Shadow War - WoD Mage-Only (Revised)
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Since last we spoke, @Glitch and I have come to realize that the story we'd imagined for Shadow War just... wasn't much going on. It bored me, quite frankly! And while I'm promising two years of my life once the darn rules come out and we get the ball rolling, I'd like it to be fun for me too.
So, the setting and story have changed. This isn't really a 'do you want to play' because the people who want to, will show up! This is a request for questions. I'm in the middle of designing this thing, so I can't see it from the outside. Please drop any questions that come to mind here so I can consider how best to answer ahead of time for the folks who're also wondering.
The End of the World As We Know It
Itâs 2017. Twenty-three years ago, the war for Ascension came to a close as the Traditions closed in on Room Zero.The Technocracyâs guardians had fallen. The Nephandi got there first and they didnât hesitate to do what their fallen souls demanded.
In the first few days of the wave of Decents and Torn Cauls that swept through the Earth, a plan put in place by the Technocracy bloomed. Old and nearly forgotten triggers went off: a double-handful of cities tried to tear free in a great rending. Only a few made it up to space where techno-magickal domes protected them from vacuum. The Mages in those few cities frantically worked to keep the Sleepers unaware of what was happening as they rose through the atmosphere. The 1994 Northridge Earthquake that shattered Los Angeles is the cover of choice for why that day and the ones after were so strange for southern California.
Only San Diegoâs lights are still on. The other cities float empty (arenât they?) in the dark.
Downstairs on Earth (âin the basement,â some whisper, afraid to say it more directly) there are hidden enclaves and struggling towns, small groups of Mages and the occasional consor who fight against the Nephandi on the front-line. They refuse to leave easily, no matter how dangerous it may be; Earth is home and they canât, they wonât, give it up without a fight.
In the past 23 years, Control in Avalon (hardcore Technocrats insist on calling it Station AV-10n instead) has done its best, using the council of the Wise to help direct its efforts to keep San Diegoâs sleeping population unaware of whatâs been going on. Time-mirrors into alternate realities grant just enough âcould have beenâ to fool those who donât ever wonder whether the world is what it appears.
Backdrop
- San Diego (Think Dark City ala the Movie)
Grid is neighborhoods with distinct themes/feeling/setting, rather than re-creation of RL San Diego - Station AV-10n (Colloquial: âThe Islandâ or âAvalonâ) (Think Tomorrowland)
Grid is neighborhoods, arranged/divided by Essence. It's on the Moon! - Earth: Earth (Colloquial: âDownstairsâ or âThe Basementâ)
No grid until/unless players start going downstairs regularly.
Question at will! What pops into your head as needing further explanation on wiki or in game, before you'd feel comfortable diving in?
ES
- San Diego (Think Dark City ala the Movie)
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An initial question is... with so many games focusing on nWoD, and you guys using GMC rules for it, will players need access to both sets of material?
How easy/hard to you expect knowledge of the old theme be for people - since I assume the majority of the potential playerbase won't have played MtA in many, many, many, many years?
- He who takes offense when not intended is a fool. He who takes offense when intended is a greater fool.
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The main things that comes to mind is--
What, other than mirrors into other realities, keeps the sleepers from figuring out what's going on?
What happens when someone drives too close to the city limits (edge of the world)?
Is the city now orbiting the sun as it floats in space?
How do mages explain the changes in the constellations that would cause?
What about spatial debris? (e.g. Pluto got reduced from planet to dwarf planet because it doesn't have enough mass to completely clear things from its orbital path. How do mages deal with spatial debris the city will come into contact with?)
How far away from earth is the city?
The other cities?
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As requested another question: What happens when Mages use common powers to access the Shadow/whatever other 'parallel' reality? And what lurks there?
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It sounds like humanity - the Sleepers - are completely clueless that anything at all happened. And that just stretches the realm of credibility for me way beyond any suspension of disbelief.
The basic premise doesn't sound too bad but given the details presented, I'd suggest making it an SF setting. Let them know the apocalypse happened if not the exact details of what and how.
Course, I have no idea what the Ascension War is/was as I haven't read any Mage since nMage first came out.
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@TNP So you've never watched Dark City?
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Nope. Never heard of it. (goes to google)
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OR you could have some plucky volunteers opt to run SF as their setting. Keep the tools, policies and house rules, but otherwise never interacting directly.
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@Arkandel said:
An initial question is... with so many games focusing on nWoD, and you guys using GMC rules for it, will players need access to both sets of material?
How easy/hard to you expect knowledge of the old theme be for people - since I assume the majority of the potential playerbase won't have played MtA in many, many, many, many years?
Are they going to be using NWoD though? The fluff they wrote is all Ascension, and they put Revised in the header which makes me think they're using Ascension.
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Quick note: old mage setting, GMC mage mechanics. Other answers to follow when I'm not on phone.
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Mage. In. SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE!
I'm on board!!
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Is there a good site to read up on the Ascenscion War? I could google, of course, but it's the 'good' part I'm asking about.
Though having read the wikipedia entry for Dark City and Tomorrowland, I'm probably not the audience for this game as much as I loved oMage. But that's also why I'm curious about the setting. I never read revised.
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And I feel fine. -
I kinda want to make a cabal of pretty young dangerous people with PBs from "The 100".
Call me, @coin.
I'm a rodeo clown.
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@tragedyjones said:
I kinda want to make a cabal of pretty young dangerous people with PBs from "The 100".
Call me, @coin.
Dibs on Marie Avgeropoulos!!
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@Miss-Demeanor said:
@tragedyjones said:
I kinda want to make a cabal of pretty young dangerous people with PBs from "The 100".
Call me, @coin.
Dibs on Marie Avgeropoulos!!
Gotta have a sword then.
I'm a rodeo clown.
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Q: An initial question is... with so many games focusing on nWoD, and you guys using GMC rules for it, will players need access to both sets of material?
A: Both would help, that's for sure! But I plan on doing up as comprehensive a marriage-equivalency set as possible (with HR's help on some of the math bits if needed) to make sure that folks who are familiar with GMC/new but not old, have a decent chance of understanding what's in place.
Q: How easy/hard to you expect knowledge of the old theme be for people - since I assume the majority of the potential playerbase won't have played MtA in many, many, many, many years?
A: The uncertain Truce between the three factions (Traditions, Hermetics, Technocracy) and the SPACE CITY are a bit of a toss-up than usual. Someone who doesn't feel comfortable with the older setting and theme can still play, just someone who's newer to being a Mage and thus not all caught up in the previous Ascension War situations. I don't see a problem with writing up This Is What It Means To Me as well on some pieces, if only to help establish how I plan to handle decisions.
Q: What, other than mirrors into other realities, keeps the sleepers from figuring out what's going on?
A: The Mages themselves. If the Sleepers realized there's a great big magi-tech dome overhead, and that a computer (Control on Avalon) was handling the nitty-gritty mechanics of their world, they'd Disbelieve. The paradox would rip the city to shreds. Goodbye, last remaining population! Goodbye, any Mage who can't think up a spell fast enough!
Control will also handle the nitty-gritty of people 'traveling'. An NPC who wants to visit LA is going to end up tucked away in a sleeping-pod for a week, and then get deposited back into San Diego with a set of memories about how that trip went. Food moving in and out, how much, to which stores, etc.? Handwavium Control. It's a computer (with a bit of extra story fluff added in) so that it can take care of the level of detail that a person couldn't contain in their head.
Q: What happens when someone drives too close to the city limits (edge of the world)?
A: See above! Control takes over.
Q: Is the city now orbiting the sun as it floats in space?
A: I had personally imagined it more like a bit of tether hooking the city-chunk down to where it used to be. Now, that might not work exactly as-stated (Why can't the Nephandi climb the tether and get at our Heroes, ES?) but that's the general idea.
Q: How do mages explain the changes in the constellations that would cause?
A: Magi-tech dome says there's no change at all. Same with the weather. Did you wonder why San Diego is so pleasant all the time? So sunny? So warm and so rarely more than a bit of rain?
Now you know!Q: What about spatial debris? (e.g. Pluto got reduced from planet to dwarf planet because it doesn't have enough mass to completely clear things from its orbital path. How do mages deal with spatial debris the city will come into contact with?)
A: Magi-tech dome, though I'm not agin' using that as a bit of plot if the time seems right for some 'oh god what about the dome we're all going to diiiiiie'.
Q: How far away from earth is the city?
A: I haven't thought about that at all! Does it matter? Or is it just curiosity? If it matters, I'll think up a number. Heck, I might think one up anyway just so it's there.
Q: The other cities?
A: Plot-distance. Do you want to go explore a dead city to try figuring out why it's dead? Maybe score some phat loot? Sounds like a plot to me!
Q: What happens when Mages use common powers to access the Shadow/whatever other 'parallel' reality? And what lurks there?
A: This is still under discussion, especially since you reminded me we need to think it up. Thank you!
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I am having flashes of the Mega City from the Matrix.
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@tragedyjones said:
@Miss-Demeanor said:
@tragedyjones said:
I kinda want to make a cabal of pretty young dangerous people with PBs from "The 100".
Call me, @coin.
Dibs on Marie Avgeropoulos!!
Gotta have a sword then.
I'm okay with that!
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@Miss-Demeanor said:
@tragedyjones said:
I kinda want to make a cabal of pretty young dangerous people with PBs from "The 100".
Call me, @coin.
Dibs on Marie Avgeropoulos!!
Ugh. Fine. But I'm not using Finn's actor. Dude's annoying!
"Excuse the hell out of you. He's a bag of dicks. I'm a carefully curated box of cocks." -- to @GirlCalledBlu upon being misrepresented.
