Weird West: some sample NPC ideas

Weird West Sample NPCs

Douglas "Mad Dog" McRae

Doug used to be like every other bounty hunter until he lost a leg trying to catch the Mad Trapper of Arroyo Creek. Since bountying was all he knew, he took to training dogs to hunt for him and do all the dirty work, which they tend to be alarmingly good at. He might always get his man, but now Doug and his pack of wild dogs don't always bring that much back of them and them's he hunts have taken to calling them a wild hunt and swear blind that the dogs keep coming even when they should have dropped and died like nature intended.

Path: Adventurer
Level: 6
Fighting: 2 "Sometimes you're the trap, sometimes you're the bait."
Grit: 6 "I ain't about to quit now."
Magic: 2 "Raising a pup is just like raising a kid; you gotta make 'em tough."
Skill: 3 "All being older means is you get sharper than them new kids."

Stamina: 30
Defence: 3 (2 if someone takes advantage of wooden leg)

Weapons:
Shotgun: 1d8 (2-handed, d10 in close combat.) (2 shots)
Dogs: 1d6. (6-8 dogs)

Magic & Weird Stuff:
Dog Howler: 1. Dogs and wolves do what he wants, his pack an extension of his will.
" Get em, boys!": 1. His dogs attack any target he sets them on, with Fighting 3, Skill 1 and 8 Stamina. At 0 stamina the Fighting drops to 1, Skill to 0 and a 1d6 is rolled: if the result is 1-3, the dogs dies, if not it somehow keeps going.


Madame

Madame goes by no other name: it could be a title, her first name, her last. She doesn't much care what anyone thinks and is as famous for that as for the red dresses she always wears as for the harsh justice she meets out on those who harm her girls. Her brothel is a clean, welcoming place where the girls are nice and friendly and heaven help you if you try to take advantage of anyone. No one knows anything about her past, or how she came to own the brothel now called Madame's but she's tough as nails and handier with a gun than many men who live or die by it.

Path: Fighter
Level: 4

Fighting: 4 "You fight for what's yours or you find you have nothing to fight for."
Grit: 4 "Wits are as important as any gun."
Magic: 0 "A woman doesn't need magic to get any man."
Skill: 3 "There's no luck in gambling that that a little skill won't help along."

Stamina: 23
Defence: 3

Weapons:
Handgun: 1d8 (6 shots)


Joerie The Amazing!

A travelling magician currently devoid of assistance (and his bow for cutting people in half, which explains the lack of an assistant), Joerie is never without his coach, or at least his coat filled with wondrous objects and amazements sure to wow the whole family. Or at least the kids: he's not all that picky and getting a good job is hard to come by these days.

Path: Gifted
Level: 4

Fighting: 2 "Sometimes even a coward can't always run away."
Grit: 3 "Except when he can."
Magic: 1 "Desperation is the mother of invention."
Skill: 5 "Now you see it, now you don't!"

Stamina: 20
Defence: 5

Weapons:
Slingshot: d2 (non-lethal weapon)

Magic & Weird Stuff:
Illusions: 1. Sometimes his tricks are so good they fool anyone and he doesn't even use his trick bag! He is is deep denial about this. Difficult Task.

AC: GM Notes

The Shadowland

It's sociologically interesting, though scary, that you can be inside an evil system and be somehow unaware of it.
- Actor Anthony Sher on growing up in apartheid-South Africa, interviewed by John Walsh, The Independent, 1 May, 2000

For much of its history, this world functioned much like ours, with humans and Omegas existing, the latter often considered gods for much of that history, recorded or otherwise. Unlike Earth-PC, it had no Illuminati or alphas develop and many Omega regimes in areas destroyed others as they were born, whenever they could. (Greece, with the 'titans' replaced by the 'olympians', served as a warning about allowing other factions of Omegas into ones own area.) History blundered on, until the Romanov's of Russia.

Russia wasn't much in 1000 CE but the family made a name for themselves swiftly and may have been responsible for the empire before them (the Ruriks) about whom history records little. By 1600, the Romanov's had become a family of shadow people and shortly after claimed Russia as their own, the family expanding in both power and influence down the centuries, deftly avoiding the traps of the renaissance and enlightenment as tricks/memes by other Omegas. Thanks to their influence in trade and resources, the industrial revolution was not as forceful as it might have been, but to forestall the influence of other nations, the Romanov's did .... something.

A ritual or act of will, or science, or something else altogether than murdered the sun and put the world in perpetual twilight at the best of times. (This was about 1905.)  Freed from the sun harming them, they spread their borders and moved outward into the world, trigger world war one against them. Germany led the war, which lasted four years and crippled the economy of the world, leading to stalemate; Russia had Germany for a time as spoils, but lost it due to civil uprisings and the Great Depression that followed. An attempted coup of the Romanov's by a group known as Bolshevik's (aka Omegas) failed near the end of the war.

(Some say, in dark corners of the world, that the house of Rurik existed to ensure the sun did, and was a house of light, and that the Romanov's murdered the last of that line to achieve their effect on the sun but no one knows. It is also possible that the Einstein of this world helped them, given the time line but for the most part it doesn't matter that much.)

Russia's crippling sanctions on Europe paved the way for the rhetoric of Churchill and Hitler that led to world war two in the 1940s. The USA reluctantly joined late, against the Russian ally of Japan, but it did not matter, Despite the attempted magic of the German regime and the combined will of the Omegas on the side of the Allies, the Axis Mundi that was the house of Romanov won, shattering Europe and the world.

In the 60 years that have followed, the house of Romanov has grown from strength to strength, destroying pogroms (mobs of humans, aka cattle) and Bolshevik's (aka omegas), the end of war war two seeing the Great Cleanse that wiped most magicians from the world, and the few telepaths as well.

Where things are at: The world is largely under the rule of the Romanov's at present. Obey, and things are fine, you're kept in your communes and do world they need 'solids' for, which mostly involves gladiator sports and building palaces, because even shadow people like a good palace to live in. Disobey, and they destroy you utterly along with your family, friends and whatever town you come from.

The discovery of other worlds in the 1970s had led to an increase in Romanov population in preparation for conquering other worlds, though the influence of suns and such has limited their plans thus far. In the USA, a few enclaves of humans exist who believe themselves hidden, with 1950s era technology [minus computers and nukes] who allow the truly dissatisfied a place to hide and the Romanov's get to watch them curiously and see what happens in those zoos.  Travel is done via zeppelin through the shadow-cities of the ruling family and australia doesn’t exist in this world, having been destroyed to remove it’s Hurt and Hole analogues from existence.

The world can be considered an absolute monarchy at top, communism (we all live like shit) at the bottom with the various culls and slaughters of Omegas and the like echoes of nazi fascism. For all intents, they have destroyed the other Omegas of the world and the Romanov's rule supreme. Glory to  the Shadowland.


The Romanovs: As living shadows, they can hide in shadows, listen to thoughts/conversations and communicate with each other via shadow-speak. As well, some (or all) can make dimensional doorways while making their bodies solid, though it is very exhausting. Since they can attack via shadows, and free/kill with unearthly cold, they are rather hard to stop or defeat. Lastly, some can use the shadow dimension for magic of one kind or another.

All the shadow people are sexless at 'birth'. Each shadow person can make progeny when old/strong enough but it costs less energy if two make it together. So the royal line itself has actual heirs with a mother and father, as members of the House can choose a sex with age and service to the Crown, but most other members have just one parent and often never get to have a sex [which is really a self-chosen title], which is largely a status thing. In other words, reproduction via a pair costs each less energy and is important since if you are too weak, someone else might come for your position or status.

(They do reproduce often, for numbers are necessary for an invasion. After the age of 10, each produces 1 child every 1-2 years and it is not as if they die of old age...)  It has been noted that they have coquered at least six other worlds and consider the dimension Nattie used as a shadow-dimension and, therefore, theirs. The full extent of their power over it remains unknown, but they have managed to make the sun of their own world work via cold fusion and the like and can be considered very, very dangerous as a whole: centuries of breeding and being The Power of a world do that to do you.

Misha: A very young member of a cadet line of the family, Misha dragged its older sibling (Alexis) through the shadow dimension largely by accident. Alexis was lost on another world, Misha ended up here. Due to PC and NPC accidents, the Shadowland is now aware of this world but wasn't prepared to invade so deputized Misha to 'prepare the world for invasion' rather than lose face. And for amusement.
To Misha, anyone with telepathy is a potential shadow power and Misha can, in theory, be 'adopted' by them and thus gain parents, AND a sex, and status, but this is more a desire than current goal. Game-wise, Misha is an interesting example of a kid raised in a terrible and evil regime who is entirely oblivious to how bad it is.

FYI, the overall plan for the Shadowland involved Misha (Or Alexis) learning about alphas, and since the alphas are nature's response to the Illuminati, then hunmanity on their world would evolve humans imune to shadows and the cold. the logical plan is to murder the rest of humanity to prevent that problem from occuring :P

Note: Misha has revealed that shadow-people are taught to believe in reincarnation: everyone comes back, so life and death don’t truly matter. You lose this body, yes, but you get another. A Shadow-body is the best kind, because they’re so tough and good and can last a long time. (Which suggests that the shadow people have ways to retard or limit the aging process,) This is, thematically, hinduism (without the ‘human life = best’ bias) used as a justification for murder. Being a shadow-person is obviously best since solids die so very easily.

Flaws: The death of others of their kind doesn’t truly anger them (since a shadow-being is the best possibly incarnation, any shadow-being that died after finishing a Duty returns as one, or so they believe). Obviously, younger ones (esp. those who are kin) tend to be more inclined to friendship.

Games!

The itch to run something stirs in the ether. With caveats, because they are pretty:

Player interest at the moment leaned towards a western. (The Weird West rules look simple and decent (and hey, only $1). Player ideas/input can be tossed up on piratepad (ask me for the link) and we'll go from there.

The game in question will run 1-2 times a week, ideally on set nights. Unlike other games of yore, this one is entirely about making fun things and having run rather than having deeper meanings and various Ethical Issues(tm) to be part of the setting, unless players want/include 'em.

If the game idea doesn't take off -- and it is just at the idea/hashing about stage right now -- can always run other stuff as long as it's a) not a one player game and b) requires little or no research or setting design.

And we're back....

Or at least somewhat. Trip was awesome, next month is the insanity of nanowrimo. As per agreement with Ken -- and personal choice -- I'm just doing the one novel this month, but since I don't have vacation time to use on nano as I did in previous years it is liable to consume the month. Which means a whole 3 months without games by me, which is some kind of record I think.

 Things should be back to normal by December, however. Aurora Consurgens can continue. If players would rather do something else, that can be brainstormed during november and such. For personal reasons, I no longer want to do one-player games so it'd need to be something else.

 With dice, of course.

up, up and away...

Heading off Tuesday to Italy for one month. YAY! Spark'll be down for that time, neither nick should be lost (esper has a vacation feature) and I should be back on the 20th or so. At which point I'll likely begin working on nanowrimo stuff, which will suck up November as always. Games should resume in December, however.

Announcement

The following will not surprise too many people, I think.

Due to preparation for upcoming trip (end of Sept. to end of Oct.) and nanowrimo after it, as well as a desire to devote more time to writing, I will not be running games until December at the earliest. I have been too busy of late to devote enough time or energy to AC and running half-assed sessions is a disservice to the game and the players.

Apologies to all concerned.

And AC is baaaack!

After the two-week hiatus, AC is up and running again. It's a nice, shiny Monday morning and telepaths are investigating odd schools while drug dealers prepare to try and move operations and the world carries on as 'normal'. The extent to which the world can remain like that is, of course, up for debate, even with new telepathic conspiracies in the making.*

FYI: The GM is now living in the same building as his brothers, so there may be odd pauses and such (as Chaos learned last night) when people insist on coming over to visit and such without due warning or filling out the proper risk assessment forms beforehand.

* That the telepathic conspiracy is having problems arranging for a simple MRI is, probably, just a giant double bluff on their part, unless it is a triple bluff.

BE & SM: What happens when one crosses D&D with BESM.

For the BESM D&D Game, some rules & assumptions:

RULES:

1) Shock Value will be used (see p. 158 in BESM book for details). Basically, you get hurt and you have a good chance of being out of it from the wound. Combat Techniques and/or a high soul can alleviate this, ditto with things like regeneration.
2) Critical Damage is being used. 12s will count as criticals in the sense of Something Awesome happens, 2s as a massive screw up.
3) If your PC ends up with attacks and abilities that require the use of the expanded rules chapter to function, make sure to remind me of that and them as needed.
4) I expect most PCs will make use of Restrictions and Defects. I am not setting a hard and fast limit on either. I do expect players to keep tracks of the concentration, energy cost and such of abilities themselves.

ASSUMPTIONS:
1) Most every PC will have increased shock value and/or regeneration. Humans, dwarves and such do not have the latter save from magical stuff and/or high 'levels'.
2) Mind shield and resistance can be had by anyone, human or monster, but barring run ins with magicians, clerics or other monsters shouldn't apply too often.


SETTING:
TShe game setting is intended to be the usual 'monsters come in from the cold' kind of story. The backstory IS grim, but probably not first-hand knowledge to the PCs and mostgly just stories told by old people of another era, full of sound and fury and signifying nothing at all in this era. Your PC concepts can be as serious or absurd as you wish, but the tone and style of the game will pretty much depend on what everyone makes and does.

Besm D&D game idea

History

For much of its history, this was a D&D world like any other, a smorgasboard of ideas and concepts jumbled together. It is said that the world did make more 'sense', long ago, but there was a war involving dragons and elves that has long since passed into myth, even among dragons. The elves, who live longer, do not speak of it, but for a long, long time -- and even now, to an extent -- the elves and their kin are somewhat feared because racial memory runs deep. It was enough for the elves to be left alone for some time, even when the human kingdom of Osgiliath began to expand and the wizards and warriors devised new methods of making weapons that changed the face of the world.

(OOC: Basically think of an industrial revolution in terms of magic: magical devices are made on assembly lines, regular weapons as well and so forth. After two generations the alliance with the dwarves was struck and 7 generations ago both races ceased selling weapon and metals to anyone else.)

Within 10 measly human generations the entire face of the world has been changed. In the last three the monsters and other races have been domesticated, extinguished or driven into hiding in various dark corners of the world still inaccessible to the armies of man. That these grow fewer with each passing year goes without saying, and yet is still being said. (Can you tell I am writing this on little sleep? I can.)

6 generations, the elven empire in the western continent fell to the humans, as much due to their skill as to overconfidence and decadence of the elves. The humans made an exact replica of Osgiliath there stone by stone and razed the elven city and burned down the fabled trees and forests of the elves. Most of the elves died then, by their own hands. The few who remain are jesters in human courts, or hidden in the wilds of the world, and they have such long, long memories ...

This is not to say the world is entirely human: the dark wood and its like still exist, scattered but real, and the remnants of the mighty orcish armies that once terrified the world still remain in various steppes and plains. Only without weapons the orcs have descended into barbarism and are truly only a threat to each other in this new age. And the dwarves, of course, have the underworld to themselves: and how long this alliance with the humans last is the only deep fracture in the new world they have made.


Summary (as humans count generations, so about 30 years apart*)
10 generations ago: humans Industrialize, begin the march on the world. Osgiliath begins taking over neighbouring kingdoms.
8: Dwarf/human alliance. Metals in exchange for technology.
7: trade of weapons and metals by both races with other ones ends entirely. Arming ones enemies is, after all, unwise. War is essentially declared.
6: the elven kingdom falls, and many monsters flee into hiding, expecting a retaliation from the elves (or their allies) that never comes.
5-4: the mighty orchish armies fall apart without a steady supply of weapons.
3: the monsters have fled into various woods and dark places.
Now: most of the monsters have passed into human myth and legend, which is good for the monsters to a large extent. Only the rangers are liable to recall the precise truth about monsters.

(For humans, living over 60 years is rare, though more common now without monsters. This basically assumes that the entire timeline is about 500 years old, at best.)

* Humans live this long thanks to clerical healing.


Geography
The eastern continent: Home of the empires of man, initially. Now almost entirely settled and broken.
Western: original home of the elves, now mostly conquered; a light in the world gone out.
Northern: Barbarians and ice; mostly conquered by the dwarves more than humans, even above the surface. In exchange, much of the underworld beneath the two cities of Osgiliath are in human hands.
Southern: From whence came the orcs. This is the location of the dark wood and the point at which the campaign begins.


Setting Note

If you want to add stuff in the history about your race and stories about it, let me know and I'll add them to the file.


Campaign

While at first blush things might seem somehow hopeless, much of the human empire is conquered human kingdoms who don't always sit easily under the yoke of Osgiliath. While the empire has been frankly amazing in the arts of war, they have yet to produce civil leaders of equal caliber so local laws and customs can sometimes be odd and exploited by the PCs. As well, your status as 'mythical' begins can give you an edge, to say nothing of pushing human/dwarf relations hard, finding out what kind of plan the elves might have, re-arming the orcs or finding out what the wizards want etc.


The PCs

Given BESM and the anime genre, the PCs are basically made of awesome compared to most of the humans they'll run into. Oh, some have magic, and prayers, and weapons and spells, but the PCs have supernatural abilities beyond anything those small and jealous humans can manage and that shall be both your glory and your doom.

besm D&D Game: basics

Premise: Think lolad, except as monsters set in a D&Desque fantasy setting.

Themes: Survival, The Quest(tm, patent pending), the reservation system

System: BESM 3, 250 points. This game will use the heroic level benchmarks except skills are not necessary: only get what fits the character, if any.

Characters: Build something from the monsters manual in D&D, or even another source entirely. Players are encouraged to make up as detailed a culture as they want to make their 'monsters' as civilized as they wish. (Think of how the old world viewed the new for human attitudes regarding the Pcs.)

Setting: Your Ye Olde Fantasy Worlde. The world has never been named – though the humans are working on that – and used to be pretty generic and normal until the humans perfected hot air balloons and zeppellins and began to travel into lands they couldn't reach. The missionaries of the three-faced God and Goddess plunged into the wilds of the world and innovation after innovation strengthened the human nations until they had continent-wide empires stretching from sea to shining sea. In the past two hundred years the humans have advanced (and bred) ferociously to engulf other lands and progress has never seemed so sweet a mistress.

In their fabled towers, the mighty and awful wizards work magics that keep the empires growing, gathering apprentices to make fabled magical items a step at a time, saving time and energy and equipping the armies of man with weapons to slay even the greatest of monsters. Of these wizards, the most famous are Morinehtar (the darkness-slayer) who destroyed the last of the Great Wyrms with a single word of power and Romestamo the earth-helper, who forged the alliances with the dwarves that benefited both mighty races and cleansed the underworld of many old monsters.

And as above, so below for the dwarves have supplied metals and wondrous smithing to the humans in exchange for the fabled 'industry' of the magicians and applied that to making their own marvels; armed with human magics and their own weapons, they have conquered the lands under the earth as they own. Each mighty empire leaves the other alone, content for now to secure their own dominions.

Which brings up to the Dark Wood that winds through the Everglass Mountains. These were mined dry by the dwarven ancestors centuries past and were refuge for the last of the gnomes before the dwarves destroyed them all. Now they are one of the few blank spots on the map, a place of monsters and the wild that the armies and desires of man have yet to conquer. It is your home, for however long it lasts.


Notes on races:
Elves serve the humans, acting as messengers and court jesters and wonders as the pygmies on earth did for the courts of Europe. There are few of them left, and most believe they can wait out these empires and times and the world will again be theirs. (The extermination of the dark elves under the earth does not bother them, as those were not real elves.)
Gnomes: Extinct, thanks to the dwarves.
Halflings; Someone has to work the mines the humans have, after all. Most are considered just short humans and not a separate race at all.
Half-orc/whatevers: Very rare, all considered monsters.

Notes on classes:
Barbarians: Some exist, though the northern wastes are not very empty any longer. Most are considered scum by the empires and end up in the Dark Wood and places like it to test themselves against the last remnants of the world of their father's stories and the legends of their father's father's, despite knowing their may be none left for them to pass those stories onto. This does not stop them from wishing to hunt and destroy monsters, naturally.
Bards: Next? Seriously they're bards.
Clerics: The followers of the God and Goddess have spread far and wide. While they don't have political power in most lands, they have much popular support and gather many followers to try and 'cure' the monsters and make them human again, or yoke them to the will of humanity like they did the horses, wemics, centaurs and griffins. Unlike other classes, they would rather find a use for monsters than destroy them.
Druids: The druids are the only humans on the side of monsters, if at all, as much as they are on the side of the woods themselves. (Though the woods would be safer and nicer without all those monsters in them.) They tend to be rare and distrusted by all sides but are generally the only humans who will not attack monsters on sight.
Fighters: S.e. Knights are basically fighters in magical armour whose goal is to destroy monsters, and they are very, very good at it.
Monks: Warriors who often protect the clerics, monks are capable of taking down monsters without weapons at all and rely on the strength of the gods and the magic of their prayer to defend themselves. Some of them are not, always, horrible, and they tend to view the world differently from the clerics but are wise enough to keep their views to themselves.
Rangers: Big game hunters. They are often the most dangerous foe of the monster in the woods since they have studied the tracks, habitat and such of monsters.
Rogues: No one trust them. Obviously.
Sorcerer: Those who have made deals with monsters (and worse things) for power. They can be human or monster but serve masters and forced beyond the ken of others. Wizards tend to kill them on sight if given the chance, if only to tidy up the world a little bit.
Wizards: Mighty and scary magicians, often enough, who are the backbone of the human empires. They tend not to interfere directly in the empire and seek other things than mere temporal power.

Monsters:
The ones that exist will depend on the PCs and characters they make.

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)