Postremus Lucerna

Postremus Lucerna (lit. Final Lamp/Light) is a tabletop role-playing game system designed for stories set within the dark, rain-drenched world of Hora Lucerna. It features a block-based system to reflect survival, faith, and personal sacrifice in a world ravaged by supernatural horrors.

Core Mechanics

Stats

• Health: Represents physical vitality and resilience.
  • Mechanics: Everyone starts with 5 Health Blocks.
    • Losing a block means injuries (e.g., minor for 1 block lost, serious for 3+).
    • If all blocks are lost, you’re either incapacitated or dead, depending on the tone of the game.
    • Healing: Can be restored through medical skills, spiritual intervention, or time, though spiritual healing might cost Faith Points.
• Resolve: Mental toughness and willpower.
  • Mechanics: Starts with 5 Resolve Blocks.
    • Drains through intense mental stress, like interrogation or psychic attacks.
    • Losing all Resolve Blocks makes you panic, freeze, or lose control of your character for a time.
• Fatigue: Tracks stamina, effort, and endurance, both physical and mental.
  • Mechanics: Starts with 5 Fatigue Blocks.
    • Performing strenuous actions (sprinting, fighting, long rituals) can cost blocks.
    • If you hit zero, you gain penalties like reduced dice rolls or slower recovery for actions. (roll 2 dice and take the lower result)
    • Recovery: Rest, food, or spiritual rejuvenation restores blocks.
• Spirit: Your spiritual fortitude and resistance to corruption or despair.
  • Mechanics: Starts with 5 Spirit Blocks.
    • Losing blocks happens through:
      • Spiritual attacks (e.g., a curse).
      • Personal doubt or guilt tied to roleplay moments.
      • Overuse of Faith Points or forbidden powers.
    • If you lose all Spirit Blocks, you’re vulnerable to possession, madness, or corruption.
      • Disadvantage on social or spiritual rolls
    • Restoration: Rituals, group prayer, or acts of faith can restore Spirit, but it’s slower than healing physical wounds.
• Morale: A shared stat for the group that represents overall mental and emotional endurance.
  • Deprivation: Each day without adequate supplies reduces the group’s Morale Pool by 1. If it hits 0, all players suffer disadvantage on mental and social rolls until morale is restored.
• Corruption: Tracks how tainted you are by dark forces.
  • Mechanics: Starts at 0 but grows as you use forbidden powers or interact with corrupted artifacts.
    • Each level of Corruption could:
      • Add penalties to Spirit rolls.
      • Create roleplay consequences (e.g., NPCs avoid you, visions of horror).
      • Cause permanent physical or spiritual mutations at high levels.
• Faith: Represents the group’s collective spiritual power.
  • Mechanics: The pool is shared by the party (e.g., 10 Faith Points total at the start).
    • Spending Faith Points can:
      • Boost rolls by upgrading dice (e.g., d25 → d50).
      • Activate miracles or rituals.
      • Resist corruption or negative effects.
    • Faith Points are replenished by:
      • Roleplay moments of selfless devotion or sacrifice.
      • Completing spiritual objectives.

Skills

• Physical Skills
  • Endurance: For surviving harsh environments, pushing through injuries, or resisting fatigue. (e.g., trekking through wastelands, surviving toxins, or starvation.)
  • Martial Combat: Specializes in melee weapons or unarmed fighting. Each block adds to dice rolls for weapon accuracy or damage.
  • Agility: Covers dodging, climbing, balancing, or quick movement during tense moments.
  • Strength: For lifting heavy objects, breaking barriers, or overpowering foes in contests.
  • Stealth: Hiding, sneaking, or slipping past enemies undetected.
• Mental Skills
  • Insight: Reading people’s intentions, interpreting omens, or sensing lies.
  • Focus: Maintaining concentration during rituals, deciphering spiritual texts, or resisting mind-altering effects.
  • Lore: Knowledge of history, religion, or the spiritual realms. It’s your academic anchor in a world of faith and mysticism.
  • Strategy: Planning battles, outsmarting opponents, or manipulating events to your advantage.
  • Craft: Creating tools, repairing items, or even brewing spiritual or chemical concoctions.
• Social Skills
  • Persuasion: Convincing others, making deals, or swaying a crowd with your words.
  • Deception: Lying, misdirection, or creating false impressions.
  • Leadership: Inspiring allies, commanding followers, or rallying Faith Points.
  • Empathy: Connecting emotionally, comforting others, or calming the angry or distressed.
  • Subterfuge: Using charm or guile for covert goals (e.g., infiltration, seduction, or negotiation).
• Spiritual Skills
  • Invocation: Calling upon divine or otherworldly forces for blessings, curses, or guidance.
  • Ritualism: Performing long, complex rituals to bring about powerful effects (e.g., sanctify areas, summon spirits, banish evil).
  • Conviction: Acts as your defense against spiritual corruption or loss of Belief Blocks. Can also bolster allies’ resolve.
  • Attunement: Sensing spiritual energy, identifying holy or cursed objects, or tracking spirits.
  • Sacrifice: Gaining strength through offering something precious (time, resources, or health blocks) to a higher power.

Rolling Dice

• Players roll dice based on their skill level (blocks):
  • 1 Block: 2d10
  • 2 Blocks: 2d25
  • 3 Blocks: 2d50
  • 4 Blocks: 2d75
  • 5 Blocks: 2d100
• Target Numbers: The GM sets a difficulty level for the action. For example:
  • Simple task: 10
  • Moderate task: 25
  • Hard task: 50
  • Nearly impossible: 75+
• A roll that meets or exceeds the target succeeds. The margin of success could determine how well the action is executed.

Dice Pools

• Some actions might allow multiple dice rolls (a pool). For example:
  • 2 Blocks in Martial Combat lets you roll 2d25.
  • Use the highest result for success or allow cumulative totals depending on the situation.

Skill Challenges

Certain tasks require extended effort or multiple rolls to succeed:

• Success Threshold: The GM sets a total score needed over several rolls (e.g., reaching a total of 150 to complete a complex ritual).
• Time Pressure: Players must succeed within a set number of rounds or rolls, adding urgency.

Skill and Stat Growth

• Players gain experience through roleplay and success in challenges.
• Experience points (or a narrative milestone system) allow players to:
  • Add new blocks to skills or stats.
  • Unlock unique traits or spiritual abilities tied to their archetype.
• Example: A player with 3 blocks in Invocation can unlock a unique ritual ability, like summoning spiritual guardians or binding lesser spirits.

Combat

Turn Structure

• Each turn, players can:
  1. Take one major action (attack, perform a ritual, use a skill).
  2. Take one minor action (move, reposition, draw a weapon).

Attack Rolls

• Roll using the appropriate skill (e.g., Martial Combat).
• Success depends on hitting the target’s defense value (e.g., a static number or contested roll).
• Damage:
  • Each success removes 1 Health Block.
  • Critical successes (rolling 90%+ of your dice’s max value) deal 2 blocks of damage or add extra effects.

Defense Rolls

• Dodging or blocking can use skills like Agility or Endurance, rolling against the attacker’s roll.

Weapons Mechanic

There is no core skill for gun use, instead it is used based on action-by-action basis.

• Roll Agility for quickly aiming, dodging while firing, or repositioning during combat.
• Roll Strategy when planning ambushes, setting up sniping positions, or coordinating ranged attacks.
• Roll Focus for aiming at distant/moving targets.
• Misfiring is a mechanic in which the player must roll a d10 based on their weapon's maintence level. If the roll is low, the weapon misfires, creating noise to attract others, wasting ammo, and causing a minor panic. (for casually maintained weapons, it'll be a d10 with rolling a 1 causing a misfire.
  • In areas tainted by demonic presence, misfire chances increase due to spiritual interference (add 2 to whatever the misfire chance is)
  • After a misfire, the weapon is considered jammed. This requires a 'Crafting' roll to fix.
• Improvised ammo may cause a backfire, dealing 1 block of damage to the user.
• The maintence levels are as follows
  • Pristine: Functions normally.
  • Worn: Slightly increased misfire range (e.g., 1-2 on a d10). | Reduced damage output (e.g., fewer dice rolled).
  • Damaged: Significant misfire range (e.g., 1-4) and penalties to accuracy. | Increased chance of breakage during critical failures.
  • Broken: Completely unusable until repaired.
    • Roll a d10 after every combat encounter:
      • A roll of 1 reduces the weapon’s quality (e.g., Pristine → Worn).
      • Using weapons against armored enemies or hard surfaces (e.g., smashing through doors) increases the chance of degradation (e.g., 1-2 triggers).
• Melee weapons can cause a 'Overextension'; If an attack roll misses by a wide margin (e.g., rolling below half the target number), the player is left open to counterattacks.
  • The character loses their minor action next turn (representing recovery time).
  • Enemies gain advantage (e.g., roll extra dice) on their next attack against the player.
• Repairing weapons is done with the 'crafting' skill and might require specific parts or tools, forcing players to scavenge or trade.
  • A poorly maintained revolver jams during a key shot. The player spends their minor action rolling Crafting to fix it while dodging incoming attacks with Agility.
• Some weapons, such as crossbows and mounted guns require a round to set up. Reloading generally is considered a minor action.
• Weapons are separated into two weight sets, Light and Heavy.
  • Larger or bulkier ranged weapons (e.g., crossbows, shotguns) might hinder movement or agility.
    • Carrying heavy ranged weapons could reduce Agility rolls, especially in tight spaces or when sprinting.
  • Heavy melee weapons deal devastating damage but require two hands and reduce Agility rolls in tight spaces.
  • Light melee weapons are quick and easy to use but lack raw damage output.
  • Improvised weapons such as broken bottles and rusted pipes are effective but degrade quickly, becoming Damaged or Broken after a single encounter.
• Rust and Corrosion: In the ever-raining world of Postremus Lucerna, unmaintained metal weapons are prone to rust.
  • If a weapon is left exposed to the rain or not properly stored, roll a d10 after each session:
    • A roll of 1 adds a penalty (e.g., reduce dice rolls by 1 tier, like d50 → d25).
  • Rusted weapons are more likely to break (increase breakage chance by 1).
    • Can be cleaned with a Craft roll and oil or similar materials.
      • Rusty Blade: A scavenged machete is Worn and prone to breaking (1-2 on a d10). It does reliable damage but needs constant repair.
• Weapons with serrated or barbed edges deal extra damage but may get stuck in enemies.
  • Roll a d10 after landing a critical hit:
    • A roll of 1-2 causes the weapon to embed in the target, requiring a Strength roll to retrieve.
    • Stuck weapons cannot be used until recovered, forcing the player to switch to a secondary weapon or fight unarmed.
      • Spiked Club: A makeshift weapon deals devastating damage but has a chance to get stuck in enemies, forcing its user to improvise.
• Resonance and Corruption: Some melee weapons, especially relics or cursed items, interact with the demonic taint of the world.
  • Cursed Relics: Wielding them deals additional damage but drains Spirit Blocks with every use.
  • Demonic Resonance: Striking a corrupted enemy might trigger backlash, inflicting Corruption on the wielder unless they succeed on a Conviction roll.
    • Demonic Sword: A cursed blade grants +1 die tier on attacks but drains 1 Spirit Block every time it lands a hit, leaving its user teetering on the edge of madness.

Supplies Mechanics

• Food: Sustains physical and mental strength, preventing Fatigue and long-term Skill Block losses.
  • Each character requires 1 unit of food per day.
  • Deprivation: Going without food for a day:
    • First Day: Lose 1 Fatigue Block.
    • Second Day: Lose 1 block from a Physical Skill (e.g., Strength, Agility).
    • Third Day+: Lose Health Blocks instead.
  • Food can spoil if not properly stored (e.g., roll d10 each session for perishables, where a roll of 1-2 means it goes bad).
  • Acquisition:
    • Scavenge: Use Endurance or Survival to find edible plants, animals, or scraps.
    • Trade: Use Persuasion or barter items to buy food from NPCs.
    • Hunt: Use Strategy and Martial Combat for larger game but at the cost of time and risk.
• Water: Essential for hydration and avoiding dehydration penalties.
  • Each character requires 1 unit of water per day.
  • Deprivation:
    • First Day: Lose 1 Fatigue Block.
    • Second Day: Lose a block from a Mental Skill (e.g., Focus, Insight).
    • Third Day+: Lose Health Blocks instead.
  • Contaminated Water: Drinking unpurified water can cause illness, leading to disadvantage on rolls unless treated with medicines.
  • Acquisition:
    • Collect: Use Craft to collect rainwater, which must be purified.
    • Purify: Use Craft to filter water with basic tools or boil it. Failure risks contamination.
    • Trade: Purchase water supplies from survivors, often at a steep price.
• Heating and Clothing: Protects against hypothermia and keeps characters warm in the cold, wet world.
  • Characters need adequate clothing and heating sources for harsh environments (e.g., rain, snow, or nighttime cold).
  • Deprivation:
    • First Exposure (1 day): Lose 1 Health Block.
    • Continued Exposure: Lose 1 block from Physical & Social Skills each day, as the cold affects mobility and stamina.
  • Damaged Clothing: Armor or clothing can degrade, requiring repairs with Craft rolls.
  • Acquisition:
    • Scavenge: Find blankets, coats, and fuel sources in abandoned shelters.
    • Repair: Use Craft to patch holes or reinforce gear.
    • Trade: Purchase high-quality coats, boots, or portable heaters.
• Medicine: Treat injuries, diseases, and restore Health or Fatigue Blocks.
  • Basic Medicine: Stops bleeding, prevents infections, or stabilizes wounds. Requires a Medicine roll to apply effectively.
  • Advanced Medicine: Restores lost Health or Fatigue Blocks but is rare and expensive.
  • Herbal Remedies: Less effective but more common; requires a Lore or Craft roll to identify and prepare.
  • Deprivation:
    • Without medicine, wounds can fester, leading to:
      • Infection: Gradual loss of Health Blocks over time.
      • Fatigue: Persistent pain causes constant Fatigue Block loss.
      • Death: Critical injuries worsen if untreated.
  • Acquisition:
    • Scavenge: Find old medical kits or antibiotics in hospitals or ruins.
    • Brew: Use Craft to create herbal poultices or rudimentary antiseptics.
    • Trade: Buy from NPCs at high prices or from morally ambiguous sources (e.g., black markets).
• Fuel and Light: Provides light in the darkness and fuel for cooking, heating, or travel.
  • Fuel is needed for:
    • Lanterns: Provides visibility but burns through fuel quickly.
    • Cooking Fires: Prepares food, especially in areas with limited resources.
    • Transport: Power vehicles like boats or generators.
  • Deprivation:
    • Without light, players have disadvantage on Insight, Focus, and Combat rolls in darkness.
    • Without fuel for heat or transport, they suffer Exposure penalties as described under Heating and Clothing.
  • Acquisition:
    • Scavenge: Collect fuel from abandoned vehicles or oil drums.
    • Craft: Create makeshift lanterns or torches.
    • Trade: Fuel is highly valuable, often traded at a premium.
• Tools: Helps with crafting, scavenging, or maintaining weapons and gear.
  • Tools improve the success rate of Craft rolls.
  • Damaged tools reduce the dice tier for related rolls (e.g., d25 → d10).
  • Repairing Tools: Requires scrap and successful Craft rolls.
  • Acquisition:
    • Scavenge: Common in industrial ruins or workshops.
    • Trade: Tools are essential and pricey in survivor settlements.

Corruption Mechanics

Corruption grows slowly but always looms over the players. It’s both a stat and a narrative tool.

• Acquiring Corruption:
  • Using forbidden powers or artifacts.
  • Failing Spirit-based rolls in the presence of dark forces.
  • Breaking spiritual vows or committing heinous acts.
• Effects of Corruption:
  • Each point of Corruption adds a penalty to Spirit-based rolls.
  • At high levels, mutations or mental instability set in (e.g., hallucinations, NPCs avoiding you).
  • At maximum Corruption, the player becomes an NPC or succumbs entirely to dark forces.
• Corruption can be reduced, but it’s costly:
  • Long, grueling rituals.
  • Acts of penance or sacrifice.

Example Scenario: Ritual Challenge

A player with 3 blocks in Ritualism (d50) attempts to banish a dark spirit.

• GM sets a target number: The spirit’s resistance is 125.
• Rolls: The player rolls 3d50 (from their 3 blocks).
• Results:
  • Total roll = 110 → Failure.
  • The player spends 2 Faith Points to add a die to their pool, rolling an additional d50.
  • The new total hits 135 → Success!
• Outcome: The spirit is banished, but the player loses 1 Spirit Block due to the strain of the ritual.

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Quick-start Scenarios

“The Hollowing of Blackthorn Manor” (Pre-Godfall)

• Premise: The year is 2046, two years before The Godfall. Reports of disappearances and strange happenings around Blackthorn Manor, an abandoned estate on the outskirts of a small town, have drawn your group together. The townsfolk whisper of a curse placed upon the land—a growing darkness that consumes those who enter. Your group is tasked with investigating the manor and stopping whatever malevolence lurks within before it spreads.
• Objectives:
  • Uncover the source of the disturbances.
  • Survive the escalating supernatural events.
  • Seal the rift to the demonic plane, if possible.
• Core Challenges:
  • Exploration: Navigate the twisting halls of Blackthorn Manor. Use Insight to uncover clues and Stealth to avoid traps and patrolling shadows.
  • Hauntings: Face increasingly hostile entities—vampiric shadows, poltergeists, and corrupted wolves that stalk the grounds.
  • Ritual Challenge: Discover the ritual chamber hidden beneath the manor and banish the demonic presence using Ritualism and Invocation. The ritual will require Faith Points and sacrifices, putting strain on the group’s Spirit and Fatigue.
• Key Narrative Twist: The manor's curse stems from a grieving woman who made a pact with a demon to resurrect her child. The child returned as a bloodthirsty revenant, and the demon now seeks to claim her soul entirely. Players must decide whether to save her or use her as a key sacrifice to seal the rift.

“Echoes of the Veiled Chapel” (Pre-Godfall)

• Premise: The year is 2047, one year before The Godfall. A hidden chapel buried beneath an abandoned subway station has begun emitting strange sounds—echoes of whispers and hymns in a long-dead language. Recently, several workers and scavengers have gone missing near the area. A wealthy collector of occult artifacts hires your group to investigate, promising a significant reward if you return with proof of the chapel’s existence and whatever relics lie within.
• Objectives:
  • Locate and explore the Veiled Chapel.
  • Survive the crypt’s supernatural traps and guardians.
  • Secure the relics… or ensure they remain buried forever.
• Core Challenges:
  • Environmental Hazards: The subway tunnels are collapsing, flooded, and teeming with rats and other dangers. Use Endurance and Craft to navigate and secure paths.
  • Guardian Entities: The chapel is protected by spectral knights and crawling horrors made of sinew and shadow. Combat or stealth will be essential here.
  • Ritual Puzzle: To open the chapel’s inner sanctum, the players must solve an ancient riddle using Lore, Focus, and perhaps a dose of sacrificial blood.
• Key Narrative Twist: The chapel’s relic is a mask that whispers promises of power to its wearer but feeds on their Spirit, corrupting them slowly. Players must decide whether to hand it over to the collector, destroy it, or keep it, knowing the consequences.

“The Fall of Embergate” (Post-Light)

• Premise: The year is 2051, three years after The Godfall. The city of Embergate stands as one of humanity’s last sanctuaries, but it’s under siege by demonic forces. The rain hasn’t stopped in years, and food supplies are dwindling. Survivors whisper of a traitor within the city who has made a pact with the darkness, undermining its defenses. Your group is tasked with rooting out the traitor while defending the city from the growing threats outside its walls.
• Objectives:
  • Investigate the rumors of treachery within Embergate.
  • Prevent a demonic breach in the city walls.
  • Survive the night and uncover the traitor’s true identity.
• Core Challenges:
  • Social Intrigue: Navigate tense negotiations with city leaders, using Persuasion and Insight to gather intel and root out the traitor.
  • Combat: Fend off waves of demon-possessed humans at the city’s gates. Use Martial Combat and Invocation to hold the line.
  • Moral Dilemma: The traitor is a desperate mother whose pact ensured food for the starving orphans. Choosing to execute or spare her will have long-term consequences on the group’s Spirit and the city’s Faith Points.
• Key Narrative Twist: As the traitor’s story unfolds, it becomes clear she wasn’t working alone. The demonic breach is part of a larger plot to lure the city’s leaders into a trap—will the players prioritize saving the city or their own lives?

“Shadows on the Iron Sea” (Post-Light)

• Premise: The year is 2053, five years after The Godfall. The Iron Sea—a vast expanse of flooded industrial zones—has become a no-man’s-land filled with abandoned oil rigs and freighters overtaken by the rain and the dark. Rumors of a safe haven called "Havenlight," a moving ship-city, have spread among survivors. Your group boards a rusted fishing trawler to find Havenlight, only to discover that something ancient and demonic is hunting survivors on the open waters.
• Objectives:
  • Survive the journey across the Iron Sea.
  • Investigate the mysterious disappearances of crew members.
  • Uncover the truth about Havenlight.
• Core Challenges:
  • Resource Management: Food, fresh water, and Faith Points dwindle as the days stretch on. Use Craft and Leadership to maintain morale and supplies.
  • Sea Monsters: Tentacled horrors and corrupted sea creatures attack the ship at night. Use Martial Combat, Invocation, and Agility to repel them.
  • Mental Strain: The ship is plagued by whispers that erode the crew’s resolve. Players must rely on Conviction and Empathy to hold themselves and the crew together.
• Key Narrative Twist: Havenlight isn’t salvation—it’s a massive floating hive ruled by a demon who feeds on despair and promises protection to survivors in exchange for their humanity. Will the players submit, fight back, or escape into the darkness?