Help with Summaries?

[M. J. Young]

Seth had some excellent advice over in the http://www.indie-rpgs.com/viewtopic.php?t=9482">Ubercon Demo thread,

In that case, you're going to want to have some brief summaries of setting elements on hand, plus be familiar enough with it all to answer questions. For example, you may want to have a single sheet with a couple of lines dedicated to explaining each element to a prospective player. For example:

The Citadel: large technological city on the shores of the Sea of Mist. Ruled by council of five High Lords. Home of Keeper Temple. Populated with humans and Restored. Connected to the Web. Visuals: Blade Runner, Midgard from Final Fantasy VII, Thief: The Dark Project.

My big problem is I am absolutely swamped at the moment, and very worried about whether I'm going to have time to pull together everything I need for both Alyria and Multiverser demos in time.

Thus on the spur of inspiration I suddenly decided to post here and invite everyone else familiar with the setting to provide their suggested blurbs, akin to what Seth wrote about the Citadel above. I need them for each major setting element (Ark, Sea of Mist) and for each character type (Blessed, Digger Paladin).

What I'd really, really like would be a set-up in which there is an extremely brief blurb (as above) that I can read as part of introducing the setting, which is at the top of a one page description that can be used to fill in sufficient details for any element that the players choose to incorporate. Thus I'd have the Citadel blurb Seth provided at the top of the sheet, followed by more detail about the place, who lives there, how it's connected to the Web, and such, so that we've got fingertip access to the essential details regarding whatever we choose to include.

Any help in this regard would be wonderful.

Thanks in advance.

--M. J. Young

[Mark D. Eddy]

The Web: A tangle of walkways and improvised nests above the Citadel, built on the structural members of the shattered dome of Kryshana. Populated with every type of being possible -- human, restored, misbegotten, chosen, and blessed. M.C.Escher meets the Ewok village meets the Mos Eisley canteena.

[hix]

This may need a bit of editing, but it's how I remember it:

Sea of Mists: The roiling clouds of the Nothing from the Neverending Story. Dotted with islands and continents that are actually the tips of large mountains. Populated by farmers, hermits and the fringes of society. Traders and their mistships are the only source of communication. Occasionally, artifacts from a fallen technological civilisation will be found. Dragons, ancient evil telepathic beings lurk below the mists.

BTW: this is a fantastic idea, and just what I've been looking for to set up a game of Alyria with new players. I'd love for a finished list to be compiled somewhere as a resource.

Steve.

[hix]

The Arc: Massive metal cube seething with Humans. Sealed for centuries to avoid the Plague. If the Collective is to survive, individuality must be suppressed. Masks are compulsory – they ensure equality and anonymity. But Rebels have abandoned their numbers, taken on names and removed their masks. The Main Doors have just been unsealed. The culture of the Arc spreads to surrounding lands.

[M. J. Young]

These are excellent; thank you so much, and keep 'em coming.

Don't forget, all those many people types also need to be explained.

Thanks.

--M. J. Young

[GreatWolf]

BTW: this is a fantastic idea, and just what I've been looking for to set up a game of Alyria with new players. I'd love for a finished list to be compiled somewhere as a resource.

I agree.  I had toyed for a while with the idea of doing this, but I may just borrow ya'lls work, if you don't mind.  (It will make it go faster.)

Here are a couple off the top of my head.

Dragons:  demonic beings from the bottom of the Sea of Mist.  Look like a cross between a Queen Alien and a dracolich.  Comparable to Cthulhian entities.  Feed on psychic emanations of pain.  Worshiped by dragon cultists.

Misbegotten:  mutated progeny caused by the ripper plague.  Think of the muties from "Total Recall".  Occasionally possess preternatural abilities.  Frequently outcast from "civilized" communities.

Blessed:  wielders of "wild magic".   Losing control of the Blessing can be wildly destructive.  Use of the Blessing twists the body of the user, causing him to devolve.   These mutations are called the Marks of the Blessing.  Most Blessed hide their powers, as they are hated and feared by most.

Wilderness:  stereotypical Celtic scenery, with rolling green hills and mist-cloaked forests.  A contrast to the industrial Citadel and the sterile Ark.  Ruins of the Progenitors can still be found, including their amazing roads.  Bandit gangs and packs of Misbegotten roam the wilderness and can be a threat to travellers.  Many small villages can be found in the middle of nowhere, which often develop strange customs due to their cultural isolation.

Keep them coming!

Seth Ben-Ezra
Great Wolf

[hix]

The Outsiders: The color of Blood. Nanoviruses. The scourge of humanity. They have pursued us across the stars to the refuge of Alyria. They have turned the moon red. The touch of the Outsiders infects and transforms you. Inspirations: 'Thread' from Dragonriders of Pern, Cabin Fever, any racial or ethnic memory that produces absolute terror and dread.

[hix]

The Restored: Imagine your loved ones, dead but still seen walking every day. They are returned to life by the secret machines; powered by the spark of Phaeric. The Restored are the slave labour keeping the Citadel running; they are everywhere, performing menial tasks. Perhaps they hide a secret intelligence. Perhaps they hate us (and our True Life). Their Implants keep them docile but some haters of the Rite of Restoration remove the implants.

Also, 'The Wilderness'? One inspiration might be the Island of Gont from the Wizard of Earthsea.

[Mark D. Eddy]

Humans: descendents of the original colonists of Alyria. As you may guess, they are much like you or me. They walk all paths of life, and may be found in any place. The only question is: what are they *really*?

Humans create the Restored, and provide the flesh that is restored. The Blessed are human, but using the blessing warps them away from the race of their birth. The Misbegotten may have once been human, before the dragons and their plague. Humans, it is thought but rarely said, may serve the mighty dragons in their schemes of torment for the power they can lend, serving as willing tools to an incomprehensible evil. And, it is whispered, humans are sometimes chosen by the unicorn to foil those draconic schemes, or perhaps just to ease the burden of pain that is a human's daily lot.

Indeed, a human is just one of us...

[Mark D. Eddy]

By the way, have I mentioned that this idea just rocks?

No?

This idea just rocks!

[GreatWolf]

Humans: descendents of the original colonists of Alyria. As you may guess, they are much like you or me. They walk all paths of life, and may be found in any place. The only question is: what are they *really*?

Brilliant.  Simply brilliant.  I hadn't even thought about an entry for "humans", but now I see that it is vitally important.

Here are a few more entries:

Unicorns:  divine avengers and the opponents of the dragons.  Think of the unicorns in "Legend" or the blazing white light of the newly-raised Gandalf, not the cutesy depictions of My Little Pony.  Unicorns appear to deliver righteous judgment on evildoers and to provide comfort to those in need.  Sometimes, the unicorns choose humans to war against the dragons and their cultists.

Keepers: tech-priests of Pheric, the god of iron and thunder.  Think of the Catholic Church with a tech bent, a la Warhammer 40K.  Split into two factions:  the Keepers of the Citadel and the Keepers of the Core.  The Keeper religion is the orthodox religion of the Citadel; it is their temple that sits at the center of the city.  The Keepers lay claim to all the Progenitors' technology and have many "miraculous" abilities as well.

Pheric:  the so-called god of iron and thunder.  Actually the terraforming control computer that is physically located in the Core.  Can control the weather to an extent.  Only a few Keepers know the truth about Pheric, and they all live in the Core.

Progenitors:  the original colonists of Alyria.  Fled an intergalactic war or catastrophe of some kind that involved the Outsiders.  Sought to build a perfect society but failed.

Seth Ben-Ezra
Great Wolf

[GreatWolf]

Mist ship:  cross between a galleon and a dirigible, done steampunk-style.  Think of the airship from Final Fantasy VII (before it gets the jet-power upgrade) or the ships in Final Fantasy X (IIRC).

Lightning jacks:  electricity thieves that tap into the Keeper power grid and provide juice to the Web.  Hunted as criminals and blasphemers by the Keepers and High Lords but absolutely sacrosanct in the Web.

Seth Ben-Ezra
Great Wolf

[GreatWolf]

And how can we forget...

The Bag:  A dark artifact created by a dragon cultist.  A cross between a bag of holding and the One Ring*.  Can give its owner anything that he desires, but there is always a cost.

*Thanks to Ralph Mazza for this phrasing.

Seth Ben-Ezra
Great Wolf

[hix]

Diggers: They were aardvarks, brought to Alyria by the Progenitors.  Now they are something more, a hybrid created by the Plague. These small sentient animals don’t come into contact with humans often. Men are afraid of that which they do not know, and the Diggers are truly alien to the human eye. However, an unusual proportion of Paladins come from their ranks. They are immune to the Outsiders and in fact find them quite … tasty. Inspirations: Cerebus the Aardvark, any wild animal that make you go “Aw how cute” and underestimate its grumpiness.

And here's one that may be completely inaccurate:

Paladins: They have been visted by the Unicorns. Compelled to wander and work for good. Ironically, as wandering strangers they are not trusted by the communities they are supposed to help and are unfamiliar with the issues they are supposed to confront. You don’t need to be a Paladin to confront evil. Being a Paladin does not confer any special powers. It just creates a drive, an urgency in you.

Also, we should add to Sea of Mists: Pirates and a link to ‘The Wilderness’.

Steve

[hix]

Here's one that plays off my possibly inaccurate Paladin definition above:

Dragon Cultists: Dedicated to causing pain and suffering. Inspired by and connected to Dragons. The opposite of Paladins – to spread their misery effectively, they must be completely trusted by the community they live in and often have significant power. They are evil, subtle, hidden.

I'm trying to imagine how these will be used. Will you have the main locations (Arc, Citadel, Wilderness, etc) on one main front page, and then once people have chosen interesting elements from that, they go to a second (for instance "Citadel" page) with all the local elements listed under that? Thoughts?

Steve.