Powered By Sparkles - TTRPG SYSTEM

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Setting Your ARCompass 

Most adventurers are equipped with a symbiotic device called an ARCompass.  As you progress and increase your magnitude your arc will reflect your choices. Your compass is how you track your characters stats and information. It is the equivalent of your character sheet. This magitech provides you with:

• Personal stats and readouts of your environment provided by a mentally customizable HUD or audio display that only you can access.
• A dimensional pocket that can contain weapons or supplies with a capacity up to your weight.
• High speed projectile force field to protect from gunfire.
• Readouts on other's skills and abilities. Please note that some Sparkles may be able to block or alter this information for deceptive purposes.
• Warning of known hazards in the area.
• Maps of your local area. Unmapped/unexplored places will not have any information available.
• Local area domain communication with others who have ARC units. These features may be bolstered or upgraded by your Sparkle.
• News and updates from across the spiral.
• Access to "The Adventurers Guide to the Spiral".

Selecting Your Cues

Your cues are the key words that help guide your role-play. These are your guiding lights to help you identify how your character will act and react to events in the world. You set your cues by answering binary questions:

1. I feel Hope or I feel Gloom
2. I do this for All or I do this for Only me
3. I Defend from change or I Embrace change
4. I seek Order or I seek Chaos
5. I require Control of I require Freedom
6. I keep it Secret or I make it Public

Choosing Your Power Source

How you answer these questions decides which of the 4 power sources you sync up with for your sparkle. Each source has a unique style of play and philosophical alignment attached to it similar to a sub-class in traditional roleplaying games. 

Discovering Your Sparkle

Your sparkle is your connection to a primary energy source that allows you to do amazing things. As you progress the magnitude of your sparkle will increase giving you new quirks and skills. 

Your sparkle falls under one of 12 skills each with it's own unique gifts and abilities that set you apart from the general population. You can grow your sparkle across any of the 12 skills as you progress however you cannot change your anchor sparkle once it's selected. 

Background Origins

There are 12 documented background origin biologies that are documented in this guide. Over the centuries most of these peoples have settled with each-other loved one another and created families from across these biologies.  It is not uncommon for someone to express long hidden traits from an ancient ancestor. Through magic nearly anything is possible.

"Think of this as a primer for the populated areas you are likely to adventure in.  Just some examples of the kinds of beings you may meet or inhabit when you fall from the sky. There is no racist biological essentialism here. No half-this or half that. Leave all that bullshit behind. We think bigger here.

The spiral is infinite in its variety. In a universe where magic can give a blade of grass a voice or one where you can meet an organic space cloud made up of a billion conscious sparks; life is always going to be full of surprises. We are all exceptions on exceptions turning forever in the currents of the spiral."

Grunk The Orc / Date: A long time from now

Fairy:

• Lifespan: 100-300
• Homeworld/Realm: The Wilds
• Compatibility: All standard biologies via magical means
• Tiny, winged and very dangerous. Often displaying insect like features such as wings claws and mandibles fairy folk tend to avoid other peoples preferring to live in the deep woods of the Wild.

Gobby:

• Lifespan: 100-200
• Homeworld/Realm: The Infinite Dungeon
• Compatibility: All standard biologies
• Tiny and clever the goblins are known for being expert crafters. One of the few beings that are hardy and flexible enough to thrive in the Infinite Dungeon, Gobby's have traveled its paths across the spiral and are often experts in traversing the dungeon's dangers. 

Goo: 

• Lifespan: 1-10000
• Homeworld/Realm: The Infinite Dungeon
• Compatibility: None
• Ranging from mindless carnivores to super-colony hive minds, goos can be found throughout the Infinite Dungeon.  Unable to create brain cells most goo start out small and simple attracted by light and movement. As a goo feeds it re-purposes any brain matter it consumes to be distributed out across its form. Often mirroring its chosen prey in both shape and behaviour Goos can be very dangerous when encountered. Eventually if enough brain matter is consumed sentience is achieved and the Goo becomes enlightened. These intelligent people often become heroes and defenders of realms to make up for their carnivorous past. Goo cannot reproduce with other beings through any known mechanical or magical methods.

Harfoot: 

• Lifespan: 200-300
• Homeworld/Realm: Edwand/The Garden Realm
• Compatibility: All standard biologies
• Short and endlessly adaptive the harfoot are known for being the masters of hospitality and the life of the party. With thick soles and hairy hands/feet the harfoots have settled across the spiral wherever there is good food, black soil and fresh air.

Hoblin:

• Lifespan: 200-300 years
• Homeworld/Realm: Anuta/The Deep Woods
• Compatibility: All standard biologies
• Info: Hairy and long armed cousins to orcs and goblins. Often the keepers of arcane knowledge.

Humans:

"I know I have said before to not make judgements of a group of people based on where they came from or the background biology that created them. This is true for all peoples in the spiral except for one. 

They are very rare however if you do see a human, run. Get as far away from them as you can as fast as you can. The further the better.

They have not come here via that paths that you did. The did not become bigger through the journey. The did not see the 5th dimension, the hole in the universe or the grid that connects us all.

They bring with them all the horrors of the old world. They hunger for power, the crave domination and they will consume you and every drop of joy in this world until they get it all."

Grunk The Orc / Date: After the attack by Corporeal-45

Kobold: 

• • Lifespan: 100-200
  • Homeworld/Realm: The Whispering Wastes
  • Compatibility: All standard biologies
  • These small dragon like beings populate much of the Fel for they are clever and strong.

Mek:

• Lifespan: Unknown 
• Homeworld/Realm: Nexopia/The Cosmic Expanse
• Compatibility: None
• Little is known of the Mek, for they are rarely seen outside the far reaches of the cosmic realm. They are relative newcomers to Spiral showing ups few hundred years after the Elven transformation wave. Children of Nexopia, the living machine city; the Mek have begun exploring the spiral on trade and diplomatic missions.  Built from machinery and magic each Mek can grow and build on itself unlocking Alt-Modes that provide them with new abilities and skills. 

Orc:

• Lifespan: 400-500
• Homeworld/Realm: Oko/Oko
• Compatibility: All standard biologies
• Versatile and strong Orcs can be found across the spiral. 

"My new body was strange in so many ways but being an orc felt like home. I had never been able to see myself in the mirror and have that sense of belonging to something that reflected who I was inside. It made me stronger, not from a physical perspective but from the inside out. Hrar told me that the meat here wants to live and here it I could feel that. It made me want to live too."

Grunk The Orc / Date: Early on

Primal:

• Lifespan: Range depends significantly on the animus inhabiting the biology of the Primal
• Homeworld/Realm: The Bramble
• Compatibility: All standard biologies
• Beast people who have one or more animal like traits that come from a primordial energy called animus. 

Synth:

• Lifespan: Unknown
• Homeworld/Realm: None
• Compatibility: None
• The evolved form of the elven people. Synths are beings of pure energy and do not often concern themselves with the trials and tribulations of the flesh. There are some that miss the physical world and venture back from the stars, operating helmet like podships that project hard light bodies that allow them to interact with other peoples safely. It would be viewed as a horrific abomination of synth culture for a synth to reproduce with a physical being and no recorded cases of successful unions between them and others has ever occurred.

Troll:

• Lifespan: No upper limit known
• Homeworld/Realm: The Wilds
• Compatibility: All standard biologies
• Each troll is a sentient collective of plants, lichen and other organics that have formed a single being. Trolls often take on the appearance of local flora.  Trolls have incredible regeneration abilities and nearly impossible to kill so long as a part of its core remains. Claiming to be the first born of the primal source Trolls are known for being resilient explorers extending the reach of the vines of the primal wherever they go.  As a troll ages they may split or merge with other trolls and are able to reproduce with most beings. Ancient trolls get larger and larger eventually slowing down and settling roots to become a massive tree like entity that will eventually connect with the primal vines that extend out from the primal power source. 

Tuph:

• Lifespan: 500+ 
• Homeworld/Realm: The Cosmic Expanse
• Compatibility: None
• Fragments of a great sentient mountain Unas that was destroyed during The Ravaging millennia ago. Tuph's are silicon based lifeforms that sprout up wherever debris from the mountain landed. Tuphs often take on the physical characteristics of the stones and rocks where they live. Incredibly resilient, Tuphs have a hard shell and can retract appendages into a monolithic form that is indiscernible from any rock.

 

Choosing Your ORCS

Every being with a connection to a power source manifests one of 12 different Sparkles that relates to a set of gifts. As you increase the magnitude of your sparkle, you level up by acquiring new ability cards. The 12 skills fall under one of four fields: Oddity, Resolve, Capability and Strength (ORCS). The total score of your ORCS is the sum of number of ability cards you hold for the skills under that field. You use these scores when performing ability checks. Each sparkle has a set of unique actions you can take on your turn in combat or anytime during adventures.

Domains

• Oddity 
  • Knowledge/Nerd: Spells
  • Awareness/Alchemist: Alterations
  • Eccentricity/Vidma: Harbringers
    
• Resolve
  
  • Resilience/Zealot: Defenses
  • Discipline/Gladiator: Attacks
  • Spirit/Catalyst: Vibes
• Capability
  • Lure/Shepherd: Shifts
  • Cunning/Hacker: Tricks
  • Talent/Prodigy: Inspirations
• Strength
  • Velocity/Kozak: Movements
  • Power/Colossus: Amplifiers
  • Intensity/Berzerker: Outbursts
    

Increasing Your Sparkle's Magnitude

As you progress through adventures you will level up and increase the magnitude of your sparkle. Selecting new abilities under whatever skill you choose.  This system is built to allow for multi-classing and/or fun optimization.  For example you can be the nerdiest nerd by putting all your energy into acquiring spells or you can take a more balanced approach and be a spell-sword fighter by splitting your energy between knowledge, discipline and power. 

Unpowered people exist across the spiral. Some have followed other gifts and callings while others have had enough adventure in their prior incarnations. Most beings you will meet start at a magnitude of 4. These first 4 skills are the result of your origin selection.  

Death Comes For Us All

Safety first adventurer! While magic and time can heal most meat, you should exercise extreme caution with your new body until you fully understand your capabilities and limits. 

While there is great debate in the material realm on the nature of the spark life after death, here in the outer planes death is much better understood. Death exists, but the spark in most cases will live on, returning to the stars until the meat it inhabited is healed, or a new body can be acquired. Death does however enact significant damage on the magnitude of your Sparkle reducing it by 4 levels each time you separate from your body. Healing magic and potions are common and available for those with money, gifts and knowledge.

Here in the outer planes, the meat that makes up our bodies wants to live. It is infused with the energy of the primal source. Some biologies allow you to live indefinitely others wear out after a few hundred years. Depending on your origin you may have special abilities and resistances that interact with this energy allowing you to heal from unthinkable wounds and in some cases regrow lost appendages. 

Classification of Wounds

If you are adventuring you are going to get hurt. This is inevitable. How you respond when you are hurt is up to you. Each of us has a well of life force that is worn down by damage and attacks. Manage your life force wisely as once it is gone your journey may end!

• Minor Wounds: These can be healed within 24 hours. These permanently lower your overall health until a long undisturbed rest/magic/gift has allowed you to recover. 
• Major Wounds: You have taken serious damage (dropped to 1 HP) and have lost the use of one of your appendages or sensory organs. All actions you take that include those meat bits will be at disadvantage. You will need a week of downtime to recover your HP and a month to regrow your damaged parts unless there is some magic/gift has allowed you to recover. These will leave a scar but won't impact your play long term.
• Death Wounds: Your HP has dropped to 0. Your spark exits your body and will linger near it for 24 hours. You will drop your magnitude by 1 level and get rid of an ability as a result.  If your spark is returned to your body within the 24 hour period you will need a week of downtime to recover your HP and a month to regrow your damaged parts unless there is some magic/gift has allowed you to recover. These will leave a scar. Your lost ability may come back should you select it the next time you increase your magnitude.
• Mortal Wounds: Your HP has dropped to 0 and your body has been destroyed by some means. Without a physical anchor your spark leaves this domain for the Aether. If you have a squad they may engage in a quest to acquire some magical means to return you to a new body but your Sparkle's magnitude will be dropped 4 levels. You lose 4 of your abilities. You also return changed not quite yourself. You have lost something you will never get back you cannot re-select the same 4 abilities you lost. You may be able to recover the levels with new abilities fairly quickly but you will never be the same.

NOTE: If you happen to die from Death Wounds and your body (or what's left of it) is placed face down and shrouded for the 24 hour period that follows, your spark will be severed from your body and sucked into the abyss. You will not return from this adventure. Please ensure you are adventuring with people you can trust to respect your wishes in regards to how you would/wouldn't like to be brought back. Deathly resurrection planning is critical to discuss with your squad members.

You can use your card based skills and abilities during combat and exploration. The nature of the card and the sparkle it falls under decides when it can be played and you and your DM work together to decide how it manifests. 

• You should think about how your sparkle shines. What makes it unique to you? What style does it take on? What flavour have you infused with it.
• Work with your DM for inspiration and to ensure the flavour matches the rest of the meal they are preparing.

Actions that fall outside of your cards will require a skill check. Your DM selects which ORCS your request falls under. You add your total points under the required skill to a D20 roll. 

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Frequently Asked Questions About Powered By Sparkles and The Sparkle Orc Saga (TSOS)

What is It?

The Sparkle Orc Saga (TSOS) is the universe our heroes live in.

What Does it Do?

It powers all of our lore and world building. It will be the sandbox that you can play in once we release the full system to the public.

When Will it Come Out?

We will be play testing a streamlined version of our game mechanics with our card game Heart/Beat: An Orc Dating & Duelling Game  starting in 2026. 

How Many People Can Play?

The minimum you need is 1 DM and 1 player. We will include a cast of characters you can recruit and romance for smaller parties. These characters will have specific quest lines you can optionally pursue to gain favour with them.

How Will it be Licensed?

TBD we are currently looking at our options so that the system can be used by homebrewers easily.

What Does it Include?

Everything you need to play a streamlined adventure. We are designing a full arc (magnitudes 5-20) to take roughly a year with weekly play. This includes:

• 12 major episodes where you follow your hero from level 5-20. These episodes are more linear and take you through a number of different areas of the spiral in a structured way.
• Optional flashbacks/side-quests/goals and mini-challenges you can complete when you don't have a full party or when a player is missing for an extended period of time. These optional bonus features are designed to deal with scheduling challenges while rewarding you with special loot, relationships and abilities.
• Easy to use ability cards that keep track of your skills.
• A universe of worlds to explore in freeplay directed by your DM.

What Do You Mean by Queer-First?

Mechanically our universe is built by queer people for queer people. We welcome all to come play in our little corner of the multiverse but this place was built to reflect our lives and values first and foremost. Lore wise, it takes someone on the periphery of society, someone who has been marginalized, someone who has seen what most others do not to enter the outer plane. To make the journey you have to see beyond what you are taught by the majority and access that inner-magic that connects all outsiders to escape the trappings of the material plane we live in. 

All of the characters in our official content are queer/trans/nonbinary and a good amount of them are neurodivergent. That is because Grunk is queer/nonbinary/ neurodivergent. You are free to create your own characters outside of this pretty pink triangle but be aware that you are a guest here. Here the monsters, outcasts and outliers are the heroes of the story. We don't offer humans as a potential background origin because we want you to embrace the strange, the different and the unique. 

What Do You Mean by Anti-Fascist & Anti-Capitalist?

The universe we have created has learned some of the hard lessons about the horrors of capital control, religious fundamentalism and how deeply intertwined both of them are with xenophobic fascism. Most of the societies in this place value education, freedom of thought and freedom of expression. These are the values our heroes fight for. 

Our villains are represented by the last vestiges of these great evils.  These evils of the human soul show us the dark parts inside of us that we must be ever-vigilant against both in fantasy and reality.

Orc.Style has always been a commentary on the corporate commercialization of queer culture. Cutting off the bits of us they didn't like to make us more palatable for the masses. This is about embracing what makes us unique while celebrating what brings us together and how we can overcome the horrors that we face. This is a setting and a story about how we are going win together in spite of these horrors. 

 

Sign up for more information on the system and release here.