We are all Heroes in
A World on Fire
Before even the history of Man, there have been stories of godlike beings, Heroes that shaped our World and protected it from the things that hid in the darkness. Some were immortalized, even deified because of their deeds.
Heroes like these live in our World today, on the edge of salvation or apocalypse.
Smudg'd Ink Studios creating new myths!
Preview Edition
EFFIGY: A Mythic Reality Preview Edition is a 334-page hardbound book that contains everything you need to play within the Mythic World. This is a Limited Edition, signed and numbered edition of 75 copies with an alternative cover plus an original drawing by xsemaj in each copy.
Within the book you will find how to design any character you could ever want in a dark contemporary version of the World you know. The Player section contains chapters on character creation, lists of all kinds of Abilities and how to create new ones. There are exotic races from folklore and the myths of our past. With chapters covering all the rule within a simple and intuitive system.
The Mythmaker section contains everything needed play and design a unique part of an ever-growing World. You will find suggestions on how to build a World that players will be able to immerse themselves in because it is based on where they live. We give details for a real city, Houston TX, that in our version is full mystery and mythic adventures. In the Challenges Chapter, we offer three complete introductory scenarios with different themes that give a great place to start.
The last sections for the Mythmaker explore the Aspects and elements of where their Mythic journey will take them beyond the player's wildest dreams.
The Mythic World is a Big Place
The basic book is only the start of your Myths, Smudg'd Ink Studios is working to release a wide range of books to expand your story. We have a growing collection of Quick-Start booklets set in different cities besides upcoming full-size scenarios, and new expanded materials for Players and Mythmakers. It is our intention to add much more source material regularly through the upcoming months.
Prometheus Rising
It rose out of the flames of the pyre we built in the park near Allen Parkway, a giant that towered over us. Those of us in the Order looked at each other, most drunk with power flowing around us. This is the largest elemental we have ever summoned. It looked down at us with a fiery glare...
Stalking Shadows
Staring down at my late-night breakfast. I wait, watching the door. Any minute a demon is going to walk in the entrance to the coffee shop. It claims to one of the good guys. we will see.
It is bringing me intel on a cabal of cultists and their Infernal Priest. If this is legit, we may recruit him into the INVICTUS family.
The World
The World of EFFIGY is a complex weave of Myth and Reality. Stories of the old gods are templates for the new ones. When we go out into the World, we experience the effects of these beings, old and new.
This Game is a place to create Heroes at the beginning of their journey, it is compared to a Path towards Divinity. A player's character explores a world inspired by the very world they know, but expanded to be an epic fantasy without limitations.
This World gives players the chance to play in all genres. The future holds stories of visceral horror and travels far into the realms of high fantasy while being wrapped in the butcher paper of dark urban adventure.
The Mythmaker can design any style of game to fit their players. The World of EFFIGY is full of every possibility, players may have to battle a pack of rabid vampires terrorizing a neighborhood, corrupt politicians plotting to gain greater power at the players expense or even a rash of alien abductions. Horror, Magic and Science Fiction all woven into modern mythology and layered with the fables of our past.
The System
When we started, the idea was to create a game environment that would embrace the action of a Hollywood movie with the depth of story that we get from our favorite books. Through years of testing and ongoing developing, we created what we think is an intuitive and simple system that truly allows the players to create their own Mythic stories.
Smudg'd Ink has developed an easy to learn system designed specifically for EFFIGY. It is based on a system that rates a characters strengths and abilities on a scale of 1-100 and beyond. The higher the rating, the more proficient the character is. The dice used are either percentile or 1D10s.
To have a character within EFFIGY to perform an action, players first find the appropriate Ability or Attribute and compare it's rating against what is being attempted. If the rating is high enough, representing more than enough for simple test, the Mythmaker can just declare success. If it more challenging or required for the story, the player must make a percentile dice roll and roll against the Ability/Rating relating to the test. To succeed, the number must be equal to or less than that rating.
To determine how well the character performed that action is by looking at the result of a successful roll, the higher the result, the better the EFFECT. Basically players wants to roll under a specific rating, but as high as possible. As an example, if the character was attempting to paint a Picasso and they had an EFFECT of 28, then they succeeded, but not the greatest job.
Some tests are harder than others, this is represented by a THRESHOLD, which is a number a player has to roll over, but still under their rating. The more specific, complex or unfamiliar an act is, the harder it is to do and higher the THRSHOLD.