Cityscape LARP

A new addition

2005-03-12T04:00:02Z

Here's a new addition to the Cityscape menagerie (and yes, I've started a little of the work back up again).

Artifacts

There are moments when an object leaves a great mark upon Fate. And from that point onward, they carry a great weight of power within them. For Fate remembers them, coalesces its force around them. Fate remembers. It remembers when that artifact changed the world. It remembers the lighter that started the fires in My Lai, the bullet whose shot was heard round the world, and the brush that Da Vinci held. And if you are skilled, you can make Fate do more than just remember.

These items that have touched greatness are known amongst magi as artifacts. They are powerful items indeed, but they are ruled by powerful laws of similarity. Fate builds up about them, but they must be used for spells or tasks similar to their notoriety. The cornerstone of a great building could build and support, but never kill. An assassin's blade can destroy, but never heal. And most cannot be used but once in a while, as Fate slowly weaves back around them.

Not every item in history becomes an artifact. Since the events surrounding their creation are often obscure at first, or outright dangerous, there has been little chance to study what creates an artifact and what does not. Many ambitious orders have stolen significant historical items only to find they contained no power at all, while other magi have discovered powerful artifacts lying on curio shelves gathering dust. Only long study of an object can reveal its true nature, so a confirmed artifact is quite prized.

Mechanics

Artifacts cannot be bought, and can be lost or found at the Master's leisure. They are meant as rewards and MacGuffins for players. They can be used by any magi, from sorcerors to shamans. Artifacts are defined by their scope, what they can be used for, and their frequency, how often they can be used.

An artifacts can be tapped a single massive shot of Fate, every once in a while. How frequently depends on the artifact. They are rarely more frequent than once a night, but some are so slow in reaccumulating they can only be tapped once a year or once a decade. Tapping a normal artifact produces ten Fate points that must be spent immediately toward a task or spell within their scope, and requires that the magi be in contact with the artifact. Since the artifact provides a near-perfect lense for magickal power, spells crafted using the artifact's power can ignore the ritual requirements. Thus, they are very useful for quickly constructing spells.

An artifact's scope is based on what made the artifact what it is. As was said above, the cornerstone of a great building can be used to build or fortify something quite easily. A magus might use such an artifact to create a protection spell or put a charm upon a building's construction. Magi can also use artifacts in mundane tasks, but this is more limited. The artifact must actually be used to perform the task at hand. The cornerstone would have to be built into the actual building to gain ten Fate toward the building's construction. But the cornerstone's scope still would not allow you to tap its Fate toward violence or destruction, even if you were able to throw it at someone.

Artifacts have a habit of having personalities and limitations of their own. Some limitations are merely quirky. A lighter might only allow itself to be tapped when lit. But they can go from inconvenient (while basking in the light of a full moon or while being touched by three people) to disgusting (while submerged in virgin's blood). And they often lend their own styling to the spells they create.

Examples

Cook's Spyglass
This battered brass spyglass was the property of Captain Cook, discoverer of the Hawaiian islands and later pirate. This artifact is useful for insight and discovery, and can be used once per month. The artifact is in the hands of a group of Remnants on Kauai.

The Reagan Revolver
The snub-nose revolver used to shoot Ronald Reagan was gypsy-switched out of FBI custody a while back. The revolver is useful for wounding people, but not for killing them. But it excels at activities to draw attention to yourself. It can be used every six months. At last report, the Reagan Revolver was in the hands of a Promethean in New York City.

The Disk of Doom
This 3.5" disk was discovered on the floor of a university computer room in North Carolina. The Dataweaver who discovered it simply had a feeling about it, and still does not know what lent the disk its great power. It is wonderful at wrecking computer systems and networks, and haywiring almost any complex system. It took a while to narrow the artifact's frequency, as it seemed random, fluctuating between several months to several weeks. The Dataweaver eventually discovered it regained its power every April 15th.

Great Artifacts

It is rumored that the most potent of artifacts have powers far beyond simple Fate. When rumors of them surface, their names are whispered - Excalibur, the Grail, the Daggers of Caesar. What they are capable of varies from story to story. Sometimes, they simply lend an unimaginably large but brief burst of power. But other more impressive rumors state they can go beyond the normal limits of magick, reworking the weather, changing the passage of time, showing clear images of past events. To explain why these powerful items have not overtaken the world, the stories usually say how they are greatly limited, usable under a rare celestial alignment and only in the hands of a virgin, for instance. One rumor told in London spoke a stone statue that obscures an forgotten island in the North Sea from any detection, but can never be removed from there. And often curses and malign powers are hinted at relating to these powerful artifacts.

Little is known about these great artifacts, for those magi who possess them would be unlikely to reveal it. So their supposed power is unconfirmed, and their existence still the substance of conjecture.

Feedback is welcome.

Playtesting

2005-01-21T07:29:40Z

I am very thankful and appreciative of everyone whose been involving in playtesting. This is a great group we have, and I look forward to every time we play.

But for now, I'm putting the playtests on hold. One, I need some time to work out the kinks and write some additional material. Also, I really need to devote my energies to my first semester. Cityscape takes a lot out of me (it's my baby), so I'm going to let it rest.

I don't think the break will be more than 3 or 4 weeks.

Game This Friday

2005-01-14T03:28:02Z

Yes, there is a game this Friday. We will be congregating in the 40 Acres Room of the UT Student Union, and then proceeding to have a street game. This is earlier than I anticipated making this move, but a lot of people have expressed an active interest in getting the game moving to open-air games. It's going to be cold, but not bitterly so, so dress warmly.

Be there by 7pm. Late-comers will have to play the cell phone game to track us down.

To know the name of a thing...

2005-01-12T09:59:42Z

On a lark, here is the tenative name and logo for my game studio.

Techno-Adepts

2005-01-01T22:38:43Z

A little New Years present for anyone who has been kicking a techno-adept concept around:

http://www.hermetics.org/ebooks.html

Hermetic PDFs. Woot.

New Adepts Advantages

2004-12-29T07:11:04Z

Furthering in my goal of beefing up the lamer paths, here we are

The Power of Knowledge

By walking the path of knowledge, the Adepts are favored by Fate in knowing. The Adept's affinity for retention is legendary, and they can call up all but the most obscure facts with little effort. They need only spend Fate to have a truly obscure question answered, and then they must only spend one Fate point.

Font of Wisdom

Adepts make a habit of being extremely well-read, and are constantly hungry for new Knowledge. During character creation, an Adept gets one free Wisdom for every Wisdom he purchases. If an Adept buys a Knowledge or Word of Power, he receives another Knowledge or a Word of Power at no cost.

Both of these advantages have already been update on the CityscapeWiki. Also, take a look at the new path sigils up on the path write-ups there.

A View of the Future

2004-12-28T05:06:34Z

http://205.238.164.140/mediawiki/

A rather incomplete but demonstrative view of the face of things to come. CityscapeWiki is now officially born. It is still an stumbling infant, however.

In time, playtesters and trusted individuals will be given editing powers over the articles, most of which need to be expanded and reorganized to fit this new content.

New Development Paradigm

2004-12-26T22:25:44Z

I'm going to pause and enjoy the sheer korp-speak of that title

....

Okay, here's the low down on how I see the Cityscape development going from now on. Once the CityscapeWiki site is up and running, that will contain the current rules set (as well as the past ones if you know where to look). Playtesters will be giving editing power over the Cityscape rules set/world write-up/glossary, and they will be trusted to know when they are clarifying and editing, and when they are changing stuff. Inappropriate changes will be reverted.

As for the LJ, it will still be the primary development journal, where new rules will hit first and be put up for discussion, and where games will be announced/discussed.

CityscapeWiki update

2004-12-26T18:42:55Z

And lo, Apache was installed and PHP loaded as the dread CGI, and the land was once step closer out of the darkness.

I've got MediaWiki running on my Windows 2000 server box. More to come.

CityscapeWiki

2004-12-25T22:06:55Z

I'm playing around with the idea of making use of the open source Wiki software (such as used in Wikipedia) to dispaly the Cityscape rules/universe. Apparently, you can make accounts limited and allowing editting priviledges only to registered users, so all you playtesters could be assigned accounts and edit/remark on material as you see fit. Good idea?

Second Game

2004-12-18T23:19:22Z

I would like to offer a warm congratulations to the attendess of the second beta game. It went off very well in my opinion, and I think having more people definitely helped. I would still like to see our numbers increase, so we have more people and types of players trying out the system and pushing it around.

Some planned revisions based on current play:

- The Well-Equipped advantage will be changed to specify you have access to such equipment, but it is not necessarily with you all the time. Not every piece of equipment you touch makes you 'well-equipped'. You have a lab somewhere, or something similar.

- The Dataweaver's tap of 'Using technology for 15 minutes' will have to be changed. There's no point in using any other taps as written. Possible variations include 'use technology for thirty minutes' which means if all you are doing is web-surfing, you are only juicing at 50% of your possible rate, or 'use technology as a solution to a situation', which might be more fitting in the range of existing taps for other Paths.

First playtest reports

2004-12-12T02:32:36Z

Considering all of us were stumbling around in the dark (both figuratively and literally), I think it went quite well. However, the plot fell down. This is my fault. I blame general atrophy. However, I intend to vamp up things next time, now that I have a better feel for how this game plays out. More familiarity with the rules will be necessary as time goes on, but hey. However, I was extremely pleased with the ease in which magick was done and figured out.

Any other observations, feel free to add them here.

First Playtest

2004-12-10T07:01:13Z

The first playtest session of Cityscape will be this Friday evening. Location is up in the air, either Wilson's place or English Aire. Call me if you want details.

The initial setting is going to be based around the Drag and its domains. Suddenly, the Lord and Knights of the Drag have been decimated by a sudden and unknown threat, and a power vacuum now exists. The player characters were once just locals, but now find themselve as both pretenders to the empty thrones and faced with an unknown danger. I'll explain more at the game, but this should give you a basic idea.

See you there.

Ghost Dancers Revised

2004-12-10T06:11:37Z

I've tweaked the new version of the Ghost Dancers to be more 'these worlds are one to me' and less 'reality sucks'. I've always played around with their taps and domains. This should be the final write-up for them for a while. Check It Out

Some Sample Totem Lessons

2004-11-20T17:50:24Z

Car

Prisons exist only in your mind. What you cannot and can do is often defined by what you think about yourself, not reality. Do not allow yourself to think or act like a prisoner or a servant.
Light fires and roar into the future. Seek out new experiences and places.
Never look back to where you have gone. The road is ahead. Do not be shackled by past defeats, or allow yourself to rest on past victories.
The need is for speed. Do not waste time on idleness or pointless protocol. The world is out there to be found.
The power of freedom comes with responsibility. Never use your freedom at the expense of your peers and the innocent.

Crow

How many battlefields are strewn with the corpses of the hopeful? Hope clouds reason. Don't indulge in it, not without extremely good evidence.
A failure you can recognize is one you were lucky enough to live through. Recognize them, learn from them, and continue on. Never deny them out of pride or other stupidity.
The dead are nothing but empty shells. I take their eyes and flesh, for they have no need for them. Dead causes are pointless to take on. Know when things end, take what you want from their corpses and move on.
Do I sit over the world and mourn? No. I perch, tilt my head, and laugh my shrill laugh. Follow this example, and do not allow the shackles of depression or sadness to overtake you.
I feed on the dead. I steal the eggs of the pigeon and the young of the rat. I scavenge for what makes my life complete. I never show shame for doing what I must do, and neither should you.

Television

Life is unfortunately lacking an instant replay. We’re working on it. Till then, take a second look before getting into anything that could become trouble.
Silence is not golden. If you find something out, make sure everyone knows about it. Secrets are the tools of the enemy.
A complicated message is almost as bad as no message at all. Keep your words simple and to the point. It gets more done, and informs more people.
Never restrict your audience. Never willfully take on a controversial stance, or alienate a group of people. Be the common ground.
The people have a right to know – everything. When you believe something might be hidden or an agenda unknown, look into it. Don’t let anything suspicious pass. There might be a good ‘scoop’ in it.

There's are just the one's I've finished so far. Feel free to leave feedback.

Multi-Totems

2004-11-14T23:13:05Z

I've been approaches a few times about having multiple totems for a shaman in the game. To make it plain...

The answer is no.

Now... if you are looking for a shaman who communes with other spirits and so forth, on a regular basis, there is nothing keeping anyone from talking to any of the totem spirits. But if you want to have someone whose has multiple totems he is beholden to, that's just not what your totem is in Cityscape. If you want to do this with relative ease, I suggest playing a Ghost Dancer. The intimate spiritual relationship of shaman to his totem is not something that can be split up or reproduced.

What makes -your- totem yours is that you are both bound together deeply and intimately with each other. This is a creature which can see into your very soul and the potential within it, and in turn you glean the deepest of understanding from this creature and its way of doing things. There's no going different ways on this. Now, the other totems are certainly there to be consulted, spoken to, and hit up for guidance or information, but your personal totem (following the shamanic traditions Cityscape is based on) is a single creature.

That said, I am -considering- including an advantage that allows a shaman to channel a totem other than his own, in exchange for services granted to that totem, the traditional 'spirit ban' of the shaman. But anything beyond that, like mixing totem lessons, etc., not only undermines what a totem is in Cityscape (and is in Plains Indian, Siberian, Mongolian, etc. shamanic traditions), but is a bookkeeping nightmare for any Master running a Cityscape game.

(On a side note, I know having multiple 'spirit guides' is a tradition found in Norman-influenced spiritual beliefs - Gaelic, Celtic, Viking. It's not the model I am using.)

Relatively Big Update / Ghost Dancers Revamp

2004-11-13T20:16:13Z

First of all, I added a slew of new advantages and resources, including making Expert a generic ability (replacing Computer Guru but keeping basically the same rules). Check it out

But most importantly, I made a major overhaul of the Ghost Dancers. They are no longer remnants who have come to the city. I've changed them into the shamans who are actively contemptous of the real world and have a deeper connection with the spirit than with mundane existence. I think it works better, and makes them more interesting characters - Check it out.

Dark and Black Traits

2004-11-13T05:12:06Z

The Dark and Black trait lists are up. Now, these lists are preliminary, just like the advantages list. But, they give you an idea of where this is coming from, and maybe give you an idea for traits of your own to propose (hint, hint).

Check 'em out

Saturday Meeting

2004-11-13T00:35:20Z

The first big pow-wow on 'what this is and where we are going' is this Saturday, gathering at 6:00pm at Wilson's place on Dominic (not the one by campus). If you are at all interested in being involved in the playtest period of the game, please attend! Pizza and soda will be provided. We'll be discussing initial setting, introducing everyone to the game at large, and generally trying to kick start things.

If you can contact me, Wilson, or Joseph, we can help you get directions and situated.

cityscaperpg @ 2004-11-12T01:46:00

2004-11-12T07:48:07Z

I'm struggling to find a image for the Decadent's page that fits their new theme and isn't just 'slutty'. Advice or points in the right direction would be helpful.

Photoshoot Set 1

2004-11-08T06:01:24Z

Thanks to everyone who helped with the first set of photoshoots. I'm sure a few revisits are perfectly in order, to get more material and pictures. But I liked how a lot of them turned out.

Photoshoot Sunday

2004-11-06T20:32:23Z

We are planning on doing a photoshoot Sunday (after karate). Night shots are not necessary, keep in mind. Here's what I got so far for casting confirmations...

Wilson - Dataweaver
Joseph - Promethean
Sean - Adept?
Brethren - Jan (conscripted)

We're planning on shooting around the Drag and Congress. Anything I'm missing?

Working on Reflection Traits

2004-11-05T20:39:56Z

I'm working on the list of Dark Traits. I need suggestions. Here's what I have so far. Feel free to suggest anything of your own.

Dark Traits

Every dark trait is accompanied by an Act and a Temptation. Acts are examples of what is done to fulfill that trait (and thus gain twisted fate). Temptations are the situations which can trigger those dark traits, if a shaman has been unfortunate enough to manifest one of them.

Anger

You have a great deal of anger inside of you. You've suppressed your nasty temper, but your reflection is known for its screaming rage.

Acts: Screaming at anyone who disagrees with you or annoys you. Throwing a tantrum in the face of aggravation.

Temptations: Being irritated. Not getting your way.

Fear

You had a phobia of some kind of object that you have learned to control. But your reflection still remembers how nasty, ugly and horrible it is. You can take this Reflection trait multiple times, for multiple things.

Acts: Cringing at the mention of your fear's focus. Screaming or running from your fear.

Temptations: The object of your fear being brought up in conversation. Facing your fear.

Loneliness

You have a hidden fear of being alone. Probably based on a fear of abandonment, your reflection likes others to be nearby, possibly to the point of restraining them.

Acts: Staying very close to whoever is with you. Crying or accusing others if they try to leave you.

Temptations: Being left alone. Being far away from people you know.

Lust

You have a healthy sexual drive. Your Reflection considers those who you are attracted to as pure objects of sexual gratification.

Acts: Talking lewdly to someone who fits your sexual profile. Attempt to seduce those who catch your eye.

Temptations: Being in a personal situation with someone who fits your sexual profile.

Obsession

You have a quiet obsession that you don't feel totally driven by. Your Reflection embraces it though, and it is a focus of its life.

Acts: Collecting images or examples of your obsession. Being entranced by objects of your obsession.

Temptations: Facing the object of your obsession.

Pride

You don't like being wrong. Your reflection is never wrong, ever.

Acts: Refusing to admit any failure. Insisting everyone go along with your view, and becoming angry at those who don't.

Temptations: Being accused of error. Faced with contradiction, doubt or alternatives to your way of doing things.

Sexual Deviant

You have learned to suppress a sexual urge your society is not very accepting of. Your reflection is not burdened by such repression, however. Pick the kind of urge it is - everything from bondage to homosexuality is fair game.
Acts: Insinuating your sexual deviancy. Trying to get others to engage in it with you.

Temptations: Being in a personal situation with someone you are attracted to. Being faced with images of your deviant behavior.

Whimsy

You've learned to fain interest in things, but deep down you have a childish disinterest in boring parts of life.

Acts: Simply leaving a boring situation. Playing childishly when others bore you.

Temptations: Being bored. Someone forcing you to listen to something you rather not.

New Decadents Write-Up

2004-11-05T07:28:48Z

Okay, another completed path write-up has been posted. This time it's for the Decadents. They seemed to be a bit shallow compared to the rest of the Paths now, so I've reworked them into a path of pure sensation and pushing the limits of this crude matter. Also, I changed their abilities to include Gestalt, where they can share their third sight with others by sharing sensations with them. Check It Out

Conflict and Murder

2004-11-05T00:13:18Z

That rules section is completed. Read it here.