Almost two years ago, I started making a Genesys setting for Codex Alera, one of my favorite Fantasy series. I did a great deal of work on it, but due to life events, I haven't actually been able to revisit it in some time. I figured I'll just post everything I have done now on here, and hope someone picks up the torch. I may revisit this at a later date, though I'm unsure when it will be possible.

Races, Careers, and Furycrafting Rules:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SxKt6nnTD7WioakIBqNU7XaCDOm1xxRf0P0i99VMeaU/edit?usp=sharing

120 new Talents for Furycrafting, 8 new General Talents:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kPU9lvcu9CQPVN0Gx-EuXrGlXw7tKZiWHjYr784yUlE/edit?usp=sharing

Some new Equipment options:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/127iHQTqCoewwhX0eknPODmOxs9QOCvPB1U2JJSJZ9IU/edit?usp=sharing

New Adversaries:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sl5e_78uaZAuA-bWJJXkIWrTYFbPzdwXTcK3jDj6JTM/edit?usp=sharing

A few things I'd like to bring up for those interested in running this. First, I'm sorry the presentation quality isn't exactly professional. I don't have the time to pretty it up, as much as I'd like to. Hopefully this is cohesive enough to be usable for anyone wishing to run a campaign set in the world of Codex Alera.

Second, I didn't aim to make things perfectly balanced. Instead, I aimed to recreate what we've seen in the books to the best of my ability. Furycrafting is a deliberate XP sink, much like Force powers in Force and Destiny, to hopefully offset how ridiculously powerful some of the Furycrafting talents get. Also, I know some of the talents are extremely powerful for their XP cost. I tried to balance the talents and their cost not just on how powerful they are, but also on how prevalent they are throughout the series. To demonstrate what I mean, I'll use an example from my original Codex Alera thread:

"Earthen Might:

Tier 1

Activation: Active (Incidental)

Ranked: No

Before Making a Brawl or Melee skill check, the character may suffer 1 strain to add damage to the attack equal to their ranks in Furycrafting.

5 XP"

On the surface, that sounds like a really powerful talent, considering how low its XP cost is. However, enhanced physical strength like this is one of the defining features of Earthcrafters in the Codex Alera series, so it would hardly make sense for the talent to be costed around 15-20 XP. I did my best to mitigate this by throwing in additional thematic limits to the talent. For instance, the strain caused by this talent is suffered before attacking, so even if you miss, the strain is still suffered. Thematically, this is because the Earthcrafter is investing the same amount of effort into the swing, regardless of whether or not it hits. In addition, in order to add any extra damage at all, you have to have at least one rank in Furycrafting, which would cost an additional 5 XP. Only when you've invested 35-55 XP into both getting this talent and getting Furycrafting up to rank 3-4 does this talent really start feeling powerful. Thematically, this is easily explained. The more skilled you are at Furycrafting in general, the more you're able to enhance your physical might with Earthcrafting.

So please remember when you're looking over the talents, many of them are pretty much designed to be broken, in an effort to fit with what we see within the books. I've tried my best to offset this by imposing rather high XP costs for many of the more powerful Furycrafting talents, but I'm sure a power gamer could easily break what I've made here. Still, I hope this is a good first step for anyone wanting a stepping stone into running a Codex Alera campaign. Feel free to modify anything and everything I've posted here to better fit your campaigns, of course. I hope someone gets some good mileage out of this. If anyone does use this to run a Codex Alera campaign, I'd love to know about it!

There were two story prompts I had in mind while making this campaign.

Invasion:

It's been roughly a hundred years since the Vord invasion was repelled, and Gaius Tavarus Magnus united the peoples of Carna. The Academy Novus has been a hive of activity and a blending of all cultures, where Alerans, Canim, Gadrim-ha, and Marat all come to learn. The College of Romanic Studies, along with Canim knowledge of Engineering, has allowed the society to flourish and develop into something more closely resembling Rome at its pinnacle. Gaius Tavarus Magnus has long since passed, and Gaius Desiderius Tavarus has grown old and ready to retire from his role. Gaius Dudeserius Tavarus has taken up his grandfather's mantle as Captain of the First Aleran Legion.

The land of Alera has grown perilous in the past century. Roaming furies, leftovers from the war against the Vord, continue to plague travelers. The great volcano where Alera Imperia once stood remains active, making much of the land around it uninhabitable. The weather patterns have become less predictable (a result of Tavi's heavy use of weather manipulation during the war), with great storms from the seas, and horrible blizzards from the north constantly assailing the continent.

Despite the perils, the people of Alera have thrived. The alliance between the four societies has helped each advance in endless ways. However, with each passing year, the nearly forgotten threat of the Vord looms ever closer. After a century of the Vord being out of Alera's sight, rumors have begun to stir of great creatures in the sea. Black, armored leviathans, invulnerable to conventional weaponry. Ships have gone missing, and bodies of sailors have begun washing ashore from the Mare Nostrum sea, bearing deep gashes as though slain by wicked scythes. It's only a matter of time now before the Vord invasion begins anew.

The Mad Gaius:

A clever scholar by the name of Tellurus has spent years devoted to studying the nature of Furies. As the continent grows less stable with each passing decade, Tellurus constructs a theory to explain much of Alera's history: The First Gaius constructed an artificial Great Fury. It's the only thing Tellurus can think of to explain the power wielded by the Gaius bloodline, the only thing that explains the mass manipulation of weather and tectonic events which has plagued Alera at pivotal moments throughout history, and which destabilized the continent during the Vord War.

Of course, the academic community treats Tellurus as a laughing stock, his ideas too outlandish to be believed. Surely anyone who believes such things must be a madman. But not all who hear his theory believe it to be a work of insanity. Tellurus gathers a small handful of followers, forming the Cult of Tellus. He uses his cult to begin secretly gathering Furies from the far reaches of Alera, intent on creating his own Great Fury. He will use this power to repair the damage done by the bloodline of Gaius. And once he's disproved the fools who once mocked him, he shall become the new ruler of Alera, righting all the perceived wrongs committed since Gaius Tavarus Magnus took the crown.

Having renamed himself Terraius Primus, the mad heretic draws ever closer to his goals. The Cult of Tellus has nearly completed its mission, and soon Terraius will have a Great Fury of his own. Soon, Terra will be born. Unless the cursors of Gaius Desiderius Tavarus uncover the plot and foil the madman's scheme, of course.

Nice work!

Ever read the Cinder Spires "series"/the Aeronaut's Windlass? Also Jim Butcher... really good but he's seemingly never devoted much energy to it.

Best *punk genre writing I've found.

Seems almost not fair that one guy can write so many different genres so well.

Anyway, thanks for sharing.

33 minutes ago, emsquared said:

Nice work!

Ever read the Cinder Spires "series"/the Aeronaut's Windlass? Also Jim Butcher... really good but he's seemingly never devoted much energy to it.

Best *punk genre writing I've found.

Seems almost not fair that one guy can write so many different genres so well.

Anyway, thanks for sharing.

THIS!

I would really like to see Cinder Spires converted to Genesys.

4 hours ago, emsquared said:

Nice work!

Ever read the Cinder Spires "series"/the Aeronaut's Windlass? Also Jim Butcher... really good but he's seemingly never devoted much energy to it.

Best *punk genre writing I've found.

Seems almost not fair that one guy can write so many different genres so well.

Anyway, thanks for sharing.

Yeah, I've read pretty much everything by Jim Butcher. I actually took inspiration from Cinder Spires (as well as Treasure Planet) when I made a High Republic mini-campaign for the Clone Wars game I've been running. The players are flying around in Solar Sailers that function much like the ships in Cinder Spires. If I find the time, I may try to do a full Cinder Spires Genesys conversion, but I'm sort of waiting for Jim to put out another book first, just so I'll have more source material.

4 hours ago, Underachiever599 said:

I'm sort of waiting for Jim to put out another book first, just so I'll have more source material.

Right?

I had started making an RPG based off of Cinder Spires after I first read it, using the "Cortex Plus" RPG system. Then Genesys came out, and I started re-framing everything in my mind using this system, but kind of dropped it when I realized there just wasn't much to go on without just starting to make up a bunch of head-canon.

I never got past book one with Alera, but you (and all the discussion about it in the other thread) made me decide to give it another go.

Downloaded the audiobook today!

Interestingly, Cinder Spires is probably my least fave book by Jim. I dunno I just found myself tuning out while listening to the audiobook of it, a lot. Oddly enough, usually when the ship on ship battles were taking place.

I'm more interested in a new Dresden book, or some of the spinoff series in the Dresden Files he's talked about doing.

Codex Alera was a really fun series, though the last 2 books sort of lost focus for me, and had some big moments where I was like "wait what? what about this other thing?! You totally just forgot about that?!"

Still, Cursor's Fury is a really good book in that series for me personally.

With Peace Talks (Dresden #16) due out in July, Butcher has reported turned his attention to the next Cinder Spires book (The Olympian Affair).

Can't wait!

On 1/29/2020 at 4:37 AM, Underachiever599 said:

"Earthen Might:

Tier 1

Activation: Active (Incidental)

Ranked: No

Before Making a Brawl or Melee skill check, the character may suffer 1 strain to add damage to the attack equal to their ranks in Furycrafting.

5 XP"

I think this could use a bit of refinement. Earthcrafters are strong , they don't just hit hard. Instead of focusing on combat checks and damage, I'd suggest taking a look at g-mods from SotB. In the case of g-mod strength, it's " f your character has enhanced muscles that improve strength, they may suffer 1 strain before making an Athletics, Brawl, or Melee check to add to the results. " Or, for windcrafters, g-mod agility: " If your character has enhanced muscles that improve coordination, they may suffer 1 strain before making a Coordination or Ranged (Light) check to add to the results. "

More advanced talents could add either another success or a pair of advantages. Or, even better, give your players the option!

Furycrafting (Improved)
Tier: 2 (3?)
Activation: Active (Incidental)
After your character makes a skill check modified by Furycrafting, but before you resolve the roll, your character may suffer 1 strain to use this talent. If they do so, add either or to the result of the check.

And, of course, Furycrafting will be a ranked talent, each time you take it to get to add another element to your crafting repertoire.

5 hours ago, c__beck said:

I think this could use a bit of refinement. Earthcrafters are strong , they don't just hit hard. Instead of focusing on combat checks and damage, I'd suggest taking a look at g-mods from SotB. In the case of g-mod strength, it's " f your character has enhanced muscles that improve strength, they may suffer 1 strain before making an Athletics, Brawl, or Melee check to add to the results. " Or, for windcrafters, g-mod agility: " If your character has enhanced muscles that improve coordination, they may suffer 1 strain before making a Coordination or Ranged (Light) check to add to the results. "

More advanced talents could add either another success or a pair of advantages. Or, even better, give your players the option!

Furycrafting (Improved)
Tier: 2 (3?)
Activation: Active (Incidental)
After your character makes a skill check modified by Furycrafting, but before you resolve the roll, your character may suffer 1 strain to use this talent. If they do so, add either or to the result of the check.

And, of course, Furycrafting will be a ranked talent, each time you take it to get to add another element to your crafting repertoire.

Have you read through the Talent list I have posted? It already addresses some of this. I do agree that I should have Earthen Might apply to Athletics as well. When I find time, I'll try to go through and update each talent, but it will be a while before I can get there.