[M20] The Infinite Spiral (OOC)

[truemane]

Hey everyone! In the words of Bernard Vonnegut (brother of the late, great Kurt Vponnegut, Jr): "We're here to help each other get through this thing, whatever it is."

As I mentioned in the recruitment thread, it's been a long time since I've just grabbed some folks and whipped up a Mage game for them. For Mage in particular, I almost always have a very specific scenario in mind before I start.

(Here's (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?645683-Let-s-play-some-Mage-the-Ascension!-High-magic-weird-mysteries-lost-in-a-swamp!)a recent one I did, just by way of example)

Which is fine! More than fine. I'm actually excited about the prospect. But it means that the first few steps will be a little scattershot, a little non-linear and a little self-referential. We'll be making decisions about the setting to help us figure out the characters. And we'll be making decisions about the characters to help us figure out the setting.

Which is also fine! We'll get there. And it'll be a fun journey. We may just find ourselves circling the same tree a few times before we find the way home.

So what's the plan?

1. Everyone make one post and C&P their character pitch into it, and no one make a second post until everyone has made their first. Those single posts will then serve as our on-going character records, just as I'll use this OP as an on-going record for ST stuff that goes on. Once that's done we can freeforall.

2. Workshops! Everyone have a think about the following and tell me about it. Your thoughts at this stage don't need to be polished or complete or precise or even 100% correct. This is the Throwing Mud at the Wall stage. We'll start working with what sticks later. I don't need every question here answered, and there's no word minimum or maximum, I'm just looking for some starting points. Some anchors I can hang the rest of the discussions off.

Magical Community
What is your character's relationship to the magical broader community? Regardless of what "larger magical communinty' means for us, being a Mage assumes a certain amount of instruction and mentorship and also implies an alliance of sorts with people who think like you. There are loner Mages (Orphans) but even they suggest, by implication, a community of which they are not a part.

Are you member of a magical group? How large is that group? What assets do they control? What's one admirable thing about them and what's one detestable thing about them? What values do they stand for? In what way(s) do they afirm or bettray those values? What does it cost you to be a member ('cost' in the broadest possible sense) and what does it 'pay' you? What's one thing you can't do because you're a member? What's one thing you couldn't do it fyou weren't a member? What's one future goal made difficult or impossible by your membership? What's one future goal that's only possible because of it?[/LIST]


I've never liked the idea of the "Traditions" as formal, stratified, globally recognized organizations. Mages always seemed too fractious and independent to me for that sort of thing (they are, after all, people who believe they're right SO HARD that reality just gives up and agrees). I've always felt that the cheif organizing unit of Mage society should be the Cabal: small, insular, intensely self-focused groups.

Historially, I've said that the Traditions are more like broad, vague descriptors. So it's not so much that there's a world-spanning group called the Akashic Brotherhood with bylaws and membership fees and whatever, and more like any Mage whose paradigm is concerned with self-perfection, chi, and/or the Tao are called "Akashics."

That being said, I'm happy to fill the game with whatever you give me. If you want to be a member of a globe-spanning organization, I'm up for it. What that I'm saying you're all welcome to interpret the 'community' that taught you magic as broadly as you like.


Mundane Community
How does your Mundane life (family, friends, interests, acquaintances, school, work) intersect with whatever Mage nonsense you've got goingon? Who is around you that's interested in your life? What expectations do they have for you? What decisions had you made about life that magic got in the way of (or helped, or altered)? How does the Mundane side of your life look different post-Awakewning? Who noticed the change? How do they feel about it? how do you feel about they feel about it? What responsibilities (emotional, physical, social, financial) do your Mundane life include? Or represent? Or aggravate? What complications? How do you navigate the mundane parts of Mundane life (taxes, residence, rent, social media, school)? In what ways do those things look different on the outside than they do on the inside?

Setting
Two of the pitches mentioned communities of Sleepers creating pocket paradigms. Two of the picthes mention direct conflict with the Technocracy. And one involves complicated relations with vampires.

That gives us a couple of things right away:
Vampires are attracted to two things: 1. lots of people no one cares about and 2. political power.
A heavy Technocratic presence implies a lot of science, research and/or academia.
Multiple insualr communities with strong views on the world implies cultural and ethnic diversity.

Put those together and maybe our setting is an urban area with a strong manufacturing centre that supports one or more specialized, complex, niche industries. Possibly due to government and/or military contracts. Or possibly some kind of state-of-the-art technology. Those industries are, in turn, supported by prestigious schools and managed by political bodies.

The robust manufacturing sector brings workers from all over to the town for work. Those workers bring their own cultures with them, settle into communities near each other, and that can give us those pools of powerful shared belief that can reset the Consensus in and around those places.

All of which could give us a Detroit sort of vibe. Heavy industry, robust middle class, urban decay. Or perhaps more of a San Francisco high-tech rich-and-poor kind of place. Or possibly something like Birmingham, Alabama, where the entire town is built around serving a massive NASA facility.

No specific questions about all that at this point. Just... thoughts?

And with that... we're off!

[Quagmire]

The "Elevator Pitch."
Anointed with snake oil and robed in the white vestments of the physician, Andrew is a doctor with a bit more of a god complex than usual. He does not believe that any illness or injury is beyond the reach of his powers; when the medical establishment (and consensus reality) said she was too far gone for any treatment to work, he broke ranks with them both and awakened. This sent him on a journey to expand his knowledge with alternative medicine, alchemical elixirs, and the secret rituals of various ancient snake cults. He no longer has a medical license and most of his colleagues no longer speak to him, but desperate souls suffering from supernatural afflictions or mundane illness that no normal doctor has been able to help with still find their way to his secret clinic. A few important people in his life are: A somewhat technocratic celebrity doctor who debunks his methods in public and makes some scarily convincing arguments for changing sides behind the scenes. A former love whose life he saved, but who he canÂ’t bring himself to speak to because she would never believe him. And several pet snakes, borrowed from a cult of Asclepius. (Whose one-snake-staff-symbol, he insists, is the legitimate symbol of healing instead of the caduceus.) Behind AndrewÂ’s bombastic and arrogant demeanor is a burning conviction that everyone deserves hope and healing, and if reality cannot provide it for some people then he can.

What's something you want to do in this game?
An arc involving different factions trying to shift a reality zone towards their paradigm, fighting for the hearts and the minds of the people. It seems like a fun way to connect mage plots and philosophies to a specific mundane community. Also the metaphysical ideas behind this really resonate with me, "the first step to changing the world is convincing people that it’s possible” made literal.


What does your character think is *really* going on?
Reality is a crucible for the alchemical reaction that turns primordial chaos into divine truth. The raw materials of [anything is true / nothing is true] are refined by observation, people perceive patterns in the chaos and by doing so create lowercase-t truths. These patterns are refined by Mages, who craft them into paradigms using knowledge and will. If a paradigm can be perfectly crafted into capital-T Truth, that is the gold at the end of the process. That canÂ’t be the end of it though, why accept the tiny specks of gold that are a few ascended mages when global ascension could purify the sickness and corruption and death and darkness from all of reality, bringing a golden age where all of existence is transformed into perfect universal TRUTH.

[Lentrax]

1. Felicity Aguilar was what everyone called “the weird girl.” The one who never outgrew the love of Disney princesses. The one who spent high school watching anime and Disney movies. She molded her personality on them. It led to one of the most toxic and horrifying relationships anyone she knew had ever been a part of. It caused her to do some introspection. She took a year off of college to find herself again. That’s how she met Catherine. Catherine said she had been where Felicity was, and could help her come to terms. Catherine was, literally, too perfect. It was while they were watching Sailor Moon and making out, and Catherine was Kissing her neck. That’s when she experienced it. A sense of perfection. A sense of completeness and oneness with the universe. But it was tinged with something else and she realized what Catherine was. A Vampire, unable to share the true moment with her. And that inspired a whole new wave of Disney Princess to her.

TLDR: Help! My girlfriend is a Vampire, mixed with “why can’t Genie make people fall in love? Bet I could.” Also note, if we don’t want to deal with that kind of situation, I can change it.

2. My experience with WoD is a game of VtM about twenty years ago, and various groups saying we should, but never getting anywhere. My most recent experience with WoD is the new versions. Vampire the Requiem, a couple of sessions into a Mage the Awakening game. Nothing that let me truly explore themes or characters.

3. With the entire concept of Felicity revolving around anime and Disney princesses, I would love to see a scene that takes place at some kind of anime convention where everyone is in cosplay and some sense of disbelief has been shelved because of the costumes and props.

4. Felicity believes in love. All the way down. Everyone is in love. And it’s that search for, the drive to find that love that completes us that makes everything work. It permeates everything on the lives of Sleepers, after all. From the belief that “Amor Vincint Omnia,” to trashy romance novels. Everything revolves around love. Love of people, of things, of the simple pleasures in doing nothing. It’s all love.

5. She/her

[truemane]

Okay, let's get going and josienoms can pop in when they get a chance.

Let's get talking!

Once we've got a few more details about how you guys fit into the world, we'll start talking about paradigm and their magical selves.

Things will start coming into focus pretty quickly.

[josienoms]

Sorry, was just busy with work the last couple days!

1. Penelope “Penny” Vance is a grad student working on a Ph.D in archaeology. All her life, she idolized her globetrotting father, and wanted to have the kind of life he had. She wanted to see the world, to uncover mysteries of the past. But what she found instead was tedium. Bureaucracy. It’s stifling, and the banality has opened her eyes to some of the world’s harsh truths. Despite spending more time in an office cleaning shards of pottery than in the field, she still holds out that there is wonder in the world. There are still things to discover, and she’s desperate to find them. Her obsession has led her to espouse some interesting theories, that most would scoff at, or call pseudoscience. At first she couldn’t explain why her experiments didn’t hold up to peer review or scrutiny. Not until she found her calling with the Society of Ether. They showed her that there are still wondrous things and places in the world and beyond. One only needs to know how to look for them.

2. When it comes to Mage, I’ve actually never played it. I own the M20 corebook, and I’ve listened to a lot of Mage: the Podcast. With WoD in general, I’ve played Vampire in three different editions (Revised, V20, and V5) over the last 20 years. I’ve also played a lot of Chronicles of Darkness games, having played all of them at least once, with the exception of Deviant: the Renegades. My favorite WoD game is VtM, and my favorite non-WoD game is Exalted. Though I will say that the majority of what I’ve played for the last few years has been D&D5e, though that’s more due to ease of finding people to play with than any strong love of dungeons and dragons.

3. One scene/arc I’d like to see, to keep with the street level Spider-Man inspirations for this game, is a juxtaposition of power and responsibility. It’s one of the things I love about Exalted, the idea that your character has the powers of a god, but what they use it for is what really matters. Are they self-serving, or do they use their abilities for the good of others?

I’d also think it could be interesting for Penny to realize firsthand, as someone so heavily involved in academia, just how easily she could have been snapped up by the Technocracy. Sort of a “There but for the Grace of God go I” moment.

4. Penny thinks that there is an underlying truth to what reality is, beneath the mutability brought on by the consensus. But she admits that she doesn’t know what it is. It’s something that she hopes to find out, as she grows not only in knowledge, but in wisdom.

5. She/Her

[Lentrax]

Well. As far as setting, if we are going with around the start of the 21st century, the conflict with the Technocrats would probably be more easily slotted into Southern California. The start of more widespread computer use as the cost of PCs decreases substantially. And with that, the greater demand for internet in the home, means that California and Silicon Valley would be huge focal points for the Technocracy. At the same time, the start of the war in the Middle East after 9/11 sparked a new wave of counterculture across the US as that larger use of the internet let people of all ages see beyond the propaganda. And that fed into new types of media being created to make the military and police more popular, leading to a major upswing in DoD funding of projects in Hollywood.

SoCal would probably be ideal, but that’s just my thought on it, considering what we have for conflicts for the others. Since mine was more personal (My girlfriend is a Vampire.)

[Quagmire]

Here are some scattered thoughts. Mostly just grabbing bits of ideas and seeing where inspiration runs with them.

still don’t really know where this city is going to be, though I agree with Lentrax’s reasons for Cali. What I do have is a vague vision of the structure of the city, inspired mostly by these bullet points.

That gives us a couple of things right away:
Vampires are attracted to two things: 1. lots of people no one cares about and 2. political power.
A heavy Technocratic presence implies a lot of science, research and/or academia.
Multiple insualr communities with strong views on the world implies cultural and ethnic diversity.
I’m imagining a city center full of bright and shiny new buildings, imposing and modernist. Offices and research labs for the various companies and government departments that moved into town, and city buildings like the courthouse and city hall. These are the seats of power that the vampires and technocrats fight for control over. (The vampires and the more social control oriented technocrats both seem to enjoy overcomplicated webs of secret alliances and betrayals and mind control, at this point their webs of intrigue have gotten so tangled up in each other it's basically all the same thing. Some say they deserve each other.)

Outside the center is a vibrant patchwork of distinct neighborhoods, some newly formed communities and some remnants of the old town that managed to survive all this growth. Sometimes, people from the center try to destroy or corrupt the leaders or groups or places that hold one of these communities together. And when people stop trusting and watching out for each other, they start disappearing in the night.

Maybe it's also a city that's shifting away from manufacturing and towards technology. So we have a lot of people being left behind by the changing economy, and the people who do want to adapt have to leave their old ways behind. Both literally leaving their neighborhoods to work at the new offices in the city center, and metaphorically discarding old beliefs that don't fit into the world of big tech.

I'm also getting vaguely inspired by the ideas from Lentrax about government funding in hollywood and media being used for propaganda. If we go with this idea of a city with lots of neighborhoods with distinct styles and characters, that variety might make it an ideal place for filming. Something which brings money and attention to these neighborhoods, but at the cost of becoming a background for a story that is not their own.

I also see a prestigious research university somewhere around here. Haven’t thought much about it yet but it’s definitely there. Might even be a good home base for a cabal of more academic types.

On magical community, I agree that mages aren’t really the type to have structured world-spanning organizations, but it is important to me that the traditions are still traditions. Part of what I like about the mage setting is that various traditional worldviews are still around and struggling to adapt and survive in the face of a hegemonic modernity. So I’d like there to still be some organizations of mages built around a set of ideas that has been passed down through the ages, though not in a “global institution” type of way.

Here’s an example of what I mean: Maybe there isn’t a global ‘Society of Ether’ but maybe there is a group of professors at the local university who study the secret laws of electricity discovered by Nikola Tesla. A group which has been around for a few ‘generations’, mentoring new students who end up joining and keeping the society going. They might have good relations with another Ether-like group in a neighboring city, and recognize each other as being part of the same vaguely related tradition, but they aren’t part of some larger structure and don’t have the same secret handshakes. (The neighboring Etherish group being a very dedicated Jules Verne fan club that learned how to actually build the fantastic devices and visit the strange locations from his books)

Also here's a few ideas about my characters life specifically.
Andrew kind of messed up his mundane life when he awakened, and hasn't really rebuilt it. yet He was a very promising new doctor, a prodigy who got through the education system very quickly and started practicing much younger than usual. Then he had a breakdown, and very publicly started claiming he had uncovered ancient knowledge that was more effective than modern medicine. After he lost his job and license, and it was clear he wasn't going to go back to normal, most of friends and family talk about him but not to him. "He was so promising, it's a shame what happened..." I figure there might be a few people who still take his calls or occasionally reach out to him, depends on if I end up having any background points left for contacts.

I doubt he's that close with any of his patients. He's someone who you thank with a somewhat awed tone, not someone you go out and have a drink with. Sometimes a patient is rich enough to make a donation, which lets him keep the lights on for a few more months. (Taxes on these gifts are paid in full, though from a PO box to hide his location. Even a wizard cannot incur the wrath of the IRS.) He probably has some interactions with the other people living in whichever district of the city he set up in, in a 'getting to know the new neighbor' kind of way.

[Lentrax]

So, with the city refocusing to tech after being a more industrial based town, perhaps they used to have an oil refinery. But an accident caused the company that operated it to fold and the city made the shift to high tech in order to not turn into a ghost town? The proximity to LA makes it plausible, and that gives us the framework for the industry to tech shift. It could even make it a location for a university satellite. Perhaps the refinery is still operational but at reduced capacities for trade school programs, with grad students for programs focused on PetroChem being able to get “hands-on” training or internships.


Hmm. Still haven’t figured out where my character will land in terms of tradition, but with the setting in SoCal, I am thinking she is an aspiring actress, maybe just graduating from college.

This lends her, with her belief to probably be an Ecstatic. But I’m not 100 percent convinced of that yet.

[truemane]

I'm on vacation this week, but I'll do responses as soon I'm back.

Meanwhile, I don't think josienoms has chimed in.

[truemane]

I love where your heads are at.

So let's say the town is in Southern California. Let's make it an old, old town, with roots deep in the past. It's always been a strong manufacturing centre so, like Quagmire suggested, we'll have a number of firmly, deeply established cultural communities that have been here as long as the town has been.

Having those communities give an excuse for a lot of local film-making is a great idea. I say we include that as well.

What we need is: some manner of event that starts our shift away from muscle-job manufacturing to brain-job tech, a focus of the shift to brain jobs. What was the discovery, the thing, that was invented/discovered here that caused the tech explosion? And why could it only have happened here?

Ideas:
-Some kind of weapon (this allows involvement from the military and government, but is maybe a little darker than we're looking for)
-Some kind of revolutionary communication tool
-Some kind of energy source, energy producer, or more efficient version of something we all have now
-Maybe it wasn't a single thing, but rather a hometown person started a tech company here (because it's their home and they love it) and the company went gangbusters and now everyone's wrapped up in it?

I like Quagmire's description of the Sons of Ether. That all more or less matches the way I like the Traditions to operate.

Lentrax, some things to consider:
-Did Felicity run into the vampires before she was a Mage? Or after?
-What was her Awakening like? What was the moment when everything stopped being just weird, and got WEIRD for her?
-Once she Awakened, then what? Who found her? Who helped her? Who took her hand and told her what was happening and what she was?
-Was that person the one who taught her? Or did that person just give her information and find her a 'real' teacher?
-How does Felicity do with instruction/structure/teachers/authority? Either in general or in this case, specifically?

Answering some of that might help nail down where she belongs (if she belongs anywhere!).

I'll ping josienoms to see how they're doing.

[truemane]

Hey folks. Just popping in. I know I'm partly to blame for this losing steam, but are we all still into the idea of moving this along?

[Lentrax]

I’m still here. Just waiting to see if we hear from Josie.

[truemane]

If josienoms can't play anymore, I'm still fine running it as a duo (and/or recruiting one more).

But we can continue working on Felicity in the meantime, if you like.

[Quagmire]

I am alive and well, and still in.

Good to continue with just two or bring in a third person.

For the setting, I like the idea of someone starting a tech company that ends up completely changing town. Especially if the founder is still around but really far out of his depth and no longer in control of the situation at all.

[Lentrax]

If josienoms can't play anymore, I'm still fine running it as a duo (and/or recruiting one more).

But we can continue working on Felicity in the meantime, if you like.

-Did Felicity run into the vampires before she was a Mage? Or after?

Before. During her fi nal few semesters of college, or perhaps right after. Definitely after her abusive relationship.


-What was her Awakening like? What was the moment when everything stopped being just weird, and got WEIRD for her?




-Once she Awakened, then what? Who found her? Who helped her? Who took her hand and told her what was happening and what she was?

Her grandmother. After her Awakening, she tried to make sense of what was happening to her. She was looking through various books on witchcraft or sorcery or anything she could find. When she remembered her grandmothers gift to her on her quincenera. A book with some instructions for her, and also where she could find her grandmother when she remembered the book existed.



-How does Felicity do with instruction/structure/teachers/authority? Either in general or in this case, specifically?

[truemane]

Hey folks. How are we doing?

I haven't been pushing things along very hard, but I'm feeling like there's not a ton of buy-in.

What do we want to do? Keep going? Call it quits?

[Lentrax]

I would still be, but I think with josie having up and vanished, that probably did it in.

I appreciate the effort to try and run it though.