Delayed reaction
Dec. 1st, 2003 11:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kingandyWhere the hell have you been? We have so much to catch up on.
So, like I said, on Friday I had the day off (ill) and went to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ghostbritain's house for Adventure! in the evening. Much fun was had by all, and only partially impeded by the six months since the last session (I couldn't remember why arwel's character had gone off in a huff, and some of the rules knowledge required a little refreshing). A good evening well spent.
Saturday didn't start well since Lee backed out of watching DVDs on account of family blackmail or something. On the bright side, I managed to get a shitload of Christmas presents; I think I've only got one present left to buy, for [Bad username or unknown identity: [SECRET]]. I've already bought one present for them and then decided it was actually a perfect gift for somebody else... now I can't think of anything else to buy. Oh well.
Anyway, then I played some Hunter on Nook's GameCube. I've got to get me one of these fancy consoles at some point, though that will require choosing between them. GameCube is cheap and has Zelda, but is possibly on the way out ... X-Box has built in hard disk that means no faffing about with memory cards. Also storage of music for later enjoyment. PS2 has the EyeToy, and backwards compatibility with a vast, vast, VAST back-catalogue of PS1 games. I don't know. This indecision is a good thing as it is saving me money. Anyway, if I bought one I'd have to keep it in one place and be without it half the time, or lug it back and forth across the country.
We went back to my place in the evening and Nook ran Star Wars d20 for us. I had fun playing a Duros technician, and spent much of the evening doing a funny voice. I don't know exactly where it came from - it's sort of a round American accent with a nasal twinge, tighter than a NooYawk voice. I have a very distinct sound in my head, I think maybe it's somebody off the Simpsons. "'Ey, don'tchoo kids know yoo shu'n't be playin' in heyah?" I don't know. Voice aside, I had fun playing an employee of the Jedi Order who didn't much care about the actual objectives but was happy to pitch in if it didn't require too much effort on his part. Yoda was all "Mmm, vital to the future of the Galaxy this is," and I was all, "Yeh, okay, whatevuh you say, you the boss. I'll jus' go ova heyah an' play wid dis, okay?" He figured the Jedi were being overly melodramatic and, to him, at the end of the day this was just another job. Great fun.
Sunday was the Maelstrom playtest. Nook has already posted his thoughts and I agree with most, probably all, of his points there. Except I'm reasonably confident in the writers' ability to write the system they want, so if the game seems overly lethal then it's probably because they want the game to be lethal. After all, Omega was a reasonably safe system, if you kept your wits about you (and didn't walk around alone after dark, or at all.) And it's worth bearing in mind that what seems incredibly harsh on a linear can be distorted beyond all recognition on a three-day fest event. Healing will be less of a concern because of the lack of combat encounters, and mana will be even more valuable than we found it because of the duration. We got an idea of the system (particularly, Necromancers aren't as hard as Mr P thought - a run-out, indeed) but can't really know how it all balances out until the first full event.
One interesting thing about the system is the ability to play dead people and demons. I played an Undead Minion, because Nook wanted to be a necromancer and they wanted people to try out all the skill areas, so I know more about thatarea than demonology - I think they're similar in principle but demonology is more expensive and thus, probably, more powerful.
Necromancy does not involve the animation of corpses into a hideous mockery of life, under the complete control of the necromancer; rather it is the benevolent gifting of a physical body to a spirit that is already wandering the world. You become a wandering spirit by striking a deal with a necromancer; he performs a ritual on you that essentially severs you from heaven, then when you die you are a spirit. The ritual has no other effect, so necromancy is a kind of life insurance policy for people who are really scared of dying due to either a lack of faith in the Great Beyond or the idea that they may well be consigned to Hell. The idea is that, when you die, you walk back to your necromancer and he magically creates a body around you (at no cost to himself), though in practice any necromancer will do - you're not beholden to your original partner beyond what agreements you may have drawn up, personal honour and loyalty, and enlightened self-interest. The body created is disposable and can be recreated as many times as you want, and its strength is entirely dependent on the ability of the necromancer - Undead Minion characters have no character points or skills of their own.
The benefit to this is, of course, effective immortality (until higher-powered necromancers develop banishing spells or magical damage...), which makes you an excellent scout and spy. You're not invisible in your spirit form but you can hear and see things, and hide as well as a normal person, and of course you're intangible. The downside is the lack of skills and progression for the Minion. You're reliant on a necromancer developing their embodiment spells. This isn't such a concern as it might be - after all, it was a unique roleplaying experience - but it's a bit disconcerting to be left behind as everybody else develops and explores the Skill Hedge (which starts the game hidden and relies on people researching applications of the skills they already have).
In theory, if there's more than one necromancer in the game and even one of them is working on better bodies, it becomes an arms race and it's very much within the necromancer's interest to beef their undead up a bit because a neglected undead minion will go off and find a necromancer that takes better care of them. On the other hand there's the complication of the True Names. Most characters have a public name and a True Name; you need somebody's True Name to work some kinds of magic on them (and this includes necromancy and healing). Presumably higher level spells allow some sort of control or damage or murder powers (or banishment of spirits?) if you have a True Name. This makes a spirit reluctant to reveal their True Name to too many people. So telling all the necromancers on site is probably a bad idea. The relationship between necromancer and spirit is a complex one of mutual interest and respect; they both get something out of it.
I'm tempted to play an Undead Minion in the real thing, just to see how it balances out, but I'm also drawn to the idea of playing a Dryad. Because they sound cool, and I don't think I've actually played an LRP character with a strong wilderness vibe yet. I play a priest at SoS who is nominally a nature priest, but before his induction into the church he was terribly civilised and still doesn't really enjoy all this scrabbling about in the dirt.
That is all.
So, like I said, on Friday I had the day off (ill) and went to
ghostbritain's house for Adventure! in the evening. Much fun was had by all, and only partially impeded by the six months since the last session (I couldn't remember why arwel's character had gone off in a huff, and some of the rules knowledge required a little refreshing). A good evening well spent.Saturday didn't start well since Lee backed out of watching DVDs on account of family blackmail or something. On the bright side, I managed to get a shitload of Christmas presents; I think I've only got one present left to buy, for [Bad username or unknown identity: [SECRET]]. I've already bought one present for them and then decided it was actually a perfect gift for somebody else... now I can't think of anything else to buy. Oh well.
Anyway, then I played some Hunter on Nook's GameCube. I've got to get me one of these fancy consoles at some point, though that will require choosing between them. GameCube is cheap and has Zelda, but is possibly on the way out ... X-Box has built in hard disk that means no faffing about with memory cards. Also storage of music for later enjoyment. PS2 has the EyeToy, and backwards compatibility with a vast, vast, VAST back-catalogue of PS1 games. I don't know. This indecision is a good thing as it is saving me money. Anyway, if I bought one I'd have to keep it in one place and be without it half the time, or lug it back and forth across the country.
We went back to my place in the evening and Nook ran Star Wars d20 for us. I had fun playing a Duros technician, and spent much of the evening doing a funny voice. I don't know exactly where it came from - it's sort of a round American accent with a nasal twinge, tighter than a NooYawk voice. I have a very distinct sound in my head, I think maybe it's somebody off the Simpsons. "'Ey, don'tchoo kids know yoo shu'n't be playin' in heyah?" I don't know. Voice aside, I had fun playing an employee of the Jedi Order who didn't much care about the actual objectives but was happy to pitch in if it didn't require too much effort on his part. Yoda was all "Mmm, vital to the future of the Galaxy this is," and I was all, "Yeh, okay, whatevuh you say, you the boss. I'll jus' go ova heyah an' play wid dis, okay?" He figured the Jedi were being overly melodramatic and, to him, at the end of the day this was just another job. Great fun.
Sunday was the Maelstrom playtest. Nook has already posted his thoughts and I agree with most, probably all, of his points there. Except I'm reasonably confident in the writers' ability to write the system they want, so if the game seems overly lethal then it's probably because they want the game to be lethal. After all, Omega was a reasonably safe system, if you kept your wits about you (and didn't walk around alone after dark, or at all.) And it's worth bearing in mind that what seems incredibly harsh on a linear can be distorted beyond all recognition on a three-day fest event. Healing will be less of a concern because of the lack of combat encounters, and mana will be even more valuable than we found it because of the duration. We got an idea of the system (particularly, Necromancers aren't as hard as Mr P thought - a run-out, indeed) but can't really know how it all balances out until the first full event.
One interesting thing about the system is the ability to play dead people and demons. I played an Undead Minion, because Nook wanted to be a necromancer and they wanted people to try out all the skill areas, so I know more about thatarea than demonology - I think they're similar in principle but demonology is more expensive and thus, probably, more powerful.
Necromancy does not involve the animation of corpses into a hideous mockery of life, under the complete control of the necromancer; rather it is the benevolent gifting of a physical body to a spirit that is already wandering the world. You become a wandering spirit by striking a deal with a necromancer; he performs a ritual on you that essentially severs you from heaven, then when you die you are a spirit. The ritual has no other effect, so necromancy is a kind of life insurance policy for people who are really scared of dying due to either a lack of faith in the Great Beyond or the idea that they may well be consigned to Hell. The idea is that, when you die, you walk back to your necromancer and he magically creates a body around you (at no cost to himself), though in practice any necromancer will do - you're not beholden to your original partner beyond what agreements you may have drawn up, personal honour and loyalty, and enlightened self-interest. The body created is disposable and can be recreated as many times as you want, and its strength is entirely dependent on the ability of the necromancer - Undead Minion characters have no character points or skills of their own.
The benefit to this is, of course, effective immortality (until higher-powered necromancers develop banishing spells or magical damage...), which makes you an excellent scout and spy. You're not invisible in your spirit form but you can hear and see things, and hide as well as a normal person, and of course you're intangible. The downside is the lack of skills and progression for the Minion. You're reliant on a necromancer developing their embodiment spells. This isn't such a concern as it might be - after all, it was a unique roleplaying experience - but it's a bit disconcerting to be left behind as everybody else develops and explores the Skill Hedge (which starts the game hidden and relies on people researching applications of the skills they already have).
In theory, if there's more than one necromancer in the game and even one of them is working on better bodies, it becomes an arms race and it's very much within the necromancer's interest to beef their undead up a bit because a neglected undead minion will go off and find a necromancer that takes better care of them. On the other hand there's the complication of the True Names. Most characters have a public name and a True Name; you need somebody's True Name to work some kinds of magic on them (and this includes necromancy and healing). Presumably higher level spells allow some sort of control or damage or murder powers (or banishment of spirits?) if you have a True Name. This makes a spirit reluctant to reveal their True Name to too many people. So telling all the necromancers on site is probably a bad idea. The relationship between necromancer and spirit is a complex one of mutual interest and respect; they both get something out of it.
I'm tempted to play an Undead Minion in the real thing, just to see how it balances out, but I'm also drawn to the idea of playing a Dryad. Because they sound cool, and I don't think I've actually played an LRP character with a strong wilderness vibe yet. I play a priest at SoS who is nominally a nature priest, but before his induction into the church he was terribly civilised and still doesn't really enjoy all this scrabbling about in the dirt.
That is all.
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Re: Facets
Date: 2003-12-01 08:40 am (UTC)Re: Facets
Date: 2003-12-01 09:10 am (UTC)You have no idea how long it took me to find a picture of that character. :)
Re: Facets
Date: 2003-12-01 09:14 am (UTC)Get it right :-)
Re: Facets
Date: 2003-12-01 09:52 am (UTC)