Magic does exist in this setting, but it is pretty much a human-only method of power. This isn't to say others can't learn it, but mostly they don't need to because they've power enough already. It's based on the theory that information is superior to matter and energy (see Ed Fredkin for an overview on that) and allows one to cheat the universe by manipulating that. Which isn't near as grand as it sounds, since Omegas essentially do that without trying just by existing.
The use of magic tends to be rituals and words/symbols of power used as shorthand for a much longer mental equation designed to change the world. Small, local scale effects that take time, energy and serious amounts of effort to replicate what Omegas do for a very brief period. The other kind, the one that's considered actually dangerous, is said rituals, with energy costs involving human sacrifice and so forth, that punch holes in the universe and allow Things into it. Which is dangerous since what immune systems the universe has don't catch such entities and they can do pretty nasty things -- if they get through, which happens very, very rarely.
This illustrates the big danger of magic, in that it involves manipulating the universe, but the universe is ~90% dark matter, aka: we don't know where it is. So trying to manipulate a system you barely understand, and are a small fragment of, can be quite dangerous at the best of times. (Some magicians believe Omegas embody the so-called dark matter, but that's neither here not there.)
In game example: Aalim Jabar had a magical knife, and protections on his home. Damien pretty much vanished it without effort. Magic might do minor things, but that is generally all it does without a cult, a lot of dead people and an insane amount of determination. Which is pretty much what the Red King cult seems to be about, though what they're trying to do seems to be an unknown, thus far, but is worrying enough that the people really in charge of the country want it stopped.
OOCLY, magicians are pretty rare (few are self-taught and those often accidentally kill themselves) and they aren't that powerful, even at the best of times. It's really only the mass human sacrifce meaning bad stuff (and the human sacrifice angle in general) of the nastier sory of magician that leads to them being stopped.
Friday, March 25, 2011
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Aurora Consurgens: on the nature of Omegas
Dr. Kim Li, Freemont University College, for The Radical Inquirer.
There are people in the world called Omegas, possessed of power ordinary humans can scarce imagine,things from stories and legends. Accept this as truth, or treat the following as a thought experiment.
It is theorized that every person has the potential to become an Omega, but this theory is, broadly, false. There is certainly some genetic basis for becoming an Omega, but environmental influences, the nature of other Omegas and one's own life and way of thinking are factors. As Omegas cannot be easily categorized, the question of why some become Omegas and others do not cannot be fit neatly into boxes. The following are observations, not certainties. There are outliers on every graph, and for Omegas moreso than perhaps others.
Emergence
The emergence of Omegas tends to happen either during Puberty, College, Mid-Life Crsis or, more rarely, Old Age. (There is a class of younger Omegas, often triggered by abuse, but that is too dark and deep a topic to get into at present.)
Puberty: The emergence of the Omega during puberty is the most common, happening in at least 60% of documented cases. Testimony of Omegas tends to fit with this, though it seems to be more the age bracket that is affected rather than the actual onset of a specific stage of puberty itself. Most wake up one day from sleep and find they are no longer entirely human.
College: Several factors come into play here. Stress, a city with a lot of people (and hence, more Omegas) and a greater chance of meeting them tends to lead to the change during this stage. Curiously, most of these Omegas report being awake during the change.
Mid-life: As stress accompanies puberty and college, so too does it factor into the mid-life crisis. Further, becoming an Omega seems to happen to people suffering under the delusions of such crises and/or considering dramatic changed in lifestyle (for example, divorce). most of them deal poorly with the change of self that accompanies becoming an Omega and hates of attempted suicide are reportedly quite high.
Elderly: Omega abilities and changes developing among the elderly are uncommon but tend to be caused by a change in lifestyle, death in the family, being in a home with other Omegas present. Also, this is the only group where people have reported becoming Omegas out of need -- for example, to save the life of a grandchild to the extent that their form often seems imprinted by the desires of the child as well as the needs of the situation. (One Omega had their mind put into a stuffed bear a child owned, which became superhumanly powerful.)
To sum up, the key factors seem to be stress, change in one's life and/or immanent death that lead to at least 60% of people becoming Omegas. Others can have tose factor in, but tend to result from being in the proximity of Omegas: the more Omegas a location has, the more it seems to produce -- though since many Omega travel about this is difficult to verify.
Lastly, Omegas seem to be drawn to each other by their shared nature, which often manifests in the form of a further physical change which gives the Omegas s secondary ability associated with it. This change isn't always visible and seems to have no chemical or sensory basis. Nevertheless something draws them to each other, as if to long-lost kin.
Physical Mutation
The obvious signs of being an Omega are not actually that obvious at all times. Some 'tells', as they are called, only show whne using abilities, or when not using them, or are active at all times but can be covered. Further, some Omegas can make illusions for others and there are rumoured to be holographic devices that perform the same task. As a final cautionary note, some Omega changes approximate oddities found within the human spectrum, so someone with a large port wine stain may just have that, and not be able to bring chalk drawings to life, for example.
With few exceptions, no Omega likes referring to their change as a disability of any sort and a surprisingly most adapt quite comfortably to their changes. Or would, if not for the reactions of other humans and Omegas to them. This, of course, is the rate among those who do not take their lives, but given the variety of changes, and the nature of them -- which sometimes has little, or nothing, to do with their other ability -- tends to vary, but has yet to produce a non-viable lifeform.
In other words, no matter what the Omega becomes, they're still alive and their bodily processes adapt to the new state, if they aren't discarded altogether. Most Omegas tend to have minor cosmetic changes -- alterations to skin, body and appearance that still retain their basic human form. The second class tend to classify as 'monsters' in appearance, some being entirely astonishing entities that shouldn't be able to walk around, let along breathe and talk, yet ate still able to. Unfortunately, the vast majority of these Omegas are generally in hiding or killed shorting after their change takes place so further data on the physical change, and what purpose it may sere to Omegas as a whole, remains unknown. A third kind are Omegas who look human but lack physical bodies any longer: they are theorized to exist, give whatever causes Omegas to exist seems not to care too much about actual biological function, but few have been encountered.
All of which means there are at least two forces acting upon the Omega: their own fears, desires, wants and causes of stress that may be a factor in their ability and the secondary physical change, often coming with abilities of its own, whose nature and purpose is unknown. It may be that this is what marks Omegas as Omegas to each other, on some extremely fundamental level, but as yet there is no data to support this theory.
There are people in the world called Omegas, possessed of power ordinary humans can scarce imagine,things from stories and legends. Accept this as truth, or treat the following as a thought experiment.
It is theorized that every person has the potential to become an Omega, but this theory is, broadly, false. There is certainly some genetic basis for becoming an Omega, but environmental influences, the nature of other Omegas and one's own life and way of thinking are factors. As Omegas cannot be easily categorized, the question of why some become Omegas and others do not cannot be fit neatly into boxes. The following are observations, not certainties. There are outliers on every graph, and for Omegas moreso than perhaps others.
Emergence
The emergence of Omegas tends to happen either during Puberty, College, Mid-Life Crsis or, more rarely, Old Age. (There is a class of younger Omegas, often triggered by abuse, but that is too dark and deep a topic to get into at present.)
Puberty: The emergence of the Omega during puberty is the most common, happening in at least 60% of documented cases. Testimony of Omegas tends to fit with this, though it seems to be more the age bracket that is affected rather than the actual onset of a specific stage of puberty itself. Most wake up one day from sleep and find they are no longer entirely human.
College: Several factors come into play here. Stress, a city with a lot of people (and hence, more Omegas) and a greater chance of meeting them tends to lead to the change during this stage. Curiously, most of these Omegas report being awake during the change.
Mid-life: As stress accompanies puberty and college, so too does it factor into the mid-life crisis. Further, becoming an Omega seems to happen to people suffering under the delusions of such crises and/or considering dramatic changed in lifestyle (for example, divorce). most of them deal poorly with the change of self that accompanies becoming an Omega and hates of attempted suicide are reportedly quite high.
Elderly: Omega abilities and changes developing among the elderly are uncommon but tend to be caused by a change in lifestyle, death in the family, being in a home with other Omegas present. Also, this is the only group where people have reported becoming Omegas out of need -- for example, to save the life of a grandchild to the extent that their form often seems imprinted by the desires of the child as well as the needs of the situation. (One Omega had their mind put into a stuffed bear a child owned, which became superhumanly powerful.)
To sum up, the key factors seem to be stress, change in one's life and/or immanent death that lead to at least 60% of people becoming Omegas. Others can have tose factor in, but tend to result from being in the proximity of Omegas: the more Omegas a location has, the more it seems to produce -- though since many Omega travel about this is difficult to verify.
Lastly, Omegas seem to be drawn to each other by their shared nature, which often manifests in the form of a further physical change which gives the Omegas s secondary ability associated with it. This change isn't always visible and seems to have no chemical or sensory basis. Nevertheless something draws them to each other, as if to long-lost kin.
Physical Mutation
The obvious signs of being an Omega are not actually that obvious at all times. Some 'tells', as they are called, only show whne using abilities, or when not using them, or are active at all times but can be covered. Further, some Omegas can make illusions for others and there are rumoured to be holographic devices that perform the same task. As a final cautionary note, some Omega changes approximate oddities found within the human spectrum, so someone with a large port wine stain may just have that, and not be able to bring chalk drawings to life, for example.
With few exceptions, no Omega likes referring to their change as a disability of any sort and a surprisingly most adapt quite comfortably to their changes. Or would, if not for the reactions of other humans and Omegas to them. This, of course, is the rate among those who do not take their lives, but given the variety of changes, and the nature of them -- which sometimes has little, or nothing, to do with their other ability -- tends to vary, but has yet to produce a non-viable lifeform.
In other words, no matter what the Omega becomes, they're still alive and their bodily processes adapt to the new state, if they aren't discarded altogether. Most Omegas tend to have minor cosmetic changes -- alterations to skin, body and appearance that still retain their basic human form. The second class tend to classify as 'monsters' in appearance, some being entirely astonishing entities that shouldn't be able to walk around, let along breathe and talk, yet ate still able to. Unfortunately, the vast majority of these Omegas are generally in hiding or killed shorting after their change takes place so further data on the physical change, and what purpose it may sere to Omegas as a whole, remains unknown. A third kind are Omegas who look human but lack physical bodies any longer: they are theorized to exist, give whatever causes Omegas to exist seems not to care too much about actual biological function, but few have been encountered.
All of which means there are at least two forces acting upon the Omega: their own fears, desires, wants and causes of stress that may be a factor in their ability and the secondary physical change, often coming with abilities of its own, whose nature and purpose is unknown. It may be that this is what marks Omegas as Omegas to each other, on some extremely fundamental level, but as yet there is no data to support this theory.
Aurora Consurgens: As of session 23
Game-wise, it a Friday! (The game began, from Kami's pov, the previous Wednesday, so for her it's been almost ten days [And she hasn't rolled enough dice - S.].)
As present, Kami was about to head home after band practice involving Mason, Mason was about to head to the hospital to be x-rayed to make an 'alien' happy, Teresa is trying to find Aalim and solve the mystery of the weird knife with Damien (Griffin having insisted they do) while Malik is -- thanks to bad luck -- being subjected to Trevor's recruitment drive into S.A.F.E and, finally, Temperance is slowly learning she is an Omega, and trying to help Beckett do something other than beat up drug dealers to make up for the death of his brother.
Whew!
Plot-wise:
* Mostly **
** Okay, just the once, but Sparkie ensured it failed.
ETA: As of today, the game has been running for 1 month and done 23 sessions. Which is nicely insane :)
As present, Kami was about to head home after band practice involving Mason, Mason was about to head to the hospital to be x-rayed to make an 'alien' happy, Teresa is trying to find Aalim and solve the mystery of the weird knife with Damien (Griffin having insisted they do) while Malik is -- thanks to bad luck -- being subjected to Trevor's recruitment drive into S.A.F.E and, finally, Temperance is slowly learning she is an Omega, and trying to help Beckett do something other than beat up drug dealers to make up for the death of his brother.
Whew!
Plot-wise:
- The band is a major plot element, having drawn in Kami, Mason and linking to Malik in the future. Great one for pc interaction and rooted in the normal world (mostly).
- S.A.F.E. is trying to recruit PCs. Good money, some danger. (The latter leading Trevor to want to recruit as many willing Omegas as possible.) Which connects with ...
- R2-45, the government conspiracy trying to tag and monitor Omegas, likely not happy with people finding ways to turn those off.
- Other conspiracies, such as D.R.E.A.M. and the Black Circle, are active, but have so far not attempted to recruit PCs*, though how long this state lasts, and to what extent PCs can resist forcible conversion, is up in the air.
- Meanwhile, in the villainous plots, Doctor D is still supplying alphas and omegas with drugs to boost abilities and is apparently insanely well-connected.
- Hades, on the other hand, seems content to sow evil and discord. While his blood can apparently nullify Omega powers, for some reason he hadn't decided to go about offering a 'cure', despite the obvious evil and havoc that could cause.
- Finally, people. (I say finally because Alcar has stopped yammering on and on and on.) More plots are good. Plots lead to dice, and dice lead to fun and fun leads to excitement! - Sparkie, whose conspiracy of 'roll more dice!' seems to be failing. Jerks.
* Mostly **
** Okay, just the once, but Sparkie ensured it failed.
ETA: As of today, the game has been running for 1 month and done 23 sessions. Which is nicely insane :)
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Aurora Consurgens: Conspiracies (also, cast list)
Cast List: Exists on piratepad now, for all players to edit, add to etc. (Snarky notes appended to npcs or pcs encouraged by Sparkie :)) Link to it is in game1 topic. It is OOC and does contain charactersn who've yet to show in game.
Conspiracies
There is one conspiracy so great is can bring down the moon, so brilliant it burns even the worthy as it makes them pure, and so terrible that darkness quells from it and sorrow seems, at times, its mate.This conspiracy is called love.
Regarding the game, there are a lot of conspiracies running around, from good to bad to utterly indifferent. The following exist at present:
Aces: Street gangs in cells of 5-6, recruited from the military (the top 2% of whom tend to be Aces, hence easy recruitment). They believe Aces are humanity 2.0, and they wish to eliminate Omegas, whom they see as a threat to the world they will inherit.
Black Chamber: A conspiracy so secret that members cannot normally mention it. Recruits weirder omegas, often after saving them from mobs, though recent evidence shows at least one member has been trying to cause said mob events in order to produce more loyal recruits. (As Kami pointed out, Claire did such a horrible job of that that she clearly hadn't done it before, much to Damien's relief.)
Choir: A branch of the Illuminati existing now, whose goal is to destroy demons (aka weird Omegas). Attacked S.A.F.E. once, and had no problem killing bystanders, which is apparently unusual for them. Very militant and hard-core.
CFR: The Council on Foreign Relations is a non-partisan think tank in the US based around international relations and, in reality, about how nations deal with Omegas as the new superpower and if nations should catalogue their Omegas, grade them and trade them etc. in order to preserve the current balance of power.
Doctor D: A drug-runner in the city who has managed to hide from conspiracies, vigilantes and Trevor to take. Guards shipments using power armour Damien referred to as 'edgetech', which Trevor had never even heard of. Probably not a conspiracy in himself, but obviously funded by several.
Dream: A conspiracy whose goal is to make finer worlds by connecting humans, alphas, and omegas into a shared understand of their larger role within the biosphere. Uses the word 'Gaia' a lot but seems convinced everyone should be on the same side since they all live on the same world.
The Guild: Not a conspiracy, as such, but various families of Omegas whose talent is passed down and whose members develop it, often during puberty. They generally have only one ability but are very, very good at using it and tend to tread omegas without lineage as lesser beings. Often mired in their politics in the Old World.
The Illuminati (original): The big one, so big it hid behind that name. A telepathic conspiracy of at least 2,500 years to keep humans unaware of Omegas (aka angels and demons, to them). The rise of scientific understanding -- and questions about omegas and genetics -- coupled with the growing thought that they could do a lot more than just put out fires, led to some Event five years ago that broke the organization, killing many members and sundering it.
Unless, of course, it did not.
The Illuminati (current): Still exists, mostly telepaths who are trying to keep a lid on Weird stuff and each other. Further goals, desires and so forth are unknown, as is how effective they are at all.
IRS: It`s only natural.
Majestic 13: A group of government-sponsored superhumans (12 in total) who deal with various problems and crises. Military-trained, work well as a unit and not to be underestimated.
r2-45: Government conspiracy whose goal is to catalogue and study all Omegas. They tend to brand them like animals and have several agents (called splies) who are made from skin samples of several omegas and legally not persons. Involved in hiding Omegas from the world, which has become more their primary goal following the collapse of the Illuminati.
Conspiracies
There is one conspiracy so great is can bring down the moon, so brilliant it burns even the worthy as it makes them pure, and so terrible that darkness quells from it and sorrow seems, at times, its mate.This conspiracy is called love.
Regarding the game, there are a lot of conspiracies running around, from good to bad to utterly indifferent. The following exist at present:
Aces: Street gangs in cells of 5-6, recruited from the military (the top 2% of whom tend to be Aces, hence easy recruitment). They believe Aces are humanity 2.0, and they wish to eliminate Omegas, whom they see as a threat to the world they will inherit.
Black Chamber: A conspiracy so secret that members cannot normally mention it. Recruits weirder omegas, often after saving them from mobs, though recent evidence shows at least one member has been trying to cause said mob events in order to produce more loyal recruits. (As Kami pointed out, Claire did such a horrible job of that that she clearly hadn't done it before, much to Damien's relief.)
Choir: A branch of the Illuminati existing now, whose goal is to destroy demons (aka weird Omegas). Attacked S.A.F.E. once, and had no problem killing bystanders, which is apparently unusual for them. Very militant and hard-core.
CFR: The Council on Foreign Relations is a non-partisan think tank in the US based around international relations and, in reality, about how nations deal with Omegas as the new superpower and if nations should catalogue their Omegas, grade them and trade them etc. in order to preserve the current balance of power.
Doctor D: A drug-runner in the city who has managed to hide from conspiracies, vigilantes and Trevor to take. Guards shipments using power armour Damien referred to as 'edgetech', which Trevor had never even heard of. Probably not a conspiracy in himself, but obviously funded by several.
Dream: A conspiracy whose goal is to make finer worlds by connecting humans, alphas, and omegas into a shared understand of their larger role within the biosphere. Uses the word 'Gaia' a lot but seems convinced everyone should be on the same side since they all live on the same world.
The Guild: Not a conspiracy, as such, but various families of Omegas whose talent is passed down and whose members develop it, often during puberty. They generally have only one ability but are very, very good at using it and tend to tread omegas without lineage as lesser beings. Often mired in their politics in the Old World.
The Illuminati (original): The big one, so big it hid behind that name. A telepathic conspiracy of at least 2,500 years to keep humans unaware of Omegas (aka angels and demons, to them). The rise of scientific understanding -- and questions about omegas and genetics -- coupled with the growing thought that they could do a lot more than just put out fires, led to some Event five years ago that broke the organization, killing many members and sundering it.
Unless, of course, it did not.
The Illuminati (current): Still exists, mostly telepaths who are trying to keep a lid on Weird stuff and each other. Further goals, desires and so forth are unknown, as is how effective they are at all.
IRS: It`s only natural.
Majestic 13: A group of government-sponsored superhumans (12 in total) who deal with various problems and crises. Military-trained, work well as a unit and not to be underestimated.
r2-45: Government conspiracy whose goal is to catalogue and study all Omegas. They tend to brand them like animals and have several agents (called splies) who are made from skin samples of several omegas and legally not persons. Involved in hiding Omegas from the world, which has become more their primary goal following the collapse of the Illuminati.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Aurora Consurgens: Cast List
We now have two three four five? players for the game. It is officially no longer even remotely a 'side game'. Which should be weird, and awesome, and pretty interesting and -- in theory -- lead to Barry recruiting at least one PC to his Omega Rights campaign: someone weird has to be willing to march down the streets with a sign, right?
Fun things to note thus far:
a) No one player has made a 'normal' superhuman at all. No traditional kind of energy blast or flight powers or the like at all. Which is pretty interesting and probably fits better into the x-men/mutation aspect of the game than, frankly, a lot of the x-men do. It also means that dealing with weird stuff and problems is going to require friends, alliances, working together and the like.
2) I am going to try doing the 'no set time' aspect of the game still. Granted, PCs in more sessions will get more experience* but it also frees players from the obligation of feeling they must make a certain session and so forth. In line with this, few sessions should end on cliffhangers requiring two specific players to show the next session and so forth, though this is liable to happen a few times.
* If for some reason you do want to play some night but are unable to due to issues of time (you on on day 8, everyone else on day 6), you'll get a 'pip' of experience anyway. Not the same as advancement towards an experience die, but it is something.
iii) Your government wants you! Recruitment of Omegas to various government agencies is quite high, even if the motivations of said agencies sometimes have dark sides, or bureaucracy limits their actual effectiveness. PCs tend not to be joiner-types to said groups, but that won't stop them from trying and should prove fun all around.
The current 'big' plots
S.A.F.E.: An organization set up by Trevor and Linda, S.A.F.E. aims to keep humans safe from Omega abuses and generally protect the city from harm. They do offer money, and are pretty loosely structured at present. Depending on Trevor's ulterior goals, they're probably the closest thing the cuty of Freemont has to any superhero league at present.
S.E.E.: Barry Jameson and the Omegas he's gathered to him (or are spying on him for other people...). His goal is free and equal rights for Omegas and, as far as he is concerned, appealing to the best in human nature will allow this to happen and, say, someone like Damien be allowed to work behind the till at a restaurant. It is worth noting that he seems to seriously think this is possible in the kind of incompletely-formed idealistic dream that such plans are made of.
Doctor D: A drug-runner who supplies drugs to boost Alphas and Omegas in power. So far, one Omega has died to the drugs and he has serious resources and money, apparently aiming to make the city a base of operations for his midwest trade. And yeah, use of a large dose of the drugs is fatal, for all the awesome power it gives in the short term. (There is also someone putting out self-help books that achieve the 'be all you can be' effect, but they don't seem to be related.)
Circle of Humanity: Tanya Richiusa runs a small meeting group out of a local diner that exists to explore human/alpha relations. It tends to attract crackpots and the like, but one of her goals is to have Omegas show and humans realize that being an Omega isn't the best thing in the world, a paradigm shift she believes will also make them question their loathing of the elite alphas, with luck.
Fun things to note thus far:
a) No one player has made a 'normal' superhuman at all. No traditional kind of energy blast or flight powers or the like at all. Which is pretty interesting and probably fits better into the x-men/mutation aspect of the game than, frankly, a lot of the x-men do. It also means that dealing with weird stuff and problems is going to require friends, alliances, working together and the like.
2) I am going to try doing the 'no set time' aspect of the game still. Granted, PCs in more sessions will get more experience* but it also frees players from the obligation of feeling they must make a certain session and so forth. In line with this, few sessions should end on cliffhangers requiring two specific players to show the next session and so forth, though this is liable to happen a few times.
* If for some reason you do want to play some night but are unable to due to issues of time (you on on day 8, everyone else on day 6), you'll get a 'pip' of experience anyway. Not the same as advancement towards an experience die, but it is something.
iii) Your government wants you! Recruitment of Omegas to various government agencies is quite high, even if the motivations of said agencies sometimes have dark sides, or bureaucracy limits their actual effectiveness. PCs tend not to be joiner-types to said groups, but that won't stop them from trying and should prove fun all around.
The current 'big' plots
S.A.F.E.: An organization set up by Trevor and Linda, S.A.F.E. aims to keep humans safe from Omega abuses and generally protect the city from harm. They do offer money, and are pretty loosely structured at present. Depending on Trevor's ulterior goals, they're probably the closest thing the cuty of Freemont has to any superhero league at present.
S.E.E.: Barry Jameson and the Omegas he's gathered to him (or are spying on him for other people...). His goal is free and equal rights for Omegas and, as far as he is concerned, appealing to the best in human nature will allow this to happen and, say, someone like Damien be allowed to work behind the till at a restaurant. It is worth noting that he seems to seriously think this is possible in the kind of incompletely-formed idealistic dream that such plans are made of.
Doctor D: A drug-runner who supplies drugs to boost Alphas and Omegas in power. So far, one Omega has died to the drugs and he has serious resources and money, apparently aiming to make the city a base of operations for his midwest trade. And yeah, use of a large dose of the drugs is fatal, for all the awesome power it gives in the short term. (There is also someone putting out self-help books that achieve the 'be all you can be' effect, but they don't seem to be related.)
Circle of Humanity: Tanya Richiusa runs a small meeting group out of a local diner that exists to explore human/alpha relations. It tends to attract crackpots and the like, but one of her goals is to have Omegas show and humans realize that being an Omega isn't the best thing in the world, a paradigm shift she believes will also make them question their loathing of the elite alphas, with luck.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Aurora Consurgens: Epicality (and Omega Rights)
Points established in the setting thus far (Some of it being OOC):
1) The Illuminati used to prevent humanity from being aware of then 'angels' and 'demons (aka Omegas) having their wars via insane degrees of telepathic manipulation, until Darwin et al made some of the Illuminati question this idealistic mindset, which in turn led to questions about why the Illuminati were just putting out fires when they could prevent/control them. To an extent, this split seems to have let to some Event five yeas ago that destroyed the organization, which has since splintered to various factions among those that survived.
2) Trevor's claim that (unopposed), six Omegas could destroy a single city. Depending on abilities and working together, this is probably broadly true and once you factor in drugs to boost powers and apparently self-help books that to the same, the amount of time it would take becomes debatable.
(In general, I'm operating under the assumption that most any Omega with a combat-oriented power can probably take out a city block worth of area by their lonesome without real effort.)
In terms of epic, this game is structured more like the x-men are in teams and allies combine together to achieve maximum effect (see the 'defeat' of Hades as an awesome in-game example). Even PCs, alone, will not win the day in all battles, though ideally are the decisive force and centre of it. Why? Because power-creep ruins a game faster than other things, so if PCs and NPcs are on a generally equal footing* it requires more skill and RP to win the day than out and out dice and being better.
Which isn't to say the latter won't happen: the PCs vs. 'new' Omegas, after some experience is gained, is pretty much going to == 'the pc wins', which is as it should be. The really powerful and scary Omegas are either still in check by the Illuminati (or various government agencies, in a lot of cases), dead, or simply have no desire to rule the world, which, frankly, most don't. Though invasions from other worlds (yay!) and alpha and omega mad scientists (bwahahahaaha!) can skew that a little, and shall.
A lot of what happens regarding various battles -- how people see it, with Omegas as the new superpower, how they deal with being 'inferior' and such will depend on PC and NPC actions during the game. Do you try and build bridges, protect a world that hates and fears you etc.? And if it does, doesn't it make sense to make the world like you instead?
How players deal with that, and what they do about it, will determine a lot of how the world reactions to various epic-level events as and when they happen. In other words, some of the setting is about how you change the world, for the better or worse, and how it reacts to them. You might only do this visibly on the local level of one city, but such things do spread.
Caveat: Omega Rights, etc.
One player has basically said that such plot aspects to the game bore them. Which is fine: not everyone wants or desires or deserves some imagined 'equality' (and there are characters who do think it impossible because equality doesn't exist [Damien counts, though he's never voiced it in those terms]. But from a character -- aqnd player -- pov, do you want to play a game where everyone hates your character and you have to operating out of hiding and in shadows? Likely not. Which is why changing how the world sees you is as important as anything else. Reputation is as important as power in many ways.
The entire minor Barry-driven plot Omega Rights, and others like that, are largely intended as background, since I figured that players would make PCs that:
a) passed for human pretty much or
b) didn't, but the usual stigma didn't really apply to them.
And players did, because who would want to make Toxic Man or something useless like that? Not I, certainly. The second kind of PC (i.e. Mason) also gets to highlight certain questions about how much of the anti-Omega hysteria is generated by interest groups etc., which can become important.
1) The Illuminati used to prevent humanity from being aware of then 'angels' and 'demons (aka Omegas) having their wars via insane degrees of telepathic manipulation, until Darwin et al made some of the Illuminati question this idealistic mindset, which in turn led to questions about why the Illuminati were just putting out fires when they could prevent/control them. To an extent, this split seems to have let to some Event five yeas ago that destroyed the organization, which has since splintered to various factions among those that survived.
2) Trevor's claim that (unopposed), six Omegas could destroy a single city. Depending on abilities and working together, this is probably broadly true and once you factor in drugs to boost powers and apparently self-help books that to the same, the amount of time it would take becomes debatable.
(In general, I'm operating under the assumption that most any Omega with a combat-oriented power can probably take out a city block worth of area by their lonesome without real effort.)
In terms of epic, this game is structured more like the x-men are in teams and allies combine together to achieve maximum effect (see the 'defeat' of Hades as an awesome in-game example). Even PCs, alone, will not win the day in all battles, though ideally are the decisive force and centre of it. Why? Because power-creep ruins a game faster than other things, so if PCs and NPcs are on a generally equal footing* it requires more skill and RP to win the day than out and out dice and being better.
Which isn't to say the latter won't happen: the PCs vs. 'new' Omegas, after some experience is gained, is pretty much going to == 'the pc wins', which is as it should be. The really powerful and scary Omegas are either still in check by the Illuminati (or various government agencies, in a lot of cases), dead, or simply have no desire to rule the world, which, frankly, most don't. Though invasions from other worlds (yay!) and alpha and omega mad scientists (bwahahahaaha!) can skew that a little, and shall.
A lot of what happens regarding various battles -- how people see it, with Omegas as the new superpower, how they deal with being 'inferior' and such will depend on PC and NPC actions during the game. Do you try and build bridges, protect a world that hates and fears you etc.? And if it does, doesn't it make sense to make the world like you instead?
How players deal with that, and what they do about it, will determine a lot of how the world reactions to various epic-level events as and when they happen. In other words, some of the setting is about how you change the world, for the better or worse, and how it reacts to them. You might only do this visibly on the local level of one city, but such things do spread.
Caveat: Omega Rights, etc.
One player has basically said that such plot aspects to the game bore them. Which is fine: not everyone wants or desires or deserves some imagined 'equality' (and there are characters who do think it impossible because equality doesn't exist [Damien counts, though he's never voiced it in those terms]. But from a character -- aqnd player -- pov, do you want to play a game where everyone hates your character and you have to operating out of hiding and in shadows? Likely not. Which is why changing how the world sees you is as important as anything else. Reputation is as important as power in many ways.
The entire minor Barry-driven plot Omega Rights, and others like that, are largely intended as background, since I figured that players would make PCs that:
a) passed for human pretty much or
b) didn't, but the usual stigma didn't really apply to them.
And players did, because who would want to make Toxic Man or something useless like that? Not I, certainly. The second kind of PC (i.e. Mason) also gets to highlight certain questions about how much of the anti-Omega hysteria is generated by interest groups etc., which can become important.
Friday, March 11, 2011
Aurora Consurgens: something on the net
Found on a posting board by Anonymous, who is just a trifle more reliable than Wikipedia ...
The secret histories of the world are that: they do not end up on any page, often not in any memory. They are the purged records, the fires, but even ashes leave things before, and nothing is entirely forgot. Ghost memories, echoes, hunches and fragments of dreams remain when all else is dust and forgot even by legend. For instance, to mention the Terrible King by any title would see this vanish off the internet, and the writer from the world. Secrets. Lies. Necessary, perhaps, but still lies, and bitter as they go down.
We change the world, the secret warriors, fighting wars you will never know about, stopping the darkness because someone has to, because it is necessary and the price of knowledge is power, and the price of power is the obligation to use it. We fight the secret wars, and our comings and goings are unknown, sometimes forgot even by ourselves, so secret are the wars. Hexton is merely a word, now. Where is truth to be found, if we bury it so deep that nothing can drawn it forth into the world?
There is no reward. There can be no reward, for this. If people realize what goes on behind the stage, those who set it up have failed. I know this. We know that. And yet. And yet, the silence that folllows is so deep we wish to fill it with action, with words and names and meaning. And that is why we all fail, all those secret groups and terrible conspiracies without name, because the lure of the world pulls at us, and the desire to be More tugs at us all. And there are so very, very few who can resist such temptations, who can be given power that makes the world a toy to them and not then play with it, sometimes just to see what happens.
Five years ago, the oldest and deepest of the conspiracies, hidden behind the name of Illuminati, published and known to hide it further still, flattered. Fell. Even ideals only carry one so far, and the urge to act is always a deep, terrible thing. We are never done with doing, for all we wish we were.
The secret histories of the world are that: they do not end up on any page, often not in any memory. They are the purged records, the fires, but even ashes leave things before, and nothing is entirely forgot. Ghost memories, echoes, hunches and fragments of dreams remain when all else is dust and forgot even by legend. For instance, to mention the Terrible King by any title would see this vanish off the internet, and the writer from the world. Secrets. Lies. Necessary, perhaps, but still lies, and bitter as they go down.
We change the world, the secret warriors, fighting wars you will never know about, stopping the darkness because someone has to, because it is necessary and the price of knowledge is power, and the price of power is the obligation to use it. We fight the secret wars, and our comings and goings are unknown, sometimes forgot even by ourselves, so secret are the wars. Hexton is merely a word, now. Where is truth to be found, if we bury it so deep that nothing can drawn it forth into the world?
There is no reward. There can be no reward, for this. If people realize what goes on behind the stage, those who set it up have failed. I know this. We know that. And yet. And yet, the silence that folllows is so deep we wish to fill it with action, with words and names and meaning. And that is why we all fail, all those secret groups and terrible conspiracies without name, because the lure of the world pulls at us, and the desire to be More tugs at us all. And there are so very, very few who can resist such temptations, who can be given power that makes the world a toy to them and not then play with it, sometimes just to see what happens.
Five years ago, the oldest and deepest of the conspiracies, hidden behind the name of Illuminati, published and known to hide it further still, flattered. Fell. Even ideals only carry one so far, and the urge to act is always a deep, terrible thing. We are never done with doing, for all we wish we were.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Aurora Consurgens: 12 sessions in
12 sessions in, the game has acquired a new player [I believe that's first for an intended side-game] and various plots proceed apace:
The band is trying to get more members, and now may have a rhythm guitar player player who can toss people through the air with her mind and somehow create haunted houses, of a sort, who has also killed over 10 people by accident, but hey: bands need rep, right?
S.A.F.E. is finding things harder going than planned, since Doctor D has taken extreme steps to protect his drug shipments -- steps that led to armed men in battle armour killing Nattie, though it didn't take. Nattie and Damien are reevaluating things, as is Trevor.
For her part, Kami is trying to keep people sane, is the employee of the month (!) and may win a car in a raffle! Sullivan seems occupied with other matters and the Illuminati have yet to try and contact Kami, unless of course they already have.
Meanwhile, a bit across town, Mason's two weeks of dealing with his own change have taken a turn for the bizarre that seems to involving a woman named Claire who is trying to start riots involving Mason for reasons of her own, going as far as manipulating a brand-new Omega and refusing to explain herself at all. She does seem to have wanted Mason involved in problems and is quite annoyed all her attempts at causing that seem to have failed thus far.
Upcoming Fun! [Which should include more dice, please. - Your Unfriendly Homicidal Editor Sparkie]
The band is trying to get more members, and now may have a rhythm guitar player player who can toss people through the air with her mind and somehow create haunted houses, of a sort, who has also killed over 10 people by accident, but hey: bands need rep, right?
S.A.F.E. is finding things harder going than planned, since Doctor D has taken extreme steps to protect his drug shipments -- steps that led to armed men in battle armour killing Nattie, though it didn't take. Nattie and Damien are reevaluating things, as is Trevor.
For her part, Kami is trying to keep people sane, is the employee of the month (!) and may win a car in a raffle! Sullivan seems occupied with other matters and the Illuminati have yet to try and contact Kami, unless of course they already have.
Meanwhile, a bit across town, Mason's two weeks of dealing with his own change have taken a turn for the bizarre that seems to involving a woman named Claire who is trying to start riots involving Mason for reasons of her own, going as far as manipulating a brand-new Omega and refusing to explain herself at all. She does seem to have wanted Mason involved in problems and is quite annoyed all her attempts at causing that seem to have failed thus far.
Upcoming Fun! [Which should include more dice, please. - Your Unfriendly Homicidal Editor Sparkie]
- How long can Mason stay in the building if weird stuff keeps happening?
- Will Jerry's ad for Omega band members in the local free magazine get answered?
- Will Kami end up with a car that calls her 'Michael'?
- How long will it be before Nattie realized that Kami wasn't kidding about the horror stories of being a telepath in a world were other Omegas are scared of them ...
- Along the same lines, how long will Sullivan be allowed to use kids gloves regarding Kami?
- Can Archie continue to remain the best roommate ever?
- What does Barry plan to try next in his quest for Omega Rights?
Meta note 2: A game where one PC can think solutions insanely fast and one is a telepath does bode poorly for a lot of those secretive organizations trying to hide their goals from them. Which should be great :)
Thursday, March 03, 2011
Aurora Consurgens: fun essay
Something for Kami to find on the 'net Sunday morning before she heads out shopping ....
Understanding The Future
A paper by Dr. Kim Li, department of philosophy, Freemont University-College.
The world is too small. You can drop pins, and people find out. The world is too small. Elvis can fake his own death and hide for decades, preparing for a comeback tour with Michael Jackson. Both these things are truth (the small, the big). We live in a global world, a connected world, and despite the worries about the next great plague it has many benefits, as with most other paradoxes. It is easy to hide, but hard to not be found if people go looking.
All the old truths and certainties of even the last century are being swept away. Information is power, knowledge our candle in the dark and access is everything. We have it, are learning from it. (See 'San Francisco Crime Watch' (Robinson, Crusoe , 2009) for an example: citizens can chart out where the worst crimes are, since the police files are transparent, and push for action in those area.) We live in a world that is becoming more transparent. Libertarians would have us rejoice in this, believing we're all adult enough to deal sensibly with the data we are given. Conservatives believes only they should have the data and use it as they see fit. Liberals, of course, change their minds daily. (I was told I had to write a Political Essay this year: that paragraph is it. If you want to waste your time being offended, go do so.)
Everyone hears the stories and rumours of strange people with impossible gifts, curses, powers and the like. A lot of the evidence for them is anecdotal at present, but will likely not remain that way. There are deeper questions as to how new these people are, how they were hidden and so forth but it is, generally, rather easy to trick people. (For example, you are reading this essay.) If even a third – if even one – of these stories has basis in fact, it is a paradigm-changing moment for the world. Read that sentence again: if you aren't scared, you didn't understand it. The last one was, arguably, the atom bomb.
Historically, such paradigms don't go down well: the old world discovered the new, and decided the inhabitants weren't human. What we have are humans evolving into other states, possibly even post-human ones, and how we deal with that will determine if we are the old world or the new. If you see a man whose skin is covered in bark, what would you do? What will you do? What won't you do? We have deep troubles dealing with differences in our society, hiding away gimps, cripples, freaks until recently, throwing people into institutions because it was easier than accepting them as human beings.
Do you think we shall ever have pictures in fashion magazines of people in wheelchairs and have it not treated as a kind of game? How, then, do we deal with people who used to be normal and how look like horror-movie monsters, or (worse still?) look entirely normal and do monstrous things that are impossible to our limited understanding of the world? These are not idle questions. They deserve answers and need answers, but each of us will answer them differently, and hope that we can be the best in humanity when it comes times to truly face the questions.
Because there will be monsters, if we treat them like monsters. There will be war, if we think they are not like us. I am not saying it will be easy to accept such things. I am not even saying that we can, but I feel the effort most be made and, if we cannot achieve understanding, we could fake it under the guise of tolerance. If they are to be the future – if we do not fight them in a war to the death – could we at least have them say we tried, as best we could, to accept?
Understanding The Future
A paper by Dr. Kim Li, department of philosophy, Freemont University-College.
The world is too small. You can drop pins, and people find out. The world is too small. Elvis can fake his own death and hide for decades, preparing for a comeback tour with Michael Jackson. Both these things are truth (the small, the big). We live in a global world, a connected world, and despite the worries about the next great plague it has many benefits, as with most other paradoxes. It is easy to hide, but hard to not be found if people go looking.
All the old truths and certainties of even the last century are being swept away. Information is power, knowledge our candle in the dark and access is everything. We have it, are learning from it. (See 'San Francisco Crime Watch' (Robinson, Crusoe , 2009) for an example: citizens can chart out where the worst crimes are, since the police files are transparent, and push for action in those area.) We live in a world that is becoming more transparent. Libertarians would have us rejoice in this, believing we're all adult enough to deal sensibly with the data we are given. Conservatives believes only they should have the data and use it as they see fit. Liberals, of course, change their minds daily. (I was told I had to write a Political Essay this year: that paragraph is it. If you want to waste your time being offended, go do so.)
Everyone hears the stories and rumours of strange people with impossible gifts, curses, powers and the like. A lot of the evidence for them is anecdotal at present, but will likely not remain that way. There are deeper questions as to how new these people are, how they were hidden and so forth but it is, generally, rather easy to trick people. (For example, you are reading this essay.) If even a third – if even one – of these stories has basis in fact, it is a paradigm-changing moment for the world. Read that sentence again: if you aren't scared, you didn't understand it. The last one was, arguably, the atom bomb.
Historically, such paradigms don't go down well: the old world discovered the new, and decided the inhabitants weren't human. What we have are humans evolving into other states, possibly even post-human ones, and how we deal with that will determine if we are the old world or the new. If you see a man whose skin is covered in bark, what would you do? What will you do? What won't you do? We have deep troubles dealing with differences in our society, hiding away gimps, cripples, freaks until recently, throwing people into institutions because it was easier than accepting them as human beings.
Do you think we shall ever have pictures in fashion magazines of people in wheelchairs and have it not treated as a kind of game? How, then, do we deal with people who used to be normal and how look like horror-movie monsters, or (worse still?) look entirely normal and do monstrous things that are impossible to our limited understanding of the world? These are not idle questions. They deserve answers and need answers, but each of us will answer them differently, and hope that we can be the best in humanity when it comes times to truly face the questions.
Because there will be monsters, if we treat them like monsters. There will be war, if we think they are not like us. I am not saying it will be easy to accept such things. I am not even saying that we can, but I feel the effort most be made and, if we cannot achieve understanding, we could fake it under the guise of tolerance. If they are to be the future – if we do not fight them in a war to the death – could we at least have them say we tried, as best we could, to accept?
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