Trying Something Completely New

[Botulism]

So as I mentioned a few days back, I've been given the keys to an entirely new sphere that, to my knowledge, has never been tried before on a multi-sphere game: Promethean. @Sonder at Fallcoast is letting me try it, and I appreciate the opportunity.

That said, I don't want this to be a discussion of FC or TR, why you will or won't play there, or any of the issues that can and have been discussed in the Pit (yeah, I know, threads drift, but...). So let me explain up front WHY I decided to do a Promethean sphere on FC instead of a Promethean-only game, and then we can get to the core of what I'm trying to do.

There were several factors in deciding to just make a new sphere there when offered. To me, at it's core Promethean is SO different from the other splats, but it's a little-known game and therefore hard to make work as MU*. It's difficult to keep a game going when it's, at most, a dozen or so players. So yes, honestly, making it a sphere on an active game with a good size playerbase was a major factor. But not for the reason you might be thinking.

Promethean is a game of isolation and alienation. In order to make that work, you either need an ST willing to play dozens of NPC Mortals on a regular basis (ending in burnout), a bunch of players willing to play Mortals (perhaps every Prom player plays a Mortal, too, but good luck making that happen), or an existing game with lots of non-Prometheans. When the only players are Prometheans themselves, who exactly are you isolated and alienated from?

Promethean also has something the other splats don't: an endgame. In pretty much every other splat, building power and surviving is the goal. It ends when you get bored or get dead. Prometheans can actually become mortal, and that's the whole goal of the game. That fascinates and excites me in a way WoD/CoD hasn't in ages.

So instead of sipping drink in a club, or playing in private cliques, the Prometheans have to go out and figure out what being human means. They have to keep changing their RP circles as Disquiet drives away friends. They have to DO things, and work towards an actual, real, achievable in-game goal. An ending.

Maybe it'll sputter. Maybe it'll crash and burn. In any case, I'm trying it, and I'm quite interested in what others think and have to offer on the idea. I don't want a ginormous sphere or anything, I just want to try something truly new, and I want to help others have fun with more personal stories instead of metaplots and big bad villains to kill.

[Arkandel]

How are you planning to keep it from being an island-sphere (doing its own thing aside from all the others) and at the same time keeping its identity (so the PCs aren't merely yet another weird kind of Superfriends)?

[Botulism]

@Arkandel That's the tightrope I'll have to walk. I've found an IC reason to ease some the effects of Disquiet and Wastes without, I hope, neutering them entirely. It's been pointed out to me that just interacting with, say, a Werewolf in human form should cause discomfort and incur penalties, yet most players in MU*dom ignore this. That's a real risk here as well.

Disquiet still exists, though, and I plan to enforce it. The Wastes have been relaxed, in part to make it easier on the rest of the game and not turn the grid into a giant, festering pit, and in part to allow for a stationary existence - something hard for Prometheans to have. They'll 'live' in their own, hidden commune away from the city, but can visit and even stay overnight for short periods of time. I'm having an IC group police their own, looking for and bringing back any Created who just try to up and live in town. If need be, for the sake of the game as a whole I've been given okay to have an NPC bring them back by force before Wastes can really set in. Balancing my sphere's RP and the overall integrity of the game is going to be a focus.

I'm also making up Milestone lists for every character as Staffnotes on them so I can track them, and so future staff can if something happens to me. I'm encouraging players to log and post as much as they can so I can keep an eye out for milestones as they happen. In short, I'm trying to focus on theme and personal story instead of Plots.

[tragedyjones]

This is coming from a place of not knowing jack about the FC setting, so it will be vague.

The core story of Promethean is the Pilgrimage. You need to focus on that. And while in a more traditional game, the Pilgrimage covers a geographical trek, you may have certain Milestones that are required and you may want to have a way ahead of time for them to be met.

To keep the Prometheans interesting:

• Let them reach the end of their road. I cannot read Promethean often enough to remember all the terms because it makes me sad, but you should allow the newly Human prometheans to remain as PCs. This makes the Promethean intriguing to other supers who cannot escape their fate.
• Use other Supernaturals as possible ways to learn about humanity. Allow the Refinement of Quicksilver especially.
• Tie them to their Humanity. The Created are at once the most and least monstrous of all Supernaturals.Their behavior should be alien to most, but also eerily familiar.
• Let them be badasses as they are able to be truly hardcore. Especially in the inferior 1st Edition of CofD, a Promethean can slug it out with a Kuruthing Uratha without much effort.
• Allow as much crossover opportunity as a player wants, but don't force it. Ulgans can see spirits (and, IIRC, ghosts). Maybe the Quashilliman (sp) have ties to the Aether, and who knows how Azothic Items and relics interact, etc. Also, maybe steal the idea that a "dead" promethean has to traverse the underworld.

[Botulism]

@tragedyjones said:

This is coming from a place of not knowing jack about the FC setting, so it will be vague.

The core story of Promethean is the Pilgrimage. You need to focus on that. And while in a more traditional game, the Pilgrimage covers a geographical trek, you may have certain Milestones that are required and you may want to have a way ahead of time for them to be met.

Pretty much agreed.

To keep the Prometheans interesting:

• Let them reach the end of their road. I cannot read Promethean often enough to remember all the terms because it makes me sad, but you should allow the newly Human prometheans to remain as PCs. This makes the Promethean intriguing to other supers who cannot escape their fate.

Fully intend to. They CAN become Mortal in-game.

• Use other Supernaturals as possible ways to learn about humanity. Allow the Refinement of Quicksilver especially.

I think you mean Silver, if we're talking about other supers, but yeah. They ca. I already have at least one.

• Tie them to their Humanity. The Created are at once the most and least monstrous of all Supernaturals.Their behavior should be alien to most, but also eerily familiar.
• Let them be badasses as they are able to be truly hardcore. Especially in the inferior 1st Edition of CofD, a Promethean can slug it out with a Kuruthing Uratha without much effort.
• Allow as much crossover opportunity as a player wants, but don't force it. Ulgans can see spirits (and, IIRC, ghosts). Maybe the Quashilliman (sp) have ties to the Aether, and who knows how Azothic Items and relics interact, etc. Also, maybe steal the idea that a "dead" promethean has to traverse the underworld.

Yep. I agree with all of this and am focusing on it.

[Coin]

Makes you kind'a wish @tragedyjones had been allowed to do this in like--2012.

[tragedyjones]

@Coin

[Botulism]

@Coin Sorry to hear that.

[Thenomain]

@Coin said:

Makes you kind'a wish @tragedyjones had been allowed to do this in like--2012.

We turned down Promethean when I was there because two reasons. One: There was already enough shit on the game that wasn't getting the loving support that it needed. Two: See one.

[Alzie]

@Thenomain I thought it was because Promethean was completely incompatible with every other sphere or any setting in general because hit max disquiet and the only solution is for everyone to kill the Promethean or the Promethean to leave. Speaking of max disquiet, Curious how you'll handle that situation @Botulism.

[Botulism]

@Alzie I won't be using max disquiet. It'll have a cooldown at all levels.