In Dr Preator's The Hidden World thread, I and others have been repeatedly encouraged to go make our own thread if we want a game in which humans are playable in a manner which does not involve them having secret elf souls full of magic and unicorn turds. This is that thread. And, for this thread, we shall need to clearly state the premise we are working with. And this is that premise:
The Laws of Physics, rather than being immutable and eternal rules as old as space and time, are secretly a set of legalistic articles and regulations constantly revised over the millennia by various groups and enforced by animistic and inhuman spirits. The current controller of reality is the Techocracy, an organization founded during the Enlightenment with the aim of seizing control of reality and replacing the old ways of individualistic occulted and dangerously unstable magic and witchcraft with a set of universal physical laws that were unchanging, knowable and egalitarian. They have been largely successful in this endeavour, and the basic assumption of this game is that the players will be agents of the Technocracy (either human or spirit), seeking to aid that organization in further cementing their control over reality and destroying the supernatural using both ancient magics and modern technology.
I'm also going to use this first post to introduce a few concepts that I've been tinkering with. They are as follows:
Obstructive Spirits
The Technocracy, as with the majority of the previous holders of the Mandate, do not know what the requirements for revising the laws of reality actually are. They have a loose idea, and can generally get it done with enough time and effort (think decades and billions of man-hours), but there is no way to cut the red tape and force obstructive spirits to obey quickly when they are adament about delaying the process through bureaucratic means as long as legally possible. As such, there is a real and pressing need to convince the more powerful spirits (who are aware of some of the specifics of the process to change reality) to hurry along any big changes they need to happen right away. This also means that the Technocracy is unable to compell spirits to obey them, unable to instantly revoke the powers of reality deviants in one fell swoop and unable to even locate such individuals without either looking for them the old fashion way, or convincing a spirit that knows to spill the beans.
Heralds
In my vision of the spirit world and the Mandate of Heaven, rewriting the laws of physics does not work by voting it into law and then having the universe magically overwrite itself to conform to the new rules in a single instant. Instead, agents working on behalf of the current wielders of the Mandate must go forth to the far corners of the Earth and announce to the local spirits how things are going to work from now on. In the olden days, this was done by having a local wizard that acted as a representative of the Mandate for the local area, and then having legislative body send out the word using messengers on horseback, trained pigeons and, occasionally using magic to grant visions to the elect, but in modern times, it's done by mass media and using publicly available, peer-reviewed journals of science. Still, this has some important implications for players. Firstly, especially isolated or impoverished regions (such as third-world countries, cult compounds, and hermitages up in the himalayas) may not be aware that magic is impossible and go on doing it as they've always done it and get actual magic to happen untill an agent of the Technocracy shows up and lays down the law to say that it's impossible. Secondly, it means that it is essentially impossible to do magic at any real distance without the direct assistance of someone at the location that you're trying to target.
Demenses
It is possible for a region of space to be seperated from the rest of reality and caused to obey different rules than those laid down by the Technocracy. Such regions are refered to as demenses. There is an entire movement of traditionalist mages, the Secessionists, who are devoted to creating such regions and using them to hide from the prying eyes of the Technocracy. Within these magical realms, such things as rhyme and reason have no place and only protection of the Mandate can allow someone to enter without being forced to submit to the whims of the owner of that demense. The Technocracy, in turn, has a special directorate devoted to tracking down demenses, purging their contents of deviant content and either returning them to being part of baseline reality or destroying them entirely where reintegration isn't possible. It should also be noted that, since humanity hasn't really done much outside the gravity well, outer space is essentially one giant demense under the control of the Old Ones, and is likely to remain as such for the forseeable future.
Old Mandates
Just because the Technocracy is in power doesn't mean that representatives of the old holders of the Mandate of Heaven have lost their titles and powers. Until the Technocracy learns of the existance of person granted the power of the Mandate by an older organization and specifically sends out a set of agents to go track that person down and strip them of their rank, all of their magic (or, in the case of people appointed by the Old Ones, alien supertech) still works and the have all of the power and protections afforded to a regular player character. As such, it is not unreasonable to find a Traditionalist with access to the Mandate waving around ancient magical edicts from the days of Hammurabi and successfully convincing gullible or agreeable spirits that their piece of paper saying that they have permission from the Spirit World to light people on fire with their mind is perfectly valid.
Technocracy: The Game
Moderator: Moderators
Technocracy: The Game
Last edited by Grek on Fri Jun 10, 2011 4:09 am, edited 2 times in total.
FrankTrollman wrote:I think Grek already won the thread and we should pack it in.
Chamomile wrote:Grek is a national treasure.
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Username17
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This is much more my speed. There are some things I have reservations about though.
This means that when you go to Mars or something, you're on "neutral ground" where things pretty much follow normal physical laws except that reality deviants can cast their spells. Basically it's like a neutral background count in Shadowrun, but until someone casts a spell F=MA and E=MC^2.
Instance dungeons of deviant reality effects only exist in places where people with old mandates "solidified" their reality via rules postings.
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I think that spirits should have a rank, and that Technocrats actually can compel obedience from lower ranked spirits. That way you can still make a Pokemaster character who invests in abilities that let him boss spirits around and even animate stuff like a Phantom Brave character or Sailor Moon villain.Grek wrote:This also means that the Technocracy is unable to compell spirits to obey them
I like the way these work to create "Instance Dungeons" that have weird rider effects like the Law Cards in FFTA. But the void is really big, and I do not under any circumstances want to be tasked with preaching physics to the Kaipur Belt or some similar nonsense. The solution it seems to me is to have all of reality revert to whatever the Mandate of Heaven happens to say, but be malleable by dedicated folks who know how to do it unless the rules have been "posted" there. And once the rules are posted, they just permanently stay that way until they are revised at the site.Heralds & Demenses
This means that when you go to Mars or something, you're on "neutral ground" where things pretty much follow normal physical laws except that reality deviants can cast their spells. Basically it's like a neutral background count in Shadowrun, but until someone casts a spell F=MA and E=MC^2.
Instance dungeons of deviant reality effects only exist in places where people with old mandates "solidified" their reality via rules postings.
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Both of those work. The point of having the rules of the spirit world be opaque, convoluted and largely unknown is so that I don't have to actually have to write up rules for how it works and make the players memorize these rules. As long as the big spirits are able to be obstructive and uncompromising, that is fine. Likewise, the point of having the Void be under the control of the Old Ones is so that their alien spaceships can be out there hiding behind the dark side of the Moon or whatever without the Mandate getting in the way.
Last edited by Grek on Sat Jun 11, 2011 1:52 am, edited 1 time in total.
FrankTrollman wrote:I think Grek already won the thread and we should pack it in.
Chamomile wrote:Grek is a national treasure.
Demenses should not only have the rules malleable, but the environment as well.
So I can go to a group's demense and it's a place where it's eternally night and made to look like a garden. Or another one where someone went Egyptian. Or something that appears to be on the bottom of the sea.
Also, it occurs to me that part of the problem is some old spirits/entities were granted a demense as payment. So they can legally do what they want in there, as long as they don't affect the world around their turf.
Unless some of the really archaic ones, in which previous management saw it as allowable to fuck with mortals.
But what should the PCs all get? What's the common things they do besides negotiate with spirits?
Offhand, I'd say it's a spirit-sensing ability to tell when somethings near. Maybe to tell where an demense's entrance is. And, possibly, the ability to open any desmense's entrance--something granted to whoever holds the Celestial Bureaucracy.
So I can go to a group's demense and it's a place where it's eternally night and made to look like a garden. Or another one where someone went Egyptian. Or something that appears to be on the bottom of the sea.
Also, it occurs to me that part of the problem is some old spirits/entities were granted a demense as payment. So they can legally do what they want in there, as long as they don't affect the world around their turf.
Unless some of the really archaic ones, in which previous management saw it as allowable to fuck with mortals.
But what should the PCs all get? What's the common things they do besides negotiate with spirits?
Offhand, I'd say it's a spirit-sensing ability to tell when somethings near. Maybe to tell where an demense's entrance is. And, possibly, the ability to open any desmense's entrance--something granted to whoever holds the Celestial Bureaucracy.
He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
All of those environments you suggested are things that can be done inside a demense. Others include:
-Prevent people on the outside from listening in.
-Cause spirits and humans to be perceptable and tangible to eachother.
-Thwart the attempts of those inside to leave the demense.
-Prevent ageing, hunger, thirst, etc. while you're inside.
-Suspend the law of gravity so people can fly around.
PC characters will be exptected to do the following:
-Play politics with the Celestian Bureaucracy.
-Storm a wizard tower, confiscate the magical books and shoot elves with a plasma rifle.
-Track down spirits that are disobeying the will of the Mandate and stop them.
-Investigate unusual events for possible extra-terrestrial or supernatural influence.
-Attempt to get their pet version of String Theory accepted by the Technocracy as true.
-Justify to their superiors why they should be allowed to keep a magic wand they found for "research" purposes.
-Infiltrate cult compounds and undermine the teachings of the cult leader without being uncovered.
-Attempt to prevent a Traditionalist Wizard from being elected as President of Madagasgar and having the island cede from reality.
-Plant a tactical nuclear weapon in Never Never Land and escape without the Lost Boys noticing.
-Prevent people on the outside from listening in.
-Cause spirits and humans to be perceptable and tangible to eachother.
-Thwart the attempts of those inside to leave the demense.
-Prevent ageing, hunger, thirst, etc. while you're inside.
-Suspend the law of gravity so people can fly around.
PC characters will be exptected to do the following:
-Play politics with the Celestian Bureaucracy.
-Storm a wizard tower, confiscate the magical books and shoot elves with a plasma rifle.
-Track down spirits that are disobeying the will of the Mandate and stop them.
-Investigate unusual events for possible extra-terrestrial or supernatural influence.
-Attempt to get their pet version of String Theory accepted by the Technocracy as true.
-Justify to their superiors why they should be allowed to keep a magic wand they found for "research" purposes.
-Infiltrate cult compounds and undermine the teachings of the cult leader without being uncovered.
-Attempt to prevent a Traditionalist Wizard from being elected as President of Madagasgar and having the island cede from reality.
-Plant a tactical nuclear weapon in Never Never Land and escape without the Lost Boys noticing.
FrankTrollman wrote:I think Grek already won the thread and we should pack it in.
Chamomile wrote:Grek is a national treasure.
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Username17
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Again and still: I under no circumstance want to go to patches of void to post rules, because that is as boring as mopping up the sea. Old One Space Ships work because they carry their mandates with them and the rules of reality in space are "soft". So from a Shadowrun perspective, they are Background Count 0, and Old Ones can spaceship through them. But they can't literally be Old One territory, because then I'd have to claim it back one chunk of worthless empty void at a time.
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Frank, you're forgetting the most obvious, to me, solution. The idea that your viewpoint is extremely common in game. I wouldn't be at all surprised if the technocracy basically had the same opinion as you, that posting rules all through space is fucking boring, and they don't want to do it. They can enforce the rules around earth and the moon and otherwise really don't give a shit. The "It's all the fucking way over there" mentality. When the Old Ones get into the gravity well, their ships pretty much stop working, and the higher ups know they've got incoming. Sure, there are probably some crazies out there that have decided to carry law into the void, and there are some interesting stories to be told out there, as those Technocrats are basically the Texas Rangers of Mercury, and shit, carrying the law in one hand and an anti-matter pistol in the other. But mostly, no one gives a shit, because we have defensible land, and enough for them to work on.FrankTrollman wrote:Again and still: I under no circumstance want to go to patches of void to post rules, because that is as boring as mopping up the sea. Old One Space Ships work because they carry their mandates with them and the rules of reality in space are "soft". So from a Shadowrun perspective, they are Background Count 0, and Old Ones can spaceship through them. But they can't literally be Old One territory, because then I'd have to claim it back one chunk of worthless empty void at a time.
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Cuz apparently I gotta break this down for you dense motherfuckers- I'm trans feminine nonbinary. My pronouns are they/them.
Winnah wrote:No, No. 'Prak' is actually a Thri Kreen impersonating a human and roleplaying himself as a D&D character. All hail our hidden insect overlords.
FrankTrollman wrote:In Soviet Russia, cosmic horror is the default state.
You should gain sanity for finding out that the problems of a region are because there are fucking monsters there.
Well, in the original Mage, the traditional mages were off chilling on Mercury, breathing the air, and so forth; and the other planets were actually the dominions of their respective Gods.FrankTrollman wrote:Again and still: I under no circumstance want to go to patches of void to post rules, because that is as boring as mopping up the sea. Old One Space Ships work because they carry their mandates with them and the rules of reality in space are "soft". So from a Shadowrun perspective, they are Background Count 0, and Old Ones can spaceship through them. But they can't literally be Old One territory, because then I'd have to claim it back one chunk of worthless empty void at a time.
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So you could have the rest of the Solar System be split up into all kinds of warring fiefdoms, which might not be subject to your mandate at all.
There will not be traditional mages in out space. That's silly and out of theme with what I'm doing here and has all sorts of baggage that I'd just as soon ignore.
Likewise, it will neither be possible nor useful to post rules in the empty void. Spirits exist in objects, not locations, and as such, there's nothing useful to be gained from sending out drones, or "mopping up the ocean" as Frank puts it. What the Technocracy does need to do in space is locate Old One ships, bases and secret weapons that are floating out in the Void (in a manner that makes them detectable by radar telescopes and statlite flyby, meaning that going there means spotting it and then getting in a rocket, not patrolling for them or anything that would be boring) and take them out using the same sorts of methods you'd use against magical looking reality deviants. So, while there are nine planets and a bunch of moons of varying climates and constructions, and the fact they are like that is the result of ancient Mandate, the Technocracy is content to leave the Moon as being a barren and inhospitable wasteland as long as the Old Ones don't show up and try to settle there.
Likewise, it will neither be possible nor useful to post rules in the empty void. Spirits exist in objects, not locations, and as such, there's nothing useful to be gained from sending out drones, or "mopping up the ocean" as Frank puts it. What the Technocracy does need to do in space is locate Old One ships, bases and secret weapons that are floating out in the Void (in a manner that makes them detectable by radar telescopes and statlite flyby, meaning that going there means spotting it and then getting in a rocket, not patrolling for them or anything that would be boring) and take them out using the same sorts of methods you'd use against magical looking reality deviants. So, while there are nine planets and a bunch of moons of varying climates and constructions, and the fact they are like that is the result of ancient Mandate, the Technocracy is content to leave the Moon as being a barren and inhospitable wasteland as long as the Old Ones don't show up and try to settle there.
FrankTrollman wrote:I think Grek already won the thread and we should pack it in.
Chamomile wrote:Grek is a national treasure.
Consider your splinter project to be itself splintered. Wacky space hijinks are awesome, and stuff on other planets is a nice way to have alternate worlds without needing to many actual alternate worlds.Grek wrote:There will not be traditional mages in out space. That's silly and out of theme with what I'm doing here and has all sorts of baggage that I'd just as soon ignore.
Likewise, it will neither be possible nor useful to post rules in the empty void.
I suggest going full-on scientology/Babylon-5, and giving everyone a secret space alien soul. Crush them, my body thetans!Lokathor wrote:Consider your splinter project to be itself splintered. Wacky space hijinks are awesome, and stuff on other planets is a nice way to have alternate worlds without needing to many actual alternate worlds.Grek wrote:There will not be traditional mages in out space. That's silly and out of theme with what I'm doing here and has all sorts of baggage that I'd just as soon ignore.
Likewise, it will neither be possible nor useful to post rules in the empty void.
I'm not entirely certain where my problem with that is (as the first time I heard the backstory of scientology I literally thought "wow, that'd be cool for a game world", and it's other wise the force), but, ye gods no. That's a terrible idea.DrPraetor wrote:I suggest going full-on scientology/Babylon-5, and giving everyone a secret space alien soul. Crush them, my body thetans!Lokathor wrote:Consider your splinter project to be itself splintered. Wacky space hijinks are awesome, and stuff on other planets is a nice way to have alternate worlds without needing to many actual alternate worlds.Grek wrote:There will not be traditional mages in out space. That's silly and out of theme with what I'm doing here and has all sorts of baggage that I'd just as soon ignore.
Likewise, it will neither be possible nor useful to post rules in the empty void.
Cuz apparently I gotta break this down for you dense motherfuckers- I'm trans feminine nonbinary. My pronouns are they/them.
Winnah wrote:No, No. 'Prak' is actually a Thri Kreen impersonating a human and roleplaying himself as a D&D character. All hail our hidden insect overlords.
FrankTrollman wrote:In Soviet Russia, cosmic horror is the default state.
You should gain sanity for finding out that the problems of a region are because there are fucking monsters there.
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Username17
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I would have the other planets have a weird splinter Assembly with their own spirits and only sort of the same rules. You have Mi Go holdouts on Pluto of course, which means that the Assembly there is actually in bureaucratic revolt. The larger planets have their own Emperors, who still are supposed to follow the rules, but some of them don't and no one knows why. Think of it as the bonus stages from Disgaea where you go to alternate netherworlds and fight crazy shit including other Overlords.
I am not sure how to evaluate the Scientology stuff, because I don't really understand Scientology. I do think you could go far with progressing communication from a solid state out to pure thought. And I also want ancient giant spirit robots buried on Mars.
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I am not sure how to evaluate the Scientology stuff, because I don't really understand Scientology. I do think you could go far with progressing communication from a solid state out to pure thought. And I also want ancient giant spirit robots buried on Mars.
-Username17
As near as I can tell, they believe there's a ton of alien ghosts clinging to everyone because some giant alien overlord named Xenu got tired of ruling a ton of people and butchered most of them.FrankTrollman wrote: I am not sure how to evaluate the Scientology stuff, because I don't really understand Scientology.
-Username17
Also, Scientology is good, psychiatry and psychology are EVIL HARMFUL THAT MAKE YOUR DEAD ALIEN GHOSTS STRONGER, and L. Ron Hubbard wrote the Ten Commandments and constructed the Ark of the Covenant, and God liked it so much he took credit.
He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
If you're okay with having your spirits bew somehow produced by people (maybe by people dying, or by people observing things?), that would mean space has a much lower spirit density. So you only have to convince two or three spirits what the new rules are, instead of billions, which is much more feasible.
That also makes people speshul, but not in an exploitable way.
That also makes people speshul, but not in an exploitable way.
In OWoD spirits arguably existed once humans observed a phenomena. IE nuclear spirits popped up with the Manhatten Project.
Cuz apparently I gotta break this down for you dense motherfuckers- I'm trans feminine nonbinary. My pronouns are they/them.
Winnah wrote:No, No. 'Prak' is actually a Thri Kreen impersonating a human and roleplaying himself as a D&D character. All hail our hidden insect overlords.
FrankTrollman wrote:In Soviet Russia, cosmic horror is the default state.
You should gain sanity for finding out that the problems of a region are because there are fucking monsters there.
So, I think now would be a good time for the initial spirit writeup. It is in the rough (very rough) drafting phase:
Animism and You
Technocracy is a animistic setting. This means that otherwise mundane objects have spirits that reside within and around them and interact in a non-physical manner with the object that they are a spirit of. This allows people with the ability to interact with spirits (such as the titular Technocracy and their various rivals) to do things to objects by interacting with the object's spirit, and vise versa, effecting the spirit by interacting with the object it is tied to. In order for this concept to be playable, however, we need to answer a few questions about these spirits:
What Items Get Spirits?
An important thing to figure out ahead of time is what qualifications an object must meet to have a spirit in it. There are essentially two views here, one being that every single object has a spirit in it, no matter how great or small, and the other being that only certain special objects have a spirit in them. Technocracy, for the most part, uses the first viewpoint. Every object you encounter (for whatever definition of 'object' you personally choose to use) has a spirit that can be contacted with the appropriate powers. The car has a spirit, as does each of its tires, its sparkplugs, its seatbelts and its horn. Each of these smaller components can be contacted individually, or you can contact the spirit of the car as a whole, and ask it to confer with one of the component parts on your behalf. You could also contact the car and the components of the car at the same time, and have both appear in the room for you to talk to. Contacting big, complex objects is more difficult and costs more power than contacting with smaller, less complex objects.
Under normal circumstances, most of these common spirits are invisible, inaudible and intangible, both to normal people, and to those awakened to the supernatural world around them. Thus, unless you (or someone else present) specifically uses magical powers to contact with the spirit of some specific object or objects in a room, you'll just see the room, empty of spirits. This is mostly the case for playability reasons, as having to detail the appearance of every single subdivision of every object in the room and assign it a spirit is too much for even a supercomputer to do, let alone your poor human MC.
Additionally, it should be noted that common spirits such as these are essentially inhuman. They lack human such attributes as envy, curiousity and introspection. Their motives are typically in line with the intended use of the object in the case of artifical objects and towards self preservation in the case of natural spirits. The spirit of a hot dog truly desires for its hot dog to be comsumed, despite the fact that this will result in the spirit dying a nightmarish death as it is torn apart by teeth spirits even as the hot dog is chewed and swallowed in a surreal scene that would not be out of place in a bad acid trip. Similarly, common spirits do not disobey or deceieve those that can speak to them, unless specifically told to do so by a higher ranking authority.
Noble Spirits: Exceptions to the Rules
Noble Spirits are exceptions to the general rule that spirits are silent, invisible ghostly bits of scenery until an actual character shows up and tells them to speak. Noble spirits, rather than representing common objects, represent concepts, categories of events and extraordinary or unique objects. Noble spirits are individuals with individual motives and human-like emotions, intellect and capabilities. Noble spirits are able and often willing to participate in supernatural politics and join organizations seeking to control the Mandate and reality as a whole. All noble spirits are playable characters and are divided up as follows:
Spirits that I know are going in thus far:
Sidhe are the spirits of demenses, with one (and only one) existing for each demense.
Trolls are the spirits of natural disasters, like fires, avalanches, floods and huricanes.
Gnomes* are the spirits of inventions and innovations that seek to spread their creation.
Tsukumogami are the spirits of exceptionally old objects which have gained a life of their own.
*Kinda stumped with where to go with gnomes. May replace them with muses?
Animism and You
Technocracy is a animistic setting. This means that otherwise mundane objects have spirits that reside within and around them and interact in a non-physical manner with the object that they are a spirit of. This allows people with the ability to interact with spirits (such as the titular Technocracy and their various rivals) to do things to objects by interacting with the object's spirit, and vise versa, effecting the spirit by interacting with the object it is tied to. In order for this concept to be playable, however, we need to answer a few questions about these spirits:
What Items Get Spirits?
An important thing to figure out ahead of time is what qualifications an object must meet to have a spirit in it. There are essentially two views here, one being that every single object has a spirit in it, no matter how great or small, and the other being that only certain special objects have a spirit in them. Technocracy, for the most part, uses the first viewpoint. Every object you encounter (for whatever definition of 'object' you personally choose to use) has a spirit that can be contacted with the appropriate powers. The car has a spirit, as does each of its tires, its sparkplugs, its seatbelts and its horn. Each of these smaller components can be contacted individually, or you can contact the spirit of the car as a whole, and ask it to confer with one of the component parts on your behalf. You could also contact the car and the components of the car at the same time, and have both appear in the room for you to talk to. Contacting big, complex objects is more difficult and costs more power than contacting with smaller, less complex objects.
Under normal circumstances, most of these common spirits are invisible, inaudible and intangible, both to normal people, and to those awakened to the supernatural world around them. Thus, unless you (or someone else present) specifically uses magical powers to contact with the spirit of some specific object or objects in a room, you'll just see the room, empty of spirits. This is mostly the case for playability reasons, as having to detail the appearance of every single subdivision of every object in the room and assign it a spirit is too much for even a supercomputer to do, let alone your poor human MC.
Additionally, it should be noted that common spirits such as these are essentially inhuman. They lack human such attributes as envy, curiousity and introspection. Their motives are typically in line with the intended use of the object in the case of artifical objects and towards self preservation in the case of natural spirits. The spirit of a hot dog truly desires for its hot dog to be comsumed, despite the fact that this will result in the spirit dying a nightmarish death as it is torn apart by teeth spirits even as the hot dog is chewed and swallowed in a surreal scene that would not be out of place in a bad acid trip. Similarly, common spirits do not disobey or deceieve those that can speak to them, unless specifically told to do so by a higher ranking authority.
Noble Spirits: Exceptions to the Rules
Noble Spirits are exceptions to the general rule that spirits are silent, invisible ghostly bits of scenery until an actual character shows up and tells them to speak. Noble spirits, rather than representing common objects, represent concepts, categories of events and extraordinary or unique objects. Noble spirits are individuals with individual motives and human-like emotions, intellect and capabilities. Noble spirits are able and often willing to participate in supernatural politics and join organizations seeking to control the Mandate and reality as a whole. All noble spirits are playable characters and are divided up as follows:
Spirits that I know are going in thus far:
Sidhe are the spirits of demenses, with one (and only one) existing for each demense.
Trolls are the spirits of natural disasters, like fires, avalanches, floods and huricanes.
Gnomes* are the spirits of inventions and innovations that seek to spread their creation.
Tsukumogami are the spirits of exceptionally old objects which have gained a life of their own.
*Kinda stumped with where to go with gnomes. May replace them with muses?
Last edited by Grek on Tue Jun 14, 2011 3:10 am, edited 1 time in total.
FrankTrollman wrote:I think Grek already won the thread and we should pack it in.
Chamomile wrote:Grek is a national treasure.
I like muses. Sounds more ethereal, even if you local muse can be a short guy whose beard color can't be discerned because of how much oil he's wearing.
He jumps like a damned dragoon, and charges into battle fighting rather insane monsters with little more than his bare hands and rather nasty spell effects conjured up solely through knowledge and the local plantlife. He unerringly knows where his goal lies, he breathes underwater and is untroubled by space travel, seems to have no limits to his actual endurance and favors killing his enemies by driving both boots square into their skull. His agility is unmatched, and his strength legendary, able to fling about a turtle shell big enough to contain a man with enough force to barrel down a near endless path of unfortunates.
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
--The horror of Mario
Zak S, Zak Smith, Dndwithpornstars, Zak Sabbath. He is a terrible person and a hack at writing and art. His cultural contributions are less than Justin Bieber's, and he's a shitmuffin. Go go gadget Googlebomb!
Now that I've thought about it more, I'm strongly considering splitting up the current gnomes into muses, which inspire people (be it to create works of arts, give to the poor or kill hookers) and gremlins, who are the spirits of bad luck and sabatogue.
FrankTrollman wrote:I think Grek already won the thread and we should pack it in.
Chamomile wrote:Grek is a national treasure.
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Username17
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As far as splitting things up even further, I'm not sure that is necessary. I'm not sure what th battle lines are on "Technocracy... in SPAAACE!" but I think it could be resolved.
As for spirit names, such as people think anything when they hear the word "Sidhe" they think "Elves". If you want location spirits I would think you'd want a word that actually meant that like "Kami" or "Oread". "Tsukumogami" is right fucking out. You are allowed maybe three syllables in your type word, stretch that out to four if the type is actually two words. Tsukumogami is five, that's ricockulous. Granted you are going to want some name for Furnilliars, but that is not the word. You could go for "Hobbs" or "Poltergeists" or something.
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As for spirit names, such as people think anything when they hear the word "Sidhe" they think "Elves". If you want location spirits I would think you'd want a word that actually meant that like "Kami" or "Oread". "Tsukumogami" is right fucking out. You are allowed maybe three syllables in your type word, stretch that out to four if the type is actually two words. Tsukumogami is five, that's ricockulous. Granted you are going to want some name for Furnilliars, but that is not the word. You could go for "Hobbs" or "Poltergeists" or something.
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That's intentional. The location spirits sound like they'd look like elves because I want them to look like elves. They're elves that come out of their faerie mounds at sunset and abduct people/cause trouble/fight crime based on what sort of demense they come from and who that demense is aligned with.
I don't want to use kami or oread, since those imply a relation similar to a dryad and its tree where the spirit can't leave the demense to go out and do things. That's not playable, so it's not an option.
Tsukumogami is too long, but Hobbs doesn't really fit and Poltergeist has the unfortunate implication that it's a human ghost. If you've got a better word, I'm all ears for it.
I don't want to use kami or oread, since those imply a relation similar to a dryad and its tree where the spirit can't leave the demense to go out and do things. That's not playable, so it's not an option.
Tsukumogami is too long, but Hobbs doesn't really fit and Poltergeist has the unfortunate implication that it's a human ghost. If you've got a better word, I'm all ears for it.
FrankTrollman wrote:I think Grek already won the thread and we should pack it in.
Chamomile wrote:Grek is a national treasure.
Kumogami. there, problem solved, ish. It basically means "thing spirit." Literally calling them "thing spirit" would be monogami, which is just weird.Grek wrote:That's intentional. The location spirits sound like they'd look like elves because I want them to look like elves. They're elves that come out of their faerie mounds at sunset and abduct people/cause trouble/fight crime based on what sort of demense they come from and who that demense is aligned with.
I don't want to use kami or oread, since those imply a relation similar to a dryad and its tree where the spirit can't leave the demense to go out and do things. That's not playable, so it's not an option.
Tsukumogami is too long, but Hobbs doesn't really fit and Poltergeist has the unfortunate implication that it's a human ghost. If you've got a better word, I'm all ears for it.
Tsukumo means artifact, apparently, and tsukumogami are basically what I was talking about in the other thread, though I was being a bit lenient in allowing objects to gain spirits after only 25 years.
Last edited by Prak on Tue Jun 14, 2011 7:54 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Cuz apparently I gotta break this down for you dense motherfuckers- I'm trans feminine nonbinary. My pronouns are they/them.
Winnah wrote:No, No. 'Prak' is actually a Thri Kreen impersonating a human and roleplaying himself as a D&D character. All hail our hidden insect overlords.
FrankTrollman wrote:In Soviet Russia, cosmic horror is the default state.
You should gain sanity for finding out that the problems of a region are because there are fucking monsters there.
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Username17
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No. 4 syllables in a single non-standard word is still too many for a standard character type. I mean you could go the Gygaxian route and just grab the word for "spirit" in various languages, because that's what you've basically done for the Sidhe. So you'd just call them "Kami" and drop all the prefix shit. Or you could go to a sufficiently obscure language like Ewe and call them "Se" or "Vodun" or whatever.Prak wrote:Kumogami. there, problem solved, ish.
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