Answering Questions .. and Adding a Few More

Aslhk's reply to my ramblings on magic...

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So, here is a list of magic-defining questions:

What is magic?
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Where does magic come from?
How does it work?
Is it systematic or chaotic?
Is it dependable?
Who can use it?
What is the cost of using it?
Is it learned or is it something people are born into?
How often can it be used?
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What does magic do?
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What is an entire day like in the life of a budding mage? What about the life of a successful mage? The life of an uber-powerful mage?

Do spells have to be prepared before hand, or is magic spontaneous?

Is there a certain list of effects that can be achieved with magic? How about a list of effects that can't be achieved?


How often can magic be used? What happens if someone uses it too much? What are the ill effects of using magic on a person? The beneficial effects? How about the effects of suddenly not using magic (quitting "cold turkey")?

What sort of things are required to do magic? Ritual? Strange Materials? Time? Energy? A weird Crystal? A magic wand!? WHAT!?!?

Tell me more about this magic stuff.

How does magic influence society?
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Who learns it? Can anyone learn? What about the poor people who can't even read? Can they learn?

How is it learned? How does the common person feel about his son learning magic? What about an aristocrat?

Go through the daily life of a peon with emphasis on the parts of his life that are influenced by magic. Does he use a magic axe? Does his wife clean the kitchen with a spell? How does he feel about magic users?

Are magic users respected, feared, or treated like engineers?

How influential are magic users?

Okay, that's enough for now! It's someone else's turn. In some games, this questionairre may need to be filled out several times. For example, g&g had several distinct magic types, each with its own prices, power levels, and social aspects. In D&D, divine magic and arcane magic are very similar but the social aspects can be quite different. Ah well, enough babble! In short, fill out the parts that change--don't bother writing the same thing three or four times.

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Other Considerations:

Mine are mostly meta-game thoughts....


What do YOU want magic to accomplish, both in the system and cultural milieu?
By this, I mean: What do people think of magic and magic users? Do they fear them? Why? Because it is possible? Because of some clich? Mage War? The power/effectiveness of magic is a system response to the cultural question. To me, the attitude of people to magic is the most important issue to address, and the reasons for it.

What kinds of magic are there? How is each treated? How common are they?

How do people become magic users is very important. Is it inborn? If so, is it inherited? If it is taught, who is allowed to learn it? What different varieties are taught?

Why do people bother to learn/develop magic anyway?
This depends on how magic is viewed in their society. And if this is widespread .... though they'd still need good reasons to move to Kingdom Magic'R'Us anyway ... and have a way to get there.

How does society/mages police magic users? Are their laws regarding how/when it can be used? Spells that are illegal to learn/teach?

And finally, not a question, but some ideas...

- Diseases unique to magic users.
- Magic-eating creatures and the like are fun, too.
- Dangers inherent in magic use (cthulhuesque monsters, say?)

All I can think of, so far......

INTERVIEW WITH THE WERE

INTERVIEW WITH THE WERE

Just doing some prep stuff for the LOLAD novel, basically. Thought I'd share this snippet.

"This isn't going to be like that last interview, is it? I spent weeks being laughed at by friends as being the first were mousse. I don't even let Junior eat dessert. It rots the teeth."
"Ah, no, ma'am. I'll let you preview this before it goes to the printer."
"How nice of you. For the record, it's were moose. M-O-O-S-E."
"You can become a moose?"
"Of course. And a cat, but I prefer being a moose. Except in the parks. Tourists are evil."
"They are?"
"One of them stared at me and said I was the ugliest horse he'd ever seen!"
"I see. Well, do you mind the tape recorder? I'd be typing this, but, well, your son, ah, my computer."
"What?"
"Well, your son pissed on my computer. Ma'am."
"Oh, that. Don't worry. Jerry is just going through a marking his territory phase. You can use ours."
"Ma'am, that is a typewriter."
".... And?"
"A typewriter isn't a computer."
"Oh. I'd always wondered why the names changed. I thought it was copyright. So Underwood doesn't make computers?"
"No, ma'am. They don't really make typewriters anymore. But I don't we're here to talk about that. You claim to be a were moose?"
"Oh, no. No, I don't."
"What?"
"I don't claim to be one. I am one."
".... Right."
"But I can't show you."
"Why not? Is there a veil?"
"A veil? I'm not widowed."
"I meant, some magic that somehow makes it possible for your existence to have been hidden from the world for centuries."
"What are you talking about?"
"So you're saying there isn't one?"
"You think there is one?"
"No, I - never mind. So why can't you change?"
"My husband doesn't like me doing it in front of food."
"Food? Did you say food?"
"He's rather old fashioned. I keep telling him drive throughs are to order food, not eat the tellers, but never listens. Men never do. Anyway, dear, he'd punch you in the face a few times, which is why I can't - say, you're looking pale. Are you all right?"
"Fine."
"But you look really pale!"
"I'm fine, really.."
"And besides, why would you think we're hidden? You know about us!"
"But that's just stories, myths."
"So you're saying it's not real? Is that it?"
"Ah. Maybe we can continue this some other day?"
"If you want to. I have to feed Junior anyway. And make sure he doesn't mark his territory on anything else today. I'm thinking of investing in a cattle prod."
"A .. My. Look at the time. I'd better go. Deadlines to make, stories to write..."
"It's a shame Otis wasn't here. I'll have to let him know you came by, Mister... Say, I never got your name."
"Uh. John. John ... Johnson. Good day to you!"
"What a curious man. Jun .... Otis Junior! Were you making faces at the poor man? You were, weren't you! What have I told you about changing in front of guests! Get over here right now and if you even think about marking territory on him I'll make sure you never can again, you got it! Good. Children these days.... When your father gets home, he'll be angry, you mark my words. No meat for a week, at the very least! But at least you did mark him for your father, just in case."

Looking for ideas for Weres for the loladish novel

I'm trying to figure out a dark side for weres, a part of their culture that has gone to evil or something like that. Vampires have Shadows (vamps who feed on other supernaturals), fae have faelings (stillborn babies) ..... nothing for were, yet. I don't want to go into a cliched "hunts down and eats flesh" idea...... so looking for anything anyone is up for suggestion.
Thanks.

Making Worlds Unique....

Caveat: I'm sure unique isn't quite the right word. But it'll do.

What do I mean, then? Mostly - uniqueness isn't always good. Really unique ideas will have people going "huh?" Example: A sci fi setting where the heroes are preventing an alien invasion using feel good music and time travel to the middle ages to retrieve artifacts lost by a previous team - which turns out to have been them - and they run the risk of meeting themselves and blowing up all of creation, which, according to their superiors, should be terrifying enough to convince the invaders to not invade or risk - literally - everything, but in order to do so they must destroy it and stop themselves form doing so, again if necessary. And since everything is here, they did, but the aliens are still invading so they didn't. And then add in some MIB types trying to protect time, a time travelling Homer writing the Iliad and a bunch of other stuff ... yeah, unique, but so is jumping off a building spray painted neon black and screaming "I sunk Atlantis!" in sanskrit while trying to do a triple gainer and half flip and drink a ceasar.

So, uniqueness is not all it's cracked up to be by any shot. Heck, there's, what, only 3 stories that get told? Being unique is more taking the normal and distorting it, or asking "what if?". But diffference. Ah, difference is what we want I think ... a world that has something that can be said to be it's own, to separate it from the many other settings, something you can sum up quickly. (Go ahead, pick a setting and try it. If the setting is any good, you can do it.)

So, you have the difference that gives the setting it's punch, what makes it stand out from the crowd. But that's not all (or even enough), so we get ot the heart of making a world different - alter the normal. For examples:

• a culture where everyone is raised communally and have no concept of family
• A matrilineal culture where men who dress up as women are considered women and can then run their own household, can only marry men etc.. Entirely a gender issue, no sexuality stuff involved.
• Barbarians with no concept of money at all invading civilisation to steal bird feathers to sacrifice to their gods because all the native ones died in a plague
• A city where people never speak for fear of offending the gods.
• A town where everyone dresses in bright colours to blind death

Little things, yeah, and best done if the PCs are all from a small town or new to the continent etc. (Gives you a lot more time to make stuff up and throw at them.) Confound PC (and player) ideas..... use culture. See what happens. Make players THINK.

Your mileage may vary.

Game Idea I Need To Get Out Of My Head

The Lodik War
King Lodik is dying and the realm of Manichee is being engulfed in a perilous succession war over the throne. The six Dukedoms are dying to control the sons of the king and assassination has become the rule of the day, with the peasants waiting for the lords to murder each other off so they can return to harvesting crops or face a famine the lords either do not know about or are too embroiled in their plots to care about.

Note: This is conceivced as a one-kingdom game, making setting creation much quicker than in most games.

The Kingdom of Manichee

Geography: The land of Manichee is a wealth of pastureland and forest in the north, bounded by the Grey Teeth Mountains that are all but impassible. To the east the land is bound by a foul swamp said to be inhabited by the dread witch Jeliz - none have returned from its depths. In the south the land is farmland and rivers, bound at it's end by the Wasting, the relic of a long forgotten war. Only the west allows travel to othger lands by the Jagged Coast, and travel through the reefs is perilous during the summer, the only months one can make it to their land safely.
But 300 years ago a way through the Swamps was discovered and trade with the outside world, largely the kinddom of Caryldan, has prospered, bringing new sciences and modern weapons into the land.

Succession: For well over 800 years the line of Lodik has ruled in a Salic succession, but the kings only surviving son died last night of natural causes (for kings to be, assassination counts as a natural cause). The war over who takes the throne next is heating up and renegade ideas of having the females (or their male children) included in the line of succession have threatened to split the kingdom in half.

The royal family is listed below. Males are in CAPS, females in lowercase. No spouses etc. are listed to save time.

LODIK	DAVIS (dead)	A BASTARD
	Mira	A PC RAFAEL
	MAX (the fool)	UGIT Elwen
HERON	Riles
Alluwen	Madine	Vesyil A PC
	TOLKIR	MORN Alyesha DURK A PC

Note: MAX is mentally challegened, and many believe him unfit for the throne even though he is next in line. His son UGIT is a sadist, and but-ugly. His daughter is slow.

Magic: Magic is done a la modern earth witchcraft and is very iffy to use, rarely works right, and is mistrusted. The rule of 3 applies.

Religion: Some gods, but they are not involved in the world and their names mostly only known to the secretive priests who serve them (Mystery cults, more or less)

Society The King rules all. His word is law, no one breaks it. Under him are the Dukes who rule the 6 dominions in the kings name. Under them are Barons, under then knights, then villagers, peasants, and slaves. Slavery is rare (there are better things to trade with the outside world) but does occur. Indetured servants rank with slaves and are basically peasants given to/sold off to a baron because the family can't afford to raise them.
Barons rule their area with approval from the Duke. They can enforce laws as they wish, and most Dukes are just concerned that they pay their taxes and train knights. The Dukes settle all disputes between baronies (and between peasants and their lord, if one reaches their notice). The king settles ducal disputes and is the final authority in the world, seen as the embodiment of the gods will by the pious.
(Some kings in the past have even displayed royal powers but they tend to be rare.)
Laws are whatever the King says. Taxes, the same.

Possible complications:
- Caryldan considering an invasion.
- The dukes vying for power as well, Lodik was once one of the ducal houses, after all. If MAX & UGIT die and HERON does (so he can have no sons) by right one of them gains the throne. No one wants MAX or UGIT on the throne, really, and HERON is an old man as well, and his death - unless he produces a son - will just spark off another war, so people don't want that.
- The crops need to come in! Famine!
- The Witch in the Swamp closes the trade road. Panic ensures. Traditionalists like it. Modern thinkers fear that Manichee would fall behind the rest of the world and be conqured the next time such a road opens.
- A priest decides what candidate s/he wants on the throne and begings using his/her cult to arrange matters.

PCs would basically be the heirs listed, bastards, or friends of the heirs ("from our adventuring days"). PCs could be any level for such a game, but 2-6 should be good enough.

Any ideas?

Ramblings on Magic

Magic has always bugged me a bit in RPGs. Not for any reason I can put my foot on, perhaps the assumption that fantasy necessarily requires it. (Given the choice, I'd prefer very common magic or Lord of the Rings style where the wizard-types rarely use it but there are the subtle magics that are everywhere.) Part of the problem is a question of limits. What can it do? What can't it do? Why? What laws constrain it? Where do Gods come in?
The other problem, of course, is what using magic and it's existence does to the world. Before magic chop wood, carry water. Do you do the same after magic? Do you need to? IMO, most games seldom address these problems. (Either their magic system is crap, so they can pretend to igore it OR it's simply ignored.) I mean, you've got people who can do what (to us) is the impossible, unless it's subtle magics. Does one need a lottery ticket to win the lottery? I.e. can anyone learn magic? Anyone at all? Why would the nobility want to LET peasants learn magic? Does it break down social orders? Atre mages just eccentrics screwballs more concerned with the Stars Coming Right than taking over the kingdom?
I think part of the problem is the assumption that fantasy NEEDS magic. Sure, there is the suggestion of it, and people who claim to have it, but how necessary is it, really? All roleplaying is fantasy, in one sense or another. (Ditto with all writing.) Granted, players might want something like it, something not normal. So invent something.
Psychology.
Martial arts.
Placebo priests.
Alchemy.
Synchronicity.
Little magics (+ a few medium/ritual magics with mega-high costs) can be perfectly fine in a setting. Give people witchcraft as magic and use the rule of 3. Or intuition/hunches/foresight in dreams/a pet ghost and the like. Stuff that people believe in in our world, and may be treated with skepticism in fantasy land.

That, or define magic. Not the system, nor setting, but what it means to the world, how it's influenced the world, the fact that healing magics mean that the black plague never happens or that they're technologically more advanced than we are in some respects. I think it also boils down to a well-defined cosmology, and making sure that magic is a part of it, an integral piece of the world, and not something thrown in beause everyone knows fantasy has magic.
Throw out the supernatural villains and threats and see what happens....

Playing in Someones Backyard...

Or, RPGs in set worlds
(aka I should be writing novel stuff or amber stuff but I'm not)

Games set in other universes can be fun. Star Wars springs to mind, as does, oh, Marvel or DC comics. The advantages are obvious in saving a GM time (If she knows the setting well enough, if not players can be a pain). The big problem, to me, is canon.
If you set SW in the time of the 4-6 movies (or after, with those heroes running around) and don't play them, you can run into problems. Yeah, sure you can do famous stuff, but they are the big heroes, the gods among men. And if you can't play characters who can equal (or beat) them, then I'd say it's not the Star Wars larger-than-life space opera deal. Comic book universes run into the same problems. What can you do that Superman can't? How can you be a real hero when the Justic League is around and everyone looks up to them?
And, perhaps more importantly, what if they don't react in the right manner to establidshed character? What if they question Leias devotion to the rebellion, or tell Batman to go take a hike because he's just human and, hello, you have superspeed and can kill him before he can react.

One solution is ixnaying the canon setting. To some extent, this will happen. Either during the game or in planning most GMs will diverge from the established setting with some ideas or rules. [The (current(?) (heh)) UA campaign did that to an extent.] I think this works best if the players are allowed to as well, inputing ideas for changes and the like, as long as when all of you look up after the planning is done you're no longer In the Star Trek universe, or whatever. Which might not be bad, but likely what wasn't intended.

Another is to let the players become great heroes, as big as the existning canon ones. The easiest method (short of wiping out the canon big names) is to set the game in an area that doesn't involve them. Earth4, for DC, or a distant part of the federation where no one has ever or will ever or knows anyone who has served on the Enterprise. The players need to be heroes in their own game, not second stringers to the established Canon figures.

The last option I can think of is to throw a massive continuity twist as players. For example, my Amber game is one where Brand *won* the Patternfall War. Other examples....
1) Sauron won the War of the Rings. The PCs are living in the eastlands, protected by the Brown Wizard who didn't want to be involved in the War and is now screwed and angry.
2) Luke turned to the Dark Side, Dad and Son rule the Empire.
3) Big Evil Virus wipes out most mutants. The Big Names are either dead or fled the world or in hiding from the creator of it - humans who know that humanity is going to be extinct soon or something).
4) Do-gooders in Star Trek who think the Prime Directive is immoral and try and help primitives.
5) The Rebellion becomes just as bad as the Empire (it often happens in RL, after alll...)) and the PCs must take down the Canon characters.
6) The communist Federation is under attack from the inside by democracy.
7) Darth Binks. (Okay, that one IS a joke).
8) Go back in history. Set the Canon universe in the Wild West ("Well, Sherrif Kent, you might be a big name in these parts but.."). Or the far future ("The MegaComputer is operational again, and encoded into your brain. We must protect you before the AI of Sauron looks towards you and sends the 9 Nazgul Virii.")

Hmm, about all I can come up with off hand.
Any other thoughts?

Star Generator?

Hey all. Looking for some kind of generator for, oh, a galaxy or something. Nothing too fancy, just a way to place different empires within a galaxy at different places to give players an idea of what is where.

Luck

Luck, Nightfall thought, is a matter of opinion.
- Mickey Reichert, "The Legend of Nightfall"

Just been thinking about luck in RPGs. In most games, luck is seen as a bad thing (or at the very least a humorous one). Take D&D for example, where 3 goblins can defeat a level 5 dwarf. In most cases, use of luck in an rpg boils down to metagaming to reduce the problems it can cause. "I have +X, he likely has less, so attacking him is a good option..." and the like.

Diceless games don't have this problem. The problem they get is that killing off characters can no longer be blamed on chance. The blame - such as it is - falls solely on the GM or the player. Likely a combination of both, depending upon the situation, since the GM is the one who sets up most situations. Most diceless games tend to have some luck variable built into the system to deal with those problems, or (like Tyranny) have mandatory weaknesses built into characters.

Advantages of dice:	Random elements are fun. People like chance, even if it works against them. You can end up with a lot of unintentional humour.
Disadvantages of dice:	Strong tendency towards metagaming. Bad luck can kill even the best pcs. Distracts from telling the story.
Advantages of diceless:	You can reasonably expect to make the kind of character you want to. More emphasis on role playing.
Disadvantages of diceless:	Lack of excuse for GMs and players when characters die. Death becomes far more aribitary. Loss of the chance mechanic.

Any other thoughts?

Game Times

Ios will be ON for the 3rd as far as I know...

Aftermath *may* be off - I have to be at my parents that day waiting for the cable guy for them, so depending on when he comes I may not be able to make it back to run the session on the 5th.
And, sadly, the Aftermath session on the 12th won't be on due to RL poetry meeting.

All for now. Hopefully all...

GAME ANNOUCEMENT (D&D)

"Project Salvation"
2 open slots. Level 18 game, characters are DM-made (non-negotiable). Meets saturdays, 11pm EST, average game is 3 hours, max game is 5 hours. System is 3.5e, but 3.0e knowledge will suffice. Experienced players only, DM will NOT hold your hand when making rolls.

Talk to PlayerZero for more information.

Amber Game PC, like, Needed.

Ok, so the amber game is being plotted and stuff, and there are four players interested as present, right? Right.
But one more would be good. For best effect, there would be fourteen brothers, six dead and 8 sisters with 2 dead, possibly 4, but alas that won't work as well, and 9 pcs would be a tad much.
The game will run at "whenever the five of us are on" as a time. As most (if not all) of the players are in PST and MST those timezones would be best for anyone wanting to join unless they like staying up obscenely late

... says the person who once played an amber game that began at 4 am....

(Oh, and there will be pre-sessions for the game, to allow players to get a feel for their characters. BUT the first session (or 2nd) will be everyone getting together, crew-like. In Amber. Or maybe it's just the Paranoia idea of gathering them together and seeing how many survive... Paranoia Amber... *ponders*)

I got me a craving.

Besides UA, which I am still craving a lot, I've also lately been wanting to play in a game where the PCs are the crew of some kind of ship. I don't care if that means a sailing ship or a space ship; I don't care if we're traders, transporters, pirates, or explorers. Hell, it doesn't even need to be a "ship," per se... We could all be part of a caravan traveling the post-apocalyptic wasteland, if that's what other people really want. I just crave something crew-like. Dunno why... maybe because we've had s many games where the PCs are so separated and individualistic, that the reverse would be nice.

So, anyone want to run something like that for me? :D

aslhk's currently untitled amber game

aslhk will be running an amber game after |337c4bb4g3's ends. Yes, I plan to steal that prime sunday time slot unless real life intrudes. For those who don't know what amber is, perhaps you should play and find out. For those of you who DO know, and hate it, I hate YOU!

There is no definite concept yet! If you've got any ideas for an amber game, let me know. If there is significant interest in continuing the old campaign, we may pick that up. I think everyone would have new pcs for this game--and there will be a different focus, but I would be willing to give the old pcs some time in the spotlight--player controlled, of course.

For those who didn't play in my old game, don't worry about it! I am definitely open to new players. Okay, that is enough for now. I will update with a link to the website, later, when I have one. :)

MERRY XMAS

And a happy new year. Etc.

Here's hoping next year is as fun as this one (or better, if you like).