Idea - City Suspended between Void and Chaos

[Krul]

Hello everyone, thought I'd toss this out.

I was thinking about a game with a city suspended in void and chaos between three world/dimensions(Our world/universe, another one with biotech base, and a third with crystal tech), and three schools of sorcery taught in the city, Wizards, Enchanter and Warlocks.

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Wizards dealing with a sort of exalted potential, their demons being enlightened parts of themselves (or others, Parasites and possessors mostly).

Enchanters dealing with objects and energy flow, and their demons being of those things, like a weapon, or a energy.  (Object, inconspicuous and Passer Demons mostly)

Warlocks dealing with primal forces, and universal concepts, such as Chaos, Torment, or Death (Inconspicous, or passer mostly)

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Only about 10-20% of the city would be Sorcerers, the rest being other things or people, but within the city, the rule of secrecy is relaxed somewhat, compared to the three other worlds.  The different schools of sorcery had come from the different worlds, but no one remembers which were which any more.  Travel to and from the city requires sorcery, so the inhabitants were either brought there, or descended from people brought there.

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A few Question/Idea's come to mind.  Do I want use a single version of Humanity between the three schools or not?  Do I want to organize the Schools in Guilds?  Should I have a few guilds for the more ordinary inhabitants?  What should the city look like?  A mix of Crystal/Grown/Engineered buildings, or should they be very strange and eclictic, having been built with hands other then human?  Should there be racial differences between the worlds (appearance wise, sorcerers still having the same traits for all of them)?

[Krul]

Alright, here's what I have so far.

The three world are identical in terms of landmass and shape, up to the shape of thier solar systems.  Thier star patterns are different though, and the laws of physics are slightly different in each world (I havn't figured out how, I would welcome suggestions)

The Biotech world has managed to grow thier cities, as mighty tree cities, and varied them enough that thier world is close to a forest world.  In order to keep from having geneticly altered humans, and figuring that out, I decided that they have religious and phylisophical objections to altering sentient life.

After thinking it over, I envision the Crystal world as a sort of mix between Jor-El's Krypton, before it's explosion, and the Protoss race in the StarCraft game.  With capabilities similar to both of those places, they've managed mighty cities with unusual capabilities.

The Tech world is our world, if a bit more advanced, to the point of possessing moon colonies, and looking at moving beyond to the other planets.

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Now, as to sorcery, each of the 3 types have a different flavor.

Humanity in the Case of the Wizards is Transcendence -  Once a Wizard reaches 0 humanity, he sort of vanishes from reality as we know it, to explore beyond the reachs of mortal and human understanding(sometimes as more then one being, as every one of his demons comes from his own psyche, or has been imposed on another psyche).  A wizard actually becomes a force, a sort of demon, and they hold on to thier humanity by Logic (it's similar to Sanity, but not quite). 

Humanity in the Case of the Enchanters is Mastery, control.  And Enchanter must impose his will on the demons he deals with, which are basicly created by altering energy flow in a way they were not ment to be, creating impossiblities that were never ment to exist.  An Enchanter who falls to 0 Humanity is an enchanter who is consumed by his creation, sometimes in truth, and sometimes in other ways.  (Stories are told to aspring Enchanters of an Enchanter who still screams, as the demon he created incorperated his bones and nervious system into it's being, and ate the rest, keeping the voice because it liked the sound of his screams)

Humanity in the case of the Warlocks is Integrity, a Warlock deals with Primordial forces, and never with very kind ones, a Warlock who reachs 0 humanity becomes a twisted version of humanity, more of a tool of the forces he or she attempted to command.

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I welcome any ideas, comments or suggestions at this point.

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Krul,

I hope my answer doesn't discourage you. It may surprise you.

Wizards dealing with a sort of exalted potential, their demons being enlightened parts of themselves (or others, Parasites and possessors mostly).

Enchanters dealing with objects and energy flow, and their demons being of those things, like a weapon, or a energy.  (Object, inconspicuous and Passer Demons mostly)

Warlocks dealing with primal forces, and universal concepts, such as Chaos, Torment, or Death (Inconspicous, or passer mostly)

Do I want use a single version of Humanity between the three schools or not?  Do I want to organize the Schools in Guilds? 

My answer is, just say "no" to diversity. The need for "Seven worlds!" "Two dimensions!" "Four schools of magic!" is an artifact of gamer history, and it's a blight and a curse. Sorcerer works best when there's one fictional setting and one basic look-and-feel for sorcery.

Really. If you can't get just one of these concepts to be rich and good and powerful for Sorcerer, then why bother trying to make three? And if you can make one of them that good, then why bother making the other two? These questions are rhetorical. I'm trying to get across the idea that you should pick one of them, get rid of the "city in the middle" idea entirely, and simply carry on from there.

What should the city look like?  A mix of Crystal/Grown/Engineered buildings, or should they be very strange and eclictic, having been built with hands other then human?  Should there be racial differences between the worlds (appearance wise, sorcerers still having the same traits for all of them)?

It's difficult to say - I can't imagine answering these questions for you. I suggest that the only right answers are those which you arrive at yourself. Now, I know I said "get rid of the city" and I did mean it. I'm answering this question only to say, "Trust your vision" and move on.

Humanity in the Case of the Wizards is Transcendence -  Once a Wizard reaches 0 humanity, he sort of vanishes from reality as we know it, to explore beyond the reachs of mortal and human understanding(sometimes as more then one being, as every one of his demons comes from his own psyche, or has been imposed on another psyche).  A wizard actually becomes a force, a sort of demon, and they hold on to thier humanity by Logic (it's similar to Sanity, but not quite).

Humanity in the Case of the Enchanters is Mastery, control.  And Enchanter must impose his will on the demons he deals with, which are basicly created by altering energy flow in a way they were not ment to be, creating impossiblities that were never ment to exist.  An Enchanter who falls to 0 Humanity is an enchanter who is consumed by his creation, sometimes in truth, and sometimes in other ways.  (Stories are told to aspring Enchanters of an Enchanter who still screams, as the demon he created incorperated his bones and nervious system into it's being, and ate the rest, keeping the voice because it liked the sound of his screams)

Humanity in the case of the Warlocks is Integrity, a Warlock deals with Primordial forces, and never with very kind ones, a Warlock who reachs 0 humanity becomes a twisted version of humanity, more of a tool of the forces he or she attempted to command.

They're all great - for one full game apiece. You need to choose.

Best, Ron

[Krul]

Thanks for the reply, I'm not discouraged, I wanted to try something different, but I take your point, your right, the game works better with just one system rather then three.

I'll try to focus on just one of those three, will have to think about which one I prefer to work on first.  As to the worlds, I suppose I could drop them for just the city and make it a world all of it's own, and come back to them some other day, or put the city on one of the worlds and go on from there.