Conjuring | Crytures

The Mechanics of Cryture Conjuring

Crytures

Strange forces in the world have transformed the familiar, mundane lifeforms that we know, into magical mutant super-animals, known as Crytures. Crytures are sentient, and a bit more intelligent that the animals we're familiar with - although not truly sapient, like humans.

Types

Every cryture is infused with magic of 16 different Types, as follows. Each Type has a Resistance and Vulnerability to other Types. Powers of those types get a -2 or +2 Roll Modifier, respectively, when targeting a cryture with a Resistance or Vulnerability to it.

Aberrant

Aberrant crytures defy the natural order, bending reality with their unnerving presence. They resist Celestial types and are vulnerable to Beast and Construct types.

Air

Air Crytures soar through the skies, and wield the wind itself as a weapon. They resist Earth, Marital and Plant types and are vulnerable to Ice and Lightning types.

Beast

Beast Crytures are chimeric amalgams that fight with tooth and claw in primal frenzy. They resist Aberrant types and are vulnerable to Martial types.

Celestial

Celestial crytures bring to bear the power and light of the sun, moon and stars. They resist Celestial, Fire and Lightning types and are vulnerable to Aberrant types.

Construct

Construct Crytures are forged by mortal hands, wielding weapons of human design. They resist Construct, Fairy, Poison and Psionic types and are vulnerable to Ice, Lightning and Martial types.

Death

Death crytures wield powers of darkness and decay, inflicting and drawing power from suffering.

They resist Beast, Death, Ice, Poison and Psionic types and are vulnerable to Celestial, Fairy, Fire and Martial types.

Earth

Earth crytures are solid and unshakable, bearing the might of rock and stone. They resist Air, Beast, Fire, Lightning and Poison types and are vulnerable to Construct, Ice, Martial, Plant and Water types.

Fairy

Fairy crytures are beings of mischief, who wield enchantments to bend others to their will. They resist Air types and are vulnerable to Aberrant and Death types.

Fire

Fire crytures blaze with the raw intensity of heat and flame. They resist Fire, Ice and Plant types and are vulnerable to Earth and Water types.

Ice

Ice crytures wield the bitter chill of winter’s blast, and forge arms of glacial craft. They resist Ice and Water types and are vulnerable to Fire and Martial types.

Lightning

Lightning crytures are charged with the power and swiftness of thunder and storm. They resist Air, Construct and Lightning types and are vulnerable to Earth types.

Martial

Martial crytures discipline body and mind into a harmonized whole of physical prowess. They resist Death types and are vulnerable to Air, Fairy and Psionic types.

Plant

Plant crytures bear fruit and flower with artful finesse, or root and branch with lumbering might. They resist Earth, Lightning, Plant, and Water types and are vulnerable to Beast, Fire, Ice, and Poison types.

Poison

Poison crytures taint those around them with deadly venoms and devious intoxicants. They resist Fairy, Martial and Poison types and are vulnerable to Earth and Psionic types.

Psionic

Psionic crytures unleash their mind’s full potential to impose their will on the world around them. They resist Martial and Psionic types and are vulnerable to Aberrant and Death types.

Water

Water crytures may be fluid and adaptable, or solid as an impending tidal wave. They resist Construct, Fire and Water types and are vulnerable to Lightning and Plant types.

Classes

A cryture's combat abilities are categorized into many different Classes, each of which has unique powers and passive bonuses as a cryture progresses through them. Usually, these classes align with their Types, but not always. Some crytures may have a Class that don't match their types at all

Most crytures have three different Classes, but some have been known to have fewer, unlocking additional Classes when they undergo Metamorphosis. Some rare crytures may have even more!

Features

All crytures have special adaptations, either due to their biology or magical essence, that provide some kind of utility beyond just combat. They may be able to fly, climb, teleport, change shape, produce light and food, or any number of useful things. These adaptations are known as Features.

Savvy conjurers know how to leverage the Features of their crytures to great effect, allowing them to overcome various difficulties with ease or even accomplish tasks that would be impossible for humans.

Danger

Crytures come in a whole range of power levels, which are expressed in the Cryture Codex as their Danger scores. Not only are crytures with a higher Danger more powerful in combat, they are also able to resist being bound by conjurers more easily.

Danger usually ranges from 1-4, but some unique and exceptional crytures may exceed that.

Conjurers

Generally, a Conjurer refers to anyone who owns a bound cryture. True conjurers, however, have developed a number of skills that let them work with crytures at a more advanced level. These skills allow them to train their crytures, attune multiple ones at a time, heal them magically, and utilize a growing collection of crytures. A conjurer's mastery of the Astral Plane is what makes all these things possible.

The Astral Plane

The Astral Plane is a parallel spiritual world, which all living beings are connected to through their dreams. As part of their training - or through a natural talent - conjurers have mastered the art of lucid dreaming and can shape the astral plane to their whims. They can use this skill in a number of ways.

The Astral Pocket

Conjurers all have a special part of the Astral Plane carved out for themselves, which they use as a habitat for all of their bound crytures. This place is known as their Astral Pocket. While a cryture is crystallized, it resides within its conjurer's astral pocket and lives out its life normally with all of the conjurer’s other crytures.

Conjuring and Binding Crystals

Binding crystals are the conduit that allows a conjurer to capture, summon, and command crytures. When a cryture is bound by a conjurer, the physical essence is absorbed into the crystal, while its spirit resides in the conjurer’s astral pocket. When the crystal is broken, its mass reforms into the cryture’s body and the spirit returns to it from the astral pocket.

The Conjurer's Bond

The close connection created by the binding process creates a kind of geas on the cryture, compelling it to comply with a conjurer’s commands, except in certain extreme circumstances. Due to the astral connection, the cryture always understands its conjurer’s intentions, even without verbal communication. This type of communication only functions in close proximity, where they can hear or see each other. A conjurer can’t summon a cryture without its specific crystal, but anyone with an occupied crystal can summon the cryture inside it. A cryture summoned this way has no obligation to obey the summoner, and its conjurer knows immediately when it has been summoned by someone else.

Cryture Skills

The conjurer's bond allows a bound cryture to tap into its conjurer's knowledge and experience when summoned. When a bound cryture attempts to use a Skill, they use the conjurer's level of that Skill, plus their own Talents to determine how many dice they roll. This also applies to their Vigor, Awareness, Reactions or Insight.

When a wild cryture's Vigor, Awareness, Reactions or Insight are called into play, use their Danger in place of the relevant Skill to determine each of them.

Attuning and Using Multiple Crytures

Once a day, when a conjurer sleeps, they will need to select which crytures to attune for the next day. While a cryture is attuned, the conjurer has full control over them and they will obey almost any command while summoned. If a conjurer summons a cryture that isn’t currently attuned, it will simply walk around in a daze, or re-crystalize itself at the first opportunity.

A conjurer can have only one cryture attuned at a time, normally. However, the Capacity ability allows a conjurer to attune additional crytures at once, up to a maximum of four. A conjurer may elect to keep some attunement slots open, in which case they may fill them later while meditating during a short rest.

While a conjurer has multiple crytures attuned, they may summon any number of them at once, but each summoning beyond the first requires them to spend 1 Mana per Strategic Round.

Essence

Essences are powdered or liquid remains of crytures, typically created when a cryture’s body becomes too damaged to house its spirit. They are the primary ingredient for crafting magic items, and a catalyst for spells. Essence is also the primary means of increasing a cryture's power, as they consume it to advance in Class levels and Metamorphosis.

Harvesting Essence

Unbound crytures dissolve into essence when they reach 0 Health. The type of essence collected this way is determined randomly, according to the cryture’s loot table.

Training Crytures

Crytures gain power by consuming the essence of other crytures. To increase the level of a cryture's class, or gain a new class, a conjurer must spend a Labor Action to feed it the required essence and train the cryture in that class. The amount of essence required for each level is as follows.

Level 1 - 4 Essence

Level 2 - 6 Essence

Level 3 - 10 Essence

Level 4 - 16 Essence

Level 5 - 24 Essence

Morphing a cryture to its next Metamorphosis typically requires it to consume a specific type and amount of essence, as listed in its cryture codex entry. There are usually requirements for Affinity and Class levels that must be met as well before Metamorphosis is possible.

Natures

Natures affect how a cryture gains Affinity and Enmity. When a player chooses a starting cryture, they can select the Nature of the cryture themselves. However, when a conjurer first binds a wild cryture, they must roll 1d10 to determine the Nature of that cryture.

1 - Aggressive

An aggressive cryture lives for conflict. It loves to fight, first and foremost, but any chance for it to show dominance over others gives it a similar thrill. Being calm and passive is the bane of an aggressive cryture.

2 - Anxious

Anxious crytures prefer to avoid trouble whenever possible. They are at their happiest when their conjurer steers away from conflict and achieves things by de-escalating tense situations. They despise having to fight battles that could be avoided.

3 - Calm

A calm cryture is never in a hurry for anything. It likes to do things methodically and take its time with any task. Calm crytures hate to be rushed and resent being forced into difficult situations due to rash decisions.

4 - Curious

A curious cryture lives to explore and try new things. These crytures never leave a stone unturned and expect their conjurers to try every path they can take, even if there’s danger. They hate to miss out on anything they haven’t seen before.

5 - Empathetic

An empathetic cryture feels good when those around it feel good. It does its best to cheer people up and likes to ease the problems of others. Turning a blind eye to suffering, or worse - contributing to it - will turn an empathetic cryture against you quickly.

6 - Lazy

Lazy crytures don’t like to expend more effort than necessary. They would prefer it if their conjurer handled everything without their help, but when they must do something, a lazy cryture likes to get it over with, using minimal time and effort. Lazy crytures hate to go the extra mile and will take shortcuts whenever possible.

7 - Mischievous

A mischievous cryture can’t keep itself out of trouble. It respects guile and risky behavior, especially when it’s achieved at someone’s expense. Mischievous crytures are annoyed by people who insist on playing it safe and above-board.

8 - Noble

A noble cryture seeks to act with honor and commands respect. It never backs down from a challenge and eschews underhanded actions in general. Cowardice and deceit win no respect from a noble cryture and it would rather lose with dignity than win by cheating.

9 - Serious

A serious cryture likes to get things done. It respects a conjurer with a good work ethic and feels fulfilled when getting its own hands dirty. A serious cryture loathes people who avoid work or procrastinate.

10 - Vain

A vain cryture loves attention. It seeks praise from those around it and expects undue favoritism from its conjurer. Vain crytures especially loathe when others receive the same at their own expense.

Affinity and Enmity

Affinity and Enmity represent the state of your relationship with your cryture. Affinity is the long-term bond you have with the cryture, while Enmity represents the current tensions between you. When a cryture reaches 5 Enmity, it will refuse to obey its conjurer, unless they make a Sense + Conjuring roll with a difficulty equal to 10 minus the Cryture's Affinity. This roll is required every time a conjurer gives a command to the cryture.

Gaining Affinity

When a player character does something that compliments the nature of one of the crytures they have attuned, the World Builder may award them with 1 Affinity. Each Nature has a number of milestones that can be achieved to increase the cryture's Affinity, as follows.

Aggressive

Triumphant: The cryture defeats another cryture with higher Danger.
Double Team: The cryture defeats an enemy while flanking with its conjurer.
One After Another: The cryture scores a hit with every die of an attack roll.
Brute Force: The cryture or its conjurer solves a problem with force, rather than less violent means.

Anxious

Rescue Maneuver: The cryture is recalled from battle when below half Health.
Overcoming Fear: The cryture defeats an enemy that has a type advantage.
Back Off: The cryture's conjurer pushes an engaged enemy away from it.
Last Stand: The cryture is summoned after 3 of its conjurer's other crytures have been defeated.

Calm

Strategist: The party sets up in an advantageous position before a battle.
Risk Averse: The party falls back to town or camp when out of Stamina or Mana
Coordinated Assault: The cryture or its conjurer delays their turn to take advantage of the other's action.
Patient Assistant: The cryture assists its conjurer with a skill check with a Complexity of 10 or more.

Curious

Treasure Hunter: The cryture discovers a hidden treasure.
Advance Scout: The cryture goes off to investigate something without its conjurer.
Taste Tester: The cryture consumes one essence of each type.
New Lands: The party explores a region the cryture has never been to.

Empathetic

Supporter: The cryture or its conjurer inflicts a positive status or restores Health for an ally.
Making Friends: The cryture or its conjurer reduces an NPC's Hostility to 0.
Olive Branch: The party treats an Injury for a defeated enemy.
Well-Liked: The cryture’s conjurer has Benefits worth at least 500 Favor in total.

Lazy

Effortless Win: The cryture finishes a combat encounter at full Health, Stamina and Mana.
Just a Passenger: The cryture stays unsummoned while its conjurer is traveling.
Don’t Even Try: The cryture is unsummoned before it takes a Tactical Turn.
Actually Try: The cryture spends all of its Stamina or Mana.

Mischievous

Cunning Combat: The cryture or its conjurer defeats an enemy with a positive Roll Modifier from positioning.
Harassment: The cryture and its conjurer inflict a status on the same enemy in battle.
Sneaky: The cryture or its conjurer solves a problem with stealth or subterfuge.
Thief: The cryture or its conjurer steals something without being caught.

Noble

Back to Back: The cryture and its conjurer each defeat an enemy while adjacent to each other.
Show Mercy: The party allows an enemy to flee when they could stop them.
To the Rescue: The cryture or its conjurer Distracts or pushes away an enemy that's engaged with an ally under half Health.
Lost and Found: The cryture or its conjurer returns something that was lost or stolen.

Serious

Workaholic: The cryture helps its conjurer with a second Labor Action in one day.
Walk it Off: The cryture’s conjurer continues a job after suffering an Injury.
Have a Plan: The party makes a plan before an encounter.
Stay On Target: The party avoids an encounter they don’t need to engage in.

Vain

Narcissist: The cryture is the only one summoned by its conjurer all day when other crytures are available.
My Turn: The cryture is summoned after one of its conjurer's other crytures is defeated.
Better Than You: The cryture succeeds at a task that another party member failed at.
Look What I Can Do: The cryture uses one of its Features to solve a problem.

Gaining Enmity

When a player does something that offends the nature of a cryture that they have attuned, or if the cryture is reduced to 0 Health, that cryture gains 1 Enmity.

Reducing Enmity

Once a day, a conjurer may try to make amends with a cryture they’ve offended to reduce their Enmity. This requires a Sense + Conjuring roll with a difficulty equal to 10 - Affinity, and the complexity is equal to the Cryture's Enmity. On a successful roll, the cryture’s enmity is reduced by 1. The world builder is encouraged to give bonuses to this roll if the player makes an effort to describe how they’re trying to make amends.

Variant Crytures

On rare occasions, some crytures have been known to exhibit traits that diverge from others of their species. Whether this is brought on by environmental conditions, exposure to magic phenomena, cross breeding with another species, or incorporating special materials into a construct, they all follow certain patterns and constraints. Collectively, these special types of crytures are known as Variant Crytures.

Variant Crytures follow these rules.

One of the cryture’s classes is replaced with a different class.
The cryture retains its original types.
The cryture must retain at least one class of each of its types.
The essence cost of its metamorphoses are adjusted based on the following formula.
1. The type of each class represents 1/5 of the total.
2. The other 2/5 is based on the cryture’s types, split evenly if there are two types.
3. If the cost is not evenly divided by 5, round up on the lowest type and down on the highest.

Example Variant Crytures

An Arbo has acquired a broken Orb of Fire Power, and its leaking power has infused the Arbo with fire powers of its own. The Arbo’s Monk class has been replaced with the Ignition class. In order to metamorphose into Arbrah, it requires 1 Beast, 1 Fire, and 3 Martial essence. To metamorphose into Arbrawl, it requires 2 Beast, 2 Fire, and 6 Martial essence.

A Glubble that is the offspring of a Slugoop and a Goobly. Its Pressurized class has been replaced with the Boxer class. To metamorphose into Goobly, it requires 1 Aberrant, 1 Martial, and 3 Water essence. To metamorphose into Glubbernaut, it requires 2 Aberrant, 2 Martial, and 6 Water essence.

A special Squmper that was crafted from Wildersteel and Greenwood. Its Golem class has been replaced with the Sunforged class. To metamorphose into Knump, it requires 3 Construct, 1 Martial, and 1 Plant essence. To metamorphose into Chevalong, it requires 6 Construct, 2 Martial, and 2 Plant essence.

Cryture Eggs

All crytures are born from eggs, and nests of cryture eggs are commonly found in the lairs of cryture families. While cross breeding between species is rare in the wild, this can happen between crytures of the same Kind, in which case, the offspring are always Variant Crytures.

Cryture eggs can be bound to a binding crystal without a check. To hatch a cryture egg, a conjurer must have it Attuned and tend to it by making the following check.

Idle Action

Roll: Sense + Nature vs 5 + Danger

Complexity: 10- × Danger

Success: The egg hatches into a healthy crytures.

Crit Fail: The cryture in the egg dies.