Vesperteen: The Path to Power
Proving my ability to simultaneously work on N+1 design ideas...
I had a subway revelation about Vesperteen, based on the chakra progression in the Avatar season finale (which I suspect was directly inspired by similar things in Alan Moore's Promethea, which in turn draws on Kabbalah and Western mystic/occult traditions).
Instead of having the Squick Chart, which defines the "Lines and Veils" (WARNING: Ron Language) of the campaign before play begins (which is weird, since players are gonna becoming more comfortable exploring squicky things with each other as play goes on) and which also sets limits negatively ("I don't want to deal with squicky subject X")...
Each play group creates a (for lack of a better term) Path To Power for each of the seven deadly sins. The path is composed of a series of mystical chakras that have to be opened by performing sinful acts in order to move up the rankings in the mystical-social order of teenagers. Not all the steps along the path are determined before play begins, just the ones that get the characters up to their starting sin levels (determined during the initial Truth or Dare game) and maybe a few future chakras to give them sins to wrestle with and explore ("Will you betray your best friend for more power and status?"). The higher level chakras require monstrous acts that risk destroying a person's life and sending them to join the true monsters of society.
So yeah, Vesperteen is turning out to be a bizarre Sorcerer/Roach/Little Fears crossbreed, but that's pretty hot.
I had a subway revelation about Vesperteen, based on the chakra progression in the Avatar season finale (which I suspect was directly inspired by similar things in Alan Moore's Promethea, which in turn draws on Kabbalah and Western mystic/occult traditions).
Instead of having the Squick Chart, which defines the "Lines and Veils" (WARNING: Ron Language) of the campaign before play begins (which is weird, since players are gonna becoming more comfortable exploring squicky things with each other as play goes on) and which also sets limits negatively ("I don't want to deal with squicky subject X")...
Each play group creates a (for lack of a better term) Path To Power for each of the seven deadly sins. The path is composed of a series of mystical chakras that have to be opened by performing sinful acts in order to move up the rankings in the mystical-social order of teenagers. Not all the steps along the path are determined before play begins, just the ones that get the characters up to their starting sin levels (determined during the initial Truth or Dare game) and maybe a few future chakras to give them sins to wrestle with and explore ("Will you betray your best friend for more power and status?"). The higher level chakras require monstrous acts that risk destroying a person's life and sending them to join the true monsters of society.
So yeah, Vesperteen is turning out to be a bizarre Sorcerer/Roach/Little Fears crossbreed, but that's pretty hot.
posted by Jonathan Walton at 9:52 AM
1 Comments:
The lines and veils concept goes clear back to rgfa, actually, the landmark "14 axes of roleplaying" or whatever it was called, among others. Interestingly, rgfa spent at least as much time on lines and veils (not using those terms) as they did on threefold demarcations.
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