Overgrown Secrets: Tribal Lands Map

Here is the map of the overgrown secrets setting:

• Each color of Green is its own Tribe.
• Each shape is the territory of a single clan
  
• Each circle is a village. Its name is in white text. The names are rather literal: frog bend is known for having a lot of frogs.
  
• Each Square is a ruin
  
• Tribes with Red borders and villages colored grey are controlled by shapeshifters
  
• There are ruins and villages you can't see away from the river
• The "Central" Clan in the campaign was the one touching both Frog Bend and Four Rocks
  

This is my GM map, with the extra villages and ruins marked

• Yellow Squares are ruins with Pyramid Provosts
• Red Squares each have a single Crypt Spirit
• Grey Squares are just empty ruins
• The white text marks the five crypt spirits that work together, labeled by their personality. "Relic Tomb" marks the tomb of the crypt spirit who taught the other four how to become crypt spirits.
  

this is pretty much for people who want the run the adventure, which is coming soon, or people wanting a bit more insight on how the clans, tribes, villages, and ruins were set up. The map was consulted fairly often by the players, and I think it really helped run the adventure.

Overgrown Secrets: Magic

I've mentioned the magic system from Overgrown Secrets before. This is what I gave my players:

Everyday practical magic is tied to magical artifacts made of precious metals and inscribed with the inscrutable designs of the ancients. The artifact usually takes the form of a ring, bracelet, necklace, or other piece of jewelry fitting around the body. Only one item can be used at a time.

Effects consist of motion, light, body, or mind. Each item produces an effect worth from [1] to [10] points. It is not known how to reproduce many effects, but a few, such as the soul protection circuit and the simple light ring, can be produced by modern smiths. Those that aren’t must be bought as signature gear. The cost of the item is $100 per point. Some complex effects require a magic operation skill to use.

Here are some examples of magic items:

• Soul Protection Circuit: $350, Worn around the neck: gives +3 to will saves against mental attacks and attempts to consume one’s soul. Can be manufactured. 
• Candle Ring: $60, provides the light of a single candle. Can be manufactured
• Motion Bracers: $1000, provide [10] points of Telekinesis. Requires Magical Operation (Telekinesis)
• Running Ring: $500, provides +1 move
• Weapons Circuit: $500, provides +1 striking ST.
• Necklace of Disguise: $1000, allows changing how you look. Changing is only a few seconds, but matching a look requires at least a minute to get right. Requires Magical Operation (Illusion) and Disguise.

Skills for Magic: 

The ability to work with the metals is the jeweler skill. 

Knowing how to construct or analyze the constructions is Hidden Lore (Metalcraft)

Individual items may require the Magical Operation Skill. Generally this is only needed to perform complex tasks.

Fine Workings of Magic:

The Magic items are made out of 10 strands of bronze, sliver, or gold, connected in a complex pattern. They must be looped around the user's body. Bronze is connected to mind effects, silver to motion and light effects, and gold to body effects.  

Effects that can be reproduced by local smiths are 30% to 40% cheaper than the expected price of $100 per character point.

The non-reproducible magic the crypt spirits and pyramid provosts have access to is essentially a tool to observe the flows of the effect. At the GM's option, they might also have powers worth more than 10 points, but that feed off of the soul of the user, which will effect the user's mind. I didn't have to work that out in the campaign.

Magic in the Campaign:

My players almost universally chose to wear the soul protection circuits and to forgo other magic items. This is because it served as armor against both the default foe of shapeshifters and was even more effective against the crypt spirits. 

The Crypt spirits had access to the ability to make some of the currently non-reproduceable magic items, though they didn't have access to any at first. This could have been an incentive to the Players, and some of their NPC allies were anxious to get it, but the players weren't that tempted by the secrets, finding that as they needed their amulets, the rest of the magic was less interesting. 

The magic system was created as an afterthought to the campaign: I wanted magical monsters but heroes with limited access to magic. I think it filled its role very well. The players with Lore (metalcraft) were constantly rolling against it analyzing what their enemies were doing, but they mostly just used the amulets to prevent the monsters from killing them with a single will roll. 

The cost of the items is quite cheap. I have a few more thoughts about that here.

I liked this magic system, and I may use it again. I hope you find it useful!

Overgrown Secrets: The Forest People

Map of Overgrown Secrets

By default, the heroes of Overgrown Secrets are from the forest people. The forest people live in the depths of the jungle, where the shapeshifters cannot follow except at an extreme disadvantage. In the jungle, they hunt, they sleep, they craft, and they hide. The Forest people can make some goods, but they prefer to trade animal products like skins, feathers, sinew, and fresh meat to nearby villages for their clothing, tools, and weapons.

Overgrown Secrets: The Pyramid Provosts

 The last "Monster Type" in Overgrown Secrets is perhaps the most abstract: the Provosts. These were magically created beings powered by a large magic device in the center of cities (ruins, in the case of overgrown ruins). The Provosts had Illusions, Clairvoyance, and Telekinesis, but these powers were confined to the area immediately around their device.  Provosts were dedicated to upholding the interests of a kingdom that died out a long time ago. The result looked a lot like a science fiction AI, complete with holograms and wonky programming directives. 

Overgrown Secrets: The Anhui

Surrounded by monsters that thrive on human souls, the forest tribes of Overgrown Secrets have a secret weapon: the Anhui. Anhui are six-limbed monsters of green chitin and bone. Their parasitic larva  transform its host into a powerful warrior for a short time before killing them. The forest tribes intentionally raise and keep these monsters to produce powerful warriors in times of distress, known as "Bearers". Each tribe has a "Keeper" that tends to its dormant and caged Anhui until they are needed.

Anhui didn't actually see much screen time in Overgrown Secrets, but they easily could have, and they had a strong effect on the setting.

Overgrown Secrets: Shape Shifter

Known by the ever-descriptive title of "Shapeshifters", the shapeshifters filled the role of the "Devil We Know" in overgrown secrets, providing a stable but hostile community nearby that gave the PC's purpose to exist in the first place. So what is this new monster, and what role did they play in the setting?

Overgrown Secrets: Crypt Spirits

My most recently GURPS game, "Overgrown Secrets", revolved around a single monster type: the crypt spirit. Mysterious Glowing undead with a voracious appetite for souls. We had fun short game, and I'm sharing this monster now so you can use it. I'm hoping to share more "Overgrown Secrets" material so you run the game with minimal preparation. But the core of the game was the crypt spirits, and I'm sharing them first.

Crypt spirits are humans who have preserved their soul using a magical metal apparatus whose secrets have been lost to time. They can survive indefinitely in this apparatus, but can do very little while inside. In order to act they must take over someone else's body and burn their host's soul as fuel. While possessing that body, they have great power, but they will need to consume a new body and soul within 40 days. Thus they are driven by their constant need for hosts to be anything more than a powerless consciousness in a crypt.