2023 Highcaster
Highcaster is a high fantasy game of powerful heroes and epic stories. You are powerful from the start, recover quickly and rarely die. The stars have fallen, monsters are loose and the kingdoms are shaky. Your tasks are to overcome these problems. There isn’t a lot of shade in the heroes of Highcaster.
The book is 317 pages long, of which 10 is history, about 100 are character creation and 20ish are the rules. There’s a section on solo play (a rising theme in RPGs), and about fifty on alternative rules/settings. Finally there are about 20 original monsters (although not as original as Wyldrvir’s).
Cover for Highcaster
Highcaster is another game which uses d20 plus modifier. In this case, the modifier is the highest of the other dice that may apply. These other dice might include one of three humors, an applicable talent, advantage or spending a Discipline dice. You might roll four different sizes of dice (since Humor and Discipline dice come in three sizes).
Failure can lead to learning and taking harm. Harm normally just makes you more ineffective. Recovering takes time, or you can exhibit bad (or, rather, unheroic) behaviour.
But as a narrative game, success or failure simply leads to more story. Even difficult challenges only require five successes to overcome, so every challenge is significant and thus you can take time to expound on success or failure (or quickly summarise to get onto juicy parts).
A giant
Any character I make is going to be different to what you might expect, but I decided that I wanted a character who either might remember the time before the stars fell, or at least have family who did. The longest living creatures are the Holten, forged of earth, but they don’t really follow history. The former celestials, Sael and Fynd, are all now mortal and no longer long-lived. That really only leaves the Giantkin. Some very old giantkin still remember the fall of the stars, but I don’t want to be that old. Just someone who spoke to giants that old.
Culture
But before I dive into that, I need to pick my culture. The different heritages of Highcaster all live mixed in the different known kingdoms. However the oldest giants live beyond Wyrmgarde so that must be where my giant comes from - although I imagine he has moved on since then. But now I get an idea of names, something I’ve been wanting for a couple of paragraphs.
Apparently the names of the Wyrmgarde are Irish-inspired, so I will take Fion (not actually in the list but it feels right).
But Wyrmgarde also seems to be inspired by any number of countries where politics and war between petty fiefdoms is the norm. I want to say that Fion wouldn’t have taken part, just lived with whoever was in charge that week, however as an Caster of legend that just isn’t possible. However I would say he was mainly focussed on stories and learning, with only heroicing (or battling) when it was unavoidable; and because he is so strong (like all PCs are) that the monarchs just lived with it.
Fion left to see if he can find other Casters willing to find the truth of the falling stars. He is inclined to the belief, partly because of where he lived for so long, that they fell because the people of Highcaster were had fallen to foul practices; but he’s not certain and wishes to find out for sure.
Note that by the book, all PCs should come from the same culture. Which is entirely reasonable, although Fion has flexibility on that with ST approval.
- Languages: Forktongue, and one other language, which will be either Highspeak or some Giant language.
- Cultural Talent: Hardened - you get a Talent die when withstanding natural elements. (Needed to reach the more distant giants.)
- Trade: There are three choices, but Fion is not a noble. That leaves warrior or peasant, and while I like the idea of a craftsgiant I think he needed to defend/prove himself too many times. So Warrior: he gets a talent dice when fighting with his trained weapon.
- Home area: the Wyrmspine (mountains).
The giantkin are the more normal-sized children of giants, but Fion is not that distant from his truly old forebears.
- Size: 27 hands
- Hair: Black
- Eyes: Black
- Skin: Light green
- Giant ability: Giant strength
Looking at the paths (classes), it’s immediately obvious that Fion is a Scoplar, on the path of the storyteller.
In Wyrmgarde, monarchs have Scoplars as personal advisers, and I imagine Fion did take that role periodically. But it’s quite likely that he ended up in Deirwesch where scoplars are called historians and are revered.
Some background questions need answering now.
- Fion’s talent is in storytelling, making stories come to life in sound and vision.
- The talent was nurtured by his aunts.
- The elder giant Ghirr pushed him to his limits, forcing Fion to follow him through the mountains to hear his stories, and then recanted the stories very slowly and cryptically.
- Elblin is his rival; not “lifelong”, but one of the most vicious warlords whose actions have been stymied by Fion the most.
- After a battle which turned into a slaughter (orchestrated by Elblin as it happens), Fion did a two day recanting of the fall of the stars. Elblin’s army were so moved they wept and left.
- Fion can craft echoes.
Most prized possession
- A drawing on a treated bark of the stars before they fell, given to him by his dying father. He uses it for motivation, memory and meditating.
Other three items on person
- A staff, created from a single tree.
- A compass
- A woven coat that was made over many years by one particular village.
Home
- Fion has a cave that he shares with with wild animals, that’s too distant for most folk to reach. He’s not there very often, but it’s the only place that’s “his”.
Family
- He has quite a large family, and he knows a lot of his cousins; and he’s spent time with them in the past (because he has a long past) but not that much in any given year.
- He owes success to his father who, along with his aunts, drove him to question what came from the fall of the stars.
Relationships
- Can’t answer these questions without other PCs.
Path Talent
- Give a talent dice to another character whenever you do something to inspire them.
Disciplines
- Canter: recount a legend etc to assist in a situation.
- Oraten: use wit or words to change somebody’s mind or the tone of the room
- Pleier: Perform (sing, dance etc) to affect a situation.
I get to choose one feat, and either Learned or Resolute are appropriate, but I think other areas cover the former - so I’ll take Resolute. “Spend a Favor to succeed automatically on a die roll once per session.”
Fion's character sheet
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/381082/Highcaster