These are the first steps towards a one-sheet for IndieRPG Toronto.  Comments welcome

Life Under the Double Sun
- j"stone age" post-apocalypse, coming out of ice age and hurtling towards planet-wide hot house
- temperature gradient climbing rapidly
- humanity competing with Ancipitals, huge, semi-immortal goat-headed beings who rule during the ice ages
- remnants of previous pre-glacier civilizations
- sorcerers dealing with mighty forces as the groundwork for warm-age civilizations laid
- will you be remembered as an Abraham, a Prometheus, a Gilgamesh, or as a Cain, a Pandora, an Oedipus?

1. List your influences and inspirations and keep them in mind during the process.

Aldis, Brian. Helliconia Spring.
Benet, Steven Vincent. "By the Waters of Babylon." Story. Commentary
Miyazake. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Winds.
Herber, Frank. Dune.
Moebius/Girard. Spacey, meditative surreal mode:

LeGuin, Usula K. Earthsea, The Left Hand of Darkness.
Global Warming debates.

2. What is Humanity?

* Humanity:
This planet has odd species, sentient ancestral memories, parasitic microorganisms, old AI's. You can make deals with these things to survive. You just won't be human anymore. You will not pass on memes to future human communities. You will not pass down genes to future communities.
Humanity 0 = no longer human
Humanity Loss = every time you Pact, Bind, invite non-human into your corpus and/or mind, forcing someone to accept alien domination
Humanity Gain = driving out alien influence, perpetuating human species, contributing to future human culture

* Autonomy
Submission to tradition, myth, a leader, a master can guarantee you survival. But is it worth being degraded just so you can subsist?
Humanity 0 = will-less drone, beaten into submission, putty in anyone's hands, you love Big Brother
Humanity Loss = every time you go against your deeply held beliefs at another's command, accepting a command you do not like, submitting to arbitrary measures, abandoning a project, forcing someone's Humanity to 0
Humanity Gain = asserting will, founding an unpopular project, gaining support for your own project, freeing another, resisting arbitrary measures, raising someone's Humanity from 0

3. What are Demons?

Non-human entities native to the planet or engineered by original colonists. They wish to eliminate the species as an autonomous unit.

Immanents:
* Otslots -- semi-sentient peizoelectric clouds. They feed off of neural firing patterns in your mind. They trip you out. You can send them to do your bidding.

Beasts:
Hourzem -- genetically modified horses. You have to tame and pact with each one individually.
Pthans -- genetically modified cougars. They have a blood-sucking barb for a tongue.
Buclat-beasts -- giant killer flying centipedes. They nest in the colossal buclat trees, burst forth as a co-joined male and female pair. Crawl about until enough protein is consumed. Then they separate into 2 flying giant centipedes

Pagan Things:
Ancipitals -- the huge goatlike beings who run the show during the ice ages. During the last ice-age humanity was their slave race. Now, a significant number are gearing up for a genocidal crusade against humanity. They have memories of the capture of their Yellow sun by the White Dwarf around which the Yellow Sun currently orbits, as well as the loss of their moon. This is humanity's third great year on the planet (Yellow Sun takes 1,800 years to orbit around White Sun). They want us off.
Medis -- proto-sentient hominids.

True Demons:
Tyrants -- colossal four-legged beasts used as mounts by the Ancipitals. Big, nasty bastards.
Old Tech: In cave complexes, orbiting the planet, gene-engineered time bombs buried in soil, or under arctic caps.
Chrysalides: Amber-looking remains of lost/future species. They come to life during different phases of the twin stars' life cycle.
Viral beings/viruses: they want a host

Old Ones:
Tethered Ancipitals: Shrunken, crystalized remains of great ancipital ancestors. Worshiped as totems and speak in the dreams of their descendants. Post-organic matricies for the near-imortal consciousnesses of the Ancipitals. Small, dark, polished mahogony-looking and creepy.

Ghosts:
Psychic entities, illusions maintained by Old Tech, race-memories passed down in mitochondrial RNA (thanks, Herbert), souls, over-Thetans? You don't know. I don't know. But for all intents and purposes you get sorcery by dealing with the ghosts of your ancestors.
Fessups: memories/spirits of immediate ancestors. They know about the otherworld. They know about your family. But they know about you too. They are bitter, haughty, imperious, lazy, and want to make you miserable.
Geronts: ancient memories/spirits from the last ice age. They are vaguely aware of their descendants and of human civilization but not that conscious of individual humans
Matryas: primal memories and powers from the 1st epoch of human settlements
The Boulder (like an "Old One" in pulp fiction): a semi-sentient network of thoughts, feelings, and impulses. The consciousness of the planet itself?

If Humanity's the engine, Demons are the tires.

There are churches but they don't matter. Individual sorcerors are setting up power networks with/against/in spite of the proto-religions and priests.

4. What are Sorcerers and thus what is Lore?

What the players will be is important, they need to understand who they will be portraying.

Sorcerers are those who have merged with old tech, manipulate the native inhabitants of the planet(s) including the microorganisms, excavate old tech, and -- most importantly -- contact the memories of the ancestors.

All of those with Lore are capable of sinking into ancestral memories.
Some might have obtained lore by prolonged contact with one or more of the local species

5. What are Binding, Summoning, Contacting, Punishing?

- will be worked out in terms of dealing with the ancestors
- binding Otslots requires entering into psychedelic states
- taming beasts requires dangerous physical interaction and dominating their wills
- AI's and old tech must be sought in distant places or in ancient lore. Doing so requires overcoming self-imposed doubts, social conditioning, ancestral memories and fears.

6. Descriptors, do you need new ones and if so, how are they informing the players about and marrying the PC's to the world?

The ones in Sword will do. We can come up with a couple of new ones if needed.

7. Give it a look over. Is it fun? What were you trying to do with it and what has it become?

TBA

8. Get feedback from others.

Post it. Show it to friends. I find this step invaluable. Very often I have a kernel of a good idea and I'm not even sure what it is. Getting that feedback is invaluable.

9. Make a one-sheet.

TBA

10. Play.

TBA

Edited by Erik on Apr 10, 2007 at 8:40 PM

Genes and memes and sorcery! I'm happy.

Best, Ron

When the planet is bursting with life and energy, the ancestral ghosts tend to be censorious and difficult.

As the winter comes on, they are more reassuring and helpful.

We are in spring, so your ancestors are harshing out on you so that you don't take things too easy.

I am thinking about making magic dependent on distorting traditional patterns.

This is inspired by myths of ancient smiths.

Some cultures required a body part or some other sacrifice to be buried under the place where the forge would be built.

It seems as if sacrifice would have to be part of all magic-

The fully-worked set-up is available here:

http://roleplayers.meetup.com/261/boards/view/viewthread?thread=2928161&pager.offset=30

bodily fluids, matings and births, voodoo, and guys with laser hands

aren't we all, in some sense, foundlings of the research pods?