Enoch Corebook.pdf

ENOCH

Chad Walker

Created , writen, illustrated, and put together by Chad Walker.

Introduction to ENOCH Ashcan 2008

Dear playtesters and fellow game designers,

hank you for supporting indie-games and checking out ENOCH. While I’m not convinced I’ll ever

be totally happy with this game, I’ve come prety close in this incarnation. Of course, I’d like to know what my

audience thinks. Trouble is: I don’t know who my audience is. You see, ENOCH is currently having an identity

crisis. he game can’t igure out if it is a traditional RPG or an indie RPG, or both. To resolve this crisis, we’ll

need your help.

I deine a traditional RPG as one where players assume the role of player-characters (PCs) who are

the protagonists of a story narrated by a game-master (GM). he GM’s other tasks include enforcing game

rules and assuming the role of non player-characters (NPCs) who serve as the story’s bit-parts and antago-

nists. here is typically a good amount of “killing things” and “taking stuf ” in a traditional RPG but these

events aren’t always vital to a fulilling experience.

ENOCH has all the hallmarks of traditional RPGs: stat blocks, weapons lists, extensive combat op-

tions, experience points, a bestiary... everything you might expect. However, the game has also been inlu-

enced by the indie game scene. In ENOCH, players are rewarded for playing the character they want to play.

If a player makes a warrior character, following the path of Weapon Mastery, that character will get stronger

every time he defeats an opponent in batle. A medic character, following the path of Ancient Medicine, will

get stronger every time he provides irst aid to someone, friend or foe. A mechanically inclined character,

following the path of Mechanis, will get stronger every time he solves a problem with his gadgets.

ENOCH also has a morality system, but morality is an opportunity, not a restriction. Characters be-

come stronger when they follow their vow. A character with the vow of Greed becomes stronger every time

he refuses to help others without a reward. A character with the vow of Fame becomes stronger every time

he kills a renowned beast. Complications are bound to rise, however, as some vows are contradictory. A

character with the vow of Mercy is likely to have more than a few disagreements with a character whose vow

is Wrath. Who’s vow will prevail?

So what type of game is ENOCH? Does it work? What ideas would you borrow? What elements

would you trash? Is the seting distracting you from the system, or vice-versa? Which game mechanics or set-

ting elements make you giddy? Which make you cringe? What needs to change immediately? How do I get

people to buy this thing?

I can be contacted at walk0401@umn.edu, or at the forums of www.enochrpg.com, www.rpg.net,

and www.indie-rpgs.com (hande: Chaddubya).

hank you, and good gaming.

ENOCH . CHAD WALKER

CHAPTER I: WELCOME TO ENOCH

LIVING GENESIS

Bloodied ziggurats. Immortal beasts. AI gods. Sleeping colossi. Gene cults. Plague bogs. Jun-

gle demons. Fledgling societies cling to life in a time of chaos. Salvation is buried in Hell’s corridors,

and the barons of Heaven watch the world’s woe with silent indiference. Welcome to Enoch.

A millennium ago, the world ended. Civilization was devoured by plague and ire. Mankind

faced extinction. he handful who survived were scatered to the wilderness. hey scoured the

Earth for the Promised Land: a place untouched by the Fall of Man. hey searched for ages but

found only Man’s ruin and Nature’s malice. Finally, their journey stopped where it began. Old and

weary, they waited for death. “here is no Promised Land,” they told their children, the tribes of

Enoch. “So you must build one.”

Enoch is the story of man starting over in a world that has not forgot his sins.

In the absence of civilization, nature has lourished to prehistoric levels. Rising ocean and

creeping jungle have buried the ruins of ancient cities. Millennia of technological progress have

been swept away, leaving man to fend for himself against ravenous beasts and waves of plague that

spill into his setlements.

Not all that was buried is dead. he underworld bustles with electric life, thrall to a panthe-

on of machine gods. Demons, the ancient slaves of man, toil leagues underground. Driven mad by

failing power and frayed circuit, they claw their way to the surface, to the peril of their old masters.

CHAPTER I . WELCOME TO ENOCH

Fear and oppression shackle man. Living hopeless lives with one-dimensional needs, the

masses cling to authority and religion. hey will happily, even greedily serve as enforcers of a brutal

regime, or as acolytes of a twisted cult, so long as they are promised a beter life.

his is Enoch’s natural order.

As rebels, you and other mortal men and women have chosen to defy Enoch’s natural order.

You batle so that the new world won’t share the fate of the old. Your trials will be legendary. You

will deliver man from bandit hordes, despots, demons, and monstrous freaks of nature. However,

your most troubling foe will always be yourself. he new world will be built on your deeds. Should

you ind yourself compelled by greed, power, or vengeance, you’ll quickly see your own actions

relected in the world around you.

THE SPARK OF REBELLION

Rebels come from all walks of life. You might have been a soldier, slave, priest, or prostitute.

What you have in common with other rebels is the spark of rebellion, triggered by something

terrible you witnessed. What was your breaking point? What triggered your transformation? he

everyday scenes of Enoch are ripe with tragedy. Perhaps you witnessed a brutal raid, or returned

to your village only to ind blood-slicked ields and burning heaps of bodies. Maybe you remained

silent while others commited an atrocity in the name of God. Maybe you shrunk with cowardice

while your loved ones were dragged away into the darkness.

Whatever happened to you, it let a psychic scar. However, from that moment on, you chose

to be a master of Fate instead of remaining slave to it. Enraged by the horrors of the world, you have

sprung into action. You have let the safety of your village or led the oppression of a labor camp.

You have vowed to topple empires, dethrone gods, and liberate your people. Will you make a dif-

ference? Or is the world already lost a second time?

RESONANCE

When civilization crumbled, man was forced to live like his primordial ancestors. He spent

centuries living in caves, foraging for food, and leeing from predators. hese times were dark and

desperate. In the constant struggle for survival, man’s history was forgoten. One thousand years

ater the Fall of Man, history is again recorded. Man has let the wilderness and come to rebuild

civilization. So begin the stories of Enoch.

he actions of the heroes and villains of this age will resonate throughout time. heir ex-

ploits will be retold in myth. Cities will be founded in their name and religions will form to honor

or vilify their deeds. As a rebel, your actions will set the tone for future generations. If you act with

wisdom and compassion, you will the world to do the same. If you act with greed and barbarity, you

will the world to do the same.

he book of Genesis tells a creation story through allegorical characters: Adam and Eve,

Cain and Abel, Noah, and others. he Second Genesis will be about you. In this malleable age of

myth and mayhem, a new world rises from the ashes of the old. Will you and your fellow rebels

become mythical heroes or vanish from history into shrieking oblivion?

ENOCH . CHAD WALKER

CHAPTER II: THE WORLD OF ENOCH

HOST VERSUS PARASITE

his world rejects man. Nature wasted no time retaking her lands. Sea levels have risen me-

ters, and coasts have vanished. Rising from sunken cities, the skeletons of skyscrapers stand alone in

the salt waters. he cities that aren’t submerged are buried beneath dense jungle. he ruins of the

past are slowly crushed by vines and mold.

Most of the globe swelters with tropical heat. he temperate climates of old are now over-

grown jungles and marshes. he tropical climates of old are now barren, sun-scorched wastelands.

Typhoons and hurricanes ravage once predictable waters. Many fresh water lakes are now lifeless

valleys, litered with the wreckage of ancient vessels.

he plague that once eradicated man still thrives. It is carried through time upon the bodies

of minute, almost invisible creatures that swarm in fresh water during the wet seasons. he plains fes-

ter with the plague, serving as boarders to contain man. hese regions of death slowly creep across

continents, pushing mankind to the furthest corners of the Earth.

Man’s peril doesn’t end with Nature’s wrath…

IN A PERILOUS PATH

At the outskirts of any village, civilization and wilderness begin to blur. So do spirit and

science. he world of Enoch is full of mysterious, possibly supernatural beings. A few have been

identiied and their doings have become mythical canon. Plague, famine, and natural disaster are a

constant threat, but it is the tales of these beings that keep men huddled near the ire of their village

at night.

Chimera are immortal creatures who wear the lesh of man and walk among him. hey re-

semble man in every aspect, but are typically more beautiful, wise, and physically adept than their

mortal peers. Two things betray the chimeras’ true nature: their immortality and their resilience.

Ater maturing to their physical prime the chimera stop aging. Many are suspected to be centuries

old, if not millennia. More readily apparent than the immortality of the chimera is their unnatural

resilience. hey have been known to shrug of wounds caused by bullet and blade. Additionally,

they are immune to the plague. It is suspected that the chimera created the plague to cleanse the

Earth of man and make it their own.

Chimera are a rare sight. Most were overwhelmed and killed by mortals during he Fall.

Many chimera, bored of mankind’s folly, have hid themselves deep within the plagued plains. Oth-

ers have such contempt for man that they band together as raiders, tormenting him with raids that

strike like natural disaster. Still, most chimera hide within villages and cities, masquerading as mortals.

heir motives are unknown. Perhaps they grow atached to certain mortals and act as a guardian.

More likely, however, is that they use humans as expendable tools to further their own ends.

Swan are the cursed children of chimera. Children born to two chimera are damned.

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