[Panaesthon Fantasy] Getting started

[Vaxalon]

Okay, so I have these friends.  They're that kind of player who has been playing DnD for a long time, but never really engaging the system... letting other people handle their character sheets, tell them what her character's powers are, and generally letting the numbers go by unlamented while they play a more social game.  I'm sure you know the type.

She asked me to run a game for her (over IRC) because she likes the way I run games, and I decided that I was going to break them out of the DnD prison.  I've watched how they play DnD for a long time, and I think I know what they'll like.

First of all, they love "making stuff up".  They'll gladly write up a page and a half of notes on what their character's home town is like, even if it never sees play.  When I spend a paragraph describing the decorations on a magic staff, even if it has no mechanical implications, they eat it up with a spoon.

Secondly, they love playing characters who get what they want through social and psychological means as much as violent ones, and always seemed a bit perplexed that DnD handled social conflicts so differently than physical ones.

Finally, they love having characters who are movers and shakers, people who have a place at the top of a tall social pyramid.

The result is Panaesthon Fantasy.  It's a re-working of a transhumanist SF setting I was working on briefly earlier this year.

So the first question I have to answer, as I understand it, is "What do the characters do?"

"The characters are members of a cabal of wizards, sorcerors, and priests who have taken up residence near the Crystal Pillar, the source of all magic in their world.  They scheme and maneuver to shape and reshape the world according to their goals and desires, finding conflict and compromise in a constantly shifting set of alliances.  Their primary responsibility, however, is to maintain their fragile and unstable community.  If and when they fail, the Crystal Pillar shatters, and they must either find a way to rebuild it, or lie in the bed they've made."

So those are my basic design constraints.  I'll be posting to this thread as I go along, with more information about how I'm addressing them.

[joepub]

I'm a little confused as to what would cause the Crystal Pillar to shatter.

Failure of their mission? How does the pillar perceive failure?




I've got a suggestion for this, that I think would be pretty cool: Maybe they are direct links to the pillar. Whenever they cast a spell/summons/miracle/whatever they draw energy from the crystal.
However, if they draw more energy than they can control, the energy has an uncontrolled channel... and pulses out of the pillar through the overeager spellcaster.
And that's how the pillar collapses.

In effect, every member of the Cabal is like a plug, and they can shift to allow water to pour through them... but if they move too much, the water will pour out so fast that they can't block it back up... And the pillar will drained dry.


That way, advancement could come in hte form of allowing a higher magical capacity, if you chose to do that kind of advancement.


Just an idea.

[sayter]

Interesting social struggles could be interesting. Not necessarily my style of play. Course, Realm is all about choices, moral and otherwise. The largest aspect of conflict in my own world is similar in this regard. You have a definite bad thing should they fail to maintain the social order, and a struggle to maintain their level of control at that social level.

So let me see if I grasp this.

John starts as a Apprentice wizard, and has to slowly build his way to teh top, while monitoring his competitors and comrades in a bid to become top dog?

Or does it operate a lot more complex than this?

[Sydney Freedberg]

I'm a little confused as to what would cause the Crystal Pillar to shatter.....Maybe they are direct links to the pillar. Whenever they cast a spell/summons/miracle/whatever they draw energy from the crystal....

Which gets you into classic "tragedy of the commons" territory, if you've ever endured a basic economics course: If everyone has equal access to a common resource (e.g. fishing shoals in the ocean, village common fields in medieval England), and there's only so much of the resource to go around, and the cost of using the resource does not go up as the resource becomes scarcer (because there's no free market at work, and no controlling authority), then everyone's sole incentive is to use as much of the resource as they can, as fast as they can, before there's none left -- which of course means that there's none left very damn quickly. "Sure, I could cast fewer spells and keep from over-stressing the integrity of the Crystal Pillar, but then all my competitors would still be casting more spells, so the Pillar would crack anyway, so I might as well go wild while I can."

[Vaxalon]

on the topic of the destruction of the crystal pillar:

The game will have a concept I'm calling "Collateral damage".  It's basically a set of unintended consequences.  At the bottom of the scale is "A neutral third party gets mad because of the way you handled your conflict," and at the top is "The Crystal Pillar shatters".  I like the "tragedy of the commons" idea though and I'm definitely going to incorporate something like it.

As for character creation, new PC's are assumed to already be near the top of their game, magic-wise.  They're the Merlins and Gandalfs of their world.  Someone who has achieved that level of accomplishment can try to become a Panaesthete, that is, a member of this cabal who has direct access to the Crystal Pillar, who can tap into the world's magic direct from the source rather than using the scraps left over after the Panaesthetes are done.

In fact, I'm planning on keeping the "Prelude" or "Initiation" concept from WW's Vampire and DitV to cover the events surrounding a new wizard's entry into the cabal.

[joepub]

Which gets you into classic "tragedy of the commons" territory, if you've ever endured a basic economics course: If everyone has equal access to a common resource (e.g. fishing shoals in the ocean, village common fields in medieval England), and there's only so much of the resource to go around, and the cost of using the resource does not go up as the resource becomes scarcer (because there's no free market at work, and no controlling authority), then everyone's sole incentive is to use as much of the resource as they can, as fast as they can, before there's none left

Actually, my suggestion of "stoppers" would avoid the tragedy of commons scenario to an extent.

I'm assuming the Crystal Pillar doesn't have a finite amount of magic within it. Ie. there is a more or less endless supply.
The mages choose how wide a channel to open up, when fuelling their spells.

Too wide a channel, and the channel tears wide open and all hell breaks loose. To small a channel and its ineffective.

Basically, it's like controlling how much electricity moves through a wire - there is still the same amount of water (mana) generating power in the dam (pillar) regardless.

[Vaxalon]

I don't WANT to avoid the tragedy of the commons.

[joepub]

Easy,  no need to snap. I was merely clarifying one suggestion.

[Vaxalon]

Anyways...

Let's go on to design features.

The most radical departure from other roleplaying games that I'm using is that the traditional things that character sheets track - things like intelligence, body, strength, what have you - are left out.  The characters are assumed to have bodies which are basically the best that the human form can offer, and as such, more or less identical in terms of what they can accomplish.

Likewise, there's no stat for magical aptitude; everyone is assumed to be the best of the best.

What there ARE stats for are elements of personality.  When all else is equal, things like DRIVE, INTENSITY, OPENNESS and STEADFASTNESS become the means to determine who comes out on top in a given conflict.

Those four stats are determined by looking at the person's IDEALS and RELATIONSHIPS.

Ideals have just one element.

Relationships have three elements, Passion, Intimacy, and Commitment.

Characters have 3 d4's, 4 d6's, 4 d8's, and 3 d10's distributed between their individual ideals, and the passion, intimacy, and commitment of their various relationships, with a minimum of two dice in any category.

For each die in an ideal, the character has 1d6 drive.  Likewise, passion gives you intensity, intimacy gives you openness, and commitment gives you steadfastness.