Notes!

Every world that develops a communication array gains access to The Game. In some cases, it becomes one channel out of many, or the powers that be in a world hide its existence (for a short time or forever) from the people proper. In some cases it is the dominant betting event in a world, in others training to be in it is a lifetime’s occupation. In some, it is even a religion.

There are often multiple on-going Games and contestants are drawn from throughout the multiverse to participate in gaining wealth, fame, fortune and whatever else The Game might offer. No one is quite sure where The Game is located, let alone how the staff select contestants. Some believe it began life as a vast zoo that branched out into creative ways to sustain itself, others believe The Game is eternal and forever and the heart of the multiverse. That no one knows where it is truly located or even who the unseen Producer of The Game is does lead many to distrust it, but evn so The Game goes on.

The Game famously has no rules. It does, however, have referees and linesmen because people do try to cheat and this isn’t acceptable at all. Among the many rules The Game does not have, the following are paramount:

1) Trying to cheat to win is not allowed. When asked what constituted cheating, the host famously said he knew that when he saw it. Getting aid from outside counts, as does trying to leave The Game.

2) Murdering other Contestants is not kosher at all. The casting directors went to a lot of trouble and time to find a diverse group of players and reducing some to laundry problems is not encouraged*.

* It is also not, strictly speaking, forbidden. But no one who has out-and-out murdered another Contestant has ever won, regardless of how justified they were. Killing the murderer of a contestant, on the other hand, is entirely allowed and probably encouraged.

The Host/Presenter is cloned as needed. Please do not kill him without due cause.

Linesmen and Refs are drawn from ex-contestants, among other groups. Killing them is considered a Bad Idea as they are not obligated to be neutral in The Game.

Camerapeople, on the other hand, die pretty often. Running toward danger for the best shot tends to do this.

Refs have the ability to limit/nullify/disable powers as needed. They also oversee security officers who make sure no one is cheating. People try, after all.

Camerapeople are wholly invisible.

Linesmen tend to be quite visible and tough, though not all of them are as impressive as their reputations might claim. Their duty is to stop contestants from breaking the rules that technically don’t exist, most of which involves actions that will ruin ones possibility of winning The Game.

Layout

The contestants quarters are designed to fit their particular needs and comforts to a point. Every contestant is able to survive in everyone’s quarters and throughout The Game everyone speaks the same universal language. All quarters are connected together by a gateway system and mundane doors in a large complex. There are no locks in it and a great deal of communal space exists for contestants to get to know each other both as friends and as enemies.

The medical facilities are very, very good and have been known to even revive the recently dead if need be. This is, however, not a pleasant experience by all accounts.

Sample Scenarios

Duels are common, as are sporting events, puzzles, endurance tests, obstacle courses, capture the flag and most anything else The Game throws at you. Variety is key, as are situations that increase viewership. In some cases contestants will be explicitly forbidden from certain abilities or solutions to a challenge.

The Game(tm)

BECAUSE:

a) it has been a month

and

b) People have been more patient than, say, Sparkie about a lack of games.

So, the system: BESM. 300 points. Ignore skills. No restrictions. No limits*. (No sanity?)

* Management reserves the right to ixnay certain concepts based on PCs being part of a team. Etc.
Making characters directly from an anime/show is frowned upon (not that the GM is liable to catch most of that if one does :)). Recycling/repurposing characters one has played before is entirely fine, to clarify.


The Game. That is all it is known as. It is the multiverses biggest and best reality TV show. Challenges! Battles! Skills! Everything one can imagine and many things that can't be broadcast happen in The Game. The prize for winning the game is monetary, but the actual rewards of fame, fortune and media deals far outstrip mere money so The Game had expanded the roster to include heart's desires, favours, revealing secrets and the like as possible options.

The challenges: Battles (physical, mental and even culinary). Skill tests involving memory, endurance and teamwork.

The rules: Traditionally, none. But no one who has flat-out murdered more than one contestant has ever actually won it. (Killing someone who murders another contestant does not count as murder, according to the rules.) Bad sportsmanship is frowned on and the winner is determined by a huge poll along with the show presenters and the producer being the deciding votes. Popular opinion does not always carry the day but most winners have worked with others and some years multiple-winners were announced. (Once, everyone competing won, but that is far rarer.) Even being in it is source of notoriety and fame for some to carry on to their lives after it is all over.

But this year it is different. This year there are PCs in it, and the multiverse is in for a season of The Game unlike any other it has ever seen. Viewing numbers will go spastic, whole worlds might fall and even the fabled, unseen Producer might be forced to act before the end ....


So: toss ideas about and go nuts :)


Game time(s) to be determined by player availability.

..... internet explorer. As a magicial girl anime.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHTUlF7NA2o

Your challenge, should you choose to accept it: stat every broswer as a magical girl in BESM.

Only Heroes: Side Sessiony Goodness

OH Side sessions are being offered this week. HUZZAH! We've had eight sessions so far and the game is going smoothly, PCs jelling together not unlike food that Prudence makes. You've beat villains, hired a PR person, arranged for a lawyer and a secretary with admirable levels of paranoia and genre-savvy. (Or oddity: I doubt most super teams make having a secretary any kind of priority :) )

The goal of the side-sessions is time-stretching RP stuff. Clothing shopping, groceries, wandering the neighbourhood, playing cards and chatting. Basically ways for the PCs to get to know each other and NPCs better. Also, PCs get to advance and work on PC-specific plot threads. They'll be offered this week on Saturday (July 27) and the Monday and Tuesday (July 29 & 30). I'll probably offer this every X sessions or so as I don't want the game to bog down in side-sessions.

But I'm OK with that if it leads to more dice. - Sparkie

Sparkie would like everyone to know who the best dicebot ever is

<AlcarGM> Gas-Mask grabs the back of his head, whimpering in pain from the blow and checks his mask and the tank fearfully. "I ... don't ... I surrender. Please?"
* Faith`^ zaps him with the taser while he's pre-occupied
<Faith`^> =p
<AlcarGM> New Round :)
<AlcarGM> lol
<Owlgirl> "Surrender accepted."
* Owlgirl reads him his rights :P
<AlcarGM> Faith zaps anyway? :)
<Faith`^> yup!
<AlcarGM> Dice!
<Faith`^> 2d6+4
<Sparkie> Faith`^ 2d6+4: 14(10)
<AlcarGM> 2d6+2 - pure sparkie luck?
<Sparkie> AlcarGM 2d6+2: 14(12) - pure sparkie luck?
<Faith`^> wat?
* prudence *stares*
<AlcarGM> ..... really?
<Owlgirl> hahahahaha

Only Heroes - Session #1

"This is Stacey Simmons for WINE 99.9, coming to you live Saturday morning and it looks like it's going to be another hot one today! School starts on Monday for all the kidlets and parents, so if you want to know where to get supplies, brace yourself for commercial plugs later on! But first, it's warm and staying that way all week it seems, a nice way to begin September if you're not in school, but you didn't tune in for the weather so here's the news for you. The Atomizer has been leaving calling cards all over the city, the courts won't release details of Judith Richenfield's trial, Ben Sirah is apparently selling himself out as some kind of internet service and the not-infamous gang known as the Cheshire Cats have been thrown behind bars by the police. A lot of small-time villains are becoming big-time without the Protectorate around and no one seems to know when they'll return. There's even doubts if they will.

"With me to discuss it is Professor Egghead, ex-villain and specialist in metahuman relationships at Darwin U! Tell me, prof, just how bad is it? Should kids bother going to school? Will teachers have to teach the old 'duck under the desk' routine for supervillain attacks?"

"It is hardly a joking matter, Ms. Simmons. That no hero has returned from the Vanishing presupposses that they cannot: I believe the most common theory is radiation from an anti-mattrer universe: if they did return and bring that with them, this entire universe would be destroyed. Of course, we're well aware that they will return soon, but two weeks is a long time in the news and some villains are going to try and raise their status without anyone of importance to stop them. The police cannot be everywhere and most of the reserves and sidekicks the Protectorate had access to seemed to have succumbed to the Vanishing as well."

"So no good news at all, doc?"

"Heroes will step forward. Villains will see the need for redemption and seek public glory. Whether it will be enough remains to be seen, but not all villains are motivated by simple goals as my book The Villain Inside clearly demonstrates. Heroes have become villains, villains have become heroes: it's those who were on the sidelines or didn't think their was a need for them to be a hero with the market so glutted who will determine if there is a new Protectorate, and the public who will determine if they succeed at all."

"Well, aren't you a ray of sunshine! So it's doom but not gloom for Darwin City, and a lot of people are going to be wondering who these new heroes are and if they have the chops to stand up to the wave of petty crimes that are slowly esclating into big-time robberies. Villains are pushing boundaries, and the police alone can't push them all back. Well, not without breaking the budget! Tune in after this break for my interview with Mayor Amanda Hill on city hall's budget plans after this!"

Commercial Break: "Tired of seeing your car destroyed by supervillains? With McGovern Insurance, you're covered against everything from acts of gods to aliens! Our professional claims adjusters will --."

"And this is Stacey Simmons, for WINE FM, cutting in to let you know that there's shenanigans at the Wal-Mart. Don't go. If you're going, go back home. Details are sketchy, but the police have it surrounded. At least the building is still standing. We'll have updates for you as we get them, including what villain is robbing a Wal-Mart in the first place, in just a moment."

The Protectorate Warehouse!

So, here is your warehouse. The elevator leads down to the parking garage (which contains storage), the bedrooms all have 2 bunk beds in each and are rather no frills. The tech room has a workshop, computers for use and the like. Each bedroom has a small, no-frills bathroom, and the warehouse can be accessed via key or keypad, with one entrance near the training room and another by the tech room.

It ha`s been a training area for a good 10 years and is well-used but still quite serviceable.

Only Heroes: Only Experience

Experience will be awarded during this game, with caveats: you can increase existing abilities. Adding new/other abilities will only be allowed if it makes sense as an outgrowth of something else: EX: Flight, to spaceflight (and accompanying special defenses). Spider-Man can class as a good example: he doesn't gain abilities inasmuch as become better at his existing ones as he gets older.

Ways 'around' this: begin with flexible abilities you can grow in interesting ways around the central theme of your PC. Get items: powered armour/suits and the like can help make up for some things. In general, this is true of all superheroes in the setting -- they get better at what they already do rather than gain new abilities.

(Supervillains tend to be different, sometimes owing to illegal drugs or experimentation.)

In general, PCs can gain a lot from increased ACV/DCV, combat techniques and so forth as a means of growing that isn't reliant strictly on 'increase powers'.

(Also, it means the more powerful heroes (pre-Vanishing) probably started out overall weaker than some contemporaries. Hence the draw to being in teams and working together.)

OH Timeline

As things stand now. The Protectorate was the team in Darwin City, having a rotating group of ~10 members with a large group of ex-members as a Reserve and most every other hero in the city affiliated as an Ally. Based out of Darwin Tower in the middle of the city, they protected it and offered free training for other heroes in their warehouse down by the docks.

Six months ago, via police contacts, the warehouse base and the like, the PCs  met in one form or another.

Two weeks ago, the Vanishing happened.

Now: people are starting to think it might be permanent, and you seem to be the only heroes around with a) history together (however tenuous) and b) the willingness to step up into huge shoes and do what you can to protect the city.

Owlgirl has the current passcode (and keys) into the warehouse, and some other PCs may have the passcodes as well. Darwin Tower is locked up tight, but the warehouse gives you a base of operations to act from and has showers, a living area, and even spartan bedrooms (a half-dozen) that can be slept in, along with a work-out room, training mats, and computers. Who is paying for it all to keep running is, at present, unknown.

Consensuses for Only Heroes

Leadership
We have a simple majority for a parliamentary style leader who is chosen by majority and left in his or her station until the majority no longer holds confidence in that decision. The leader has the authority to make a decision when it is evident that decisions aren't obvious, at the leader's discretion, and we all agree to suffer Alcar-deterined consequences if we, as followers, should work against the coherence of the team.
 
Of course, if a bad call was made, a vote of confidence can arise in that parliamentary fashion. Votes of confidence and other issues are handled privately "in the locker room," and not "on the field," or else you're not being a Team Player.

Maturity
Characters must look and act like adults.

Anthropomorphism Requirements
No restrictions.

Banned stuff
Within limits on the site, anything goes for the rough draft. Companion is unlikely to be allowed, for obvious reasons. (Sparkie has tried to ban divine relationship.)

Origins
The PCs are the fractured remnants of an established team that was started before the vanishing and must now struggle to persist past it. If saving the world (possibly even for the sake of loved ones) isn't good enough reason to join, your PC doesn't strictly belong in a superhero organization.

Backgrounds/Relationships
Propose backstory relationships to other characters at will.

Basic PC concepts (in terms of roles)
Caltak: Transport, Decoy, Mascot
Chaos: Healer, ranged, inventor
Fennec: ranged violence, suppression, melee/tank
Kentari: scout, diplomat, healer
 Lunchie: Unknown.

Game Time
One weeknight (undetermined, depends on lunchie) at ~6 pkm PST

Only Heroes - Editorial

METAHUMAN WEEKLY

Editorial

There has only been one story the last two weeks: where have they gone? Every major hero and big-name villain is simply gone, even those who shouldn't be. So far most of the now-major league villains are in hiding, quiet and still, expecting it to be a kind of trap or trick. But what if it's not? What if they really are gone? Loaded questions, with bullet answers.

• There have always been more villains than heroes. Some of that is because heroes retire more often, a lot is probably human nature. For the most part, the heroes were stronger and braver and held the world together, drew lines in the sand that no villain managed to cross. Do your crime, and you ended up in a MetaMax prison and almost no-one ever broke in or out of one of those.
• While officials won't answer, it seems likely that the major metahumans in them were subject to the Vanishing as well: which means they have an awful lot of room in cells now. That will keep the smarter villains in line, but as Morning Maid said in an interview years ago, the truly smart ones never become super villains. The rest may start breaking unwritten rules without anyone to hold them back.
• The government is looking into setting up the Superhuman Outreach Council again, with the goal being to find part-time superheroics to keep the number of villains down. Whether this will pass muster in Congress is anyone's guess.
• Those In The Know worry what Professor Green will do. No one seems to know if he really is a professor, but Green has been active since the 60s, shows no sign of getting older and has a staggering fortune at his disposal, all geared toward the destruction of humanity. It's estimated that over 70% of global-warming denial can be traced back to him and what he might fund or plan without superhumans to stop him is anyone's guess. (On a lighter note, when asked whether he had funded young-earth creationism, he reportedly said that he does have standards,)
• Another worry is an economic collapse owing to a certain number of large corporations being owned by superhumans: a Hall of Heroes must be funded somehow, after all, and a few titans of industry seem to have gone on 'vacation' shortly after the Vanishing, with no signs of returning to work.
• On the plus side, a lot of companies have lost their superhuman product endorsement and any hero wanting some decent pay on the side might be able to work out a deal with Nike shoes and the like. Not that the major heroes ever did that, but times might be changing ....

Only Heroes

How to tell if you are a hero in one easy step: Are you motivated by self-interest in your actions? If yes, you are a supervillain. If no, you may be a super hero. (Stanley Milgram, 1956, in the letters page of American Psychiatric Quarterly)

They have been among us since the 1950s, heroes and villains larger than life with powers and abilities to match, able to fly or survive impossible situations, destroy entire meteors or create wondrous artifacts of the world to come. And yet for every hero, a dozen or more villains would emerge whose goals were less kind, whose motivations were darker and whose desires were as wild and mad as the heroes were gallant and brave. Explanations ranged from 'the War' to human nature, religious convictions, nature vs. nurture and most everything else under the sun. The truth is that, like why superhumans exist, no one knows what motivates people to take the paths they take in life. Great men, as Lord Acton pointed out, are almost always bad men, but there were somehow always enough heroes to hold back the shadows.

The world has changed much since the days of the second great wold war: we not only have our defenders and our villains, but there are computers whose power could scarcely have been imaged in that era and the world has become both utopic and orwellian somehow at the same time. There are companies with their own private superhero, the children of superhumans with powers that put even their parents to shame and seven known alien species that have had contact with humanity in this brave new world we find ourselves living in. It is not our parents world and it is far better for it.

Or is was, until recently: a flash of indigo light filled the entire world visible to the naked eye as far away as the crab nebula, and when it cleared most of the superheroes and all the truly powerful villains were simply gone. Where, and why? No one knows. Best guess is some supervillains weapon worked better than expected [by which we mean it worked at all...] and took them all Elsewhere. Even the hero known as Walker, who could move between time and space, has not returned. They may be dead, or lost, or trapped. No one knows.

But the villains that remain are attacking banks, Walmart, Home Depot and anywhere else they can garner supplies from. There have always been more villains, but the heroes were more powerful. This is no longer the case, and for the first time people are feeling scared of superhumans, worried about the world in ways they never really were before. Oh, there have been Death Rays and Planet Bombs, but nothing ever came from them: it was as if the villains needed to be stopped, or it had all become a kind of private game for everyone to enjoy and suddenly the balance has shifted.

The only problem is the police are outgunned and undermanned and the heroes left are the ones who never ended up on teams or made the news, the ones who aren't much more than regular themselves and now the only ones left to somehow work together and keep the world from falling apart until the real heroes make it back. If they ever do at all....

Game Concept: The PCs are very much underdogs who need to work together in order to defeat the supervillains left in the city of Darwin Bay. Unlike most games, you're not as powerful as your enemies and will need a lot of luck and skill to survive.

PC Creation: BESM3, 150 points to build your PC with. You can take only ~10 points in defects. After this, you have 20 points to spend in just skills.

Your PCs will be at the upper limit of the human level in BESM bencharks, to whit: Attributes cannot be higher than 3, Combat Value maxes out at 7, Health at 90, your damage multiplier at 5.

Note: Up to 5 bonus points can be gained from creating NPCs and teams for the world: what major teams used to exist? What villains were terrifying? What ones still exist who are the new Terror? Completely statted NPCs and the like are not necessary as much as fun blurbs to explain them all to everyone else.

Note #2: Dynamic powers will not be allowed. Magic will be very limited, as this is intended to be a magic-lite setting for the most part. Companion is actively discouraged unless it is flat-out necessary for a PC concept.

Tone: This game isn't intended to be 4-colour, but neither is it grim & gritty. The superheroes and villains have an unspoken code about not killing [many] civilians. And each other, by and large, but this owes more to practicality than anything else: the death of The Atomic in 1971 left a good chunk of the Sudan radioactive. Likewise, prisons exist for superhumans than do manage to contain them, laws are observed and sentences served out for crimes.

The world: Superhumans have existed for over 60 years. This is known to most everyone and understood as such: the kid who skips too many classes is as likely to have questions about having powers as for people to wonder about drugs. A fair number of superhumans keep their identities secret, mostly due to the paparazzi and for issues of privacy. Super-tech does exist, but is mostly insanely expensive to make, operate and run.

While the government keeps no official register of superhumans, the local police are generally going to react unfavourably to unknowns: visiting the police station to introduce yourself and what you can do is generally an asset. The police do have advanced tech of their own, but it is often inferior to what villains can devise and they have a lot of red tape to go through to use it.

Terms:
Metahuman/Superhuman: any human who manifests abilities and skills beyond the ordinary. Not all become heroes or villains, after all.

Superhero: anyone who uses said ability for the good of others, by and large.

Supervillain: not a superhero. Often motivated by self-interest, and many are technically insane (though the courts refuse to accept 'supervillain' as a psychiatric condition to avoid a prison sentence).  

Vigilante: humans who get tech, armour and what have you and face down supervillains themselves. The police tend to dislike them and most don't survive all that long.

Mutant: a term for any superhuman (and alien) whose appearance doesn't fit with human norms. You can still be a hero or villain just fine, but will be received with a bit more suspicion in some corners of the world. The world has long since moved on from 'mutations are evil' and the like of the 70s but one can expect double-takes and wariness. That most mutants tend to the hero side of the spectrum helps.

MetaMax: the prisons designed to hold criminal superhumans. Built to withstand wars, said prisoners could dampen and destroy any metahuman power though the technology that made them is apparently both very, very expensive and stationary.

Sigil plots...

So.

Mike has rescued 3 people from a farmhouse (kidnapped via ex-military working for one 'Brother XII') with the aid of two allies, Tammi and Helen have attempted to find out the ins and outs of the media blackout and broken at least one NPC * in the process (Hello, Zeke). Meanwhile, Edgar is learning about the world and Charlie and Ronnie have assembled a truly staggering amount of NPCs (9+, in potentia) to help them invade and survive The Lab, assuming all goes well.**

* Sean can be considered broken previously.
** This plot hinges on Gav, and Gav's ability is Sparkie-dependent. It will all end in tears.

So far keeping all the PCs apart is working quite well. Players can decide they want their PCs to meet, but there is no requirement they ever should or need to. As things stand now, barring action/NPC intensive stuff, the current system allows for up to Two (2) players to be active at once and the GM to keep things relatively sane.

Side Game: Sigil

Life in Echo City used to be normal. Not a town, not a large city, forest all around, a crime rate low enough to make national news for that fact alone. Northern, but you can't have everything.
That was yesterday. The world was boring yesterday. Now you've woken up with a tattoo you never got: to everyone else it's abstract and odd, but to you it's solid and real and when you think about it somehow the world itself isn't as real or simple as it used to be. You've been marked by something Other and the world is no long boring, and definitely not safe .... but neither are you.
System: BESM 3, 220 points.
Genre: Action/Mystery. Making a PC who can fight -- or can learn to -- is a good idea.
PC Concept: Take 1 character idea, and one BESM ability idea and mould the two together. Character age and occupation up to you, game will fit itself around that.
Time: This game will run at varying times, with the PCs likely never meeting despite having impact on each other. This allows it to run without player obligations to show up. We shall see how it goes.
Details:

• Up to 20 points can be spent on 1 ability from the BESM book, which is the characters tattoo/sigil in a spot on the body appropriate to the ability.
• Skills must be bought, but only those flat-out necessary. In other words, 1-3 skills that nail down PCs job and hobbies.
• Character Limits: Damage cap is ~40, after all modifiers. ACV/DCV is ~7. A character based entirely on Massive Damage can be higher, but only to a point.

Note #1: Points from defects can go into normal stuff and into improving one's Sigil.
Note #2: It will be possible to improve abilities and possibly develop other ones later on as the game progresses, though the caps outlined for damage and ACV will likely not change substantially.
Game Background: Our parents and their parents had generations defined by a war. This generation did not. To some, this is a flaw that requires being 'fixed' and in the small city of Echo something has been implemented, or gone out of hand. Some will blame the government, others aliens: the reality is that certain people have odd stylized tattoos show up on their bodies. They concentrate on them and find they can do one impossible thing no one else can.
Some abilities are permanent, some only work so long before the ability – and tattoo – fade away entirely. No one knows why it is happening or to what end, but some do abuse them and others cannot sit by and watch that happen ....

How social media ruins rpg games ....

A lot of novels are no longer set in the present. This tends to be true of games as well, and for the same reason: social media. The internet. Facebook. Twitter. All games have problems in that that need solving, all quests have some mystery/discovery lurking in them waiting to be solved. Or you can just google it. Need help? The police are just one cell phone cal away. So are family, friends, co-workers. And why bother meeting in person if you can use google+, set a limited group as 'other pcs' and use that?

Granted, a GM can obfuscate things: the internet is an awesome source of flat-out lies and mistruths. For example, have a pc use wikipedia as gospel and just smile at them in the certain knowledge that the Big Bad had been editing certain pages for years under various sock puppets because it's the best way for a vampire to get prey these days. And cell phone coverage can be spotty, to a degree, but the chief problem is that such plot  devices make PCs lazy.

(This is much the same issue as skills in D&D: why look for anything when you can just roll Detect Traps and so forth. Laziness is roll-playing, role-playing is less so. (But using lots of dice is fun, and fun isn't lazy - Sparkie))

There are ways to use this and make it fun, no doubt, but the overall issue is that a lot of tropes uses in games and novels came into existence long before the internet, which tends to hinder and limit them. Sort of making PCs all Amish [which would rock....] or just not having FB and such come up as options I'm not sure what can be done with this problem, insofar as it is one. It can be useful: I would quite like to see a game where the players make social media avatars for their PCs and do in-game stuff with that between sessions but a lot of genres don't work as well when PCs have access to too much information or can exploit the ruthless common sense that comes with it.

At which point the GM pay well drop an EMP on the world :)

Fairview: May Update

Somewhere, east of the sun and west of the moon, a place without east nor west nor even suns and moons, protean creatures who seem to be the love child of a spider-goat and a rabid lawnmower move through deep dark shadows that absorb the echoes of their feet, chittering prayers in voices that have never known fear before. On the throne of cartilage and cast-off nightmare foam a figure sits, a gun in one hand and courage in the other, adjusting her crown as things circle in the shadows, looking for weakness, waiting for a moment to strike even as other things move towards the throne with wounded limbs to offer sacrifices to the new queen, Rei ....

Well, no. Or at least not yet. To sum up: Rei decided to end suffering quite visibly, attempting to kill one person and use their body to kill another. Peter died, Snaketongue was very annoyed the plans for Kevin being president could have been derailed at all and Rei ended up being banished Outside the universe by Joni. Despite the above, it is unlikely Rei shall return.

Plot wise, Emma woke up from a coma and is adjusting to life several years after her coma and events are slowly pulling her towards the other PCs. Being a healer (and a helper!) shall no doubt aid this as the game goes on. Alex is trying to work on destroying her family curse, Karl is balancing two very different jobs and Joni has collected even more Items (including a school).

As Alex's fencing school and the high school have pretty much done their job of connecting PCs and NPCs together at times, they're more or less becoming purely background now. Alex's grandfather is dealing with the day-to-day aspects of the school, Karl has been asked to do a new assignment (Vericorp having decided he's more useful than Shell and, probably, more able to destroy Brodie if their newest employee turns out to be a problem) and Joni is trying to deal with various magicians, keeping friendships and dealing with the ramifications of having beaten up the antichrist and prevented it from being born.

NPC wise (in no parrticular order and probably missing more than a few):

• The Grey Man is free again, though what the entity in Kyle plans remains unknown, as if whatever he did to Ike and Denice as 'payment' for being kept captive for a weekend.
  
• Helen and Thomas, agents of the Shadow Walker, are preparing to deal with Pierce Chevalier, who seems to be worried that the Shadow Walker is still manipulating him and that Alex is a trap/trick.
  
• Julius Gull and Drake Hakurei are trying to find out what Emma is, in their own ways.
  
• Helena is friends again with Joni, so everything is OK.
  
• Dennis is trying to prevent the flaw Joni discovered in his metal from working and is being Mr. Grumpy over the issue.
  
• Alex's sister and mother are on the run, though from whom or why is unknown at present.
  
• The Scry is considering recovering his t-shirt from Emma and pleased Alex is helping him not have to learn to use a sword.
  
• Brodie is now working for Vericorp, who really should have insisted on a psych test beforehand.
  
• Blot is killing rats and being very bored.
  
• To continue with B's, Brandon is fine now, sans headaches and unsure why. His parents are worried that the miraculous recovery can end as quickly as it came about.
  
• Tyrell is coming to terms with the knowledge that the Grey Man toyed with him for centuries for no other viable reason that 'just because'.
  
• Eugene Stoffel is trying to find ways to spite his father and make use of the family estate. This can't end well.
  
• Bea's mirror-self is getting worried about losing her job for hitting on her boss.
  
• Father Brownwell is finishing translating Enochian for Joni and getting worried that it is later than anyone thinks.
  
• The White Lord is debating steps to take against Joni
  
• Kevin has decided to embrace his power rather than allow others to be hurt because he didn't use it. The school might well get its own helipad.
  
• The werwewolves in the park are debating steps to take against the animal control officials.
  
• Mr. Stuffins has decided that if people keep trying to put him on a diet, the end will be very, very nigh.

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.

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.