Help I Accidentally Created a Fundamentally Imperfect Fallen Universe (Pantheon Generator Results and walkthrough)

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This image is Wizzzargh's Fault

I generated a pantheon using the madness found here, with a bit of this and that.

Here's the insane result! Making it was fun!

I gave them names! And I've been playing lots of Cult Simulator so that inspired a lot of these. 

Eightfold Goddess - The Creator and Great Weaver of All. She who granted form to The Eight.

The First Wards: Also called Mud-To-Bricks. Individually, they are called Volcana the Hammer, Hestia the Forge, and Brigid the Smith

The Gates of Death: Each Door is it's own Aspect: Keidara of the Lock and Roshan the Unbroken

Dagr, The Noon-Blaze: Eye of the Weaver, Hour of Life and Death

Noxia, The Unceasing Wind: She-Of-Calamities

Lethe, The UnMind: The Cave-dweller, The Blank Slate

Kleros, The Blindfolded Archer: Who's Arrows Fall Where They Will

Settu, The Stray: The Darkened Claw, Dances-In-Shade

Euphos, The Guardian: The Unbroken Shield, The Great Protector

So breaking out the relationship dice rolls from here a bit more also gives some lore inspiration.

• The First Wards and Noxia rolled an 11 on the relationship table, which is "A single designer child". It's obviously pretty interesting that Construction and Destruction got paired up in such a way, so I think the myth is something like this:
  "In the Earliest Days of the Eight, a Prophecy was whispered into the ears of Noxia and each Ward, promising them a Great Ally for their Aspect would be born by combining their essences. Each agreed, and Unceasing Wind fed part of herself willingly to the Wards, but not before her sharp winds cut each of those Three. The cuts from the Wards intermingled with the forge-worked Winds to create Ickorus, The Blood of Gods
  
  
• The Gates of Death and Lethe rolled an 8, which is Unhappily Married. Despite that they rolled the maximum possible amount of offspring with each other and each have one Fling with a different god. I already had begun to think of Lethe as somewhat monstrous or dangerous, so perhaps their "Marriage" is actually that The Gates of Death also imprison Lethe in some sort of divine cave? Maybe there might be a sort-of Stockholm syndrome going on.
  
  
• The Gates of Death had their affair with Euphos, the Soldier god. I think that Euphos and Roshan are attracted to each other's Fortitude and strength, but that their union creates Xashur, god of Pestilence, who is personified as a literal soldier of death.
  
  
• Lethe had their affair with Dagr, the Day god. I think their "affair" may be less a result of mutual attraction and more "One Time Lethe Left Her Cave Prison And Day Had To Put Her Back" and it probably involved Dagr burning Lethe to cause the Cave-dweller to shed her "Skin" and weaving two aspects of leadership. Those twins would become Gwynvold and Nymenche, "The Crown and Sceptre" and probably lead Lethe back to the Underworld somehow.
  
  
• The "Children" of The Gates of Death and Lethe probably each have their own Myth but I'm guessing that they all involve some variation of Lethe having various accidents you might expect from a goddess of ignorance.
  
  
• Dagr and Settu rolled a 4, which is "Bitter Rivals". Lore-wise, I think this might explain why so many animals are nocturnal in this setting. They had a single child despite their rivalry though, who is the triple-god of Charity of all things. I'll have to think about this one more later but I'll call them Za-Ket
  
  
• Finally, Kleros and Euphos rolled a 3, which is "Passionate Lovers". I think this may indicate that Soldiers tend to enjoy gambling quite a bit in this setting, and of course speaks to the inherent risk involved in each martial conflict a soldier takes part in. Also I'm going to give Kleros a bow made by Euphos as a gift, hence her moniker of "Blindfolded Archer". I'll call the bow Skoletos. Their pairing results in four additional deities.

So to wrap up this blog post, I'll summarize the second generation god names and maybe cover their relationships in a future post.

Xashur, Warrior of Decay: Sword of Plague

Gwynvold and Nymenche, "The Crown and Sceptre"

Ickorus, Blood of the Gods

Kalvores, The Riders

Ferralocke, The Conception and Birth

Sagaheim, The Book-Keeper

Za-Ket, The Three Faces of Giving

Nilarm and Baskarr, "The Flood and Blossom"

Ursck - "The Mother's Rage"

"______" - (Nameless god of Silence)

Rag-Kios - "Justice of the Gods"

Do a Fusion Dance and Turn Into A Crocodile (Styxian Pair: Jaws of Death and Quietus Oar Bonded Classes)

Biggest Inspirations for this were the Amazon Pairs by Cavegirl and Crocodile Class by Goatman's Goblet

Sometimes the crocodiles who float the River Styx perish. When this happens, their souls split, reincarnating as two individual mortals. Coming together most commonly as twins or lovers, the split souls seek adventure and power before finally returning to their guardian forms. Together, they are known as Styxian Pairs.

A party member riding on a newly fused Styxian Pair (Art by Bram Sels)

Both classes share the following abilities:

Natural Swimmer: Can swim and make attacks underwater without penalty. Can hide in water and swamps on 3-in-6

Bond of the Soul: The Jaws of Death and Quietus Oar cannot recover hit points without the presence of the other. While they maintain their own HP pools, certain Soul-Effecting magics have the chance to harm both equally, forcing each individual to save against the effect even if only one would be a legal target.

True Form: Guardian of the Styx: At 9th Level, the Jaws of Death and Quietus Oar can physically combine to live as they did in a past life: as a massive, 40 foot long crocodile beast. They can also separate back into their humanoid forms, but can only either split or fuse once each day.

Source

Jaws of Death

XP- Magic User

Hit Dice: D6

To Hit- As Thief

Saves- As Thief

Spellcasting- As Cleric, (but see below)

Fangs of the Beast: Can Dual-Wield bladed weapons without penalty. When successfully making two attacks against a single target in this way, the Jaws of Death can immediately attempt to grapple the target for free.

Speaker of Ruin: Jaws of Death have no access to any spells innately and must learn them from other's spellbooks or similar sources. Jaws of Death can learn magic but must scrimshaw spells on bones or teeth. This usually means they are limited to access wizard spells due to the nature of spellbooks and scrolls, but if they find a scroll or learnable spell from a Cleric's spell list they can learn it as well (assuming whatever outside force grants the spell responds to the Jaws of Death's will). They can cast spells underwater without issue.

Source

Quietus Oar

XP- Magic User

Hit Dice: D8

To Hit- As Fighter

Saves - As Fighter

Mighty Tail: Quietus Oars begin play with a special club that deals d12 damage. It deals max damage on grappled targets

Rush: Quietus Oars can move at twice their normal speed in a round a number of times per day equal to their level.

Navigate the River: Quietus Oars can navigate unerringly in water, swamp, or similar terrains

Art Source

Design Notes: This is meant for something like B/X or Basic Fantasy and seems a bit more powerful than the standard classes. Having the bond be squishy (two adventurers are twice as likely to die as one, right?) might make up for it or maybe you should gate these classes behind stats or something.

I haven't really written any classes like this before but it was sorta fun. Probably don't expect it to be balanced.

Natural Swimmers' "Hiding" ability was originally just "hide as thief in swamp settings" but a half-chance seemed more straightforward- it should probably be an emergency thing rather than a reliable one. If characters take the time to hide smart then they usually aren't found but this would let the Styxian Pair supernaturally disappear, even if they would normally be in plain sight. Basically an elven cloak ability.

Some of the balance probably depends on how reliable or dangerous Grappling is in your system, but trying to game the Mighty Tail's ability seems like a fun tactical hurdle to me. It might still be a bit too strong.

Since I like progression in classes, I'd probably use Wizzargh's Fighter Techniques with the Quietus Oar and let them access Fighter Techniques at either half or third of the base Fighter rates. Collecting wuxia techniques is just really fun and lines up nicely with Wizards getting new tricks from spells.

The capstone doesn't have specifics but that's on purpose. For some things a "normal" super sized croc is fine, for my system I'd probably just let the players have the normal semi-demigod abilities that styxian crocodiles would have, like eating and controlling ghosts and total immunity to poisons.

I also have some ideas about lore and having individual Jaws of Death from certain regions or backgrounds utilizing different styled weapons- in the first draft they used Shotel's specifically to emphasize a pincer/jaws motif. Maybe there are snake variant's who use whips and poison daggers for their jaws, or a variety of long and short blades to emulate different animal styles. I might follow up on a later post if I come back around to it.

Jojiro's Twenty Questions for Centras

Here's the cool link! I've done this once before but wanted to give another a try! In particular I've tailored answers to an area called The Jeweled Coast.

1. What is something that players can interact with that inspires wonder in your setting?

• Skylands! They are floating islands and dungeons and ruins of ages past that float through the sky before being shot with anchoring chains shot from giant ballista and raided by adventuring crews! They can be HUGE or TINY or anything in between! There are also BUG-CITIES that roam around mortal-engine style on the backs of giant beetles.

2. How does one religion in the world work? What rituals and observances are involved, and how does this religion play with other religions out there? Are gods real?

• The Godclaw is more or less the "official" pantheon, made up of the five hero-gods who saved the realm. While each god maintains their own church with it's own power structure and rituals, overall the Godclaw Council works to maintain order amongst the larger cities and settlements in particular, acting as a social and military resource for citizens. However, the Godclaw does not tolerate open worship of other deific beings or cults - while there is no inquisitor-like force rooting out corruption, the Godclaw's resources are so ingrained in communities that they tend to self-enforce against anyone practicing heretical worship, as all the Godclaw would need to do is withdraw their resources once finding out about heretics to cause irrevocable harm. Gods might be real.

3.How does one get access to goods and services in the setting? Will items always be available, will trade routes be jammed up by bandits, are their commissions for things, are magic items sold in regular stores, are hirelings available for hire or do we have to find them in the world?

• There's a rather large variety of crafters and shops of all sorts. Both guild and non-guild businesses are in abundance, and enforcers of the church of Artosis called The Invisible Hand does a good job at rooting out anti-consumer practices and preventing complete monopolistic takeovers. Trade Routes can be jammed up by weather, monsters, or bandits as usual but these rarely prevent goods to be completely unavailable, as businesses tend to overstock. Prices still fluctuate though. Magic Items can be commissioned by Wizards or Wizard Academies, though they are quite expensive and typically require monster parts in addition to esoteric favors. Hirelings are usually available for hire, most commonly as guides, trackers, or the occasional out-of-work adventurer.

4. What are some examples of people and creatures a commoner would be wary of in-setting? What are some examples of people and creatures a commoner could trounce without worry? What are some examples of people and creatures a commoner would trust?

• Humans don't like Elves because of a long history including two apocalyptic events. In forested areas there's lots of fae, so strangers tend to be treated with a mix of caution and distant politeness. Wizards are rare and people treat spellbooks and wands/staves like modern people would treat bazookas. In general any creature with a skull-pattern on it can be killed without fear of any sort of reprisal. 

5. Name a heroically slain dragon, or something comparable in threat. How was the creature slain, according to stories? How was it actually done? Was it a fluke or a well-executed slaying of a monster?

• The great dragon-tyrant WRECKNAUGHT was killed by a veritable army of heroes and sky-pirates in an epic battle that brought about the end of the Age of Weeping Oil and ushered in the Age of Heroes. According to stories it was a pair of roguish heroes named Mitsuu and Kaizoku, a birdfolk and fox-folk who organized the attack and dealt the killing blow. The exact tactics are lost in the two ages past but the mythos places a great emphasis on teamwork.

6. How do people who adventure (if there are even such people) get jobs and contracts in this setting?

• Nothing prevents four friends from just deciding to explore a dungeon or go try to hunt a big monster, but most either start or join an official Adventuring Company, complete with a sponsor. An Adventuring Company will have several adventuring members and handles the administrative tasks involved in sourcing and vetting profitable excursion. Open contracts still exist though, and Wytch-Guard Companies in particular can only be joined after completing a Wytch-Guard contract.

7. How do people convey their station/caste if such things exist? In particular, what intersections do station/caste have with the adventuring lifestyle (whatever the players are in the setting…guards, tomb raiders, bounty hunters, etc.)?

• Lots of adventurers have some sort of noble or wealthy upbringing actually - station is usually conveyed through fancy clothes, etiquette, and displays of wealth.

8. What privileges and prejudices exist in your world, if any do at all? For example: How does the world view LGBTQ identities, ethnic identities within each fantasy “race”, and race relations?

• LGBTQ identities don't have any taboo attachment, Race relations between humans is strained a bit though, due to the complications of an ongoing Cold War and a refugee crisis. Elven families are rare and tend to just stay within their own communities, though there is tension between rare meetings of Elves from the The Lineage of Days and Elves from The Lineage of Night. Dwarves have subcultures but these aren't well understood by outsiders - in general they are quite collectivist in nature and this has suited them well.

 9. Distal View of the Political System?

• There is technically a monarchy, though it's somewhat removed.  Elected City Councils, who tend to be representative of settlement populaces, take care of local laws and governance fairly well. Basically any given city might do things totally differently.

10. Proximal View of the Political System?

• King Markhus is well liked but elderly, and rumored to be in worsening condition. His three children include Lothric, Myrna, and Halfred, though his daughter Myrna is slated to next take the throne due to the ancient customs of the Monarch's Cycle. Lothric is talented with administration, Halfred is a somewhat famous and well-liked Naval hero who helped fight off some undead pirates, and Myrna is somewhat reclusive and lacks the charisma of her father. The Royal Family has a bloodline that traces back to the god Ka'Thon and his bride, Queen Night-Vale of the Summer Court.

11. Do your players even need their rations and torches?

• Yes, unless you want to starve or be eaten by things who can hunt in the dark.

12. How do you become a Ruler of Many?

• Being well-liked by a group of people, or be born into royal blood. Adventuring Companies can comprise "many" to the point of being small militaries, and their leaders are the most cunning and successful of adventurous types. If you want to lead an actual army or nation though, you'd have to go somewhere else or try to stage a coup.

13. Are there social consequences for necromancy or other forms of forbidden magic? Do these consequences differ in the view of the common man vs. other people?

• Necromancy is openly practiced by the church of the goddess Valora, but forbidden magic or worship that clearly is meant to cause harm is brought down with extreme prejudice

14. What is the common man’s capability to distinguish the following things: a werewolf’s tracks vs. wolf tracks, a manticore attack vs. a lion attack, a demon attack vs. a gargoyle attack?

• Any tracker could tell a wolf doesnt walk like a werewolf, but a non-hunter peasant wouldn't. Manticores leave spike wounds. Most people don't believe in demons and have never heard of gargoyles.

15. What is the social position of rogues, within both history and in the current day? Within both thieves’ guilds and within the world at large?

• Thieves Guilds are winked at but not typically acknowledged (sometimes they even pay taxes!) and Assassin's Guilds are real but considered to be fake by most of the populace. Socially you would just introduce yourself as an adventurer or archaeologist since there's skill overlap and leave it there.

16. What is the role of dungeons within the world – are they a place where MacGuffins have been hidden, ruins of lost civilizations, unexplored caverns extending deep into the earth, Zelda-like puzzle dungeons that are more a player challenge than something that makes sense in-world, or something else entirely?

• The three types of dungeons are Vaults, Skylands, and Ruin Bugs (fortress beetles who's population has been wiped out or moved). They are all actively sought out and competed over by rival adventuring guilds, and all tend to have some sort of treasure from either recent or ancient history. The challenge each can present vary wildly though.

17. How common are dungeons, how deep or large are they, and how much treasure might be expected within their depths?

• Dungeons of all three types are relatively common, but vary wildly in size and profitability.

18. Explain, if you could, the differences between magic-users in the world. For instance, how would wizards, sorcerers, miracle-workers, warlocks, witches, medicine-men, stage magicians, and the like differ from each other? Do all of those categories even exist?

• "Wizard" is a term reserved for the officially sanctioned bunch who undergo training to learn how to read the arcane language and house spells in their brain. This takes most of their lifetime. "Witches" vary in reaction from village to village but petition nature spirits and the land itself for spells. 

19. What are two examples of food culture in the world? Even if food isn’t a part of play, what dishes are people consuming in the world around the players, and what messages can be conveyed through food and drink?

• Dwarfs brew all sorts of exotic alcohol. "Shiner Flasks" are used as an all-purpose dont-ask-whats-in-it alcohol by adventurers. Cities tend to have food-markets and street stalls that serve culinary dishes from all over the world, including exotic cheeses, dumplings, noodles...you name it.

20. What is the internal logic of the game world you are running, as far as players are concerned? When the players act and the world reacts, what principles do you hold to?

• I'm not actually sure I like this question, but is somewhere between 'maintaining realism' and 'rule of cool' on a sliding scale a proper answer?

Quick Review:

Overall I liked these and thought they were fine, I just don't quite like them as much as Jeff Rients? They seem more suited to a worldbuilding guide rather than a player guide which is less useful to me personally. A big thank you to Jojiro though for putting them together.

Playable Ancestries of Centras

I bounce between lots of systems and stuff but in general these are ancestries that you can pick if you're playing in one of my games. They go in conjunction with class choice and affect saving throws sometimes.  This stuff is mostly based off of how Basic Fantasy does things but was also inspired by Wizzzargh's houserules for their open table games. DCC and other stuff was an inspiration as well.

Humans

• 10% reduction in amount of XP needed to level up. 

• Humans and only humans get to wield swords, which deal damage one step higher than whatever their normal damage dice would be. d6 becomes d8, d8 becomes d10, and so forth.

Most people you meet will be humans.

Elves

• Roll an extra 3d6 for an additional Luck stat. Luck can be tested (1d20+luck ≥ 20) or permanently spent to reroll dice after learning the result.
  
• Elves have "darkvision" but it's function depends on lineage:
  
• The Lineage of Days can see twice as far in low-light and can see as normal when underneath a starry sky. They can also see through smoke, ash, and flame as though it weren't there.
  
• The Lineage of Nights have echolocation that works best in subterranean or forested environments. They can also see through non-magical fog, mist, and dirty water as if it were clear.

Elves are rare to encounter outside their own small settlements.

Dwarves

• Don't have conventional names. They always seem to know which Dwarf you're referring to though. Trying to give them nicknames is unspeakably rude, but adventuring Dwarfs will allow friends to refer to them by the primary color of their clothing. Such dwarfs must be careful to change this color at least once a week.
  
• Have immunity against targeted magics and curses. This still leaves them vulnerable to area-of-effect spells like fireball but renders them immune to spells like sleep.
  
• Dwarven "darkvision" is actually thermal vision. 

It is common for Dwarfs to settle in enclaves within the settlements of other races, though they also have their own city-states. Dwarfs 'shed' their name in a coming of age ceremony called the ritual of mirrors, and any adult dwarf who becomes too attached to a name risks the wrath of a strange psychic-mirror-vampire-monster.

Halflings

There aren't any of the original hairy-footed agrarian types left in Centras, but for playable small-folk-

Kestrels: Resemble their more traditional halfling ancestors, but are born with feather birthmark "tattoos" that move and dance across their skin. Rarely, they will be born with bird-like features like talons, patches of actual feathers, or raptor eyes (but never wings). Kestrels can glide short distances.

Mice: Child-sized talking rodents. Mice can use sewing needles (stats as swords) or seam-rippers(stats as axes) as special weapons that can even harm spirit-beings. (Magic weapons without the bonuses, basically)

Kestrels tend to be nomadic, but couples will occasionally settle down among other populaces. Mice can be found wherever humans can be found.

Short post, but I just wanted to get something down. Hopefully someone finds it fun and gameable, or at least enjoyed the read. I love reading about unique twists to classic fantasy races so if you have some of your own you'd like to share please link it in the comments!

Secret Jackalope 2020: Magical Academic Book Generator

 Let's see.

Kahva of Mad Cartographer has requested a generator on academic books on Magic.

I decided to do some vaguely academic sounding verbs, then schools of magic, followed by a few extra words of title. I apologize if this is terrible but I had to dig deep for this one since it's been quite awhile since I've been part of academia.

1	Analyzing	Conjuration	: A Manifesto
2	Building	Necromancy	For a New World Order
3	Calculating	Evocation	, A Brief History
4	Coding	Abjuration	: A Radical Perspective
5	Comparing	Transmutation	: Origins and History
6	Composing	Divination	: A Dwarven Perspective
7	Criticizing	Enchantment	: An Elven Perspective
8	Deconstructing	Illusion	: Declassifying the Myths
9	Determining	Polymorphism	: Understanding the Opposition
10	Dissecting	Teleportation	: Common Untruths and Uncommon Truths
11	Examining	Scrying	: How I Lost My Tenure
12	Revising	Healing	is Easier than You Might Think

Here it is in button form:

I hope that it's useful! And to supplement the table, since it's a bit shorter than my other blogpost, here's a skeleton for Magic Research of new spells for osr systems. Lots of bits are stolen. This is for both making up new spells or acquiring existing ones.

Magical Research

- Cost is 500 gold per level of the spell (or silver/copper, for other standards) spent on reagents/sacrificed in holy bonfires/etc

- Success chances begins at 1-in-6

Chance of success is improved in the following ways:

- Doubling the required price improves chances by 1-in-6

- Theoretical research on magic, either through academic books on magic or through consulting knowledgeable people improves chances by 1-in-6

- Having access to or consulting with a spell similar to the desired effect improves chances by 2-in-6. Examples might be Levitation or Featherfall for flight or Dimension Door for Teleport.

Months of Centras and Their Effects

Centras has five months in it's calendar year, with each roughly related to a familiar season. Each month (except Flux) is holy to a member of the God-Claw, and each deity has their own sometimes tumultuous relationship with the various Fae Courts of Seasons who also have power during those times. Each month has 4 weeks and 28 days. There may be other modifiers or unique encounters associated with the months, but presented are the most common.

Menahim, the Month of Spring

Holy Month of: Valora, goddess of Love, Death, and the Seas.

- Followers of Valora are actively at war with the fae of Spring

Modifiers (+1 to reactions/success) : 

• Seafaring
• Marriage Proposals

Unique Encounters:

• Spring Revels and Bacchanals
• Hungry Animals awakening from Hibernation
• Non-Hostile Undead

Elm, the Month of Summer

Holy Month of: Ka'Thon, god of the elements, insects, and fate

- Followers of Ka'Thon are allied with the fae of Summer, as Ka'Thon married a Queen of the Fae

Modifiers:

• Duels and other Contests, especially Jousts (though the improved reception is sometimes from fear of being cursed by rebuffed, disguised fae moreso than good nature)
• Storytelling (The Summer Court is also known as the Storybook Court)

Unique Encounters:

• Heraldic Creatures
• Bug and Insectfolk on a Holy Pilgrimage to the sacred burrows beneath the Earth

Flux, the Month of Chaos

Not a Holy Month

- Flux is a special month where pretty much anything can happen. The effects can be relatively mild, like the sun never rising or setting during the whole period. They can be whimsical, like entire populations of animals switching size or places in the food chain-jokes are still made about the blight of horse-sized ducks many Flux's ago. They can also be rather severe, like gates to hell or elemental planes suddenly popping up across the landscape, or vile necromancers appearing from seemingly nowhere with an entire army of undead.

Harvest, the Month of Autumn

Holy Month of: Artosis, god of the Sun, Luck, and Wealth

- Followers of Artosis have a cordial relationship with the Autumn Court, sometimes forging short-term contracts with the Courts various mercenaries

Modifiers:

• Business Proposals
• Gambling Invitations

Unique Encounters:

• Cultists of the Wild Hunt
• Rampaging Beasts gorging themselves in preparation for Winter

Restmare, the Month of Winter

Holy Month of: Arcana, goddess of Madness, Music, Darkness, and Secrets

- Arcana is a secretive sort and it's unknown what sort of relationship, if any, her followers might have with the Winter Court

Modifiers:

• Research of all sorts
• Music
• Thievery

Unique Encounters:

• Hostile Undead, particularly Winter Spirits
• Half-Starving or Frozen creatures
• White-Stags of Winter

Special:

Xan, the god of Justice, Vengeance, and Beasts has no holy month, but has his own holy day's.

- Xan's Rain, a single day of Flux on which Rain is guaranteed, is known to bless lawman and bounty hunters alike in seeking their targets, but only if the cause is truly just in the eyes of the law (those seeking the wrongly accused or innocent receive no divine aid)

- Xan's Sun, a single comparatively hot day of Winter, during which criminals can plead for forgiveness for a lessened sentence and other ongoing disputes are traditionally atoned for and those who have wronged others can safely ask for forgiveness.

- Xan's Winds, a single day of Autumn, during which bonds with animal companions are solidified and animals seem easier to rightly 'tame'.

Cuckoo Guild

Lexi over at her blog has recently made a very solid template for extensible Thieves in the GLOG tradition, with the pitch that the unique thing for Thieves is skills so advance that they warp the game narrative.

It reminds me alot of Blades in the Dark, and while I have some concerns about the applications, I overall really like the idea. Ultimately in my games, I think I prefer giving players a relatively small number of customizable classes rather than a lump sum of them.

Anyway, I still like my Cuckoo Folk idea but not so much the implementation so...here's another go at it.

In this interpretation, rather than a unique species, Cuckoos are just masters of Confidence Scams of the highest level, using deception to blend into places and positions they aren't meant to be in. Then they just stick around and eat the food.

Cuckoo Guild

This is not a king

Starting Equipment: 2 Sets of fancy clothes, a bottle of rare liquor, a (fake) noble's signet ring, an ornately decorated dueling sword

Skills (2, d6): 1. Military History 2. Law 3. Forgery 4. Connoisseur 5. Gambler 6. Music


Abilities

1. Brood-Mark
    ✧: You can convince d4 people in close proximity that you are a close friend over the course of a few minutes, and they will treat you as if you were a beloved family member until you leave their presence.
    ✧✧: 2d6 people in close proximity, and their positive feelings towards you last for d6 days.
    ✧✧✧: You can Brood-Mark anyone with a written letter sent in advance.
2. Pull Rank
    ✧: You can determine someone's relative position to authority through observation. Military Rank for soldiers, Court Position and general favor for courtiers, rank in the line of succession, etc; get overlapping results if they exist.
    ✧✧: If you are aware of someone's position in an authority structure, you can appeal to it and act as their superior as long as one exists.
    ✧✧✧: You can convince someone within an authority structure that you are their superior, even if one *doesn't* exist. ("I am the real king, and you are my pawn")
3. Mimicry
    ✧: You can perform a technical skill once after witnessing it performed (anything from lockpicking to special fighting techniques).
    ✧✧: You can perform a technical skill three times after witnessing it performed.
    ✧✧✧: You can permanently learn a technical skill after witnessing it performed three times.
4. Act Like You Belong
    ✧: You can avoid notice by slipping into a group of 4 or more. You are treated as if part of the group, and given access to any resources or restricted areas that they would normally have access to, as long as you accompany them.
    ✧✧: You can avoid notice by accompanying even a single individual. After you leave, you are difficult to describe and your features can't be recollected if you choose.
    ✧✧✧: You can get anywhere with confidence. No guard will halt your progress, though they may take notice. The most minor change in clothing can throw off pursuers.
5. Thick as Thieves
    ✧: You can recruit d4 thugs in town who're loyal so long as they'll get a cut of the loot and are sure they'll make it out alive. They will flee, cheat, or betray you and each other if either of those conditions becomes sufficiently murky.
    ✧✧: d6 thugs or d4 thieves, each with 1 rank in a random thief ability (besides this one).
    ✧✧✧: 2d6 thugs or 2d4 thieves, each with 2 ranks in a random thief ability (besides this one).
6. Social Parasite
    ✧: You live on someone else's property with their blessing. You don't have downtime costs. Begin each session with an extra ration, packed with care.
    ✧✧: You live on a nobles property, with their blessing. Begin each session with a bottle of fine wine. When carousing, you can roll twice and take the preferred result.
    ✧✧✧: You live on the royal estate or its equivalent in the area. Your friends can come along as well, but only you get the royal treatment. If an ally gets bonus XP through carousing, you get the same amount without having to spend the money.




Some design notes:

- I'd probably have the Brood-Mark abilities only work once per person

- For Pull Rank - Believing someone is your superior doesn't necessarily mean earning their respect, and sometimes it can mean them challenging you in a formal duel or test of strength for your position. "Aha, if you ARE the real king, what if I just kill you and take your place for good!"

- For Mimicry it might be necessary to have certain things be witnessed in active use rather than in training (particularly fighting styles) but perhaps not.

- Act Like You Belong is supposed to just be like blending into a crowd in the Assassins Creed games. The final ability might be a bit strong but I welcome any players who pushes its limits and want to walk past a pair of Frost Giant guards alone just to see what happens.

- Social Parasite should probably be more active for games that don't have carousing or downtime. In those cases I'd just run it as a built-in safe haven, full of people who will protect you no matter what. It might need some further tweaks anyway.