PDA

View Full Version : Thoughts on a Mage game...



Umael
2010-04-30, 10:59 AM
NOTE: Advice would be nice, but not necessary. Questions, sure, love them, makes me think a bit more about what I am going to do. Comments, go for it. Mostly though, I'm just trying to put my thoughts down.

Setting: Mage game, the Etherites have won and remade reality into something that is a cross between Girl Genius, James Bond, and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. The PCs are all British citizens in a Victorian era-like world, where knowledge of the Ether allows space stations, Luna bases, and (disasterous) expeditions to other planets.

PCs:
Dr. Kensington, mad scientist, pre-mad, Ph. D. in physics
Langley, Royal Air Force captain, aeronautical engineer, specializing in weapons
Mary, medical student
Ben Eaton, Royal Army captain, been in the field, knows a few exotic tricks
Eve, teen prodigy, specializing in the Other Citizens (ghosts)

First session:
Kensington, Langley, and Mary are all members of the Royal Geographic Society, Cartography Division (secret agency, aka, the James Bond effect). They were called away to Bath, Wales, to investigate a disturbance that had already killed the mayor.

Ben Eaton was woken up by his ghost friend who told him that it just got word from the Midnight Express of a disturbance in Bath and that he needed to protect "Church".

Eve was living in Bath and the cause of the PCs getting together, indirectly. She had captured a malovent spirit, but the container got lost. When said container was broken, the spirit escaped (in the mayor's home/office), and slew the mayor. She got woken up by some of her ghost friends and told to go investigate.

The RGS arrived first by gyrocopter, where the area of the disturbance was cordoned off by the local police force (not knowing it was a ghost). They decided to wait in a nearby pub. Ben arrived next and noticed them in the pub, deciding to confront them. Eve wandered onto the scene... and cue the ghost deciding to make its presence known.

Two bobbies get thrown out of the house by the ghost, which breaks their necks, killing them. A third survives, but is badly hurt. Mary and Dr. Kensington go to see to his injuries. Eve, Langley, and Ben go to investigate/confront.

The two dead bobbies get up and attack. Langley and Ben put them down, while Eve gets into the building and notices the vengeful ghost and hears it making a deal with something else*. Eve re-captures the ghost and the something else retreats.

(* - the something else is one of the Others, a malevolvent force that threats the entire world - a combination of the worst of redcap, sidhe, sluagh, demon, and little green men (think XOCOM) - it's voice is sickly sweet, like carmel apples when the apple is rotten.)

Dr. Kensington is extremely interested in Eve, since she is a prodigy, and Eve identifies her last name as "Church".


What next?

Eve needs to take care of the ghost - possibly the RGS can help, since I need to get everyone back to the RGS. They might want to stay in Bath, so I need to get everyone back to London.

Let's see... the gyrocopter was damaged, but Bath could have a local gremlin** to help out. Said gremlin could be the RGS's contact in Bath.

Mu, their superior in the RGS (who assigned the other three where to go), can contact them directly using a "wireless wire".

It would be a good idea for the next game session to have "downtime" to allow the PCs to interact - if all goes well, Eve and Ben will be joining the RGS as junior members. Possibly as a reward, the original three RGS will be given tickets to the opera.

Caliphbubba
2010-04-30, 12:00 PM
This game sounds very fun. I've always been a fan of the genre.

Are all of the PC's Awakened?

What happened to the other Traditions? Do any of the over Conventions of the Technocracy still exsist? Specifically the Void Engineers....I seem to remember reading in one of the Convention books that the VE and Etherites were bascially the same thing for the longest time.

all in all the game sounds like a blast.

Umael
2010-04-30, 12:08 PM
This game sounds very fun. I've always been a fan of the genre.

Thanks. I hope it will be a lot of fun. The first game went off well.


Are all of the PC's Awakened?

They are all Sparks, yes.

For a note - I am using Spark instead of Arete.

What's the difference?

One word - safety.

Using Spark, the PCs can have higher Spheres than their Spark... but it tends to get Paradox.



What happened to the other Traditions? Do any of the over Conventions of the Technocracy still exsist? Specifically the Void Engineers....I seem to remember reading in one of the Convention books that the VE and Etherites were bascially the same thing for the longest time.

Akashics, Choristers, Verbena, and Dreamspeakers are still around, if I recall, but the domination of the world is such that the traditional (pardon the pun) view of Mage being the battle for reality does not apply. It is a different world, with different challenges.

The Technocracy is gone, as science has been replaced by Science! In the last game, Ben stopped a wall from catching fire by doing a Matter effect by infusing the wall with electricty, since we all know that fire and electricity are different energy states and cannot co-exist.

(Yes, over the top, ridiculous science-theories abound.)

Caliphbubba
2010-04-30, 12:20 PM
They are all Sparks, yes.

For a note - I am using Spark instead of Arete.

What's the difference?

One word - safety.

Using Spark, the PCs can have higher Spheres than their Spark... but it tends to get Paradox.

Oh that's a very cool idea. Fits in great with the whole Girl Genius thing.
.


Akashics, Choristers, Verbena, and Dreamspeakers are still around, if I recall, but the domination of the world is such that the traditional (pardon the pun) view of Mage being the battle for reality does not apply. It is a different world, with different challenges.

*nods* that makes sense.




The Technocracy is gone, as science has been replaced by Science! In the last game, Ben stopped a wall from catching fire by doing a Matter effect by infusing the wall with electricty, since we all know that fire and electricity are different energy states and cannot co-exist.

(Yes, over the top, ridiculous science-theories abound.)

Haha that's great! It could be an interesting dynamic if they still were out there cast in the more anti-heroic type light, after all the Technocracy started out as wanting to protect humanity from the ravages of out of control Mages. I could see something simillar happening in a Girl Genius-type setting as the Sparks are a pretty dangerous crowd to be around.

JeenLeen
2010-04-30, 12:29 PM
It sounds like a good game. An alternative world where the Consensus has shifted such that the only non-paradoxical magic is fantastical Science.

Even the boring supertech of the Technocracy could still be paradoxical. As is, of course, the mystical magic of the remaining Traditions.

It would make sense for some Technocracy-type mages to still exist as independent Crafts, rebels hoping to undermine the Etherite rule and put forth a calmer consensus. Think Othar from Girl Genius, without the suicidal tendencies.


Being able to learn Spheres above your Spark/Arete is a new mechanic, but of course the DM can add whatever he wants. It's a nice way to preserve the potentiality for Paradox for the PCs when they are all somewhere where magic is completely coincidental for them.
I guess they could go to some Umbral realms and find out some interesting things when their Science no longer works as well. Maybe even try to shake their faith in Science and see if their paradigm falters.

Umael
2010-04-30, 12:37 PM
Could be interesting, but I think I have enough dealing with non-traditional Mage issues. Instead of Umbral Realms, they are going to be busy dealing with French double-agents and outbreaks of vampirism (which is a disease, obviously). And after they save the world, they might have to attend a wedding or a dance - oh, the horror!