, and oceans. In the theology of Tiamat worshippers, before the world was created, the only thing that existed was the Ocean of Chaos, known as Tiamat. She created her own mate, and together they created the gods and dry land. Tiamat’s mate found the gods too noisy, and proposed to Tiamat that they destroy the gods. Tiamat disagreed, but before she could convince her mate, the gods rose up and slew him. Enraged and betrayed, Tiamat turned on the children she had once loved. She birthed dragons and other large monsters to attack the gods, including her heralds: Kingu, Hubar, Kur, and Zu. The theologies of other gods say that their gods slew Tiamat and divided her, thus bringing order to the universe. Tiamat worshippers insist that this is a lie, and that their goddess waits in the ocean depths, getting ready to strike again.
Tiamat is the goddess of all those who have been betrayed, by lovers, by parents, by children, by friends, by rulers, and by society. She is evil because her rage and vengeance is untempered by thoughts of mercy or empathy. She is patron to pirates and sea raiders, and druids who want to see all of civilization claimed by the oceans. Her church teaches that to achieve happiness involves striking back against those who have wronged you, and that the way to do that is to abandon the strictures and morality of Civilization and embrace Nature, embodied in the fury and destruction of the ocean. Her chapels are often floating, as converted pirate ships, or in the shadow of dragons or the remains of dragons (and, when possible, dinosaurs), whom Tiamat worshippers revere as the children of their goddess.
Alternate Names: Nanabozho, Iktomi
Portfolio: Creation, protection, trickery
Domains: Magic, Chaos, Protection, Good, Trickery, Animal
Subdomains: Revelry, Redemption, Feather
Alignment: CG
Favored Weapon: club
Favored Animal: Crane
Symbols: Crane feather
Heralds: The heralds of Wisakedjak are a wide variety of shape-changing animals, all of whom can speak and have magical powers.
Wisakedjak is a god or trickery and magic. In his stories, he once accidentally destroyed the world after the creator god and made it, and used his magic to remake the world. Since then, while he is still a trickster, he is also a protector spirit, to make up for destroying the world earlier. Generally an easygoing figure, Wisakedjak teaches that most problems can be solved through being clever and witty. His stories often show the limits of seeking power and status. His clerics often attend medicine lodges dedicated to Wisakedjak, located in rural and windy places.
Alternate Names: Brother Rabbit
Portfolio: Cleverness, trickery, anti-work
Domains: Luck, Trickery, Chaos
Subdomains: Imagination, Innuendo, Whimsy
Alignment: CN
Favored Weapon: Machete (short sword, slashing)
Favored Animal: Rabbit
Symbols: Rabbit’s foot
Heralds:Ti Malice has one herald, whose original name is lost to time, but is popularly referred to as the Chaos Bunny of Doom (rabbit, colossal size, Primordial template.) Emerges from hats.
Ti Malice is the god of fun, cleverness, and relaxation. Other people will tell you that he is the god of laziness and shirking your duties, but the worshippers of Ti Malice know that those people are just jealous. The theology of Ti Malice is a expressed in a cycle of humorous folktales, wherein he continually gets the better of his uncle Bouki (hyena.) They teach the importance of being clever and sneaky, and the folly of working hard at a ‘straight’ job. Ti Malice is popular among the laborers of oppressed populations, where his clerics lead resistance movements against their masters, overseers, and bosses. His shrines are often located in the back rooms of taverns, brothels, and public meeting houses.
Alternate Names: None
Portfolio: Rebellion, freedom, sacrifice, earth
Domains: Liberation, Good, Earth, War, Strength
Subdomains: Freedom, Friendship, Revolution, Tactics, Resolve
Alignment: NG
Favored Weapon: Balisong (war razor)
Favored Animal: Mountain Goat
Symbols: A man holding apart a mountain
Heralds: Caprio has no heralds, but sends earthquakes as signs of his attention.
Carpio is a demi-god, once a mortal freedom fighter and hero of an oppressed people, who was a constant thorn in the side of a great tyrant. The tyrant employed a wizard to trap Carpio’s army between two mountains that fell on top of each other. Carpio reached out and held the mountains apart, allowing his army to escape to fight another day. It is said that Carpio holds the mountains apart still, keeping the fighters against foreign tyranny safe, and that earthquakes are signs from Carpio that he holds them apart still. It is further said that when the last foreign tyrant is overthrown, Carpio will be able to stop his struggle, let the mountains fall, and rest.
Priests of Carpio often act as missionaries and agitators to remote villages of in conquered lands, educating the populace and raising their consciousness to their oppression. They also act as chaplains to guerilla groups opposing occupying forces.
Alternate Names: None
Portfolio: Solidarity, worker emancipation
Domains: Good, Liberation, Artifice, Community
Subdomains: Revolution, Constructs, Industry, Cooperation
Alignment: NG
Favored Weapon: Wrench (same stats as a club)
Favored Animal: Black Cats
Symbols: A winged mask
Heralds: The Angel of the Revolution has a variety of heralds, including Agitator (a talking black cat), Blood & Smoke (two twins, one with black hair and one with red hair), and Sabot (a flying, animated wooden shoe.)
As personifications of the forces of Good, angels share certain traits. Chief among them are that they are known, by name and sight, and that they serve gods. The being known only as the Angel of the Revolution is different in that their name and countenance (and gender) are hidden behind a mask. They are never referred to as anything, or anyone else. Also unknown is which god this angel serves. Those who worship the angel gain spells, presumably from the angel’s patron, but theologians have not been able to discover what entity that is, leading some to question whether there is a patron at all.
What is known is that the entity known as the Angel of the Revolution is a powerful being, of either planetar or solar level. They champion workers, defend them from exploitation and abuse, and support efforts for them to organize themselves and seize the means of production for themselves. Their clerics are often in leadership positions in either trade guilds, or in the more radical splinter groups that break off from more traditional trade guilds.
Alternate Names: The Invisible Goddess
Portfolio: The market, free trade, emergent results
Domains: Travel, Liberation, Trickery,
Subdomains: Trade, Exploration, Greed, Freedom
Alignment: NN
Favored Weapon: quarterstaff
Favored Animal: Honeybee
Symbols: A outline of woman with her arms wide open
Heralds: Agora does not manifest heralds, preferring to signal through the outcomes of human interaction.
Agora, also known as the Invisible Goddess, is the patron of free trade and enlightened self-interest. The central tenet of her church is that when people peacefully pursue their own interests, this raises everyone up ‘as if by her invisible hand’, and that this is the way to peace and prosperity. It is only when people don’t understand their own self-interest, or deny others the opportunity to pursue their enlightened self-interest, that violence and calamity result.
Agora’s loosely-connected network of clerics typically work with smugglers and black marketeers, helping to make sure their businesses run smoothly. They also fight against laws and rulers that restrict who can participate in trade.
[a]Local). (You know this automatically caps the first word, right?)
[b]Cap?
[c]What does body modification have to do with warding off attacks?
[d]Damage
[e]Starts
[f]Retain?
[g]Cap spells?
[h]Entertainments, suppressing some . . .
[i]Omit comma
[j]??
[k]Anarchists
[l]Need?
[m]Omit comma.
[n]Make this a more definitive break from the above topic?
[o]Anarchist
[p]Because it would add interest? Maybe don't close this door so hard.
[q]Omit.
[r]Of? Or rephrase.
[s]Way?
[t]They who?
[u]Actually