Nadie sabe quienes son, porqué se reúnen, ni qué pretenden, pero todo el mundo ha oído el rumor, ha visto algo o le han contado algo. Un grupo de jóvenes quedan en mitad de la madrugada para correr.

No son deportistas, no son gente conocida, no beben ni fuman ni toman drogas, pero ciertas noches salen a correr. No se meten en líos, no roban ni rompen nada, sólo corren.  Los corredores y su rumor han llegado a todas las ciudades, varias se disputan el privilegio de ser la primera en “verles”, pero sus historias no parecen ciertas, nadie sabe de verdad donde se originó.

Internet no les unió, y el único video que circula sobre ellos puede ser un montaje, un grupo de amigos riéndose del rumor o desmintiéndolo.

Depende de a quien preguntes, te contará una versión u otra, todo conjeturas, pero como piezas de diferentes puzles, juntándolas todas puedes descubrir la verdad, o tu propio ombligo, depende de tu suerte.

Pueden ser frustrados, gente cuyas relaciones diarias les hacen llegar al precipicio, y correr de noche es una alternativa al suicidio, una comunidad que no hace preguntas, no te juzga ni se preocupa por ti. Puede ser un ancla a la realidad o un botón de desconexión, lo que tu elijas.

Pueden ser fantasmas, ecos de seres muertos que huyen de algo, algo terrible para hacer huir a los muertos, y por un tiempo atraviesan nuestro mundo durante las horas de sueño, cuando nadie vigila.

Pueden ser cabalistas o demonistas recorriendo intrincados y complejos diseños, creando runas gigantes para la invocación de serafines o demonios, para que se enfrenten en la batalla definitiva.

Pueden ser subrutinas de limpieza y programación al servicio de Matrix, localizando fallos de programación y reparándolos mientras los sujetos humanos duermen dentro de su mundo de ensueño.

En cualquier caso, si cualquier noche te los encuentras, no trates de enfrentarte a ellos sólo, ponte en contacto con las fuerzas del Orden, explica la situación y muy pronto un Agente de la realidad se presentará en la zona para solucionar los problemas.

Ahora descansa, ciudadano.

So, that was about it. It was a very amusing game in the end, although somewhere along the way I had doubts whether it’s gonna hold together or fall apart. Main reason for this was of course the fact that I honestly didn’t know, at least for the first two sessions, where it should, could or might go. My preparation for the game was a list random things that had came to my mind at some point. It was only between the second and the third session that I finally came up with some focus and direction: the unspeakable servant and fate of Richard Shanahan.

I tried to find some relevance and meaning for the abandoned house and the mystical mirror, but it just wasn’t there. It was too random, too different. So that’s one thing I’m gonna drop if I ever run this scenario again, or write it up properly. Other thing that will be cut is that damned snowfall. Yes, it certainly generated very enjoyable event, but in the end it was just too weird. Although I might say that a tornado avoiding things and generally not breaking anything at all is too weird, also. Maybe I’ll just go with regular snow.

So what really had happend? Why were there two dead bodies of Dick Shanahan? Elementary, my dear Watson. The one in the basement was the real one. He had just finalized the ritual for the servant when this one nameless fleshworker came seeking for the McGuffin, that precious knife. (Now that I think of it, I realize I forgot to mention that the characters found this outsider’s wallet, which included a driver’s licence with his previous face on it, while they searched for the knife.) And that’s not all. The nameless fleshworker was also possessed by a demon which knew some really strong magick. Magick, which allowed “them” to see Dick’s memories, to reveal the whereabouts of the knife. But they also found out that his niece and a student of a friend were coming, and decided to play along a few days. They didn’t want Dick’s death be known quite so soon. So the demon read Dick’s memories and the fleshworker worked his magick to become Dick.

Too bad the demon was a bloodthirsty sadistic son of a bitch, who just couldn’t help himself and used the poor fleshworker’s body to his own ends. And that ended up well, didn’t it?

So that’s definitely the thing I want to preserve. That’s just too juicy a twist to throw away. I will also keep the NPCs, and possibly come up with a few more. The fire at the school was directly related to Megan’s Noble Trigger, so that’s really not a keeper.

I actually have only one thing I’m not that sure about. Should I write the PCs by myself or do it like the first time, and only give some guidance and pointers?

—

I might definitely have forgotten something, but those are propably things that aren’t worth mentioning to begin with.

And that’s finally it. I wrote the first post for this write-up over 16 months ago. That certainly took way too long to finish. I really have to re-think when’s the next time I’m gonna do something like this again. I have one campaign log from an Exalted campaign that I thought I’d like to write-up, but this really gives some perpective. This game was only five sessions long, and still… damn. And that Exalted campaign took somewhere around 8 months in real time, maybe 20-24 sessions or so, to play through.

That’s some heavy perspective.

-
Currently playing: White Skull – Time for Glory

A ragged man stood there in the doorway. By the look of his messy hair and bristle, one could’ve taken him just a random bum who had just wandered in. But there was something that didn’t fit. His eyes were too sharp, his gruff voice had a hint of something untangible and when he walked in and towards the bed, a silent tinkle accompanied him.

I think it’s plausible to say that it can be quite disturbing if one hasn’t seen a fleshworker in action before. And that’s propably how it felt like, to see that odd man moulding Derek’s hand like it was Plasticine. And in a few minutes that felt like agonizing hours, he was done. Excluding the trails of blood on Derek’s hand, his arm looked like as if nothing had happened.

–
I don’t remember whether he bargained with them before or after he did his “thing.” Either way, it was an opressing situation for Megan and Osmon, as they really didn’t have other options. Derek was slowly bleeding to death and they propably had no time to take him to anywhere else.
–

Soon afterwards, as Derek came to, they left the clinic and met with the odd man outside. He bargained with them, giving some cryptic clues and as a payback demanded a certain knife Richard had had. (Consequently it was exactly the same “thing” Derek’s mentor had sent him to get.) He also described it roughly so now they knew what to look for. After getting them to agree to the bargain, he adviced that they should get rid off the unspeakable servant on the loose (that monstrous ox in the woods, in part 4), and how that might be achieved. You can say that they weren’t happy to hear that only the master can really wound the creature.

Back at the farm, characters getting seriously desperate. Finally someone proposed if they could use Dick’s bodyparts as weapons or at least his teeth as ammunition. Megan wasn’t amused, to say the least. Off to bed they went, to wake up to the already familiar hopelessness. Derek or Osmon heard some quiet, yet heavy scuttling under the floor during the night, but though he was just having a dream.

Megan prepares some breakfast with Sam while Derek and Osmon get to work, digging up Dick’s corpse and starting to pull of his teeth. Yummy. Their masterplan was to fill some shotgun shells with teeth instead of pellets. Doesn’t sound very effective, but at least it was a very creative approach from them. And it just fit the mood perfectly.

It was still a tad surprising thet they didn’t try to whip up some makeshift spears out of the bigger bones or something like that. At some point the Sheriff appeared again, looking for Dick. It was then that the characters got an idea, and decided to use the Sheriff and his Deputy as aids in their horrifying task. They told that Dick had gone hiking and hadn’t returned, and that they were planning to go look for him. Of course this got the Sheriff’s attention, and while a bit lazy, he still took situations like this seriously.

Off to the woods to face the horrid beast. They split into two teams, the Sheriff in the first and the Deputy in the second, so they could stay in contact with their walkie-talkies. I don’t remember which character was with whom, but that’s not crucial anyway. At some point, while keeping the camera on Team Sherifff, something happened to Team Deputy. There were Deputy’s incoherent screams in the radio and they [Team Sheriff] heard shots being fired. At this point I yet didn’t say anything to the player whose character had been with the Deputy (it might have been Derek, now that I think of it), and just followed Team Sheriff as they hurried through the thickets.

Finally they found Derek unharmed (he had managed to claw his way up a tree) who then told the Sheriff that a wild, possibly rabid ox had charged out of nowhere. The Deputy had tried to stop it with his sidearm, to no avail. Now the Deputy was nowhere to be found, and Derek hadn’t seen what happened. He actually had tried to use his magick against it, but it just didn’t cut it. While heroically protecting his sorry ass, the Deputy had gotten stuck on the ox’s horn and was dragged away.

The Sheriff decided that he had to get more men, as the situation certainly seemed more dangerous than presumed. He allowed the characters to keep on looking (for some reason I can’t recollect), and left for his car to organize a hunting party.

After following the hoofprints for awhile, Derek came up to a small clearing (they had spread a little, walking in line). Oddly, the hoofprints vanished. The clearing seemed unoccupied, so he headed warily onwards. And then, as he had almost crossed the clearing, he heard snorting just right behind him. Freezing on that spot, a few heartbeats later he dared to turn around, just to find himself staring right into the eyes of that otherworldly beast.

On Derek’s sides, Osmon and Megan heard the noises, too. Fighting their urge to flee, they turned their steps towards Derek.

But it was strange. The beast just stood there, with no sign of malice or frenzy they’d witnessed before. It seemed to be just… ruminating. Osmon decided to take advantage of what seemed like a one-time chance, and let his shotgun, loaded with teeth, do the talking.

And nothing. Maybe just a minor scratch. And any second now, all hell might break loose.

Still nothing. I think it was Derek or Megan who decided to approach it, and talk to it. And basically s/he just said: “Could you go away?” And then the thing just melted into a big puddle of really black goo. Were the characters (and players) dumbstruck? You can bet on it. After that they just returned to the farm, for they still had to find that one certain knife.
—
As a sidenote, I didn’t, and don’t have any proper writeup for that artifact. But it’s a tool of great use to a fleshworker, as it doubles the charge gain when used. Slice off your ear with it? Double the juice! (Well okay, maybe it shouldn’t work with major charges.)
—
They delivered the knife to the strange man on the town, even though Derek was not happy about it. They decided to wrap things up a bit on the farm, before parting ways. Derek, while napping in the living room, heard that scuttling mentioned earlier. Megan and Osmon agreed to hearing it too, so they decided to check the basement. Armed with flashlight and more conventional weapons, they slowly descended the creaky stairs.

Black spiderlike… things shunned away from the lights, and Derek froze on the sight of the Tenebrae (his Fear Trigger). And just to get the ultimate mindfuck out of it, they found Richard’s dead body. Osmon stormed right up the stairs, past Derek and with out stopping, behind the barn. He began to open the grave, just to find Richard’s remains, just the way they left ‘em.

Inside, Derek picked himself up and investigated what had upset Osmon that much. I definitely looked just like Dick, only a bit differently decomposed. But this one was missing it’s left eye. He also noticed that the fingertips were all messed up, like he had been scraping them against something hard and rough. And on the wall noticed a frail message, written in blood:

“I’M SORRY MEG
I LOVE YOU”

The next day, they left. Osmon hitched a ride from the truck stop, Derek went on his own and Megan left with Sam. Megan stopped at the gas station to get some refill, and suddenly she heard a horrfyingly familiar voice. Turning around, she saw her husband before her, holding a shotgun. Aimed at her. She tried to ran for her own gun, but there was just the loud bang, and after that, only darkness and cold.

We all were quiet for a moment, as this was playing on the background.

Bang bang, he shot me down
Bang bang, I hit the ground
Bang bang, that awful sound
Bang bang, my baby shot me down…

—

Soon, the final post (finally!) with some conclusions, thoughts and explanations.

-
Currently playing: Nancy Sinatra – Bang Bang

Mi crónica personal.

Tengo que decir que yo llegué con todo empezado, debía currar por la mañana del sábado y tuve que acudir después de comer. Yo al menos ya había comido porque la organización y varios roleros esperaban pacientemente en el parque, supuse que la llegada del sueño y una siesta reparadora, no, esperaban sus pizzas para comer, porque un ogro malo les engañó y no les dio nada de comer. A pesar de eso no se perdió el ambiente y después de un café volvimos al lugar del encuentro.

Me gustó mucho el sitio, limpio, ordenado, serio, todo lo que falta en un club de rol, y el salón de actos donde estábamos tiene una acústica inmejorable. Varias ofertas de partidas, dudas de ultima hora, pero me decanté por Mouse Guard, un precioso juego, ganador del juego del año y que tenía ganas de probar de la mano de Wkr. La partida muy bien, el sistema algo complejo para el trasfondo, pero en general me gustó. Otro día os comentó mis impresiones del juego. Mientras, se respiraba un gran ambiente, la gente vino con ganas de jugar, cosa de agradecer para ser fiestas. Por la tarde tuve un reencuentro con un viejo amigo y rolero, Carlos (el de mago, el parasito, la ladilla y otros nombres cariñosos que tuvo), me alegré mucho de verlo, me contó de su chiquilla Luc que vino por la mañana. Me dio consejos para mi futura paternidad friki, solo por eso valía la pena esta quedada, un abrazo desde aquí, Carlos, a tu niña y a la mujer que te aguanta…

Retirada apresurada, que tenía cena familiar y compromisos, así que me perdí la foto de grupo, las conclusiones y las cervezas, pero lo compensé el domingo. El domingo temprano, con la fresca, sin resaca, nos encaminamos de nuevo a la quedada. Desayuno, poca gente, caras de sueño, comprensible por las fechas, estos jóvenes. Al ver que no iba a haber mucha más gente, a jugar a algo para pasar la mañana, Cosmic Encounter fue el juego elegido. Divertido juego de cartas con componentes simpáticos, los ovnis son geniales. Un par de Money Lunch para hacer la hora de comer y se pasó la mañana.

Comida en grupo con los del jugger, estos jóvenes, tan aficionados al deporte, correcta a pesar de alguna tardanza. Buen ambiente, charla agradable, risas con los combates entre animales. Rápida sobremesa y al tajo, que hemos venido a jugar. La división en salas del domingo permitió un vivo muy divertido y que la gente compaginara rol y tablero sin estorbarse, como ya he dicho, un acierto el sitio. Mucho rol y sobretodo lejos de lo cotidiano, partidas de juegos poco conocidos, incluso caseros, un diez para la creatividad en Interclubes.

Conseguí voluntarios para jugar a UA, llevaba una partida que necesitaba más preparación, así que me decidí por un clásico, la FUGA de Instantaneas, de Greg Stolze, una partida con la que iniciar a la gente al Unknown Armies, rápida, trepidante y siempre divertido. Les costó un poco entrar en el juego, pero en cuanto se soltaron, disfrutamos de lo lindo, ellos, yo y los que estaban de espectadores. Grandes momentos, casi rol en vivo con el arcón que daba mucho miedo y cuatro nuevos enganchados a UA, cuando queráis jugamos otra.

Después de la partida, charleta con la gente y al bar a comentar las jugadas delante de una birra, que es la mejor forma de terminar una quedada y unas fiestas. Volví con un vaso de Guiness de regalo, junto con la ilusión de haber participado en algo que se consolida como un lugar de encuentro entre gente de aficiones afines. Buena gente con mala prensa, los roleros. Un abrazo a todos los participantes y a los que hacen posible las quedadas, gracias a la organización, un aplauso a los chicos y chicas de amarillo que arriman el hombro mientras los demás se divierten.

A veces la vida te sonrie.

Nos vemos en seis meses, afortunadamente, algunos ya no somos tan desconocidos.

Decid Intercluuuubes.

I had heard about this when it released, it was all over the Unknown Armies mailing list, but only recently saw it (thank you Netflix). Amazingly, The Lost Room is a SciFi original production and one of the best high weirdness pieces I have even seen.

It all hinges on the Event which happened at Room 10 of the Sunshine Motel in New Mexico at 1:20:44 p.m. on 4 May 1961. The Event tore the room and all of its contents out of reality with the result that every item in the room (collectively the Objects) is charged with something that:

1) makes them indestructible
2) gives them some sort of ability. This abilities range from the near useless (placing an egg in side the watchband boils it) to the near god-like (the glass eye allows for total manipulation of flesh). But the key allows access to the room, place in in any door lock and open it, and it lets you into the room (where it is always 1:20:44 pm, 4 May 1961) and you can step out through any door.

There are over a hundred objects and some of them do different things when combined with each other . . . You begin to see the possibilities, yes?

Naturally, there are groups out there that want to control the objects. Now, our main character knows none of this at the series begins and he soon ends up with the key and a reason to try and understand how it works. I do not wish to spoil the plot, so I will not apart from mentioning that I found the ending a little weak but still acceptable. But well worth seeing if you like high weirdness or modern occult genre. My Grade: A-

The whole thing screamed Unknown Armies to me. So many wonderful and weird ideas for a game. Might be a bit harder to translate into a pure fantasy or SF game, but amazing ideas for modern occult settings.

Atlas Games is going to publish at least three short Unknown Armies PDFs. That’s exciting! I will buy them all, particularly since this is an experiment. One presumes it’s intended to find out if that sort of publishing is viable.

I note that Atlas also has the rights to Feng Shui and Over the Edge. In my wildly optimistic dreams, the experiment is also intended to test the viability of new PDF releases for those games as well. All three of those games live together on my core gaming bookshelf, and I have very close to the complete publication history of all of them. (I’m missing a couple of the Edgeworks issues; let me know if you’ve got ‘em and want to sell ‘em.) I would like to see more, please.

Also exciting: Atlas is running an open call for pitches for those three PDFs. 6,000 words, pitches should be one very compelling sentence, follow the link for more details. I am trying to convince certain people that certain campaign frameworks would make a good submission, but he might be too busy being smart or something.

Unknown Armies is the only one of those three lines I haven’t written professionally for, come to think of it. I should get cracking.

Another game from Atlas Games, I pretty much just stumbled upon Unknown Armies. John Tynes was the first name I had any interest in that was associated with RPGs. On his old website, he included some old design notes from this game. I read them, and was immediately interested to learn more. So when I encountered the second edition of Unknown Armies in a store many months later, I had to buy it.

The premise of the game (co-created with Greg Stolze) is that the world we live in contains an occult underground, inhabited largely by outcasts who just don’t fit into regular society. These individuals each hold an obsession that colors they way they look at everything, and which can lead them to insights into the way the world really works. Of course, they each have their own different obsessions, so they still can’t quite agree on what that means, even with each other. This short description does the game no justice, but we’ll touch on some more details of the setting as we explore the book.

Let’s start again with the book itself. It’s hardcover, with 366 pages (including index). The orange-ish cover… I don’t quite know how to describe it. What appear to be arcane symbols are slipped in, and can almost be overlooked by a casual glance. The center has been stripped away, and shows three individuals standing in the rain in front of a city skyline. The figure on the left has a cigarette and an assault rifle. The woman in the center merely stands with her arms crossed. On the right is a man with a skull earring and no jacket. Spots of blood from what appear to be gunshots are on the front of his shirt, and he’s raising his fist, which is glowing. The bizarre orangey part of the cover is wonderful and evocative. The picture isn’t the greatest in execution, but what it depicts suits the game well.

The interior of the book is grayscale, with a good amount of art scattered throughout. The art ranges from decent, if low quality, to really well done. In some cases (particularly in the section about Avatars), a more stylistic form is used for the illustrations. The effect is profound. The entire book is written in a familiar hand, as if a friend is telling you about all this information. This works on two levels. First, every sentence of the entire book constantly reinforces the dark setting. Second, it makes the book a very easy read, and constantly interesting. Even the crunchy bits are a joy, and seriously, how many books can you say that about?

After the contents, there’s a page breaking down the basic organization of the book, which is broken into four… well, books. There’s one for each of the three levels of play (street, global, cosmic) and one just for the gamemaster. The next page is a handy reference of the rules. Read this one page, and you’ll at least have an idea of how things work (perfect for a player handout). We then get not one, but two short stories to introduce us to the game world. Keeping with the bizarre nature of this game, the page on the left contains your usual, typed-up short story, while the page on the right features a page ripped from a notebook, with scrawled, diary-like entries. This split continues for several pages, until both stories wrap up. The typed story serves well as an introduction, showing how a pretty normal girl gets mixed up in the occult underground. The notebook is more along the lines of someone already deep in the underground. Remember the concept of obsession I mentioned earlier? It’s on display here in all its glory.

“Book One: The Secret Names of Streets” details a street-level campaign, one where the PCs are just discovering the underground. As the PCs really don’t know much more than any player who hasn’t read the full rulebook, there’s very little in the way of fluff here. Instead, the bulk of the game’s mechanics fit in here. The first chapter, however, sets a precedent that’s followed for the global- and cosmic-level books. It starts with a very brief introduction, this one titled “There Is an Occult Underground.” This is followed by three “Witness” accounts – stories told in the first person by people who would fit in this level of play. In this case, that means people who have had a bizarre experience that defies what they recognize as reality, and generally results in a drive to get to the bottom of this. Finally, there are two pages of rumors, which could easily double as adventure-seeds.

Chapter two details the idea of a street campaign, and features one of the few cases of misplaced information in the book. The chapter starts with asking players to come up with a trigger event for their character (a trigger event being that odd experience that is most likely the catalyst for that PC to seek the underground). This seems out of place, since the rest of character generation is in the next chapter. This chapter then goes on to give ideas for the PC group as a whole, with several vague examples of why the PCs might be working together.

Chapter three is all about character generation, simple mechanics of the game, and experience. Summing this chapter up will be hard, since there are so many unique things to the game, and many of them are presented here. Several obsession examples are given. Passions are also discussed. Each PC gets three Passions: one for Rage, one for Fear, and one Noble. Basically, once per Passion per game session, if a character is acting in accordance with one of these, he can flip-flop his die roll (switch the tens and ones on percentile dice – like rolling a 91 and turning it into a 19). Which brings me to the basic system. The idea is pretty simple. Roll percentile dice. You want to roll as high as possible, while still staying under your skill or stat. There are minor, significant, and major skill checks (remember those three divisions), depending on the situation. There are four broad stats: Body, Speed, Mind, and Soul. Once the value of each stat is determined, players come up with a descriptor for each, like “Flabby” or “Stout” for Body. Each stat governs several related skills, but there is no hard skill list. Players are encouraged to come up with their own, based on what their characters would be good at. They are also encouraged to rename skills to represent their own style (such as “Reckless Driving” instead of just “Driving,” or “Constant Awe” for a low Initiative skill). Skills are intentionally kept low. There’s even a short section specifically telling you why.

The obligatory Combat chapter is next. The chapter begins by almost berating you for getting into a fight, then offers “Six Ways to Stop a Fight,” and then tells you that the rest of the chapter “contains rules for simulating the murder of human beings. Have fun.” I won’t go into details here, but I do have to say that the combat rules are amazingly simple, and don’t seem to sacrifice realism. Combat is fast and (when weapons are involved) deadly. One unique aspect of the game is that players don’t keep track of hit points. The GM does, then tells the player how they’re feeling. Also included in this chapter are rules for car chases.

The next chapter details the only real ruleset for insanity and madness that I’ve seen outside of Call of Cthulhu. UA gives each character five meters for different kinds of stimulus: Violence, Unnatural, Self, Isolation, and Helplessness. Each time a character confronts one of these stresses, he checks his meters to see if he’s already Hardened enough to resist it. If he is, then play moves on. If not, he makes a Mind check. If he succeeds, he gets a little more Hardened and play moves on. If not, he ticks off a Failed box for that stress and either frenzies, falls into a kind of paralysis, or panics (fight, freeze, or flee). Sounds like getting Hardened is a good thing, but just as it shields you from these stimuli, it also blocks you from the rest of your emotions, and you lose the ability to use those Passions I mentioned earlier. Besides, being unable to feel doesn’t make for a fun gaming experience.

The final chapter of the first book is more or less a summary of concepts. There’s some more detail on Obsessions and how to play them, how to use your Passions, and some general play advice. We still have no idea what awaits us in the occult underground, but we’re about to find out.

The second book is called “The World of Our Desires,” and discusses necessities for a global-level campaign. We begin with chapter seven, which is an overview in the same fashion as chapter one. There’s an introductory section called “Welcome to the Occult Underground,” three more Witness accounts, and more rumors. What’s new here is some more information, including the theory behind magick, what an adept is and how he does what he does, avatars, short descriptions of many of the cabals active in the underground, and why you want to keep magick a secret from the mainstream population. This is the first real glimpse into the setting.

Chapter eight mirrors chapter two, giving several ideas for groups in a global campaign, in many cases as part of one of the cabals mentioned in the previous chapter.

While adepts and avatars are briefly touched on in the next chapter, the bulk of it is given to the limited kind of magick that anyone can do. Several rituals are given, and they just help emphasize the symbolic nature of magick, and the lengths that you’d have to go to in order to do this stuff. This keeps magick a possibility for non-magick types in the game, but makes them really have to work for it, which is fine. More versatile magick can be performed as “Tilts,” which are kind of like rituals, except that you make them up, adding elements that are symbolically relevant. While versatile, Tilts generate pretty weak results. And again, they require a good amount of work.

Adepts are the next topic. Adepts are those who are so committed to their view of the world, their Obsession, that they can bend objective reality to fit their subjective reality to some degree. There are countless schools of magick (12 are presented here), each with their own unique methods for gaining magical charges, their own spells, taboos, and types of effects, and their own paradox. Paradox? Yes, every school is based on some kind of symbolic tension, like the pursuit of power through surrendering to fate. There are three levels of charges, and thus, three levels of spells: minor, significant, and major. Each adept can cast on the fly, without needing a formula or ritual. They can also learn formula spells, which are more reliable and with a lower charge cost, but are also therefore more limited in scope. As an example of a school, let me give a quick brief on Dipsomancy, the style that I read about on Tynes’ website that sparked my interest in this game. Dipsomancy is based on consuming alcohol. The more you drink, the more power you get, until you pass out and sober up, and thus flush away any unused charges. The central paradox is that it’s a power trip and a death wish all in one. “But while you’re riding that cresting wave of drink, you can do anything.“

Avatars, covered in chapter eleven, are the third kind of magic in the game, though far more subtle than adepts. In short, there are many archetypes of human personalities and roles that are common to every culture. These archetypes are so ingrained in our ideas of reality, that simply by imitating one, you can use some of its power. This is something you need to dedicate yourself to, though. You can only walk the path of a single archetype, and while certain behaviors strengthen your relationship to it, other behaviors weaken it. Follow the Warrior, for example, and you can never negotiate with your enemies. Each avatar has four powers, or channels. You learn them in order as your bond gets stronger. As was mentioned, these are generally subtle abilities, though the higher level ones are quite strong. The first channel for the Fool lets the avatar find any common item that he’s looking for as long as he looks in a place that it might reasonably be.

“The Living Mirror of Heaven” is the title of the third book, which focuses on a cosmic-level game. It starts with an overview chapter yet again, with a brief introduction (“You Are the Occult Underground”), three Witnesses, rumors, and another “What You Know” section, which fills in some significant details, answering questions you probably didn’t know you had. There are some big spoilers here, so I’ll be as vague as I can. We’ve also got another chapter about your PC group, and what kind of cosmic goals they’re after.

Up to chapter fourteen now, and we learn more about archetypes and avatars, and what to expect at the highest levels of avatarhood. Chapter fifteen is about demons, which have been mentioned before, but not really detailed yet. They are spirits of the dead who can be summoned by magick, and who want to take over living bodies for various reasons. The sixteenth chapter is about artifacts, what a fantasy gamer might call “magic items.” Artifacts come at minor, significant, and major power levels. A few minor ones are detailed here.

And already, we’re up to the fourth and final book, the one that’s for GM eyes only. “Now you’ve seen the slow build, step by step, through the initiatory mysteries of this roleplaying game. Now we drop-kick the atmosphere and the three-dollar words and get down to business. This is your tool box. Here are your tools. It’s that simple.” The GM Overview is about 40 pages of details. The Invisible Clergy, the First and Last Man, various cabals, movers and shakers in the underground… it’s all here.

Chapters eighteen and nineteen are made up of about 30 pages of some of the best GM advice I’ve read anywhere. Much of it is tied specifically to UA, but there is so much that could apply to any game.

The last few chapters give us more artifacts, some unnatural creatures, and some unexplained phenomena with completely natural explanations that a GM can throw in to keep players on their toes.

The book closes with two adventures. “Bill in Three Persons” can be used as an introductory adventure, and touches on many elements presented throughout the book. “Pinfeathers” feels like it’s meant for more advanced groups. But what makes that second adventure more interesting is that, with just about every aspect of it, the GM is presented with three options to select from. For example, the GM is given these options for an enforcer GMC: he only kills scum; he’s just a hired professional; he’s a cold-blooded bastard. This is great for GMs who might be inclined to tweak things anyway, and for those who aren’t, they find themselves needing to make some real decisions, which can only be useful experience when coming up with their own adventures.

My overall impressions:

• Visual Design: While mostly pretty standard, there are enough things that really pop out for me in a good way. All of it is evocative of the setting, and therefore helps get into the mood. I’d give it a moderate rating.
• Setting: The text on the back of the book is intriguing, and the more I read, the more interested I got. It’s easy to design a setting for a modern game. It’s hard to make it interesting. I can’t think of any aspect of it that doesn’t get cooler the more you learn about it. Very high rating here.
• System: Like I mentioned, the system is pretty simple but smooth. Streamlined is a word that comes to mind. It’s easy to learn, doesn’t involve lots of math, most tasks are resolved in a single roll. And yet, the rules don’t give a simplified feel. It doesn’t feel like anything was glossed over or dumbed down for the sake of smooth running. System is brilliant.

What it comes down to: Quite simply, this is my favorite game that I’ve never played. And I’m hoping to fix that last part soon. The only thing I don’t like about the game is that the line is dead. No more UA books, at least for the time being. But with eight sourcebooks, and all the fan created material here (of an unusually high quality), there’s no shortage of new goodies! I’m currently prepping a UA game, and I’d be thrilled to play in one if the opportunity arose.

The Mad Hatter’s Zine Fair is on in Sydney on Saturday (thanks to Tiny Paper Hearts for the tip). Since I’m obsessing about zines at the moment I wish I could be there for it, but I can’t because I’m stuck up here in Brisvegas with my baby. Then again, we have Gencon, the gigantic geeky gaming (try saying that ten times quickly) convention on up here this weekend, so nyah nyah Sydney! My significant other is running an Unknown Armies game there this year, which promises to be exciting.

I will be back soon (really this time!) to post some more about zines and why they interest me. For now, wherever you are, enjoy the weekend!

Corbatas encantadas.

Corre el rumor que, si encuentras donde y puedes pagarlas, puedes conseguir corbatas encantadas.

La corbata es una prenda de status, en contra de lo que te pueda decir la gente del banco o de la agencia inmobiliaria, no forma parte de un mono de trabajo, significa: “yo trabajo con aire acondicionado y tú no.” Pero no nos perdamos, os voy a hablar de estos artefactos. Puedes encargar un diseño personalizado, no esperes que tu corbata sea única si tus deseos no lo son, si encargas una corbata para Atraer el Dinero, puedes encontrarte varias entre tu circulo de amistades. Debes buscar la que más se acerque a tus deseos sinceros, reflexiona antes de encargar una corbata de Muerte, ¿Solucionarás algo?. Cuando tengas claro tu deseo, consigas el dinero y sepas donde pedirla, encarga tu corbata. En cosa de un mes la tendrás en tu oficina por correo interno, no hacen entregas a domicilio, la gente que trabaja desde casa no necesita corbata.

Según la leyenda, cuando reciben un encargo, buscan las mas finas sedas del sur de la India, en la ciudad de Murshidabad, con un estampado acorde, secuestran al costurero. Alguien relacionado con el deseo, si pides dinero, será un millonario quien lo haga, si buscas fama, será alguien que haya aparecido al menos en la televisión de tres países, si quieres matar a alguien, un asesino coserá tu corbata. No importa que no sepa coser, con el tejido y los hilos adecuados se convertirá en un artesano, lo importante es que lo haga contra su voluntad, que lo haga obligado, así la realidad también se verá obligada por ese acto a hacer caso de la corbata. Una vez hecha la corbata se libera al costurero, generalmente a dos países de distancia, sin documentación y con la boca y los dedos cosidos, no les interesa la mala publicidad y cada trabajador sólo puede hacer una corbata, la dedicación esta asegurada.

Las corbatas con mayor demanda son las de vigor sexual, con esos diminutos penes y váginas  mezclados en el cruzado de nudos marineros, tejidas por violadores y obsesos. Las del Dinero también tienen su público, con símbolos de dólar, euro, yen y libra ocultos entre útiles marineros, pero secuestrar un millonario es complejo, y la inversión es importante.

Las de encierro, con sus alambres de espino ocultos y cosidas por presidiarios no son muy populares, pero sí útiles.

Las de Muerte hay que usarlas con cuidado, son de un solo uso, debes elegir bien el blanco de tu ira, buscan la muerte forzando el azar en contra de la víctima, esto no es una sesión de Tarot, dónde la muerte significa Cambio Importante en tu vida, pues haber hecho una carta con el nombre de Gran Cambio, o llama a las cosas por su nombre, “Si, te ha salido la Muerte, ya lo sabes, son 120 Euros la sesión.”.

Un tipo de corbata no muy utilizado, afortunadamente, es la corbata envenenada, para un regalo, cosida por una envenenadora, llena de traición y odio, cosidos sobre un sencillo tramado geométrico, una corbata inocente. El primero que se ponga una corbata de éstas, notará como se asfixia y sufrirá una muerte dolorosa y lenta.

Aprende a vestir con AMD

Ya sabéis, vigilad vuestros regalos, las pajaritas sin embargo son inofensivas.

Une Urodo

Mejora tu chi con unos sencillos consejos.

Los cinco elementos chinos se distribuyen en los pasillos de los comercios de “Todo a un Euro”. Solo debes conocer el orden:

Agua, simboliza el Invierno, el Yin extremo, te ayudará para recuperar la energía de la juventud. La encontrarás en la sección de juguetes, sobretodo las pistolas de agua. Tiene armonía con Madera y se opone a la Tierra.

Madera, es la primavera, el nuevo Yang, mejorará tu vigor, tu sexualidad y tu carisma. Está oculta en los objetos de decoración, sobretodo en los cuadros. Tiene armonía con Fuego y es opuesto al Metal.

Fuego, personifica el verano, el Yang Completo, te ayudará en el amor, y allí donde debes poner todo tu potencial, para esforzarte al máximo. Entre los útiles de cocina, los encendedores del gas sobre todo. Tiene armonía con la Tierra y se opone al Agua.

Tierra, forma el equilibrio perfecto, encontrarás la paz y la armonía del dejar hacer, te ayudará con tus pequeñas manías. Lo hallarás entre los utensilios de jardinería, las pequeñas palas metálicas son ideales. Tiene armonía con el Metal y es contraria a la Madera.

Metal, se trata de energía reservada,  el otoño, y canaliza las fuerzas del pasado. La sección de herramientas está llena de metal, los destornilladores sobre todo. Se halla en armonía con el Agua y es contrario al Fuego.

Para aprovecharte de estos elementos solo debes adquirir un producto de la sección que te interese a la semana, y la cuarta semana, un objeto del elemento armonioso. Despues de la cuarta semana, verás el elemento mejorado, lo sentirás expandirse.

Si por el contrario, quieres empeorar un elemento de alguien, debes adquirir un objeto del elemento enfrentado al que quieras empeorar al día y al septimo día, uno del elemento objetivo. Junta todos los elementos en una caja, ocultala bajo un objeto formado por el elemento enemigo, y pronto tendrás noticias sobre tu enemigo y su nueva debilidad.

Vigila tu Fuego.

Okay so I will start off with a dose of ultra-geekiness by discussing two different role playing games as well as psychology.

I have been running a campaign of Ravenloft for Dungeons and Dragons for about three years now and retooling the system as I went. The best thing I did was drop the Ravenloft fear, horror, and madness saves in favor of the sanity meter from Unknown Armies. I have often felt that sanity in role playing games was incredibly inaccurate or incredibly boring resulting in heroes that either don’t respond emotionally to the most difficult and disturbing experiences, have no problem hurting and killing innocent people, or are rendered unable to act in every situation because they are a quivering mess of neurosis.

In Unknown Armies every character has stimuli they react to and each character gets to pick 3:

• Noble Stimulus – this is what makes the character act on his “better self.” Even villains have these. Maybe the psychotic serial killer likes to help people be freed from oppression  but it adds some nice dimension. It comes into play whenever the character is trying to help someone or be their “best self.”
• Rage Stimulus – this is what the character hates and wants to destroy. Maybe he hates the bullies that teased him as a child and this comes into play whenever he is teased or maybe he hates lies and this helps him catch people in them. The key is it is an act of anger and destruction, not a thought out reasoned thing.
• Fear Stimulus – this is what the character fears and needs to get away from. Maybe he’s afraid of spiders or maybe he’s afraid of looking like an idiot in front of his girlfriend but this comes into play when he is trying to avoid something or run away.

Of course, one person’s rage stimulus is another person’s fear stimulus. You might be afraid of spiders but maybe I just like to squish them. What this mechanic does nicely is it allows a dimension of character specific psychology to impact gameplay and promote the character acting like themselves. In other words, by playing in character and responding appropriately to the stimuli the character gets bonuses on his actions.

I’ve messed around a bit with how it functions in D20.

• In the original Unknown Armies rolls are percentage based and a low roll is often better than a high roll. Using your stimuli lets you “flip” a number turning a failing 84 into a succesful 48.
• In D20 I initially used it as a “reroll” so if a character rolls a 1 or fails a roll they can use the stimuli for a second chance provided they are acting in characer.
• Later on in the same campaign I switched it to provide a +10 on any d20 rolls that was applied after the fact. For example, if a character is trying to jump a chasm as he runs from the spiders he is afraid of and he rolls a 10 but needs  a 20 to succeed, he invokes the stimuli, gets the +10, and succeeds.

I don’t particularly care about any specific one though I noticed the last one had the most impact on player interest. Personally I’m more interested in encouraging players to make their characters act “more like themselves.” I like that the cowardly person who is scared of public speaking is encouraged to avoid the things they’re scared of and attack the things they hate. While it may not be the most realistic in terms of a simulation of physical reality (I don’t generally get a bonus to hurt domestic abusers, which would be my rage stimulus) I think it does encourage a psychological reality in which the characters respond more as characters in a story or as real people to events rather than as “video game characters without hearts.”

Buscando, buscando, topé con algo extraño, Il Biscione (la culebra en italiano), un simbolo medieval, que sigue estando en muchos sitios, como por ejemplo en el escudo de los Alfa Romeo. ( el origen de esta marca tambien se las trae).  Me inquietó la aceptación, como ícono de una serpiente devorando un niño, o un moro, depende de la época, incluso como status social, curioso cuando menos.

También es el escudo de armas de la familia Sforza y los Visconti y se encuentra en muchos lugares de Milan, en la camiseta del Inter…

Curiosidades, y llegué a este blog, dónde hablaba de logos y esoterismo, muy interesante lo de Vodafone, inquietante.

http://chemtrailsevilla.wordpress.com/2009/06/29/los-5-logos-corporativos-mas-siniestros/

Hasta la próxima curiosidad, desconocidos, aprovechad ésto para vuestras partidas, o vuestras conversaciones de bar, que ganan mucho con detalles extraños.

I figure that any time I add a game or game authors/designers to the links on this blog (look at the bottom of the main page), I’ll put up an entry explaining why. Since John Tynes and Greg Stolze have been up since I started working on this site, I think I’ll take the time now to explain.

John Tynes is the first name that I started to recognize among role-playing products. Okay, let me stop here for a moment. A good product is a good product, right? I mean, it doesn’t matter who wrote it, as long as it’s good, right? Well, yeah, true. The same way it doesn’t really matter who wrote a particular novel, so long as the novel is good. I mean, really, The Stand is The Stand, and whether it’s Stephen King’s name on the cover or Joe Flibitz’s is irrelevent. So why do we care? It’s simple. If I really like The Stand, it’s a pretty safe bet that the same author has produced or will produce other work of similar quality. So next time I happen across a book and notice the author is Stephen King, I’ll take a chance on it, based on my enjoyment of The Stand.

The same is true for role-playing books and such, though the author is generally not given as much public credit. Sure, you can look in the book and see who wrote it, but most RPGs don’t put that info on the cover, so it can be harder for consumers to note. The major RPG publishers (Wizards of the Coast, White Wolf, etc.) would rather have gamers associate quality with their own brand, the company, than any individual (and freelance) authors. Exceptions of course apply, but as a general rule this seems to be the case.

(And for the record, I have not enjoyed any Stephen King that I have read with the exception of The Stand, which is firmly ranked among my favorite novels.)

Back to the subject at hand.

I played Call of Cthulhu quite a bit when I was younger. Among the many products for that line that I picked up were Delta Green and a few issues of The Unspeakable Oath. I loved Delta Green. Ever since reading that, I’ve been unable to run a modern CoC game without direct ties to DG. I looked into more DG products, wanting more. There were several collections of short stories, but only one novel. I was more interested in a novel than short stories, so I started tracking it down. The novel was The Rules of Engagement by John Tynes. I had to know the author’s name to help me find it. I noted that Tynes was a prominent figure in the DG book, and seemed to be the original creator of it.

Keeping things somewhat brief, I got the novel, read it, liked it quite a bit. I decided to see if Tynes had written any other fiction. My searches turned up nothing other than his personal website, Revland. Scattered around that site were bits of fiction, many small games, and pieces of other games. Most notable to me were the game Puppetland, and the description of a type of magic for a game called Unknown Armies. Just this simple description of how this particular type of magic works intrigued me to no end. It changed the rules. A few months later, when I stumbled across the second edition of Unknown Armies in my local gaming store, I bought it immediately.

Which brings us to Greg Stolze, who co-wrote UA.

His name on the cover of UA tickled my mind. It was familiar, but Tynes was definitely the reason I was buying that book. Reading UA and additional material for the game, I found Stolze’s contributions to be among the best, and well worth reading every time. I also started to realize why his name seemed familiar when I first picked up UA. He’s contributed to a wide variety of other games, including Legend of the Five Rings and the various games of World of Darkness.

I started to watch Stolze a little more closely. The concept of his game, Godlike, intrigued me, but I couldn’t see myself running in that setting, so I passed. That game introduced his One Roll Engine (ORE), and the more I learn about that system, the more curious I get. So when he applied it to a fantasy setting in Reign, I perked up. I’ve skimmed the pdf of that book enough to know that I really want to read it, and will be ordering a physical copy soon (I always prefer physical copies for a few different reasons).

The ORE features a dice pool, like many other games, but the way the dice are read is entirely unique. You roll a pool of d10s, and you match up pairs and larger sets. How high the number of the set is (the “height”) means one thing, while the number of dice with that number (the “width”) means something else. A single roll of dice can determine if you hit your opponent, where you hit your opponent, if you hit him before he hits you, and how much damage you do.

With both Tynes and Stolze, I’ve found again and again fresh new ways of looking at tired subjects. Unknown Armies alone is filled with them. UA is the one rulebook that I can read cover to cover, without feeling bogged down or bored with descriptions of mechanics, or skipping this section because it’s boring, or anything of the sort. Even the crunchiest bits of mechanics are written with a voice that keeps things interesting and entertaining, while remaining clear and concise. Not an easy task! And the only complaint I have about content is that there is so much good stuff that it’s hard to know where to begin.

The RPG industry is filled with iterations of the same old thing, done slightly different, with a vaguely different feel to them. Stolze and Tynes, together and seperate, have made a habit of presenting us with something brand new – often disguised as something we’ve seen before.

I guess a few of my personal friends are probably  wondering why recently I have been so slack in answering email – well I have a lot on. I’m doing a little research   which is hard work but I can’t talk about that here and ditto my writing on various roleplaying game projects.  Still I have so much on I have been working pretty much flat out, which is good news I guess.  I also had the pleasure of chatting yesterday with a US researcher, and will probably be doing a tiny piece to camera this week for a ghost hunting show – I’m no stranger to this as many of you know – but again can’t say more on that at present!

I am on Facebook now, and make occasional forays on to it to annoy my friends with silly comments on their status updates and to play silly online games. It’s worth trying to get me there, or on Skype – I rarely use MSN. If you need ot get through to me emailing me on chrisjensenromer@hotmail.com is still one of the best ways.

So what am I curently interested in that I can talk about?  Well I’m getting quite interested in developmental psychology, and Attachment Theory (John Bowlby). I recently have read quite a bit on this – I have the Handbook of Attachment Theory on my desk, a huge four hundred page work on the area, and I’m also still reading a lot of Scott Atran and EvoPsych. While the formal reason for this is my ongoing interest in Psychology of Religion, I’m also increasingly frustrated by the lack of a theoretical framework to explore Exceptional Human Experiences and the whole paranormal experience thing, so I’m trying to familiarize myself as much as possible with the current research in these potentially related areas. Reading Lakatos is becoming quite influential in the critique I’m developing of modern parapsychology.  Already I have made one incredible counter-intuitive discovery while reading up on modular mind theories, and in particular Jerry Fodor’s stuff – if my understanding is correct this undermines a lot of the sceptical theories about how people perceive ghosts. I’ll be writing on that in depth as soon as I have more time, and  my critique of Daniel Dennett’s theories on psychology of belief will also follow at some point, not that many of my friends will want to read them!

On the roleplaying games front, I’m only involved in two games at the moment, running an Ars Magica saga set in Thebes at Andy’s on a Monday, and Unknown Armies with Lorna, Ben and Helen on a Wednesday.  Still I’m so busy I just don’t have time to do much more.

Hope this find everyone well, and my usual drivelous essays will soon resume I’m sure! And if you have emailed me, I promise to try and reply soon.

cj x

Welcome to Blogatelle post #333!

One of my favourite websites out there is Eric Burns’s Websnark. It’s not updated as regularly as it used to be, but once upon a time? It was the website for webcomics criticism and discussion. I was a proud Snarkoleptic, contributed my own ’snarks at the Livejournal community, really kicked along with it. When Eric Burns went with Wednesday White as his co-blogger instead of me, I wept a little. When he married Wednesday White instead of me I … wait, I think I lost that somewhere.

Anyway! One tradition of Websnark came out of the fact that he was an In Nomine fan. In that role-playing game, the numbers 111 and 666 are particularly important, because they symbolise the Divine and the Infernal respectively. As so, on post 111 he answered shortly and selflessly, in angelic tradition. On post 666 he did a full on infernal intervention, and selfishly demanded money.

But, you see, here at Websnark, we’re not In Nomine fans. (Well, Jess and myself aren’t. I don’t know about the rest of the Katafray team.) We’re Unknown Armies fans. And so, much like Websnark broke away from comics discourse to talk about the love of his favourite game, I’m breaking away from World of Warcraft to spend post 333 talking about Unknown Armies. Because while 111 is divine and 666 is infernal, 333 is human, the number of seats in the Invisible Clergy. It is Unknown Armies’ number.

If you’re not a fan, and you don’t care about learning, that’s fine. Go and enter our contest instead, you can win 30 days of Warcraft game time, and more things besides! (We can now PROMISE the more stuff.) For those of you who do care, enjoy Ludomancy.

Ludomancy (Game Magic)
aka Gamers, Arcadians

When you were young, your parents told you that if you tried hard enough, you could do anything. They lied. But we fixed the problem anyway. When you were young, your parents told you there was nothing you couldn’t be. But no matter how much you practised, no matter how hard you tried, you just couldn’t fly. Every time you jumped off the roof, there was nothing for you but a sudden descent and a crash at the bottom.

And sure, you could learn to fly a plane or a helicopter. But then you’d not have time to learn how to be a top-ranked soccer player. Plus, no amount of time will let you learn how to do something impossible, like magic… (oh, wait).

But video games? Video games fix everything. You can be anything, at all places, in all times. Better than the escapism of a book or film, games give you a tantalising burst of agency coupled to wild, untamed fantasy. As soon as you discovered your first Nintendo^tm game, it was all over.

Your parents told you that you were wasting your life. That it meant nothing. But it meant everything. Your parents told you that it wasn’t the real world.

They were wrong again.

Bit by bit, you built the video game out into the real world. You found ways to make replace the Newton’s Laws with Mario’s Laws. Now, with video-games in your head and at your fingers, the ‘real world’ is yours to manipulate.

You discovered that if you try hard enough, you could do anything.

Ludomancy is built around the illusion of agency: Players love videogames above film and books because they have agency to affect the game, but they can only affect it within the tightly prescribed rules of the game. You can run Karazhan as many times as you like, but you’ll never sign a peace treaty with Medivh at the end of it. You’re a slave given a plastic sceptre and told you’re a ruler.

Generate a minor charge: Devote a major part of the day (at least 6 hours in one sitting) to playing a single video-game. The game experience cannot be interrupted; pausing to go to the bathroom or have food will nullify any chance of getting that charge (although you can probably talk to a friend in the room as long as you don’t pause), but so will dying and having to restart. The words “New Game” carry just enough symbolism to stop the previous gaming run and make it a ‘new’ gaming run. As a result, persistent game worlds (like World of Warcraft) are a blessing for this school – You simply can’t die and miss your chance at a charge… well, unless the server crashes.

Generate a significant charge: Change the rules of a game in some way, to allow a game effect that would previously have been impossible. Cheating is the obvious way to do this; using a speed hack in Warsong Gulch is an example. Note that if you’re cheating, there needs to be a risk involved; just using a ‘cheat code’ isn’t enough, the game makers intended that use. Alternatively, make a full game mod – Creating a mod for Final Fantasy that lets Aeris live would do the trick too. Another way to gain a significant charge is to make some real world sacrifice in the name of gameplay. Skipping a meal probably isn’t enough to count, but if you miss a first date because you had to run Naxx? That’s a significant charge. So would be losing your job because you’re playing too much, or estranging yourself from your entire family for it.

Generate a major charge: Make your own top of the line, completely original game for a mass market. It can’t just be a homebrew indie game here, you’ll need a studio to pull this off. If it’s not Gears of War or Starcraft II, then it’s too small for this to work. Alternatively, get your own likeness; complete with your name and personality; made into the main character of a blockbuster computer game. (If 50 cent is a Ludomancer, we’re all in trouble.)

Taboo: A Ludomancer can never put real life ahead of a game; you can never miss a Kara run to go see your dying mother or the like. In addition, anything that severs the game from you in a symbolic fashion likewise will trip your taboo. (Being banned from a game or a server? That’s taboo… and it’s why cheating to get significant charges is a risk.)

Blast: You were expecting a Mario fireball, right? Wrong. Ludomancy is all about agency. A ludomancer’s blast is about limiting agency; it does damage every time the victim takes a forbidden action. When a ludomancer’s victim tries to perform the forbidden action, their muscles cramp and even tear. You could always avoid that damage by not doing what the ludomancer has forbidden… but then you’re playing their game. However, it can activate multiple times if they keep on trying, but it only works once per try. If you tell them not to touch the cupcake, and then they grab it and eat it, it works once, but that’s it. But if they tried to grab it, flinched from the pain and only tried again later, it would keep on going and going and going…

Random Magick: Ludomancy is all about the dilation of time and space. Everything is simply a set of pointers to them. You could punch someone from across the room, or you could finish building a house in an hour (“I skipped the cut scene!”) but you can’t go back in time. (Not even after playing Braid.)

Starting Charges: Ludomancers begin with three minor charges.

Charging Tips: Significant charges aren’t hard to get, but they’re also easy to lose. (Along with everything else.) Minor charges are consistent but take time.

Ludomancy Minor Formula Spells

Anyone can shoot a gun.
Cost: 1 minor charge.
Effect: Pretty much any videogame character who picks up a gun shoots it like a pro. With this spell, so can you! This spell lets you use your Ludomancy skill as your firearms skill for one roll.

Vendor Trash
Cost: Two minor charges.
Effect: In real life, few shop owners buy and sell from the same people. In MMORPGs, however, it’s a staple, and this spell lets you swing it around a bit. By casting this spell on someone who is attempting to sell something, you can instantly convince them to buy anything from you. They can demand what they feel is a fair price, and it may be less than what you think it’s worth, but they’ll buy it with no questions asked. This isn’t as useful when you need quick cash as it is when you really really need to get rid of, say, a murder weapon…

Anti-Cheat
Cost: 3 minor charges
Effect: This is the Ludomancer minor blast. To make it work, the Ludomancer makes some effort to contact the victim. Any way will work: Phone, email, directed twitter message, Xbox Live^tm voice message, whatever. If they answer the phone, open the mail, etc. then the curse works even if they hang up as soon as you begin speaking. (And indeed, it’s in their best interest to hear you out.) The Ludomancer then says, for example, “Taking that cupcake would be cheating.” For the next twenty four hours, whatever has been declared ‘cheating’ will inflict minor blast damage on the target. As noted, hanging up won’t save you, but refusing to answer the phone would. Also, if you honestly can’t understand the directive, it won’t affect you.

Ludomancy Significant Formula Spells

Many Unseen Bags
Cost: One significant charge.
Effect: Characters in videogames seem able to carry way more than makes sense. This spell doesn’t let you do that, but it lets you get close. When you use it, one object that you own will instantly be transported into a pocket or bag you’re carrying, provided that the object is still where you left it last, and if it will fit into the place you’re summoning it to. So you could easily enough bring back that library book you left at home and put it in your backpack, but you can’t just pull it out of your pocket. More usefully, you could pull a gun out of your handbag once you’re past the metal detectors…

Deny User Privileges
Cost: Three significant charges
Effect: This is the Ludomancer significant blast. It works in much the same way as the minor blast, although this time you’d say something more like, “Your privileges to touch the cupcake have been revoked.” For the next six hours, any attempts to touch the cupcake (or alternatively, say, call the police) will result in significant blast damage. Which for the uninitiated, is about the equivalent of a gunshot. Have fun!

Save Game
Cost: Four significant charges
Effect: When cast, this spell gives you a split second vision of the next sixty seconds. It’s not enough to really make out massive details, but it will prevent you from being surprised by an ambush (provided you’re suspecting one in the next sixty seconds) and, perhaps more usefully, lets you flip-flop your next role, since you know what you’re about to get into.

Ludomancy Significant Formula Spells

With a major charge, you could rewrite a law of physics, just for you. Saying, “I can move faster than the speed of light” probably won’t help much, since it merely means you could do so (You’ll still need to provide a vehicle with enough power to do it) but saying “Gravity affects me only when I want it to” would basically give you a permanent power of flight. You could also permanently connect two points in space/time, so that passing through one door will always bring you out of a completely different door in a completely different time, and the inverse would work as well. And yes, this time, you could go back in time with it…

Wir hatten auf der letzten SPIEL ja schon nachgefragt, ob Prometheus Games nicht “zu schnell” wachsen würde. Tja, kleiner sind sie im letzten halben Jahr nicht geworden, so dass wir dieses Mal vier (!) Videos zum Verlag präsentieren können. Achja, die Kollegen von Buffed.de haben auch ihr Video-Special zur RPC online gesetzt. Zumindest ein paar Impressionen aus der Rollenspielhalle sind ja dabei, auch wenn es eher etwas für Fans von MMOs ist.

Im ersten Interview reden wir mit Falk “Friedensbringer” Bongert über Elyrion und Savage Worlds, die Neuerscheinungen der Spiele, deren geplante Produkte, wann mit denen rechnen ist und die Fanlizenz für eigene Veröffentlichungen zum Spiel.

Mit der Verlagsleiterin Henrike Buhr reden wir über den Zusammenschluss von Assertpress Publishing und Prometheus Games, welche Produkte wo erscheinen und wie es mit Nornis weitergeht. Außerdem quasseln wir ein bisschen über Scion… meine Güte, wie oft kann man “Wie sieht es aus mit…” fragen?

Mit David Grashoff reden wir über die Neuauflage von Unknown Armies, die Pocket-RPG-Reihe, die Kurzgeschichtensammlungen Disturbania und Hunger sowie Ratten!

Mit reden wir über Opus Anima, wie es angenommen wurde, was es neues gibt und was wir in Zukunft erwarten können. Und diesmal sogar verrückter als letztes Mal.

Mal sehen, ob wir auf der SPIEL 2009 noch andere Verlage interviewen müssen, oder ob Prometheus Games bis dahin alle Lizenzen besitzt.

P.S.: Weiß irgendjemand, wie man 16:9-Videos von Youtube bei WordPress einbindet?

Dipsomancia Aplicada.

La verdad sobre las encuestas de whisky.

Si recibes una visita de un entrevistador en avanzado estado de embriaguez. Si el entrevistador porta en su camisa la inevitable mancha alcoholica que además parece mutar como si fuera un test de Roschach. Si se tambalea peligrosamente, y apunta tus respuestas en una servilleta del bar, ten en cuenta lo siguiente:

Todos los borrachos del mundo entran en una mente única, capaz de dejar a tu ordenador a la altura del barro primordial.

Las mentes de los borrachos, poco acostumbradas a esta velocidad, no son capaces de reproducir sus pensamientos de una manera que el resto de los seres humanos no ebrios sean capaces de interpretar, los sobrios lo llamais desvarios de borrachos.

Esta mente enjambre etílica conoce el futuro, el inevitable final de la humanidad, por eso, solo se comunica con los privilegiados que narcotizan su mente mediante el divino licor.

Teniendo esto en cuenta, la proxima vez que recibas la visita del entrevistador alcoholizado, atiendele, y sigue estos consejos.

A la pregunta sobre tu edad, contesta 33 años con aplomo.

¿Cuantos whiskys has bebido esta semana? 3.

¿Este mes? 33.

¿Este año? 333.

Cuando rellene tus datos personales, asegurate de que tu telefono es legible, será la manera de ponerse en contacto de tu futuro.

Que la mente enjambre conocida como el Alcohol Milenario este contigo, desconocido.

In Whisky Veritas

One of my previous jobs exposed me to a lot of different religious websites. Most of these were perfectly respectable websites by perfectly respectful people, but there were a few I came across that were… well, a good ways down the road to crazyland.

One of the websites I came across—and I’ll leave it as an exercise to the reader to discern whether this falls into the Reasonable or Crazy category—is that of Texe Marrs, an end-times preacher who talks a lot about the Illumati, the JFK assassination, the Mark of the Beast, and the many ways those topics all supposedly tie together.

Why do I bring this up on a blog dedicated to gaming, you ask? Well, because Marrs’ latest insane manifesto book , Mysterious Monuments: Encyclopedia of Secret Illuminati Designs, Masonic Architecture, and Occult Places, might as well be a sourcebook for Unknown Armies. Here’s the back-cover blurb:

A sinister and curious Architectural Colossus is exploding across planet earth. Are mysterious monuments part of a Grand Design? Are the Illuminati elite using satanic architecture and magic to seduce men’s minds and catapult humanity into a New Order of the Ages?

Gee, I hope so, because that sounds awesome.

Take a look at its list of contents and tell me this doesn’t sound like a list of adventure seed locations from a typical horror/investigation/conspiracy RPG. Among the topics covered:

• The Georgia Guidestones, whose mysterious builders left frightening messages in granite demanding that some six billion inhabitants of planet earth be eliminated to achieve “perpetual balance with nature.” (page 21)

• The Great American Pyramid, newly erected in Memphis, Tennessee—was it dedicated to the Devil by the Illuminati millionaire who oversaw its construction? (pages 28 and 29)
• The odd “Stonehenge” structure in California which serves as the entrance to an Apple Computer Corp. facility. Questions: Why is Apple’s logo an image of an apple with a bite taken out of it? And why did the company’s founders price their first product, the Apple 1 computer, at exactly $666? (Page 56)
• Astana, Kazakhstan, gleaming new occult City of the Illuminati. Is this city slated to become the antichrist’s futuristic, new capital and global headquarters? (pages 64-67)
• Sandusky, Ohio, a city laid out in the form of a Masonic square and compass, home to the company that operates “The Beast,” the world’s largest wooden rollercoaster, which boasts three 6-car trains, numerologically 666. (page 124)

(Sandusky, Ohio, eh? Who knew?)

Honestly, that would work just great as a list of plot seeds for a game of World of Darkness (any of them), Call of Cthulhu, Conspiracy X or anything written by Ken Hite.

Unfortunately, there are at least two things keeping me from picking it up, as much as I love this stuff:

1. It’s $35 plus shipping and handling (hey, Marrs is even using RPG rulebook pricing!).

2. That $35 plus shipping and handling would be funding a lot of Crazy, and I don’t think I want that on my conscience.

I’m willing to bet that this particular book doesn’t come with the “hey kids, remember this isn’t real” disclaimer that a lot of horror RPGs did (and some still do). So I think for now I’ll stick to buying my occult-conspiracy RPG books from people who don’t actually believe their contents to be true….

Feng Shui defensivo.

Preparate para cualquier asalto, defiende tu hogar de cualquier intromisión.

Solo tienes que mover 8 elementos visibles de tu casa/habitación/guarida cada 8 días en sentido horario. A partir del octavo traslado, el propio lugar te avisará cuando este en peligro.

La naturaleza exacta del aviso dependerá del lugar protegido, puede ser un viento violento, un sonido de campanillas, un reloj de cuco que suena fuera de hora. El universo usa su imaginación, tu deberias usarla tambien.

Dick lying lifelessly in a puddle of blood and Megan sobbing in the corner, Derek and Osmon were scratching their heads, the big question lingering in their minds: What now? Soon they noticed that the ruckus had awoken Sam, and he was coming up the stairs. Seconds went by slowly. How would Sam react? A grown up orang-utang can tear a man up to pieces easily. Luckily, Sam wasn’t of the kind that go berserk in situations like this. Derek and Osmon carried the body to the barn for the time being, every one gathered in the kitchen and a bottle of whisky was opened. And then another. In drunken stupor everyone went to sleep uneasily.

It was already a late morning when they began to woke up. Osmon was cooking some hangover breakfast, when some knocked on the front door. Deathlike silence took over. Who could it be? What would they say if some one asked for Dick? What if some had come for Megan? It didn’t really help to find out, that it was the cops. To be presice, the Sheriff, with his Deputy waiting in the car. I don’t remember his exact business, but he was looking for Dick. They gave him a plausible excuse for Dick’s absence, and he left without too much suspicion.

After breakfast Derek and Osmon set out to bury Dick’s remains behind the barn, for there was already a suitable ditch that Dick had been digging. (Curiously, it was the size of a grave, and for that it had made Osmon a little suspicious earlier. Maybe it really was for them, but Dick now being dead instead of them, there was no way to be sure.)

—–
I don’t really remember when the next thing happened, but I’ll put it up now as it just came to my mind. It definitely happened after Richard’s death.
—–

Late in the evening, the three of them decided to delve into the mystery of the hoof prints. Armed with flashlights, they followed the still visible tracks for a mile or so, and found themselves at the edge of a forest. Encouraging themselves, they pushed on. After a couple minutes walk, they got this strange hunch. Almost like someone, or something, was watching them. And they didn’t have to wait long, for in a few blinks something huge came crashing through the underbrush.

Only narrowly avoiding the charge, they had a heck of job to gather their wits. Derek pulled out his six-shooter and briefly pondered whether to aim at himself or the beast, and decided to try his luck with latter. It might’ve been wise to decide otherwise. At the same time Megan was taking a better look at their attacker, and doubted her eyesight as there seemed to be some kind of tentacles or organs protuding from the beast body. Osmon, being the valorous guy he is, was already halfway up a tree.

Derek pulled the trigger and cursed in his head, as it seemed that the bullet nearly ricocheted off the monstrous ox’s skin. And then he didn’t have time anymore. The beast rushed towards him, pierced his forearm with it’s horn, throwing him almost three meters into air. After that, it just run away.

Megan, her heart pounding and fearing the worst, approached Derek who was lying there silently. Then weak moan. Thanking God, she rushed beside him, and did all she could to restrain the bleeding. With Osmon’s help, they rushed Derek back to the farm, and loaded him into Dick’s Cadillac.

After a tormenting drive they finally arrived to Vega and rushed to see the doctor. The doctor? Of course the drunken cretin Derek had met earlier. And this time he wasn’t just hungover, has was positively as high as a kite. So it’s propably quite understandable that Osmon and Megan weren’t amused when doc thought that he must absolutely amputate Derek’s arm, with a bonesaw. One swing of a bedpan later the doctor was resting peacefully on the floor.

Then suddenly a gruff voice interrupted them. A shabby looking man they had seen a couple days earlier stood there. “Looks like you need help,” he said.

—–
Yes, they had met him in passing a while ago. Derek had taken notice that he had a very gruff voice and silent tinkle accompanied him. The known characteristics of a person referred to as The Freak. Someone who he had earlier took as just a rumor.
—–

Accidentally, when Derek lied on the bed bleeding and unconcious, the following song happened to play on the background. We found it quite amusing.

-
Currently playing: Bob Dylan – Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door

El número de Dios.

Las nuevas tecnologías  se unen con las antiguas creencias para orientar a los perdidos y a los desesperados.

¿Perdido? Envía CREDO al 2846  y recibirás la respuesta a tus preguntas.

La nueva oración,  la persignación del futuro llega a tu movil.

Para otras religiones, consultar.