We're into session 34 or so of the game, so a recap: (The Wed. in game will mark 2 weeks since the game began (for Kami) in game time).
Mailk and Teresa are on Sunday in the a.m., currently at Freemont General Hospital with Basil, attempting to let the kid see his parents.
Meanwhile, Mason is spending Sunday night with Samson, Kaegan, Jerry and Trevor, trying to get Samson to stop being a dick.
Over on Monday, Kami is working on fixing the Eye and Nattie is off doing SAFE stuff.
While on Monday evening, Teresa has become a police officer, has her own car, and has learned disturbing things about how the law can treat Omegas.
So far, no one has broken time (which is awesome) and things are proceeding well.
Things to keep in mind: Omegas have only 'surfaced' in the last five years, as far as many government institutions are concerned. They are trying to keep it under wraps and deal with Weird Stuff with budgets not equipped for that, so most of the hospitals and police forces are more liable to slip stuff under tables, lose paperwork, drug patients into comas because it's cheaper than trying to fix them/made cells for them etc.
Thursday, April 07, 2011
Sunday, April 03, 2011
Aurora Consurgens: Experience (Redone)
The previous system was bugging me as being too complicated, so herewith is the revision. Experience will come in two forms: Experience Points and Pips.
Pips
Pips are a +1 to a roll. For each session you play (or wish to but can't due to too many players/scenes at once) you get 1 pip. They must be used prior to the dice rolling. So having 3 dice in Awesome Street Fighting and spending for pips nets 3d6+4.
Alternatively, if you have them banked you can spend 10 pips after a roll is made to redo your entire roll; no further pips can be spent on it, but it does allow recovery from a critical failure.
Experience
PCs get one experience for every 3 sessions they play. To increase a trait, you spend an amount of experience equal to the next level of experience. So do go from 3d6 to 4d6 requires spending 4 experience. This also means that getting from 5d6 to 6d6 requires spending the same experience necessary to get a new 3d6 stat.
Powers cap out at 7d6, other abilities (and less broad powers) at 8d6. Growth in powers in game requires experimenting with them and using them, naturally.
For the most part, the vast majority of npcs will not have more than 4d6 in stats (with an eventually 5 in their best skill), barring alphas and government agents.
This system is designed to allow the creation of new skills and abilities as being more important than upping existing ones; pcs learn, teach each other things, and so forth.
Situational Bonuses
if two people are fighting (say, a chess game to determine if Kami becomes their love slave) ans both have an ability they can bring into play, the person with the more relevant ability may get a +3. So Weapons Guy (3) vs. Sword Master (3) means the latter gets a bonus in a sword fight vs. the former.
Damage will also net the loss of a die/penalty if warranted.
Final Note: The experience rule is being implemented retroactively. So if you have 4d6 in something, 15 session is enough for 5d6. Players are expected to keep track of the amount of sessions they are in and provide updated stats accordingly.
Pips
Pips are a +1 to a roll. For each session you play (or wish to but can't due to too many players/scenes at once) you get 1 pip. They must be used prior to the dice rolling. So having 3 dice in Awesome Street Fighting and spending for pips nets 3d6+4.
Alternatively, if you have them banked you can spend 10 pips after a roll is made to redo your entire roll; no further pips can be spent on it, but it does allow recovery from a critical failure.
Experience
PCs get one experience for every 3 sessions they play. To increase a trait, you spend an amount of experience equal to the next level of experience. So do go from 3d6 to 4d6 requires spending 4 experience. This also means that getting from 5d6 to 6d6 requires spending the same experience necessary to get a new 3d6 stat.
Powers cap out at 7d6, other abilities (and less broad powers) at 8d6. Growth in powers in game requires experimenting with them and using them, naturally.
For the most part, the vast majority of npcs will not have more than 4d6 in stats (with an eventually 5 in their best skill), barring alphas and government agents.
This system is designed to allow the creation of new skills and abilities as being more important than upping existing ones; pcs learn, teach each other things, and so forth.
Situational Bonuses
if two people are fighting (say, a chess game to determine if Kami becomes their love slave) ans both have an ability they can bring into play, the person with the more relevant ability may get a +3. So Weapons Guy (3) vs. Sword Master (3) means the latter gets a bonus in a sword fight vs. the former.
Damage will also net the loss of a die/penalty if warranted.
Final Note: The experience rule is being implemented retroactively. So if you have 4d6 in something, 15 session is enough for 5d6. Players are expected to keep track of the amount of sessions they are in and provide updated stats accordingly.
Friday, April 01, 2011
Aurora Consurgens: Session #30
It is now Sunday in game. Hurray! Plot-wise ..
* Teresa has convinced Quentin to join DREAM, partially via Disney films.
* Temperence plans to take Basil to the hospital to see his parents.
* Malik has a bar owner very much wanting to be his Manager.
* Tanya has invited Damien and Teresa to a Circle of Humanity meeting at her place Sunday Night. She had not recinded the offer to Damien despite his murder of Aalim.
* Kami is making costumes for SAFE and has had an r2-45 member declare herself Kami's bodyguard.
* Mason has managed to make friends of a superhero and also enemies of sort (aka Leo).
Where things are going:
All the PCs are now aware they are Omegas and several have been approached by various organizations about recruitment. Things are liable to start coming to a head for various subplots and plans NPCs have for PCs (and PCs for NPCs). Also,Temperence shall meet Omegas who are weird and fine with that, like Mason.
Games in a night:
Games 1 - 3 max. While doing 4-5 is also possible, I'm finding it seems to go too slow and some PCs and plots get sidelined. Combat scenes obviously end up taking precendence in terms of time and action, which is also not fair to other players. In general, session preference will be given to players behind, time-wise, or who haven't been able to make a session in a few days.
* Teresa has convinced Quentin to join DREAM, partially via Disney films.
* Temperence plans to take Basil to the hospital to see his parents.
* Malik has a bar owner very much wanting to be his Manager.
* Tanya has invited Damien and Teresa to a Circle of Humanity meeting at her place Sunday Night. She had not recinded the offer to Damien despite his murder of Aalim.
* Kami is making costumes for SAFE and has had an r2-45 member declare herself Kami's bodyguard.
* Mason has managed to make friends of a superhero and also enemies of sort (aka Leo).
Where things are going:
All the PCs are now aware they are Omegas and several have been approached by various organizations about recruitment. Things are liable to start coming to a head for various subplots and plans NPCs have for PCs (and PCs for NPCs). Also,Temperence shall meet Omegas who are weird and fine with that, like Mason.
Games in a night:
Games 1 - 3 max. While doing 4-5 is also possible, I'm finding it seems to go too slow and some PCs and plots get sidelined. Combat scenes obviously end up taking precendence in terms of time and action, which is also not fair to other players. In general, session preference will be given to players behind, time-wise, or who haven't been able to make a session in a few days.
Friday, March 25, 2011
Aurora Consurgens: on magic
Magic does exist in this setting, but it is pretty much a human-only method of power. This isn't to say others can't learn it, but mostly they don't need to because they've power enough already. It's based on the theory that information is superior to matter and energy (see Ed Fredkin for an overview on that) and allows one to cheat the universe by manipulating that. Which isn't near as grand as it sounds, since Omegas essentially do that without trying just by existing.
The use of magic tends to be rituals and words/symbols of power used as shorthand for a much longer mental equation designed to change the world. Small, local scale effects that take time, energy and serious amounts of effort to replicate what Omegas do for a very brief period. The other kind, the one that's considered actually dangerous, is said rituals, with energy costs involving human sacrifice and so forth, that punch holes in the universe and allow Things into it. Which is dangerous since what immune systems the universe has don't catch such entities and they can do pretty nasty things -- if they get through, which happens very, very rarely.
This illustrates the big danger of magic, in that it involves manipulating the universe, but the universe is ~90% dark matter, aka: we don't know where it is. So trying to manipulate a system you barely understand, and are a small fragment of, can be quite dangerous at the best of times. (Some magicians believe Omegas embody the so-called dark matter, but that's neither here not there.)
In game example: Aalim Jabar had a magical knife, and protections on his home. Damien pretty much vanished it without effort. Magic might do minor things, but that is generally all it does without a cult, a lot of dead people and an insane amount of determination. Which is pretty much what the Red King cult seems to be about, though what they're trying to do seems to be an unknown, thus far, but is worrying enough that the people really in charge of the country want it stopped.
OOCLY, magicians are pretty rare (few are self-taught and those often accidentally kill themselves) and they aren't that powerful, even at the best of times. It's really only the mass human sacrifce meaning bad stuff (and the human sacrifice angle in general) of the nastier sory of magician that leads to them being stopped.
The use of magic tends to be rituals and words/symbols of power used as shorthand for a much longer mental equation designed to change the world. Small, local scale effects that take time, energy and serious amounts of effort to replicate what Omegas do for a very brief period. The other kind, the one that's considered actually dangerous, is said rituals, with energy costs involving human sacrifice and so forth, that punch holes in the universe and allow Things into it. Which is dangerous since what immune systems the universe has don't catch such entities and they can do pretty nasty things -- if they get through, which happens very, very rarely.
This illustrates the big danger of magic, in that it involves manipulating the universe, but the universe is ~90% dark matter, aka: we don't know where it is. So trying to manipulate a system you barely understand, and are a small fragment of, can be quite dangerous at the best of times. (Some magicians believe Omegas embody the so-called dark matter, but that's neither here not there.)
In game example: Aalim Jabar had a magical knife, and protections on his home. Damien pretty much vanished it without effort. Magic might do minor things, but that is generally all it does without a cult, a lot of dead people and an insane amount of determination. Which is pretty much what the Red King cult seems to be about, though what they're trying to do seems to be an unknown, thus far, but is worrying enough that the people really in charge of the country want it stopped.
OOCLY, magicians are pretty rare (few are self-taught and those often accidentally kill themselves) and they aren't that powerful, even at the best of times. It's really only the mass human sacrifce meaning bad stuff (and the human sacrifice angle in general) of the nastier sory of magician that leads to them being stopped.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Aurora Consurgens: on the nature of Omegas
Dr. Kim Li, Freemont University College, for The Radical Inquirer.
There are people in the world called Omegas, possessed of power ordinary humans can scarce imagine,things from stories and legends. Accept this as truth, or treat the following as a thought experiment.
It is theorized that every person has the potential to become an Omega, but this theory is, broadly, false. There is certainly some genetic basis for becoming an Omega, but environmental influences, the nature of other Omegas and one's own life and way of thinking are factors. As Omegas cannot be easily categorized, the question of why some become Omegas and others do not cannot be fit neatly into boxes. The following are observations, not certainties. There are outliers on every graph, and for Omegas moreso than perhaps others.
Emergence
The emergence of Omegas tends to happen either during Puberty, College, Mid-Life Crsis or, more rarely, Old Age. (There is a class of younger Omegas, often triggered by abuse, but that is too dark and deep a topic to get into at present.)
Puberty: The emergence of the Omega during puberty is the most common, happening in at least 60% of documented cases. Testimony of Omegas tends to fit with this, though it seems to be more the age bracket that is affected rather than the actual onset of a specific stage of puberty itself. Most wake up one day from sleep and find they are no longer entirely human.
College: Several factors come into play here. Stress, a city with a lot of people (and hence, more Omegas) and a greater chance of meeting them tends to lead to the change during this stage. Curiously, most of these Omegas report being awake during the change.
Mid-life: As stress accompanies puberty and college, so too does it factor into the mid-life crisis. Further, becoming an Omega seems to happen to people suffering under the delusions of such crises and/or considering dramatic changed in lifestyle (for example, divorce). most of them deal poorly with the change of self that accompanies becoming an Omega and hates of attempted suicide are reportedly quite high.
Elderly: Omega abilities and changes developing among the elderly are uncommon but tend to be caused by a change in lifestyle, death in the family, being in a home with other Omegas present. Also, this is the only group where people have reported becoming Omegas out of need -- for example, to save the life of a grandchild to the extent that their form often seems imprinted by the desires of the child as well as the needs of the situation. (One Omega had their mind put into a stuffed bear a child owned, which became superhumanly powerful.)
To sum up, the key factors seem to be stress, change in one's life and/or immanent death that lead to at least 60% of people becoming Omegas. Others can have tose factor in, but tend to result from being in the proximity of Omegas: the more Omegas a location has, the more it seems to produce -- though since many Omega travel about this is difficult to verify.
Lastly, Omegas seem to be drawn to each other by their shared nature, which often manifests in the form of a further physical change which gives the Omegas s secondary ability associated with it. This change isn't always visible and seems to have no chemical or sensory basis. Nevertheless something draws them to each other, as if to long-lost kin.
Physical Mutation
The obvious signs of being an Omega are not actually that obvious at all times. Some 'tells', as they are called, only show whne using abilities, or when not using them, or are active at all times but can be covered. Further, some Omegas can make illusions for others and there are rumoured to be holographic devices that perform the same task. As a final cautionary note, some Omega changes approximate oddities found within the human spectrum, so someone with a large port wine stain may just have that, and not be able to bring chalk drawings to life, for example.
With few exceptions, no Omega likes referring to their change as a disability of any sort and a surprisingly most adapt quite comfortably to their changes. Or would, if not for the reactions of other humans and Omegas to them. This, of course, is the rate among those who do not take their lives, but given the variety of changes, and the nature of them -- which sometimes has little, or nothing, to do with their other ability -- tends to vary, but has yet to produce a non-viable lifeform.
In other words, no matter what the Omega becomes, they're still alive and their bodily processes adapt to the new state, if they aren't discarded altogether. Most Omegas tend to have minor cosmetic changes -- alterations to skin, body and appearance that still retain their basic human form. The second class tend to classify as 'monsters' in appearance, some being entirely astonishing entities that shouldn't be able to walk around, let along breathe and talk, yet ate still able to. Unfortunately, the vast majority of these Omegas are generally in hiding or killed shorting after their change takes place so further data on the physical change, and what purpose it may sere to Omegas as a whole, remains unknown. A third kind are Omegas who look human but lack physical bodies any longer: they are theorized to exist, give whatever causes Omegas to exist seems not to care too much about actual biological function, but few have been encountered.
All of which means there are at least two forces acting upon the Omega: their own fears, desires, wants and causes of stress that may be a factor in their ability and the secondary physical change, often coming with abilities of its own, whose nature and purpose is unknown. It may be that this is what marks Omegas as Omegas to each other, on some extremely fundamental level, but as yet there is no data to support this theory.
There are people in the world called Omegas, possessed of power ordinary humans can scarce imagine,things from stories and legends. Accept this as truth, or treat the following as a thought experiment.
It is theorized that every person has the potential to become an Omega, but this theory is, broadly, false. There is certainly some genetic basis for becoming an Omega, but environmental influences, the nature of other Omegas and one's own life and way of thinking are factors. As Omegas cannot be easily categorized, the question of why some become Omegas and others do not cannot be fit neatly into boxes. The following are observations, not certainties. There are outliers on every graph, and for Omegas moreso than perhaps others.
Emergence
The emergence of Omegas tends to happen either during Puberty, College, Mid-Life Crsis or, more rarely, Old Age. (There is a class of younger Omegas, often triggered by abuse, but that is too dark and deep a topic to get into at present.)
Puberty: The emergence of the Omega during puberty is the most common, happening in at least 60% of documented cases. Testimony of Omegas tends to fit with this, though it seems to be more the age bracket that is affected rather than the actual onset of a specific stage of puberty itself. Most wake up one day from sleep and find they are no longer entirely human.
College: Several factors come into play here. Stress, a city with a lot of people (and hence, more Omegas) and a greater chance of meeting them tends to lead to the change during this stage. Curiously, most of these Omegas report being awake during the change.
Mid-life: As stress accompanies puberty and college, so too does it factor into the mid-life crisis. Further, becoming an Omega seems to happen to people suffering under the delusions of such crises and/or considering dramatic changed in lifestyle (for example, divorce). most of them deal poorly with the change of self that accompanies becoming an Omega and hates of attempted suicide are reportedly quite high.
Elderly: Omega abilities and changes developing among the elderly are uncommon but tend to be caused by a change in lifestyle, death in the family, being in a home with other Omegas present. Also, this is the only group where people have reported becoming Omegas out of need -- for example, to save the life of a grandchild to the extent that their form often seems imprinted by the desires of the child as well as the needs of the situation. (One Omega had their mind put into a stuffed bear a child owned, which became superhumanly powerful.)
To sum up, the key factors seem to be stress, change in one's life and/or immanent death that lead to at least 60% of people becoming Omegas. Others can have tose factor in, but tend to result from being in the proximity of Omegas: the more Omegas a location has, the more it seems to produce -- though since many Omega travel about this is difficult to verify.
Lastly, Omegas seem to be drawn to each other by their shared nature, which often manifests in the form of a further physical change which gives the Omegas s secondary ability associated with it. This change isn't always visible and seems to have no chemical or sensory basis. Nevertheless something draws them to each other, as if to long-lost kin.
Physical Mutation
The obvious signs of being an Omega are not actually that obvious at all times. Some 'tells', as they are called, only show whne using abilities, or when not using them, or are active at all times but can be covered. Further, some Omegas can make illusions for others and there are rumoured to be holographic devices that perform the same task. As a final cautionary note, some Omega changes approximate oddities found within the human spectrum, so someone with a large port wine stain may just have that, and not be able to bring chalk drawings to life, for example.
With few exceptions, no Omega likes referring to their change as a disability of any sort and a surprisingly most adapt quite comfortably to their changes. Or would, if not for the reactions of other humans and Omegas to them. This, of course, is the rate among those who do not take their lives, but given the variety of changes, and the nature of them -- which sometimes has little, or nothing, to do with their other ability -- tends to vary, but has yet to produce a non-viable lifeform.
In other words, no matter what the Omega becomes, they're still alive and their bodily processes adapt to the new state, if they aren't discarded altogether. Most Omegas tend to have minor cosmetic changes -- alterations to skin, body and appearance that still retain their basic human form. The second class tend to classify as 'monsters' in appearance, some being entirely astonishing entities that shouldn't be able to walk around, let along breathe and talk, yet ate still able to. Unfortunately, the vast majority of these Omegas are generally in hiding or killed shorting after their change takes place so further data on the physical change, and what purpose it may sere to Omegas as a whole, remains unknown. A third kind are Omegas who look human but lack physical bodies any longer: they are theorized to exist, give whatever causes Omegas to exist seems not to care too much about actual biological function, but few have been encountered.
All of which means there are at least two forces acting upon the Omega: their own fears, desires, wants and causes of stress that may be a factor in their ability and the secondary physical change, often coming with abilities of its own, whose nature and purpose is unknown. It may be that this is what marks Omegas as Omegas to each other, on some extremely fundamental level, but as yet there is no data to support this theory.
Aurora Consurgens: As of session 23
Game-wise, it a Friday! (The game began, from Kami's pov, the previous Wednesday, so for her it's been almost ten days [And she hasn't rolled enough dice - S.].)
As present, Kami was about to head home after band practice involving Mason, Mason was about to head to the hospital to be x-rayed to make an 'alien' happy, Teresa is trying to find Aalim and solve the mystery of the weird knife with Damien (Griffin having insisted they do) while Malik is -- thanks to bad luck -- being subjected to Trevor's recruitment drive into S.A.F.E and, finally, Temperance is slowly learning she is an Omega, and trying to help Beckett do something other than beat up drug dealers to make up for the death of his brother.
Whew!
Plot-wise:
* Mostly **
** Okay, just the once, but Sparkie ensured it failed.
ETA: As of today, the game has been running for 1 month and done 23 sessions. Which is nicely insane :)
As present, Kami was about to head home after band practice involving Mason, Mason was about to head to the hospital to be x-rayed to make an 'alien' happy, Teresa is trying to find Aalim and solve the mystery of the weird knife with Damien (Griffin having insisted they do) while Malik is -- thanks to bad luck -- being subjected to Trevor's recruitment drive into S.A.F.E and, finally, Temperance is slowly learning she is an Omega, and trying to help Beckett do something other than beat up drug dealers to make up for the death of his brother.
Whew!
Plot-wise:
- The band is a major plot element, having drawn in Kami, Mason and linking to Malik in the future. Great one for pc interaction and rooted in the normal world (mostly).
- S.A.F.E. is trying to recruit PCs. Good money, some danger. (The latter leading Trevor to want to recruit as many willing Omegas as possible.) Which connects with ...
- R2-45, the government conspiracy trying to tag and monitor Omegas, likely not happy with people finding ways to turn those off.
- Other conspiracies, such as D.R.E.A.M. and the Black Circle, are active, but have so far not attempted to recruit PCs*, though how long this state lasts, and to what extent PCs can resist forcible conversion, is up in the air.
- Meanwhile, in the villainous plots, Doctor D is still supplying alphas and omegas with drugs to boost abilities and is apparently insanely well-connected.
- Hades, on the other hand, seems content to sow evil and discord. While his blood can apparently nullify Omega powers, for some reason he hadn't decided to go about offering a 'cure', despite the obvious evil and havoc that could cause.
- Finally, people. (I say finally because Alcar has stopped yammering on and on and on.) More plots are good. Plots lead to dice, and dice lead to fun and fun leads to excitement! - Sparkie, whose conspiracy of 'roll more dice!' seems to be failing. Jerks.
* Mostly **
** Okay, just the once, but Sparkie ensured it failed.
ETA: As of today, the game has been running for 1 month and done 23 sessions. Which is nicely insane :)
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Aurora Consurgens: Conspiracies (also, cast list)
Cast List: Exists on piratepad now, for all players to edit, add to etc. (Snarky notes appended to npcs or pcs encouraged by Sparkie :)) Link to it is in game1 topic. It is OOC and does contain charactersn who've yet to show in game.
Conspiracies
There is one conspiracy so great is can bring down the moon, so brilliant it burns even the worthy as it makes them pure, and so terrible that darkness quells from it and sorrow seems, at times, its mate.This conspiracy is called love.
Regarding the game, there are a lot of conspiracies running around, from good to bad to utterly indifferent. The following exist at present:
Aces: Street gangs in cells of 5-6, recruited from the military (the top 2% of whom tend to be Aces, hence easy recruitment). They believe Aces are humanity 2.0, and they wish to eliminate Omegas, whom they see as a threat to the world they will inherit.
Black Chamber: A conspiracy so secret that members cannot normally mention it. Recruits weirder omegas, often after saving them from mobs, though recent evidence shows at least one member has been trying to cause said mob events in order to produce more loyal recruits. (As Kami pointed out, Claire did such a horrible job of that that she clearly hadn't done it before, much to Damien's relief.)
Choir: A branch of the Illuminati existing now, whose goal is to destroy demons (aka weird Omegas). Attacked S.A.F.E. once, and had no problem killing bystanders, which is apparently unusual for them. Very militant and hard-core.
CFR: The Council on Foreign Relations is a non-partisan think tank in the US based around international relations and, in reality, about how nations deal with Omegas as the new superpower and if nations should catalogue their Omegas, grade them and trade them etc. in order to preserve the current balance of power.
Doctor D: A drug-runner in the city who has managed to hide from conspiracies, vigilantes and Trevor to take. Guards shipments using power armour Damien referred to as 'edgetech', which Trevor had never even heard of. Probably not a conspiracy in himself, but obviously funded by several.
Dream: A conspiracy whose goal is to make finer worlds by connecting humans, alphas, and omegas into a shared understand of their larger role within the biosphere. Uses the word 'Gaia' a lot but seems convinced everyone should be on the same side since they all live on the same world.
The Guild: Not a conspiracy, as such, but various families of Omegas whose talent is passed down and whose members develop it, often during puberty. They generally have only one ability but are very, very good at using it and tend to tread omegas without lineage as lesser beings. Often mired in their politics in the Old World.
The Illuminati (original): The big one, so big it hid behind that name. A telepathic conspiracy of at least 2,500 years to keep humans unaware of Omegas (aka angels and demons, to them). The rise of scientific understanding -- and questions about omegas and genetics -- coupled with the growing thought that they could do a lot more than just put out fires, led to some Event five years ago that broke the organization, killing many members and sundering it.
Unless, of course, it did not.
The Illuminati (current): Still exists, mostly telepaths who are trying to keep a lid on Weird stuff and each other. Further goals, desires and so forth are unknown, as is how effective they are at all.
IRS: It`s only natural.
Majestic 13: A group of government-sponsored superhumans (12 in total) who deal with various problems and crises. Military-trained, work well as a unit and not to be underestimated.
r2-45: Government conspiracy whose goal is to catalogue and study all Omegas. They tend to brand them like animals and have several agents (called splies) who are made from skin samples of several omegas and legally not persons. Involved in hiding Omegas from the world, which has become more their primary goal following the collapse of the Illuminati.
Conspiracies
There is one conspiracy so great is can bring down the moon, so brilliant it burns even the worthy as it makes them pure, and so terrible that darkness quells from it and sorrow seems, at times, its mate.This conspiracy is called love.
Regarding the game, there are a lot of conspiracies running around, from good to bad to utterly indifferent. The following exist at present:
Aces: Street gangs in cells of 5-6, recruited from the military (the top 2% of whom tend to be Aces, hence easy recruitment). They believe Aces are humanity 2.0, and they wish to eliminate Omegas, whom they see as a threat to the world they will inherit.
Black Chamber: A conspiracy so secret that members cannot normally mention it. Recruits weirder omegas, often after saving them from mobs, though recent evidence shows at least one member has been trying to cause said mob events in order to produce more loyal recruits. (As Kami pointed out, Claire did such a horrible job of that that she clearly hadn't done it before, much to Damien's relief.)
Choir: A branch of the Illuminati existing now, whose goal is to destroy demons (aka weird Omegas). Attacked S.A.F.E. once, and had no problem killing bystanders, which is apparently unusual for them. Very militant and hard-core.
CFR: The Council on Foreign Relations is a non-partisan think tank in the US based around international relations and, in reality, about how nations deal with Omegas as the new superpower and if nations should catalogue their Omegas, grade them and trade them etc. in order to preserve the current balance of power.
Doctor D: A drug-runner in the city who has managed to hide from conspiracies, vigilantes and Trevor to take. Guards shipments using power armour Damien referred to as 'edgetech', which Trevor had never even heard of. Probably not a conspiracy in himself, but obviously funded by several.
Dream: A conspiracy whose goal is to make finer worlds by connecting humans, alphas, and omegas into a shared understand of their larger role within the biosphere. Uses the word 'Gaia' a lot but seems convinced everyone should be on the same side since they all live on the same world.
The Guild: Not a conspiracy, as such, but various families of Omegas whose talent is passed down and whose members develop it, often during puberty. They generally have only one ability but are very, very good at using it and tend to tread omegas without lineage as lesser beings. Often mired in their politics in the Old World.
The Illuminati (original): The big one, so big it hid behind that name. A telepathic conspiracy of at least 2,500 years to keep humans unaware of Omegas (aka angels and demons, to them). The rise of scientific understanding -- and questions about omegas and genetics -- coupled with the growing thought that they could do a lot more than just put out fires, led to some Event five years ago that broke the organization, killing many members and sundering it.
Unless, of course, it did not.
The Illuminati (current): Still exists, mostly telepaths who are trying to keep a lid on Weird stuff and each other. Further goals, desires and so forth are unknown, as is how effective they are at all.
IRS: It`s only natural.
Majestic 13: A group of government-sponsored superhumans (12 in total) who deal with various problems and crises. Military-trained, work well as a unit and not to be underestimated.
r2-45: Government conspiracy whose goal is to catalogue and study all Omegas. They tend to brand them like animals and have several agents (called splies) who are made from skin samples of several omegas and legally not persons. Involved in hiding Omegas from the world, which has become more their primary goal following the collapse of the Illuminati.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Aurora Consurgens: Cast List
We now have two three four five? players for the game. It is officially no longer even remotely a 'side game'. Which should be weird, and awesome, and pretty interesting and -- in theory -- lead to Barry recruiting at least one PC to his Omega Rights campaign: someone weird has to be willing to march down the streets with a sign, right?
Fun things to note thus far:
a) No one player has made a 'normal' superhuman at all. No traditional kind of energy blast or flight powers or the like at all. Which is pretty interesting and probably fits better into the x-men/mutation aspect of the game than, frankly, a lot of the x-men do. It also means that dealing with weird stuff and problems is going to require friends, alliances, working together and the like.
2) I am going to try doing the 'no set time' aspect of the game still. Granted, PCs in more sessions will get more experience* but it also frees players from the obligation of feeling they must make a certain session and so forth. In line with this, few sessions should end on cliffhangers requiring two specific players to show the next session and so forth, though this is liable to happen a few times.
* If for some reason you do want to play some night but are unable to due to issues of time (you on on day 8, everyone else on day 6), you'll get a 'pip' of experience anyway. Not the same as advancement towards an experience die, but it is something.
iii) Your government wants you! Recruitment of Omegas to various government agencies is quite high, even if the motivations of said agencies sometimes have dark sides, or bureaucracy limits their actual effectiveness. PCs tend not to be joiner-types to said groups, but that won't stop them from trying and should prove fun all around.
The current 'big' plots
S.A.F.E.: An organization set up by Trevor and Linda, S.A.F.E. aims to keep humans safe from Omega abuses and generally protect the city from harm. They do offer money, and are pretty loosely structured at present. Depending on Trevor's ulterior goals, they're probably the closest thing the cuty of Freemont has to any superhero league at present.
S.E.E.: Barry Jameson and the Omegas he's gathered to him (or are spying on him for other people...). His goal is free and equal rights for Omegas and, as far as he is concerned, appealing to the best in human nature will allow this to happen and, say, someone like Damien be allowed to work behind the till at a restaurant. It is worth noting that he seems to seriously think this is possible in the kind of incompletely-formed idealistic dream that such plans are made of.
Doctor D: A drug-runner who supplies drugs to boost Alphas and Omegas in power. So far, one Omega has died to the drugs and he has serious resources and money, apparently aiming to make the city a base of operations for his midwest trade. And yeah, use of a large dose of the drugs is fatal, for all the awesome power it gives in the short term. (There is also someone putting out self-help books that achieve the 'be all you can be' effect, but they don't seem to be related.)
Circle of Humanity: Tanya Richiusa runs a small meeting group out of a local diner that exists to explore human/alpha relations. It tends to attract crackpots and the like, but one of her goals is to have Omegas show and humans realize that being an Omega isn't the best thing in the world, a paradigm shift she believes will also make them question their loathing of the elite alphas, with luck.
Fun things to note thus far:
a) No one player has made a 'normal' superhuman at all. No traditional kind of energy blast or flight powers or the like at all. Which is pretty interesting and probably fits better into the x-men/mutation aspect of the game than, frankly, a lot of the x-men do. It also means that dealing with weird stuff and problems is going to require friends, alliances, working together and the like.
2) I am going to try doing the 'no set time' aspect of the game still. Granted, PCs in more sessions will get more experience* but it also frees players from the obligation of feeling they must make a certain session and so forth. In line with this, few sessions should end on cliffhangers requiring two specific players to show the next session and so forth, though this is liable to happen a few times.
* If for some reason you do want to play some night but are unable to due to issues of time (you on on day 8, everyone else on day 6), you'll get a 'pip' of experience anyway. Not the same as advancement towards an experience die, but it is something.
iii) Your government wants you! Recruitment of Omegas to various government agencies is quite high, even if the motivations of said agencies sometimes have dark sides, or bureaucracy limits their actual effectiveness. PCs tend not to be joiner-types to said groups, but that won't stop them from trying and should prove fun all around.
The current 'big' plots
S.A.F.E.: An organization set up by Trevor and Linda, S.A.F.E. aims to keep humans safe from Omega abuses and generally protect the city from harm. They do offer money, and are pretty loosely structured at present. Depending on Trevor's ulterior goals, they're probably the closest thing the cuty of Freemont has to any superhero league at present.
S.E.E.: Barry Jameson and the Omegas he's gathered to him (or are spying on him for other people...). His goal is free and equal rights for Omegas and, as far as he is concerned, appealing to the best in human nature will allow this to happen and, say, someone like Damien be allowed to work behind the till at a restaurant. It is worth noting that he seems to seriously think this is possible in the kind of incompletely-formed idealistic dream that such plans are made of.
Doctor D: A drug-runner who supplies drugs to boost Alphas and Omegas in power. So far, one Omega has died to the drugs and he has serious resources and money, apparently aiming to make the city a base of operations for his midwest trade. And yeah, use of a large dose of the drugs is fatal, for all the awesome power it gives in the short term. (There is also someone putting out self-help books that achieve the 'be all you can be' effect, but they don't seem to be related.)
Circle of Humanity: Tanya Richiusa runs a small meeting group out of a local diner that exists to explore human/alpha relations. It tends to attract crackpots and the like, but one of her goals is to have Omegas show and humans realize that being an Omega isn't the best thing in the world, a paradigm shift she believes will also make them question their loathing of the elite alphas, with luck.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Aurora Consurgens: Epicality (and Omega Rights)
Points established in the setting thus far (Some of it being OOC):
1) The Illuminati used to prevent humanity from being aware of then 'angels' and 'demons (aka Omegas) having their wars via insane degrees of telepathic manipulation, until Darwin et al made some of the Illuminati question this idealistic mindset, which in turn led to questions about why the Illuminati were just putting out fires when they could prevent/control them. To an extent, this split seems to have let to some Event five yeas ago that destroyed the organization, which has since splintered to various factions among those that survived.
2) Trevor's claim that (unopposed), six Omegas could destroy a single city. Depending on abilities and working together, this is probably broadly true and once you factor in drugs to boost powers and apparently self-help books that to the same, the amount of time it would take becomes debatable.
(In general, I'm operating under the assumption that most any Omega with a combat-oriented power can probably take out a city block worth of area by their lonesome without real effort.)
In terms of epic, this game is structured more like the x-men are in teams and allies combine together to achieve maximum effect (see the 'defeat' of Hades as an awesome in-game example). Even PCs, alone, will not win the day in all battles, though ideally are the decisive force and centre of it. Why? Because power-creep ruins a game faster than other things, so if PCs and NPcs are on a generally equal footing* it requires more skill and RP to win the day than out and out dice and being better.
Which isn't to say the latter won't happen: the PCs vs. 'new' Omegas, after some experience is gained, is pretty much going to == 'the pc wins', which is as it should be. The really powerful and scary Omegas are either still in check by the Illuminati (or various government agencies, in a lot of cases), dead, or simply have no desire to rule the world, which, frankly, most don't. Though invasions from other worlds (yay!) and alpha and omega mad scientists (bwahahahaaha!) can skew that a little, and shall.
A lot of what happens regarding various battles -- how people see it, with Omegas as the new superpower, how they deal with being 'inferior' and such will depend on PC and NPC actions during the game. Do you try and build bridges, protect a world that hates and fears you etc.? And if it does, doesn't it make sense to make the world like you instead?
How players deal with that, and what they do about it, will determine a lot of how the world reactions to various epic-level events as and when they happen. In other words, some of the setting is about how you change the world, for the better or worse, and how it reacts to them. You might only do this visibly on the local level of one city, but such things do spread.
Caveat: Omega Rights, etc.
One player has basically said that such plot aspects to the game bore them. Which is fine: not everyone wants or desires or deserves some imagined 'equality' (and there are characters who do think it impossible because equality doesn't exist [Damien counts, though he's never voiced it in those terms]. But from a character -- aqnd player -- pov, do you want to play a game where everyone hates your character and you have to operating out of hiding and in shadows? Likely not. Which is why changing how the world sees you is as important as anything else. Reputation is as important as power in many ways.
The entire minor Barry-driven plot Omega Rights, and others like that, are largely intended as background, since I figured that players would make PCs that:
a) passed for human pretty much or
b) didn't, but the usual stigma didn't really apply to them.
And players did, because who would want to make Toxic Man or something useless like that? Not I, certainly. The second kind of PC (i.e. Mason) also gets to highlight certain questions about how much of the anti-Omega hysteria is generated by interest groups etc., which can become important.
1) The Illuminati used to prevent humanity from being aware of then 'angels' and 'demons (aka Omegas) having their wars via insane degrees of telepathic manipulation, until Darwin et al made some of the Illuminati question this idealistic mindset, which in turn led to questions about why the Illuminati were just putting out fires when they could prevent/control them. To an extent, this split seems to have let to some Event five yeas ago that destroyed the organization, which has since splintered to various factions among those that survived.
2) Trevor's claim that (unopposed), six Omegas could destroy a single city. Depending on abilities and working together, this is probably broadly true and once you factor in drugs to boost powers and apparently self-help books that to the same, the amount of time it would take becomes debatable.
(In general, I'm operating under the assumption that most any Omega with a combat-oriented power can probably take out a city block worth of area by their lonesome without real effort.)
In terms of epic, this game is structured more like the x-men are in teams and allies combine together to achieve maximum effect (see the 'defeat' of Hades as an awesome in-game example). Even PCs, alone, will not win the day in all battles, though ideally are the decisive force and centre of it. Why? Because power-creep ruins a game faster than other things, so if PCs and NPcs are on a generally equal footing* it requires more skill and RP to win the day than out and out dice and being better.
Which isn't to say the latter won't happen: the PCs vs. 'new' Omegas, after some experience is gained, is pretty much going to == 'the pc wins', which is as it should be. The really powerful and scary Omegas are either still in check by the Illuminati (or various government agencies, in a lot of cases), dead, or simply have no desire to rule the world, which, frankly, most don't. Though invasions from other worlds (yay!) and alpha and omega mad scientists (bwahahahaaha!) can skew that a little, and shall.
A lot of what happens regarding various battles -- how people see it, with Omegas as the new superpower, how they deal with being 'inferior' and such will depend on PC and NPC actions during the game. Do you try and build bridges, protect a world that hates and fears you etc.? And if it does, doesn't it make sense to make the world like you instead?
How players deal with that, and what they do about it, will determine a lot of how the world reactions to various epic-level events as and when they happen. In other words, some of the setting is about how you change the world, for the better or worse, and how it reacts to them. You might only do this visibly on the local level of one city, but such things do spread.
Caveat: Omega Rights, etc.
One player has basically said that such plot aspects to the game bore them. Which is fine: not everyone wants or desires or deserves some imagined 'equality' (and there are characters who do think it impossible because equality doesn't exist [Damien counts, though he's never voiced it in those terms]. But from a character -- aqnd player -- pov, do you want to play a game where everyone hates your character and you have to operating out of hiding and in shadows? Likely not. Which is why changing how the world sees you is as important as anything else. Reputation is as important as power in many ways.
The entire minor Barry-driven plot Omega Rights, and others like that, are largely intended as background, since I figured that players would make PCs that:
a) passed for human pretty much or
b) didn't, but the usual stigma didn't really apply to them.
And players did, because who would want to make Toxic Man or something useless like that? Not I, certainly. The second kind of PC (i.e. Mason) also gets to highlight certain questions about how much of the anti-Omega hysteria is generated by interest groups etc., which can become important.
Friday, March 11, 2011
Aurora Consurgens: something on the net
Found on a posting board by Anonymous, who is just a trifle more reliable than Wikipedia ...
The secret histories of the world are that: they do not end up on any page, often not in any memory. They are the purged records, the fires, but even ashes leave things before, and nothing is entirely forgot. Ghost memories, echoes, hunches and fragments of dreams remain when all else is dust and forgot even by legend. For instance, to mention the Terrible King by any title would see this vanish off the internet, and the writer from the world. Secrets. Lies. Necessary, perhaps, but still lies, and bitter as they go down.
We change the world, the secret warriors, fighting wars you will never know about, stopping the darkness because someone has to, because it is necessary and the price of knowledge is power, and the price of power is the obligation to use it. We fight the secret wars, and our comings and goings are unknown, sometimes forgot even by ourselves, so secret are the wars. Hexton is merely a word, now. Where is truth to be found, if we bury it so deep that nothing can drawn it forth into the world?
There is no reward. There can be no reward, for this. If people realize what goes on behind the stage, those who set it up have failed. I know this. We know that. And yet. And yet, the silence that folllows is so deep we wish to fill it with action, with words and names and meaning. And that is why we all fail, all those secret groups and terrible conspiracies without name, because the lure of the world pulls at us, and the desire to be More tugs at us all. And there are so very, very few who can resist such temptations, who can be given power that makes the world a toy to them and not then play with it, sometimes just to see what happens.
Five years ago, the oldest and deepest of the conspiracies, hidden behind the name of Illuminati, published and known to hide it further still, flattered. Fell. Even ideals only carry one so far, and the urge to act is always a deep, terrible thing. We are never done with doing, for all we wish we were.
The secret histories of the world are that: they do not end up on any page, often not in any memory. They are the purged records, the fires, but even ashes leave things before, and nothing is entirely forgot. Ghost memories, echoes, hunches and fragments of dreams remain when all else is dust and forgot even by legend. For instance, to mention the Terrible King by any title would see this vanish off the internet, and the writer from the world. Secrets. Lies. Necessary, perhaps, but still lies, and bitter as they go down.
We change the world, the secret warriors, fighting wars you will never know about, stopping the darkness because someone has to, because it is necessary and the price of knowledge is power, and the price of power is the obligation to use it. We fight the secret wars, and our comings and goings are unknown, sometimes forgot even by ourselves, so secret are the wars. Hexton is merely a word, now. Where is truth to be found, if we bury it so deep that nothing can drawn it forth into the world?
There is no reward. There can be no reward, for this. If people realize what goes on behind the stage, those who set it up have failed. I know this. We know that. And yet. And yet, the silence that folllows is so deep we wish to fill it with action, with words and names and meaning. And that is why we all fail, all those secret groups and terrible conspiracies without name, because the lure of the world pulls at us, and the desire to be More tugs at us all. And there are so very, very few who can resist such temptations, who can be given power that makes the world a toy to them and not then play with it, sometimes just to see what happens.
Five years ago, the oldest and deepest of the conspiracies, hidden behind the name of Illuminati, published and known to hide it further still, flattered. Fell. Even ideals only carry one so far, and the urge to act is always a deep, terrible thing. We are never done with doing, for all we wish we were.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Aurora Consurgens: 12 sessions in
12 sessions in, the game has acquired a new player [I believe that's first for an intended side-game] and various plots proceed apace:
The band is trying to get more members, and now may have a rhythm guitar player player who can toss people through the air with her mind and somehow create haunted houses, of a sort, who has also killed over 10 people by accident, but hey: bands need rep, right?
S.A.F.E. is finding things harder going than planned, since Doctor D has taken extreme steps to protect his drug shipments -- steps that led to armed men in battle armour killing Nattie, though it didn't take. Nattie and Damien are reevaluating things, as is Trevor.
For her part, Kami is trying to keep people sane, is the employee of the month (!) and may win a car in a raffle! Sullivan seems occupied with other matters and the Illuminati have yet to try and contact Kami, unless of course they already have.
Meanwhile, a bit across town, Mason's two weeks of dealing with his own change have taken a turn for the bizarre that seems to involving a woman named Claire who is trying to start riots involving Mason for reasons of her own, going as far as manipulating a brand-new Omega and refusing to explain herself at all. She does seem to have wanted Mason involved in problems and is quite annoyed all her attempts at causing that seem to have failed thus far.
Upcoming Fun! [Which should include more dice, please. - Your Unfriendly Homicidal Editor Sparkie]
The band is trying to get more members, and now may have a rhythm guitar player player who can toss people through the air with her mind and somehow create haunted houses, of a sort, who has also killed over 10 people by accident, but hey: bands need rep, right?
S.A.F.E. is finding things harder going than planned, since Doctor D has taken extreme steps to protect his drug shipments -- steps that led to armed men in battle armour killing Nattie, though it didn't take. Nattie and Damien are reevaluating things, as is Trevor.
For her part, Kami is trying to keep people sane, is the employee of the month (!) and may win a car in a raffle! Sullivan seems occupied with other matters and the Illuminati have yet to try and contact Kami, unless of course they already have.
Meanwhile, a bit across town, Mason's two weeks of dealing with his own change have taken a turn for the bizarre that seems to involving a woman named Claire who is trying to start riots involving Mason for reasons of her own, going as far as manipulating a brand-new Omega and refusing to explain herself at all. She does seem to have wanted Mason involved in problems and is quite annoyed all her attempts at causing that seem to have failed thus far.
Upcoming Fun! [Which should include more dice, please. - Your Unfriendly Homicidal Editor Sparkie]
- How long can Mason stay in the building if weird stuff keeps happening?
- Will Jerry's ad for Omega band members in the local free magazine get answered?
- Will Kami end up with a car that calls her 'Michael'?
- How long will it be before Nattie realized that Kami wasn't kidding about the horror stories of being a telepath in a world were other Omegas are scared of them ...
- Along the same lines, how long will Sullivan be allowed to use kids gloves regarding Kami?
- Can Archie continue to remain the best roommate ever?
- What does Barry plan to try next in his quest for Omega Rights?
Meta note 2: A game where one PC can think solutions insanely fast and one is a telepath does bode poorly for a lot of those secretive organizations trying to hide their goals from them. Which should be great :)
Thursday, March 03, 2011
Aurora Consurgens: fun essay
Something for Kami to find on the 'net Sunday morning before she heads out shopping ....
Understanding The Future
A paper by Dr. Kim Li, department of philosophy, Freemont University-College.
The world is too small. You can drop pins, and people find out. The world is too small. Elvis can fake his own death and hide for decades, preparing for a comeback tour with Michael Jackson. Both these things are truth (the small, the big). We live in a global world, a connected world, and despite the worries about the next great plague it has many benefits, as with most other paradoxes. It is easy to hide, but hard to not be found if people go looking.
All the old truths and certainties of even the last century are being swept away. Information is power, knowledge our candle in the dark and access is everything. We have it, are learning from it. (See 'San Francisco Crime Watch' (Robinson, Crusoe , 2009) for an example: citizens can chart out where the worst crimes are, since the police files are transparent, and push for action in those area.) We live in a world that is becoming more transparent. Libertarians would have us rejoice in this, believing we're all adult enough to deal sensibly with the data we are given. Conservatives believes only they should have the data and use it as they see fit. Liberals, of course, change their minds daily. (I was told I had to write a Political Essay this year: that paragraph is it. If you want to waste your time being offended, go do so.)
Everyone hears the stories and rumours of strange people with impossible gifts, curses, powers and the like. A lot of the evidence for them is anecdotal at present, but will likely not remain that way. There are deeper questions as to how new these people are, how they were hidden and so forth but it is, generally, rather easy to trick people. (For example, you are reading this essay.) If even a third – if even one – of these stories has basis in fact, it is a paradigm-changing moment for the world. Read that sentence again: if you aren't scared, you didn't understand it. The last one was, arguably, the atom bomb.
Historically, such paradigms don't go down well: the old world discovered the new, and decided the inhabitants weren't human. What we have are humans evolving into other states, possibly even post-human ones, and how we deal with that will determine if we are the old world or the new. If you see a man whose skin is covered in bark, what would you do? What will you do? What won't you do? We have deep troubles dealing with differences in our society, hiding away gimps, cripples, freaks until recently, throwing people into institutions because it was easier than accepting them as human beings.
Do you think we shall ever have pictures in fashion magazines of people in wheelchairs and have it not treated as a kind of game? How, then, do we deal with people who used to be normal and how look like horror-movie monsters, or (worse still?) look entirely normal and do monstrous things that are impossible to our limited understanding of the world? These are not idle questions. They deserve answers and need answers, but each of us will answer them differently, and hope that we can be the best in humanity when it comes times to truly face the questions.
Because there will be monsters, if we treat them like monsters. There will be war, if we think they are not like us. I am not saying it will be easy to accept such things. I am not even saying that we can, but I feel the effort most be made and, if we cannot achieve understanding, we could fake it under the guise of tolerance. If they are to be the future – if we do not fight them in a war to the death – could we at least have them say we tried, as best we could, to accept?
Understanding The Future
A paper by Dr. Kim Li, department of philosophy, Freemont University-College.
The world is too small. You can drop pins, and people find out. The world is too small. Elvis can fake his own death and hide for decades, preparing for a comeback tour with Michael Jackson. Both these things are truth (the small, the big). We live in a global world, a connected world, and despite the worries about the next great plague it has many benefits, as with most other paradoxes. It is easy to hide, but hard to not be found if people go looking.
All the old truths and certainties of even the last century are being swept away. Information is power, knowledge our candle in the dark and access is everything. We have it, are learning from it. (See 'San Francisco Crime Watch' (Robinson, Crusoe , 2009) for an example: citizens can chart out where the worst crimes are, since the police files are transparent, and push for action in those area.) We live in a world that is becoming more transparent. Libertarians would have us rejoice in this, believing we're all adult enough to deal sensibly with the data we are given. Conservatives believes only they should have the data and use it as they see fit. Liberals, of course, change their minds daily. (I was told I had to write a Political Essay this year: that paragraph is it. If you want to waste your time being offended, go do so.)
Everyone hears the stories and rumours of strange people with impossible gifts, curses, powers and the like. A lot of the evidence for them is anecdotal at present, but will likely not remain that way. There are deeper questions as to how new these people are, how they were hidden and so forth but it is, generally, rather easy to trick people. (For example, you are reading this essay.) If even a third – if even one – of these stories has basis in fact, it is a paradigm-changing moment for the world. Read that sentence again: if you aren't scared, you didn't understand it. The last one was, arguably, the atom bomb.
Historically, such paradigms don't go down well: the old world discovered the new, and decided the inhabitants weren't human. What we have are humans evolving into other states, possibly even post-human ones, and how we deal with that will determine if we are the old world or the new. If you see a man whose skin is covered in bark, what would you do? What will you do? What won't you do? We have deep troubles dealing with differences in our society, hiding away gimps, cripples, freaks until recently, throwing people into institutions because it was easier than accepting them as human beings.
Do you think we shall ever have pictures in fashion magazines of people in wheelchairs and have it not treated as a kind of game? How, then, do we deal with people who used to be normal and how look like horror-movie monsters, or (worse still?) look entirely normal and do monstrous things that are impossible to our limited understanding of the world? These are not idle questions. They deserve answers and need answers, but each of us will answer them differently, and hope that we can be the best in humanity when it comes times to truly face the questions.
Because there will be monsters, if we treat them like monsters. There will be war, if we think they are not like us. I am not saying it will be easy to accept such things. I am not even saying that we can, but I feel the effort most be made and, if we cannot achieve understanding, we could fake it under the guise of tolerance. If they are to be the future – if we do not fight them in a war to the death – could we at least have them say we tried, as best we could, to accept?
Monday, February 28, 2011
Aurora Consurgens
Aurora Consurgens [Breaking dawn]
Kids these days. It's the common complaint of parents: the wrong shows, the wrong music, the disgusting things they do to try and one-up the antics of their own parents. Only now, that's nothing. The world is too big, too global, too much of everything. It's hard to hide, that some kids aren't kids. They're stronger, faster, dangerous. They're more than other kids, more than other people. Evolution on crack, as the leading theorist Ms. Elenora Thompson put it.
And if that were all, that would be enough. But there's other kids, too. Able to do things that defy reason, miracles that mock physics. Able to create fire, to turn things into other things, to change the way we see and understand the world. Why this is, no one knows. It was hidden. Though how any government did that, and for how long, is unknown. But too many escaped handling, escaped conditioning, flew under the radar [some literally] and slowly but surely a new kind of being has been discovered. Something old? New? Government tricks? Aliens? No one knows. Or if they do, they're not talking.
Two new species of humanity exist now. They get called different things, are capable of stuff no humans are, but as a brief rundown.
Homo Alpha: People who are better than human. Stronger, faster, quicker. They heal quickly, are smarter than most, shrug off drugs etc. They're widely believed to be a human answer to Omegas, essentially, and what humanity may some day become. Despite the title, there is a lot of variance among them: some are geniuses at one thing, others awesome at a few things and so forth.
[In other words, you can get Reed Richards (intelligence wise) and Captan America, ability wise, falling under the same penumbra. Since people are capable of pretty impressive things, it's often hard to prove someone is one without drugging them – and some have died of such things, so it is not an idea test.]
Homo omega: The x-men style people. One, at the most two, related abilities that are, frankly, beyond the scope of modern science and understanding. A guy with strength CAN lift up an entire car, when his attempt should just rip off the bumper and so forth. Currently theory holds that there's some physics distortion field involved, but that's mostly scientists making up terms. The fact is that these people can do impossible things as easily as breathing and few of them look human at all.
Basically, mutants in the sense of being weird and different: red skin for fire-users, etc. It's generally held that the most visible and physical the 'tell', the stronger one is, but that's not strictly true since not some only have tells function when using abilities, but the general public is ignorant of this.
(Meta note: Telepaths don't exist, to the common knowledge of even alphas and omegas. Some abilities are so dangerous it's considered best no one knows about 'em.)
System: Risus! YAY! Dice: ~12-15. 4 die max for starting cliches, 2 die cliche minimum. Should have at least one hobby/future profession cliche that won't lend itself to being Useful. I am assuming the PC does not begin the game with martial arts and the like and learns such things via experience dice and teaching as the game progresses. (Ditto for increasing power and control of it.)
Homo Alpha: Post-olympic level ability (X), And (Y). Sometimes Z, or a more general 'all-olympic level'. Basically, you could get ninjas, batman, the punisher and the like out of this. They look like normal people, but aren't. Downside is their senses are better than human, so intense aural or visual stimuli can throw them for a loop. (Not well known, naturally.) Also, at least a third suffer some degree of sociopathic or autistic tendencies but most of that is blamed on upbringing.
Homo Omega: Likely the PC, naturally. One-two abilities. If more than one, the other is physical and based on mutation of the body in some way. In other words, one could have Fire (and burning eyes when using it) or Fire and flight with red skin/giant flaming wings, as an example, though the two don't have to be connected. The huge downside to this problem is normal humans with skin conditions and such can run into problems, which helps no one at all.
Note: Omegas spend their lives human until either some Huge Stress, puberty or being around a lot of Omegas fighting triggers abilities/powers/changes. Unlike alphas, who are born as they are, omegas do get to lead a normal life to a point.
Note (2): Whatever ability(s) the PC has should ideally be scalable. Game begins with PC new to the power/ability and with player providing ideas for scaling it up. So you begin with control/understanding of power at basic level, RP it up a notch as the game goes, and then have further milestones achieved via experience dice. Having one power ability and one mutation-style ne allows for growth in both, naturally.
EX: A pc with blueish tint to skin, ability to manipulate ice.
Start: make snowballs, throw them at people.
RPed stuff: Create ice, alter ice into water.
Experience (with dice): Freeze water in people, create ice duplicates.
More experience (with dice) animate duplicates , create second skin of ice as armour etc.
Still later: make an ice age?
SETTING:
Modern world, except paranoia has gone through the roof. On one hand, you have 'humans' who look like everyone else but are Better and on the other weird mutants who are Unclean and so forth and can probably kill other people with a thought, if sufficiently annoyed. The law hasn't begun to come to grips with this, and drug are already being marketed that can boost Omegas (and Alphas) to new heights – or depths. To say nothing of fast-tracking vastly illegal government experiments on humans (a la iron man) to give humanity a 'fighting chance'.
The world is basically a powder keg, and into that steps the PC.
THEMES:
Ism: This is the major one, really. On one hand, there's people who look human and 'aren't' (Alphas) and on the other people who don't look human who can level entire city blocks and so forth. Lots of fear, mistrust, and so forth, parents who go "think of the children!" and the like. On the plus side, it is getting rid of the previous racism and sexism humans had. A lot if mistrust, lies and such will be spouted.
(This one won't always be bad: someone can cleverly parlay it into hollywood-level fame and fortune, after all.)
Destiny: What does one DO with such power, especially when one begins to get inklings of the upper limits? You are, after all, a walking WMD, and the consequences of that can be pretty dangerous at the best of times, to say nothing of when being framed and so forth. As per the 'ism', it takes a lot of strength to be hated and not internalize some of that hate, eg: becoming a monster since people figure you are one and so forth.
Shaping the world: as the game increases to Epic levels of threats and problems, the extent to which one can change the world, if one has the right to and so forth. Should the Omegas ignore the humans, let them make their own path, catch them if they fall or raise them up? A lot of this gets deep into nanny state level ideas: what if people no longer put parachutes in planes because the odds an Omega would show to stop the plane from falling being ~70%? Etc. As the PC and NPCs gain in power, this becomes more and more important: you can have a huge impact on the world, become Celebrity famous and so forth, be the latest Hitler to scar the pages of history: it's pretty heady, and should prove fun to explore.
A few final notes: I doubt there'll be much call for secret IDs and costumes in such a setting. Hiding'd be rather difficult, after all. I figure there's some who will end up with cool 'call names' to market their brand, others who decide humanity should be exterminated and become terrorists and so forth.
A lot of groups with a lot of agendas can make for a fun game, especially with the giant question of the how and why of alphas and omegas hanging over it, and a lot of people having their ideals – or huge bets – riding on which theory is 'right', if any of them are.
Sample NPC:
Joseph Frizel, German-American, second generation. Age: 16, tall and thin. Looks normal enough save for vertical cat-like eyes.
Cliche: Cat (3), Bad Luck (4), B&E: (4), 70s clothing fetish (2), Electrical Engineer (2)
The son of 2 famous cat burglars, he's taken up the family profession with a twist, owing to being an Omega.
Cat: Can turn into a common black house cat. Really.
Bad Luck: Can give others bad luck, especially in cat form. Quite useful, not controlled at present.
B&E: Obvious. He's good at it.
70s clothing fetish: he's got this thing about the 70s and happily steals such things, up to and including furniture. Knows far too much about the decade.
Electrical Engineer: Began an an offshoot of B&E (with security systems) but he's found he likes working with such things, and was considering that as his legit profession before becoming an Omega.
Cat stuff: Claws, good night vision, land on feet, agility. All increase during game. Does NOT like turning into a cat, since the whole "I am cool/awesome' vibe he tries to give off doesn't work once he becomes a cat.
Further: Actually has an awesome cat-like vibe. People like him, think he's cool even when someone who steals and wears 70s clothing should not be cool.
Experience: turn into other kinds of cats, talk to/control cats.
Later: 9 lives? Other cat-like animals? Turn into cat and people just pour out their life stories to their own fur-covered therapist?
Bad Luck: The more actually impressive and useful power, though not flashy.
Start: uncontrolled, works on enemies and friends.
RP: Just enemies.
Experience: some idea of how to direct/focus it and eventually to the point of altering someone's fate, cursing them with superstitions and defying entropy at the maximum levels.
Eventual limited ability to give good luck, like cat hairs of inspiration?
Very basic, at present, but it's one idea.
Kids these days. It's the common complaint of parents: the wrong shows, the wrong music, the disgusting things they do to try and one-up the antics of their own parents. Only now, that's nothing. The world is too big, too global, too much of everything. It's hard to hide, that some kids aren't kids. They're stronger, faster, dangerous. They're more than other kids, more than other people. Evolution on crack, as the leading theorist Ms. Elenora Thompson put it.
And if that were all, that would be enough. But there's other kids, too. Able to do things that defy reason, miracles that mock physics. Able to create fire, to turn things into other things, to change the way we see and understand the world. Why this is, no one knows. It was hidden. Though how any government did that, and for how long, is unknown. But too many escaped handling, escaped conditioning, flew under the radar [some literally] and slowly but surely a new kind of being has been discovered. Something old? New? Government tricks? Aliens? No one knows. Or if they do, they're not talking.
Two new species of humanity exist now. They get called different things, are capable of stuff no humans are, but as a brief rundown.
Homo Alpha: People who are better than human. Stronger, faster, quicker. They heal quickly, are smarter than most, shrug off drugs etc. They're widely believed to be a human answer to Omegas, essentially, and what humanity may some day become. Despite the title, there is a lot of variance among them: some are geniuses at one thing, others awesome at a few things and so forth.
[In other words, you can get Reed Richards (intelligence wise) and Captan America, ability wise, falling under the same penumbra. Since people are capable of pretty impressive things, it's often hard to prove someone is one without drugging them – and some have died of such things, so it is not an idea test.]
Homo omega: The x-men style people. One, at the most two, related abilities that are, frankly, beyond the scope of modern science and understanding. A guy with strength CAN lift up an entire car, when his attempt should just rip off the bumper and so forth. Currently theory holds that there's some physics distortion field involved, but that's mostly scientists making up terms. The fact is that these people can do impossible things as easily as breathing and few of them look human at all.
Basically, mutants in the sense of being weird and different: red skin for fire-users, etc. It's generally held that the most visible and physical the 'tell', the stronger one is, but that's not strictly true since not some only have tells function when using abilities, but the general public is ignorant of this.
(Meta note: Telepaths don't exist, to the common knowledge of even alphas and omegas. Some abilities are so dangerous it's considered best no one knows about 'em.)
System: Risus! YAY! Dice: ~12-15. 4 die max for starting cliches, 2 die cliche minimum. Should have at least one hobby/future profession cliche that won't lend itself to being Useful. I am assuming the PC does not begin the game with martial arts and the like and learns such things via experience dice and teaching as the game progresses. (Ditto for increasing power and control of it.)
Homo Alpha: Post-olympic level ability (X), And (Y). Sometimes Z, or a more general 'all-olympic level'. Basically, you could get ninjas, batman, the punisher and the like out of this. They look like normal people, but aren't. Downside is their senses are better than human, so intense aural or visual stimuli can throw them for a loop. (Not well known, naturally.) Also, at least a third suffer some degree of sociopathic or autistic tendencies but most of that is blamed on upbringing.
Homo Omega: Likely the PC, naturally. One-two abilities. If more than one, the other is physical and based on mutation of the body in some way. In other words, one could have Fire (and burning eyes when using it) or Fire and flight with red skin/giant flaming wings, as an example, though the two don't have to be connected. The huge downside to this problem is normal humans with skin conditions and such can run into problems, which helps no one at all.
Note: Omegas spend their lives human until either some Huge Stress, puberty or being around a lot of Omegas fighting triggers abilities/powers/changes. Unlike alphas, who are born as they are, omegas do get to lead a normal life to a point.
Note (2): Whatever ability(s) the PC has should ideally be scalable. Game begins with PC new to the power/ability and with player providing ideas for scaling it up. So you begin with control/understanding of power at basic level, RP it up a notch as the game goes, and then have further milestones achieved via experience dice. Having one power ability and one mutation-style ne allows for growth in both, naturally.
EX: A pc with blueish tint to skin, ability to manipulate ice.
Start: make snowballs, throw them at people.
RPed stuff: Create ice, alter ice into water.
Experience (with dice): Freeze water in people, create ice duplicates.
More experience (with dice) animate duplicates , create second skin of ice as armour etc.
Still later: make an ice age?
SETTING:
Modern world, except paranoia has gone through the roof. On one hand, you have 'humans' who look like everyone else but are Better and on the other weird mutants who are Unclean and so forth and can probably kill other people with a thought, if sufficiently annoyed. The law hasn't begun to come to grips with this, and drug are already being marketed that can boost Omegas (and Alphas) to new heights – or depths. To say nothing of fast-tracking vastly illegal government experiments on humans (a la iron man) to give humanity a 'fighting chance'.
The world is basically a powder keg, and into that steps the PC.
THEMES:
Ism: This is the major one, really. On one hand, there's people who look human and 'aren't' (Alphas) and on the other people who don't look human who can level entire city blocks and so forth. Lots of fear, mistrust, and so forth, parents who go "think of the children!" and the like. On the plus side, it is getting rid of the previous racism and sexism humans had. A lot if mistrust, lies and such will be spouted.
(This one won't always be bad: someone can cleverly parlay it into hollywood-level fame and fortune, after all.)
Destiny: What does one DO with such power, especially when one begins to get inklings of the upper limits? You are, after all, a walking WMD, and the consequences of that can be pretty dangerous at the best of times, to say nothing of when being framed and so forth. As per the 'ism', it takes a lot of strength to be hated and not internalize some of that hate, eg: becoming a monster since people figure you are one and so forth.
Shaping the world: as the game increases to Epic levels of threats and problems, the extent to which one can change the world, if one has the right to and so forth. Should the Omegas ignore the humans, let them make their own path, catch them if they fall or raise them up? A lot of this gets deep into nanny state level ideas: what if people no longer put parachutes in planes because the odds an Omega would show to stop the plane from falling being ~70%? Etc. As the PC and NPCs gain in power, this becomes more and more important: you can have a huge impact on the world, become Celebrity famous and so forth, be the latest Hitler to scar the pages of history: it's pretty heady, and should prove fun to explore.
A few final notes: I doubt there'll be much call for secret IDs and costumes in such a setting. Hiding'd be rather difficult, after all. I figure there's some who will end up with cool 'call names' to market their brand, others who decide humanity should be exterminated and become terrorists and so forth.
A lot of groups with a lot of agendas can make for a fun game, especially with the giant question of the how and why of alphas and omegas hanging over it, and a lot of people having their ideals – or huge bets – riding on which theory is 'right', if any of them are.
Sample NPC:
Joseph Frizel, German-American, second generation. Age: 16, tall and thin. Looks normal enough save for vertical cat-like eyes.
Cliche: Cat (3), Bad Luck (4), B&E: (4), 70s clothing fetish (2), Electrical Engineer (2)
The son of 2 famous cat burglars, he's taken up the family profession with a twist, owing to being an Omega.
Cat: Can turn into a common black house cat. Really.
Bad Luck: Can give others bad luck, especially in cat form. Quite useful, not controlled at present.
B&E: Obvious. He's good at it.
70s clothing fetish: he's got this thing about the 70s and happily steals such things, up to and including furniture. Knows far too much about the decade.
Electrical Engineer: Began an an offshoot of B&E (with security systems) but he's found he likes working with such things, and was considering that as his legit profession before becoming an Omega.
Cat stuff: Claws, good night vision, land on feet, agility. All increase during game. Does NOT like turning into a cat, since the whole "I am cool/awesome' vibe he tries to give off doesn't work once he becomes a cat.
Further: Actually has an awesome cat-like vibe. People like him, think he's cool even when someone who steals and wears 70s clothing should not be cool.
Experience: turn into other kinds of cats, talk to/control cats.
Later: 9 lives? Other cat-like animals? Turn into cat and people just pour out their life stories to their own fur-covered therapist?
Bad Luck: The more actually impressive and useful power, though not flashy.
Start: uncontrolled, works on enemies and friends.
RP: Just enemies.
Experience: some idea of how to direct/focus it and eventually to the point of altering someone's fate, cursing them with superstitions and defying entropy at the maximum levels.
Eventual limited ability to give good luck, like cat hairs of inspiration?
Very basic, at present, but it's one idea.
Monday, January 10, 2011
Fairview Update
Where things are at:
The last session was late October (school and work limited the last sessions to pretty much single-player ones) and then November and the hell that is December hit. So, this update.
Alex: Had been captured by the evil servants of the Shadow Walker (again), mostly due to being with Joni one session and then the player having to abscond due to work for a bit. OOCly, the plan was for the shadow walker to offer to undo her nature and cut her loose, as she's been nothing but an annoyance. Which lets Chaos re-spec her somewhat and figure where he wants her to go, as a character.
Emma: Emma is still dealing with Julius and the fall-out from her time travel escapade. Her father is aware (somewhat) of what Emma is and has ties to Vericorp, but doesn't seem pleased about what his daughter has become. Ah, families. Helena has agreed to let Emma drive a car and Emma is slowly but surely meeting adults and other people who aren't boring and have dull ideas that power shouldn't actually be used and the world is an egg people can break etc.: her kinds of people, in other words.
Joni: Currently, Joni is trying to find out why a self-styled God is using a home depot as a base point for building her own temple in the city, with Brodie and the Scry with her. She also has Hell looking for answers to things she's done and continuing to make her school/place of power into something to be reckoned with as well as her goal of making a police force for the city's supernatural community.
Karl: Is working for Vericorp and the Inquisition, hoping if the former leads to a shitstorm, the latter will allow him to clean it up. Despite Brodie having been changed somewhat due to time travel, Karl requested working with someone else and, unless the player shows again, can be considered to be MIA on a Very Special Mission.
Rei: Is doing just fine, thank you, and working on her tan.
Overall Meta-plots
Vericorp: THE VP of human resources (Loric) claims to be a god and knows the woman who calls herself Star and Emma's father of old. What the company's goals are -- and his in particular -- remain unknown at present but Vericorp seems determined to find a way to make money out of supernatural creatures even if it does open a portal to hell in the process. Company motto: profit = progress.
Scry: Still trying to find a way to free his master/best friend. He's at least managing a truce with Eugene, though neither really trusts the other, and seems content to wander about helping the pcs without, yet, asking for payment in return.
Magicians: the local magicians have yet to react the death of the White Lord, and no one is certain what that will do to whatever balance and power structure they had. His kids, who helped the PCs kill him, seem willing to be allies at least and it's doubtful he has friends who would avenge his death, though someone may on the grounds that it looks bad for the major magicians to have one of their own die.
Temporal Skinwearers: the 'fake' Cristal and Peter, whose goals and mission seems unknown at present; brought back via Emma's attempts to fix the past.
Hell & Heaven: [Redacted] But they do have plans, oh yes.
The Grey Man: After the failure of the storm, he's done nothing since. Licking wounds? Debating leaving? No one knows, least of all the PCs.
The tree: What is it? How much has it changed JOni, Ike and Helena? Who wants it, or to destroy? It was one of the first major plot events, and its tale is not yet done.
Other side plots include Dennis's plans with werewolves, Dave and friends building transformers, real estate companies trying to buy up cursed land and Joseph's quest to get his friend Kyle back from the Grey Man. (There are also ninjas, and one evangelical ninja out there, but they are busy consolidating power.)
And finally, this is a note I had at the bottom of a file, make of it what you will:
The antichrist will, naturally, run for public office. Tired of secularism? Vote antichrist! Want pro-life? Vote antichrist!
The last session was late October (school and work limited the last sessions to pretty much single-player ones) and then November and the hell that is December hit. So, this update.
Alex: Had been captured by the evil servants of the Shadow Walker (again), mostly due to being with Joni one session and then the player having to abscond due to work for a bit. OOCly, the plan was for the shadow walker to offer to undo her nature and cut her loose, as she's been nothing but an annoyance. Which lets Chaos re-spec her somewhat and figure where he wants her to go, as a character.
Emma: Emma is still dealing with Julius and the fall-out from her time travel escapade. Her father is aware (somewhat) of what Emma is and has ties to Vericorp, but doesn't seem pleased about what his daughter has become. Ah, families. Helena has agreed to let Emma drive a car and Emma is slowly but surely meeting adults and other people who aren't boring and have dull ideas that power shouldn't actually be used and the world is an egg people can break etc.: her kinds of people, in other words.
Joni: Currently, Joni is trying to find out why a self-styled God is using a home depot as a base point for building her own temple in the city, with Brodie and the Scry with her. She also has Hell looking for answers to things she's done and continuing to make her school/place of power into something to be reckoned with as well as her goal of making a police force for the city's supernatural community.
Karl: Is working for Vericorp and the Inquisition, hoping if the former leads to a shitstorm, the latter will allow him to clean it up. Despite Brodie having been changed somewhat due to time travel, Karl requested working with someone else and, unless the player shows again, can be considered to be MIA on a Very Special Mission.
Rei: Is doing just fine, thank you, and working on her tan.
Overall Meta-plots
Vericorp: THE VP of human resources (Loric) claims to be a god and knows the woman who calls herself Star and Emma's father of old. What the company's goals are -- and his in particular -- remain unknown at present but Vericorp seems determined to find a way to make money out of supernatural creatures even if it does open a portal to hell in the process. Company motto: profit = progress.
Scry: Still trying to find a way to free his master/best friend. He's at least managing a truce with Eugene, though neither really trusts the other, and seems content to wander about helping the pcs without, yet, asking for payment in return.
Magicians: the local magicians have yet to react the death of the White Lord, and no one is certain what that will do to whatever balance and power structure they had. His kids, who helped the PCs kill him, seem willing to be allies at least and it's doubtful he has friends who would avenge his death, though someone may on the grounds that it looks bad for the major magicians to have one of their own die.
Temporal Skinwearers: the 'fake' Cristal and Peter, whose goals and mission seems unknown at present; brought back via Emma's attempts to fix the past.
Hell & Heaven: [Redacted] But they do have plans, oh yes.
The Grey Man: After the failure of the storm, he's done nothing since. Licking wounds? Debating leaving? No one knows, least of all the PCs.
The tree: What is it? How much has it changed JOni, Ike and Helena? Who wants it, or to destroy? It was one of the first major plot events, and its tale is not yet done.
Other side plots include Dennis's plans with werewolves, Dave and friends building transformers, real estate companies trying to buy up cursed land and Joseph's quest to get his friend Kyle back from the Grey Man. (There are also ninjas, and one evangelical ninja out there, but they are busy consolidating power.)
And finally, this is a note I had at the bottom of a file, make of it what you will:
The antichrist will, naturally, run for public office. Tired of secularism? Vote antichrist! Want pro-life? Vote antichrist!
Sunday, January 09, 2011
Game Update
Okay. New year, time to get crackin' (or crackling, to use a fire metaphor)
Option A: Continue Fairview. I'm up for this if players are (players currently being Chaos, Ken, Tass). If all 3 players are on board, or just two, it can work. And if someone wants to continue it as a single player side-game, I'm up for that as well. If people are NOT, however, I don't want people thinking they should play it just because it has gone on so long etc.
Option B: New Game! I'm up for anything modern (in terms of era), depending on what players want, both as settings and as characters. (High fantasy and sci-fi generally require a LOT more setting work than I'm prepared to spend on them, especially the latter.)
Option C: Lowlife finally begins! Set some time, in some era, and goes nuts.
Option D: Sparkie begins phase one. You are not authorized to know about phase one.
Option E: Cereus. [This one depends on ken, though :)]
Option A: Continue Fairview. I'm up for this if players are (players currently being Chaos, Ken, Tass). If all 3 players are on board, or just two, it can work. And if someone wants to continue it as a single player side-game, I'm up for that as well. If people are NOT, however, I don't want people thinking they should play it just because it has gone on so long etc.
Option B: New Game! I'm up for anything modern (in terms of era), depending on what players want, both as settings and as characters. (High fantasy and sci-fi generally require a LOT more setting work than I'm prepared to spend on them, especially the latter.)
Option C: Lowlife finally begins! Set some time, in some era, and goes nuts.
Option D: Sparkie begins phase one. You are not authorized to know about phase one.
Option E: Cereus. [This one depends on ken, though :)]
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