Chains of Command is an roleplaying game where you play the demons, whose
job it is to handle all the grunt work of the netherworld. But wait there's
more! As you succeed in the nigh impossible tasks your superiors lend you,
you'll be able to increase your responsibilities enormously. And may be even
gain some power to go with it. Prepare to be a disgruntled, underpaid, overworked
minion of darkness.
Choose an Ilk: (all MOS are assumed to be at 1, unless otherwise noted)
Abraxell - Short, winged, and reptilian. Their voices howl with bloodlust
and they have six cat's eyes, and long drooping ears.
Immune to poison, successful attacks deal +1 damage due
to poison, Evasion = 3, Perception = 3, Cunning = 3
Beladri - Vine covered skeletons, with pulsing green masses in their
shattered skulls and chest cavities.
Immune to cold and poison, Coherence = 3, Intimidation
= 3, Kenning = 3
Betra-Vor - Three limbed, thin with broadly domed heads. Smoke constantly
emits from their double mouths and ears. Their skin a furred, sleek, and
dark.
Immune to fire, Violence = 3, Cunning = 3, Obfuscation
= 3, Kenning = 3
Exeluun - Amorphous, bright red and violet blobs. Seven multifaceted
eyes shift around their mass. They leave a thin slime trail, resembling drying
blood.
Immune to cold, successful attacks deal +1 damage due
to cold, Perception = 4, Obfuscation = 4
Haugath (female) - Nearly human looking, with sharp teeth and six
fingers on each hand. Their eyes contain two pupils each.
Temptation = 4, Obfuscation = 4, Coherence = 2, Cunning
= 3, Kenning = 2
Haugath (male) - as Haugath (female), but with bone frills on spine.
Temptation = 3, Violence = 3, Cunning = 3, Coherence =
3, Capture = 3
Haugath (neuter) - As Haugath (female), but with three pupils per
eye.
All = 2
Kizizeen - Metallic skinned with flowing, liquid arms and legs. Four
legged, their face is pinched and distorted, peering from the abdomen.
Immune to cold and fire, Evasion = 3, Obfuscation = 3,
Coherence = 3
Lauk-thane - Green skinned, short and four armed. Their pointed teeth
protrude visibly and their fingers end in suckers.
Immune to fire, Capture = 3, Violence = 3, Kenning = 3,
Coherence = 3
Netrak - Large eyed and long limbed, with faintly glowing obsidian
skin. They move slowly, accompanied by a low chattering.
Immune to poison and fire, Temptation = 3, Perception =
3, Kenning = 3
Quatreil - Tri-horned and diminutive, with blue-black scales and feathery
wings. Their noses and jaws protrude sharply and steam slightly.
Immune to fire, attacks deal +1 damage due to fire, Evasion
= 3, Kenning = 3, Obfuscation = 3
Souseg - Five eyed canines, with four fringes running along their
backs. Their eyes glow a smoldering red.
Immune to cold, Evasion = 4, Violence = 4, Cunning = 3
Vouglai - Pulsing grey-green balloons, with large drooping eyes and
whip-like tentacles.
Immune to poison, Evasion = 4, Perception = 3, Capture
= 4
Choose an Alignment:
Deceptive Evil - Your actions are cunningly hidden, no one would ever
suspect, well unless they realize you're a demon.
Temptation +2
Legalist Evil - There must be order, and that is were nefariousness
is best done.
Capture +2
Melodramatic Evil - Why just act evil, when you can over-act it.
Obfuscation +2
Neutral Evil - Either through lack of inclination, or perhaps wit,
you have chosen no course for yourself.
Coherence +2
Patient Evil - You prefer others to wonder what you have planned, it
gives you more time to come up with one.
Perception +2
Philosophic Evil - The unexamined evil is not worth causing.
Kenning +2
Sadistic Evil - Pain, lots of pain.
Intimidation +2
Selfish Evil - You're in it for yourself, well so is everyone else,
you're just honest about it.
Evasion +2
Unthinking Evil - Just do it.
Violence +2
Verbose Evil - You're as black hearted as the next guy, if you would
just shut up.
Cunning +2
Choose Division:
Acquisition - This division handles the newly arrived souls and sends
them to the appropriate domains.
Coherence +2, Capture +4, Violence +4, Intimidation +4,
Kenning +2, 9 extra
Defense - This division mans the sentry towers and patrols the borders
of the domains.
Coherence +4, Intimidation +2, Violence +4, Perception
+2, Evasion +4, 9 extra
Faustian - This division handles complex soul rackets in the mortal
world.
Temptation +6, Cunning +6, Kenning, +4, Obfuscation +4,
6 extra
Ironic Punishments - This division runs the punishments that provide
the majority of income in the domains.
Violence +2, Temptation +2, Capture +2, Cunning +4, Obfuscation
+2, Kenning +4, 9 extra
Logistics - This division handles the supply and transportation needs
of the other divisions, as well as training.
Cunning +2, Perception +2, Temptation +2, Obfuscation +2,
15 extra
Lusts - This division handles simple temptations of the mortal world.
Temptation +4, Perception +2, Cunning +4, Obfuscation +4,
Kenning +2, 9 extra
Research and Destruction - This division creates new demonic technology,
which sometimes even works.
Cunning +4, Perception +4, Kenning +4, 12 extra
Security - This division's job is to keep the the demons from violating
their orders, and to keep the peace, in some sense at least.
Coherence +2, Temptation +2, Violence +4, Intimidation
+4, Perception +2, Kenning +2, 9 extra
Soul Retrieval - This small division specializes in finding and returning
escaped souls.
Coherence +2, Violence +2, Perception +4, Temptation +2,
Intimidation +4, Capture +4, Cunning +2, Kenning +2, Evasion +2, 3 extra
Special Operations - This division handles covert operations and making
things die.
Violence +6, Intimidation +4, Coherence +4, Perception
+2, Evasion +6, Capture +2, 3 extra
Note about extra points: The extra points may be used to raise any MOS up to 10, each point adding a +1 to the selected MOS.
Choose Motivation: (the following is just a sample of possible motivations,
feel free to make yours up)
Better Living - You have a plan, it'll be marvelous, and all you need
is more resources and some stupid dupes, I mean, staunch allies to make the
world, or at least yours, a better place.
Damned Love - You loved a mortal, and now he or she is here to stay.
How does that make you feel?
Do and Die - You are stuck between two high ranks infighting. This
might work to your advantage, but more than likely it'll just get you killed.
Faustian Blues - You tried to trick a mortal, and lost. Now you're
getting summoned to fix parking tickets and blind dates. But it could be
worse, someone might find out and tell your superiors.
For Your Own Good - You have staunch belief in the moral superiority
of your position, and so should everyone else. In time they will see the dark.
Moral Relativism - You have begun to doubt the way the world works,
which is not too problematic given you have so few choices as it is, but
you want answers to the really hard questions.
Saved Love - You loved a mortal once, and now he or she is in heaven.
Visitation rights are one thing, but it's a star-crossed romance at best.
Stairway to Heaven - You want to get a peace of the angelic action,
and will do anything to get there.
Rank: Rank starts at 3.
Rolls:
Chains of Command uses a d6 for each point in the MOS used, roll them all
at the same time. Every 6 is a success. If no successes are rolled then nothing
happens, if 1 is rolled the action succeeds minimally, at 3 it causes significant
changes, and at 6 it is unbelievably successful.
Contested Actions and Combat:
Contested actions simply subtract the defenders successes from the attacker.
Combat actions are of this type with the attacker using Capture or Violence,
and the defender Evasion. The resulting successes reduce the Coherence of
the defender. If the Coherence is reduced to zero, the character dies.
Healing:
Coherence heals fully every year and a day. Coherence can also be regained
at one point per three successes on a Kenning roll, only one such roll per
day, per demon or soul being healed.
Death:
When a soul dies, it returns the next day, fully healed. When a demon dies
it returns likewise, except demoted by one rank, this does not cause any
other loss of MOS points. If a demon of rank 1 is killed they cease to exist.
This returning is often random and causes a great deal of trouble to track
down the newly returned.
Rank:
Rank is gained every time the demon in question performs some exceptional
task for a superior. If the demon has never before held this rank it gains
+1 to all MOS. A demon may use the difference in rank against a lower ranked
demon as successes on any Temptation or Intimidation action. In theory lower
ranked demons must always obey higher ranked ones, but in this climate of
politics and incompetence, this is often overlooked.
The Supreme Leaders:
Lucifer: The first to fall, and the progenitor of the demonic peoples. Though the true story has been lost except possibly to Luci herself, it appears that the brightest angel decided to leave paradise because the Creator wouldn't "play fair". As a result she left in a huff and started making her own things to play with, the demons. The party line is she's been having so much fun she hardly noticed the sign "No Luci's Allowed" outside the Creator's clubhouse. It's likely when she does, there will come a reckoning.
The Dread Barons of Hell: These seven high ranking demons control the apportioning of the domains with an iron hand. They forged the laws of the lands and violate them with impunity. It is said they can summarily demote any demon. Of course it is also said that they sleep for a year for each day they remain active. In that day they plot and enact plans for their next waking. Plans which are almost always dismantled in the waking of each of the other Barons.
Supreme Commander: Called the Antagonist, this entity has the place of total authority over the various divisions of the Nether Domains. He is powerful, and vague. He seems to be fully defined by his opposition to what ever his opponent. Some theorize that he is the counter-part to Luci, her imaginary foe in the games she plays. Of course given how Luci's imagination tends to take hold ...
The Divine Order of Psychopomps: The psychopomps decide the fate of souls. As well as those demons who violate the code. The order is constructed in nine circles, with the 9th circle is the five supreme judges. Their names are often speculated, but rumor has it they have the power to damn a saved soul, and save a damned one.
The Chattering Lord: This entity is at the center of the beauracratic structure of the Nether Domains, speaking in a thousand voices, to ten thousand subordinates. Supposedly too busy to be involved in the matters of politics, it occasionally becomes oddly quiet stalling the entire government for hours as they attempt to cope without the minor adjustments it constantly makes. It seems to hum a strange music in these periods of quiet.
The Warlords of Death: This triumvirate orchestrates the continual wars and campaigns of destruction that permeate the Netherworld. The three lords are masters of strategy and they place armies against each other. Most conflicts involve at most two of them, the the occasional wars in which all three are involved inevitable lead to the destruction of everyone involved.
The High Priestess of the Creator's Love: According to this, the
only church in the Nether Domains, the underworld is the true expression of
the Creator's love for his creation. The suffering is all for a purpose and
the reasons are ultimately for the good of all. One must simply try to see
things from the view of the Creator. Of course this makes the clergy some
of the most vehement and cruel of all demons. The High Priestess leads the
church with a heavy hand, dispensing power among it's various factions and
hierarchies, according to some ineffable plan. Some suspect that the Priestess
may have a greater connection to the Creator than first supposed.
Sample Domains:
Diocese of Jh'ailik: A diocese run by bishop Leigard of the Church of the Creator's Love. He is well known as a practitioner of the arts of pain and his monastery in the diocese capital of Qual'go is renown for it's teachers of the torturous arts.
City of Dis: This city was developed as an experiment, the idea being that souls will, given the chance torture themselves far more exquisitely than the efforts of demons can suffice. So far this urban nightmare has grown and now rivals the population of a Duchy or an Archdiocese. The only place where the demons raise a hand is for the weather, which is often cunningly cruel.
Doshakeen Plain: The ancestral homeland of the Souseg this domain
is filled with geyser and pools of steaming water. The howls of the Souseg
can often be heard for miles. And the cries of their perpetual reincarnated
prey go just as far.
The World of the Living:
When demons enter the world of the living, they should be pretty powerless.
Most of the time they are reduced to 1 in Violence, Capture, and Coherence.
This makes things difficult, but it seems to be a fail safe to prevent the
demons from invading, as they would vastly prefer to live in the mortal world
if given the chance. The mortal world can be anything, and likely will change
significantly every time it is visited. One problem with being immortal,
is that time really does fly. So while a demon may be working on a project
and getting some rest, years could have happened in the mortal world. Feel
free to adjust to taste.
Sample Superiors:
Halek, the Overbearing: This Betra-Vor is a veteran of multiple wars
in the Defense division. Now it is assigned to keep the border of the Diocese
of Jh'ailik free from invaders. This would be an easy task except some of
the churchdemons seem to be trying to undermine it's authority.
Jardle, Lord of Fart Jokes: A Vouglai whose greatest accomplishment
has been to make farting a lust worthy act. It continues to push various underprivileged
bodily acts within the Lusts division, and has a tendency to make unusual
teams in infiltrating the mortal world.
Paskin DeVate: An Exeluum specializing in acquisition, likes to keep
an eye on other teams, more so to keep the rules strictly obeyed, than to
benefit itself.
Xalei, the Lady of Hope: A Haugath faustian, she especially like to
torment her charges by offering the illusion of escape or victory. Of course
to her it's all a game.
Non-Demon NPC's:
Making a non-demon NPC simply use a collection of points and distribute them
to the character's MOS:
| Total MOS | Character Type |
| 25 | Normal Souls, Weak Mortals |
| 35 | Normal Mortals, Strong Souls |
| 45 | Strong Mortals, Weak Angels |
| 55 | Phenomenal Mortals, Normal Angels |
| 65 | Strong Angels |
© 2002 Mendel Schmiedekamp