The Transiapheian Bulletin

(Iapheia Bestiary) Humans with Guns

Iapheia has its share of monsters - angels, uranic mutants, undead, etcetera - but they're somewhat less in focus compared to the average dungeongame. Ninety to ninety-five percent of all bullets spent in anger in the Iapheian Main are fired by humans with guns at other humans with guns.

The Baseline HwG

HUMAN WITH A GUN
PT 6, Mv normal, Mr 5-11, Sk 8-16, Atk varies.

PT is Pain Threshold. All humans have a natural PT of 6, but armour can modify it.

Sk is Skill, the base target number for all of the HwG's rolls, including attacks. (We need this separate measure of competence since Iapheia doesn't use conventional HD.) Some benchmarks for this:

As a general rule of thumb, named NPCs get to have Skill one level higher than their peers. The wily leader of a Skill 10 militia group might have Skill 12, for instance. Not all enemy groups will have such a leader.

Varieties of HwG

Here are some of the Humans with Guns the party might antagonise in the course of their adventures.

Politicals

Political militias are ubiquitous across the Main. The weaker and less supported the local government, the more active the politicals tend to be. In relatively stable regimes, they're basically just social clubs with guns, marching and posturing as a show of force but rarely firing more than warning shots. In more febrile cities, they can and do kill. Commitment to the cause varies; most militias have a hard core of faithful veterans and a much larger body who are in it for community, thrills, or just the anchor of believing in something.

Politicals are underhanded and hate fair fights as much as a PC, but even the more hardened sects would rather rob, sabotage, and humiliate their opponents than kill them. There's a certain understanding, even between hated enemies, that nobody really wants to die. Once someone does die, though, their doctrine of limited warfare dissolves pretty quickly. Some of the Main's worst massacres have started by mistake, when what was meant to be a show brawl turned lethal.

Politicals maraud in bands of 2d6, though rallies may see much more. A political has Skill 10. He's typically unarmoured and carries a cheap rifle or shotgun and a hand weapon; 1-in-6 politicals also has an improvised fuel bomb, though he's skittish about using it. Morale varies by ideology. Politicals of moderate, respectable causes such as Narellondes and Empirics, and artistic militants such as Perspectivists, have Morale 6. Religious militants and followers of more fringe or fanatical causes, like White Hounds, Phalangists, and Futurists, have Morale 7.

Cultists

Cultists are just politicals who've gone far enough to be rejected wholesale by the public; in modern Iapheia, that's pretty damn far. Most people think first of the religious kind, and plenty of self-appointed prophets and their followers eke out their miserable lives in ramshackle compounds across the Main, but secular cultists are a very real threat too. The fundamentalist strands of Futurism have at least as many slavering zealots as any new god or old faith, and artistic cults, though rare, are terrifying in their conviction to completely alien value systems.

Cultists are not the most threatening foes, but they're among the most frustrating. They fight dirty even when they don't really have to, they're highly unpredictable, and, though most aren't actively suicidal, they'll often keep fighting against insane odds and do as much damage as they can on the way down.

Cultists form mobs of 3d6, with a typical cult consisting of 1d3 such mobs. They have Skill 10, are unarmoured, and carry an even mix of serials, rifles, and revolvers, all of them cheap. The mob's leader, either the cult leader herself or a close lieutenant, has Skill 12 and a non-cheap weapon. Cultists without their leader have Morale 6. The leader has a 50/50 chance of being either a true believer with Morale 11 or a charlatan or opportunist with Morale 5. Cultists don't test Morale for their first casualty, but they test normally at 50% casualties and when the leader is killed.

Zemblars

The zemblars are the drug clans of fallen Saan. "Zemblar" refers to both the clan itself and one of its members. Their leaders may have been forced into exile (many have gone to ground in western Llov or fled south to Vikhesh), but the clans are legendarily tenacious. Their immortal trade is more popular than ever in the modern Main, and they have some sort of presence in every major city.

Zemblars don't pick unnecessary fights, but their bar for what counts as necessary is pretty low. They are aggressive, straightforward, and showy, leaning heavily on shock and awe. They can be impatient, and will often withdraw and wait for a better opportunity if a fight starts to drag. Zemblars are protective of their boogeyman status and will always leave a witness if it seems safe to do so.

Zemblars attack in crews of 1d6+2. A zemblar has Morale 8 and Skill 12. They wear ballistic jackets (PT 7 vs. bullets) and carry a 50/50 mix of carbines and sliders, which are always hardened. Zemblars dislike protracted fights, and test Morale after every three rounds of combat in addition to normal triggers.

Sons of Vengardy

The Sons of Vengardy are a paramilitary group officially condemned and not-very-secretly sponsored by Grand Duke Otho I. The army is heavily depleted and refuses to be drawn into anything that looks even a little bit like a new war, so he relies on this ragged paramilitary to raid, plunder, and generally project his authority beyond the Vengardesc border. The Sons are mostly angry, insecure young men, obsessed with masculinity and dominance and other psychosexually loaded concepts. They're easily identified by their heavy leather jackets and trousers, decorated with snarling dragons, skulls, and wholly fictitious kill tallies.

The Sons of Vengardy love the concept of fighting much more than they love fighting itself. They'd rather have victims than actual opponents; their ideal engagement ends with a quick surrender and the Sons laughing as they help themselves to their victims' valuables. That said, they can back up their bluff and bluster with real violence if they have to, and are particularly fond of overwhelming bayonet charges.

Sons roam in bands of 3d6, though they often split off into smaller patrols. Each band is a 50/50 mix of youngbloods (Morale 6, Skill 10) and reals (Morale 8, Skill 12). They wear heavy leathers (PT 7 vs. melee and fire) and carry rifles and bayonets. Reals have a 3-in-6 chance to carry a grenade.

Retrogonists

Detailed here. Technically, these are Humans pointedly without Guns, but hey ho.

Retrogonists form packs of 2d6, have Morale 7 and Skill 10, never wear armour, and attack with hand weapons. 1-in-6 Retrogonists carries a great weapon instead. They fight like dogs, if dogs understood ballistics.