Merry Xmas. You know. The usual

Just a quick thingy to wish people a happy christmas. Wow. That was fast.

Erm, and new year too, I suppose, while I'm at it. And Valentine's Day, and birthday ... okay, I'll stop now .

FYI, Spark'll be offline while I'm in Victoria (due to computer being shut off and getting a much needed rest from being left on a lot), and I won't be on IRC. I'll probbaly check this blog and the message board a few times but that's it.

Have fun :)

Amazing Adventuers!

Yes! It's the title of the next game. Rejoice!

More information can be found on the forums. While 4 Ways is likely to last until april or so, given the plot, this'll be the game that cometh next. Why up so early? Mostly to begin ideas. The super spy/Johnny Quest/Venture Bros style setting should be fun, but I really don't know much about it. So ... make stuff up! Add people, places etc. even if you might not be playing.

It'll be fun! Honest.

GAME TIMES

Okay. So. Games (mine at least) will be off from the 20th of December until the 10th of January

So there'll be LOLAD on the 13th and 4 Ways 14th of December. Despite having the 20th and 21st possibly off from work, games won't run then since players have RL and Xmas and all that. The first week of January is going to be work and classes and getting all that crap sorted out, so there won't be classes that week.

4 Ways will resume on January 11th. Since Reflections (which I plan to play in, though work may get in the way some weeks :)) will be on Wednesdayd and I have a class Monday nights, game times for LOLAD will be infrequent and depend upon what days f Thurs-Sun I get off.

Given a choice between Reflections and LOLAD, I'd choose the former. Why? because I haven't played in a game in a very long time, and am looking forward to it for a nice chance of pace. In all honesty, much as I like LoLaD, I'd rather play in Reflections than run another game. I've haven't just ran one game in a long time, and it will be a fun change of pace.

Toss comments about this up here, or in #game1. Toodles.

Last Flight of the Golden Condor

Last Flight of the Golden Condor
(December 2004)

It started when they told him he didn't exist. That was the beginning. Only his friend saw him, and his friend was convinced he was a giant bird most of the time anyway. Everyone else just laughed, even the man with the rubber ducky. They all said he was just another delusion, and BB was given more drugs.

The drugs never really worked. BB was nuttier than a fruitcake, which is generally considered almost impossible given the real ingredients of fruitcake. So they resorted to peer pressure, the people of the Street. They told BB over and over that he wasn't a bird, that his friend wasn't real.

It ended when got angry. It wasn't right, these people saying he didn't exist, treating these poor children like puppets and not people. So on the day BB was forced to agree, the day the broke the yellow-bellied kid for the final time, Snuffy cried. A single tear, suspended between earth and heaven.

All eyes locked on it, watching it fall. No one noticed the knife, until it was too late. In some ways, it had always been too late. The grouchy kid died first, and the "real" vampire who counted socks, and the two queer kids with the duck. Snuffy enjoyed their faces when he cut the duck apart before their eyes. The fat kid who ate all the cookies took more time, just because even Snuffy had trouble actually finding his neck.

Doctor Gina went quick, and the rest of the staff the same. They tried to run too late, not believing in him until they had no choice. Mister Hooper tried to get BB to call 911.

"You want me to use the phone Looper?"

"Hooper! It's Hooper! Hooper!" Hooper began screaming at him, for the last time as it turned out.

BB looked at the body, and at Snuffy. "You snuffed Hooper."

Snuffed nodded gravely.

"I was lying to them," BB said. "I really believed."

"Can you tell me how to get, how to get blood stains off?" Snuffy sang.

BB shook his head, his pants staining yellow. "C - cold water. C is for cold," he managed, and lashed out spastically, sending the knife flying.

Snuffy watched it fall and drew his second knife. "I have two tusks," he explained. And the it got very bad, very bad indeed.

The police found BB, curled up beside a knife, and sobbing. He wasn't dead, not yet, but cut all over, as if he'd tried to skin himself alive and failed. He was screaming about his missing feathers, the big boy, as they tried to stop the blood from flowing. He died, the killer, singing that it wasn't easy being red, and no one ever asked questions about a second knife. No one heard the laughter in the air, from the creature who wasn't there but everyone agreed the street was haunted by something that left sesame seeds everywhere.

Nothing happened.
The end of the world, and no one came.
That is the sum of my report, sir.
I never saw the eyes.
The town of Millhaven is small and it's bleak and it's cold. But there is nothing special there, nothing of note.
A child of Norn, the raven-girl, the one without an angel. Why can't I speak?
The demon didn't manage to become a god. We don't know why he failed.
The FBI sent someone, with guns. I'm trying to tell you.
It seems to me that it was all a lie. There were no faces in the dark.
Sometimes it does turn out to be nothing. A blip in the cosmic radar, even if the First Man's sister was there. We never did have proof of it, or that she exists.
What did he do to my head? Why can't I say anything?
"I am the man for whom no god waits". Sir? Oh. Something that came to me. I don't know why. I do feel funny.
Try and read between the lines! Try.
I gues that means it's over, sir.
I saw the boy with the hole in his head. All God's children they all gotta diiiie!
The report is on your desk. No one to recruit, no one to deal with. The sleepers must have cleaned up the mess. Thank you, sir. It was a pleasure doing business with you. When next you want to end the world, let me know.

Inspirations for this game:

http://home.austarnet.com.au/glazfolk/songs/faces.htm - Faces in the Dark
Xodiak
And, of course, The Curse of Millhaven and O'malley's bar.

Games off this week

Like it says in the topic no one reads :)

Need to finish novel. Speaking of which, going to do that.

So, UA or 4 Ways will end ....

So, UA or 4 Ways will end ....

Any requests for a next game?

I have a low-key Unbreakable style supers game in my head, but I'll probably wait a while before running it. (Mostly to give the genre a break.)

I would like to run a high-insanity short term game sometime soon, based on "make anythng you want, go nuts with it" Weirdest PC concepts possible, and go from there. Using whatever system the players want, rolling the PCs up in said system, and deciding if, oh, a D&D wizard can hit a Garou hippy on the fly, in free form style, but using dice for sheer insanity of it all.

Paranoia is an option, but a viable Paranoia campaign would be difficult, I think. Ditto for Toon and Risus.

But if anyone has ideas/concepts/suggestions for a new game and/or setting, I'm all ears. Chaos and I have been fiddling around with a Star Wars game, but I think I'd be a better player than GM for such a setting.

System wise, something new/simplewould be preferred. D&D is just too ... limiting .... for a world, so it's out. GURPS is nuts. Personally I'd like to try somethiing we haven't before that everyone would find fun to give a whirl.

So toss up ideas, and let the fun begin!

(This is from the 4 Ways Forum so please post replies and comments there. Thanks.)

4 Waus Update

We now have 7 players! So the game is full, unless Baliadoc wants to join, but he'll never show anyway (*evil grin*). Jokes aside, the game is full. I'm expecting some player drop outs as it goes on, due to RL and the like, so the high number of starting PCs isn't a problem. Or hopefully won't be :) If it is, I'll roll dice and kill pcs .. oh, wait, amber is diceless. Okay, there'll , err, be an accident. Yeah. That's it......

The forum is going to be the source of info for the game. (I can make a basic site with PC summaries, pics and the like if people want.) Here's hoping for lots of fun.

4 ways begins....

So, next game becomes a real game due to inertia. heh. Ah well. Shall be fun :)

Game time is Sunday nights. Depends on the players as to when it starts. I'm open for whenever, but 5 pm est earliest, by preference. (I like to sleep in Sundays :).

Current players:
Tass, playing Johnny
Chaos, playing Linda
Warezbert, playing Victor
Caltak, playing Aubrey III

Room for, say, 2-3 more players, depending on how often it runs and who makes the game regularly and the like. Between sessions a la Aftermath are quite possible, but as I work most nights aren't too likely unless people want to be up late. (As in, starting a game as 2 am EST.)

All PCs are students in high school who have answered a federally funded initiative to teach superhumans how to defend themselves and use their powers. They want to be superheroes. With help, and a lot of luck, they might even make it :)

Pcs should be posted to the 4 ways forum (see sidebar, or game1 topic), though if you want Secret Dark Stuff give me that seperately.
Note that, unless stated otherwise, all Forum stuff is OOC knowledge, in terms of stats and histories for NPCs and PCs.

If you want more points, post things to the board! Follow Chaos's example. Make a character diary, add a pic (hero machine is very good for that) and the like. The more stuff, the merrier. Do session summaries, from your PCs pov. Or whatever. Have fun.

4 ways forum made!

See it here!.

Join! Post! And Stuff!

"4 Ways," a superhero game...

Okay, going to do it as 4-colour superhero world, in a modern setting.

Meaning?

Well, the premise of 4 colour comics is that good is good and bad is bad. Very little ambiguity (that'll change, natch) and very little killing. I'll bend the latter, a little, but all pcs are superheroes, and the good guys and as such they never kill.

Now, as far as comic book universres go, I'll allow ANYTHING, with a few minor caveats:

- Magic is NPC only, and not common. This applies to supernatural creatures as well.
- Superscience doesn't exist. What gadgetry etc. does exist works only for the maker and no one else, and not always well.
- Not everyone with powers becomes a super hero (or villain). This is more reality based than four colour, but I want to keep the game within reality as much as possible that way.

More will be added. Need to dash to work.

Next Game Idea, Part The Second

Okay, some clarifications are probably in order....

Idea #1 (Aliens From Outer Space)
This idea is more along the lines of Superman than any other, in my head at least. Aliens crahs land to earth as losers in a war, or fleeing some catastrophic war/event of some kind, and end up in a location, and have to adapt to the new world. Very shortly, they realize that they can do things the humans can't, and must decide what to do with them ... especially since the Evil Aliens were planning to conquer this world as well (or some other plot like that).
The idea is primarily about being heroes for the reason of it being the right thing, not for reward, or fame, or glory. It's saving people because they need/deserve/should be, and you can. Its about being a monster trying to be a man, and the how and why of sacrifice.

Idea #2 (4-colour Superheroics)
Basically super hero world with all the stops pulled out. Every kind of superhero origin could be done, anything can happen and realism is pretty much shot straight to hell in favour of sheer wackiness and trying to balance private and public personas along with dealing with fun questions of the legitimacy of super law enforcers and the like.
How long superpowers have existed would have to be worked out (I'm partial to "starting" them in about 1980 just to avoid the overused world wards and Hiroshima stuff, tho using Roswell can work (i.e. the government breeds superhumans to combat an alien threat initially.))
I.e. what I'd intended Aftermath to sort of become (or at least be a prelcude to). As some players have noted, I tend to have trouble with 4-colour comics worlds. I keep wondering things, like WHY the masks, why the need/desire to hide ... and questions of conscience. Like, if you were Superman, could you *afford* to have a day job and normal life when that takes away from savings others? Still could be done, and be fun, if worked out right.

Idea #3 (Super spies)
The cold war. You have powers mortal men cannot even dream of, but must keep them a secret lest the evil capitalists (or communists) discover them, and are sent over the Iron Curtain to wreak havoc on the enemies of your nation ... not a superhero game in the normal 4-colour sense, but more about following orders, the prices of power and questions of loyalty. Will PCs be content to be hidden from the world, or try and forge a brighter future?

As you may have guessed, I'm most partial to idea #3 (tho I have no idea WHY :p). The ranking of the games is mostly in "how hard it would be to make." #3 is hardest solely from a research perspective, for players and the GM. #2 is hard simply in the amount of time it would take to make a real, viable superhero universe.

Next Game Idea

So much for my idea of just revisiting old settings and not making new ones.....

Be thbat as it may, for some reaosn my brain has a hankering for another superhero rpg. Dunno why. Probably because I like the genre.

System: Amber, modified a bit. So, yeah, diceless. The way a superhero rpg should be, imho.

Actual Game: Depends. I have a few ideas kicking around in my head.

1) Aliens. Yep, a group of aliens of different species on a colony ship that gets attacked by Big Evil Guys and crashes. PCs then hav eto find out what world they're on, learn the language, survive, and deal with more ET jokes than should be possible.

2) A 4-colour world. Lots and lots of superhumans, from way back when to present. Take everything from gorillas to aliens to lava men and go hog-wild with comics physics and mentality.

3) Cold War spies. Created by some Secret Means, and sent to stop the Communists (Or Capitalists, if we make 'em Russian). More super-spies than heroes.

4) Odd Ones Out. Same world as #2, more or less, but the PCs are the dorks, the ones with the mostly useless powers or horribly unlucky and the like. Very Mystery Men, really. Could be done. Could be fun. Probably best as a short game though.

Variants on the above are possible. I'm more partial to #1 and #3 just because making an entire superhero universe and world is very, very time consuming.

Any other ideas/thoughts'd be appreciated.

Religion in RPGs

This is just a quick post, as the subject came to mind while working out things for Carolis.

Carolis was conceived as a world without gods and clerics since, well, it makes the setting more dangerous. And because I had used gods in most every other setting and wanted to try somethng new. That doesn't mean there aren't religions (the druids have a pretty involved one, tho it's private), just that there are not, strictly speaking, any gods (druids, somewhat accepted). Most religions tend to be the mystery cult variety, and have little to not political impact in the "real" world on a large scale.
On a private scale, they're rather powerful, much like the masons. You give favours to friends in the same religion, etc. One reason for this is the same reason there are no guilds: the power of religioins is their appeal to ideals and emotions, and makes them hard to control for the political powers (the guilds are more because they could be an economic throeat).

But as for RPGs in general, I'm not sure how well gods work, especially if gods aren't met on a daily basis and the like. I mean, religion was a BIG part of people's lives in the middle ages, and in most games set in the same millieu it would stand to reason that it's as big. But it seldom is. Some of this is because most GMs don't really make a viable, "real" religions, others is because players tend to operate on the modern assumption that "It's all fake, and exists for the power of those on the top". Which may or may not be true. In any event, getting pcs to really *believe* seems difficult because of this, especially if the gods are never actually present.

Any other thoughts or ideas on the subject?

KIAEB Time

Kiaeb is going to run at 11am - 2pm PST (2pm - 5 pm EST) Wed, Thurs, and Friday. At least, this is the goal :)

Game beguns tomorrow (July 28th). Due to a dentist appointment for moi, it won't run Thurday (auspicious beginning, eh) but will run Friday, and run next week as scheduled, I think. Depends on if I end up helping someone move or not. If I can do that, it'll be on the 5th of August (Thursday) and who knows when else.

Plotting Games

There is always a temptation in games to over-plot things, I think. Or, at least in my case, throwing out plots like a kid tossing a meal at a wall and seeing what sticks. For a change, I'm not doing that with Carolis. Barring anything really weird, the first part of the game should, in some form or another, go as planned. I.e. PCs meet, get introduced, solve some problems, get to the attention of Important People (which can, of course, be either good or bad). From there it's all open-ended, since PCs tend to create plots just by thinking about things, and I tend to make stuff up without knowing why and sort of hope the reason surfaces or, in the case of Ios, a player suggestion like a vampire-werewolf is too much fun to not use.

In most D&D games, though, the biggest problem tends to be getting the PCs together. The way I hope to do it is run the first few sessions (and any pre-games for players who make pcs ahead of time (or on time, Chaos and Caltak :p)) is to do it all as one-on-one and the PCs all end up together as mercenaries of sorts. Mind you, this is helped by the players knowing this naturally. (:

How it'll all happen depends entirely on PCs and players, as does where the plot goes. Most games develop a kind of inertia at some point that keeps them going on, and on, and on, without much real "plotting". This is, on the whole, a good thing. OTOH, there is going to be a specific progression for the game. I do have one or two endings in mind, and some twisted surprises to throw at PCs, but in the end it all depends on what the PCs do, and why they do it, and what they want to do. For good or ill, they're the stars of the story, and if we tell it well it's going to be fun and good and a source of lots of quotes.

The plot is nothing more than the beginning. The PCs choose the middle, and the end. With luck, it'll be one they like and survive. If not, Sparkie always has the final laugh, over every plot and every plan.

Infection

Just something odd I did today.

My name is Martin Graves. Was Martin Graves. I don't know anymore. I don't know anything anymore. It started when the dead began to mail me postcards, from Hell, filled with things no one knew except them and me. My brother, my sister. The secrets siblings share. I never told anyone they were doing that, it didn't seem proper. And, besides, I am/was the head of security, at Nullsoft. Genetics stuff, mostly. Trying to conquer death, to make us immortal.

But there is more to life that life. There is death. Without it, there is just living, forever. And ever.

I see that now. Gerard died firs, then Blinkins. McGover was never, in his sleep. All the scientists. All the researchers. It was like a plague had struck us. Some talked about nanovirii and the like, but no one knew. We just knew we were dying, one at a time, a piece at a time. Death was coming for us.

Henderson had a theory, that we were all machines, infected with Spirit, the spark of life. That without it we'd just keep going and wind down, like clockwork toys. That it kept us here, and burning like sparks in an empty void. He'd been really drunk. He'd died first, his heart failing. 26, and a heart attack. No one could explain it, though we tried.

The government has quarantined us. Rogers has been stalking the hallway, claiming he's Death, and come to take us back home. It would be funny, if he hadn't died last week. No one else seems to notice this. It's not like he's changed. Even dead, he's still an asshole. I'm scared to bring this up with the others, in case they think he's alive. But I know he's dead. He made a break for the door, and I shot him. I was following orders. Only following orders.

They might take my gun away, if I told them. And I think he's waiting for that, waiting for me to be alone. I've been trying to read the notes the others left, deciphering them for hidden meanings, but I can't make head or tails of it, or anything else. We're dying, for something we never did, accessories to the murder of death.

We were just trying to wipe out the virus. Only now I wonder which was the virus, death or life. The walls have been changing lately. I can see other places, other people, like veils are being pulled back. I think I have a fever. Sometimes, I wonder if I'm already dead and just don't know it. I'd like to ask someone.

I put the gun to my head, to see if I'd felt it before. I wonder if I can kill myself, if I'm dead, if death will let me die that easily. I don't do it. I think Rogers is laughing, but I can't hear him. I think they're all dead, and I'm the virus sent for them, and I don't know it. I think I'm insane. I think I'm the only living person in the world, surrounded by robots.

I want to take them apart and see if they bleed, but I could be the robot. It might all be a trick, and I don't know it. They're all rotting flesh sacks, the stink of death and fear like a drug in the air, and I'm the same. Oh God. Oh God. I need help. I help need.

It's almost a relief, when Henderson comes in, with the shotgun, and tells me he's God. It's so much easier now, cleaner. All my problems melting away. I'd lie and say it didn't much, but it did.

I cut myself with a paper clip, of all things. I'm not sure why. My name is Martin Graves. Was Martin Graves. I don't know anymore. It started when the living began to send my postcards, from Hell, the kind of things only they knew. My wife, my son. The secrets families share. My new bosses discovered out I was getting letters, and they'll be next. I've been told it has to be this way. I'm doing a job now. Following orders. Only following orders. I'd eat my gun, but it wouldn't taste good, would just be symbolic. Just be another thing that doesn't mean anything, like their letters I kept hidden in my trunk.

KIAEB Plot

PC level is 3-4. (3 if you want a very odd PC idea ,or something Really Special for your PC.) The PCs are going to be a bandof wandering adventuerers/traders/mercenaries in the pay (or employ) or whomever. As such, the players will need to decide among themselves what PCs will be the defacto leaders and the like.
While a good crossing of classes can be good, I am not enforcing anything, so it's up to the players to get together and decide if anyone wants to be a sorcerer/wizard/druid type or whatnot. (And no, players won't be penalized or rewarding for what class they pick.)
Keep the mercenaryish nature of the PC group in mind when deisgning your PCs. Feel free to work with each other for complementary skills and the like if you want.

Total players will be 6, maximum (and 4 minimum). If you want to play, read the game site over, talk to Alcar, and other players. Find out if it's a game you'd like to play in, and we'll go from there.

Current Prospective Players are:
Keith
Sintaqx
Caltak (will have to leave games 1/2 hour early)
Chaos (will arrive at games 1/2 hour late)
Tass (?)

If there are others, I do not know of them.

KIAEB Notes (The D&D Game)

Okay. This game is set in the kingdom of Carolis, which is large and isolated and 99.9% human. (I was tempted to include halflings, but they're useless so I didn't.) The campaign is going to be called KIAEB (Ask Keith to explain it if you want to know :)). The actual format and nature of it isn't known, yet. This will depend on who is playing what, and what they want to do with their pcs. I.e. What KIND of game do the players want?

Political Intrigue?
Hunting down Monsters?
General Quest?
Work for Merchants named Blok?
Mercenaries in the pay of anyone at all?

Depeding on what players have in mind for their characters I'll come up with a specific idea (by late nexk week; at which time anyone who wants to play should have a PC done. Character creation guidelines WILL be done tomorrow and put up) and the campaign itself will begin the week after (Wednesay, the 28th, with possible one-shots beforehand).

Keep in mind that, one way or another, your PC will be joining a group of other adventurers. Loner-types are strongly discouraged, as are the kind of personality that makes others want you dead very quickly. Giving a detailed background means I have more to work with for your PC, and that's always a good thing.

Some stuff I have yet to write up for the game but you should keep in mind:

• Females are second class citizens. In the nobility, this is because only males inherit power and titles. This mentality has filtered down to the cities themselves. In the countryside, it's more a simple division of labour. Few men in the country really think of women as second-class (and never say it unless they want to never marry), it's more than everyone knows fighting is the man's job and giving birth and looking after the home is the woman's.
  Basically, there are no women fighters. None. No one is going to train one, because it would be stupid.
  
• The only exceptions for females to be classed are sorceresrs (who have no damn choice) and rogues, who are equal-opportunity thieves and females are more likely to get off with lighter sentences.
  
• Wizards all come from the nobility and are trained in the Academy. They serve their family, and the king, and the nobility in general. They do not go out and adventure normally, if ever.
  
• Druids are rare, and tend to be solitary wanderers healing animals and the like. Their belief system follows the rule of 3 for witchcraft and is very pagan and archaic. Most people think them a little daft.
  
• Barbarians are rare, since most people who can be taught to fight are picked up by the Baron and become real Warriors (some, rarely, make knights). And there is no part of the kingdom not under a barony (With one or two unique exceptions run by mad spellcasters).
  
• Sorcerers are feared, pitied, despised and hated universally. They're born with magic and it manifests itself no matter what they want. They don't understand it, no one can teach them it, and they're generally screwed. (There are no noble sorcerers. They have means of weeding said children out of the gene pool and killing them.)
  
• Bards are common, bards casting spells almost unheard of. No bard knows they can do this, and can only learn it from another bard who has done it and, for some unknown reason, is actually willing to teach it. It's not likely.
  
• No clerics. Ditto with Paladins. (While the occassional cleric does exist, there have never been paladins in this world. Yet.)

And that is basically that. Trade is almost universally barter, since the gold and silver mines of the kingdom are pretty much exhausted.

A few other things:
There is no battle between Good and Evil happening. There won't be one. (The characters are, of course, free to decide they are on the side of Good in a battle, but it is more a case of Us vs Them than Good vs Evil.) The PCs are adventurers. Not heroes. They're just people.
There are some Monsters in underground areas, but they're rare and largely myth. Characters may have heard of some, but you don't know any facts about them, just legends.
The setting is not the middle ages. The cities are more renaissance than anything else, and the nobility are searved by lite-rail trains that fly over the ecity and are build and designed by a reclusive oder of techo-mages that few know about. (And no, a PC can't be one.) This being said, outside of the cities the technology level is basically the middle ages since that is what works. Farming is farming, as far as the farmer is concerned, and no fancy machines will do it better than a man and his ox.

Finally, few people travel. They don't have reason to. So the cities are largely built up to almost mythical status by those living outside them.
(Ideally, no PC will be from one of the cities, to make them more foreign.)
And that's all for now :)

New D&D Game

Blame Keith. Blame him a lot. And me, too, cuz I said I'd likely never run D&D again and here we are again and, well, damn it. This time, though, instead of going all-out cliche, or grumbling about the POS that is D&D system-wise, I am endevouring to make it's weaknesses (of which there are many) work with me for a game.

Game time: 11am - 2pm PST, Wednesday-Friday.
This may change, in terms of days, but that's the basic time for the game. So far, Keith and Sintaqx are able to make the time. (Brings back many old memories, too :p)

The setting is Carolis, a kingdom ruled by a powerful king, and an academy of mages who run most of the show behind the scene, as it were. Magic is very uncommon, and magical items almost unknown. Common people (and anyone who is not a wizard) know zilch about magic aside from terror and fear and horrible rumours.

An actual campaign idea will be developed depending on what the players want to play characer-wise, and the kind of game they'd like to play plot-wise.

A few caveats:
PCs will begin the game no higher than level 4 no matter what type of game it turns out to be.
There are no PC clerics. (This can be negotiagted, if someone really, really, really wants to play one.)
There are no non-human PCs. (Unlesss someone wants to deal with *serious* levels of racism and die very quickly.)
The rules are guidelines. The point of the game is to role-play, not roll-play.
In line with that, if you have a PC idea that isn't "allowed" by the rules, it may be allowed anyway. Too often the game rules, in telling you what you can do, do a damn good job of saying what you can't, or making the idea in your head for your PC not possible. I never like that, so I have no problem with fudging things.
Alignments will not exist. Spells used to detect such will only get the current rough idea of the PC, given current actions etc. (So, a pc killing a noble who is planning to murder people is good, but evil to the NPC cleric who thinks they just butchered someone, for example).
I don't use stuff like encumbrance, you don't need to either. (If things get silly, I'll let you know.) Speaking of rules, I'm not big into knowing each rule, and using it. If you recall someone, use it. Otherwise we wing it. The story being told is more important than the system we use to frame it.
Character backgrounds ARE MANDATORY. (Depending on how the game begins the PCs may be required to include some details for the GM to NPC friends and family.)

If, all this having been said, you want to play, reply here or memo/talk to Alcar.

Sparkie thanks you, because your PCs will all die horrible deaths.

Intro to a game idea...

It used to be the World Trade center, before it became a political message of hate.
There is now an opaque circular building that literally reaches into the clouds where it once stood.
The city used to be called New York, before they came.
Now, we call it Dino-1.

We call them Saurians - we had no notion of their true name, nor anything else about them when they first came. The first wave captured our world, 10 short months ago. Small creatures, 2' high at best, armed with strange weapons and forcefields. Hundreds, thoustands of them, swarming into every city. Within days, it was over. The larger ones - the dinosaurs of our stories - that came down from the heavens in living spaceships, were almost a relief, a boost to our broken egos at having lost a war against such a small foe.

The Home, as they called it, was built in a hour. They did know what what the WTC had meant, hadn't cared that the Statue of Liberty was famous: they came to conquer, not to care. Why here? Why now? We may never know. Helpless before their technology and resources, the last scientists developed an AI, Magi, and fed it all the secret and terrible things governments had kept hidden, for greed and the common good.

Before they died and it was put off-line, Magi sent out a virus, a virus that struck random people and changed them, into something far more than human. Heroes, perhaps. The last hope of mankind, marked by the last of the Wise, and hunted by the dinosaurs who will not let anything interfere with their plans.

"Beholding Love"

Just a nice sonnet I did up a few days back on very little sleep. It's a love poem. Sort of.

"O love, last night outside your home I stood
Waiting for you to come and meet with me
"I will not hide from love," I said: I wooed
You to come so we could togther be.
O love, that love could enter your bright eyes
And make you see me as I truly am!
Our love 'twill be doomed if the romance dies
And both our families will call it a sham.
Understand I am opening my heart,
And that I wait alone for you outside
Who has been hurt before but shall not part!
Even tho you shook your eyes I shall bide.
O! my Love! with tears unshed my eyes blur
I am not stalking you, my beholder."

XP given out for UA

EXP has been given out up to session 5.0.

If you didn't get it via memo, it's cuz esper was being a pain in the peer. If so, msg me for it.

We need more games

Sort of says it all. Currently, we just have me and Chaos running games. Lets gets more. We have enough people, and it's fun, and we used to run a lot more games. So, if you want to run a game in #game1, let an OP know. (Or, if you are an OP, run something :p).

As long as the game doesn't conflict with another in the title, it's fine. Any system, etc. is allowed. OPs are given to whomever runs the game for the duration of the game, so they can kick people annoying them out, and the like.

So if you want to .... feel free :) You'll even get a nice audience! And, uhm, mention in the topic. And, possibly, quotes.

And, as everyone knows, it's all about getting quotes.

Some Thoughts

Superheroes I
The next superhero game I do will use Amber as a system, because it's simple, easy, and makes sense. PCs'd likely be a low build and I am tempted to try the whole "world of superhumans you have to police" method. It'd be fun, and dangerous.

Superheroes II

The other option would be to have PCs born/come into strange abilities, and run it more like "So, you can do things no one else can ... what do you do?" rather than the normal superhero-comics idea game. And, of course, have a larger threat exist for the PCs to have to defeat, perhaps the very source of their powers. In this idea, superhumans beside the pcs would be very rare, if they existed at all.

Continuum
Continuum is a simple system game designed to be played at any time and with no regard to narrative coherence or anything else. Should be quite interesting, to say nothing of insane.

Weird Writing Idea...

What if a group of us all took a story. What story. Dunno. Something basic, like "Harry and Suzie fight, and she leaves him" and see how differtly we write/resolve the same idea. I think it could be fun.

New UA Players?

Well, I have no idea how many players UA curently has. Caltak and Chaos are at every session (barring Chaos's computer dying and stuff), fsz said he'd make the one before last, but RL got him. I have no clue where JacobRiis is ... WarezBert made one session (late), showed late for another (and wasn't worked in at the time) and hasn't been back, far as I know. Bali, well, hasn't shown at all, but I kinda half expected that :) Gemm missed the last, but as far as I know he's still in.
Alicia is making a PC, last I heard.

So, barring the return of players missing due to the evil known as RL (I'm giving them until the end of this month to show, otherwise their PC will be worked out of the game, or at least put to the side in a minor-NPC fashion until they return), there may be openings!

So if anyone knows anyone who'd like to play a weird rules light modern horror game, let 'em know :)

Proposed UA Idea

While this idea runs counter to horror games in general, given the fact that, minorly, a certain dice bot has a tendency to be a B-I-T-C-H and, majorly, it gives PCs a slight edge, I'm considering adding something akin to plot points.

The basic idea is that if you do something that a) advances the plot and b) is in character and c) does not benefit your PC (GM discretion on all of those), you get a Plot Point. This can be used during the game to give a +/-30 Shift to a roll for a PC or, if the GM is feeling particularly benevolent, an automatic success of whatever is rolled.

In game terms, it's the cosmos thanking you for doing specific things. The PC will just feel ... well, nothing most likely, but what they try, what they need to happen, may happen. (Mostly, this would be if the PC is doing whatever he is doing to help others, or to further whatever caused the PC to be given the Plot Point in the first place.)

It's not really "horror" like, but let's face it: if this was a horror movie, Hugh would be dead via boy #1 already :) But PCs are the stars of their own story, and this will reflect that in a very minor idea.

N.B. The only PC action so far worthy of one would be Hugh helping the insanse sociopath boy #1 :p (How George treats his brother could be another, later on.) So they aren't easy to get, and shouldn't be a goal.

Any thoughts on the idea? I'm ambivalent myself, but thought I'd toss it out.

Where UA is going....

Okay, oocly ....

The Boy #1 & 2 subplot that spun out of control should come to a sort of hiatus soon. Mostly because boy #1 is far too fun and his shawdow-thing "friends" too, but he's also rather scarily dangerous, even alone.

The crow girl plot that, well, created itself is just ... odd.

Dawson (hopefully) will find out about the mansion some more.

Billy will continue his quest for his own death, sort of.

George's family will get SERIOUSLY weird for him. It says a lot that the weirdest plots are planned for what is basically the most "normal" of the PCs.

Mac should have some interesting run-ins with ghosts, and his family :)

And, of course, Hugh mght find sokme aliens. And about his past.

Meta-plot wise, a few plots have begun to take shape, tho the PCs don't hang out much so information is scattered all over the place, like Jane having seen aliens and Hugh knowing who did the stuff to the high school walls. (Tho I'm not sure PC or Player know that yet :)).

What I want to know is where players want their PCs to go .. what kind of plots you want, what kind of threats. Do you want relationships with Signifigant Others, PC or NPC? Research out evils and deal with them? Actually have the PCs work together and stuff, or whatever.

Toss comments in here, channel, and msg.

If you don't like certain plots, or the way some things are going, or thinkg your PC or certain NPC aren't getting enough (or too much) air time, let me know. And no, Jillian won't get less :p

Is d20 a good thing?

Part of an interview with Mark C. MacKinnon, creator of tghe Tri Stat DX and the BESM DXX systems, found here.

Marx Pyle: What do you think of d20 and the OGL? Do you think it has been a good thing for role playing games?

Mark C. MacKinnon: I think that the collective gamer mentality that goes along with the propagation of the d20 System has set role-playing back many years. I know, I know -- it's odd hearing a publisher of successful d20 products saying such a thing. I think the d20 core has far too many details and strategy-game components to it, which de-emphasises the "role-playing of a character" and encourages the "gaming of a character." I'm a role-player, and not a gamer, which is why I see it that way.

The OGL, on the other hand, is a great idea that isn't working. The problem is that nearly every game designer thinks that they can design stuff better than other people. This is why we have multiple versions of the same d20 products. Other than compilation books (complete feats, complete spells, etc.), publishers aren't using each other's open content enough in their works. In addition to creative designers, a lot of this has to do with obscure or crippled OGC declarations and inability to easily access OGC.

UA Monday ...

Shall be on. I *hope* fsz or jacobriis make it, but the plot can go ahead without their pcs involvement. (At least until Monday, in game, which'd be next session [June 7th] and when I'd NPC them a bit, if it becomes necessary).
Due to schedule issues betwixt me and Caltak, Hughs meeting with the wiccans will be RPed monday, before the ua session itself begins (due to plot stuff), so people who want to play, or see a session in progress first (like Alicia) can see that before the real session.

BESM OFF

To quote:

"Chaos' computer broke, he is using his Mom's and will not be able to run for a while."

So the game shall be off until someone donates monies to Chaos for a new power cord, or something.

Madness eats away

as if it has far to go at all. Those outside the asylums, we just hide our madness better, behind the lies and evasions of the reality we only see in the places between waking and sleeping when the veils surrender themselves to our fantasies and what we imagine is truer than we'll ever know. The words are there, grasping as tin-man strws as we struggle to explain away the unexplainable, to take the Mystery and shove it away in some small, dank room where we let academics bleed it dry, for there is no subject thet cannot make boring, given enough time. In the painful light of sobriety we see ourselves as what we really are and recoil backwards, the hopes strewn behind us like discarded candy wrappers glittering with their false promises as we wait for the Divine to come down to us, and areest us for littering. For thine is the kingdom, or so they say.
They should know better. The rends in the world bleed as points impact together, forming shapes unseen by the naked reye but visible to the discerning stare that has drawn outside the lines on a connect the dots and formed something wrondrous, and new. But they only see the blood, and the sweat, and the tears that stain the canvas with a silent sorrow that can never be voiced, a pain that cuts into the heart and makes you wonder if the blurry tear-stained world flecked with starlight seen from glasses is the light of a soul if we cut it, if all the stars are nothong more than places we've bled, wounds we have never mended.
We wash away our sorrows, bathing in the blood of innocents, but sooner or later trecords fiding the missing bodies. it's so easy, with the dead childen. But it's the unborn who are pure. The blood of the fetus is life. This is something you know, though no one has told you it.
Real truths cannot be taught, can only be experienced. That's what death is for. A new stage, a new chapter, a new milestone to be a millstone and slowly grind us down. Far bewtter is the Near Death Experience, our Birth revisited in a white light, and the voice of Heaven our mother. The snake eats its tail, the circle closes, but even the gordian knot unravels in the end.

The Whiskey, the Tango, the Foxtrot

Monday, May 24th 2004 11:37 PM Eastern Standard Time: Unkown Armies starts with Caltak and Alcar. Shortly thereafter Chaos`^ joins in the festivities.

Tuesday, May 25th 2004 5:35 AM Eastern Standard Time Hour Six of Game: Game has run smoothly up to this point. Chaos`^ gets the bright freaking idea to go untill 5:37 PM to break the record for longest game in #game1. Alcar, the smartest one of us all, actually agrees to go with it. Caltak is mysteriously quiet about the subject.

Tuesday, May 25th 2004 6:23 AM Eastern Standard Time Hour Seven of Game: Caltak mysteriously disapears, Alcar suggests he fell asleep. Chaos`^ finds it funny that Caltak could have keyboard marks on his face, Alcar disagrees.

Tuesday, May 25th 2004 8:40 AM Eastern Standard Time Hour Nine of Game: Chaos`^ and Alcar begin to question the wisdom of this descision. Alcar begins to tire.

Tuesday, May 25th 2004 9:05 AM Eastern Standard Time Hour Ten of Game: Alcar begins to talk in rhyme through his NPC's. Chaos tries to sex up a random NPC. James Bond is called a turd.
-----9:15 AM Chaos Questions Alcar's Sanity. Chaos goes balistic about alcar's Rhymes, alcar finds it funny, Chaos too tired to find it anything.
-----9:29 AM Alcar does Haiku; makes referances to Purple Haze, chaos thinks, chaos writes poem about alcohol, chaos thinks.
-----9:33 Alcar considers a career in prose. Chaos disagrees.

Tuesday, May 25th 2004 10:05 screw time zone Hour Eleven of Game: Chaos takes shower to clear brain. Chaos gets violent when he has no sleep, he also suspects he might be a violent drunk. Alcar looks up songs about christmas and satan. Alcar is crazy. Alcar is wussing out and calls it quits early. Game lasts Eleven hours, We lost one man along the way, he was a brave soul... A hero... and probably asleep right now... The asshole...

Shrek Rocks

Sort of says it all, really.

UA Weirdness and Game Progress

Well, since there is no real place in the UA site for Gm style stuff, this'll have to do. We've done 3 session so far, so a brief summing up ....

George and Mac are doing well, as more low-key PCs, weirdness wise.
Dawson is well on his way to weird, along with Billy.
Hugh was pretty much there from the get-go.

Plot wise we have lots of plots running around, a few of which have been caused, prevented, or happened due to lack of sleep on the GMs part (i.e. the Crow Girl). Millhaven still doesn't feel "real" yet - any ideas on what would make it feel that way are welcome. (As we only have 4 hours for some players, giving each NPC a whole personality quirks, write up and whatnot would take up too much game time.)

So far the game hasn't really pushed any boundaries, either for horror or weird (for me, at any rate), but Boy #1 & #2 are getting there, and some of the cults will be downright insane, so all may be well. Or at least entertaining.

As always, let me know if idead, criticisms, complaints and the like you have.... and where you want the game, and your PC, to go.

UA Note For Players

Next session (#4) will be on the 31st of May at 10pm EST. It will begin with Sunday morning, so PCs still on Saturday need to do in-between sessions to get to Sunday before then, or we do a really quick summary of their Saturday night in game just before the session.

Open Comment Forum (and YAY!)

New look, and done.

Finally.

Okay, comments for previous posts won't work, but now the comments are all in-house (i.e. on blogger), so no timeouts when looking at them. If you want to comment on old posts, do it in here :p

If you want to become a member of the blog, talk to Alcar.

LOLAD NOVEL

Wow, Blogger has changed the look and feel alot. Nice

Anywho, the lolad novel IS starting (12 pages into it, but 3 don't count). If anyone wants copies as it's being done (likely chapter by chapter basis), drop me a line. And and all criticisms welcomed and encouraged.

Thanks.

Ios Plots That Never Did Happen

Since the game is, basically, over, here's what was plotted for the rest of it.

Part 1 was to end with the PCs either saving Quan or blowing it up. Possible both, depending on how the confrontation with the Unnamed went.
Part 2 was going to be the army from the southern continent (the Unnameds) invading, Lirks possible death, and the PCs rallying the forces of light (or something) to deal with said army.
Part 3 was going to be the showdown w/ the Shadow King in the swamp, leading to the PCs (hopefully) learning her name, and saying it, thus killing her. And ending the epic.

PC wise,

Theliar was, of course, a god of healing. Tamil was Kali, pretty much. The Unnamed and the Goddess sort of went too far there. Or were being manipulated by the gods above them.
Ryu's blod could open doors to the House since he wasn't from the world. He could also open any door (including those of time). Lisha was some weird triple agent for the Invisible College, Shadow King & The Higher Gods.
Lia was a servant of said higher gods, marked by them with power. (LIsha had been, but refused it.) The 5 black elves were after Lisha, and she fled the barony. The SK put a duplicate of her in place, the one that "died". Since Kent wasn't able to show after, nothing became of said plot.
Darren was going to learn he was a dragon, more or less, from the gnome who became one after the other dragon died. (This would have involved said gnome being killed in order for Darien to change.) Oh, and he was really a servant of the shadow king, but didn't know that.
Ghenn was the avatar/incarnation of the goddess ofg darkness, and had been crwated 2 yearsd ago, complete with memories of his past. As a thief, he'd outlived most of the other avatars.
Anias mother (a really nasty demon from the House) was going to show up to try and corrupt her daughter at the urgings of the Unnamed in order to weaken the God.
Orgg was a king, and needed to recover items etc. I figured he had enough on his hands with Lirk, assassins, and a sleeping queen from the fallen empire which was going to rise and she know he was going to be her husband and seek him out.

There were other odd plots, but that was the basic plan. The Unnamed, of coufrse, couldn't be killed, but COULD be reasoned with, somewhat, by his ex-wife whom Theliar had changed from a goddesss of love into one of forgiveness. The Sk could only be destroyed.

So there you have it. The projected Ios campaign stuff.

Ah, superhumans....

Yep. Ye Olde Topic. I got to thinking today while wandering downtown about things that bug me, things I wished were different. For example: superheroes are a bad thing. Most super games make them intrinsically part of the setting - the whole capes, flying people all accepted by the public as normal, and the underwear on the outside of pants issue. The heroes call themselves heroes; the villains do the same (the latter has always baffled me).
So a more serious take would be needed. No tights, no fancy capes (unless you like choking to death in revolving doors), no awed crowds. Just people being people. Hubris tried that, but when the team/hero route too fast, and then kind of imploded in a nicely comics fashion. Aftermath was for a more superhero take on the same setting, and was fun.
What seperates superheroes from other genres and people with powers is the superman idea. The kind of hero who does the good thing because it's the right thing to do. They're needed in a world that needs heroes, that needs people to do what must be done. I think it's necessary, if only to avoid munchkins.
So, a game idea... I was thinking of a world where everyone has/gains superpowers (the notes for it are somewhere on my computer, including pc creation). Instead, do people from another world sent en masse to earth, and try to survive....

I think it could be fun to try, at least. Superhumans, yes. But not heroes, or villains. Just aliens, trying to survive ina foreign world and given the choice of hero or monster....

Paranoia April 26th

what the topic says :)

I hope to run a quick 2-4 hour session starting at 10pm EST (Can start eariler if people want). If you'd like to play, yet me know.
If you know nothing about paranoia, see this page for information. We'll be using 2nd edition rules. Sparkie can make apc if you type !paranoia and a sheet can be found here. If you need help making a PC, talk to Alcar.

Remember: Failure to join this game is treason!

D&D (3e) game May 2nd

Yes, Alcar shall run a D&D session. The Squirrel Game. It's nicely infamous. Ask Sintaqx if you want details. It was the first game I ran online, on may 1st 1999. So in honour of Game1 turning 6, I shall run it again.

hmmm... I wonder if the squirrels know that The first step in making friends is* not to eat people* .

PCs must be level 1, standard races and classes unless the player asks for something else nicely.
Plot wise, you're all on your way to meet a caravan at a village through the woods. Nice and simple.

Quote: * Alaya wonders if a carniverous flying squirrel would make a good familiar

Game: The Squirrel Game
Time: Sunday May 1st, 10pm EST
PC level: 1 (D&D 3e. None of that 3.5 crap)
DM: Alcar
Dicebot: Sparkie
Players: The more the merrier.

UA

Hrm, last post died. Okay, then..... pre sessions so didn't work out for later this week. RL sucks. That aside, I *may* be willing to do one or two prior to the game Monday (1-2 hrs long). The game begins at 10pm EST on Monday. If you want a rules overview, how and when to roll dice, how madness works etc. show up an hour early.

Players include: Baliadoc (I think?), Caltak, FirestormZero, Gemm, JacobRiis & WarezBert. No other players will be added. If some of this list cannnot make it, I may be willing to add another player or two in. (Ideally, I'd like 4-5 players showing up each session.)

Remember: It's not the things we don't know that we should fear, but the things we know. The known threat is far more dangerous than the unknown one.

Pre-Session Times

For those who have NOT had pre-sessions for UA, book times.

I can do 1 to 6 pm EST Friday if all goes well, and the same Saturday. I should be able to do all day Sunday unless RL stuff comes up. Monday, of course, will be the first session.

It's going to involve a party at Dawsons house on the 29th of April (Game time), a friday night. All PCs should be there, for some reason or another. (It's got a really good library for the shy and sociallly challlenged PCs (and NPCs)), a pool, free food and drinks and a first-time opening of the Estate to outsiders.

UA Presessions

As UA shall begin April 19th, pre-sessions before then are possible. Book a date and time with the GM (That'd be me :p) and we'll work for sometHing out. Shall only do 1 player at a time, for maximum results from said session.
If you have an idea for a specific event or meeting with an NPC or something you'd like it to cover, feel free to suggest it.

Sara!

has her own sheet! Isn't that neat! Oh, look, Mac! I made a rhyme! If I did it all the time could we have sex?!

Note For UA Players

Faces in the Dark is going to be an Unknown Armies campaign, which you already know. (Or at least I most sincerely hope you do and haven't been trying to figure out if Body 50 is figured out by adding your Str and Con together, but I digress.) As such, it's a horror game. It's a world where all your certainties and acceptied ideas of how the world works are, at best, lies. Religion, science, new age, old age: it doesn't matter.

As a horror game, it's about what happens when you realize "this is my fault. I ended up here because of what I did.". It's also going to contain dark themes, often adult ones. If you nwant to bow out after a few sessions, do so. Far better than playing a game you feel uncomfortable playing.
This isn't to say there won't be humour (I doubt I could run a game without humour), just that the moments of laughter will most likely be relief and release from the wider world the PCs slolwly begin to learn about, the one tha invariably drives people more than a little mad.

The most important thing to keep in mind is that we're here to tell a story. Dice will be used for effect, or whe the outcome of a situation is in doubt, but rarely besides then. The story is also a group effort, and about the group. Which means that the PCs shall work together. How? Why? It's up to you to figure out how your PC gets into plots, or subplots, or what have you.

And above all else, we're here to have fun. With luck, the town shall even survive it :)

UA Ready....

well, at least I think so. Got umpteen NPCs done, at least.

Will be altering the map a bit, labelling police, fire etc. on it. And adding PC homes, if players want.

Just need to write some canned text for places and a few more plots down on paper...

So those that need to finish or make PCs (you know what - err, who - you are, try and get them in next week)

New LOLAD Story

Wrote a new one. Well, more accurately, finished the 1st one I began. It involves rabbits, central park, vampires, and humans. More or less.

Let me know if you'd like to be emailed a copy.

UA Players

Currently, we have FSZ ansd Caltak with finished PCs.
Keith and Baliadoc with ideas, unfinished PCs.
And Gemm interested in joining.

There's opening for 1 more player, max.

And the site is up at #game1.

UA Snippet

Just one of those weird ideas... and, hey, you might meet this person :)

Lines (Mar 2004)

There's always a point where I go too far. I can feel it coming, when my fist impacts your face like putty, when the dog stops whining, when the other people stares at me in shock, trying to disbelieve what I've done. I can feel the lines. Right and wrong, good and evil, smart and stupid, pleasure and pain - all of them, and more besides. Some things don't even seem to have lines, but there are boundaries even there. Sanity and insanity, reason and unreason, love and hate.
It started when I pissed in the pool, when I was six. We'd been told not to, but I did it anyway. Everyone saw. Everyone left the pool, and my mother screamed at me. Perhaps it was then. Or when I was twelve, and masturbated in front of the class for show and tell. Or when I was ten, and ate a handful of live bugs just to prove I could. I was fourteen when I first cut myself. A knife, red hot. My own personal tattoo, on my arm.
Mom made me wear long sleeves. She took me to a shrink.
All I learned from her was that it's the people who think they're in charge who are more messed up than anyone else. They've seen real power, some of them. And they turn their backs on it. She told me she'd done crazy things when she was young, to get attention. But it's not about attention. It's about Power.
Real power lies in going too far, in going where other people won't, saying what they won't say, doing what they're too afraid to do. She'd had sex with her father, and her brother, and let her mother know. She'd had power, and she ran away from it.
It's what the shrinks do. Them, and cops, and anyone else. Authority exists to take away power by giving them power. Only those who want to abuse it last in it, because it feeds them. So they make laws, and lines, and signs. And those with real power cross them.
Sometimes it's a step. Sometimes it's more. Sometimes you get gunned down by fully automatic weapons in front of kids at a playground. Sometimes you start screaming one day and never quite stop. It's about pushing things, and seeing if they push back. Bending them. Breaking them. Watching things just give way under your word or action.
I'm not sure where it will end. I could cut my fingers off, or my ears. Or cut into my face and let everyone see what we all look like inside. Get a sex-change operation, and then a change back. I don't know. I don't know how far I can push the boundary before it tears. The light the religious freaks speak of when they die; that's one. But I want to do it and live to shove that into the faces of all the cowards who hide behind laws, and order, and normal.
I want them to see the prisons they've built for themselves, and hear the sound as the walls come tumbling down.
I want to go beyond all boundaries, to the places where power has no meaning, and be free.
I want to go beyond my freedom.
I want to go too far, and never stop.
And I want you to come with me, to see what I can show you. It's not hard. We can screw in public, to start. A threesome, if we can get one. Anymore and we'd be called a cult, or something. No. We just need to journey, and let everyone else be voyeurs.
Trust me. It's like sex, but it goes on forever.
Let me take you to real power, beyond the boundaries.
All we need is laughter, and love, and time, and perversity.
Come with me and go too far.
Do it. I dare you. Step over a line, and live.

UA Update

The game is being set in the small town of Millhaven, Neb.

The PCs are students at Centennial High, the local High School.
Currently we have Keith (PC unnamed) the groundskeeper/janitor
Caltak, playing Hugh the antisocial goth
Bali, who may be playing a military brat
An NPC named Alexander, just a normal kid.

UA CAMPAIGN

Time: Mondays, 10pm EST (1st and 3rd of each month). I'd like to do a planning session this monday (the 22nd) at 8pm EST. It'll go until 10, when Aftermath'll run. If you can't make it but would like to play get ahold of me with character ideas etc. Sunday. Thanks.

This is going to be a new campaign. Characters from previous ones CAN be used (and are more than welcome :)). What I need from all of you is:
1) Who wants to play? Why?
2) What KIND of game do you want? Lots of horror? Lots of tragedy? Lots of magick?
3) What kind of setting you want.. large city? Small town? Trailer park in the far end of nowhere?
4) General Brainstorming.

Why am I here? says the PC....

Just some thoughts on why characters get involved in games, and with other PCs, especially in existing campaigns. I for one tend to suck at introducing new PCs into games, and (hopefully) will remedy this somewhat in lolad and amber. Then I got to thinking about the entire player/GM relationship ....

The GM can put out the Plot Hook, and the PC not follow. Hell, it happens. A lot of the time. Or sometimes they see the Plot, and don't go for it, for whatever reason. What then? Well, says I, screw them. No, seriously. (But not literally.) Kill the PC off, or something. Tell the player to make a new one. Of course, this isn't always sensible or viable, but sometimes it has to be done.

The Plot is there for a reason, generally. Playing in RPGs is not like the movies, where you go to watch the scenes, and eat popcorn. Players need to WORK to get themselves into the plot, and stay with the others. The GM should guide them along, give them hints and ideas, but is not obliged to force feed them to the party. If the PC can't/doesn't work with the others, the PC won't be in the game. At least, that's my way of looking at things.

There are exceptions of course (see Vora :p) but in general GMs have enough to do without having to fit people into the plot like jigsaw puzzles. Want your PC to be a main character and do kewl stuff? Then get into the game and interact. It's not a movie, it's a joint effort and you'll only get out of it what you put into it.....

Violence in RPGs....

Just some thoughts....

Violence isn't bad. RPGs are about FUN, primarily, and getting to do violence on others tends to be part of it. The problem I tend to have is HOW it's worked out ...

The hack'n'slash/D&D mentality: This is basically the mentality of teen novels. No adults, and you have to solve the problems because they're not there to do it. It can quickly get out of hand as a result (hend the hack'n'slash reputation), but the idea that It's Up To Us is a very old old, and extremely durable meme. Those who can do something are helpless and it's up to the New Generation to save the world/day/whatever.
But when you get rid of authority figures, you run into lots of problems. Mostly that of PCs doing whatever they like since there's no laws etc. stopping them. (I say bandit, you say hero....)

The "Tree hugger" mentality: These RPGs stress that violence is NOT a good thing and combat isn't something ever entered into lightly. They're largely modern games, and generally the moment someone uses guns you can kiss your PC goodbye.

But regardless of the game, the key seems to be violence being done OUTSIDE the law. The PCs are rarely FBI agents, or city guards, or law-makers. They're almost lnvariably roges, adventurers, hunters after insane evil cultists ....

So, instead of harping about it being good or bad in a game, try one with the PCs as law enforcers and see what happens. Hollywood does it. No matter how much blood and gore is involved and how maverick they are, the good guys are almost always police officers and the like....

And Behind Door #2...

After Aftermath ends (Which, hopefully, should be soon, provided it plays...) the schedule for Monday will be as follows:

Week 1, 3: Unknown Armies, 10pm EST
Week 4: Paranoia, 10pm EST (Week 2 is possible as well, but not until 12:30 AM EST)
Month with a week 5 Monday can be either one, or UH or LOLAD depending on people.

Is Ios Over?

Since it's been asked ..... technically, no. But I can't get Saturdays off, Sundays are always iffy for me (and I'd like a night free of sutff :), and Monday and Tuesday are both taken up with games.

It WAS going to end in 2 sessions anyway, at least the first Book, coinciding with the saving or destroying of Quan and the loss to of temporary setback of the Unnamed and the House.
Book2 was going to be about the invasion from the South and the threat of the Shadow King in the rest of the world. (It had been my hope the PCs would split up, with Ryu doing a whole Frodo thing. :)
Book 3 was going to be a confrontation with the Shadow King, one that (unlike dealing with the Unnamed) PCs actually standed a good chance of winning, if they made it that far and had learned certain things about the SK and some of the PCs (and Lisha, possibly one of the first quadruple agents in the history of espionage :p)

However, after 1 was over, I was basically going to ask if people wanted to continue or not. It *can* still be continued at some date, but currently is on hiatus. If players say "no, we don't want to continue" then I can tell you some of the evil plots that could have been.

What makes someone a superhero?

Currently writing about that for a game idea. People like, oh, that Millenium fellow, aren't superheroes. You can have powers, gifts, etc. and still not be a superhero. Why? What makes one person a superhero and the other just some bloke with a neat trick?

Any answers appreciated :)

Paranoia!

ATTENTION CITIZENS:

Paranoia back!

Friend Computer demands you do not buy it! Knowing the rules is treason. Thank you for your cooperation.

WITH GREAT POWER ...

Comes this rambling.

Yes, it is I, Alcar, on the ye olde topic of super heroes and rpgs. Today I am going to begin with the evil known as tone and go from there. By tone I mean: the comics age a story is set in. The Golden Age (Superman's debut - the end of WWII) was the age of the classical super heroes fighting evil and injustice with their titanic powers. For example. Superman once brought Stalin and Hitler to the UN in some pre-WWII comics. The supervillain only showed up rather late. The Silver Age (aka the marvel age) changed heroes, and made them human, gave them flaws, but still saw them fighting the Good Fight (very few of them ever killed, and fewer died). After this (1970 ish), things get hazy. You get the Bronze Age (roughly the death of Gwen Stacey, introduction of the Wolverine type etc.) that lasts until the early 80s, where you get Watchmen and the Dark Knight Returns, which basically deconstruct (or, perhaps, respect) the superhero and examine it in rather gritty, nasty terms. The result of THAT was the 80s Angst Shinola with lots of whining, anti-heroes etc.. The 90s were mostly flashy, image-driven comics with the substance of tissue paper as far as the super hero genre went. Then you get Astro City that sets super heroes in the real world, but keeps them heroic.
So, to sum up:
Golden Age - four-colour, Fight For Truth, Justice, And the American Way.
Silver Age - Heroes become Real People With Real Problems, but still do the above. (Some of that can be attributed to the comics code authority, iirc. Golden age heroes would incinerate nazi spies without a twinge of remorse. The silver age was filed with codes against taking life.)
Bronze Age - Angst Angst Angst, anti-heroes, angst, wolverine clones abound. Take self way too seriously.
The 90s - All Style, no Substance. (Incinerate innocent bystanders without remorse.)

What's this have to do with super hero games? Why, everything. For better or worse, most games are set to work in one (or more) periods of comic history. The key point in these games is hero. The characters are above the common man, and superior to them. Sometimes this is because they do the Right Thing, othertimes it is because they do the Right Thing in spite of Being Hated. (For example, a group of heroes sworn to protect the people who hate them. They are known as homo stupido.)

The problem inherent in super heroes as RPGs seems, to me, is both a question of tone and playability. Tone works if the players and GM understand what kind of game is being run. Games can have super-powered types and not be superhero games quite easily (i.e. the TV show Millenium): it's more a question of the how and why the powers are used. The super hero is above everyone else, superior to them, whereas someone with a cool trick may not be. Their powers are greater, and so too are their faults.

With that out of the way, the playability issue comes into games. One, no one is going to play Superman. For a few reasons. The biggest is that, frankly, who would want to? He's bland, and boring. The other is that he is way too powerful for a game to really be fun (Though a Smallville-style variant could work). This presents a problem: How can a game account for heroes that range from Batman the normal to Iron Man in armour to Superman, except to put them together, and then expect it to work. IMO, it can't.

So a superhero game needs to define the limitations it's putting on powers, but also keep in mind that they need to remain superhuman and yet, after all is dead and done, be able to be challenged by threats. But some players take offence to the idea of the PCs having limits, even of what powers they can acquire. To each his own, but no game has worked that can incorporate all the power levels to my knowledge. It simply doesn't work for starting characters.

So we need a focus in tone (and the next time I pick up a Dystopian America setting I may scream), power levels, and finally theme. Do you make a character first and build powers after, or powers and then character? Do they have family? Secret Identities? Work for governments? Take down dictators? Live in the "real" world? All these need to be addressed, if only from a setting perspective. What kind of weaknesses are allowed? phobias? Do we want heroes, or basketcases? How do you ensure the characters DO heroic things? And, most importantly, if you want to use comic-book style, how do you prevent them from dying?

I could go on. For various reasons the superhero RPG is probably the hardest to create (it's not that big for that reason more than most others, I think), and the problem of the powers is one not likely to be resolved in most games, not if they want a rules-light system .... so, any ideas? Thoughts? I am half-tempted to look on this as a challenge and try to design a workable rules light superhero system....

DELETIONS

The LOLAD shorts have been taken down because posting to blog can be considered publishing and I plan to submit one in to a local short story contest next month so...

If anyone wants to read 'em as and when they're written, I can dcc or email them.

N.B. The most recent one was the story of the angel.

Cthulhu And Me ..... a story.

Cthulhu And Me (Feb 2004)

This is all Kuvinera's fault. I got the idea from some Game1 stuff:

<Chaos`^> <Aiko> "You think it's dumb enough to let you attack it when it's not ready? It's already snuck up on us twice!"
<Jerome> "Excuse me? You flushed tentacles down a toilet. I hardly call that sneaking up. Now, sticking itself yup you wne you're going for a crap, *that* would be sneaking up."
<Jerome> (( and please, don't take that as a suggestion Chaos :p ))
<Roy`> ((Indeed.))
<Chaos`^> (( SHouldn't have said it!! ))
* Chaos`^ notes that the next time jerome takes a crap...
<Jerome> (( Tho it would be a nicely twisted reason to become a cultist. "Well, I was minding my own business whe Greater cthulhu came into my *giggles* life and it felt sooo good..." ))

And then said I wanted to write a CoC story, but shouldn't and she MADE ME!

<Kuvinera> WRIIIIIIITE
<aslhk> alcar: it's too late now =P
<Kuvinera> or god will kill the leaping kitten!
<Kuvinera> it's a GREAT idea
<Kuvinera> and you'll catch ALL the pretty girls' attention ;)
<aslhk> lol
<aslhk> yes, alcar!
<aslhk> the pretty girls will all flock to you! =P
<alcar> lol!
<alcar> Good reason not to :)
* alcar gives in and begins to write.

So this is ALLL HER FAULT! :)

From the private journals of Eugene Stafro, confiscated by the police after his suicide in cells.

I was always scared of monsters as a child. And the dark. All kids are, to some extent. They see what's really there, a shrink told me once, when dad took me to one years ago. He was lying. No one sees the world as it really is. We can't. We just can't. But kids know the world is wrong, they know the song we've begun seeing, dancing to the unseen piper - O Nyarlathotep, Azathoth! We still remember, you who dwell, in this far land above the seas, the stars will come right over the seas. A Dagon Hydra ...

O Cthulhu Starbound in terra firmanent trapped, to thee I cry
here all our death-horrors! O look towards me, everdark!

But no matter, no matter. Nothing matters. The sunless seas. The dreams. What does it matter, dreams of Carsoca? Of the name that should not be mentioned? Of the brood of the real mother of us all, Nigguarth? There is so much. So much. But some may read this, some day, before the end times, before the real empire comes, the dominion of the Great Old Ones. And there are no heroes left, no hobbits, no Jedi, to protect us. We are alone. We are nothing.

It began, it began at home. In the bathroom. I was going to the pool, like some call it. Dropping off the Browns. You know? That. And ... it hit me. From below, from far below. The touch of the Master. The tentacle. It wormed it's way up. And up. Great Cthulhu - and me. It was forbidden, that sort of thing. There are laws. But, oh, what was laws to HIM? People say God enters them, but He does not do it directly, not physically, not so wonderfully, so much, so filling, so blissful. Cthulhu came to me and I let him in and it was

words can't convey it. I went to the washroom every hour for days after, hoping he'd enter me again, that we'd know each other. That we'd be together. Then a week later, when I was looking into buying robber hoses, or electric mixers, to stick in and remember him, he came to me. In a dream. I serve him, now. I serve my Master. The Lord of this world. Cthulhu. Great, great cthulhu.

If any read this, I have failed. My true mother commanded me, through Cthulhu my lord. To do things. Dark things, some will say. To bring about His reign, a new age, take down the walls and show people that none of us matter. Nothing matters. Nothing except his
tentacles
so
good
warm
painful
bright
help
me?

LOLAD: The movie!

Yep. It's planned!

Game Time: Whenever people are on. (Amber and UA/Paranoia alternating have claims to time slots as and when they become available.) It's meant to be a light-hearted take on the LoLaD universe and offer some fun with supernaturals and Hollywood.

PCs from previous campaigns are NOT eligible. Relatives of, maybe. It's set in 2004.

For any other info, talk to Alcar.

The game will be considered full when it reaches 6 players with sheets sent in and approved by the GM. A waiting list will be kept if one or two players are unable to make whatever times the games ends up running at a lot and have to drop out.

Really short session summaries may be kept on the site.

Currently it consists of an introduction to the setting and stills from the movie being produced.

N.B.: If you know nothing about LoLaD OR the UA system, talk to #Game1 regulars.

Gaming as Interactive Storytelling

Got to thinking a few minutes ago about the Player/GM relationship in games. Here's some quick thoughts...

- Gaming is interactive. There must be give and take on both sides of the table (GM & Players) for a game to work. In other words: Seeing Hackneyed Plot Quest For Game means following it, by and large, but having a REASON to do so.
- The story the GM has planneed out and wants to tells is never the story that gets told.
- The PCs are the main focus of the story. They are the stars.
(Oh, and they can die. They're not THAT important: the world will survive.)
- Each PC should be useful and get their moment in the spotlight, as it were.
- USE character backgrounds. Demand they have friends, make use of the wider world around them through said friends as allies etc..
- If players ask "is there an XXX?" around they likely have a reason for asking: let there be one. They likely have a really cool in-game idea with it. (Obviously veto things that wouldn't be around at all etc.)
- Make sure the players KNOW about the world and the type of game you plan to one, so they can make characters that suit the setting. The GM should find out what they expect from the game and ensure they know what the GM expects and has planned for as well.
- Find a way toiincorporate player ideas into the game world (unless they're too much trouble or contradictict stuff in it) .... allow them to add to the world as a result.
- And remember that BOTH sides are telling a story .. if the players don't want to go rescue the Golden Acorn and save Squirrelville for Princess Pirahna and decide that they're rather save Molly the Maid from the unwanted attentions of the kings son, Dud, then go for it. The story is about THEM, after all. (And if the game goes too far out of what the GM sets out to tell, scrap it and begin again, if you really want to.)

Any other suggestions?

The Blood Sucking Blues (for LOLAD)

Wrote it today based on some scratched notes from a day or so ago. Somehow, it shall end up in the novel.

The Blood Sucking Blues (Feb 2004)

Sometimes when I'm drinking their blood
I wonder that I was such a dud.
The lady was cute, and polite and nice
But took my life and didn't ask twice.

You'll live forever, she said to me,
But didn't mention holy places ... or UV.
And then there's stakes or being left to burn
Oh, medium rare or well done, who would mourn?

Oh, I got the blood sucking blues, yeah,
I drink their blood and the diiiee, it's true.
Oh, I can't subsist on other animals
Or even vegetarians or small mammals

Have to drink their blood, down my throat like a flood
I'm a vampire baby, can't call anyone bud.
Oh, I'm stuck with the blood sucking blues
And it can only end if I ... lose.

I'd love to drown it all in booze
Got no excuse for my blues
Feel like I was dragged through the mud
But all I want is some more red blood.

Oh, I got the blood sucking blues
I got the blood sucking blues...

A magic system off the top of my head.

A setting where magic is looked upon warily and often the line between fear and reverence is very slim. There are two types of magic, Inborn and Learned (though they'd need better names eventually). Very low magic for the most part, in terms of actual USE of magic.

My other questions shall be answered within aslhk's ones, hopefully. To begin:

---

What is Magic?

---

No one knows what magic is, nor where it comes from. It's a kind of energy from some other dimension/plane/universe in the case of those Inborn. [This is because I'm the sort who prefers mysteries to answers.] Learned magic is different, and is (to an extent) a non-renewable resource.

How does it work?
Inborn: Magic is drawn down/into you once a day (dawn or dusk). Once it's all used up, you're stuck. Actual use and effects are user-dependant but follow basic elemental patterns (earth, air, fire, water, void) with the mage having access to one (or more?) of those. Casting requires
a) time to focus ones will; b) Mood. A caster who is sick, hurting, in pain, or shock can't work healing magic or nice spells to help people. While in pain, most of them can't use magic; c) Desire. Need drives their magic, and imagination to cause results; d) enough energy to cast the spell.
Learned: Spells are taught by a college of some description to worthy students (Almost all lower nobility). It takes time to learn and master magic, so mages known magic, not magic + thieving/tacticts/sword fighting. Once they head down the road to magic, they can't step off .. too much time and effort investing in teaching them. This magic works by drawing upon the magical energies of places and people, the stars and sun, the moon, astronomy, and the like. Basically cross alchemy/astrology/tarot/divination and the like with some real spells in ritual form. Most uses of real magic actually draw upon spill-over magic from the use of inborn mages, so it a non-renewable resources that, nonetheless, gets renewed in different areas at sporadic intervals. It requires a lot of work, memorization, items and things to focus the magic.

Is it systematic or chaotic?
Inborn: Very chaotic. The amout of magic each mage gets varies sometimes for unknown reasons and spelling items or people is always a dangerous undertaking. Using magic to change people or oneself (healing or shape shifting) is generally very risky.
Learned: So systematic the systems have systems. Lots has been written about said systems, which leads to competing schools and theories and sometimes outright assassination. New spells are rare unless the area has been saturated in magic again and even then actual useful/powerful spells are only taught to really promising/skilled/suck up students.

Is it dependable?
Inborn: Er, well, yes. Unless it runs out. But, as far as is known, if one has the energy and skill and the spell is possible they can do it. Reliability in getting the same effect isn't as likely.
Learned: Oh, yes. Even the magic is, since it's very ritualized and grounded in traditions. (This is necessary since magic is unpredictable unless grounded/channelled in various ways to make sure it does what one wishes it to.)

Who can use it?
Inborn: Only people who have it inborn. The nature of this is debated. It can be inherited, but tends to skip generations. Generally pregnant females in a high-magic saturated area have a strong change to have a child born with magic, but there are no guarantees. The onset of magic use also varies, and is NOT tied in with puberty in any way, shape, or form. (That being said, many first exhibit magic the first time they have sex perhaps because they let down their guard/barriers and waken it.)
Learned: Anyone taught by a college. Only college teachers teach it, and they never leave the college. No one leaves them to teach outsiders. It costs money, so only nobility or those sponsored by nobles learn magic. The colleges can deny anyone for any reason. Learning magic from a college mage not in a college is possible, but you don't learn much (and no real magic) and generally knowledge of how magic works and not being college-taught is punishable by blinding/removal of hands and the like. (This isn't to say that it's not common: divination is common in lots of places, ditto with astrology. But accurate/accepted results are only possible for those trained by a college.)

What is the cost of using it?
Inborn: Ostracized by people generally as a matter of self-preservation when magic firsts manifests. Sometimes the first real flowering of the magic can change the person entirely (species, sex, loss of memory etc.) and until they get a rein on their emotions and needs their magic is too volatile to trust. Even after they achieve a modicum of control they're grudgingly tolerated and often pitied.
Learned: No life. Also, adherence to the specific beliefs/studies of their college over all others. Loyalty to family and crown and school are a must. Going out and travelling the world is very rare and almost unheard of, since it takes time away from teaching and learning. Taking on apprentices is possible, but only to teach them basic precepts and send them to the college for instruction.

Is it learned or is it something people are born into?
Inborn: Inborn.
Learned: Learned.

How often can it be used?
Inborn: Any time, as long as one is in the right mood, has the right need, and enough energy.
Learned: Any time, with proper rituals, chants, items, planning and the like. Different spells or divinations or whatnot are subject to times of day, seasonal issues and the like as well. Generally, any use takes at least 10 minutes of preparation.

---

What does magic do?

---

What is an entire day like in the life of a budding mage? What about the life of a successful mage? The life of an uber-powerful mage? ?
Inborn: Budding mages spend their time alternately starving and trying to conjure up food or a place or sleep and often suffering from severe angst :) Successful mages have survived the flowering of their magic and, to some extent, understand it. With luck, they've found another mage to compare experiences to and understand how their magic works and how to control and use it better. Uber-powerful mages seldom exist and most seem to vanish one day literally into the magic and never return.
Average day (budding mage): Why me? Oh, crap, I feel sick. Eew. I'm oozing magic. Stop that. Oh, my god. What did I do to that tree? Why am I purple? Must eat.... no! It's trying to eat me. Wow. Did I do that? Oh, noooo. Not another mob ... I'm starving. Wow. I did it! Real food! I feel happy! Okay, time to try stuff..... wow, I feel drained. Sleep. Why me? I feel all tingly .. what did I do now? Okay, I need breakfast. Breakfast ...... I hate this.
Average day (successful mage): Convince villagers you did not curse anyone. Help them for a pittance because you have nowhere else to go. Wonder what happened to some mages you knew who have vanished. Continue trying to figure out the why and how of magic.
Average day (uber mage): Transcend your fleshly body and break the bonds of matter.

Learned: Budding mages spent their entire time in lessons. And more lessons. And memorizing spells, and other stuff. Successful mages sell their services to others outside the college and travel to an extent, though it means they get behind on learning. Uber learned mages have spent a lot of time in magic saturated areas and are almost all teachers at colleges.
Average day (budding mage): Go to class. Learn. Eat lunch. Go to class. Go home. Cram like mad with some books borrowed/stolen from the school. Sleep. Sneak into library very early in morning and cram some more.
Average day (successful mage): Be a pompous prick. Sell magic to the ungrateful scum around you. Serve your family or be taken down a peg or two or killed. Engage in politics to become an uber mage. Regret the loss of your youth.
Average day (uber mage): Check on the Inborn mage you have chained up somewhere, bleed some more magic out of them. Teach classes from memory and keep an eye out for those who might be able to channel real magic. Groom them accordingly. Engage in subtle propaganda, political, magical wars with other uber mages. Work on capturing another mage to replace your current pet.

Do spells have to be prepared before hand, or is magic spontaneous? ?
Inborn: All spontaneous, even prepared stuff.
Learned: Spontaneous? What's that? I think I can do that. Give me a few hours.

Is there a certain list of effects that can be achieved with magic? How about a list of effects that can't be achieved? ?
Inborn: Nope. Generally limited by a dice roll and GM fiat and what elements you know and how well you know them.
Learned: Limited to amount of magic in the area and knowledge of it and prep time for real spells. Limited by learning and time spent learning for other stuff.

How often can magic be used? What happens if someone uses it too much? What are the ill effects of using magic on a person? The beneficial effects? How about the effects of suddenly not using magic (quitting "cold turkey")? ?
Inborn: As often as one wants (and sometimes emotion/need means whenever it wants, too). Using too much leads to exhaustion/coma. Using it on people = magic pollution = bad. beneficial effects are uncommon, since most die or are changed, or nothing happens at all. Quitting it is not possible since stuff will happen anyway.
Learned: Depends how much is available and not claimed by other mages. Using too much means you try sometimes not in one of the books or aren't competent enough and put too much magic through you during the ritual which means you become a laundry problem for someone to clean up the robes covered in ash. Using magic on people can be done, and can work, but items are easier and more reliable. Quitting isn't possible since you are in this for life, so quitting means you are dead (Retiring is possible, but rare).

What sort of things are required to do magic? Ritual? Strange Materials? Time? Energy? A weird Crystal? A magic wand!? WHAT!?!? ?
Inborn: Energy, and time, and imagination.
Learned: Rituals, chants, materials, meditation, consultation of charts, checking the time of day, wind path, seasons, last meals eaten, path of the birds outside the window, divination to see if divination will be successful. Err. Pretty much everything.

---

How does magic influence society?

---

Who learns it? Can anyone learn? What about the poor people who can't even read? Can they learn? ?
Inborn: Magic is entirely inborn and is generally only taught by a mage after one has gained basic control and they find you (or you find them) and they explain what they know. It's purely democratic and basically picks people at random as far as most can tell.
Learned: Only the nobility can learn this, or those they sponsor. Poor people cna pick some up from listening to mages, but they're always given a lot of disinformation along with it. The poor will never learn magic. It's not sanitary.

How is it learned? How does the common person feel about his son learning magic? What about an aristocrat? ?
Inborn: No one wants their child to have magic. Parents suspecting children of magic have been known to drug and then blind them or cut their hands off or their tongue out, to be on the safe side. (This doesn't work, but it is done anyway.) Killing a mage of this kind is generally a very dangerous undertaking since the magic will act to protect itself.
Learned: College teaches this magic, and the common person won't have a son learning it but could have a former child now a minor noble and will never associate with scum like you again most likely. Nobles like their sons to learn magic, if they have no aptitude for the sword or diplomacy or the like. If the family has no mage for whatever reason, they will force it on someone. Most families like to have 2-3 mages, and 3-5 in apprenticeships. Lesser families share mages. Having none is a serious status blow.

Go through the daily life of a peon with emphasis on the parts of his life that are influenced by magic. Does he use a magic axe? Does his wife clean the kitchen with a spell? How does he feel about magic users? ?
The average peon has as little to do with magic as possible. Learned mages tend to be consulted by villages paying a fee for divinations and the like, and Inborn ones are consulted by being asked to do something, and then told to go away.

Are magic users respected, feared, or treated like engineers? ?
Inborn: Feared, pitied, derided.
Learned: Respected for rank as much as anything, and often treated like engineers and somewhat lesser than other family members.

How influential are magic users?
Inborn:
Learned: Very, since they do divinations, but aside from that they're not powerful enough to wield much influence and ties among them are a) family b) college. Other mages are looked upon with distrust or envy often enough.

What kinds of magic are there? How is each treated? How common are they?
The only kinds of magic are inborn and learned. Inborn magic is rare and some of them get captured by Learned mages and used as a power source and die anyway. Mind you, most learned mages who try this fail :)
Learned magic is very common among nobility and treated as a specialized skill.
There are no holy magics in this setting, no gods wielding healing spells and the like. (A witchcraft version of magic standing between Inborn and Learned does exist as the Village Wise Woman/Barbarian Shaman but it's not that common. Many of these tend to be captured by Learned mages seeking Inborn ones.)

Why do people bother to learn/develop magic anyway?
Inborn: They master it or it masters them.
Learned: Something to do, have no choice, ordered, or it's the only thing they're good for.

How does society/mages police magic users? Are their laws regarding how/when it can be used? Spells that are illegal to learn/teach?
Inborn: They are generally hunted down by terrified mobs or live as hermits. Use of this magic is illegal in cities and in the country in general.
Learned: The college keeps a careful eye on mages and the infighting and back stabbing tends to prevent excesses. There are no illegal spells (since few are actually powerful) but some are frowned upon, such as necromatic stuff. Learned magic is used in the cities at will, though it can only be used in the demesne of nobility (even ones own family) with express permission of said family.

Are there dangers inherent in magic use?
Inborn: Using magic is fatal unless one is awfully lucky.
Learned: Using real magic without the proper rituals is fatal.

Some final thoughts:

Inborn magic is very high-powered but rare. Learned is common but rather weak (it does have the advantage of being more versatile but at the cost of taking a long time to do anything useful). The Witchcraft/Shaman variant straddles the line between the two and is basically a self-taught learned style with more emphasis on real magic. It's rare since often the teacher is unable to find a pupil or runs afoul of the authorities.
A divine(?) magic system acting more as psychic powers and used to ferret out and destroy Inborn mages could be added as well. It wouldn't have healing magics, though, since those tend to unbalance a world a lot and exist mostly to keep characters alive when their own stupidity should have killed them.