SCHISM revised

[Jared A. Sorensen]

SCHISM is the dark roleplaying game of body horror and psychic turmoil, a Sorcerer mini-supplement inspired by the existentialist sci-fi/horror of David Cronenberg, JG Ballard and others.

SCHISM is now available as a corrected, condensed PDF (half the size of the original with all of the original content and artwork).

See artwork and review excerpts at:
http://memento-mori.com/schism/

Existing owners of SCHISM can email me for a free copy of the revised edition.

- Jared

[Jürgen Mayer]

So what parts were corrected/revised?

[Jared A. Sorensen]

So what parts were corrected/revised?

Good question.

For one thing, it has less typos. :) The size of the file is about 1/2 that fo the original (~750 KB rather than 1.4 MB) and some of the text was cleaned up. I also got rid of the whole "active/passive" thing when describing psychic powers -- I have no idea what was up with that but it was chaff, not wheat...so it's gone. The layout is a little better...it's just more pleasant to look at (although Q did a fine job in the original, I inserted page breaks at the beginning of each chapter to help the reader).

I also condensed the main game down into a "one-sheet" (which I will post if people are interested). It's leaner and meaner. No real "extras" to speak of. I think it's better. It could BE better I'm sure, but I'm not ready to complete overhaul the game.

Oh yeah. Bookmarks. When you open the PDF, it's totally bookmarked section by section, so you can quickly jump to any particular part you want.

and here's that one-sheet info:

At its heart, Schism is a game about change. Specifically, the degeneration of your character from a parasitic disease called Psychogenesis. The setting is an unnamed city in 21st century North America. There is no organized network of psychics, no secret cabals controlling the masses and no hierarchy of mutants. Cabals are isolated from one another, perhaps unaware that others even exist. There are no real heroes, no real villains. Right and wrong, good and evil are simply words thrown about by politicians and theologians. Survival is the only law that must be followed. And in a world of blood, death and madness, when survival is impossible, all that matters is what story your life has told.

Humanity is a person’s physical and mental health; that which is ravaged by Psychogenesis. In the simplest terms, Humanity is “being human.” Psychogenesis perverts and twists the victim until he or she can not truly be called human anymore. The disease changes you into something quite different. Humanity checks are made when using Psychogenic disciplines and at zero Humanity, the condition becomes terminal.

Demons are the effects of Psychogenesis, a condition that grants psychic powers to its victim while at the same time eroding his or her physical and mental health. These inner-demons only desire freedom and independence, not understanding (or capable of understanding) that freedom means certain death for their host. There are no rituals. Psychogenic disciplines may be learned or may spontaneously arise in times of great stress.