under a black moon

About a decade ago I bought some role-playing games from France, in particular the second and third editions of Nephilim which had yet to be translated into English.* Not having much spare time at that time, I glanced through them, and then put them into storage, fully intending to get back to them at a later date. Well, it was a delightful surprise to uncover them again, and I have since been translating some of them. This has been a fun activity on a number of counts. Firstly, I can't claim to speak French any more, or more to the point, compose in French. I can usually puzzle out written French however, and understand more spoken French than I really should after all this time (no doubt being a fan of French cinema helps here). Secondly, the books contain a lot of jargon in the form of gaming turns, and, since they deal with occult conspiracies, the fall of Atlantis, and similar esoterica, well ... I think you get the picture. Anyway, one of the nice things is the poetry of the spells and creatures, so I thought I'd share the names of some of the creatures of the Black Kabbalah for you. Creatures in rapport with humans: The Dark Heralds of Sorrow; The Refined Torturers of the Country of Nightmares; The Malefic Suzerains of Apathy; The Sinister Rodents of the Dissatisfied Heart; The Enchanted Voices Which Erase Pain; The Laughing Thieves of Attention; The Ministers of Scarlet Hate; Those Who Reveal the Hidden Demons. Entities that depend on the dead: The Pitiless Judge of Forgotten Crimes; Those Who Lurk Under Gallows; The Cold Librarians of Lost Hearts; The Pernicious Serpents Who Prosper From Putrefaction; The Golden Anemone of Trivial Reward for the Late Dreamers; The Tireless Ingénues with the Sad Eyes; The Ultimate Loathing; The Silent Grumblers of Eternity. Soldiers and combatants: The Blackness With Brilliant Eyes; The Giants of Dead Flesh; Those Whose Touch Is Red Hot Iron; The Unperturbed Soldiers With Hearts of Bronze; The Juggernaut of Blackened Steel; The Always-Famished Moray Eels; Those Whose Name Is Never Evoked. The specialists: The Horror Who Murmurs Dreadful Secrets In Shadow; The One Who Surveys The Obscure Track; The Taciturn Guides With Light Feet; The Formidable Spinners With The Breath of Ice; The Ivy Which Solidifies the Heart; The Mouth of Shadow; The Blunt Devourer, Terror of Undisciplined Demons; The Princes of the Cherished Decomposition; The Gentle Dogs of Infinite Space; The Movable Sepulchre, Protective of Livestock; The All-Seeing Eyes. Creatures dependent upon the Dark Kingdoms: The Judicious Seneschal of The Gods to Come; The Eye With Reflections of Cold Fire; The Egg of Shining Darkness; The Assiduous Sculptors of the Void. Strangeness: The Wandering Claws; The Strange Clocks Which Tell No Time; Tears. I find that the real magic in the game is in the evocative poetry of the names. It's something that the more mechanical game systems tend to forget when they write the rules to describe these phenomena. On the other hand, and in counter-point, you have modern systems such as Heroquest where abilities tend to consist of evocative names (with esoterica being even more exotic than "normal" abilities) along with a rating. Something to think about, perhaps. * The US edition of the game has a very different feel to the French version. It wasn't a commercial success either, at least compared to the French version which went through three editions (and would still be going strong if Multisim hadn't of fallen lure to the siren call of computer gaming). Judging from comments on the mailing list, the inhuman view of magical parasites possessing people through the ages was particularly unpopular with the American audience. Whereas in the French game it feels right. It must be being immersed in all that history, methinks.

playtesting

Oh dear. There looks like there is a playtest I'd be interested to get involved in but it needs 4 to 6 players. I possibly have 3, since my regular playtesters are coping with new kids (for various definitions of "new"), and my old group is currently involved in leaving Adelaide. Then again, considering experience with the Gumshoe system (Trail of Cthulhu, Esoterrorists, and Mutant City Blues) would probably be an advantage, I don't rate our chance of grabbing a playtest slot very highly, even if we manage to gather the necessary players, but I thought I'd ask if anyone was interested. It would be once a week sessions terminating at the end of July. [On the gripping hand some friends have talked me into running Glorantha. The more the merrier.] Apparently the University role-playing club has ressurected itself (again). Must wander down and see what's happening.

essence

The Hero System was originally invented for the game Champions nearly three decades ago. It suited the superhero genre very well, since it allowed players to design their characters by purchasing game mechanical effects, rather than powers. So instead of buying a "flame blast" you would buy a 6d6 energy blast with the special effect of flame. Modifiers allowed you to customize the mechanical effects until you got the exact power you wanted. If the powers all ran along a particular theme, there were various mechanisms for getting a discount. The end result of all this was that everything was defined in terms of a point cost. Now this works well for a superhero game, because matters of economics are really background information. Having a mansion full of 1930 Daimler roadsters just gives the villains something else to smash up. One can easily run a game were the character's equipment is actually part of the character. But it wasn't long before people started to apply the hero system to other genres, such as pulp (Justice Inc, spies (Espionage), giant robots (Robot Warriors), ninjas (Ninja Hero), cowboys (Western Hero), fantasy (Fantasy Hero) and space opera (Star Hero). Apart from being "grainier" at the resolution of normal people (not surprising for a system designed to cope with superheroes), it didn't do too bad a job. But one thing which bothered me, and bothers me still with similar systems, is that equipment is still part of the character. Ideally it should be paid for out of the characters reserve of character points. And this doesn't quite gel for me. Now an interesting thing is that the distribution of characteristics tends to follow a 3d6 (or rather a 4d6, take the best 3d6) distribution. So what would happen if we were to randomly generate the characteristic, attach an appropriate skill and ability generation system (also probably pseudo-random), and then calculate the point value of the character. Now what if we give that point value an actual identity in the game. Perhaps call it Essence, and give it magical properties. The thing I like about this is that as a character grows they gain Essence. Small children start out with negative Essence (-50) and slowly work towards Adulthood, and a positive Essence score. When a character learns a new skill, gains a new ability, or even acquires an advantageous status their Essence increases. Similarly, gaining a disadvantage reduces their Essence (and yes, I would take the in-game consequences into play in these calculations, something which is not normally done with Hero System disadvantages). Similarly, the cat of creation generates Essence. A craftsman making a longsword increases the effective Essence in the world by 13 points (the cost of a longsword). Other creative acts could also be rated in terms of points for this purpose. I mean, a hit song could be modelled as a PRE attack. Individually it may not be worth much at all, but when you start adding the doubling cost (generally +5 points gets you twice the quantity/distance/time/etc) you are starting to generate considerable Essence. Now what if a magician could make use of that Essence to create something using magic. Or to do something using magic. If the magician could sacrifice that longsword that the craftsman made, and gain 13 points of Essence to work a spell... Linking the act of creation to a sourec of magic fascinates me. There has to be some interesting possibility there. Only of the nice things in the Asyle Sourcebook for Torg is that the currency is the Talent, which is the amount of magical ability to make one Talent of gold. So yes, powerful magicians can make money out of nothing, except it is worth exactly the amount of time and effort they spent doing it. In a similar vein Essence becomes a currency. The cost of an object is the Essence required to magically create it.