Wow! All sorts of questions. That's great! This is exactly the sort of response that I need. I'm painfully aware that the rules, as written, make a number of assumptions that the intended audience may not make, and I'm in the process of tracking these assumptions down and beating them to a pulp.

Another problem that you're bumping into is the fact that the quickstart is now a bit out of date. I took a hiatus of several months from working on Alyria, and, upon returning to it, I discovered several ways of making the game clearer.

These changes have not yet made their way into the quickstart rules, though, as I've decided to focus my efforts on the full manuscript.

So, onto the questions themselves!

1) Nothing at char gen to prevent everyone from starting as a Blessed? How do the in-game penalties for being Blessed work? Do the powers go off of Force? How best to judge the aftereffects of overexertion of Blessed powers (ie. What penalties are appropriate?)

The choice to be one of the Blessed is less a decision about character effectiveness (as you will see in a moment) but more a matter of thematic choice. In my playtesting, I've seen two Blessed characters. One was the "villain" of the story, who was leading an army of monsters against the village that had cast him out when he was just a child. (This is the Uriel that I'll be using in later examples.) The other was a stress
"timer" in the story, acting as a human time bomb to add stress to an already tense situation (a battle of wills for control of a damaged mist ship). Neither player was primarily focused on the power associated with the Blessed.

My idea with the Blessing (or any form of Alyrian power) is that it is primarily a prop for narration, not an actual source of character effectiveness. In fact, one of the basic assumptions of Alyria is that true power and effectiveness comes *not* from your abilities but from your moral decisions. However, I have recently come to the conclusion that I need *some* mechanical substantiation for these abilities. So here is the mechanical effect of having the Blessing:

--If a Blessed character is involved in a contest and fails his dice roll, he may reroll his die by decreasing the attribute in question by one phase. This might affect the success or failure of his opponent's roll as well.

EXAMPLE: Let's say that Uriel is a Blessed character with a Force of Gibbous. He is involved in a contest with Victor, who is defending the village that Uriel is attacking. Victor has a Force of Half. This contest is defined as Force vs. Force.

Both sides roll. Uriel rolls a Crescent and fails, since he needed a Half. Victor rolls a Gibbous and succeeds. Well, this is not acceptable to Uriel, so he drops his Force from Gibbous to Half (permanently) and rerolls. Now he rolls a Full Moon and wins the contest.

If the Blessed character exercises this option, he *must* narrate the results as involving the use of the Blessing and narrate the Mark that he gains as a result. Mechanically, this Mark is represented by the decrease of the Attribute.

Now, I should note that the Blessing (or other power) does not necessarily derive from Force. For example, if one of the Blessed were using the Blessing to enhance his powers of persuasion by allowing him to read someone's mind, the Blessed would be using Insight, not Force. And, if the Blessed opts to exercise his reroll ability, he would drop a phase in Insight, not Force.

2) Explain to me again, in a slow, clear manner best used for the very young or terminally stupid: How are dice rolls interpreted, and how do they add or subtract from a character's characteristics? In short, I'm having difficulty grasping the underlying mechanic.

3) On that note, on the whole Good-traits-add-Evil-traits-subtract, how many traits can a player use to either boost himself or degrade his opponents (that, BTW, was a stroke of f***ing genius!) in any given "combat", be it social, physical or whatever? Once? As many times as possible? Are there any reasons to hold back, ie. you can only use Good/Evil traits so often during a given time?

I'm going to combine the answer to these two questions. It'll be easier, I think.

Okay. Let's take Uriel and Victor again. Let's pick the normal ultra-simple example: a fight. Both Uriel and Victor opt to use Force to resolve this conflict. Uriel has a Force of Gibbous and Victor has a Force of Half. Each one needs to roll against his *opponent's* Attribute. Therefore, as a baseline, Uriel needs to roll a Half moon or better to succeed. Victor, on the other hand, needs to roll a Gibbous or better.

If one succeeds and the other fails, then whoever successfully made the die roll wins the contest. If both succeed at their die rolls, then whoever has the highest Attribute wins marginally. In this case, Uriel would score a marginal win if both he and Victor made their rolls.

That's the basics. Now come some initial complications.

Rolling a Full Moon is good. Very good. If someone rolls a Full Moon and the other did not, then he automatically wins the contest, regardless of Attributes. Think of it like a critical success. If both sides tie by rolling Full Moons, resolve by using the Attributes like normal.

Rolling the Weeping Moon (aka the Blood Moon) is bad. Very bad. If someone rolls a Weeping Moon, then he automatically fails badly. Think of it like a critical failure.

Those are the basic complications. Now let's add Traits into the mix.

The use of a Trait changes the target moon phases. Each player may activate *one* Trait (either his own or his opponent's).

The player may choose to replace either his own or his enemy's Attribute with the phase of the Trait. Of course, the Trait in question has to be applicable to the situation.

If both players activate a Trait, they cancel out and the base Attributes are used.

Obviously, regardless of the final effect, any Trait use needs to be reflected in the final narration.

Back to our example. Uriel definitely outmatches Victor. However, let's throw in a Trait. Victor is a coward. In particular, he is afraid that his respected position in the village will be lost if the villagers find out that he is Uriel's father. So Victor has a Cowardice Trait rated at New Moon, because it is an intense evil Trait. In an ironic twist, Victor draws on his cowardice to find strength to defeat Uriel. He is more frightened of potential loss of respect than he is scared of dying at Uriel's hands • So he activates his Cowardice and gives the New Moon phase to Uriel. Now Uriel has a New Moon *instead of* his Gibbous phase from his Force. Therefore, if they rolled now, Victor would only need to roll a New
Moon, and a tie would go to Victor, since his Half Moon phase is higher than Uriel's current New Moon.

This cannot be permitted, so Uriel activates his own "Hatred of my father" Trait, which is also rated at New Moon. Since a second Trait has been activated, it cancels out the effect of the "Cowardice" Trait, leaving Uriel back at Gibbous and Victor at Half. However, both Traits were activated, and both should be reflected in the narration of the action that follows.

Also, Trait activation should be scrutinized for gaining of Inspiration or Corruption. Obviously, not every single activation is deserving of an I/C award. However, as characters act out their Traits, they should begin gaining I/C as appropriate. Since the struggle between Uriel and Victor is central to the story, I'd probably award both of them a point of Corruption for turning to their darker sides at a critical moment.

4) How are the effects of technology (lasers, nanotech, etc.) simulated in this game? Is it a prop, or does it have some actual effect on player choices?

They are a prop. Like most of the special powers in the game, technology only affects the narration that results from the die roll. It does not affect the outcome of the die roll itself. Again, like many of my other answers, this is an area that needs extra clarification in the rules, which I intend on doing in the final manuscript.

5) Also, do you have a new website?

Well, yes and no. You can find my website at www.mysticages.com/darkomengames. However, I have decided to put off putting up an updated website until I finish the game. I have a very limited amount of free time to devote to all this, and I've decided that it is better used on finishing the game.

I certainly hope that these answers are helpful, but I know that I can sometimes be dense. So, any questions about my answers?

Seth Ben-Ezra
Great Wolf

• This is adapted from an actual situation in play that occurred. Victor was a real PC, and he did use his Cowardice to pass through an entire pack of monsters loyal to Uriel because he needed to stop Uriel from revealing his dirty secret to the village. It was a great roleplaying moment.

My idea with the Blessing (or any form of Alyrian power) is that it is primarily a prop for narration, not an actual source of character effectiveness. In fact, one of the basic assumptions of Alyria is that true power and effectiveness comes *not* from your abilities but from your moral decisions. However, I have recently come to the conclusion that I need *some* mechanical substantiation for these abilities. So here is the mechanical effect of having the Blessing:

--If a Blessed character is involved in a contest and fails his dice roll, he may reroll his die by decreasing the attribute in question by one phase. This might affect the success or failure of his opponent's roll as well.

EXAMPLE: Let's say that Uriel is a Blessed character with a Force of Gibbous. He is involved in a contest with Victor, who is defending the village that Uriel is attacking. Victor has a Force of Half. This contest is defined as Force vs. Force.

Both sides roll. Uriel rolls a Crescent and fails, since he needed a Half. Victor rolls a Gibbous and succeeds. Well, this is not acceptable to Uriel, so he drops his Force from Gibbous to Half (permanently) and rerolls. Now he rolls a Full Moon and wins the contest.

If the Blessed character exercises this option, he *must* narrate the results as involving the use of the Blessing and narrate the Mark that he gains as a result. Mechanically, this Mark is represented by the decrease of the Attribute.

Now, I should note that the Blessing (or other power) does not necessarily derive from Force. For example, if one of the Blessed were using the Blessing to enhance his powers of persuasion by allowing him to read someone's mind, the Blessed would be using Insight, not Force. And, if the Blessed opts to exercise his reroll ability, he would drop a phase in Insight, not Force.

So the drop in phase is automatic, ie. before the dice are rolled? And all "props" in this game (technology, Blessed, etc.) is going to work off of a similar system?

Both Uriel and Victor opt to use Force to resolve this conflict. Uriel has a Force of Gibbous and Victor has a Force of Half. Each one needs to roll against his *opponent's* Attribute. Therefore, as a baseline, Uriel needs to roll a Half moon or better to succeed. Victor, on the other hand, needs to roll a Gibbous or better.

If one succeeds and the other fails, then whoever successfully made the die roll wins the contest. If both succeed at their die rolls, then whoever has the highest Attribute wins marginally. In this case, Uriel would score a marginal win if both he and Victor made their rolls.

Ah. So you have to roll a phase higher than your opponent's score to beat him, or at least make a good show of it.

Again, from lowest phase to highest phase, what are the ranks? I think I'm getting it, but I'm not sure... Weeping Moon, New moon, crescent moon, half moon, gibbous moon full moon?

Also, how is experience in this game done? Or is there experience?

So the drop in phase is automatic, ie. before the dice are rolled?

Yes.

And all "props" in this game (technology, Blessed, etc.) is going to work off of a similar system?

Well.... No. Originally, I hadn't planned on having any rules support for these things, so these rules systems are new. The system that I described is for the Blessing only. I'm still working on a system for the Gifts of the dragon cultists and Chosen. (I'm planning on tying these Gifts to specific Traits to reflect the moral underpinnings of these specific abilities.)

Technology and Misbegotten abilities will probably just remain as special effects with no further rules systems, however. More often then not, their effects can be reflected as specific narration of a particular Attribute. (E.G. "This character has a high Force because he is covered in quicksilver armor.")

Ah. So you have to roll a phase higher than your opponent's score to beat him, or at least make a good show of it.

Right. Well, ties are acceptable. So if your opponent has a Half Moon rating, then you need to roll at least a Half Moon to have a successful roll.

Again, from lowest phase to highest phase, what are the ranks? I think I'm getting it, but I'm not sure... Weeping Moon, New moon, crescent moon, half moon, gibbous moon full moon?

Correct, except that Weeping Moon isn't a rank. I'll be sure to clarify this in the final manuscript, as you're not the first to make this mistake.

Also, how is experience in this game done? Or is there experience?

No experience per se. Attributes are essentially set in stone. However, characters change through the use of Inspiration and Corruption. Remember that I/C can be spent to change Traits as well as Virtue, in addition to being used as an "I win" resource.

Remember that the focus of Alyria is on moral character and decision. Therefore, the important changes that happen to a character are *not* his power level but his moral standings. Therefore, it is this character change that is addressed in the Diverse Lunacy rules.

Seth Ben-Ezra
Great Wolf