INTRODUCTION

Place: USA.

Time: The modern day.

There is no higher purpose for mankind, laid down from above. The mages have always known that. Heaven exists, but it cares nothing for humanity, not even to rule it. If there is a God, He has nothing to say to us and His angels care only that we do not get in their way. Hell is more attentive. The demons like it when we suffer and a demon can make a human suffer forever.

Faced with an uncaring Heaven and a sadistic Hell, the mages born to humanity have always known that they have only one option. Protect their family and let the rest of the world be damned. So humanity became the mage’s unknowing slaves, while the great mage clans made war on one another to snatch ultimate power.

For as long as history records, humanity has been secretly ruled by the Houses, powerful mage families whose ambitions have only been checked by one another. In the USA, power is concentrated in the hands of thirteen great Houses. “The Thirteen Houses” as they are known, compete and cooperate to run the government, dominate the great corporations, and concentrate wealth and power in their own hands. They rule the banks, the universities, the media and the churches, along with anything else they want badly enough. The most powerful faction is comprised of four English Houses with a history of collaboration; Lancaster, Stuart, Warwick and York. Stuart ruthlessly enforces its dominant position in the alliance as all four jockey for control. The remainder of the thirteen are the Houses of Anjou, Capet, Carolus, Flavii, Hapsburg, Julii, Medici, Romanov, and Trastámara. The Houses are blood relations of the mortal clans of the same names, although not all in the mortal clan are mages.

However, not every mage in history abandoned the rest of humanity to look after their own. Alongside the Houses, for as long as history records, there has existed an independent body of mages, who recognize on authority beyond their own ranks. The Rebellion, as it styles itself, is not a rebellion against the Houses, at least not directly. It a rebellion against Heaven and Hell themselves, in the name of all humanity. Both supernatural powers are seen as enemies and enslavers of human beings. The mages of the Rebellion gather in Orders, not Houses. Unlike Houses, into which a mage is born as a member of a certain family, the Orders recruit their apprentices as adults. Mages or the Orders, like mages of the Houses, may speak of a mage’s “lineage”, but they see this is something passed from teacher to student rather than from parent to child. Throughout most of history, the Houses have tried to suppress the Rebellion, which they see as a destabilizing influence. However, in the modern western world, the Rebellion rages openly, the Houses having conceded that trying to suppress it had become more trouble than it is worth. The Houses and the Rebellion live in uneasy peace, with frequent local skirmishes.

PCs may choose to work with the Houses, maneuvering to acquire power, knowledge, or whatever else they choose to desire. Or they might join the Rebellion and fight for humanity against Heaven and Hell. Or they might take the power they have been given and carve a new path of their own design. The options open to a mage are as wide as the mage’s imagination.

LINK TO SETTING

http://wiki.rpg.net/index.php/Lineage:Main_Page

POWER 19

1.)  What is your game about?

The game is about mages secretly living in the modern USA.  More pretentiously, the game is about freedom and responsibility, the individual and society, requiring the character to decide what they would do for, and with, power.  It is also about the way that our character is formed by our upbringing and human history as a whole.

2.) What do the characters do?

The PCs are free to pursue their own ambitions and causes, but they must navigate the political landscape of mage society to do it and mage society is made up of factions with their own ambitions and causes.  Most mages either ally with one of the great mage Houses to gain wealth and power or join the Rebellion, which seeks to free humanity from the powers of Heaven and Hell.

3.) What do the players (including the GM if there is one) do?

As in most roleplaying games, the players control one character each while the GM runs the rest of the universe.  Because the players are given so much freedom to set their own goals, they must work together to produce a party with compatible agendas.

4.) How does your setting (or lack thereof) reinforce what your game is about?

The setting reinforces the themes of freedom, responsibility, the individual and society by requiring the PCs to decide what they will do with power as members of a society with very firm (though conflicting) views on what a mage should be and on what a human being should be.  The role of history as a force that shapes our identity is reinforced by the long histories of the mage factions, each of them originating at a particular time and place.  For example, the House of Flavii trace themselves back to ancient Rome and their view of the world remains rooted in Roman culture.

5.) How does the Character Creation of your game reinforce what your game is about?
The training of a mage heavily reinforces the part they are expected to playing in mage society, with that part determined by which faction trained them.  Mage training is arduous and the mage who completes it must have mastered many specific skills and spells, in accordance with the philosophy of their teachers.  While any mage may master any skill or spell, the different groups emphasize very different areas when training their apprentices.

6.) What types of behaviors/styles of play does your game reward (and punish if necessary)?

The game rewards seeing things from other people’s point of view, whether you agree with that point of view or not, since it is the clash of points of view that shape the environment in which the PCs must operate.  The game also rewards thoughtfulness, since the secretive nature of mage society means that unseen danger lurks all around.

7.) How are behaviors and styles of play rewarded or punished in your game?

While the rules of mage society are made to be broken by PCs, thoughtless rebellion and random violence will quickly get the PCs into hot water with powerful groups.  The mage who prospers is the mage who thinks before acting.

8.) How are the responsibilities of narration and credibility divided in your game?

The players decide what their own character does, thinks and feels.  The GM decides everything else.

9.) What does your game do to command the players’ attention, engagement, and participation? (i.e. What does the game do to make them care?)

The game does this in three main ways.  Firstly, characters begin immersed in the disputes of mage society, since it is one of the factions of mage society that has trained them.  Secondly, the game allows the players to pursue their own goals, allowing them to more easily identify with their character’s motivations.  Lastly, mage society is dangerous.

10.) What are the resolution mechanics of your game like?

The game uses the GURPS 4E system, from Steve Jackson Games.  I find it to be realistic, complete and fast in play.

11.) How do the resolution mechanics reinforce what your game is about?
While I rate GURPS highly as a system in general, it is particularly appropriate for running games in this setting.  The realism of the system provides a nice contrast for the reality-breaking supernatural events.  The completeness of the system makes it ideal for specifying the exact form of an extensive education in mundane and magical studies, such as all mages have in this setting.

12.) Do characters in your game advance? If so, how?
Characters advance both by achieving in-game goals that they have set for themselves (grow rich, extend your territory, rise in status within your faction) and by gaining skills and spells through use and study.  Some mages pursue personal advancement with a passion, while others are more concerned with doing good in the world.

13.) How does the character advancement (or lack thereof) reinforce what your game is about?

Character advancement is a matter of balancing personal ambition against the pressures of society, both from allies and foes.  Different factions in society will have strong views about what the character should be doing with their life, views that the PC may or may not agree with.

14.) What sort of product or effect do you want your game to produce in or for the players?

I hope to provide the players with an environment in which they can immerse their characters deeply, so as to enhance the roleplaying experience.  I also hope to provide them with a rich “sandbox” and the power to pursue their own ends.  Lastly, the characters are empowered just because being empowered is fun.

15.) What areas of your game receive extra attention and color? Why?

The most detail has been devoted to the different factions within mage society, how they view the world, what they try to achieve, and how they train their apprentices.  It is the cooperation and conflict between these groups that comprises the environment in which the PC pursue their agendas.

16.) Which part of your game are you most excited about or interested in? Why?

I am most interested in the different takes that the various factions of mage society have on the world and the way that they interact with one another.  It interests me because it seems significantly different from the mage societies I have seen in other games.

17.) Where does your game take the players that other games can’t, don’t, or won’t?

Other “mage” games have had to avoid dealing with real-world politics and religion for fear of offending potential customers, even when it wasn’t realistic to do so.  This setting deals with both topics directly.  Also, other mage games have had to keep the main divisions in mage politics relatively simple, to facilitate the publication of “splatbooks” for the various factions.  Often, this leads to political situations that seem highly unnatural.  In this setting, I have been free to introduce whatever factions I desired.  There are 27 major factions in Lineage, allowing for a complex political landscape.

18.) What are your publishing goals for your game?

I wish to give it away free on the internet for people to plunder as they wish.

19.) Who is your target audience?

The target audience is people who have played other games where the premise is that PCs are mages, such as Ars Magica, GURPS Cabal, GURPS Voodoo, Sorcerer, Mage: The Ascension, Mage: The Awakening, Unknown Armies and Witchcraft.  My intention is to offer these gamers a new and distinct take on the genre.  The game is also targeted at anyone who has enjoyed playing a supernatural creature in a modern setting.