Tales from Fairview: House Rules

This is a revision of the previous house rules (since that one lacked clarity). "Funky stuff" is a technical term for weapons doing other effects than just damage.

Critical Hits

As per the normal rules, difference of 12 between attacker and defender nets double damage for the attacker. 12 more is triple and so forth. Rolling a 12 to hit (and not getting that difference) only nets double damage if one has Critical Strike. The GM confused the two as the same thing.


The Dreaded 2

Rolling a 2 to attack or defend. If you still win the attack or defense, you do so very poorly and, if it is an attack, funky weapon stuff doesn't work at GMs discretion. Perhaps more importantly, your opponent realizes how badly you stumbled and may get a bonus to their next attack or defense. For the most part, it's intended to be RPed as situations dictate.

Rolling a 12

If you roll a 12, you hit. If the defender still wins the roll, attackers damage is limited as equal to ACV (and, at GMs discretion, no funky stuff). If you get a 12 and win, the opponent may suffer a morale loss and so forth based on how awesome you were. On the flip side, they're also aware of what your limit for 'best' is.


Both the 12 and 2 are meant to be largely RPed in terns of story effects. If you succeed because of a 12, it looks really awesome. If you fail because of a 2, it looks that much worse. If either results in critical hit/failure, you screw the pooch badly or open up a can of awesome.


Ties

This is the real rules revision: Ties now go to the defender in a battle, not the attacker.


Divine Relationship

A few things: it can only be used once per round and the total refreshes every day, not every game session. Also, if you do use it in combat, this is noticed by the foe. You almost fail, manage to recover at the last moment and so on. This will get noticed if it happens more than once in the same fight, and if the battle is anything Official, cheating may be called :)

Fairview: some meta notes

Session Complications: Generally, what we end up with is four players, their pcs sometimes at four different times, doing different things. (Monday's session even had Joni doing things Sunday and then finishing up Sat. night stuff.) Add in combat, trying to keep notes, spark's quotes and trying to somehow keep continuity together* and things get, well, complicated. Fun, but complicated.

The downside of that is that sometimes one character will get the short end of the attention stick, as it were. Generally speaking, the player who arrives last tends to have this problem, mostly because everything is in full-swing with everyone else. To try and alleviate this, some thoughts:

1) Get in touch/involved with the other PCs. (This is, generally, a good idea all around.)

2) If the plot doesn't really allow for that -- say, Karl waiting on the inquisition -- poke me in channel a few times if/when you find it too slow. A lot of players are playing to rather late hours in their timezone, and I'd rather not have any of you feel the time was wasted. So nag if need be :)

* This has held together shockingly well, often thanks to players taking broad hints, like Leon insisting Alex join him for lunch since other PCs and NPCs had broken into her office in an event playing out before Alex arrived at said office. Ah, the joys of time.


Side sessions: These will mostly be for single-player plot bits that mostly just involve that character. Rei taking Dennis to the vet was the most recent one and gave them some RP time as well as allowing Rei to figure out more about what went down Thursday night. Karl will be taking more steps to find his computer this weekend and so forth.


Sheets: Everyone has 30 XP right now. Modification of character sheets is allowed, within reason. (If you want to stop having/using a major ability, say it burned out ... though your character won't know that, and may well try to use it again.) Send me updated sheets, preferably before Monday.

Fariview: Hope's Poems

For Rei, because she dared read poems by a girl who lost her brother. (Alas, the GM was not in a really gothy mood.)

i.

there are no words
no words to say
grey emptiness within
blank smiles without

all I do is grasp edges
thought is stained with grief
I miss even hating him
we are the total of our regrets

ii.

We never talked as strangers do
My brother, he and I.
The silences are deeper now
And all his words a veil.

We never spoke as friends do,
Trading light grey lies.
All my thoughts have weight now
I whisper lest I wail.

iii. [This one is crossed out savagely, but readable]

Sometimes the strong are O! so weak with secrets they can never keep
One wrong word and panic leaps 'til only death alone can reap;
It's only love I want to speak, but his fears sweet silence keeps
Grey truth and lies slowly creep while loss hides hope and weeps

iv.


They told me you were dead and gone
And that alone I must continue on.
They told me you have gone away
To a place I may visit yet someday.
But all I saw and all I know
Is they put you in the ground.
Tell me that it isn't so,
That gravestones are fairy mounds.

I wish that I could believe
That some part of you hasn't forgot,
I wish I could deceive
Myself that death's not our lot
I wish I could feel relief
If we just lie there and rot
But I can't help but believe.

All the empty words that people say
Can't bring you back to me today,
I waited here until grey dawn
But the day has come and gone.

v.

when I think of death I think
of silence and the end
of empty halls and laid-down burdens
grey gardens we no longer tend

And when I life of life I know
that all things must break
and heart's lessons are scar's
tissue and all we forsake.

vi.

Each word I write is poor and fettered.
Pictures found worth untold worls.
The truth is a liar, the wise man says.
All I know is what is gone.
All I feel is hollow and grey.
All I wish is for an end.

Fairview March Update

So. We're at 22 official sessions (34 in total) in 4 months and things are going pretty well. Two weeks have passed in game-time and most of the current major players on the stage have made their various moves and now the PCs get to ruin all of that in the way that only PCs can. Charcter-wise:

Alex is preparing for the big fencing tournament Sunday in game. As Chaos is busy this month with classes, this is pretty much largely an Alex-centric background event which works fine as is.
Bea's player is MIA, so Bea's mirror-clone has taken over but has yet to interfere with the other PCs. Yet.
Joni is trying to deal with the Grey Man via the kids in comas and has gained access to a lot of magical books that she and Ike are in the process of translating.
Karl, newly arrived to Fairview, is dealing with attempted (and successful) mind control by students at the IT lap and currently attempting to get his company to contain the thing that Brodie has become. What Vericorp will do with their own weird monster remains to be seen.
Rei, for her part, thinks the scientologist hospital sicked the Grey Man/Kyle on Fairview General and is planning to use them against the Grey Man. Somehow. That or burn the hospital down.

Sparkie is rather miffed that, on the rare occasions he does side with an NPC, PCs keep winning the dice contests anyway.

NOTE: PCs will get 30 experience once we hit session #30 [Karl shall get his at ~session #40]. This was planned since I figured by then a lot of PCs and NPCs would be aware of each others powers and limits, and this gives them another edge (or two or three) to surprise with. It can be spent or saved as needed.

Tales from Fairview: the end of February thing

Okay. February has ended, It is Wednesday of the second week fo the campaign. We've had 20+ sessions and are now up to 5 players. Current plot threads include: The Grey Man, The Grey Men, the Stoffels, ninjas, school and work, other magicians and possibly werewolves being beaten up for justice. Other plots include Leon finding a BF for his daughter, what is happening to Joni's foster brother the slow destruction of Peter Danier the kendo club president and the utter apathy of the police force in responding to anything at all.

Upcoming plots include a Praetorian Academy-sponsored fencing tournament (This weekend in game: mark it on your calendars!) and presumably Eugene Stoffel either going right around the bend, clinging to the shores of sanity or taking a long vacation.

So far the overall linking plot is the Grey Man's threat to destroy the city (somehow) and that the Grey Men, who claim to be watching events, seem to find most of the PCs worthy of study and examination. That the self-called watchers have taken to using guns and knives and trying to kill for information just makes things more interesting.


Things to keep in mind:

Plots will NOT come looking for PCs that often. If you want your character to be involved, get involved. They need to go out and do things. Visit and/or spy on NPCs and PCs, get to know people outside a school/work setting, meet people, make use of their weird abilities to find out what they are capable of, etc. Go to work or school, fine. But your character can go out after, have dinner, visit a bar or pub, go for a walk in the park, meet their neighbours. Boring characters make for a boring game, after all. If you feel the character needs to be pushed out of their comfort zone to do so, chat with the GM and other players for ideas.

Fairview: 9 sessions in

To date: 3 presessions and 4 official sessions (really 6, counting the other-night ones). Currently all the PCs have met each other*, if only briefly, and have yet to get along. I suspect that running presessions where pcs do not meet is not something I shall do in the future and that, ideally, everyone will know everyone else before a game begins.
* Bea excepted, since Fen is away for a couple of weeks.

Plot wise, there are grey men (who seem to have something to do with dreams) following certain PCs, a man called the Grey Man who seems to wish the destruction of the city, a cult centred around Roy's brother who seem to have summmoned an angel and several other things that have been hinted at. PC-wise, there is Leon's quest to get his daughter married, Alex's quest for more students and funding, Joni dealing with her foster family and the odd friends and enemies she's developed and Rei's quest to find her brother and not get fired from work. (For her part, Bea is looking for a teacher of magic and has claimed an otherworldly entity as her servant, by its choice, which seems to be connected to a Mr. Stoffel, a rich man who owned a lighting company and is now quite dead.)

Some plots are connected, others are not: unlike other games where X is solved and the game ends, this game has been designed with several plots going on at once and each PC knowing things the others do not about some of them. The PCs shall naturally create new plots, adding complications and generally make life for the inhabitants of Fairview quite interesting.

Lastly, a list of NPCs has been put up that is semi-complete.

The end of presesssions

Game time has been set at 9 pm EST, Monday and Thursday nights.

So far, plot-wise, we have 4 PCs, all female (which is new) and three out of four of them have been followed and/or stalked by mysterious parties. Session #1 and on will be party-based and most sessions take place, in the game world, as afternoon-evening, since the pcs have work and/or classes during the day.

Current connections between PCs:
Alex: Has been trying to get students from the HS to her fencing school, has students from it. (Including probably Joni's foster brother).
Bea: has adopted some magical stalker who has gone out to see interesting things for her. Currently fixated on a house in the wealthy part of town. And if any PC needs someone to do do taxes, perfect!
Joni and Rei: Both go to the same school.

There are others, of course, but will not be given away at present (Hint: everyone is connected to Roy.).

The Fall of Fairview Pleasant Pointe

[00:45:59] fennec: "This blog needs to be used more." -- alcar. mon, aug 10, 2009.
[00:46:07] * fennec reads the blog! :b

Kentari decided to make a BESM game also.

Go HERE for details.

Tales from Fairview: taken things

(This shall be updated as PCs are made and changed)

Taken:

Appearance
Chimera
Cthulhu kindred
Demon
Fencing
Fire [by Spark]
Luck
Mind Control/Telepath
Ninja
Pet Monster
True Swordsmanship without cheating

(Current as of: Dec 20)

BESM Game?

ETA: Game will be titled Tales From Fairview

Okay! Here we go: a new game idea, reasoning(s) behind it etc. and so forth.

System: BESM 3e, ~450 points (stats, attributes, skills). Dynamic Powers'll be a no-go unless whatever the player has in mind (like a werewolf) can only be done via that. Power Flux is viable, magic as well.

Time: Mon., Thurs. or Friday night, ~7pm PST (10pm EST).

Setting: Earth, modern day, nameless large North American city. PC ages are entirely up to the players* but we've done enough college, school, etc. games that I'd rather this wasn't one. It doesn't mean pcs can't be school students, just that said things won't be a focus of the game.
* I'd personally be happy if some people want to tackle the 'playing relatives' idea we've bandied about.

Characters: Pick something you want to make and make it. The idea is to go for anime-style fun so being able to hold oneself in combat (both social and phsyical) is probably a good idea. Everyone should take at least one defect [curses are encouraged] and think anime when figuring out powers and the character.

The world: It's this world, only most people ignore the weird shit. People can only handle so much reality, and even less unreality: gas main explosions, drugs, kids being kids and such will be concocted to explain things. Or people freak out and then manage to forget whatever they saw quickly. The government is aware of such things, and the men in black (to say nothing of the men in mauve) are present and tend to quietly make sure no one rocks the boat too far.

Why these abilities exist and how people come into them are unknown, at least to the pcs. There'll be many theories, of course, from aliens to gods and even everyone being game pieces created by gods known as 'players'. It is NOT a superhero game and anyone trying to be one is liable to find a depressing lack of supervillains.

Despite all the awesome, the mundane still exists: family, taxes, jobs and so forth.

Note: How the players connect together'll depend on what you all make. You could all work at the same place, all be Freemasons, have some wealthy friend/patron/sugardaddy in common: it'll depend on what is made.

Note 2: If someone decides something is their schtick (i.e. their thing) then no one else can get it, or at least not be as good as they are. (No one should be obligated to have to get a schtick; it's just for thems who wants one.) If someone wants to be the best-ever master of telepathy, it's theirs, meaning that they can go to 6-7 in the power and no one else can. Chat with other players before taking something as a Big Thing in case it conflicts with someone else's idea. Being 'the werewolf' and such could also count as this.

Note3: Everyone gets 2 levels of mind shield and resistance for free.

Under the hood: This idea was based on me thinking about what made other games fun and a game with a lot of lattitude. Chaos's bdsm game, early lolad and some aspects of kbesm fit into this. Ditto with that you can play character you've made before, if you want to try them in another setting and so forth. Depending on how things go, multiple characters for players might get allowed if people are willing.

Keep in mind that this is a modern earth game. Characters from other earths/times are not encouraged concepts. (Half demons and such, sure, but Victorian Adventurer dragged out of time or dwarf from Fantasy World not so much). Characters should be human or at least able to pass for human under the right light. As well, most characters will just be coming into their powers and/or just aware of most of them. As pcs don't start with handbooks, most characters should have to discover the various abilities they have rather than just knowing they can do X, Y, Z offhand.

The nature of the setting will depend a lot on what players make. Give your character a nature and theme (sci fi, supernatural, magical girl, or whatever) and the game will synthesize all of that together. Keep in mind general anime ideas, fun, and what other people make: if everyone else makes supernatural-themed, and you go for a cyborg some rethinking could be necessary.

Toss thoughts here, in #game1 etc.

Start date: Early January. (Attempting to run games over xmas is fraught with peril :))

Attendance: Need not be Mandatory. If you don't think you can make certain sessions or times, build reasons into the character for it.

Summaries etc: Will be done on the forum rather than a webpage, unless someone else wishes to make one.

And we're back(ish)!

November gives way to December. Games shall return. Exactly what, in terms of having more than 2 players, remains unknown at present.

Whatever runs'll depend on what people feel like, after general consensus.

About the only thing in my head at the moment is a very vague modern besm game, 450 points, make whatever you want, build game around what players make.

Games on hold (that alcar runs)

It's november. The usual :)

Plague of Demons

To give the new side game a proper title.

The premise is that it's 1345, 2 years before the Black Plague strikes, and the current PC, Pam, is a demon hunter. Basically, many (if not all) plagues in history were caused by demons prior to this, and Genghis Khan's invasion was actually a demonic army, or at least had demons in it. Prior to this, demons had little knowledge of how to fight wars.

Pam is a demon hunter for the Order, an organization funded by the Church to protect Christendom -- and the rest of the world -- from the demons of Hell. Pam's family is well known in the church and produce many members of the order and high-ranking priests from the far-off land of England. She's joined the Order, been paired up with 2 other novices (Rose, a healer, and Bede, a thief/magician) who are seeking a supposed Necromancer or Sorcerer north of Rome and Saint Jude's Academy, where they get trained.

Normally, novices wouldn't be sent out on their own, but the Order seems to be short handed and their true mission is to find signs of demonic activity close to Rome. They've been ordered by Abbot Costello to not engage the Necromancer and asked by Gerard, the spear-wielding member of the Order who took them on their first mission, to find out if the Necromancer is a real one and if he can die.

At present they've reached the city of Reti and so far encountered people spell-bound to raise the dead, a sorcerer making a magical Gate and, currently, a weapon in Reti capable of killing Healers. The Necromancer seems aware of them and is throwing up roadblocks to slow them down, but to what end remains unknown.

THE WORLD IS IN YOUR HANDS

This is not an idle statement: to save the world from itself, several superhuman beings have banded together and taken over the entire world. You are among this number. Each of you is far more than human, capable of feats inspiring both awe and terror. You are the heroes, the guardians of a new age, and this is your story.

The year is 2020, the Year of Good Vision. By 2011, the middle east had enough nukes to turn each other into piles of dust, and all sides were willing to use it. Russia was sliding back into communism, the USA was entering into another cold war, China was threatening to cripple the global economy without using a single weapon, global warming had reached a fever pitch, Africa was a mess the world was having trouble ignoring and everything seemed to be heading down a long dark tunnel with a mach at the end.

That was when a group of superhumans – heroes and villains – got together and declared the world under their protection and law. Superhumans had existed since the first word war (blossoming in the second) but had mostly fought their own battles, dealt with their own kind. They were gods, but their concerns were with heaven and not earth, as one wag put it.

Until they came down off their mountains, put aside their old battles (what became of their myriad foes remains unknown) and the heroes went to the villains and told them that we all lived on the same world, that it meant we were on the same side, and by dint of compromise and debate, the Protectorate was born.

And despite all the naysayers and new age gurus and the revelationsists, the world past 2012 thanks to them. Nuclear weapo ns were destroyed along with those far more dangerous, governments abolished. The hoarded wealth of the Swiss banks was used in africa, along with the monies at the Vatican never used to actually help the poor. Wealth was redistributed, and goods as well.

Eight years have passed, and the world is a far different place. Most of the world counts as a second-world country (running about the level of technology from the early 90s: cable TV, cable for computers, pentium IIIs and cellphones though things are steadily improving). Most governments have been reinstated, organized religions given very limited access to funds, and militaries are pretty much folded into the police for each country. And over it all the gods watch, patient, their vigil neverending.


This is an idea for a superhero RPG game. Basically, it’s about what happens to humans once the superhumans rule the world. It’s about freedom, security (and happiness), duty, power, responsibility and how far we can go to save each other. It’s about angels and choices, power and will, and the world of our desires.

It’s not a perfect world, but what world is? Things are changing, education has become free and the world is slowly moving towards a one-world government. Goods and wealth have been redistributed, the systems of power that permitted the idea of maximizing profit dismantled or limited, and the world is once more looking towards the future. Only the past keeps rearing up its head, and there are those convinced humanity should never have been saved, those who hate the gods for taking away freedoms, and a few villains still around trying to remake the world in their own image.

The PCs are all members of the Protectorate in good standing. The dark side of the dream has begun to rear up and some believe the dream has reached it’s zenith. No one knows how far various factions will go to achieve their ends. The world has been saved, but whether it is better, whether the current system can remain and so forth are debates ranging about the globe, with no real answer in sight.

System: Undecided. BESM at 900-1000 points might do; the template in my head is roughly analogous to the Justice League in that PCs could easily take down regiments, and maybe destroy a city alone, but no one (at least, no pc) running around with the power to break worlds and moons in half. Weaknesses are required, magic preferably not used and each PC should be able to take a lickin’ and keep on tickin’ as well as have some mode of transport to get to places quickly.

Toss thoughts here or in game1; this is pretty rough at this point.

This blog needs to be used more.

Like, for real.