Jkeown Posted July 15, 2015 Author Report Share Posted July 15, 2015 A lot of the magical critters in Ravenna are citizens of the nations in which they live. Jennifer is a US Citizen. She's got a credit rating, a home address, all the stuff you or I would have. However, when she wants, she can show her wings and claws and do things we can't. (Like ask Lord Arkoon to blast annoying Player Characters with his Fires o' Chaos) There is a flighty elf who owns a magic shop at the corner of 30th and 18th in Indy. She's a business owner with all that this implies. The fact that those streets do not cross is a matter for a spell to handle. This setting has to have verisimilitude of this type for me, otherwise I'd get fed up with it. Some folks who ought to be dead (Bacon, Cagliostro, Wayland, Emperor Norton, etc.) establish new identities when they venture out into the world. Living in Ravenna, you are your own credit rating, but when John Dee wants to go back to Mortlake (for whatever creepy reason), he buys a plane ticket with John D Willingham's credit card (teleportation is considered gaudy, and your arrival point might be under observation). You are making me think of this stuff in ways I haven't yet... I like it. Keep pushing. It's incredibly useful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jkeown Posted July 15, 2015 Author Report Share Posted July 15, 2015 Here's something fun... When you are immortal, but have to leave a body lying about: Create Corpse: Object Creation, +5 BODY, Complex Object (45 Active Points); Extra Time (20 Minutes, -2 1/2), OAF (Rod, Staff, Wand or Orb; -1), Gestures (Complex; -1/2), Requires A Roll (Magic roll; -1/2), Incantations (-1/4) Real Cost: 8 Forgery and Forensic Medicine are probably required to make the body look like it died "correctly" with stab wounds or burns... the right dental work or symptoms. Fun Stuff! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Goodwin Posted July 16, 2015 Report Share Posted July 16, 2015 Oh hey, another question. The Nagai are Reptoids. Are there Greys? Or other species that we would recognize as UFO type aliens? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jkeown Posted July 16, 2015 Author Report Share Posted July 16, 2015 I've been avoiding [REDACTED]. It's weird, but I don't like them. I know I have to deal with them, but I have genuinely been putting it off. Part of me wants to say "Those were elves...and the abductees were on some pretty bad drugs...thus the eye-thing..." but it doesn't quite fly. If I hear a really good suggestion (and it would have to blow my socks off) I might add it. Honestly, any idea about them that works should form the basis of its own game. They have their place, but they just don't feel right ... not yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DShomshak Posted July 17, 2015 Report Share Posted July 17, 2015 In one of his Suppressed Transmissions columns, Ken Hite pointed out that a Fantasy/SF world could still have legends that are not true, but still widely believed. (He was specifically talking about Mandeville's Travels and how to adapt the concept in various ways to various settings.) Even people who live in urban legends can have urban legends. The Greys might be one of them. Dean Shomshak Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jkeown Posted July 17, 2015 Author Report Share Posted July 17, 2015 An excellent point! Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DShomshak Posted July 17, 2015 Report Share Posted July 17, 2015 Okay, I haven't had time to read all the Ravenna file in detail, but I've read enough to say this: I'd read the novels. Dean Shomshak Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jkeown Posted July 18, 2015 Author Report Share Posted July 18, 2015 Okay, I haven't had time to read all the Ravenna file in detail, but I've read enough to say this: I'd read the novels. Dean Shomshak I'll take that as praise. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucius Posted July 20, 2015 Report Share Posted July 20, 2015 There is a flighty elf who owns a magic shop at the corner of 30th and 18th in Indy. She's a business owner with all that this implies. The fact that those streets do not cross is a matter for a spell to handle. This setting has to have verisimilitude of this type for me, otherwise I'd get fed up with it. You could have put it at the intersection of 17th, 18th, and 19th - an intersection that DOES EXIST in Indianapolis. In fact, I live not far from there. Lucius Alexander The palindromedary cannot explain how 17th, 18th, and 19th can possibly intersect, but somehow they do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jkeown Posted July 20, 2015 Author Report Share Posted July 20, 2015 But they do cross, don't they... that's not impossible, that's just our hometown's stupid DOT. It's the impossible nestled in amongst the mundane that makes RPGs cool for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Goodwin Posted July 20, 2015 Report Share Posted July 20, 2015 But they do cross, don't they... that's not impossible, that's just our hometown's stupid DOT. It's the impossible nestled in amongst the mundane that makes RPGs cool for me. That is part of what I love about this setting. And part of what I love about it is that there isn't really cosmological evil. There are people, even if those people are shaped like demons or dragons or ancient gods, and some of those people are really, really powerful with really, really big motivations and really, really little care for who they might hurt. Like, personal evil on a big scale. But the universe itself doesn't reward good and punish evil, or vice versa. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jkeown Posted July 20, 2015 Author Report Share Posted July 20, 2015 That is part of what I love about this setting. And part of what I love about it is that there isn't really cosmological evil. There are people, even if those people are shaped like demons or dragons or ancient gods, and some of those people are really, really powerful with really, really big motivations and really, really little care for who they might hurt. Like, personal evil on a big scale. But the universe itself doesn't reward good and punish evil, or vice versa. At the scale of Ravenna or Caleon or such... you are correct. There are hints of the Maelstrom (Chaos) and Aperion (Order) but even they aren't "personalities" in the proper sense. They are forces of nature. Interestingly, Apeiron didn't exist for a long time. It was destroyed, allowing Chaos to rule the multiverse for a period. My most recent crop of player characters (not players; 2 of them I played with in High School (I'm 48), one I married, and the last one I fathered) repaired Apeiron and now the Ancient War between order and chaos has been re-ignited. It's getting awfully Zelazny in here. Also, if you had a dollar for every time I've said how impersonal and uncaring the universe is on a fundamental level, you could probably buy a car. A nice one, with power windows, side mirror defrosters and a seat warmer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Goodwin Posted July 20, 2015 Report Share Posted July 20, 2015 At the scale of Ravenna or Caleon or such... you are correct. There are hints of the Maelstrom (Chaos) and Aperion (Order) but even they aren't "personalities" in the proper sense. They are forces of nature. Interestingly, Apeiron didn't exist for a long time. It was destroyed, allowing Chaos to rule the multiverse for a period. My most recent crop of player characters (not players; 2 of them I played with in High School (I'm 48), one I married, and the last one I fathered) repaired Apeiron and now the Ancient War between order and chaos has been re-ignited. It's getting awfully Zelazny in here. Sure, but even in the Amber series there were decent folk in Chaos and evil individual jerks in Amber. Chaos isn't necessarily evil, it just is. Also, if you had a dollar for every time I've said how impersonal and uncaring the universe is on a fundamental level, you could probably buy a car. A nice one, with power windows, side mirror defrosters and a seat warmer. Impersonal and uncaring is a lot different from evil. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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