Author Topic: Starting a game and running the first teaser  (Read 11279 times)

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Offline mocking bird

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Starting a game and running the first teaser
« on: October 18, 2009, 08:04:57 PM »
So  I have been going a lot of re-reading of the Throne of God and I have come across a few issues and would like some advice on what other's have done.  They are primarily for if you ran the 'Teaser from Heaven'.  Mainly magic.

I am planning on running it in HARP but have a question regarding spheres.  In the book it says that if using RM the Arcane would be available since there aren't three realms yet.  I think this would be a great idea but it does have a few problems.  Mainly what to do in the current world.  Arcane could be considered 'pure magic' that the church is looking for - but most likely isn't trying to hard and would still consider it corrupt.  The Shadow Order would likely give various body parts to learn the arcane as well.  Or count it as really really really rare making new list acquisition possibly problematic.

You could apply this same idea to the spheres allowing the player initially to choose any spell since there is only one 'magic'.  But afterwards make them chose a sphere - for free of course - since the cosmology simply isn't the same.

I am also assuming granted mana is right out.  Fixed could also be a problem since the flora and fauna would be much changed.  However if a player had some angel/demon parts from Heaven itself those could be incredibly potent, and valuable.  Save the trouble of carting around demon bits all the time.

Ambient mana has a similar issue.  I would imagine the recovery levels in Heaven would be significantly higher than in Belkanath.  Would Ulcers affect this rate as well.

And non system questions - what did the party do about hiding their origins?  All sorts of orders would come out of the woodwork and want to kill the party for heresy - Lonnuso and Sinnius come to mind.  Or the Sowers of Seeds may want the party to live and spread their story causing a schism within the Church.

Their clothes and general equipment might appear antiquated and quite valuable.  But obviously a forgery - they look (too) perfect but obviously aren't old enough. Old coins as well, if there was money in Heaven, there weren't guards for the horses after all.  What would it say, in lieu of 'In God we trust' would it just say 'Trust me' on it?

But seroiusly, I am just envisioning a Roman centurion speaking nothing but fluent ancient Latin or a commoner speaking Aramaic or an Egyptian merchant who speaks ancient Greek and Egyptian all from Palastine circa 28CE appearing outside of 1000 CE Rome and what kind of chaos it would cause.
Believe nothing, no matter where you read it or who has said it, not even if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.    Buddha

Offline Defendi

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Re: Starting a game and running the first teaser
« Reply #1 on: October 19, 2009, 10:25:30 AM »
Gerik, if you're reading, it might take a day or two for me to answer this (my mother just had a surgical proceedure).  Answer as best you can and I'll confirm or correct.  :)
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Offline GerikGnome

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Re: Starting a game and running the first teaser
« Reply #2 on: October 19, 2009, 12:30:53 PM »
I can comment on the Arcane magic thing.  Arcane magic and magic of all types existed before the Sundering.  Using Arcane above other types of magic was still rare, but some did.  Those who did when transported to the Mortal Realm retain the ability to cast Arcane (you don't forget how to tap the primal powers).  However, I have never met in playtest, or heard of in any other context, a caster from the Mortal Realm who can cast Arcane.  At very least it's even more rare there.

The Church in general would consider using Arcane magic at least as evil as using any magic.  There may be some who see it as more divine and pure magic, but those would probably consider it an even bigger blasphemy to use it than regular magic.

For other types of magic/whatnot, Defendi's general rule of thumb has always been that if changes in scenery would affect the usage of character abilities, we assume that with practice (maybe a little roleplaying), the character is able to adapt his powers intact to the new scene.

I assume Mana recovery in HARP is similar to Power Points in RM (Never played HARP; I'm not part of that playtest).  Recovery in Heaven, Hell, and Ulcers happens at the same rate as anywhere.  However,
(click to show/hide)

For non-system questions: Our party always takes great pains to hide our origins.  Our very existence is heresy. 
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At that point, as long as you don't go around shouting that you're from Heaven (or are a Gnome so no one will believe you anyway), no one should be the wiser.

I hope that helps.

Offline markc

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Re: Starting a game and running the first teaser
« Reply #3 on: October 19, 2009, 12:54:15 PM »
Gerik, if you're reading, it might take a day or two for me to answer this (my mother just had a surgical proceedure).  Answer as best you can and I'll confirm or correct.  :)

 I hope everything goes well.
MDC
Bacon Law: A book so good all PC's need to be recreated.
Rule #0: A GM has the right to change any rule in a book to fit their game.
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Use a System to tell the story do not let the system play you.

Offline Nejira

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Re: Starting a game and running the first teaser
« Reply #4 on: October 21, 2009, 08:53:00 PM »
For non-system questions: Our party always takes great pains to hide our origins.  Our very existence is heresy.

Can you explain that further please?
"I'd Rather Be a Rising Ape Than a Fallen Angel"

Offline mocking bird

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Re: Starting a game and running the first teaser
« Reply #5 on: October 25, 2009, 12:19:23 PM »
Your party started out living in Heaven and fought outside the literal House of God.  They saw the Prophets performing the Sundering ritual - but don't know which one finished it which is one of the main bones of contention between the various racial churches.  Their existence is heresy because their tales could cast into doubt the very foundations of current church dogma and tradition and perhaps even contradict scripture.  For example Atavists have a pantheist approach of 'God is Nature' and that the Prophets were mere bystandards at the Sundering and claim their religion is the 'true' religion as practiced in Heaven.  The party could very well prove their claim true since they were members of the 'original' church, if there really was one.

Back to the original topic, I was thinking furthere about how arcane might have changed when the very nature of reality has changed.  It depends on if you see the development of realms as a result of magical training/specialization or if they came about as necessity as arcane simply would not work kind of like taking an American electric razor and plugging it into an outlet in China causing it to run much differently due to differences in the outlet current.

It is similar to how elemental magic might have changed as well.  Were there elemental planes before the Sundering?
Believe nothing, no matter where you read it or who has said it, not even if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.    Buddha

Offline Defendi

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Re: Starting a game and running the first teaser
« Reply #6 on: October 25, 2009, 09:04:03 PM »
It is similar to how elemental magic might have changed as well.  Were there elemental planes before the Sundering?

Yes.
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Offline Defendi

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Re: Starting a game and running the first teaser
« Reply #7 on: October 25, 2009, 09:22:53 PM »
Okay, family medical stuff has calmed down.  I can respond now.

I can comment on the Arcane magic thing.  Arcane magic and magic of all types existed before the Sundering.  Using Arcane above other types of magic was still rare, but some did.  Those who did when transported to the Mortal Realm retain the ability to cast Arcane (you don't forget how to tap the primal powers).  However, I have never met in playtest, or heard of in any other context, a caster from the Mortal Realm who can cast Arcane.  At very least it's even more rare there.

Yeah, it's pretty rare, but some people still practice it.  There are probably even people in the church who practice it, concentrating on spell lists that don't attack suspicion.  Gerik practices elemental magic, so he looks like a magician and is more likely to draw witch-hunters.

The Church in general would consider using Arcane magic at least as evil as using any magic.  There may be some who see it as more divine and pure magic, but those would probably consider it an even bigger blasphemy to use it than regular magic.

This isn't Gerik's fault, because I've let him believe this, but this isn't quite right.  Technically, the Church doesn't have a problem with Arcane, it's the original magic of God, after all.  However, the people that are likely to realize this are also not going to move against Gerik because they'll assume that he's a Gnomish Priest and that killing him would be an act of Holy War against the Gnomish Church.  Those who don't care about that aren't likely to care about the legal history of Arcane Magic, so really it doesn't matter for Gerik.  He looks like a magician and the people that would burn him for that would burn him for that regardless.

But if you made an arcane caster that didn't appear to have essence or mentalism-type magic, it's unlikely anyone would question him, and if they took him to trial over it, he'd almost certainly get off clean.

For money, the coins you bring with you are holy relics and extremely valuable.  Certain groups (Sinius, Lonnuso, etc) might kill you for having them, since you obviously stole them.  We gave them to Gleann for safe keeping, and he gave us local money.

I use this to give the party money whenever I want.  The party's coins get taken by Gleann in the first adventure who sets them up a merchant to sell them on the black market and invest the money.  So anytime I feel the characters are behind a money curve (they don't get a lot of treasure between adventures 4 and 7) I can just have a caravan of money show up on their doorstep from their merchant business.  In fact, there's probably several shipments of money looking for them at any given time.  This is really handy in games like 4e where the game is balanced assuming a certain adventuring income.

The chaos your appearance might cause is softened by Gleann sheltering you and making sure you'll at least pass cursory inspection before turning you loose on the world.[/spoiler] At that point, as long as you don't go around shouting that you're from Heaven (or are a Gnome so no one will believe you anyway), no one should be the wiser.

I hope that helps.

Yeah, you might be dressed like your from heaven, but who's going to know that and if they do, whose going to assume you did anything but imitate heavenly styles.

Bob
The Echoes of Heaven:  Available for HARP and Rolemaster.  www.FinalRedoubt.com

Offline markc

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Re: Starting a game and running the first teaser
« Reply #8 on: October 26, 2009, 12:27:20 PM »
Gerik, if you're reading, it might take a day or two for me to answer this (my mother just had a surgical proceedure).  Answer as best you can and I'll confirm or correct.  :)

 I hope everything goes well.
MDC

 I hope your answering means all went well, Robert.
MDC
Bacon Law: A book so good all PC's need to be recreated.
Rule #0: A GM has the right to change any rule in a book to fit their game.
Role Play not Roll Play.
Use a System to tell the story do not let the system play you.

Offline Defendi

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Re: Starting a game and running the first teaser
« Reply #9 on: October 26, 2009, 11:24:34 PM »
Yes!  Sorry.  I thought I'd posted that here.  :)  The angiogram showed nothing wrong, so the doctor said there might have been a false-positive there.  Now we were kinda hoping that it would find something that would allow them to correct her irregular heartbeat with an angioplasty, but that wasn't the case.  That means that they'll probably still need to go in and zap the cells that are beating out of time to fix her rhythm.  So there's another surgery on the horizon, but it's laproscopic as well, so it's pretty low on the invasive scale as heart surgeries go.

Thanks so much for your concern.
The Echoes of Heaven:  Available for HARP and Rolemaster.  www.FinalRedoubt.com

Offline markc

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Re: Starting a game and running the first teaser
« Reply #10 on: October 26, 2009, 11:32:47 PM »
 Well my father and uncle also have had the same problem for many years. I hope it is as simple as theirs to fix, but the fact that they are talking about reseting the heart cells means it is a little different.
 Anyway medicine is amazing these days [boy I sound like and old man] and I hope they can put your mother back in the "well and good" category.

MDC
Bacon Law: A book so good all PC's need to be recreated.
Rule #0: A GM has the right to change any rule in a book to fit their game.
Role Play not Roll Play.
Use a System to tell the story do not let the system play you.

Offline Nejira

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Re: Starting a game and running the first teaser
« Reply #11 on: October 27, 2009, 06:57:39 AM »
Anyway medicine is amazing these days [boy I sound like and old man] and I hope they can put your mother back in the "well and good" category.
MDC

Absolutely, me too.
"I'd Rather Be a Rising Ape Than a Fallen Angel"

Offline Defendi

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Re: Starting a game and running the first teaser
« Reply #12 on: October 27, 2009, 11:44:05 PM »
Thanks so much, guys.
The Echoes of Heaven:  Available for HARP and Rolemaster.  www.FinalRedoubt.com

Offline mocking bird

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Re: Starting a game and running the first teaser
« Reply #13 on: November 04, 2009, 10:01:44 PM »
Another question - how do you become a 'sanctioned spell user'?  Generally clerical magic is acceptable.  In HARP this can be fudged a little as clerics have a more open list selection.  But what about RM - especially if you aren't using the Channeling Companion?  For example a magician would be pretty obvious as a cleric shooting fire bolts might set off a few flags.

Then along those lines, how organized is Sinnius/the witch hunters?  Do they have wanted posters?  For example if they have a renegade spell caster in their sights, is the whole order alerted or are they fairly solitary so if a few members 'disappear' after getting killed by their quarry wouldn't be that unusual.

And I do hope things are going well on the medical front.  It is amazing what they can do now.
Believe nothing, no matter where you read it or who has said it, not even if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.    Buddha

Offline Defendi

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Re: Starting a game and running the first teaser
« Reply #14 on: November 05, 2009, 06:06:40 AM »
You can't "become" a sanctioned spell user.  You are one or you aren't.  If you do magic in a way the local culture approves, then you are a sanctioned spell user.  I guess you could just move to a place where they approve of your style to "become" sanctioned.

Well the Society of Sinnius is technically a secret.  Both are as organized as any Church Order can be.  Still it's a medieval society.  As for wanted posters, I guess if they had a fortune to spend they might make them, but there are probably better spend money than to hire a scribe and an artist to hand create a lot of posters.

As for medical, I've been worse off than her.  A sinus infection.  I think it came pretty close to turning toxic.  I probably got it in the hospital when I took her in.
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Offline KamScelty

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Starting a game and running the first teaser
« Reply #15 on: August 09, 2019, 11:54:17 PM »
How wondrous

it reminds me of scripture: "... but they that turn many to righteousness, shall shine as the stars forever."

and in a hymn: "Who are they like stars appearing?"

thank you for this wondrous teaching