Weblog Licentiae Moeticae

Well, this has embarrassingly been a while.

Had to clean up some stuff, and realized that it's been four months or so.  OK, OK, have a map of a game that I'm thinking of running:

 

Yeah, not the most exciting thing in the world, but content is content.

Drabble - The Vampire.

When the team finally breached the last defense of the complex entombing the heretic vampire, the goal was not rescue.  After all, it had been two weeks - and the same group that had entombed the vampire had also entombed a score of babies with him.

They were surprised to find him weakly feeding one of the (all quite unbitten) babies formula.

"The bastards left plenty of that," the vampire rasped, after someone gave him a drink.

"That must have been..." One rescuer said, only to be cut off by the vampire.

"...EXACTLY LIKE it would have been for you."

Drabble - The ruins.

For those who are wondering: a drabble is an attempt to create a story in 100 words: no more, no less. This one is a reaction to a story that Eric A Burns wrote a lonnnnnng time back; I've never gotten around to doing more with it.

I looked down at the ruins of The Tower That Cornered The World. 200 years, and still it glowed through the surf.

"So..." I asked, shivering in August night, "...it wasn't true, was it? What they said in school, about how the Archmages ruled the world? What they did, to the old Americans; that was just propaganda that the New Republic put out, right?" Unspoken: I don't deserve to be hunted, right? Just because I'm too much of a mage?

Ed ground out his cigarette.  "Naw. They really were that bad." He shrugged.

"But we got a ways to go."

Fanboy-1 (Quantum 5) (A timeline for GURPS Infinite Worlds)

Fanboy-1
(With apologies to Ken Hite and Kim Newman)

On paper Fanboy-1 is, if not a cash cow, at least a cash goat for Infinity. It's a world where most of the greats of science fiction, fantasy, and horror fiction have had more productive careers; the resulting works are valuable not only on Homeline, but in almost any timeline with a divergence point after about 1945. All of which leads to a certain reluctance to officially notice what might be faint warning signs...

Fanboy-1, 1993

Current Affairs
Infinity ruthlessly strip-mines the intellectual property of this timeline while ignoring subtly disquieting trends.

Divergence Point
1927: H.P. Lovecraft has his short story "Call of Cthulhu" published a year early, triggering a reasonably lucrative (and lifesaving) relationship with Hollywood.

(SCA) Pelican piece for a friend.

This was written for a friend of mine who received the major service award in the SCA.

Padway-3 (Quantum 5) (A timeline for GURPS Infinite Worlds)

Padway-3

The Secret is thoroughly compromised on Padway-3, and there is little consolation to Infinity that this is due to no fault of theirs. The blame rests with Jerry Moore, an involuntary crosstime filibusterer who appeared on this world over sixty years ago and wasted no time in fomenting a revolution among oppressed American colonists. By the time he died of old age in 1800, he had recreated a USA that promises to challenge the Ottoman and Chinese empires for supremacy of the globe; and as Moore had shown no interest in hiding his origins, the entire timeline now knows that crosstime travel is at least possible. Homeline is still trying to determine how to proceed.

Padway-3, 1815

Current Affairs
War looms as revolutionaries led by the heirs to a crosstime adventurer challenge magical empires, while Homeline tries to decide what to do about it.

Divergence Point
1700 AD: The sudden resurgence of magic results in the conquest by the world by the Chinese, Ottoman, and Spanish empires.

Major Civilizations
Western (diffuse), Islamic (empire), Chinese (Empire)

Great Powers
American Alliance (alliance, CR3), Chinese Empire (Dictatorship, CR6), Ottoman Empire (Dictatorship, CR5)

Worldline Data
TL: 7/5
Quantum: 5
Mana Level: normal
Centrum Zone: Inaccessible
Infinity Level: Z1

Yes. Yes, I have been neglectful.

Long since past time that I did some things here. Going a month without blogging gaming or bardic material is just a bit too long.

Well, easily fixed.

Contagion (a group for the roleplaying game In Nomine)

Contagion

This group has its origins in the aftereffects of the death of Prince Makatiel in 1348 AD, and has grimly held on ever since. Its members were Servitors of Disease who traded most of their freedom and dignity to Saminga in exchange for their continued existence; each one of them bitterly resents the trade. Even their Word-Bound are distinctly considered second-class servants in the hierarchy of Death. It was, perhaps, inevitable that they would form a society dedicated around recovering their former glory.

It is not entirely clear that Saminga is unaware of this group, or that he would particularly care about them even if he did.

Incognito (Quantum 5) (GURPS, 4E)

This Quantum 5 world diverged from Homeline's on March 28th, 1911, 7:00 PM Greenwich Mean Time. This date is not actually known to Infinity's researchers; they have at this point only narrowed the divergence point to somewhere in the spring of 1911. What appears to have happened was that some sort of quantum effect (translation: "nobody knows") thoroughly randomized human conceptions across the planet: no one conceived past that point has a precise genetic match to the equivalent person in Homeline's history. The effects of this were not immediately obvious until about the 1950s, and even today Incognito is a surprisingly close parallel to Homeline's (and our) 2006. The World Wars and Cold War still occurred; the United States still dominates the post-Cold War era; and the many of the same conflicts still simmer. But the population of Incognito is by now completely different... which includes its celebrities, entertainers, and politicians.

This fact appeals to a large segment of Homeline's ruling class.

Dodona / Bolera (GURPS 4E, Supers)

This was actually written for submission to SJG's Pyramid magazine, but alas, the conversion of that from a weekly e-zine to a monthly pdf made it superfluous. So it goes.

This writeup uses the GURPS 4e rules, and is designed to be for a Supers game.

Supporting Cast: Dodona / Bolera

The 2009 Phantom Corsair (In Nomine)

(The In Nomine core rulebook is available here)

The 2009 Phantom Corsair
Primal Spirit

Corporeal Forces: 3 Strength: 6 Agility: 6
Ethereal Forces: 2 Intelligence: 4 Perception: 4
Celestial Forces: 2 Will: 4 Perception: 4
Charisma/2

Element: Tech (Vehicles)

Affinities: Speed (Primal)

Skills: Area Knowledge/1 (the Marches), Dodge/6, Dream-Shaping/1, Driving/6, Language (English/3, German/1), Savoir-Faire/2

Songs: Dreams (All/1), Motion (All/2), Draining/1 (Celestial)

Dread: Loss of Mobility/2

Image: This.

Harry Cooper, Soldier of Destiny, True Prophet (In Nomine)

Harry Cooper
Soldier of Destiny
True Prophet

Corporeal Forces: 2 Strength: 3 Agility: 5
Ethereal Forces: 3 Intelligence: 6 Precision: 6
Celestial Forces: 3 Will: 6 Perception: 6
Status/4, Charisma +1

Skills: Area Knowledge (local area/3), Artistry/6 (painting), Climbing/3, Knowledge (History/3, Kabbalah/6, Linguistics/3, Research/3), Languages (French/1, Greek/1, Hebrew/3, Latin/1), Move Silently/6, Savoir-Faire/1, Seduction/2

Songs: Form (Ethereal/6)

Attunements: Library Card

Snarky (Ethereal for In Nomine)

Happy birthday, Eric Burns-White. Next time, remind us ahead of time, huh? I only really noticed an hour or so ago.

Snarky

Corporeal Forces: 2 Strength: 4 Agility: 4
Ethereal Forces: 3 Intelligence: 8 Precision: 4
Celestial Forces: 4 Will: 4 Perception: 12
Vessel: None

Skills: Area Knowledge (The Marches), Artistry/1 (webcomics), Dream-Shaping/3, Emote/2, Knowledge (History of the Marches/3, Omens/3, Psychology/2, Webcomics/6), Move Silently/1, Survival/3 (Marches)

Songs: Dreams (All/4), Healing (Ethereal/2, Celestial/1), Light (Corporeal/1), Projection (Ethereal/1), Shields (All/3), Tongues (Ethereal/1)

Elements: Information: Wisdom (Primary); Emotions: Laziness (Secondary)

Affinities: Divination (strong); Books (moderate); Obscurement (moderate)

Dread: Updating (Uncommon/3)

Cryptozoological Entry: Wolpertinger (In Nomine)

Name: Wolpertinger
Also Known As: Skvader
Type: Naturally-Occurring Zoological Oddity

Corporeal Forces: 1 Strength: 1 Agility: 3 Body Hits: 1
Ethereal Forces: 0 Intelligence: 2 Precision: 1 Mind Hits: 0
Celestial Forces: 0 Will: 1 Perception: 2 Soul Hits: 0

Skills: Fighting/6, Dodge/6, Flying/6, Move Silently/6
Songs: None Esoteric Abilities: Flight; -6 to hit due to unusually tough feathers on wings
Primary Attack: [Antlers/7/7/+3/-]
Secondary Attack: [Teeth/7/12/+3/-]

Appearance: A rabbit with wings, fangs, antlers, and duck feet.

Favored Habitat: Forest
Number Typically Encountered: 2-12
General Classification: Ethereals: Neutral; Heaven: Neutral; Hell: Neutral; Humanity: Neutral

Liar's Shout (and Liar's Shout Royale) (In Nomine)

Liar's Shout (and Liar's Shout Royale)
Alchemical Ritual

This alchemical talisman always comes as a brooch or necklace; when activated, it uses the Corporeal Song of Cacophony to give the false aural impression of mortality. Someone wearing an activated Shout will generate pseudo-disturbance as if he, she or it was actually a regular human: in practical terms, this means that any damage dealt to the user will seem generate the usual one point of disturbance per Body Hit. Note that this is not really disturbance: it can be detected as false with a (Perception - skill level of the Song) roll, and it will not affect the formation of Tethers at all.

This alchemical ritual can come in handy in a wide range of covert operations, so many sorcerers learn it; they can usually find a buyer, or in a pinch, somebody who'd take it as a bribe. Those relatively few Gamesters with both knowledge of enchantment/alchemy and the Humanity attunement have taken this ritual a step further; their version of Liar's Shout can be used to create an illusion that a mortal is actually a celestial. Duration and detection is as for the Corporeal Song of Cacophony, except that the skill roll to detect is actually (Perception - Celestial Forces of the alchemist); any disturbance being masked by a Liar's Shout Royale will be merely delayed until the talisman ceases to work.