The Blooded: Modern Mythos

[Steve]

1 hour ago, sentry0 said:

 

I really think you're on to something with the Watchers being separate from Blooded society.  They could travel between kingdoms as messengers and Bloodline houses as you suggest.  They would have special rights and status within Blooded society.

 

I think that the spell you wrote up is scoped differently than Second Wind.  Second Wind is meant to be used in combat to recover STUN and END up to their starting values.  The spell you wrote up will increase the top end of those stats, which is fine.  I'm thinking that both can coexist for that reason...maybe it can be put into the Blood magic line of spells.

 

Actually, Aid both restores Characteristics and also increases their top end. It is a -1/2 Limitation on Aid to "Only Restores To Starting Values" with it. The write-up I did would be a point cheaper with this Limitation added.

 

Watcher Knights (or whatever you choose to call them) could have a Jedi-esque mystique about them, I suppose. Perhaps they could be something akin to the Templars in Blooded society, or even BE the true Templars, for that matter. They could have a martial arts style and other abilities. I assume they are called Watchers because they have some sort of guardian purpose to them, watching for enemies both internal and external, and also finding reincarnated Blood.

 

Blooded that don't get found by a Watcher may end up joining splinter groups of Blooded that could have some radical beliefs, more potential groups of foes for the main organization. There could also be Blooded that don't want anything to do with that society, so they self-exile themselves.

[sentry0]

2 hours ago, Steve said:

 

Actually, Aid both restores Characteristics and also increases their top end. It is a -1/2 Limitation on Aid to "Only Restores To Starting Values" with it. The write-up I did would be a point cheaper with this Limitation added.

 

Watcher Knights (or whatever you choose to call them) could have a Jedi-esque mystique about them, I suppose. Perhaps they could be something akin to the Templars in Blooded society, or even BE the true Templars, for that matter. They could have a martial arts style and other abilities. I assume they are called Watchers because they have some sort of guardian purpose to them, watching for enemies both internal and external, and also finding reincarnated Blood.

 

Blooded that don't get found by a Watcher may end up joining splinter groups of Blooded that could have some radical beliefs, more potential groups of foes for the main organization. There could also be Blooded that don't want anything to do with that society, so they self-exile themselves.

 

Instead of Watcher how about we call them something else?  I'm thinking something like Paladin or Bloodguard (Blood Paladin?).  This group would have two sacred charges: to ensure the Ancient Laws are observed/enforced and to find new Blooded. 

 

They would have ability to come and go as they please between kingdoms (within reason).  I'm thinking they would be seen like champions and would have their own powerbase within Blooded society...enough power that even a King or Queen would respect them.  Maybe they have a code of conduct that includes a non-interference policy in regional politics, unless an Ancient Law in broken.  That would keep them beneign enough that a monarch would tolerate them.

[Steve]

14 hours ago, sentry0 said:

 

Instead of Watcher how about we call them something else?  I'm thinking something like Paladin or Bloodguard (Blood Paladin?).  This group would have two sacred charges: to ensure the Ancient Laws are observed/enforced and to find new Blooded. 

 

They would have ability to come and go as they please between kingdoms (within reason).  I'm thinking they would be seen like champions and would have their own powerbase within Blooded society...enough power that even a King or Queen would respect them.  Maybe they have a code of conduct that includes a non-interference policy in regional politics, unless an Ancient Law in broken.  That would keep them beneign enough that a monarch would tolerate them.

 

For a more mythic concept, how about calling them Grail Knights? If beings can come into the world through a Mythic Breach, then why not relics and artifacts? The mythic Holy Grail seems like it would be a good choice. If each Grail Knight drinks from the mythic chalice when they receive their office, then it can be the explanation for investing them with certain powers and abilities that other Blooded don't have access to. Knights would be in charge of training their squires, perhaps in a mix of Eastern and Western skills, readying them for the investiture ceremony that will elevate them into being full members of the Order of the Grail, a group existing alongside regular Blooded.

 

Of course, there could also be fallen Knights as well, guilty of pride or some other sin that took them down a dark road into villainy.

[sentry0]

3 hours ago, Steve said:

 

For a more mythic concept, how about calling them Grail Knights? If beings can come into the world through a Mythic Breach, then why not relics and artifacts? The mythic Holy Grail seems like it would be a good choice. If each Grail Knight drinks from the mythic chalice when they receive their office, then it can be the explanation for investing them with certain powers and abilities that other Blooded don't have access to. Knights would be in charge of training their squires, perhaps in a mix of Eastern and Western skills, readying them for the investiture ceremony that will elevate them into being full members of the Order of the Grail, a group existing alongside regular Blooded.

 

Of course, there could also be fallen Knights as well, guilty of pride or some other sin that took them down a dark road into villainy.

 

I like the idea of having some sort of artifact being the source of their power...what about going back a bit further?  I was thinking maybe we should tie it into an ancient pantheon.

 

This order of Knights has 2 things on it's plate...enforcing the Ancient Laws and finding new Blooded.  That makes me think of justice and hunting in terms of themes...that leaves some options open.

• Athena/Minerva - Greek and Roman gods of the wisdom and warfare
• Tyr - Norse god of war and justice
• Odin - wisdom, war...a bunch of other things
• Skadi - Norse hunting god
• Artemis/Diana - Greek/Roman gods of hunting, the moon, animals
• ???

I kind of like Tyr out of the list because there's already a Greek themed Bloodline with The Scions of Atlas and I like that he has justice in his portfolio.  Odin and Skadi would work too but Odin is way overexposed because of Marvel and Skadi is kind of obscure.

 

What do you think?

[Steve]

To be a bit different, why not go with Celtic mythology? They could be the Tuatha de Danaan (People of the Goddess Danu). A lot of mileage could probably be had tying them to the myth of the Tuatha.

 

Come to think of it, are the Blooded purely a Western phenomena? I don't recall seeing any mention of Asia in your document.

[sentry0]

12 minutes ago, Steve said:

To be a bit different, why not go with Celtic mythology? They could be the Tuatha de Danaan (People of the Goddess Danu). A lot of mileage could probably be had tying them to the myth of the Tuatha.

 

Come to think of it, are the Blooded purely a Western phenomena? I don't recall seeing any mention of Asia in your document.

 

I like it, Danu has fertility and wisdom associated with her which both work for this order of Knights.  According to this she's known to bring wisdom into the world through the Well of Segais...perhaps the ritual to join the Knights involve drinking from the well?  

 

I'm staying away from Asia mostly because my knowledge of Asian myths and pantheons is pretty abysmal.  I imagine that Blooded exist is all cultures but am specifically focused on Western mythology for this mini-setting.  It would be cool to write up Asian themed Blooded complete with their own culturally significant mythological hooks at some point.

 

Who knows, maybe that's something that will happen in time.

[Tjack]

On 4/1/2019 at 8:06 AM, sentry0 said:

 

I was thinking the Blooded population would be relatively small, something in the ballpark of 0.00005% which works out to 350k globally, large enough to require governing but statistically insignificant in terms of the humans to Blooded ratio.  In regards to reincarnation, I was hinting that something like that was going on during The Reverie but I was approaching it from the other side, the Mythic side.

 

I hear you on the cascading effects, I think Blooded magic will need to be carefully applied and if more than one breach open they will likely be in trouble.  I'm assuming people will jack their stats so they can cast Blooded magic on a 19- base which means that a 50 AP spell should go off 90% of the time which seems fine to me in terms of a failure rate.  It's when they start dipping into more powerful spells in combat that things get hairy for them...again I'm fine with that as a risk/reward element.

 

I was thinking about the Breach mechanic a bit in the same terms as you...were it gets even muddier is the activation roll.  Just because they fail a spell doesn't mean a Breach will open and it's even less likely to open on a less powerful spell.  How do you cost that?  I just picked -1 because I figured a tear in reality is a major thing...maybe I should reduce it to -3/4 or -1/2 to account for the activation rolls?

 

 

 

 

 

          Don’t sweat the math, this is like using a formula to decide how many Buffy type Slayers or Highlander style immortals there were.  There are exactly how many Blooded the GM wants there to be.

        Once at a convention panel Q&A a fan asked Joss Whedon about the exact speed of a Firefly class ship.  He replied “ It travels at the speed of plot.”   If the subject of birth rates or numbers of Breaches per year does come up just say that the numbers “ebb and peak.”  

     It’s a more magic based answer,  gives a possibility of a great cosmic secret to be discovered by the players and gives control back to the GM.

[sentry0]

OK, I just wrote up something...have a look and let me know what you think.

 

----

The Knights of Tuath

The Knights of Tuath are an elite group of Blooded who have two important functions within Blooded society: enforcement of the Ancient Laws and finding new Blooded. They are considered to be outside the normal social constructs that the Blooded use to organize themselves and are free to come and go between Kingdoms with a minimum of difficulty. Because of this free agency, the Knights of Tuath are often called upon to mete out justice on Blooded who have committed crimes in one Kingdom but have fled to another.

 

The Knights of Tuath are also charged with seeking out and finding new Blooded. They are expected to bring the new Blooded into Blooded society and place them under the care of their Bloodline. Usually this means they bring the newly awakened Blooded to their closest King so that a mentor may be found.

 

The Knights of Tuath have been transformed by the waters from the Well of Segais and have access to magic that aids them in their tasks.

[Steve]

4 hours ago, sentry0 said:

OK, I just wrote up something...have a look and let me know what you think.

 

----

The Knights of Tuath

The Knights of Tuath are an elite group of Blooded who have two important functions within Blooded society: enforcement of the Ancient Laws and finding new Blooded. They are considered to be outside the normal social constructs that the Blooded use to organize themselves and are free to come and go between Kingdoms with a minimum of difficulty. Because of this free agency, the Knights of Tuath are often called upon to mete out justice on Blooded who have committed crimes in one Kingdom but have fled to another.

 

The Knights of Tuath are also charged with seeking out and finding new Blooded. They are expected to bring the new Blooded into Blooded society and place them under the care of their Bloodline. Usually this means they bring the newly awakened Blooded to their closest King so that a mentor may be found.

 

The Knights of Tuath have been transformed by the waters from the Well of Segais and have access to magic that aids them in their tasks.

 

This seems okay to me.

 

The KOT will need their own package deal like you have done for the Bloodlines, since they are effectively acting as an 8th Bloodline. I would suggest giving them a tracking sense for finding Blooded and maybe their Blooded list is composed of paladin-like abilities. In addition to finding newly awakened Blooded, this tracking ability would also let them hunt down violators of Blooded laws. Perhaps they could also have an ability to discern truth from lies, which would also aid them in acting as agents of Blooded justice. You might consider giving them a Psychological Complication of some kind that reflects their dedication to their role. KOT squires probably have to undergo many trials and examinations during their training to determine their worthiness to drink from the Well of Segais.

 

While you probably don't need something like an entire Order of Sith to oppose the KOT from the shadows, there might be one or two fallen knights out there that could have abilities like D&D Death Knights or just be Sith-like. Perhaps failing to live up to the high standards of the KOT causes their Blood to burn within them, a penalty imposed on them due to having drunk from the magic well. This burning usually kills the offender, but perhaps under very rare circumstances preserved one or two, and those beings are whispered about by the squires or used by Knights as object lessons on the dangers of failing in ones duty. Death by their Blood burning would be taught as being far preferable to this other possible fate.

[sentry0]

18 hours ago, Steve said:

 

This seems okay to me.

 

The KOT will need their own package deal like you have done for the Bloodlines, since they are effectively acting as an 8th Bloodline. I would suggest giving them a tracking sense for finding Blooded and maybe their Blooded list is composed of paladin-like abilities. In addition to finding newly awakened Blooded, this tracking ability would also let them hunt down violators of Blooded laws. Perhaps they could also have an ability to discern truth from lies, which would also aid them in acting as agents of Blooded justice. You might consider giving them a Psychological Complication of some kind that reflects their dedication to their role. KOT squires probably have to undergo many trials and examinations during their training to determine their worthiness to drink from the Well of Segais.

 

While you probably don't need something like an entire Order of Sith to oppose the KOT from the shadows, there might be one or two fallen knights out there that could have abilities like D&D Death Knights or just be Sith-like. Perhaps failing to live up to the high standards of the KOT causes their Blood to burn within them, a penalty imposed on them due to having drunk from the magic well. This burning usually kills the offender, but perhaps under very rare circumstances preserved one or two, and those beings are whispered about by the squires or used by Knights as object lessons on the dangers of failing in ones duty. Death by their Blood burning would be taught as being far preferable to this other possible fate.

 

I wrote up the Knights of Tuath spells last night...5 of them, all sensory in nature, I figure those types of spells would help them perform their tasks.  I also did their package deal...it's modest but offers lots of flexibility.

 

I added a couple of new Blood magic spells while I was on the spell kick...Sense Breach, Sense Mythic Creature, and Tenacity.

 

I'm going to focus on writing up NYC for a bit and then I should be done in terms of things I wanted to accomplish.

[Steve]

I can think of four main power blocs you need to consider when inserting the Blooded into NYC: the political landscape, the unions, the police and organized crime. Each of these will be impacted to some degree or another by the presence of the Blooded.

[Lucius]

On 3/30/2019 at 9:13 PM, Lucius said:

The First Law: WHY??

 

 

Actually, set the question of why aside for a moment.

 

With dragons and manticores and djinn and the like more or less crawling out of the woodwork on a pretty regular basis, tell me HOW???

 

 

Lucius Alexander

 

With woodwork coming out of the palindromedaries

 

[sentry0]

9 minutes ago, Lucius said:

 

Actually, set the question of why aside for a moment.

 

With dragons and manticores and djinn and the like more or less crawling out of the woodwork on a pretty regular basis, tell me HOW???

 

 

Lucius Alexander

 

With woodwork coming out of the palindromedaries

 

 

There's a couple of things at play here:

• Not all Blooded are PCs and casting spells frequently
• The Second law states that a Blooded are expected to deal with any breach they create
• Breach Hunters work to clean up the fallout of a breach, including dealing with cell phone videos, police, witnesses, etc

There's also the Lost Legion who are actively recruiting the creatures who come through the breach for their own war against the Blooded.  The Crimson Cabal would love to get their hands on the critters that come through.  The Continuum would probably rather not have mythic creatures from the past in the present...

 

Take your pick I guess.

 

If you're not digging the concept then maybe take a pass on it???

 

[Steve]

Actually, containing widespread knowledge of Breach incidents seems like it could be quite troublesome for the Blooded. With the sheer number of them existing in the world set at around 500k or so, combining the chances of skill failure with the chances of a Mythic Breach activation seems like it would mean somewhere around 0.05% to 0.1% of the Blooded population is causing a Mythic Breach on any given day. That equals hundreds of Breach events every day in the world.

 

Because of the number of potential events, that seems like it would be highly difficult to contain knowledge of _all_ of them, especially given that containing them and erasing knowledge of them would require the use of Blooded abilities, which could then cause additional Breach events. You could easily end up with a cascade failure, a mass event of Mythic Breaches all at once, like something out of a Ghostbusters movie.

 

It's a suspension of disbelief question for people who look at your numbers. How to mitigate that?

 

If the foes of the Blooded are also aiding in maintaining the masquerade, that eases the burden of containment a bit, but there could also be one or more groups that is actively trying to disseminate knowledge of Mythic Breaches.

[sentry0]

59 minutes ago, Steve said:

Actually, containing widespread knowledge of Breach incidents seems like it could be quite troublesome for the Blooded. With the sheer number of them existing in the world set at around 500k or so, combining the chances of skill failure with the chances of a Mythic Breach activation seems like it would mean somewhere around 0.05% to 0.1% of the Blooded population is causing a Mythic Breach on any given day. That equals hundreds of Breach events every day in the world.

 

Because of the number of potential events, that seems like it would be highly difficult to contain knowledge of _all_ of them, especially given that containing them and erasing knowledge of them would require the use of Blooded abilities, which could then cause additional Breach events. You could easily end up with a cascade failure, a mass event of Mythic Breaches all at once, like something out of a Ghostbusters movie.

 

It's a suspension of disbelief question for people who look at your numbers. How to mitigate that?

 

If the foes of the Blooded are also aiding in maintaining the masquerade, that eases the burden of containment a bit, but there could also be one or more groups that is actively trying to disseminate knowledge of Mythic Breaches.

 

I don't think 100% Breach containment is realistic either, that's how The Lost Legion maintains it numbers...at least partially. There's lots of groups who would love to get their hands on what comes through a Breach.  Lots more who would just as well destroy the Breach creatures and Blooded.

 

The question becomes what do mortals do with stories of mythic creatures stalking the streets?

 

Personally, the way I'm going to play it in my game is that those are tabloid stories and urban legends.  If one of the myriad of interested parties fail to handle the Breach then what happens?  The Breach creature may end up in the news.  The Blooded need to cover it up ASAP and the manticore of the lower East side becomes public enemy #1.  The Blooded have extensive NCI and would be able to manipulate the press, local police, even FBI and government wouldn't be beyond their reach.  They don't have to mind wipe everyone in a quarter mile radius of a Breach because of they can control what gets reported on and what gets investigated.

 

About cascading failures: it is a real possibility that the Blooded make things worse when covering up a Breach.  The types of magic being cast by Breach Hunters would be quite a bit more powerful than what the average Blooded peasant would be casting.  Overall, Blooded magic needs to be used like a scalpel, not a hammer...which I'm fine with.  They're not Superheroes.

 

Is it air tight?  Absolutely not and that's part of the fun for me ?. If Breach containment was 100% I would argue it would make things a lot more boring.  I like that Breaches add an element of risk to Blooded magic and makes casting a spell a choice and not a given outcome to a problem.  As it stands, it's a delivery mechanism for mythical creatures into the setting that impact the setting itself in very tangible ways.  That's exactly what I wanted them to be!

[Durzan Malakim]

Does all magic risk Breaches or just the magic of the Blooded? If some Breachers can cast magic, why wouldn't they use it to intentionally create more Breaches? I would suggest making Breaches a potential side-effect for all magic. The beings that come out of a Breach are hostile to the caster and the caster's realm. This explains why the Lost Legion doesn't intentionally go around creating Breaches and instead only focus on recruiting potential allies from other's Breaches.

 

Here is my suggested explanation for why mortals aren't more aware of Breaches. The government runs and supports the Crimson Cabal and actively suppresses Breach events. The government knows magic is real and is desperately trying to close the magic gap in this arms race. Their solution to Breach incursions is to capture or kill the mythic beings that enter our world. Some beings they study trying to learn more about magic. Some beings they kill and convert into spell components. Perhaps Crimson Cabal magic exploits a loophole in magic. Since spell components are the flesh of other magic users, any Breach side effect gets redirected to that flesh. Crimson Cabal mages are essentially casting spells by proxy. This actually gives the Crimson Cabal an incentive to find and exploit Nameless. They can Capture a Nameless, force them to create a Breach, clean up the mess, and then gather more spell components. The Blooded don't care what happens to the Nameless, and The Nameless have an even bigger incentive to stay hidden and not draw attention to themselves. You can use the Crimson Cabal as both Men In Black and boogey men used to scare Blooded children into behaving themselves. This also helps explains why there is a First Law. When mortals learn of mythic magic, they exploit it with literal flesh and blood. 

Edited April 7, 2019 by Durzan Malakim
added crucial missing word

[sentry0]

1 hour ago, Durzan Malakim said:

Does all magic risk Breaches or just the magic of the Blooded? If some Breachers can cast magic, why wouldn't they use it to intentionally create more Breaches? I would suggest making Breaches a potential side-effect for all magic. The beings that come out of a Breach are hostile to the caster and the caster's realm. This explains why the Lost Legion doesn't intentionally go around creating Breaches and instead only focus on recruiting potential allies from other's Breaches.

 

Here is my suggested explanation for why mortals aren't more aware of Breaches. The government runs and supports the Crimson Cabal and actively suppresses Breach events. The government knows magic is real and is desperately trying to close the magic gap in this arms race. Their solution to Breach incursions is to capture or kill the mythic beings that enter our world. Some beings they study trying to learn more about magic. Some beings they kill and convert into spell components. Perhaps Crimson Cabal magic exploits a loophole in magic. Since spell components are the flesh of other magic users, any Breach side effect gets redirected to that flesh. Crimson Cabal mages are essentially casting spells by proxy. This actually gives the Crimson Cabal an incentive to find and exploit Nameless. They can Capture a Nameless, force them to create a Breach, clean up the mess, and then gather more spell components. The Blooded don't care what happens to the Nameless, and The Nameless have an even bigger incentive to stay hidden and not draw attention to themselves. You can use the Crimson Cabal as both Men In Black and boogey men used to scare Blooded children into behaving themselves. This also helps explains why there is a First Law. When mortals learn of mythic magic, they exploit it with literal flesh and blood. 

 

Only Blooded magic can cause a breach on a failure and only then is it a % chance to cause a breach.  It's a side effect for how their magic works, they're literally tapping into a mythic force via their blood to summon forth magical effects...when it goes bad, it can go real bad.  Here's the breakdown of how Mythic Breaches work for reference:

 

Mythic Breach Probability

Spell AP*	Breach Activation	Segments	Limitation Value
1-10	N/A	N/A	-¼
11-30	6-	2d6	-½
31-50	8-	4d6	-¾
51-70	11-	5d6	-1
71-90	14-	7d6	-1¼
91+	Breach	8d6	-1½

*Spell roll failures of 5 or more are moved one row down the chart

 

I like your idea about the government being part of a conspiracy, in fact I have written up a defense contractor that I already implicated in something just like you suggest.  Maybe what I should do is write up the larger government conspiracy...honestly, I was just throwing down breadcrumbs for future me to use and to flesh things out a bit  

 

I keep coming back to Blooded magic being a choice...I don't see them casting Darksight when they go into the cold cellar for example.  I actually imagine that many Blooded would live lives that are quite banal that wouldn't require them to cast magic on a daily basis.  Peasants would be trained in Blood magic and know some simple incantations but wouldn't be living the life of a 21st century adventurer and not ripping holes in reality every other day. 

[Steve]

I'm wondering if the Segments column should be inverted, with low-powered Breaches taking more time and high-powered ones less. I could see a low-powered Breach happening after a couple of minutes and releasing something like an imp or gremlin, but a high-powered Breach happens in just seconds and releases something big.

 

Who hates the Queen of New York? Why do they hate her? Is there anyone like a Sheriff (Shire Reeve) that helps her enforce her laws or maybe multiple Sheriffs, some more loyal than others?

[sentry0]

3 hours ago, Steve said:

I'm wondering if the Segments column should be inverted, with low-powered Breaches taking more time and high-powered ones less. I could see a low-powered Breach happening after a couple of minutes and releasing something like an imp or gremlin, but a high-powered Breach happens in just seconds and releases something big.

 

Who hates the Queen of New York? Why do they hate her? Is there anyone like a Sheriff (Shire Reeve) that helps her enforce her laws or maybe multiple Sheriffs, some more loyal than others?

 

Officially, she has a hunted with The Lost Legion as her big hunted.  I figure the Legion has been emboldened by their victory in Chicago and/or perhaps Queen Vulkers is sponsoring the resistance.  I also bought her a 5 point hunted for "Various" to represent a general collection of orgs all wanting a piece of her.  Politically, she is well liked but I could see Julia Seco making a power play.

 

There were Manorial courts in the middle ages...technically we're missing Barons but Dukes would do just fine as hosts.  Manorial courts were for the local peasantry and were generally for trivial crimes.  There used to be a thing called a "tithing" where groups of 10 people would watch one another for crimes.

 

Frankly, I've bastardized midieval hierarchies to the point that I'm wondering if local justice should fall under the knights job?  Knights would become police in effect in addition to their charge of defending the kingdom.  A knight could bring in a misbehaving peasant to the Manorial court or even the Kings court if the crime was serious enough.  It's not like there are hundreds of thousands of Blooded in one place, even in a city the size of NY there's only a few hundred Blooded.  You wouldn't need an army of knights to police that number.

 

I'll think some more about your suggestion about flipping the segments column.

[sentry0]

I couldn't sleep tonight and I was thinking about the conversations we had here over the weekend.  I wrote up the following to talk about the effects of Mythic Breaches and how normal humans perceive them and the creatures that come through.

 

I think I'm happy with this as an explanation as to how the Blooded world has evolved to incorporate the occasional encounter with mythic creatures.  Encountering a mythic creature is still a very uncommon event and not something the average normal human would do, perhaps ever.

 

----

Mythic Rationalization

The world of the Blooded is like our own world; there are subways that transport people beneath the city streets, people work day jobs, have children, and love one another. Where the world of the Blooded differs is that magic is real, not only is magic real but so are manticores, chimeras, and orcs. These Mythic creatures arrive via Mythic Breaches, tears in reality which gate in creatures from another time and place – these Breaches can occur when Blooded magic goes awry. The world is not overrun or inundated with these creatures as the Blooded themselves have laws and groups like knights and Breach Hunters to deal with Mythic Breaches and their results.

 

Also consider the following when dealing with the fallout of a Mythic Breach:

 

    – The Lost Legion actively attempts to recruit Mythic creatures who arrive via a Breach

    – The Continuum hunts down Breach creatures an attempts to erase them from the timestream

    – The Crimson Cabal hunts Breach creatures for material components

    – The Clockwork Union collects and studies Breach creatures

    – Mars Industries is capturing Breach creatures for genetic engineering

    – Witch Hunters will gladly hunt a Breach creature

 

Mythic Rationalization is something that almost all normal humans do when confronted with magic or a Breach creature, they rationalize the encounter away. It is the same mechanism that allows people to do seemingly irrational things like ignoring the evidence of the health effects of smoking or the impact global warming has on our planet. The human mind is a capable of rationalizing away a great deal of logical inputs and facts so that normally rational people can have quite irrational views.

 

A normal human being in the world of the Blooded will go to great lengths to explain away an encounter with something mythical. They will convince themselves that there was a movie shoot nearby, that some guys were running around in masks, or that they saw a lion on the streets of Manhattan and not a manticore. This rationalization extends to photographic and video evidence as well as recorded audio. So powerful is the need for the human mind to rationalize away the encounter that a regular person will go to great lengths to explain what they saw in terms that make sense to them.

 

In game terms almost all normal human NPCs have the following Psychological Limitation worth 15 Complication points:

 

    – Psychological Complication: Mythic Rationalization (Uncommon; Total)

 

Obviously, there are exceptions to the above rule, Witch Hunters would not have this limitation nor would members of the Clockwork Union, Continuum, and so on. The vast majority of humanity does however posses this psychological complication.

[Steve]

I'm thinking that elements of Monster Hunter International should be a part of this world, with the government offering PUFF bounties to professional monster hunter organizations. The Blooded can be explained as the reason why there are so many monsters infesting various, random parts of the world.

[sentry0]

35 minutes ago, Steve said:

I'm thinking that elements of Monster Hunter International should be a part of this world, with the government offering PUFF bounties to professional monster hunter organizations. The Blooded can be explained as the reason why there are so many monsters infesting various, random parts of the world.

 

I actually don't know much of anything about MHI other than the fact it exists so I don't know what a PUFF bounty is but I can imagine.

 

 I like the idea of having the government involved in some way...that's partly why I wrote up Mars Industries, they're useful to the government because the government can deny they new anything inhumane was going on with the research and walk away from it cleanly.  The government doesn't have to deal with angry voters because they're spending money on good old 'Murican defense and not chasing fairy tales.  Given that the average person has that Psy Lim I would speculate that majority of their voters wouldn't approve of spending money on monster hunters because they would deny the existence of monsters even when confronted with evidence to the contrary.

 

I totally think that Mars would have hunters on the payroll though, teams of them in fact, which are trained to retrieve mythic creatures from the wild.  They probably would even subcontract out work to private security firms, i.e. other groups of hunters, it's even better for deniability.

[sentry0]

I've been playing with numbers a bit and have some interesting results.  Essentially, I built a statistical model to calculate the number of Breaches based on the following:

• total Blooded population
• % of Blooded casting in a given day
• average spell power and skill penalties
• average number of spells cast per Blooded

It's interesting, I ended up calculating on average 5.8 Breaches a day for NYC based on the following inputs...

 

Breaches Per Day
Blooded Population	450
% Casting	45.00%
Avg Spells Per Blooded	1.2
Avg Skill Roll	18
Avg Active Points	47.4
Avg Skill Pen	-4
Avg Failure Rate	9.26%
Avg Breach Chance	25.92%
Breaches per Day	5.8

 

It's not perfect but it does account for a number of factors and I think it's a decent first attempt at trying to understand just how many Breaches the Blooded could cause on average.  I tried to be fair in my numbers...not too conservative or aggressive.  Obviously, things can be tuned up or down but overall it's pretty manageable in my estimation between the Blooded knights and Breach Hunters and misc. agencies and organizations that would want a piece of the action.

 

 

[Steve]

Average Skill Penalty looks like it should be -5 based on 47.4 Average Active Points, if the standard is -1/10 penalty.

 

So, on any given day, despite having access to such wondrous powers, over half of them don't use them at all? That's some impressive self-control given that you could have some individuals among them who have a favorite ability or two they use every chance they can.

 

Even given your assumptions, about six breaches a day just in NYC alone implies that the worldwide effect is a powder keg waiting to detonate. 

[Lucius]

4 hours ago, Steve said:

Average Skill Penalty looks like it should be -5 based on 47.4 Average Active Points, if the standard is -1/10 penalty.

 

So, on any given day, despite having access to such wondrous powers, over half of them don't use them at all? That's some impressive self-control given that you could have some individuals among them who have a favorite ability or two they use every chance they can.

 

Even given your assumptions, about six breaches a day just in NYC alone implies that the worldwide effect is a powder keg waiting to detonate. 

 

"That's some impressive self-control" - those that lack self control are quickly eaten by grues.

 

Nonetheless, I think you have a point that "The worldwide effect is a powder keg"

Still, when I consider that in point of fact strange things do happen in the world a lot, yet mundane life keeps rolling along.......

 

Lucius Alexander

 

Just a guy on a palindromedary