Aurora Consurgens: Campaign Nature

An adventure is an inconvenience properly considered
- Chesterton

Based upon chats with players on the nature of the game, the following is put forth:

1) This is a game with multiple players often busy at different times and able to play between 2-4 times a week for the most part.
2) The more players active in one channel, the more attention the GM gives it. (This is simply how things work out, for obvious reasons.)
3) Plots exist as connection points between multiple characters (PC and NPC) with combinations thereof eliciting varying results, which in turn get modified by Sparkie anyway. In general, one can assume that PCs are going to be more creative than NPCs.
4) Because of 3, problems can arise that cannot be solved by any one PC or NPC; this is pretty much the nature of games, really. PCs are fallible, and screw up, and are not Mary Sues to be able to solve any problem they make alone. (Also, more PCs involved in a situation means there are other people to blame if things go wrong. Which Sparkie assures me they will.)

As such, one can manage to survive just fine without friends or allies, but with them one can do a lot more. And, if played right, get all the rep. from the situation for yourself, or definitely gain in reputation from being involved in that at all. In other words, PCs need to be proactive in finding allies and friends -- as well as enemies, because one is judged on the caliber of enemy you have as much as anything else.


What this means for sessions is that it behooves players to link up and work together when as as they can; the various groups (the police, SAFE, R2-45, Disco) exist partially to support this. (Hell, it is pretty much the meta-game reason for safe: it exists to make the world a better place, and saying one doesn't want to pretty much defeats the purpose Of being a PC, and a hero of ones own story. Which isn't to say it's the only option; Teresa's a police officer, Temp is also part of Barry's group. Etc.) So, if players are on at the same time and in roughly the same time frame, finding reasons to meet and work together works better for their characters own goals and the game as a whole.

If they aren't, or the PC is busy on a specific plot deal, that's always fine and sometimes to be expected. But given the nature of the game, there are very few plots that will only affect one PC (for example, Mason's school has drawn in SAFE, the police, etc. as a mystery to be solved) and as such are seldom problems one PC can solve alone*. Which doesn't mean they can't try, but just because each PC has a hammer does not mean they are necessarily the right tool for the job, or to nail down a specific nail.

There is no shame in asking for help, as difficult as it might be for PCs to do that, to PCs or NPCs. And yes, this means players will need to chat during (and between) sessions and figure stuff out for how to connect together and share info. and so forth, but that's part of the fun too. If need be, we'll end up trying to set up a couple of specific set nights and have the rest be more loose, but I'd rather avoid that as much as we can at present.

---

* Or they can take a power-boosting drug! It's safe! Honest!

Aurora Consurgens: Alphas

On The Best and Brightest

Kim Li, for the MilInt Report.

Alphas are not something spoken of often in the world: that they exist is accepted in the secret worlds and societies that thrive under the common world, but few -- if any -- in depth studies exist on them, often because those who are in charge of institutions and have no desire to inquire too deeply into their own naturally. However, this deficiency is one that should be rectified in the coming years for Omegas coming to light is also guaranteed to expose alphas, a harsh glare that will compass the following anecdotal data:

1) Alphas account for at least 60% of the top .01% that control ov er 80% of the world's wealth; among this elite, the count less tha 30% of charitable donations. This should not be seen as a slight, but practical realization of the inherent problems of wealth distribution.
2)

AC: Sex and Eugenics

By Dr. Kim Li, special to Sexthulhu Magazine

Being an examination of the Old World and Omegas, with specific reference to the Guild

The history of Omegas in Europe is the history of a vast eugenics experiment. An omega may be defined as two things: an ability and a mutation, and the history of omega eugenics is often attempts to acquire abilities without mutations, but The Guild is unique in sometimes seeking to go the other way.

The history of it is murky at best, often being that of isolated and/or wealthy families who end up with an Omega among them who has a useful talent. The omega then bears of or produces as many offspring as possible, all of whom are kept close to their parent, shown the power and essentially told they will develop it as well. In a family of fliers, this leads to kids being tossed off of rooftops until they fly and so forth. Given the factor of proximity in creating omegas, this would prove a fascinating experiment in the willed nature of omega abilities if data existed about said families. However, propaganda and lies among Guild members makes this difficult to determine.

Despite this, general evidence seems to indicate that at least four generations of such breeding are necessary to achieve adequate result, which is an Omega ability inherited by the family and often weaker than that of other omegas. Curiously, the they breed for mutation rather than ability (for example, strength or toughness) the resulting mutation tends to be stronger but with more physical effects in the long run, which can lead to infertility of one kind or another.

Omega Fertility

Omega fertility is a complicated issue. Some omegas have so little control over their ability as to be virtually unable to engage in sexual acts (for example, a pyro on point of orgasm would burn a room). Or, for example, an Omega whose body produces acid could be unable to bear or produce a child. As well and some mutations render omegas unable to reproduce, such as phasing or invulnerability. Performance anxiety is an obvious problem if you sweat muccus or have a body even your own mother would not love, which further complicates matters. On the whole, however, omegas remain human enough to be able to reproduce with humans and also each other.

Assuming they are compilable, the children of two omegas do tend to end up being born with physical mutations, and conservatively over half the pregnancies do not make it to term. On the flip side, having both parents as omegas means the child is almost 100% likely to become one though not necessarily more powerful than any other.

Aurora Consurgens: Session 70 and plots

So, last session was #69 (and at least included a kiss between PCs to commemorate that). 70 sessions into the game, here are the plots as follows. A lot of this can be considered OOC knowledge.

Doctor D: Drugs to boost alphas and omegas that can sometimes kill them. The PCs have figured out that the drug comes from two people thus far; Gideon Barrie, an omega connected to the trinity nuclear test and Sam Smith, who was injected with Hurt's power and thus linked to the Prodigy Project. One of the labs is currently being spied on and the PCs are quite likely going to be able to kick the Doctor D people from the city, if nothing else, in the short term. Their overall motive in selling cheap drugs that can cause Incidents remains unknown.

Hades: A very powerful omega who can turn alphas into omegas. His blood can also weaken the abilities of weaker omegas; he has left the city, but does have his people (Leo and Rakasha) harassing the Doctor D people for reasons of his own. He seems motivated by causing more evil in the world, simple as that.

The Prodigy Project: A project begun in the 60s intended to making Omegas as weapons that would be indistinguishable from humans and/or have specific abilities the Project needed [Griffin is the only surviving result of that generation]. The second generation included Kami, Lexia, Meghan and Colleen along with the twins (Hurt and Hole). ~15 years ago it became illegal to experiment on omegas as the Project did, so it shut down and discarded the various results, perhaps sending the most promising to other countries where Dynamic Solutions Inc wouldn't have to deal with pesky regulations. The twins were were sent to an underground lab in the city and experimented on for a further 5 years until the police found out about it, got them out and have them as quasi-officers now.

Omega Rights: An ongoing battle to get proper rights for omegas. Barry, who apparently was damaged clashing with the Illuminati 5 years ago, is heavily involved in this in terms of wishing to inspire others but doesn't take too much of a hands-on approach barring his disastrous attempt to take Alan shopping in the mall. He desires for humans to be the best they can and seems baffled that so many have no desire to be that way.

The Red King: an old enemy of Barry's, who apparently died ~800 years ago but didn't die and has various cults around the world trying to bring him/her/it back. It -- or something like it -- tried to take over the superflow recently but the events with the shadow world and portals disrupted it.

The Eye: A telepathic google that exists in the 'superflow' that is the human unconsciousness. Was heavily damaged during the Illuminati war but at its peak was capable of allowing the illuminati to alter the memories of every human on earth at once.

The Illuminati: A telepathic conspiracy that is millenia -old, the Illuminati existed to hide the existence of omegas (whom they took to be angels and demons) from the world but the rise of scientific thought and infighting slowly damaged it and 5 years ago it seemingly fell apart entirely as those who wanted to rule the world fought those who did not; the surviving members (including Artie) seem content with trying to keep Omegas largely hidden as best they can.

Sutherland University: Mason's alma mater, this is a small arts university whose music whose art and music history teacher (Ignatius Hanrahan) is studying the creativity of the student body and had an arsenal of weapons in his office that included rocket launchers. The headmaster (one Arnold Lien) has apparently travelled to a lot of small art schools and the rates of suicide (and suicide by cop) after he leaves are high. Here, he is connected to a student (and incubus) named Craig and the school is rather mellow and pleasant and entirely devoid of worry over omegas or anger over other things.

Shadow-World The shadow-people have been connected to this world via the actions of Nattie and Kami and one of their own (Misha) apparently came here by accident and is spearheading the invasion. By trying to get windows and cars to hate each other. They used ot be human on their world and became pure shadows, taking over other worlds simply because they can and being full of amusement and arrogance, seeing this world as nothing important at all. But it has defied them ....

PCs chatting to family: Nattie has plans (before she died in the shadow world etc.) to get PCs and NPCs to reveal themselves to their families as part of SAFE helping others without seeming hypocritical about it. As she has been shaken up by the Shadowland experience, this is on hold for the moment though Malik and Temperance are both aware of the plans.

R2-45; The government agency that 'tags' Omegas for study; all the pcs have shut their tags off via one means or another, and this is likely not going to sit well, long term.

The band:Kami, Mason, Tommy, Jerry and Emily are in a band together! Damien is working as their roadie, Malik is becoming a fan ans Jerry wants the band to succeed. A nice, normal plot compared to other things.


GM note: Both the Doctor D and Sutherland University plot are expected to wrap up soonish, given the nature of the PCs in ferreting out information. Other plots have been seeded and new ones exist thanks to the existence of PCs in a world :) The goal for the game is to have several ongoing plots (which may or may not be related) tying in more than one PC so there is no overarching 'the game is over' plot for this game, but also so it can end when and if people want without too many loose ends left dangling.

Aurora Consurgens: hyding

On The Phenomenon of 'Hyde' among Omegas

Dr. Kim Li, special to the Fortean Times

Hyding, as it is known in the rarefied semi-academical world of Omega studies, refers to Omegas whose nature is often hidden from themselves as well as others. In some cases this is a defense mechanism to hide the Omegas nature or protect them from harm, in which case they seldom give away their nature in their 'normal' form. This tends to apply to Omegas whose humanoid 'other' appearance tends to resemble mythical monsters, so the extent to which the change is a psychic break in the mind over what said appearance seems to suggest is a large open question.

Waking up one day with a face only a drunk mother could love and tentacles for legs is, undoubtedly, hard to deal with. Waking up covered in fur and looking like a B-movie werewolf is an entirely differently class of strange and in its own way harder to deal with since the actual resemblance to myths tends to be superficial at best. (For example, no Omega whose appearance could be equated to a werewolf has been bothered by silver or the moon unless rigorously conditioned to believe they should be harmed by such things.) This also applies to Omegas who look like classical gods, demons, angels and so forth: at some level the person isn't able to cope with that and creates a new personality that is the Omega, or at least holds certain aspects of it. That this can be dangerous goes without saying.

The other side are Omegas whose nature is at odds with their personality, or at least their understanding of it. Combative abilities for a pacifist, for example, fit in with this problem. In these cases, the Omegas seem to split their abilities between their normal self and the Other, and most seem to be easily found out as Omegas regardless of appearance in their normal 'self' form. This suggests that a fear of one's own potential is impliclict in this ind of Omega, and hence abilities that are generally destructive or damaging by nature.

Whether the Omega will recall the change -- or what they do when changed -- is likely dependant on psychological factors, which can be mitgated by showing the Omega video of them changing, for example, or pictures of the changed form.

(will finish later)

Summer is the Season for War

I'm a little weary of the random four-hour sagas lately; the individual PC adventures, while interesting, wears thin on everyone involved I'm sure. They're fun, don't get me wrong, but enough of anything can fatigue even the most subtle of tastes. Our games have taken the scheduling and complexity of most marriage-based bedding.

To that end, I'm thinking about touching something we haven't in a long time. A good old-fashioned D&D war game. The premise, style, and so forth is simple: go forth, kill things, get treasure and experience. Intriguing plots, silly themes, and NPC casts warranting expositions are all things I want to shelf for this run, if it runs. Alcar probably won't like it at all, but some of you others might.

Combat will be grid-based and different from the typical setup in that I won't make it as one-person-at-a-time. That is because people are kind of slow, and I will not run more than two sessions of this thing if I have to sit through a 45-minute kobold beatdown.

Our availabilities are all still somewhat odd. The tried and true method of everyone sitting down for an hour or two would be good, but I honestly am hesitant to commit to anything. I prefer more asynchronous methods these days unless we can all hit up a regular schedule, and to that end, I'm not sure what the best way to do this would be. I don't like regular schedules, but I like having everyone around the same table. I don't know how to get the egg without the chicken!

If there's interest, toss me a line sometime. Not here, though. I hardly ever check here.