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Author Topic: Lore thread - Of Substance and Spirit - Think we're ready to make characters?  (Read 17421 times)

WillowLuman

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Re: Lore thread - as yet untitled potential urban fantasy game
« Reply #120 on: March 06, 2015, 04:37:59 pm »

Whoa, you guys did a lot while I was busy writing essays yesterday.

I think it might be too early to narrow down a specific location setting, as the eventual game might involve traveling around the world. Or maybe not. As for time frame, I'm thinking ambiguously present-day.

Re: criminals. I can totally see someone using their spirit friend to go vigilante, but having pairs used by gangs, or even forming gangs, implies a wider awareness of the supernatural stuff than what I'm intending.

I think possession and more powerful spirits should still be a thing, as spirits should have agency to do things in the world without forming a pair-bond with a human (because remember: pair bonds are exceptionally rare) or without a human at all.
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Andres

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Re: Lore thread - as yet untitled potential urban fantasy game
« Reply #121 on: March 08, 2015, 08:49:43 pm »

So is this still a thing? Whatever incarnation of lore you choose to set for your game we'll play it.
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WillowLuman

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Re: Lore thread - as yet untitled potential urban fantasy game
« Reply #122 on: March 08, 2015, 10:36:39 pm »

We've still got time to discuss things. I'm not remotely ready to begin a new game yet, perhaps in a couple weeks though.

Perhaps we can make some test characters? I know I keep mentioning it but I think that would help us get a feel. We might also get into mechanics there, too.
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kj1225

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Re: Lore thread - as yet untitled potential urban fantasy game
« Reply #123 on: March 08, 2015, 10:45:48 pm »

Then let's start with... what's relevant to know in the character sheets? Obviously we need names and appearances for the humans. Maybe describing what the bond allows for the person? We need the sprits things, like a description and if they even have a name. Or maybe they don't have a name and instead have feelings, or concepts associated with them? Like, one spirit embodies the concept of sin or justice, others embody happiness, and anger?
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Andres

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Re: Lore thread - as yet untitled potential urban fantasy game
« Reply #124 on: March 08, 2015, 10:49:48 pm »

A being that literally only has one emotion is the very definition of a one-dimensional character (I think) so attaching actual names to the spirits is probably a better idea.
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kj1225

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Re: Lore thread - as yet untitled potential urban fantasy game
« Reply #125 on: March 08, 2015, 10:51:26 pm »

A being that literally only has one emotion is the very definition of a one-dimensional character (I think) so attaching actual names to the spirits is probably a better idea.
That's nice but that's not what I said. I said, they just have a concept or a feeling instead of a name. So, when you ask their name you would for example get a flash of the related thing.
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WillowLuman

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Re: Lore thread - as yet untitled potential urban fantasy game
« Reply #126 on: March 09, 2015, 12:14:51 am »

A name and description for both of them, of course.
Then some backstory on each of them, especially how they met and came to form a bond.
We'd need to know what they can do when combining their power, but also what they can do on their own. For the human, this is probably pretty straightforward, but for the spirit this is still a big question mark.
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Andres

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Re: Lore thread - as yet untitled potential urban fantasy game
« Reply #127 on: March 09, 2015, 01:32:25 am »

It can affect incorporeal things but not corporeal things?
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WillowLuman

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Re: Lore thread - as yet untitled potential urban fantasy game
« Reply #128 on: March 09, 2015, 02:22:04 am »

Except I want them to be able to do more than just interact with other spirits. I was thinking some kind of magic.
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Andres

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Re: Lore thread - as yet untitled potential urban fantasy game
« Reply #129 on: March 09, 2015, 02:30:36 am »

Magic would be how they interact with incorporeal things. Either that, or the interaction with incorporeal things is itself magic, and fusion between a human and a spirit produces a fundamentally different magic as a result.
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Harry Baldman

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Re: Lore thread - as yet untitled potential urban fantasy game
« Reply #130 on: March 09, 2015, 05:50:17 am »

Except I want them to be able to do more than just interact with other spirits. I was thinking some kind of magic.

Let me put my expository venturing hat on. Ahem.

Spirits are naturally chaotic, it's what defines them. In contacting our world, they bring chaos with them wherever they may go. This usually manifests when they overlap with denser areas of matter (while their movement through air can produce physical aberrations (both material, like a sudden skyrocketing of the neon content, and otherwise, such as decreases in temperature or a change in optical properties), this is less noticeable than most of their other activity). Once spirits overlap with certain material, they can start to alter it slowly, considerably slower than they could, say, a human being, but it's also less likely to introduce structural changes in the spirits themselves. What they can do just as quickly as with a human being is randomize a given object of their volume, letting loose their chaotic natures. This usually results in a loss of function for the object in question. Naturally, a spirit can only overlap an object for either purpose for so long - structure starts to be imposed upon it just as much as it passively would be in a human body.

On the possession front, spirits can also possess animals other than humans, and even other lifeforms, though with animals it seems to be easiest to get the desired rates of alteration. They can, for instance, easily possess a cat with little to no worries that something might happen to them (since the cat has hardly the presence of mind to question the spirit's presence, and it is impossible for it to be learned in the methods of destroying a spirit, unlike a human being). On the other hand, they can't control the cat's mind in any way and, lacking in intelligence as the average animal is (to say nothing of the average plant, fungus or prokaryote), they can seldom further their own objectives effectively with these alterations. It does work wonderfully for all sorts of mischief and distractions, though. Some spirits have, in the vein of humans training their domestic animals, tried to do the same, with some success, even. Corvids especially seem like popular targets for spirit-directed training, hence why people seem to have an even greater distrust for them near the pathway than usual.
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Gamerlord

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Re: Lore thread - as yet untitled potential urban fantasy game
« Reply #131 on: March 09, 2015, 06:54:35 am »

This looks really interesting and I'd like to play this when it's ready.

WillowLuman

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Re: Lore thread - as yet untitled potential urban fantasy game
« Reply #132 on: March 09, 2015, 11:25:27 pm »

I'm not sure about their main modus operandi being alteration. I think there should be ways for them to do things directly. It makes thematic sense, given what we're going with so far, that their main thing would be influencing living things (even nonthinking ones) through controlling/warping/influencing them, though that might close some thematic doors.
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kj1225

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Re: Lore thread - as yet untitled potential urban fantasy game
« Reply #133 on: March 09, 2015, 11:27:48 pm »

But it does lend itself well to any previous lore of spirits for them to be able to influence living things. After all, that's what any spirit in folklore does more of the time isn't it?
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GiglameshDespair

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Re: Lore thread - as yet untitled potential urban fantasy game
« Reply #134 on: March 10, 2015, 07:51:19 am »

I prefer the idea of just living things.
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