We never figured out the exact chain of events that led to the Opening. Enough records existed for survivors to put things together, but we'd likely never be able to repeat it - and to be honest, we didn't really want to.
It began with the discovery of a secret research facility beneath Tel Megiddo where scientists were researching gravity. The records mention something about a "Larger Hadron Collider", although it's not clear what it was larger than, as well as experiments to uncover more information about the fundamental workings of the laws that govern the universe. By itself, it probably wouldn't have been so bad.
By the time humanity realized what had happened, it was too late.
International tensions had been on the rise, and someone - we never found out who - detonated a nuclear device whose atoms had used quantum entanglement to link with other bits of uranium across the world. Post-Opening scholars are pretty sure that shouldn't have worked, but haven't been able to figure out any other answer. As it turned out, however, a nuclear explosion occurring next to some kind of bizarre ultra-high-gravity experiments does weird things to the fabric of space and time. The detonation was caught in the gravity field, compressed into a black hole, and transmuted into a white hole.
Our understanding of the physics stopped well before this point, though our ability to observe and piece together the results did not. The entangled atoms around the world - mostly in laboratories, because it's not like uranium could just sit out in public - somehow linked to the energy spewed by the white hole during its brief existence and bathed the world in apocalyptic energy. Twenty-seven research sites and one uranium mine underwent nuclear fission. By the time it was done, there was a hole the size of Egypt in northwestern China and numerous urban centers were wiped from the map.
The survivors pressed the buttons and the missiles were launched. The great powers all but annihilated each other - the weaker countries in the third world were largely unscathed, though military bases were blown apart. And then it got worse. The unusual physics of the Opening had changed the way the world worked, at least as far as our planet was concerned. There were a few survivors of the Opening, people who'd been in the right place at the right time to survive the blasts. The closer they were to a detonation site, the more physics changed for them. Many of them found that when they began to observe the world, the world itself would change in ways that shouldn't have been possible.
Later, it was deduced that remnants of the energy had formed a kind of entanglement between parts of the human body and whatever was on the other side of the Opening, which seemed to be a functionally-limitless amount of energy. Some said it was magic. Others said it was divine. Whatever it was, it had changed the course of human history.
The first abilities manifested soon after the Opening as the powers stabilized. Hundreds of people - most of them just regular folks - suddenly had the power to reshape the world around them. Some went insane. Some proclaimed themselves prophets or deities or local warlords. A fair few killed themselves, and a handful began working for what was left of their shattered governments. It wasn't long before they began to fight each other, and with such vast powers at their disposal, the world began to come apart at the seams.
In a last-ditch effort to save humanity and what was left of the species, the most powerful of the gifted (someone now known simply as the First) instituted the Athenian Ultimatum, named for the city where it was first instituted. The Ultimatum was simple: Obey or Die. After the first few warlords were slaughtered, the rest started to get the hint, and many fell in line. Honestly, more than a few were happy to have what seemed like a reasonable authority figure taking charge again - they hadn't been prepared for what happened and were all too eager for the world to return to a semblance of normality.
What the public found out later was that the dead weren't just left to die - their bodies were collected and brought in.
The people of the world used the respite brought about by the Ultimatum and reorganized themselves. National borders were redrawn and the survivors condensed to a handful of nations desperate to survive. Worldwide telecommunications systems had been badly damaged, and there were neither the people nor the supplies to easily repair them. The Opening alone could have been endured - the brief but all-too-long nuclear war and the fighting between the gifted was too much.
The survivors moved to the remaining cities, each a kind of nation-state in its own right. The suburban and rural areas were all but abandoned, especially as the prospect of a new nuclear winter set in and food became quite scarce outside of the areas cities could easily protect. Worldwide transportation was badly hobbled, and travel all but stopped except for the most powerful.
In the midst of it all, the First issued a new directive to those with the power of the Opening. Those who had obeyed were to become part of a new international organization with one purpose: to prevent others from using their powers for selfish ends. They would travel anywhere, and they would do anything necessary to stop the misuse of power. No nation could refuse them - not when the First commanded nearly three dozen gifted survivors and thus more military power than the rest of the surviving world combined.
Fortunately for humanity, the First was clear about their objectives - and had no interest in controlling the rest of humanity, nor in allowing their subordinates to do so on their behalf. One tried, but the Athenian Ultimatum was still in effect - and they were promptly terminated. The message was clear to the survivors.
In the years after the Opening and the events that followed, it became clear that a few new people were born with gifts each year. A few warlords and would-be gods had escaped the great purge, quietly consolidating their forces in parts of the world that permitted no contact with the outside. In any case, cities were too busy establishing themselves and trying to feed their hungry populations. There were few sources of new materials because the factories were gone, and all hands were needed to farm and produce food. It would take decades for populations to replenish enough to even start to reclaim new lands, and all the while, cities faced issues like raids from roaming gangs (or worse, other cities), diseases, and the occasional appearance of a new gifted.
Behind the scenes, the First was studying the Opening - and it became clear that the connection to power did not simply disappear when a person died. The connection remained in a corpse, and could move into the soil... and from there to water or food and into a new body. Sometimes it would be an adult that gained the power - other times, a child. With careful control, the connection could be pushed into a deliberate target, though the connection was always at its most powerful when it was closest to the source.
And so they began to clone the dead gifted, transferring the power into new bodies and raising up a generation of followers. They say the First is immortal now, after some of what they've done, and it's true that they're still alive and acting. They don't act in person as often anymore, but any gifted who steps too far out of line is quickly shown the error of your ways.
It is now 144 years after the Opening. The world is still dangerous, and in many ways it has only grown more so since the Opening. Cities guard their resources jealously, building great walls to keep out as many dangers as possible while citizens live in their cramped streets.
And you? Chances are you are a clone of one of the gifted, raised in the First's primary facility in Greece - arguably the safest place in the world because nobody is stupid enough to assault it. Your upbringing has been challenging at times, but fair - the First is not a tyrant, and you have always been encouraged to express your individuality (so long as you do not disobey the First - children are permitted a bit of rebellion as their minds and personalities develop, but adults have no excuses). When not engaged in training or study, you have quite a lot of free time to pursue your interests and develop as a person, or to practice your powers as allowed.
If you're not a clone, you are a former rogue gifted who chose to obey rather than die when a team arrived at your doorstep - and you're a bit surprised by how well you've been treated. You've been allowed a fair bit of freedom, and aside from a few medical tests, nothing horribly invasive has been done to you... though all the members you've met have been very clear that there are no second chances. You've taken this advice to heart and are a genuine collaborator now, fully supporting the organization.
Like all of the Gifted, you know how to turn your powers on and off. This manifests in different ways for different people - some immediately develop mentally or physically, turning from a sickly lad into a paragon of health, or from an average student to a genius of astounding intellect. Others have their abilities activate in more subtle ways. At the command of the First, however, use of abilities and a connection to the powers of the Opening is only to be used in four situations:
1) To complete a task given to you, usually by the command of your superiors
2) In self-defense, to protect yourself when lesser measures are not enough
3) To train and develop your abilities in an appropriate location
4) When a situation otherwise justifies the use of near-divine abilities as a remedy, such as stopping a natural disaster or an attempt to use a nuclear weapon
You have done well in your training, and the First has decided that you have earned an opportunity to demonstrate your competence in the traditional way - working with a small team of others, free of your superiors' direct supervision for the first time, to independently take down a rogue gifted. Per the Athenian Ultimatum, there are only two acceptable outcomes to the mission: your target is convinced to join the organization or they are slain. Anything less is too great of a risk to the world. How you accomplish this is largely left to your discretion, though the organization strongly favors methods that do not interfere with the governments of the city-states of the world.
If you succeed, you will be a full member of the organization - allowed to vote on certain matters, request assignments that appeal to you, and enjoy significantly more freedom in your day-to-day life.
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Game Information:
This game will use a slight variation on the Godbound rules. The most important part of this is your abilities. All characters start with the standard ability array of 16, 14, 13, 13, 10, and 8 - this is your default strength as a human. In the default state, you do not have access to any of your abilities - not even the passive ones. Instead, you have the ability to activate your powers at-will by calling upon your Connection. When you activate your powers, you instantly gain access to all of your abilities, and their effects can persist past your activation. Gifted do not walk around with their powers active all the time for one simple reason: The First doesn't like it, especially for gifted who can use mind-control or similar powers. In fact, only the four situations listed above are considered acceptable reasons to open your Connection. (It's less of a concern for people whose only abilities are direct and obvious, such as throwing fire. Someone who can mind-control a building just by walking in, however? They're watched far more carefully.) When your powers are not active, you'll need to rely on more mundane means of accomplishing your goals - especially because "it was easier with my powers" is rarely an accepted explanation. Some trusted individuals are given more leeway - those with only protective and healing abilities, for example, may even be allowed to keep their Connection permanently enabled.
All Words are available except for the following: Apotheosis, Knowledge, Sorcery. The expansion book, Lexicon of the Throne, is permitted. (The reason for this is that you're not going to become true deities in this game, Knowledge would make many quests and challenges far too easy, and Sorcery is not present in this post-apocalyptic Earth.)
This game is heavily themed on the idea of being part of an organization with rules and hard, fast punishments if things are broken without a good explanation. However, this does not mean you must play a rigidly lawful character for fear that setting one toe out of line will get you killed. In fact, more likely, you'll never even be at risk of punishment unless you deliberately seek it out. Your characters are encouraged to be creative and independent about solving problems, not mindless servitors, and the organization is prepared to overlook a significant amount of shenanigans as long as you don't betray them. Either way, your character should be a willing supporter of the organization's efforts. The reasoning is up to you - anything from "I was raised to support the group" to "I decided I didn't want to die, so I'm cooperating" is fine, but you should have a reason. The organization is basically benevolent - this isn't Paranoia.
Gifted may be from any ethnic group, but no pre-Opening nations remain, and cultures may have changed significantly. If you were cloned from a previous gifted, you were raised at the organization's main institute in Athens (Greece no longer exists) and given a general education detailing existing cities and your own pre-Opening ethnic history. If you are a former rogue gifted, you are intimately familiar with the culture of one major city somewhere in the world, and we can work together to establish the details. (Remember that many areas were generally isolationist.)
Character Submissions: Aside from the "keep a base version of your abilities for when your powers are inactive" thing, you should have a first-level character. You can find a free version of the Godbound rules online, by the way. The main thing I will be looking at, however, is your character's personality and backstory. I have a strong preference for well-detailed characters, and the better they fit in with the world presented here while still being interesting and unique, the more likely they are to be chosen. If you're not sure what to talk about, consider telling me about how your character feels about their abilities and how said abilities have affected their life so far.
Submissions will close when I feel like it, but not for several days at a minimum. The crunchy part of your profile is required, but that's mostly so I can get a better sense of how they'll play mechanically. The background and personality is the part I'll actually be judging.
Can we get a brief overview of a few of the major cities?(akin to NYC, London, Hong Kong, etc, of our world, even if they're completely and totally different in yours)
Most of the major cities in this setting are similar to existing cities - positioned near lots of water and too big to be totally destroyed even by large blasts and throwing lots of magical power around. Also, with infrastructure disrupted, all the rubble's good for building makeshift walls. Figure that any skyscraper-heavy city in the real world right now has at least partially survived, usually around a city center area. This includes places like Tokyo, NYC, and Seattle, to name a few. These are the de facto "superpowers", although even their authority is mostly local. Larger mid-size towns are more likely to have escaped direct blasts and rampaging Gifted, but with supplies cut off, they've also become more enclave-focused and desperate to retain what technology they can. Smaller towns and anything below that have all but disappeared thanks to more than a century of fairly harsh winters and climate change.
The only real exception is the Athens region - with Gifted there to bless and support the land, it's more-or-less the only garden paradise left and supports a thriving city. Entry is, however, limited - even they can only support so many people, and entry is meritocratic. Gifted are automatically accepted, of course, and none more so than those who voluntarily show up on their own (or at least contact them to request a pickup) instead of needing to have a team dispatched to give them the Ultimatum. XD Otherwise, those with intelligence and skills - and their immediate families - come before other refugees.
Incidentally, any player may find the Peak Human Concept Word worth considering. At base, it represents a general sort of superhuman status. Of course, it's far from mandatory - a great concept and a good backstory will be the things that get you into this game, not the use of a specific ability. XD For those who don't have Lexicon of the Throne, here's the text.
Peak Human:
You are an exemplar of human capacity, honed to a superlative edge by obsessive training, augmented genetics, or blind chance. Any attribute score lower than 13 is increased to 13, and one score of your choice can be raised to 18. While you are a mortal human, strictly speaking, your own superlative gifts allow you to use all the normal rules appropriate to a Godbound, including Divine Fury and Committing Effort to succeed at saving throws. If you are bound to additional Words, it is probably through some special artifact you can't lose or some unique magical blessing conferred on you.
[u]Lesser Gifts[/u]
All Natural Constant
You have tuned your natural abilities to be “invisible” to magical countermeasures. Your gifts and miracles of the Peak Human Word cannot be defensively or offensively dispelled and do not register as magical to effects that detect such things. They are not affected by the Cold Breath ability of Uncreated foes or by empyrean wards. Your Influence or Dominion spends that are Plausible and based entirely on Peak Human capacities ignore mundus wards.
Mortal's Luck Instant
When an attack or effect would bring you below 1 hit point or cause your instant death, you may Commit Effort for the scene to negate it as you dodge or otherwise avoid its full effect.
Off the Walls Constant
Through agility or expertise your natural Armor Class becomes 3. You can climb sheer surfaces at your normal movement rate, leap vertically for half that distance, or leap horizontally at your full move.
People's Champion Constant
Your contacts are tremendously useful. You gain bonus Influence equal to your character level and an extra point of Dominion each month, though this Influence and Dominion can only be used on Plausible changes that could be aided by contacts and allies in your background or adventures. You can always find a local contact appropriate to your background if it's remotely plausible, and this contact will always be able to offer as much help as a normal human in an important position could offer.
Trained Aim On Turn
Commit Effort for the scene. Your hit rolls for the rest of the scene are all rolled twice, taking the better result.
World's Greatest X Constant
Pick a profession or role, such as “scientist”, “thief ”, “detective”, “general”, or so forth. You automatically succeed on all attribute checks related to that role that could in any way theoretically be achieved by a human being. You may take this gift more than once.
[u]Greater Gifts[/u]
Human Grit Special
With five minutes of rest, restore your hit points to half their maximum, rounded up, if they are currently less than that total. As an Instant action once per day, Commit Effort for the day to recover half your maximum hit points instantly, rounded up.
Indomitable Will Constant
Your unbreakable determination leaves you with an invulnerable defense toward mind-affecting or mind-reading powers and a tremendous capacity for focus. Once per scene, as an Instant action, treat a hit roll, saving throw, or attribute check as an automatic success.
Street Sweeper Constant
Your expertise or determination makes your attacks count as a magical weapon doing 1d10 damage. Your normal attacks always hit lesser foes, and single lesser foes or those in small groups cannot harm you with their non-magical normal attacks or non-magical special abilities. If lesser foes are in a Mob, their attacks and abilities can harm you.
A little more information on the primary groups you can expect to encounter:
Major Factions:
[u]The Organization:[/u] Created by the First after the Opening, the Organization is primarily composed of people who have somehow acquired the ability to reshape reality in a variety of different ways by opening a Connection to said power. The science behind this is uncertain - the best anyone has been able to figure out is a bizarre mixture of quantum entanglement, the observer effect, and functionally-limitless amounts of energy from the other side of the White Hole created during the Opening - but the results are quite real. The Organization's primary purpose is managing the use of this power to protect the world, and it is not hesitant about employing whatever amount of force is necessary to do so (mostly on the theory that a damaged world is better than no world). It is otherwise apolitical.
Secondary members of the Organization include support staff drawn from around the world, as well as families and general support from the city of Athens, where the Organization is based. Non-Gifted who work for the Organization are selected on a decisively meritocratic system - they choose the best people for the job with no regard for race, age, or ethnicity.
[u]Standing Cities:[/u] The "Standing Cities" are a bit of a misnomer, since none of them wholly escaped damage between the Opening and the issuance of the Athenian Ultimatum. They rest in the ruins of the great cities of the past, and in many cases, have linked multiple skyscrapers together to create single, giant super-structures protected by guards and walls of rubble from the ruins of nuclear war. They patrol their immediate areas, but with transportation hard to come by, little trade or communication happens between them.
Standing Cities are typically powered by biofuel-based power plants, located in the most heavily-defended parts of their territory. Generating enough energy to live while retaining enough food to feed people has limited their ability to recover and reclaim more land.
[u]Raider Tribes:[/u] Groups of people - typically criminals - who live outside the Standing Cities and raid them for food and other supplies. Raider Tribes are sometimes co-opted by rogue Gifted to serve as an intelligence network and military force. A frequent menace of the few caravans that travel around to conduct trade between Standing Cities.
[u]Rogue Gifted:[/u] Individuals with the ability to open a Connection, but who are not part of the Organization. This ability cannot be learned, and only the Organization knows how to transfer it - while there are many theories about how Rogue Gifted can come about, none of them have been conclusively proven. In the Standing Cities, the Rogue Gifted are most often thought of as violent warlords bent on domination and destruction, but just as often, they're normal people brought way out of their depth or children born with abilities and used by others for various ends. The Organization has a simple policy towards Rogue Gifted: When they are found, a team is dispatched to deliver the Athenian Ultimatum: Join the organization or die. With the AU is seen as harsh by many, others agree that the sheer power of the Gifted means that such measures are necessary to ensure the safety of the world as a whole.
[u]Shaped Beasts:[/u] Strange creatures that began to appear a few years after the Opening, especially in the areas most heavily-struck by nuclear weapons. Many resemble mutated versions of terrestial, aerial, and aquatic animals. Some think they were created by a since-departed Gifted, others believe they're the inevitable result of animals gaining the ability to form a Connection. A few even suspect the Organization of doing it. Shaped Beasts generally inhabit the wilderness, are resilient enough to kill dozens of armed humans, and make travel between the Shaped Cities an exceedingly dangerous proposition. The Organization has been known to help trim them down if they grow into too much of a threat, but it does not have the manpower needed to exterminate them.
Can you give us brief descriptions of the new Words from Lexicon of the Throne? I can't afford it right now, but a bunch of the Words sound super interesting.
Birds: General mastery over a type of animal, could probably be adapted.
Cities: Move around urban areas and control mobs of people.
Dance: Restore yourself with movement and dance to create a surprisingly solid spread of effects.
Desert: Create and survive in deserts.
Desire: Control cravings of all kinds, not just romantic
Engineering: Create and use a variety of advanced machines
Entropy: Progress things towards their eventual end - or stop entropy to save someone until they can get healed.
Fear: Literally exactly what you'd expect.
Insects: Really, a lot of these are self-explanatory.
Intoxication: All sorts of mind-altering chemicals and states of drunkenness
Madness: Create or prevent a lot of emotional damage and manipulation (<- This is the kind of Word the First is especially cautious about the use of)
Murder: Everybody dies sooner or later. Probably sooner. Another Word controlled very tightly. XD
Music: Create music and use it for various effects.
Network: Control the Internet! ...Kind of a bad choice in this society. Some computers are still operational, and this could affect them, but there's no worldwide telecommunications network.
Protection: Save others, not yourself.
Theft: You are extremely good at sneaking and entering places. Another Word that's tightly controlled, given the sheer potential for abuse in and out of the Organization.
Underworld: General powers over caves and the depths of the earth.
Vengeance: It's time to get revenge on everybody, especially after they've hurt you.
War: Governance of bigger battles. Probably not too relevant for this game.
Here's the basic idea behind what I'm thinking of:
South America had never been near the ‘center of the world’, so to speak. This spared it the worst of the world’s final global war… and condemned it to the worst of the world’s descent into warlordism. The worst of its scars come not from nuclear weapons but from the Gifted.
Brasilia, built as a capital and dependant on distant portions of the nation for its support, suffered more than most. Without industrial fertilizers the soil around it was poorly suited for agriculture, and between the constant raids and the terrible beasts of the wilderness livestock soon grew scarce. It took a long time before the region could really be called stable, and even now Brasilia is a ‘poor’ place even by the standards of the altered world.
Fera was born amongst the poor of a poor city, and most of his young life was dedicated to finding ways to get a bit more food. Sometimes this involved risky trips foraging beyond the defended portion of the city, other times begging or stealing within it. He, his parents, and his sister managed to not starve, but they often went hungry.
This all changed when Fera was about twelve, when he awoke to his Connection. He was a little ways out of the city, on his own, foraging, when he saw a beast charging towards him. He knew he couldn’t run, he couldn’t hide, so he decided to fight, knowing he was doomed.
And then, he changed. He wasn’t quite sure what he did, but somehow he was suddenly larger than the creature, fanged and clawed and full of strength. It wasn’t hard to frighten the beast off at this point, but Fera was old enough to know what this meant. He was Gifted. The Organization would come for him.
...If they knew. But what if…?
He did not return home. Did not turn to speak to anyone. With an understanding of his new powers he could not have explained, Fera turned into a hawk and flew northwest, never to return.
For many years he lived as various animals, wandering wherever he could. He learned the ways of jaguar and eagle, of rabbit and capybara, and of a hundred others. He explored deep jungles and wide savannas, always avoiding signs of current human activity.
And he loved it. He loved wearing feathers or fur or scales. He loved soaring the skies or slithering through underbrush. He loved the freedom to go where he wanted and be what he wished.
But it did not last. He did not know how they found him, but Fera one day noticed he was being chased. He led his pursuers on for days, but eventually they cornered him… and delivered the Ultimatum. Not wanting to die, he submitted. When they asked his name, he called himself Fera--”Beast”--for he would no longer acknowledge his former name.
He hated it all--having to wear his human form again, being cut off from his real friends, leaving them on the other side of the ocean, having to be back among humans again. Humans talked about caring, about making the world better, but they were just hypocritical animals. Better to be with the animals who had no pretensions.
Fera’s prickly, standoffish personality didn’t exactly win him friends in the Organization, but he obeyed the rules and did his best to be helpful. You see, much as he disliked them, he knew the rules… and that meant if he wanted to fly again, to feel grass beneath his belly scales or stone beneath his paws, he had to obey.
For there was one thing he had learned about himself: even if he had to be another’s hound, he would rather be a hound than a man.
I have two very different concepts, both of which could be awesome to play:
The first would likely be a cloned gifted, or if possible, one genetically 'grown' for a specific purpose. He would have the Artifice word, and possibly Engineering, tasked with helping rebuild towns, cities, and the world at large.
The second would have originally been a rogue gifted, and still maintains ties to several groups or gangs of them. His words are probably going to be Night and Theft, and he would be a master thief, assassin, and spy for the Organization.
Thoughts on either of these two concepts? I'm hoping I can pick up Lexicon to have access what the Words from that book grant, but if not, I might swap them for something else for now.
The first one would work best if they were cloned outside of the Organization - an underground group doing research of their own, perhaps. The Organization itself doesn't do large-scale artifice and construction outside of Athens, mostly because they don't want to be accused of showing favoritism to a particular group. Also, they emphatically want to avoid being bombarded by attempts to sway people away from the Organization with promises of companionship, wealth, or authority - a single artifice-focused Gifted could advance a city's recovery by decades in fairly short order, but what happens when they leave and the restored city suddenly has the military might to conquer everyone else in close proximity? Or what if someone gets the bright idea to try and become the God-Emperor of Mankind? The First is quite keen on avoiding that sort of disruption - the last time things went out of control, there was nuclear war and the planet was nearly shattered - and they don't want to repeat the process by allowing factions within the Organization. That's why the Organization is apolitical. It exists to protect Earth and the human race from total destruction - solving the world's problems and/or becoming the de-facto rulers of humanity is not in the mission charter.
(Smaller-scale helping others is fine, but that'll generally be either without powers or because you happened to be on-site to thwart a natural disaster. XD A character with such abilities could still be playable, of course, with things like messing with the base of an enemy. Just know that there wouldn't be direct restoration of cities going on.)
The second idea is straightforward and easy enough to work into the game. They would've been told in no uncertain terms to avoid using their abilities to go into parts of the Organization they weren't allowed in, but other than that, I wouldn't expect any major problems as long as they stay on-mission. XD
Any issues with my background? I realize it ended up being a bit of a novel (and I *still* didn't get all the details in it I wanted). XD
I'm thinking Beasts, Health, and Might for Words, with lots of dependance on Many-Skinned Mantle for shapeshifting.
My one note is that the Organization would have talked less about making the world "better" and more about "not letting it be destroyed". For that matter, they'd probably have tried to tempt him with the idea of acting to protect areas of nature from destruction at the hands of Rogue Gifted.
...And, incidentally, most animal populations are fairly small. The mutated, savage beasts of the wilds have seen to that, and you'd have fought quite a few. Might be worth devoting a Fact to it, even. XD
(The Athenian Ultimatum is a very large stick, so they try to provide carrots whenever possible. They absolutely want people to be afraid of breaking their rules, but at the same time, they want you to feel that working with the Organization can help the things you care about. After all, people who only serve out of fear are more likely to try turning traitor at some point, and could cause a lot of damage before they're stopped. It's better to give more than one reason to cooperate. XD)
Okay, first off, awesome idea for a setting. If you've ever read the reckoners series by Brandon Sanderson, this has a very similar feel to that (and I love that series).
I'll get to work on my character and get it posted this weekend.
mk, I'm starting to get comfortable with the ruleset, and I'm working on a background and the mechanicals. Leaning towards a lightning-based fellow (alacrity/sky/endurance maybe?) who's relationship/duality with natural forces has reinforced the idea that man shouldn't fly too close to the sun-- literally.
I have the start of an idea for character who has Sun as one of his words, but is also blind. As a member of the Organization, he would have to avoid using his powers most of the time, which includes Sun's passive vision-granting ability. I think there are interesting RP opportunities to be had.
I have two different ideas for characters, and would appreciate feedback on both:
The first would be a rather plain looking guy who, when he activates his connection, would get access to the Alacrity, Sword, and Endurance words. He would be an amazing, tough as heck melee combatant, but would be rather mild-mannered when his connection was not active. For him, activating his connection would be similar to a loss of control, as his powers would be like a multiple personality. He has lived something of a wandering lifestyle, afraid of what happens when he opens up his powers, because doesn't remember those times, and often returns to his mind surrounded by dead bodies.
The second would be a farmer who has survived and used his powers of City, War, and either Fertility or Wealth to keep his small mid-American town safe through all the chaos. He wouldn't even have known about the organization until he heard about them from a travelling merchant. He would have travelled to Athens and made a deal to join if they invited all of the people in his town to join. Given that there were only a couple hundred, and most of them were veteran farmers, it seemed like a good trade.
The first one would probably be told to just not activate his powers. One of the main themes of the Organization is limiting the use of powers to accepted situations. The last time they were allowed to go out of control, the planet was terrifying close to being broken apart by the energies being thrown around, and avoiding a repeat of that is most of the reason for the Organization's existence. As an apocalyptic issue, they'd rather err on the side of caution and take as few chances as possible.
The second one would be workable. Athens and the Organization are extremely welcoming to people with a Connection who come to them instead of forcing a team to be dispatched. XD
Would my Artifice character not really fit the setting? I was kinda excited about him, but if he won't be allowed to go help towns and cities in need with the Org, not sure if playing him would end up being that fun.
I often play sneaky characters, so I was looking forward to playing something different, but put for the spy/thief since I'm comfortable with that concept.
Honestly, that sort of Artifice theme probably couldn't be played to its full potential in this game. The basic outline of this game is less "stomp all over your problems with divine might" and more "work within normal human limits until things get bad enough to take the limiters off, at which point things go nuts". I wanted to take a different theme with this than normal Godbound games, and especially so that use of divine powers feels like the major impact on the world that it is.
Actually, on second thought, it'd be hard to explain why my character chose to remain blind when the Organization is probably filled with Gifted healers who could easily restore his eyesight.
Maybe something to do with him being a defective clone?
Ooooor it's an ailment that's just resistant to healing. Pretty much the entirety of the powers in this setting is based on a screwed-up version of the Observer Effect - if he thinks he can't see, his powers could be interfering and making it a self-fulfilling prophecy.
The moon was shining big and full the night that Fredrick "Fast Freddy" Johnson drove his pickup truck back towards his parent's farm. It was not going to be a pleasant trip, and he did not look forward to it.
Truth be told, he hated Council Bluffs. The tiny Iowa town had always felt like a graveyard to him, and he couldn't shake the image that he was leaving his life behind and heading towards his death.
Freddy stared up at the moon, big and full, and began to cry; not the sobbing, wracking cry of someone who had just found out their spouse was dead, but more the stoic weeping of someone whose dreams were over.
It was an all too common story, his coach had said, as the team doctor looked at the X-Rays; Son, we'd love to keep you, but your scholarship was contingent on you being able to play. was all he said.
His future, it turned out, was also contingent on him being able to play.
As he looked up at the moon and wept silent tears, he noticed something that distracted him from his misery: The moon had rings around it; Bright, shiny rings. Freddy glanced down just in time to see the man standing in the middle of the road, who disappeared as the truck drove through him.
Slamming on the breaks, Freddy got out and went to check on the man, but when he got where he was standing, there was only moonlight and an odd pain behind his left eye, one that turning from a mild irritant to a howling prism of pain that engulfed his head, then his entire body. He managed to stagger a couple of steps towards his truck before he collapsed.
Freddy awoke to Deputy Andy poking him with the flat end of a big ole flashlight. "You alive there Johnson?"
Freddy grunted out an ascent and then with Andy's help got to his feet.
"you come along with me and take a breathalyzer test, then I'll get you to your pa's place." Freddy had started to say that he wasn't drunk, then he stumbled, fell, and promptly emptied the contents of his stomach on Deputy Andy's shoe. Andy gave Freddy the breathalyzer, and to his shock it came back clean. "That state fella musta hit you pretty damn hard. Let's get you to Doc Gordon's to see what's going on. I'll send Abner with his towtruck to bring your truck to your pa's place." Freddy wanted to agree, but his mouth tasted like he had licked the inside of several toilets. After a complete examination, the doctor couldn't find anything wrong with him, and so called Freddy's dad to come pick him up. They spoke in his office, but he could hear the words concussion, blackout, and stay awake.
Once he was home, his father set him to work cutting bailing wire.
Freddy turned on the radio Why had his father never purchased a tv? and there was a special announcement, which was quickly followed by the President of the United States giving a speech about something that was being called the opening...
Several decades later:
The first time that Freddy noticed he had abilities the hunk of metal in the field. He wasn't sure where it came from, but he guessed it likely had something to do with that whole Opening business. It was, however, sitting in the middle of his field, with no indication where it had come from. Freddy just walked out to the fields and there it was.
He pushed it, and it didn't give at all. It was mostly uncovered, so he tried to pick it up, but it was much too heavy to move. After a few frustrated minutes, Freddy slapped his palm on the hunk of ore and it crystalized, and then turned to dust. Tentatively slapping a stalk of corn, he watched in horror as it withered and turned to dust as well. Without thinking, he put his hand under his arm to keep him from touching anything, and...nothing happened. It only took a few days of experimenting before he realized that he could make anything turn to dust that he wanted.
It was while he was practicing his newfound ability that he came upon the group of raiders; while people in his town had pulled together and looked after each other, Freddy knew that people elsewhere did not.
It was the screaming, followed by the laughter, that got his attention. Those two sounds should never go together, Freddy knew, and he went running.
When he arrived, there was the young woman who was staying at McGregor's farm, with a trio of men wearing motorcycle leathers chasing her. She ran past Freddy and hid behind him. The men pulled up short when they saw Freddy, and they started taunting both him and her, making fake lunges while the other two tried to circle around. Without thinking, Freddy took a step towards the leader, and then he felt the knife sink into his back.
Turning, he saw the woman with a crazed glee in her eyes, and without thinking, he slapped her. She withered in an instant, and was gone. The men stared, dumbfounded, and offered no resistance as Freddy did the same to each of them, staggering from the knife that was still lodged in his back. His neighbor found him surrounded by four piles of dust.
When he came to, he was laying on his stomach on his couch, and he could feel tight bandages around his torso. Sherriff Andy and Doc Carson were both there, and Andy explained as best he could what happened. Whistling low, Andy said "Freddy, you are onna them Gifted. You need to head to Athens, and meet with that First fella. He's declared himself the ruler of everyone who is Gifted."[/b] Freddy nodded, knowing that Andy's advice was sound, and so he packed a bag and drove his truck til it ran out of gas outside of Denver. He then booked passage on a boat and a few months later he was standing outside the walls of Athens talking to the man at the gate who was dressing in some sort of soldier uniform.
He explained the situation politely and he was let into the complex and sat in a room, where he waited for a while before giving his story again. Freddy told his story a few different times before someone asked him to show what he could do. He obliged, and Freddy was taken in to meet with someone else, where he was given a battery of tests.
He was surprised to learn that over 100 years had passed, as he had only aged a year or two, and no one in town had really aged either.
Given what he could do, Andy understood the need to control people with abilities, although he thought the choice was a little severe.
How strictly do we need to adhere to what our three facts are? (i.e. must they be one for where they come from, one from their pre-Connection skills, and one for a relationship?)
Language may occasionally be an issue. The world was badly wrecked, and most survivors weren't going to give up their native tongue too easily. On the other hand, the Organization has been going around the world and doing things for more than 140 years, and would you want to be the city that couldn't communicate with the most powerful military force in the world? XD
You should definitely think about your Facts, though. Those represent training and experience, not physics-bending power, so they may be all you get to modify your scores during many encounters. They still need to be appropriately specific, of course.
Do clones in this setting keep the memories and skills of the original person? Or are they more like newborns, learning how to use their powers and interact with the world from scratch?
They are newborns, effectively different people from their original. They are, however, given extra education about the deeds of the people whose genes and power they've inherited. Great care is taken to ensure clones don't identify too closely with their predecessors - they're taught that they will be judged solely by their own deeds, no matter how heroic or awful the previous 'generation' was.
Xiwangmu (Report compiled ~5 years after the Opening, now required study in most schools, updated with new information several times over the last century)
They named it Xiwangmu - taken, it was said, from the name of a deity of the far east governing death, immortality, and destruction. Three days after the Opening, it walked into the city of Guangzhou, home to some twenty five million people before the missiles were launched. It strode out of the smoke that covered the horizon like a walking mountain, and later, it was proven Xiwangmu really was a mountain given life by one of the most powerful Gifted of the time. No tanks could slow its march, and the dozen nuclear weapons fired into its gullet did more damage to what remained of the city... a place that, a week before, had been a thriving modern metropolis.
When the nuclear bombs failed, the government of the time despaired. While it claimed to represent the people, it was already in turmoil from the destruction of the Opening and the loss of many key members. The march of Xiwangmu only made things worse as it made its way down the coast, destroying every city in its path. Over half a million soldiers fired everything they had at it, but Xiwangmu did not slow. When it first attacked them, crushing a hundred thousand in a blast far worse than the nukes they'd shot into it, morale broke. From there on, there was only terror on the Chinese coast as people sought to escape its path and return to whatever ruins would be left after its passing.
Yet as awful as Xiwangmu's march was, it might have been forgotten thanks to the destruction of telecommunications... at least until it emerged into another part of the world. Enormous though it was, the oceans would have slowed it and allowed ships to flee ahead, bearing news of its arrival. What makes Xiwangmu's march so memorable, aside from the uncountable lives lost just trying to slow it, was that it also became the event sparking news of the First.
You'd think it would have been more dramatic - an epic clash causing explosions bigger and brighter than Xiwangmu had already caused. But no, that wasn't how it went. The first simply floated up before it, gestured... and the life faded as the creature crumbled back to nothingness. Can you imagine the despair felt by those watching? They'd watched their living god of destruction just... fall. What, then, did you call the person who had done that?
This turned out to be the first of numerous examples when the First took to the field. They've never detailed the full extent of their abilities, mostly to maintain an aura of mystery - after all, it's a lot harder to plan around godly powers when you don't know what they can actually do. Eventually, the First described it simply as "What is done through a Connection can be undone the same way" - and, indeed, the First would go on to completely halt the powers of various Warlords and other rampaging Gifted during the initial imposition of the Athenian Ultimatum. When it's a mere human against something as close to a god as we've ever seen, the battle only goes one way. There are no strategies, no weapons, no clever tricks or plots that have succeeded.
If there is one saving grace, it's that the First is not really a god - they are human. Older than any other, now, but they were born in the world before the Opening, and they alone remember the world that was. If they had wanted to become a tyrant, then all the world could not have stopped them. Instead, but for the running of the Organization, they leave the world to the rest of us. "I wasn't taught to rule," they said when the dust had settled, "And I know I'd do a pretty bad job of it if I tried. I received what I have through nothing other than being in the right place at the right time, and having power doesn't automatically make you a good leader. Humanity created this mess, and it's up to Humanity to recover from it. Choose your own paths. I will do my part to protect the world from the powers that could destroy it, but whether the rest leads to paradise or ruin, the future is up to you."
There are some that wish the First would do more to repair the world - goodness knows they're capable of it. But at the same time... in a way, I'm glad they haven't. It feels like we still have the power to create the world we want to live in, without being forced to kneel before a power impossibly greater than we are. Because of that, I'm proud to call myself a human. There are still nightmares in the world, but Xiwangmu is gone, and no threat like it is permitted to remain. Things may not be easy, but I believe Humanity will someday overcome what we brought upon ourselves.
Heh. This reminds me of World of Darkness :)
I had a looot of fun playing that in a home game before. ^_^
That said, I haven't read through this system before so I will have to spend some time digesting that.
I did have a basic idea that I will probably persue.
I am thinking of a wasteland survivor type of character. He emerged from one of the "Danger Zones" that are full of radioactive waste and fallout, turns out he has been living there for years. At first they figured he was some sort of mutant or genetic anomaly but nope, turns out he is a Gifted. And a near-invulnerable one at that.
With a twist. ;)
I was thinking of puting that '8' into his Con and then giving him the "Excellence of the Word" universal Gift in his Con as well.
Basically, as a "normal" human, he is actually quite frail and vulnerable, but as soon as he turns on his Gift he becomes extremely resilient, almost invulnerable (and cocky! Comes with pain immunity! ^_^). Indeed, he has managed to survive out in the wastes by simply staying powered up. All the time.
But he can't do that anymore, rather now he has to stay as a vulnerable human, and go about in a dangerous world without the protection he knows he can call upon with but a snap of his fingers. And such a prospect is NOT comforting for him!
So mostly I am looking at Words and Gifts that make me durable or invulnerable. Building a tank. Beyond that, I have not yet figured out :)
Earth, Endurance or Health. Maybe Might or Sword if I want to look at ofensive ability. Unarmed Strikes possibly?
I really like the Endurance: Body of Iron Will >:) Strong armor, immunity to the environment and to radiation is right up my alley >:D
1st Word: Sun (Creation's First Light(2), Hasten to the Light(1))
2nd Word: Night (Knives of Night(1), Road of Shadows(1))
3rd Word: Bow (The Seeking Flight(1))
Pho, short for photon, was engineered by the First to be a retrieval specialist as well as an target eliminator. When a rogue gifted's location is acquired, Photon is sent in to neutralize. Pho is allowed to have his powers maintain unlocked as they are not readily apparent.
His abilities allow him to somehow produce and manipulate photons in and around himself. Sometimes to disperse himself to reform in other locations, and sometimes he can condense photons into hardened weapons.
Name: Photon
Age: 21
Height: 177.1 cm
Weight: 68.2 kg
Hair: Black
Ethnicity: Black
Eyes: Completely black except white iris
Pho is completely bought in to the mission of the First to an overzealous degree. He never questions orders. In his view, the First can do no wrong, practically a god to Pho. Pho is an overachiever and desires to be the right hand of the First.
1) There's a reason we're not using the Apotheosis word. All of the Gifted are very much human, regardless of what talents they have. The kind that think they're actually gods are the ones the Organization is against. XD
2) There is no Sorcery. That includes the various spells of "low magic". The root of this is the source of powers in this world, which is basically the laws of physics going haywire and quantum entanglement doing some very strange things. Gifts work mainly by observation (i.e. thinking about it) - a cause that creates an effect. It doesn't seem to work through an intermediary like sorcery would be, and like a lot of things involving the word "quantum", nobody's quite sure why.
Also, since powers aren't available all the time, a lot of Sorcery-based stuff wouldn't work as well, either.
3) There's not a lot of industry and manufacturing going on. "Special" gear would essentially all have to be created by the Gifted. Mundane gear - guns, etc. - is more viable, and may in fact be the best way to solve a problem.
The facility was built over what used to be the Parthenon in Athens. The historical site itself did not survive the fighting that began after the Opening.
So I just reread your above story and I realized something: Did you want the First to be the only remaining person alive from before the Opening? If so, I'll need to change my submission.
Well, 144 years ago, at least. XD There are a few ways to explain having been alive since then - and I don't want to flat-out deny ideas - but the First is either the only one or one of a very small handful of people who saw the Opening happen and are still around.
(It's public knowledge that their abilities have given them longevity, although the exact nature and mechanics of this are unknown to both the population at large and the Organization.)
Okay, I'm more than fine with changing my application (cause my character is one who survived the Opening as well), but I will need to change my submission then (which I'm perfectly ok with doing). Give me a day or so to put something together.
Dr. Henry Alistair is not a rogue gifted, he is the rogue gifted. Initially part of the Athenian Organization, he one day left and has been impossible to catch ever since.
Dr. Alistair was on the scientific team that unlocked how to pass gifts onto clones. Disliking the "stifling of scientific discovery" that the rules of the Organization represent, Dr. Alistair used his knowledge to give himself specific gifts. The ones that he has that are known to the Organization include Knowledge, Artifice, Entropy, Fertility, and Journeying.
It is the last one that allows him to continue running, as he perpetually is moving around in his mobile lab, his assistants moving ahead and collecting test subjects, both alive and dead to turn into a variety of abominations that plague the open spaces between the major settlements.
Dr. Alistair has recently graduated from creating gifted to granting powers to living people. As with all his creations, Dr. Alistair releases them into the wild once they are viable, not bothering to care what happens to them next. He has gone through waves of ideas for creating new gifted, from the classic monsters like Dracula and the mummy to superheroes to strange Geiger-esque creations.
The Organization has an entire task force set up to find him, but as long as he and his assistants keep moving, they can not be caught.
Though it is a very interesting character, but it seems to be more of an enemy NPC than a concept for a player character.
OP wrote:
If you're not a clone, you are a former rogue gifted who chose to obey rather than die when a team arrived at your doorstep
OP wrote:
All Words are available except for the following: Apotheosis, Knowledge, Sorcery.
OP wrote:
This game is heavily themed on the idea of being part of an organization with rules and hard, fast punishments if things are broken without a good explanation.
Gonna have to agree with Saashaa, there. XD Players are 1) Part of the Organization, and 2) Not able to have the Knowledge word. There's a theme of finding targets in a world lacking the telecommunications and easy-search system we know, often through hostile, nuclear-blasted wastelands, and having access to quick answers on almost every topic would, frankly, be a bit much for this particular game. XD
