Vortigern
5th of September, 2010, 18:54
Game: Steel, Sorcery, & Lotus Dust.
System: Sorcerer http://adept-press.com/role-playing-games/sorcerer/
Books encouraged ( There are only four, and you really only need the core, and it isn't expensive. ) But not required. The system is relatively rules light but strong on systems that provoke RP. So as long as you can get 'into' your character design and give me a clear idea of where you are trying to go, I can walk you through it with relative ease.
Genre: Sword & Sorcery
Adventures in the spirit of Conan and Elric. Steel, Sorcery, and the fine fragrance of the Lotus Blossom. Life is cheap, the blood runs free, and riches, women, and power are the prizes for the taking. Sorcery is dark, mysterious, and deadly. The world is full of civilizations that are startlingly different and littered with the ruins of the great peoples and horrors of the past. Liberty and 'Social Justice' are things unknown. Slavery is everywhere, even if it is called serfdom. Social classes are the norm.
Game Intent/Tenets:
-Communal World-Building. All players accepted into the game are encouraged to contribute to the creative development of the setting. New cultures, geography, creatures, plants, drugs... whatever. If you have a cool idea, we can talk about it as a group and write it into the setting. There won't be a whole map of the world when we get started. There won't be a whole list of cultures or peoples etc. If you want something that hasn't been come up with yet for your character, just pitch it. I reserve the ultimate arbitration of what gets included or not in the setting.
-Character Driven Stories. Be prepared to have your character make decisions. On your own. About things they ( you ) want. And then run with it. Don't wait for me to motivate you or your character. Your character should 'hit the ground running' with a head full of thoughts, ideas, and desires. If you don't, I won't pull you along, and you won't have as much fun. I won't have as much fun. I might decide that you are more work than another more self motivated player would be and give your slot to someone else.
-Everything has a price. Power isn't a problem. But can you handle it? And pay for it? Sorcery is powerful. Sorcery is Unnatural and in some ways inherently a thing almost inimical to humans and the world they live in. Demons -want- things. Like being Summoned and Bound and let out into the world. Like raw flesh to eat and the collected tears from seven only just not-virgins to drink like oh so fine wine. Sorcerers... yeah, a lot of them aren't so nice. But if you delve straight out into the 'deep end' of what is ultimately unknowable and inimical to the human mind, you probably go bonkers and, figuratively, drown. Drown like a disturbing madman lost adrift in an ocean of crazy. Good luck making it back, don't get your drool on me in the meantime. Some 'natural' things in the world are so big and bad that really only a Sorcerer stands a chance of saving humans from them. A fine balancing act is yours to perform. Or we can all have fun watching you go down the sure road to failure. Either way.
-Posts should be readable and of a reasonable ( 300-400 words 'average', depending on the situation ) length. Typos are inevitable, but consistent hackery and daggers unto my eyes will inspire me to remove you as a source of my cognitive pain and disruption. Now watch 'me' butcher something glaring and obvious now that I've said that. Anyway.
Setting Tenets:
- Biological life is highly variable in different areas of geography. The farther one goes from 'civilized' lands the more hostile the environment is likely to be to human life. Yet somehow, even in the most 'hostile' lands, humans can still have a presence. It might be like those poor buggers on skull island, all huddled and terrified behind their crumbling ruin of a wall and living a subsistence existence while oh so eager to resort to human sacrifice to survive... but, they are there. In fact, spooky horrible tribes like that are pretty much par for the course for the genre.
- Cultural and Technological differences between societies/civilizations in the setting can be profound. Some of this can be due to geographic separation though this is emphatically -not- necessary. Societies of 'unrealistic' differences can be juxtaposed against each other. Generally speaking the 'highest' level of technology in the setting is high-medieval. The lowest... well, see the above about the tribes and whatnot.
- Sorcery, Alchemy, and Mesmerism are the only 'supernatural' powers that humans can possess. All of them are, relatively speaking, the province of Sorcerers and not the common man. Sorcery is dark and feared, Alchemy is 'unnatural' and not understood, and Mesmerism is almost as feared as Sorcery with the power it can grant over Men. Sorcery revolves around the contacting/summoning/binding of Demons. Demons, as if it should need to be said, are 'not nice'.
- Barring someone wanting to include some sort of Amazonian culture somewhere on the map as a general rule in a 'swords & sorcery' setting gender has a significant impact on social roles and mores. More over patriarchal societies where women are by and large ruled if not simply owned by men are the most common type of social structure. This does not mean a woman can not hold social power of some kind or that unusual/unique women characters that flout these tendencies/conventions do not exist. If you can't stand these 'gender issues' I encourage you not to play.
- The same goes for race or ethnicity. Depending on how the setting gets created once the game is underway there very likely could be some racial stereotypes. Some people are going to be 'civilized' and some could be portrayed as more 'barbarous' or 'savage'. This is part of the genre. If you can't stand some these 'race issues' I encourage you not to play.
Player / Character Submissions:
- At least a paragraph or two on your concept and where you might want to go with it, so I can understand some depth.
- Let me know if you are familiar with the system and whether you have the books. ( Like I said, not required, but if you do have them I'm sure it will help you. )
- Stats aren’t so much a concern at this stage as concepts/fluffery. The system is pretty simple and we can go over that once we have a group assembled.
- Not all characters need to be ‘sorcerers’ in the sense of being ‘practitioners’ of the ‘dark arts’ or the like. Conan has used some rudimentary sorcery himself in his own adventures, in the original works by Howard! Just be open at least to supernatural ‘interaction’ of some kind with the character at least. Also, the stereotypes of modern fantasy ( big fighters, wimpy mages for example ) do not apply.
System: Sorcerer http://adept-press.com/role-playing-games/sorcerer/
Books encouraged ( There are only four, and you really only need the core, and it isn't expensive. ) But not required. The system is relatively rules light but strong on systems that provoke RP. So as long as you can get 'into' your character design and give me a clear idea of where you are trying to go, I can walk you through it with relative ease.
Genre: Sword & Sorcery
Adventures in the spirit of Conan and Elric. Steel, Sorcery, and the fine fragrance of the Lotus Blossom. Life is cheap, the blood runs free, and riches, women, and power are the prizes for the taking. Sorcery is dark, mysterious, and deadly. The world is full of civilizations that are startlingly different and littered with the ruins of the great peoples and horrors of the past. Liberty and 'Social Justice' are things unknown. Slavery is everywhere, even if it is called serfdom. Social classes are the norm.
Game Intent/Tenets:
-Communal World-Building. All players accepted into the game are encouraged to contribute to the creative development of the setting. New cultures, geography, creatures, plants, drugs... whatever. If you have a cool idea, we can talk about it as a group and write it into the setting. There won't be a whole map of the world when we get started. There won't be a whole list of cultures or peoples etc. If you want something that hasn't been come up with yet for your character, just pitch it. I reserve the ultimate arbitration of what gets included or not in the setting.
-Character Driven Stories. Be prepared to have your character make decisions. On your own. About things they ( you ) want. And then run with it. Don't wait for me to motivate you or your character. Your character should 'hit the ground running' with a head full of thoughts, ideas, and desires. If you don't, I won't pull you along, and you won't have as much fun. I won't have as much fun. I might decide that you are more work than another more self motivated player would be and give your slot to someone else.
-Everything has a price. Power isn't a problem. But can you handle it? And pay for it? Sorcery is powerful. Sorcery is Unnatural and in some ways inherently a thing almost inimical to humans and the world they live in. Demons -want- things. Like being Summoned and Bound and let out into the world. Like raw flesh to eat and the collected tears from seven only just not-virgins to drink like oh so fine wine. Sorcerers... yeah, a lot of them aren't so nice. But if you delve straight out into the 'deep end' of what is ultimately unknowable and inimical to the human mind, you probably go bonkers and, figuratively, drown. Drown like a disturbing madman lost adrift in an ocean of crazy. Good luck making it back, don't get your drool on me in the meantime. Some 'natural' things in the world are so big and bad that really only a Sorcerer stands a chance of saving humans from them. A fine balancing act is yours to perform. Or we can all have fun watching you go down the sure road to failure. Either way.
-Posts should be readable and of a reasonable ( 300-400 words 'average', depending on the situation ) length. Typos are inevitable, but consistent hackery and daggers unto my eyes will inspire me to remove you as a source of my cognitive pain and disruption. Now watch 'me' butcher something glaring and obvious now that I've said that. Anyway.
Setting Tenets:
- Biological life is highly variable in different areas of geography. The farther one goes from 'civilized' lands the more hostile the environment is likely to be to human life. Yet somehow, even in the most 'hostile' lands, humans can still have a presence. It might be like those poor buggers on skull island, all huddled and terrified behind their crumbling ruin of a wall and living a subsistence existence while oh so eager to resort to human sacrifice to survive... but, they are there. In fact, spooky horrible tribes like that are pretty much par for the course for the genre.
- Cultural and Technological differences between societies/civilizations in the setting can be profound. Some of this can be due to geographic separation though this is emphatically -not- necessary. Societies of 'unrealistic' differences can be juxtaposed against each other. Generally speaking the 'highest' level of technology in the setting is high-medieval. The lowest... well, see the above about the tribes and whatnot.
- Sorcery, Alchemy, and Mesmerism are the only 'supernatural' powers that humans can possess. All of them are, relatively speaking, the province of Sorcerers and not the common man. Sorcery is dark and feared, Alchemy is 'unnatural' and not understood, and Mesmerism is almost as feared as Sorcery with the power it can grant over Men. Sorcery revolves around the contacting/summoning/binding of Demons. Demons, as if it should need to be said, are 'not nice'.
- Barring someone wanting to include some sort of Amazonian culture somewhere on the map as a general rule in a 'swords & sorcery' setting gender has a significant impact on social roles and mores. More over patriarchal societies where women are by and large ruled if not simply owned by men are the most common type of social structure. This does not mean a woman can not hold social power of some kind or that unusual/unique women characters that flout these tendencies/conventions do not exist. If you can't stand these 'gender issues' I encourage you not to play.
- The same goes for race or ethnicity. Depending on how the setting gets created once the game is underway there very likely could be some racial stereotypes. Some people are going to be 'civilized' and some could be portrayed as more 'barbarous' or 'savage'. This is part of the genre. If you can't stand some these 'race issues' I encourage you not to play.
Player / Character Submissions:
- At least a paragraph or two on your concept and where you might want to go with it, so I can understand some depth.
- Let me know if you are familiar with the system and whether you have the books. ( Like I said, not required, but if you do have them I'm sure it will help you. )
- Stats aren’t so much a concern at this stage as concepts/fluffery. The system is pretty simple and we can go over that once we have a group assembled.
- Not all characters need to be ‘sorcerers’ in the sense of being ‘practitioners’ of the ‘dark arts’ or the like. Conan has used some rudimentary sorcery himself in his own adventures, in the original works by Howard! Just be open at least to supernatural ‘interaction’ of some kind with the character at least. Also, the stereotypes of modern fantasy ( big fighters, wimpy mages for example ) do not apply.