tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2080455210167293362024-03-13T22:11:49.807-07:00RealmcraftingBuilding a Universe Word by Word
Thoughts on writing and game design.Gremlin1384http://www.blogger.com/profile/00062614422718891716noreply@blogger.comBlogger121125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-208045521016729336.post-80210513854339231242017-04-19T17:42:00.000-07:002017-04-19T17:42:00.697-07:00200 Word RPG Challenge 2017Hey! I haven't posted on here in literally three years, and I'm probably not going to start updating regularly now. But, if anyone gets directed here from the <a href="https://200wordrpg.github.io/2017entries">200 Word RPG Challenge</a>, I thought I'd let you know I still exist. You can find my Fate Core game <i><a href="http://www.drivethrurpg.com/m/product/141891">Strange Voyages</a></i> on DriveThruRPG, and I'm currently working on a Cortex Plus game that originated during National Game Design Month 2016, tentatively titled <i>Seeds of Memory</i>. When I get that done, I'll be posting about it here. In the meantime, here's the full content of my entry to the 200 Word RPG Challenge.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
COLORING OUTSIDE THE LINES OF REALITY</div>
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You are all-powerful, multi-dimensional children, playing pretend with your favorite reality.<br />
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There is no GM and players control a fantasized version of themselves. Each player starts with 3 “nuh-uh!” tokens.<br />
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Agree on a genre or situation. Decide randomly who takes the first “turn.” The turn-taker has narrative control. They frame a scene and define each player as a specific character in it. The turn-taker MUST start the scene by saying “pretend [X happens].” At any time, the turn-taker can end their turn and the player to their left goes next.<br />
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When a player narrates an event, no other player can deny it happened without a “nuh-uh” token. You can change or escalate the conflict. The sky’s the limit! Go over the top. Mix genres. Channel your inner eight-year-old.<br />
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A player can deny a narration by spending a “nuh-uh!” token. You MUST say “nuh-uh! That’s not what happens!” Then narrate what ACTUALLY happens. Now it’s your turn.<br />
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After all “nuh-uh!” tokens have been spent, each player gets to narrate one more action to wrap up the story. Discuss and vote who was COOLEST during the story. That player wins!Gremlin1384http://www.blogger.com/profile/00062614422718891716noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-208045521016729336.post-17571792168967466322014-04-04T23:45:00.002-07:002014-04-04T23:45:18.807-07:00Strange Voyages Sneak Peek: Thor's Armor<br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;">I just watched The Avengers. For a look at Thor's Armor, see the latest sneak peek from the Strange Voyages Fate Core Supplement, then head over to our Kickstarter: </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;"><a href="http://occultmoongames.com/2014/04/05/strange-voyages-sneak-peek-thors-armor/">http://occultmoongames.com/2014/04/05/strange-voyages-sneak-peek-thors-armor/</a></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;"><a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1469264303/strange-voyages/">https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1469264303/strange-voyages/</a></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;"><br /></span></div>
Gremlin1384http://www.blogger.com/profile/00062614422718891716noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-208045521016729336.post-36696769831986274012014-04-02T10:21:00.001-07:002014-04-02T10:21:00.145-07:00Sneak Peek: The GalleonTake a look at the latest Strange Voyages sneak peek http://occultmoongames.com/2014/03/31/strange-voyages-sneak-peek-the-galleon/<br />
and then head over to the Kickstarter! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1469264303/strange-voyages/Gremlin1384http://www.blogger.com/profile/00062614422718891716noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-208045521016729336.post-57090781896477542502014-03-26T13:11:00.004-07:002014-03-26T13:11:36.428-07:00Sneak Peek: The Captain archetype<span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">Head to the </span><a data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/page.php?id=258309840911321&extragetparams=%7B%22directed_target_id%22%3A0%7D" href="https://www.facebook.com/OccultMoon?ref=hl" style="background-color: white; color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none;">Occult Moon</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"> website to see a new sneak peek at Strange Voyages: <a href="http://occultmoongames.com/2014/03/26/strange-voyages-sneak-peek-the-captain-archetype/">The Captain</a> archetype. And then head over to our Kickstarter at </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.kickstarter.com%2Fprojects%2F1469264303%2Fstrange-voyages&h=VAQFDTWuF&s=1" rel="nofollow nofollow" style="background-color: white; color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1469264303/strange-voyages</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"> !</span>Gremlin1384http://www.blogger.com/profile/00062614422718891716noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-208045521016729336.post-65984307298392498522014-03-25T09:38:00.002-07:002014-03-25T09:38:35.758-07:00The Kickstarter is live!<span style="color: #37404e; font-family: lucida grande, tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;">The Kickstarter is live!</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #37404e; font-family: lucida grande, tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #37404e; font-family: lucida grande, tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;">https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1469264303/strange-voyages</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #37404e; font-family: lucida grande, tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #37404e; font-family: lucida grande, tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;">STRANGE VOYAGES</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #37404e; font-family: lucida grande, tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #37404e; font-family: lucida grande, tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;">Beyond the horizon. Past the edge of the map. Beneath the world you know. There lie the lands of legend, home to every wonder that walks your dreams and every monster that stalks your nightmares. At the height of the Age of Exploration, gather your crew and set sail for glory, gold, and adventure!</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #37404e; font-family: lucida grande, tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #37404e; font-family: lucida grande, tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;">Where will you go on your Strange Voyages?</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #37404e; font-family: lucida grande, tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #37404e; font-family: lucida grande, tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;">Face off against pirates, mythological creatures, and the tyrannical kings of Atlantis in Strange Voyages! Strange Voyages is a supplement to the Fate Core system, and a complete campaign setting. Inside, you will find rules on creating your own sailing ship, how to easily adapt one of 12 templates to represent any creature from myth and legend, and a variety of exciting, easy-to-use magical powers to outfit your crew and their foes. You will need a copy of Fate Core, available as a pay-what-you-like pdf from faterpg.com, in order to play Strange Voyages.</span></span>Gremlin1384http://www.blogger.com/profile/00062614422718891716noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-208045521016729336.post-3703673807655844542014-03-21T14:38:00.001-07:002014-03-21T14:40:57.793-07:00Strange Voyages Gets Ready To Set Sail<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XaLckIAyeD4/UyytgqcrLxI/AAAAAAAAGlU/BdIRKCunnok/s1600/SVKS.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XaLckIAyeD4/UyytgqcrLxI/AAAAAAAAGlU/BdIRKCunnok/s1600/SVKS.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Beyond the horizon. Past the edge of the map. Beneath the world you know. There lie the lands of legend, home to every wonder that walks your dreams and every monster that stalks your nightmares. At the height of the Age of Exploration, gather your crew and set sail for glory, gold, and adventure!<br />
<br />
Where will you go on your Strange Voyages?<br />
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Face off against pirates, mythological creatures, and the tyrannical kings of Atlantis in <i>Strange Voyages</i>! <i>Strange Voyages</i> is a supplement to the <i>Fate Core</i> system, and a complete campaign setting. Inside, you will find rules on creating your own sailing ship, how to easily adapt one of 12 templates to represent any creature from myth and legend, and a variety of exciting, easy-to-use magical powers to outfit your crew and their foes. You will need a copy of <i>Fate Core</i>, available as a pay-what-you-like pdf from faterpg.com, in order to play <i>Strange Voyages</i>.<br />
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Our Kickstarter is coming imminently, where you can become part of the adventure!<br />
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Until then, enjoy this sneak peek at the Strange Voyages world with one of our Occult Extras...<br />
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<h3>
Witchcraft</h3>
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Witchcraft is a form of magic based on ancient rituals and traditions. Due to the fear of magic in Elizabethan Europe, witchcraft is focused on creating subtle effects, things easily dismissed as coincidence or at least not traced back to the witch specifically. Witchcraft is reliant on having the proper ingredients as well as being able to speak and recite spells, so losing either can make the skill useless. You can spend a fate point to do any of the following, one at a time: <br />
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-Curse someone, placing a negative aspect such as <b>Unlucky</b> or <b>Confused</b> until the end of the scene. You get one free invocation on this aspect. </div>
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-Convince a character of the truth of a single falsehood for the duration of the scene. </div>
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-Invoke for a bonus or reroll on any attempt to curse someone or see the future.<br />
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You might take a compel to reflect the fact that you’re out of the requisite materials to use your recipes or unable to speak your spells. Alternatively, you could be compelled if using your witchcraft would reveal your powers to fearful mortals. <br />
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<b>Permission</b> </div>
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An aspect that reflects your magical abilities. A<b> Fearsome Witch Doctor</b>, T<b>he Only Survivor of the Hapsburg Witch Trials</b>, or <b>Secret Practitioner of Folk Magic</b>. <br />
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<b>Costs</b> </div>
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An aspect slot (for the permission aspect), skill ranks. You are considered an occult character, not a mortal. A character who has not yet encountered the legendary world must use their concept aspect for the permission aspect.<br />
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<b>Witchcraft Skill </b></div>
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-Overcome: You can affect reality in small ways, giving fate a tiny push that nobody notices. You might craft a momentary illusion of a barely-heard voice, push the ship a few degrees away from danger, or find water in the wilderness. </div>
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-Create an Advantage: Witchcraft shines when creating advantages. Through the use of Tarot cards, interpreting the patterns of hot wax in water, or reading entrails witches can peer into the future and place an aspect relating to the future they glimpse, either to avoid it or ensure it happens. You can also perform minor curses to momentarily affect a target’s health or perception, making them <b>Momentarily Blinded</b>, <b>Trusting</b>, or <b>Ill</b>. </div>
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-Attack: Witchcraft is about subtlety and does not lend itself to something as obvious as an attack. </div>
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-Defend: You can use spells and rituals to defend yourself or your allies from other uses of magic. <br />
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<b>Stunts</b> </div>
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-Suggestion. You can guide a target’s thoughts. You gain +2 to create advantages to change a person’s mental state. </div>
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-Poppet. You have learned to create small dolls made in the image of a person, known as “poppets.” Provided you have hair, blood, or another physical piece of your target to put into your poppet, you can make mental attacks on a target at a distance of up to two zones.</div>
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-Familiar. You have a familiar, like a cat or rat. It can move and act on its own and communicate with you when nearby. Your familiar has a single skill at Fair (+2) or two skills at Average (+1), which it can use on your behalf. Familiars do not have stress boxes, so they are easily dispatched if placed in danger.</div>
<!-- Blogger automated replacement: "https://images-blogger-opensocial.googleusercontent.com/gadgets/proxy?url=http%3A%2F%2F3.bp.blogspot.com%2F-XaLckIAyeD4%2FUyytgqcrLxI%2FAAAAAAAAGlU%2FBdIRKCunnok%2Fs1600%2FSVKS.jpg&container=blogger&gadget=a&rewriteMime=image%2F*" with "https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XaLckIAyeD4/UyytgqcrLxI/AAAAAAAAGlU/BdIRKCunnok/s1600/SVKS.jpg" -->Gremlin1384http://www.blogger.com/profile/00062614422718891716noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-208045521016729336.post-56202953061743911682014-03-14T10:43:00.001-07:002014-03-14T10:43:39.166-07:00Strange Voyages Announcement!<span id="docs-internal-guid-ffa02c3d-c1a9-d58a-3ccc-64fc05386ff0"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Like </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Star Trek</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">? Like sailing ships? Intrigued by mythology? It’s time to get your crew together and sail beyond the horizon in </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Strange Voyages</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, coming soon from Occult Moon. You are Renaissance era explorers, seeking wealth, glory, and adventure - but the lands you seek are not a New World, but an ancient one - filled with magic, mythology, and dangerous monsters. You’ll need your Fudge dice and your copy of </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fate Core</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, but everything else is in the book: useful information about Renaissance Europe, help creating your own legendary creatures, full rules for ship on ship combat and chase scenes, magic and legendary artifacts, and so much more. Watch this space for more information on </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Strange Voyages</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. It’s time for a swashbuckling adventure on the Seven Seas!</span></span>Gremlin1384http://www.blogger.com/profile/00062614422718891716noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-208045521016729336.post-84525647803820328652013-09-06T13:24:00.000-07:002013-09-06T13:41:04.054-07:00Run, You Clever BoyA brief note: This is a post divided into two parts. The first part is a (rather long) reflection on <i>Doctor Who</i> (specifically Nu-Who) and the theme of running. The second part is how that kind of theme can be implemented in Fate gaming. If you want to read just the first part, stop at “THE DIVIDING LINE,” and if you just want the second, scroll down and start there. And—this is important—my Who analysis has spoilers all the way through to the most recent episode “The Name of the Doctor,” so you may need to beware.<br />
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Running has been a very important part of <i>Doctor Who </i>for a very long time. Russell T. Davies knew this, and when he brought the series back in 2005, running was front and center, both on the screen and thematically. The very first word the Ninth Doctor utters is “Run!” and when he gets around to introducing himself the next scene, he repeats the concept: “I'm the Doctor, by the way. What's your name?” Rose replies, and the Doctor continues “Nice to meet you, Rose. Run for your life!” It’s a warning on multiple levels: first, of course, he’s telling Rose to get away from the upcoming explosion; however, he’s also telling her that if she wants to keep her ordinary life, she had better run far away from the Doctor; and if she enjoys running, she should run with him. Running continues as a central metaphor through the 9th and 10th Doctors’ tenure (more on that in a bit), but when Steven Moffat introduced the 11th Doctor, he put a different spin on the 9th Doctor’s introduction. At the end of “The Eleventh Hour,” the Doctor, finally in his iconic bowtie and thus, in a way, him for the first time, says “Hello. I’m the Doctor. Basically... run.” Instead of a warning, this time it’s a threat. For the first time, he’s standing in one place and telling his foes to escape his wrath. He echoes the same threat in “The Doctor’s Wife,” telling Uncle and Auntie “You gave me hope and then you took it away. That's enough to make anyone dangerous. God knows what it'll do to me. Basically, run!” This goes even further in “A Good Man Goes to War,” as the Doctor goes on the offensive and forces his enemy to take on the moniker “Colonel Runaway.” So with this primer, we can see that “running” can mean a number of different things in Doctor Who. Let’s examine some of the other implications.<br />
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Much is made of companions running away. Repeatedly, adventuring with the Doctor is referred to as a way to run away from your responsibilities in real life. This appears with Rose: she desperately wants to escape her humdrum life, and ends up never returning home. Martha at first runs away from a much more promising life than Rose had, but ends up deciding that she wants to return to her real life and become a doctor of her own. Donna is the most extreme example, as she is older but is in many ways the least mature of any of the new companions, and repeatedly says that she wants to travel with the Doctor forever, escaping her humdrum life for good. This, is of course, her greatest tragedy, as she ends up returning to not only her life but her mindset from before she met the Doctor. <br />
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Moving into the Moffat era, Amy also runs away with the Doctor, performing the ultimate “runaway bride”—her one night of cold feet turns into an intergalactic adventure. The “running away” theme for companions is minimized in Series 6 as Rory and Amy are simply enjoying their time, but it comes back with a vengeance in Series 7 as Rory and Amy have to balance their regular life with their adventures with the Doctor. Oddly enough, they come very close to choosing their real life, but end up choosing to stay with him, only to end up forcibly settling down in their last episod. This is also symbolized by the abandonment of Amy's surname Pond , as her last letter to the Doctor (and subsequent little references to her) are under the name Amelia Williams—but the significance of “Pond” is worth a whole other post. Clara is able to have it both ways: as the Doctor puts it, “The thing about a time machine is that you can run away all you like and still be back in time for tea.” She is able to maintain her regular life as a governess while simultaneously exploring new frontiers with the Doctor (this could be considered a cheat, and might be one reason why many fans are dissatisfied with Clara as a companion). However, the theme of running comes back with Clara in several ways: she repeats the phrase “Run, you clever boy” in all three of her incarnations, and then “The Name of the Doctor” reveals that “Always [she’s] running to save the Doctor. Again and again and again,” and what’s more, she’s been doing it “right from the day he started running.”<br />
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So we see that the Doctor does his share of running as well. From his actions, we can see that he prefers to run rather than fight all through the series, and he makes many references to “cowardice” being preferential to force. In “The Parting of the Ways,” the Ninth Doctor is asked “What are you? Coward, or killer?” and he responds “Coward. Any day.” In “The Impossible Astronaut,” Eleven refers to the little girl in the astronaut suit (the young River Song, of course) as “Incredibly strong and running away. I like her.” Donna lampshades his tendency to run with “He saves planets, rescues civilizations, defeats terrible creatures...and runs a lot. Seriously, there is an outrageous amount of running involved,” and River Song glorifies it in her first appearance by promising the Doctor “You and me, time and space. You watch us run!” Even when he doesn’t remember the minor character Lorna (or hasn’t met her yet) in “A Good Man Goes to War,” he assumes that “Hey, we ran, you and me. Didn't we run, Lorna?” And later in Moffat’s run, we start to see part of what the Doctor values in running: in “Let’s Kill Hitler,” he tells young Melody Pond/River Song “Don't run. Now I know you're scared. But never run when you're scared.” <br />
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So apparently he runs not out of fear. Why does he run? He tells Clara more in “The Rings of Akhaten”: “We don't walk away, but when we're holding onto something precious, we run, and we don't stop running until we're out of the shadows.” In one of his last episodes with Amy and Rory, the Doctor really explains why he’s running, and why he values it so highly: “I'm not running away. But this is one corner of one country on one continent on one planet that's a corner of a galaxy that's a corner of a universe that is forever growing and shrinking and creating and destroying and never remaining the same for a single millisecond, and there is so much, so much, to see, Amy. Because it goes so fast. I'm not running away from things, I am running to them. Before they flare and fade forever.”<br />
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However, despite what he says, there’s ample evidence that the Doctor, like his companions, is running from his past. In “The Sound of Drums,” he tells the story of young Gallifreyans looking into the “Untempered Schism.” He says “We stand there, eight years old, staring at the raw power of Time and Space, just a child. Some would be inspired. Some would run away. And some would go mad.” When Martha asks which was he, he replies “Oh, the ones that ran away! I never stopped.” To make brief mention of Classic Who, the Doctor was often said to be on the run from the Time Lords, from their society, their structures and strictures, and he wants to simply escape into the universe. He explicitly likens himself to Amy’s runaway bride schtick in “The Beast Below” as Amy asks him “Have you ever run away from something because you were scared, or not ready, or just... just because you could?” He replies “Once. A long time ago.” She asks what happened, and he just gestures to himself: “Hello!” He’s telling her that everything that is the Doctor came from that one moment of running away. He engages this again in “Let’s Kill Hitler,” trying to escape the reality of dying by pleading with Amy (or rather, a holographic interface wearing her face) “Let's run away and have adventures. Come along, Pond.” <br />
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As he is running from the society of the Time Lords, it’s said several times that the Doctor is also running from himself, from the deeds he’s done and what he’s capable of. In “Journey’s End,” Davros taunts him with the following words: “The Doctor. The man who keeps running, never looking back because he dare not, out of shame.” Dorium, in “The Wedding of River Song,” similarly tells him (in typical oblique Moffat fashion) what he’s running from: “The first question! The question that must never be answered! Hidden in plain sight! The question you've been running from all your life! Doctor Who? Doctor Who? Doc — tor — Who?!” While it’s not directly stated, it’s heavily implied in “The Name of the Doctor” that one thing the Doctor is running from is the actions of John Hurt’s Doctor, which he claims he “did without choice... in the name of peace and sanity,” but not “in the name of the Doctor.” Considering that fans suspect John Hurt’s character is the actual Ninth Doctor, who fought in the Time War between the 1996 TV movie and the 2005 Nu-Who resurrection, and that we know from “The End of Time” and “The Doctor’s Wife” that the Doctor locked Gallifrey away and killed all the Time Lords, this tells us a lot about what he’s running from. <br />
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In “The Wedding of River Song,” he asks Dorium “I've been running all my life. Why should I stop?” That question of why should he stop, and what happens when he does, has been addressed several times. Shortly after the conversation with Dorium (though earlier in broadcast time), the Doctor tells Amy and Rory “I've been running. Faster than I've ever run. And I've been running my whole life. Now it's time for me to stop.” He’s finally decided to take a stand, and similarly tells River that he “Did run. Running brought me here.” And we have seen what happens when he’s forced to take a stand, unable to run any longer. In “The Runaway Bride,” among many other episodes, he kills the monster of the week without mercy once he can no longer run or talk his way out of things. The best example of this, however, appears in “The Family of Blood.” The Doctor had been running harder than most times, going so far as to hide as a human, to avoid the Family. But at the end of the episode, it’s revealed, in the words of Son-of-Mine, “we discovered why — why this Doctor, who had fought with gods and demons, why he had run away from us and hidden. He was being kind.” His vengeance against the Family is terrible, as he traps them all in eternal torture. So in a sense, the Doctor can be said to be running from himself, from what he is capable of.<br />
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As we can see, running shows up a lot in Doctor Who, especially in the Moffat era, and it has a number of different implications: running away from real life, running away from the past, running away from danger (both what could hurt the Doctor and those he could hurt)—and running towards excitement and adventure. That one simple word, one simple activity, is thematically all over Nu-Who, and interpreted in many different ways.<br />
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THE DIVIDING LINE<br />
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So what does this have to do with gaming in Fate? Obviously, running must appear in an aspect on the Doctor's sheet , many of the companions' character sheets, and really on the game as a whole. Running is almost always the right answer: characters who try to stand and fight, use bullets, seldom make it to the end of the episode. This is a good example of a game aspect. A<i> Doctor Who</i> campaign would need some aspects about running in order to properly reference the source material, while a campaign about strong knights of Camelot defending their home against an implacable foe might go the other way and have several aspects on the game, locations, and characters that emphasize “standing your ground.” In <i>Strange Voyages</i>, exploration in some fashion or questions of the truth are likely to be aspects that will appear in many games. <i>The Kerboros Club</i> does a great job emphasizing their setting by saying that whatever other game aspects there are, “Malum Necessarium,” the club motto, will always appear. This emphasizes the theme of its English translation, "necessary evil." Characters do what they have to do, and don't always stay on the side of the angels. Similarly, the <i>Atomic Robo RPG</i> (coming soon) has “Remain Calm and Trust In Science” appearing as the “mission statement” aspect of Tesladyne, and thus will always appear. Like running in <i>Doctor Who</i>, this tells us that the answer to an <i>Atomic Robo</i> problem will nearly always rely on science in some fashion.<br />
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This sort of thematic aspect can be used in a number of ways: they can be invoked in almost any circumstance where acting in accordance with the aspect gives a bonus, and thus it encourages characters to act that way. If the characters in <i>Doctor Who</i> attempt to run away, they will be able to gain a bonus do so, whereas they won’t if they choose to fight back. Of course, the second way you can use these aspects is through compels, either from the GM or self-compels to stay in the correct "tone" for the game, and even when <i>Doctor Who</i> players want to stand their ground, they can be encouraged through compels to run.. Finally, these thematic aspects give you a sense of what stories to tell. The <i>Doctor Who</i> GM quickly realizes not to tell stories where is necessary for the characters to stand their ground, and instead to make scenarios that explore why the companions are running away from their real-life; the Camelot game should conversely tell stories where characters will have to stand and fight, and explore why their characters need to stand and what that costs them; a <i>Strange Voyages</i> game should focus on stories of exploration, new things and new locations, with stories that explore why the characters are exploring in the first place. Creating a thematic aspect like this can be as simple as placing it on the game as issue, or it could add on to the game above and beyond the issues that are already there (as in the case of <i>The Kerberos Club</i> and <i>Atomic Robo</i>), and can also be encouraged to be reflected in the aspects of PCs and various faces and places throughout the campaign. How far you want to take this depends on how much you want to emphasize the theme—how far you want to run.</div>
Gremlin1384http://www.blogger.com/profile/00062614422718891716noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-208045521016729336.post-72140977459548796962013-09-01T20:31:00.000-07:002013-09-01T20:31:42.002-07:00On the Brink<br />
I just had an Experience. Experience with a capital “E.” Something unique and magical and out of the ordinary. And all it was was going to a concert. A small, intimate concert, with a bunch of people that I’d never met, but know anyway. People with “Shadowrun” T-shirts and nerdy card games just happening to sit in their pockets, there to listen to a band called the Doubleclicks and a singer whose most famous song is called “The Nerd Anthem.” There was a sense of community, of communion, and although I did not speak to a single person, I was really comfortable. I just watched, and felt like I belonged even though I wasn't interacting with anyone. Maybe I should've talked to someone, I'll probably regret that later. But it didn't seem necessary, didn't seem vital to enjoy that moment, and despite my isolation I felt like I was part of something. This is an experience that I haven't had since I was 19, feeling like nothing so much as sitting in the makeshift black box theater next to the pizza parlor on my college campus, listening to amateurs up on stage sharing their souls in the Midnight Beatnik Society (who were not beatniks and did not meet at midnight). That close, intimate “these people are just like me and that’s awesome” feeling, with both the people in the audience and the people on stage. Marian Call and the Doubleclicks spent the intermission hanging with the people who came to their concert.<br />
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They’re on a different level—no one would be foolish enough to publish a CD of the ramblings of college-age Ryan Schmidt strumming along on his guitar to the Tacoma Song (though now I understand he’s doing quite well for himself as an improv comedian), and I certainly wasn’t invited up onstage with Marian to share my latest blog post, but I still felt that connection. Perhaps it was because these people were not pure amateurs, but burgeoning professionals. I believe Marian Call makes her living as a musician, but she is not a household name, nor will she ever be. I would be surprised if the Doubleclicks don’t have day jobs, and Josh A. Cagan’s big claim to fame is contributing to a not-terribly-good web series. They’ve moved on from the level of amateur, but they’re not yet at the level of pure professional, not Ozzy or Stephen King or even Felicia Day. That’s where I’d like to imagine I am—certainly a step behind, with my first game just about to come out, instead of my career being a few CDs in like Marian and the Doubleclicks are, no professionally produced webseries to my name, never mind the quality. But it’s that level of leaping forward onto the professional plane that I feel like I connect with. I might just be humoring myself, but I’d like to think I’m finally coming into my own. Twenty-nine, a little late, but that’s not uncommon in this day and age, this generation of delayed adolescence. <br />
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I may never be a household name, but I think that's okay. If I could simply foster the kind of camaraderie that I felt at this concert, share that feeling with some portion of the world, I just might be okay with that. I used to have far loftier dreams, wanting every single person in the world to experience my art, whether or not they liked it, but perhaps I can settle for something smaller.<br />
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There are 3000 people on the Fate Core community on Google+. I don’t know what percentage of the Fate Core crowd that represents, and I don’t know what percentage of that crowd I might be able to capture with my game or games—but if I could, if I could get 3000 people to buy my game, that would be an amazing accomplishment. 3000 is in some sense not that much: it would be a small town. It would be a small con. If a television series got those ratings, it wouldn’t finish the first episode. But for someone on the brink of professional artwork, three thousand would be like a million. Like ten. I’m trying to keep my expectations low. Maybe only a few dozen people will buy my game, maybe into the hundreds. Something along those lines is what I envision. But just think about it. I had maybe two dozen people who followed my blog back in the day, if that. I’ve shared my games with a dozen or two people over the course of my lifetime, and always in groups of five or six at a time. If I could spread that out, see and hear the effects further on, and further out, well that’s what being an artist is all about, isn’t it? Giving something of yourself to the world. I don’t write for me. If I did, I wouldn’t be trying to publish something, I would simply write in my journal and call it good. I write because I’d like to think that someone else would like to read what I’ve written, would like to play the game I’ve designed, would like to explore the worlds that come flowing out of my head. This is not to say the small and intimate don’t have their place. I cherish my time with my gaming group, and adore the job I have working one-on-one trying to help a single individual succeed. But there is something to be said for quantity. <br />
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Tomorrow, I have to return to my ordinary life, some of the pain-in-the-ass stuff I have yet to do: doctor’s visits and another day at work. But for a few hours, I was part of something, and if I can just hold on to that sensation, summon it up when I really need to, I just might be able to make that same connection with someone else out there in the world. Wouldn’t that be remarkable?<br />
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-7dafcdd4-dcb7-39e3-6377-e786cef821f1"><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span>Gremlin1384http://www.blogger.com/profile/00062614422718891716noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-208045521016729336.post-35953951763941016642013-08-31T16:33:00.000-07:002013-08-31T16:33:11.471-07:00No Buttons<br />I just finished playing <i>Save the Date</i> [<a href="http://www.freeindiegam.es/2013/06/save-the-date-chris-cornell/">http://www.freeindiegam.es/2013/06/save-the-date-chris-cornell/</a>], a small freeware video game that ponders the meaning of choice in video games. The central dilemma of the game is trying to find the “good ending,” and at one point it’s brought up that the problem is that there’s no button for it. The fact that your choices are limited by what the programmer put in got me thinking about magic of tabletop role-playing and how you can do anything you want. Then immediately, I thought about the fact that of course that's not true. At the tabletop, you have far more choices than in a videogame—there are no buttons, there are no limits to the maps you can access, or hard-coded NPC behaviors you can’t change. However, there are implicit limits written into the game. Want to do something that your character isn’t good at, or that’s beyond their abilities? The dice will probably tell you “no, you can’t do that.” Beyond that, there are choices you can take that the rules don’t even cover (and thus quietly discourage you from taking). Want to take over a kingdom and tax the populace in <i>D&D 4e</i>? Sure, you can theoretically do that, but there aren’t any rules that govern it, so you and the GM will have to create rules in order to tell that story. Taking a step further, your D&D party can’t venture into space, or travel to the future, or implant cybernetics, or at least not without bringing in rules from another game. And what if you want to tell a story like Save the Date, metafictively pondering the nature of fiction and your character’s role in it... you could use D&D to tell that story, but the rules would be of no use to you. Nor would they be in virtually any game out there (I’m sure there’s some freeform narrativist indie game floating around the net somewhere that allows you to do this, but I don’t know it)—and if you could find a game whose rules support metafictive storytelling, I doubt you could use that same ruleset to run a tactical wargame as well.<br /><br />Even if you’re playing a game with no rules, a narrativist diceless system like our theoretical metafictive game, there are still fundamental assumptions put in place by the game master—or if you’re playing one of the few games with no GM at all, then the assumptions shared by the table. Want to leave the dungeon and venture into space? Want to run a restaurant? Want to ponder the existential ramifications of being a character in a game? Then your fellow players had better be on board. There are strictures—structures—in place. But that doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Without structure, there’s no story. Pure randomness ends up going <i>somewhere</i>, <i>somewhen</i>, or else it’s nothing more than gobbletygook. And then there’s the question of an ending. <i>Save the Date</i> reflects on the nature of an ending, that its story only really ends when you stop playing, and the ending you choose is the one you, as a player, write for yourself. Nowhere in gaming is this more true than on the tabletop. If you’re not playing a pre-written adventure, it can end wherever and however you like. Even if you are, the campaign as a whole can go into new and strange directions, and end with the PCs as rulers of the world, or slaves, or dead, or whatever. But how often does that happen? How many times is the ending of a campaign simply a non-ending, when real life intervenes and the story is abandoned, never to be brought to a conclusion? Is that an ending? Does it “count”? <br /><br />Should the rules cover every situation? Should they cover none? If they cover every possible situation, you’re going to get a pretty thick tome—and, of course, there will end up being some situation, somehow, that they can’t cover. And if the rules are pretty much nonexistent, like the six-page system <i>Risus</i>, then what exactly is the advantage of using a ruleset over just sitting with your friends and spitballing a tale. “It helps us tell the story we want to tell” I hear your imaginary voice say—ah ha! So you choose those rules based on the story you’re planning on telling, on the experience you want to have. And if you decide to change your experience, you’re going to need a new set of rules. A new set of assumptions. A genre switch. Some buttons to press.Gremlin1384http://www.blogger.com/profile/00062614422718891716noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-208045521016729336.post-29069803718562611172013-08-27T20:15:00.000-07:002013-08-27T20:15:00.982-07:00Finding the Next DragonHave you ever noticed how we spend all our time looking for new challenges while simultaneously trying to find the cheat codes for life? I heard a new song by Marian Call tonight, about the dragons we face and how every time we defeat a dragon, we are compelled to find another. And I find that, for the most part, that’s true. It’s as if all of life is a series of leveling up: there's always one more platform to reach, one more challenge to accept. Work, romance, children. The next big thing, the next big step, the next dragon to face. And yet, at the same time, we try to find a way through without actually meeting those challenges. We ask “how can I get that job without actually having the training for it, there has to be someone I can blow.” “I can get that girl to sleep with me if I say just the right thing without actually getting to know her.” In our personal lives we seek out new and exciting challenges. We call them games. What is a game but a series of challenges standing between you and the end? And it's those challenges we relish, much more than reaching the end (see <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBzqOa9y02I">The World is Saved </a>by Danny Wiessner). <br /><br />There have been open world video games with no battles, no puzzles, nothing to do but explore—and no one plays them. There are tabletop RPGs just about telling a story about ordinary people—and no one plays them. I mean, some people play with the cheat codes on. I must admit that some of the most fun I've ever had was rampaging around Liberty City as Nico Bellic with an invulnerability cheat on: mayhem and chaos and a complete lack of consequences. It gets tiring, doesn’t it? You get done with it. You’ve got to turn the difficulty back up.<br /><br />One of the most common complaints I hear as a GM is “you’ve made this too easy for us.” Too easy? Wouldn't you like to be guaranteed a win, in a way you can't be in real life? Nope. In fact, the Fate Core community is currently abuzz about the coolness of conceding conflicts, that there's a neat game incentive to lose, and people are eating it up to make an eventual win that much sweeter. Gamers want to pay for victory. This is a concept that just recently came to my attention, that has apparently been a cornerstone of my beloved Fate system for years. Victory in Fate is not a question of the whims of the dice, it's about how much you are willing to give up in order to achieve victory: from fate point to stress to consequences to narrative complications from concessions and such. How much are you willing to pay to win? And the answer is always "something," nobody wants to walk through the game without anything standing in their way. So apparently, we relish challenges and difficulty. But you might never see that in real life. You'd think if we really wanted those challenges that we would want them everywhere, wouldn't you?<br /><br />Perhaps it’s the fact that we can set the difficulty level of our games—if not by changing a setting in a menu, then by talking to the GM or simply playing a different game. In life, we don’t always have that choice. Sometimes that dragon is bigger and meaner and harder than you expected, you are thrust back down to where you were before: you’ve got to do a little more grinding before you can move forward. And sometimes we can’t find the right dragon to slay. We can't always find the next great challenge. Sometimes we're treading water—grinding—working far below our abilities and desires. That’s when boredom sets in, ennui. Gaming-wise, this is farming low-level mobs in WoW, it's running a dungeon filled with goblins for the fiftieth weekend in a row, it’s spending hours getting that one Mortal Kombat combo just right. In real life, it’s the days flipping burgers, the hours in bumper-to-bumper traffic, the nights spent with that lover that you just don't care that much about. Sometimes it’s because the next challenge hasn’t been made available to you, you haven't been able to find it. But more often, as I'm sure all of you know, because you haven't really looked for it. <br /><br />When you finally find that dragon, you will very often find it’s smaller than you thought, weaker, not nearly as scary when looked at from the other side. I just spent the last 10 months writing a brand-new role-playing supplement (and by by supplement I mean it's actually <a href="http://www.efpress.net/2013/06/fate-core-accelerated-editions.html">larger than the game that it’s built for</a>). This was something I had been trying to do for years, been wanting to do for a long time, but I always shrank back, I never pushed too hard. I never found the right venue, the right circumstances, and the right people to get involved with. Getting those extra people on your team can really help, but the fact is, Jennifer and Quinn aside, I personally have done way more writing and design this year than I've ever done before. I picked a project and I set out to slay that dragon. Now the first of this flight of dragons is defeated (flight, it’s the collective noun. Look it up. Or don’t, because I just decided that just now). The first draft is done. Soon it will become a new dragon, one I haven't tried to fight before. This is the one that scares the shit out of me, but I really am looking forward to the battle: the playtest, the Kickstarter, the publication. Getting it out there. Becoming published for the first time. A step I should have, could have, but didn't, take years ago. I spent too long grinding, not looking for dragons. Now, my viewpoint is different. <i>Strange Voyages</i> may be my current dragon, but it's not my last. I have three pitches prepared for the next game project on the pipeline, the next dragon to fight.<br />
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Maybe you don't understand what I'm saying. Maybe you are someone who always wants cheat codes on, never ever searches for that next dragon, has no interest in new challenges. But I'd like to think that the hypothetical you does want something more—people who genuinely want no challenges in life are mainly the ones who already have so many they can't handle what they’ve already got. So let's assume that everyone reading this does like a good challenge, wants those dragons to find, in whatever way, in whatever form, at whatever level of difficulty they may exist in your life. So you've got to take a look, reach out beyond your comfort zone, because that comfort zone is dealing with the same problems every day, using the same solutions over and over. You know how that goes, you know what that answer is. It's boring. It’s a grind.Gremlin1384http://www.blogger.com/profile/00062614422718891716noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-208045521016729336.post-89506551759036584742013-08-25T00:39:00.004-07:002013-08-25T00:39:29.148-07:00Parallel Paths<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">I saw an old friend today. My oldest friend. An old girlfriend, if you can call the little bits of fumbling romance we eked out of high school to count. You always have to wonder, when you haven’t seen someone in a long time, what will they be like now? I’m reminded of a section on campaign advancement in <i>Fate Core</i>, that says sometimes the bad guys will advance along with your characters, becoming just as powerful and just as tuned in to the PCs’ circumstances as they were the first time they interacted, while others will stay static and be quickly and easily outpaced by your protagonists. The same can apply to your friends: you never know if they have stayed the same or grown with you—or will they have leveled up, but in a new and unpleasant direction? I’m not the same person I was in high school, I don’t have the same tastes, the same day-to-day activities, the same physique. But when I met my friend, I found that somehow we had traveled along parallel paths in life. We’d both read the same authors and watched the same television shows, and started playing geeky board games.<br /><br />All of these things had their seeds back then: the<i> Lord of the Rings</i> cooperative board game, watching <i>The Princess Bride</i> over and over and trading old copies of <i>The Hobbit</i> back and forth, but I had never heard of Joss Whedon when I was sixteen, I had just barely discovered Neil Gaiman, and I don’t believe China Mieville had even started writing yet. And somehow, this old friend and I, who I came together with when I had a different set of interests and a different way of looking at the world, has fallen in love with the same authors and activities that I have. Not quite the same, of course: she says she seldom actually likes Neil Gaiman’s books, and Whedon’s tendency to kill off beloved characters throws her for a loop. Nonetheless, when we sat down to play a cooperative card game that neither of us would have played in high school, she just adored it when the game kept kicking our asses. We watched <i>Doctor Who</i>, which I didn’t discover until 2005 (at which point it proceeded to control my life for the following eight years), and we talked about how <i>Torchwood </i>was a good idea but just wasn’t quite the same. We were in just the same place together as we had been, even though we’d both changed along the way. I wonder how many people can say that about their own friends, how many of my old friends I could say that about. I don’t know. I have new friends, as well as those who I’ve kept in touch with along the way, but there is a certain magic in finding that synchronicity that two people traveled down parallel paths.</span>Gremlin1384http://www.blogger.com/profile/00062614422718891716noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-208045521016729336.post-984561753982925852013-08-24T00:00:00.001-07:002013-08-24T00:00:56.678-07:00Welcome to the new RealmcraftingWelcome to the new Realmcrafting. This blog is undergoing a bit of a rebranding. No longer devoted specifically to the creation of the <i>City of Lives</i> RPG, you will now find a variety of essays and updates related to my escapades in game design.<br />
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Let's set the stage: since I ceased updating, I've changed focuses. The City of Lives is still on the docket for a future project, but the game formerly known as <i>Terra Incognita</i> (see my series of posts starting <a href="http://realmcrafting.blogspot.com/2011/07/terra-incognita-introduction.html">here</a>) has been my life since December 2012. The game, now known as <i>Strange Voyages</i>, will be published by <a href="http://www.occultmoon.com/">Occult Moon</a> in early 2013, with a Kickstarter coming next month to fund cover art and a few other things.<br />
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For now, Realmcrafting will update sporadically, with a few essays related to gaming and (gasp!) how it relates to real life, and then probably the site will focus on keeping folks up to date on the progress of <i>Strange Voyages</i> as it moves through editing, playtesting, layout, etc.<br />
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Welcome! I hope you stick around.Gremlin1384http://www.blogger.com/profile/00062614422718891716noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-208045521016729336.post-30480159214810027992013-08-17T09:41:00.001-07:002013-08-23T22:24:50.321-07:00The Middleman FAE<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Middleman</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">High Concept: “I’m Just the Middleman”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Trouble: Ride Lonesome</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-“Our mandate is protect people from threats, infra, extra and juxtaterrestrial.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-These Rules Exist For a Reason</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-It’s Just You And Me Against All the Bad Things Out There</span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-65b441aa-aec5-ad95-de46-25ef3adadfa0" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Approaches</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Good (+3): Clever</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fair (+2): Forceful, Careful</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Average (+1): Flashy, Sneaky</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mediocre (+0): Quick</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Stunts</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-Because I am Sensei Ping’s favorite apprentice, I gain +2 to Forcefully attack when outnumbered.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-Because I’ve seen it all, I gain +2 to Cleverly create advantages on creatures the Middle-organization has faced before.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-Because I have a great sidekick, I gain +2 to Forcefully create advantages whenever working as a team with Wendy Watson.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Wendy Watson</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">High Concept: Middleman-in-Training</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Trouble: Personal Stuff Gets in the Way</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-Rash and Impetuous</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-Pop Culture Genius</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-My Father Disappeared Under Mysterious and As-Yet-Unexplained Circumstances</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Approaches</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Good (+3): Forceful</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fair (+2): Flashy, Sneaky</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Average (+1): Quick, Clever</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mediocre (+0): Careful</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Stunts</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-Because I am an abstract impressionist, once per session I can create an advantage for free based on a detail I noticed in a previous scene.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-Because the Middleman is the closest thing I’ve had to a father, I gain +2 to Forcefully create advantages when working as a team with the Middleman.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-Because I have great friends, once per session I can get just what I need from Lacey or Noser.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lacey Thornfield</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">High Concept: Confrontational Spoken-Word Performance Artist</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Trouble: In Love With Sexy Bossman</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-I Love My Dub-Dub</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-Reap the Whirlwind (That Means We’re Going to Do Bad Things To Him)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-Dr. Barbara Thornfield, MD, PhD</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Approaches</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Good (+3): Flashy</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fair (+2): Quick, Sneaky</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Average (+1): Clever, Forceful</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mediocre (+0): Careful</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Stunts</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ida</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">High Concept: Alien Android</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Trouble: Domineering Schoolmarm version 2.0</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-“She’s a hophead!”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-“That's what you get for being made of meat.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-I Don’t Care</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Approaches</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Good (+3): Clever</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fair (+2): Careful, Forceful</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Average (+1): Quick, Flashy</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mediocre (+0): Sneaky</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Stunts</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-Because I can be hooked up to the HEYDAR, I gain +2 to Cleverly overcome obstacles when searching for information.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-Because I am an alien android, if I am taken out and destroyed, I can be replaced by O2STK at the end of the scenario.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-Because the Middleman and I have history, I gain +2 to Sneakily create advantages when trying to notify the Middleman of danger.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Tyler Ford</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">High Concept: I’m a Musician</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Trouble: Tyler the Not-a-Rock-Star</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-I’m a Man of Many Shades and Dimensions</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-“You do what you have to do and when you get back, I'll still be around.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-“Tyler Ford Will Smite You!”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Approaches</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Good (+3): Careful</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fair (+2): Flashy, Quick</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Average (+1): Clever, Sneaky</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mediocre (+0): Forceful</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Noser</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">High Concept: Master of the Unseen Arts</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Trouble: Everyone Remembers Young Noser</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-“Yo, Wendy Watson.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-“I never thought I could play stump the band without hearing a single song.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-A One-Man Oasis of Zen in a Desert of Insanity.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Approaches</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Good (+3): Careful</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fair (+2): Quick, Sneaky</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Average (+1): Forceful, Clever</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mediocre (+0): Flashy</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Stunts</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Pip</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">High Concept: Malignant Nematode</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Good At: Plagiarizing, manipulating his tenants</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bad At: Creating art, making people not hate him</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Game Aspects</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-Fighting Evil So You Don’t Have To</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-My Plan is Sheer Elegance So You Don’t Have To</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-A Big Silver Ball That Gives Us Answers To Things</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Locations</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-The Illegal Sublet Wendy Shares With Another Young, Photogenic Artist</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-Booty Chest: The Pirate-Themed Sports Bar With Scantily-Clad Waitresses</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Episode-Specific</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-Drown in the Icy Waters of the North Atlantic</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-There Can Only Be One Middleman</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Unused Aspects (appropriate for switching out at minor milestones)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-I Do Have One Weakness--Magic</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-Oh, Phooey</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- “I can badge my way into Fort Knox, I can talk my way into Lincoln’s bedroom.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-Moscow Rules</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-I Like To Keep the Old Heroes Alive</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-Old Fashioned Manners and Language</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-The Middleman Only Uses Violence When the Fate of the World is at Stake</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-Sensei Ping’s Favorite Apprentice</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-There are some things a man just can’t ride around</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-I Will Always Have Your Back. Always.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-Been watching out for you all along</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-It’s Waterproof, Shock-Proof, and Grafted To My Skin</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-I know you're upset about Art Crawl, but sometimes that's the job.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Wendy</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-And I want you to know that since my dad disappeared, you're the closest thing I've had to a father.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-Queen of Snark</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-No one dies on my watch</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-You are such a rockstar. - on Tyler</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lacey</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-I’ve Taken a Few Eggs out of My Wendy Basket</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-I Have to Take a Stand</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-WWWWD? (What Would Wendy Watson Do?)</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ida</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-Devoid of Human Emotion</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Tyler Ford</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-A _nado</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-Incredibly Observant</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-I'm a musician</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-Because You’re Made of Awesome -Tyler, on Wendy</span></div>
<br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-Tyler Ford Isn’t Most People</span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
Gremlin1384http://www.blogger.com/profile/00062614422718891716noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-208045521016729336.post-58397795121528658362012-02-05T23:08:00.000-08:002012-02-05T23:08:36.722-08:00An UpdateHey, all.<br />
<br />
It's been a while since I posted properly up here. This is because I've been spending the time I <i>was</i> spending blogging actually<i> working on the game</i>. Based on the advice of... someone... one of my commenters here, I believe... (does research)... Ah, it was @scottz, who introduced me to the Hydra Cooperative—I have decided to work out exactly the minimum amount of stuff I need to write in order to publish this game. Forget the many other Realms, forget the intense background material, forget the elaborate bestiary. Character creation, rules for running the game, and just enough setting information to inspire people. If it gets some interest, I'll put out supplements (and if it doesn't, I'll probably write them anyway).<br />
<br />
So I recently put together the Character Creation rules into a complete form over on the <a href="http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/cityoflives/wikis/character-creation">wiki</a>, and am now working on the Universal Conflict system I posted about way back <a href="http://realmcrafting.blogspot.com/2010/12/fate-universal-conflict-system-part-1.html" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: small; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">when</a>, trying to figure out how to include weapons and armor appropriate for all conflict types. After all, why should the melee fighter get a chance to inflict +2 stress with their greatsword, while the charmer has to rely completely on their raw skill?<br />
<br />
So here's what's on my list. Let me know if you think anything is missing or on here that doesn't need to be:<br />
<br />
-City Creation (as per Dresden Files)<br />
-Character Creation<br />
-Information on Bloodlines<br />
-Information on Factions<br />
-Skills<br />
-Stunts<br />
-Character Advancement<br />
-Running the Game (adjudication, hazards, etc)<br />
-Conflicts (types, maps, rules)<br />
-Equipment/Weapons/Armor<br />
-Crafting<br />
-A short description and a couple Aspects and Locations for each District<br />
-A small bestiary, with a few common types of City-dwellers and a few unique monsters<br />
-Some GM advice<br />
-Tables/handouts<br />
-A character sheet.<br />
<br />
Additionally, now that I have an end in sight (a long way off, as only Character Creation and Bloodlines from this list are actually finished), I'm thinking about how best to present the game. I'm going to have to get it off that wiki some time, put it into a nice pretty pdf. Which means I need graphic design, layout, and (gulp) artists. None of which I can do. I'm looking into starting up a Kickstarter drive at some point, but I need some more to show before I can reasonably do that, including some nice art. Anyone know any artists willing to work for cheap or free?<br />
<br />
Anyway, that is the state of things, and I'll come back here when I have something to say, perhaps give you guys some inside scoops into my thought process on some of the new stuff I'm doing—I'll probably write up some more stuff on my thoughts in the Universal Conflict System and weapons when I'm done with that, so look forward to that (relatively) soon.<br />
<br />
Out!Gremlin1384http://www.blogger.com/profile/00062614422718891716noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-208045521016729336.post-15112162414575980092012-01-31T10:24:00.000-08:002012-01-31T10:24:01.462-08:0023 Questions as a GM meme<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 20px;">I intend to post something soon about some game mechanics (I'm working on the Universal Conflict System I posted about way back <a href="http://realmcrafting.blogspot.com/2010/12/fate-universal-conflict-system-part-1.html">when</a>, trying to figure out more about goals, stress, vehicles and tools, as well as universalizing weapon and armor rules). Until then, I'm going to post on this meme (from <a href="http://dndwithpornstars.blogspot.com/2012/01/gm-questionnaire.html?zx=6612e766393cbffc">D&D With Pornstars</a>).</span></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">1. If you had to pick a single invention in a game you were most proud of what would it be?</span><br />
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">
Probably the Bloodline rules for CoL. They've added so much flavor to the campaigns, in a way that still fits with the FATE creed.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">
2. When was the last time you GMed?</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">
Two days ago, Saturday the 27th.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">
3. When was the last time you played?</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">
Oh, God. Much longer. 2009? A short-lived D&D 4e campaign</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">
4. Give us a one-sentence pitch for an adventure you haven't run but would like to.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">
God, I can't think of one. I don't have enough adventure ideas to fill the game I run...</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">
5. What do you do while you wait for players to do things?</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">
Since we run things online these days, I either make notes and prep for the next encounter, or browse the internet (depending on how I'm feeling that night).</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">
6. What, if anything, do you eat while you play?</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">
We game right after/during dinner, so I have my regular supper during the early parts of the game. Later I may have some popcorn or ice cream, or nothing.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">
7. Do you find GMing physically exhausting?</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">
Only in a marathon session, which I seldom do. After a three to four hour session, I'm tired, but I'm also wired.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">
8. What was the last interesting (to you, anyway) thing you remember a PC you were running doing?</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">
My most recent PC was a Fae with seriously variant morality, and she had a tendency to play potentially lethal practical jokes on her friends.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">
</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">
9. Do your players take your serious setting and make it unserious? Vice versa? Neither?</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">
Most of the humor comes out in OOC ways, and most of the time the PCs stay serious. Sometimes they go wild, though, and do things like blackmail a guy for his visits to the whorehouse, laughing all the way.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">
10. What do you do with goblins?</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">
Avoid them. Tolkienian fantasy is SOOO BORING></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">
11. What was the last non-RPG thing you saw that you converted into game material (background, setting, trap, etc.)?</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">
Since I have to get icons for everything for my virtual tabletop, I pull a lot of pictures off the internet. The most recent one was probably pulling a bunch of pictures of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mothman">Mothman </a> to be monsters called "Mist Moths."</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">
12. What's the funniest table moment you can remember right now?</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">
The first thing that comes to mind was an old <i>Paranoia</i> session I played (rather than ran). In that game, when your character dies, they are replaced by a clone, who wanders in a few minutes later. However, my character was almost dead, but not quite—and they activated the clone anyway. The argument with myself over who was the right clone and who got to go on the mission was a classic moment.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">
13. What was the last game book you looked at--aside from things you referenced in a game--why were you looking at it?</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">
I look at every FATE book that comes out for general rule ideas, but the last thing I looked at that wasn't at all related was the Leverage RPG. I looked at that because I love the Leverage TV show and heard it had innovative and amazing rules--which is true.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">
14. Who's your idea of the perfect RPG illustrator?</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">
I don't pay much attention to WHO illustrates RPGs, I just appreciate it. I do love RK Post...</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">
15. Does your game ever make your players genuinely afraid?</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">
No, I suck at horror.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">
16. What was the best time you ever had running an adventure you didn't write? (If ever)</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">
Virtually the only time I ever run pre-written adventures are when playing <i>Paranoia—</i>and there are a bunch of great adventures for it. My favorite time was running the brilliant <i>Alpha Complexities</i>.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">
17. What would be the ideal physical set up to run a game in?</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">
Nice, comfortable table. Nice, comfortable chairs.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">
18. If you had to think of the two most disparate games or game products that you like what would they be?</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">
<i>Paranoia—</i>humorous, wacky, oppressive; and <i>DFRPG—</i>dark, gritty, fantasy fiction.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">
19. If you had to think of the most disparate influences overall on your game, what would they be?</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">
I run my games as a combination of TV series—highly scripted, dramatics over simulation, story arcs—and sandbox storytelling—in each adventure, I tend to give my players a goal and let them run wild on <i>how</i> to accomplish it. I guess those influences come from loving TV and, I dunno, GTA or something.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">
20. As a GM, what kind of player do you want at your table?</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">
Flexible, storyteller-type players.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">
21. What's a real life experience you've translated into game terms?</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">
I just ran an adventure dealing with fog, inspired by reading in my Earth Science class.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">
22. Is there an RPG product that you wish existed but doesn't?</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">
I wish someone else had written <i>City of Lives</i> so I could play it without having to <i>write</i> the damned thing.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">
23. Is there anyone you know who you talk about RPGs with who doesn't play? How do those conversations go?</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;">
Not really. Most of my social circle plays.</div>Gremlin1384http://www.blogger.com/profile/00062614422718891716noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-208045521016729336.post-77763250513171240172012-01-16T16:32:00.000-08:002012-01-16T16:32:53.141-08:00SOPA StrikeNot that this is much of a change, as I've decided to write when and if I have something to write (and haven't yet), but I am officially going on strike this Wednesday the 18th to protest SOPA, and will be not-posting WITH DELIBERATE INTENT.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
What it is:</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<a href="http://americancensorship.org/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PROTECT_IP_Act</a></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Online_Piracy_Act" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Online_Piracy_Act</a></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
What to do:</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<a href="http://americancensorship.org/" id="" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">http://americancensorship.org/</a></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<a href="http://sopastrike.com/" id="" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">http://sopastrike.com/</a></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<i><br /></i></div>Gremlin1384http://www.blogger.com/profile/00062614422718891716noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-208045521016729336.post-41519828574468326502011-11-07T17:41:00.002-08:002011-11-07T17:41:14.440-08:00On the Future (or lack thereof) of RealmcraftingOkay, folks. As you may have noticed, this blog has become more and more difficult for me to keep up with. This is due to a number of factors, from work/school, home life, other creative projects, and a growing dissatisfaction with my work on it.<br />
<br />
You see, the notion behind <i>Realmcrafting</i> was to get some attention and feedback for my <i>City of Lives</i> project: showing people what I was doing behind the scenes as I worked on creating the game, and getting input from an audience of potential players, telling me what they want. I wanted to create an online "presence," to build up a bit of a fanbase before I put the game out there.<br />
<br />
The problems are twofold: One, I don't seem to be making any kind of impact. I knew it would be slow going, but I've been writing this blog for about a year now, and I have at most a couple dozen readers (it's hard to interpret the statistics Blogger gives me). And those readers aren't giving anything back. I've read plenty of articles wherein internet writers complain about the evil people in the comments section—but at least that means someone read it. I haven't gotten a comment in months, positive or negative, and never have I gotten anything substantial (aside from a few posts made by my friends, who I can consult IRL). I'm not blaming you, those few folks who are reading me—I too am a lurker, too busy or lazy to comment on virtually anything I read. But the fact is, with low readership and no comments, I'm not really getting anything out of this blog.<br />
<br />
The second problem is about why I'm doing this blog for myself: It was intended to help clarify my thoughts on <i>The City of Lives</i> and help me come up with new and interesting material for the game. It was always intended to be of secondary concern: Actually work on <i>CoL</i>, updating the wiki and writing new material, and then blog about it. However, since my creative time and brainpower has become more limited of late, I've gone from working on the blog, game, and playtest campaign to simply blog and playtest campaign... so I'm blogging about a project that's not actually moving anywhere. If <i>CoL</i> is ever to be publishable, I've got to actually work on it, and that's not happening right now.<br />
<br />
So: the question is, should I continue <i>Realmcrafting</i>? If there are actually people out there reading and enjoying it, I will continue. If there aren't, then I won't. So if you want this blog to continue, let me know! There's a poll on the website, or you can put your two cents in the comments. Don't be shy, or <i>Realmcrafting</i> will go the way of the dodo.<br />
<br />
Let me know.Gremlin1384http://www.blogger.com/profile/00062614422718891716noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-208045521016729336.post-87809682633286417952011-11-04T01:00:00.000-07:002011-11-04T01:00:10.997-07:00Realms - The Gap, Part 2Today, we continue examining <b>The Gap</b>, the empty space between Realms where discarded pieces of broken Realms and the dispossessed former inhabitants drift in empty space.<br />
<br />
The Gap's <b>Real-Life Inspirations</b> are the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hooverville">"Hooverville</a>s," tent cities created by the mass unemployed during the Great Depression. A place for people who have nowhere else to go, like refugee camps but built by the disenfranchised themselves. Admittedly, most of what I know about Hoovervilles comes from <i>The Grapes of Wrath</i> and the <i>Doctor Who</i> episode "Daleks in Manhattan," so "real-life" inspiration is perhaps selling it a bit strongly. However, the notion of people with nothing building themselves a new life is a meaty one, and we would certainly see some interesting and innovative physical and social creations in a world made up of the remains of others.<br />
<br />
The <b>Theme</b> of the Gap is surprising self-sufficiency. That is to say, the people who have fallen through the cracks in the worlds have managed to survive despite everything being against them, and so the culture of the Gap will reflect that "something from nothing" attitude. There will be a bit of a <i>Cast Away</i>/<i>Gilligan's Island</i>/<i>Robinson Crusoe</i> sort of thing going on, the inhabitants surviving on their ingenuity and bits and pieces they've managed to pull from the wreckage of their world. I'm reminded of the novel <a href="http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SixteenThirtyTwo" style="font-style: italic;">1632</a>, in which a small modern town is abruptly transported to the titular year in the midst of Germany, and they have to figure out how to survive in this new/old world with whatever bits and pieces of modern technology happen to have been transported with them. Visually, I also see parts of <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neverwhere">Neverwhere</a></i>'s scrap-built society and an image from the old <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_McGee's_Alice">American McGee's Alice</a></i> computer game, where bits of Wonderland float in a dark void (in a section of the game I can't find visual evidence of online).<br />
<br />
A secondary theme of the Gap is likely one of desperate escape. I'm not sure how anyone would be able to visit the Gap and return to the Realms, but it is certain to be difficult and unreliable, or else the people inside wouldn't be there. Hence, many of the Gap's inhabitants are likely to be desperate to return to their own world—or, at least, a proper Realm designed to support life. Visitors might find themselves in chains, interrogated about how they arrived and how to <i>get out</i>. While the self-sufficiency theme gives the Gap mood, this theme implies plotlines.<br />
<br />
That'll take us through the Gap, and next time, we'll take a look at... well, this blog itself. Check in.Gremlin1384http://www.blogger.com/profile/00062614422718891716noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-208045521016729336.post-36743190710085138182011-11-01T15:49:00.001-07:002011-11-01T15:49:13.288-07:00Realms - The GapToday we will examine what a Realm is, and what lies between them, coming to our new Realm location: <b>The Gap</b>.<br />
<br />
So what is a Realm anyway? It is currently ill-defined in many ways, but we have a few pieces:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>A Realm is a "world" of some kind, defined by its own lifeforms, physical and magical properties, and culture or cultures.</li>
<li>You cannot travel from one Realm to another through any traditional transport, whether walking or rocket ships. They are in completely different physical spaces, accessible only through the magic of <b>Realmshifting</b>.</li>
<li>There is some form of geography between the Realms, with some being "near" the City of Lives and some being "far." The Far Realms are noted to have radically different physical and magical properties.</li>
</ul>
<div>
From these pieces, we can see that Realms are very similar to the concepts of "planes" in <i>Dungeons & Dragons</i> or <i>Magic: The Gathering</i>, or parallel universes in the vein of <i>Sliders</i> or innumerable sci-fi stories. The question I have yet to answer for myself is how large a Realm is. Is it an entire universe, with planets and galaxies and what have you? If so, why do we only explore one small part of one planet of each Realm that is featured in the game? Is it a tiny, magically-contained area a few hundred or thousand miles in diameter? If so, is that natural or created by some god? What does that mean for the cosmology of <i>The City of Lives</i>?</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Functionally, every Realm should serve the purpose of a town in <i>The Fugitive</i> or a planet in <i>Star Trek</i>, a new place to explore every adventure—and as we see from those two examples, they can be of any size and still serve the same story function. So maybe it doesn't matter. Except that someone will want to know, and won't be satisfied without an answer. Perhaps we aren't prepared to answer those questions yet.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
In any case, since we know that the various Realms are impassable to ordinary travel, and yet have some form of geography, this would seem to imply that there is something "between" them, some magical barrier or void. So let's run with it. In between the Realms is an emptiness, with absolutely nothing in it, not even the vacuum of outer space.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
But that's boring. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<br />
So:<br />
<br />
<b>The Gap</b> once was empty, defined by its emptiness. However, the Realms are unstable, occasionally falling to pieces. Because of human conflict, natural disaster, or godly intervention, sometimes Realms split, and pieces of worlds spill into the Gap. Floating islands of reality drift in the darkness, each ruled by its own physics, twisted by the neighboring realities spinning by. A few people inhabit these shattered realms, refugees and foolhardy explorers, doing their best to transform the bits and pieces they have left into a coherent world.<br />
<br />
The <b>Archetype</b> of the Gap is that of the "junk city," the makeshift world formed of bits and pieces from everything and everywhere. The best example I can think of is Armada from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scar" style="font-style: italic;">The Scar</a>, a city created from innumerable sailing ships lashed together. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hol_(role-playing_game)"><i>HoL</i> </a>is a (frankly bizarre) RPG that takes place on a landfill planet, and there always seem to be hobo communities thriving in any fictional garbage dump. The Gap is this archetype writ large, with pieces of landmasses fused together haphazardly to create a hodgepodge of realities. I see pieces as small as a city block and as large as a state, sometimes connected, and sometimes simply floating in the void nearby each other, reachable by bridges or ziplines or magical airships.<br />
<br />
...and with that imagery, we'll pick up the Gap next time. See you then...<br />
<br />Gremlin1384http://www.blogger.com/profile/00062614422718891716noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-208045521016729336.post-16601035143612452572011-10-28T01:00:00.000-07:002011-10-28T01:00:00.095-07:00Realms - The Decaying Fields of Forever, Part 2Welcome back. Last time, we took a look at the bizarre realm of perpetual rot and entropy, <b>The Decaying Fields of Forever</b>. We got our Real-Life Inspiration and Theme worked out, but hadn't yet gotten to the Archetype or the Twist, so let's strap on our thinking caps and work on those.<br />
<br />
The <b>Archetype</b> of the Decaying Fields of Forever is pretty much Hell. The notion is a place of perpetual torment, where the inhabitants are always in pain, always dying but never dead. A blasted landscape, post-apocalyptic if the apocalypse were not ongoing. However, the difference—perhaps the horror of the place—is that the suffering are not sinners, have done nothing wrong to deserve their pain.<br />
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This begs the question of tormentors. Are there demons in this Hell? Creatures who either are immune to or simply take advantage of the Fields' unique properties, allowing them to lord over the rest of the population? There's not <i>logical</i> reason for them to be there... but there certainly is a thematic reason. On the other hand, I don't want to turn the Fields in a pure Hell-analogue (where's the interest in that?) Perhaps there are some denizens of the Fields who have learned how to work with the properties of decay—they are careful not to injure themselves, they have grown used to food not sustaining them properly, they survive with the simplest of technologies.<br />
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And they hurt. So they hurt others.<br />
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<b>Twist</b>: I think the question of the twist in the Fields is why would anyone come here? Masochists maybe, the truly guilt-ridden perhaps... but most people would avoid this place at any cost. Which means, of course, that the Fields are the perfect place to hide. You can't do it too long, or whatever it is you're hiding will fall into uselessness, but as a rest stop on the way out of a heist? Who would look for you there? Who would be willing to travel to a world so filled with pain and hopelessness? Not many people, and so you'll be safe... for a given value of safe.<br />
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Next time, we'll examine a new Realm, the non-world that is <b>The Gap</b>.Gremlin1384http://www.blogger.com/profile/00062614422718891716noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-208045521016729336.post-27790995084572137662011-10-21T01:00:00.000-07:002011-10-21T01:00:09.860-07:00Realms - The Decaying Fields of ForeverWelcome to our second entry in our second foray across the Realms. Last time, we examined the fairly mundane Realm of <b>Taluna</b>. Today we'll examine a place altogether more elemental and alien, tentatively named <b>The Decaying Fields of Forever</b>.<br>
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This will be one of those fairly stream-of-thought, making-it-up-as-I-go-along sort of posts, because I know nothing about the Fields but the name. I've always meant for the Realms of <i>The City of Lives</i> to be unusual, fantastical, and elemental in nature. Unfortunately, I have a tendency to over-analyze, and to try to lay everything out in internally consistent, very "science-fictional" worlds. They all seem like real places... but I really want some unreal places as well, places where the laws of physics bend and twist, and narrative causality trumps Newtonian causality.<br>
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So, knowing that much, but having no real ideas that hadn't already been done more completely by <i>Planescape</i> , I decided to start with a name, as so often works for me. No names appeared to me, so I went to seventhsanctum.com and used an "outer planes" generator to give me a name in the appropriate style. Most of the results were unsatisfying, but the Decaying Fields of Forever struck me as interesting.<br>
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Let's examine it, shall we? After the jump.<br>
<a href="http://realmcrafting.blogspot.com/2011/10/realms-decaying-fields-of-forever.html#more">Read more »</a>Gremlin1384http://www.blogger.com/profile/00062614422718891716noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-208045521016729336.post-20668875554742892162011-10-18T16:29:00.001-07:002011-10-18T16:29:31.774-07:00Realms - TalunaFor the next few posts, we're going to examine some of the otherworldly <b>Realms</b> that will appear in the new <i>Treasure Hunters for Hire</i> campaign model, exploring the far-off places that were hinted at but never visited in the previous City-focused campaign.<br>
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The first new Realm we're going to examine is <b>Taluna</b>, the site of the <i>Treasure Hunters</i>' first adventure. It is a simple place, designed around the problem that the PCs will encounter rather than as a complete world—which should hopefully make it a good starting point!<br>
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<b>Archetype</b>: I wanted to start off the treasure hunting with a classic dungeoncrawl, in which the hunters are searching for a specific item. Since I am terrible at map-making, I used a random dungeon-map generator (which I would link to, if I remembered which one I used) to put together a series of branching passageways and rooms. In traditional "dungeon" fashion, these would be ruins of an ancient city, that left behind dangerous traps and monsters to guard their treasure. Not the most original concept, but I wanted to start off simple. To populate this archetypal dungeon, I pulled up <b>Maptool</b>, the virtual tabletop program my group is using, and looked through the monster "tokens" included in the program (not unlike sorting through a random pile of miniatures and grabbing a few interesting examples).<br>
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See the rest after the jump<br>
<a href="http://realmcrafting.blogspot.com/2011/10/realms-taluna.html#more">Read more »</a>Gremlin1384http://www.blogger.com/profile/00062614422718891716noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-208045521016729336.post-27902553568393593472011-10-04T15:57:00.000-07:002011-10-04T15:57:07.145-07:00The City of Lives new campaign premiseAs I've mentioned over the last few posts, I'm starting up a new <i>City of Lives</i> playtest campaign. Now, <i>The City of Lives</i> is about politics, espionage, and class warfare, as I've explored in the previous campaigns. However, there are also a multitude of other Realms out there, worlds filled with strange and exciting adventure. This new campaign explores the possibilities of the other Realms, in a model I call "Treasure Hunters For Hire."<br />
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Inspired by <i>Warehouse 13</i>, <i>Indiana Jones</i>, <i>Star Trek</i>, and, yes my own <i>Terra Incognita</i>, the premise for "Hunters" is simple. The PCs are an elite team of "retrieval specialists," trained to travel to distant Realms and locate powerful magical items—known as "relics"—and return them to their employers for use, storage, or destruction. The notion is that every adventure will take them to a new Realm, each with its own strange physics and socials structures that they have to negotiate (like <i>Star Trek</i>), while tracking down magic items that are ruining everyone's day (like <i>Warehouse 13</i>). It's an opportunity to explore my universe more thoroughly, and to experiment with different play styles.<br />
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My first <i>City of Lives</i> campaign started out with a very traditional <i>D&D</i> setup: the PCs were all called together for a job, and ventured into a dungeon (for lack of a better word) to locate a particular treasure. However, I cocked it up, not understanding how dungeon-crawls are meant to be run, and letting my players fill the party with strong-willed, volatile characters who had no reason to stay together whatsoever. As the campaign went on, we abandoned the dungeon-crawling and monsters, and ended up exploring some of the less interesting parts of the City. It wasn't a complete failure, but it certainly wasn't a great success.<br />
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Next was the espionage-themed campaign, focused on tightly-knit characters and social conflicts. The stories centered heavily around the City and its themes, with only one (much loathed by the players) venture out into the Realms. This was great fun, and highlighted the themes of the campaign setting. However, my players grew bored with "only fighting regular people," "having everything be political," and "never leaving the city." And hence, our new campaign model.<br />
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The most difficult part of this so far is coming up with something new for each adventure as I start planning things out. Entirely new worlds and magical relics each week... it's a tough mandate. For the earlier <i>CoL</i> campaigns, I relied on stuff I had already worked out about the world, and for <i>Terra Incognita</i>, I based everything on existing myths and legends. I worry that I'm not going to come up with anything terribly interesting, and end up with a series of worlds that all look like British Columbia (as in <i>Stargate SG-1</i>), with relics that come down to various kinds of doomsday devices. I'm going to have to work very hard to keep things fresh.<br />
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Next time, we'll start examining some of the Realms I'm going to use for the new campaign, in the same format as our handful of Realm examples from earlier this year. See you there!Gremlin1384http://www.blogger.com/profile/00062614422718891716noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-208045521016729336.post-46927685208832001562011-09-30T19:53:00.000-07:002011-09-30T19:53:01.262-07:00The City of Lives new rules continuedAs I addressed last time, my new campaign with my playtesters is changing some rules, in an attempt to find the magic point where the rules just <i>work</i>. Last time, we examined some rules designed to make combat quicker and more challenging. Today, we'll look at what I'm doing to make the money and equipment rules more interesting.<br />
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By default, <i>FATE</i> has very little in the way of equipment rules. Characters are not meant to have large lists of every little thing they're carrying around, or have to deal with poring through charts of hundreds of items and detailing every fraction of a gold piece they spend. PCs are assumed to have whatever items they need to use their skills effectively—a character with high Burglary should have some lockpicks, a character with the Surgeon stunt probably has a trauma kit. Beyond that, special items are bought with stunts, mostly "Batman's wonderful toys"-type stuff.<br />
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During play, a character simply rolls their Resources skill to see if they can afford whatever it is they need to buy. Succeed, they get it, fail, they don't. In <i>Spirit of the Century</i> and <i>Dresden Files RPG</i>, there are no provisions for getting paid or looting corpses—you have the money from your Resources skill, or you don't.<br />
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These are all well and good for the pulp and urban fantasy genres. However, there is a fundamental assumption in high fantasy that characters will be focused more on what kind of stuff they're carrying, and what they can carry away from the battlefield. Now, I don't want this game to turn into <i>Dungeons & Dragons</i>, with magical items a fundamental piece of any character and the default assumption that characters become richer as they become more experienced—but there are questions of both balance and theme to address.<br />
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The assumption that "PCs have the stuff to support their skills" works just fine with things like thieves' tools and trauma kits... but it falls apart with weapons. In <i>Spirit of the Century</i>, weapons had no rule properties, being purely a matter of style. In <i>City of Lives</i>, on the other hand, larger and more expensive weapons are more powerful. If allowed to have whatever they want, every PC will just choose to equip themselves with plate armor and a two-handed sword, and radically unbalance the game. So the question is, what should they be allowed to have?<br />
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First, I assigned my weapons Cost scores: how difficult the Resources check to obtain them would be. They range from Terrible (-2) for a makeshift club (a table leg or what have you), to Mediocre (+0) for a basic dagger, to Great (+4) for a two-handed sword.<br />
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Now there are two possible ways to obtain those weapons during character creation: I assume that anyone who's well-experienced with weapons has spent time and resources to get themselves a decent sword. Hence, any character can start with weapons whose Cost equals their rank in the Melee skill. A dabbler might be able to start with a dagger or light sword, while a serious soldier would be able to get a heavy axe. The other option is for those characters who are unskilled with weapons but rich, with low Melee and Ranged skills but high Resources. And for the rules for that, we have to bring in the Wealth stress track.<br />
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As you may recall, PCs in <i>City of Lives</i> have two stress tracks: Health (physical) and Composure (mental/social). Now, to emulate the realities of spending money, so that poor characters aren't completely helpless and so that rich characters can't buy themselves out of everything without any consequences, we add a third stress track, Wealth. Wealth stress is a concept that appears in <i>Diaspora</i> and <i>Strands of Fate</i>, and works just like an ordinary stress track, except that it takes damage when making purchases, and the stress doesn't just go away, it must be "healed" by making money or selling objects.<br />
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This allows for PCs to go on buying sprees, either during character creation or during the game, but with consequences... and without introducing the nitty-gritty crunch of counting coinage. The Wealth stress track also allows me to give characters money or treasure to sell during the game and have it actually mean something. And since this new campaign is based around the concept of treasure hunting, I think it will definitely help.<br />
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Oh, I didn't mention the treasure hunting, did I? Next time, we'll examine the new narrative possibilities I'm introducing with the new campaign model "Treasure Hunters For Hire."Gremlin1384http://www.blogger.com/profile/00062614422718891716noreply@blogger.com0