Been there, totally understand.

Can't say that I agree, FK. Topics are flying over there as ever they have in the past. Sure, we all miss the spice you added, but one man does not a forum make.

Good to see you in here! Hope to engage you in some rousing tooth and nail debates!

Please keep the "purge" and white wolf forum related talk to the White Wolf Forum.

Sorry. I stand properly chastised, Sir.

Thingmaker,
Yes, there have been just as many posts, but they seem to have sunk back into the mundane slump that we had a few months ago. Interestingly, the ones who pulled the forum from the 'boring' slump (yes, that is subjective, but I think you'll remember the way it was and understand my meaning) are the same ones now banned. Makes me wonder what will occur now.

And as for "one man the forum making," I wasn't intending to imply that -I- was the one who kept the Forum so wonderful. Sure, I think that I added my bit, but Sidious, Jack, and others all stand out as some of the "best and brightest" of the Forums, so to speak, yet they were banned. Which is bad for the Forums.

Looking forward to some debates myself. ;-)

Ah... probably a good idea. My bad.

So, since this is the Adventure forum:
I was looking at the Exalted Quickstart where it was speaking about spending a point of Essence to double your favored ability, and got to thinking...
Wasn't it said that the Daredevils/Paramorphs basically can't perform superhuman feats, but can perform human feats with superhuman ability? If so, doesn't this seem to be a similar mechanic? Might give us a general idea of what we'll be dealing with to help us prep for the upcoming release of Adventure!(which, I hate to admit it, I will probably get).

AAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!

ME WANT TO PLAY A GOHREEEEELLLAAAAA!!!!!!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHa!!!!

Yeah baby, that'd get my ST's panties in a bunch!

What I remember from playtesting (and assuming things havn't changed radically) is that character's disciplines/gifts/aptitudes/whatever were exrtaordinary-but-not-quite-superhuman. Attributes and abilities were definately in the human range (for the most part). The bit about spending quantum/psi/willpower/gnosis/ whatever for a boost in results is intended to capture the cliffhanger feel of the pulp era.
EXAMPLE: As Doctor Jones and Sallah look on in abject horror, the out-of-control tank with the Nazi and Indy goes over the cliff, plunging to the rocks a thousand feet below! **Indy's player spends a willpower point, makes some rolls, and gets lucky** As Dr.Jones and Sallah look down at the wreckage of the tank, Indy climbs up over the precipice, having lept to the roots projecting from the cliff face just in the nick of time.

Reminds me of Force points in the origional STAR WARS game.

btw: Indiana Jones is quite young in 1924.

You playtested Adventure? Can you reveal any scoops, or are we doomed to wait for any details until August (at best)?

Scoops? Let me think...

You mean things like telluric energy? Or maybe the explosion of an experimental device that left a certain person forever changed?

I'd better not. They made me promise not to tell about such things.

I can't breath a word about Zorbo's race of sky people or the reincarnated mummy in Egypt. Nor can I hint about the three kinds of Inspiration.

Sorry. You'll just have to be content with what's already been said about the race of intelligent primates on Borneo.

As somebody pointed out though, no WW staff have ever come to this site. And if you do not tell us...

ve haf vay of makingt you talk.

please, please, please, please, with sugar on top?

....then the wrath of God shall rain holy fire down upon thee to clense thine soul.

Yea shall you lips, up until now silent as to the unholy hellish secrets contained in this new publication, scream out in unholy agony. Vengence shall be upon thee. Speak now. Perhaps you can still be saved,for God is forgiving. Just speak now brother,save your self this torment, and let us share your pain by sorting out the angelic secrets that must not be horaded for the enjoyment of Beelzebubs twisted minions.

God bless all here.

Well, since you put it that way...

First, Bruce passed around pictures that someone had drawn of the preganerated characters These inlcuded Simon the Talking Gorrilla (who's name has appearantly been changed to Enkidu) and F.X. Resplendo (a sort of bird-man who wields a pair of mechanical wings) as well as a reporter, a millionaire, a mystic, and others.

While he was explaining things, he also passed around an excerpt that was being worked on. There was a letter refferring to a mysterious experiment - exploding equipment - and a "why me" question. I got the distinct impression that this letter was from Mercer. There was also an article on "Teluric Energey" which appearantly pervades the whole planet, and which the machine and experiment had something to do with.

The characters are reffered to as being "Inspired." No reference was made about DNA, of course, but some few folks do have "what it takes" to become Inspired Individuals. There are three kinds of Inspiration. The character I portrayed had Destructive Inspiration - I could scare people and break things more easily than the average man. Regretably, I draw a blank on the names of the other two types of Inspiration (this all happened back in November and I've been to Texas since then...) I do recall that characters could and did posess two or all three types of Inspiration.

The powers granted by Inspiration played similarly to the Disciplines or Gifts of WoD, but with much more of a sense of envelope-pushing than of the supernatural. Of course, one spends one's Inspiration points to use one's nifty stuff.

Inspiration shows up in some surprising ways, Bruce referred to an Egyptian Priest (or was that Prince...) who's Inspiration allowed him to "come back from the dead" as a "Living Mummy." Seems the fellow has a loyal following in his little hidden valley.

Nobody at that particular session used the "Spend a Willpower point during a cliffhanger moment to double your [something]" rule. Folks seemed puzzled when Bruce explianed it.

The bad guy was Zorbo. He had minions - a race of (presumably eugenically created) people adapted to very high altitude. They were barrel-chested and dark skinned. They had to wear a gizmo similar to a deep-sea helmet when down here on the ground or else die from the pressure. Zorbo had a flying city. Presumably Zorbo has a few flying cities. He most certainly has some kewl ornithopters. Our group's intrepid gyroplane pilot even figured out how to operate one of them.

Nobody in the group struck me as being a Psychomorph or Nova. Not even close. The words Paramorph, Psychomorph, and Eximorph were not used. I strongly suspect that Eximporphs and Psychomorphs will be very in-the-bakcground.

With a little luck, I'll get to chat with Bruce again the weekend after Independance Day. I can't imagine him missing Westercon. I'll be sure to check this thread for any specific questions that anyone wants to ask him. DISCLAIMER: I happen to like Bruce. I do not plan on alienating him with marketing questions.

Hey, got to sin a little, don't I, Daddy Ryan?

Your sins are of course forgiven. Rains of angelic blessings shall fall down upon thee for this days work.

God bless all here.

Thingmaker, may the gods look well on you, the info about the adventure RPG wetted my imagination for a little while anyway. Maybe we should start calling you deep throat, or agent X.

[There was also an article on "Teluric Energy" which apparently
Pervades the whole planet, and which the machine and experiment had
Something to do with. ]

It reminds me of the energy types in the Eden games I have. www.edenstudios.net
I have the conspiracy-X, and witchcraft rpgs.

In witchcraft you have essence which is an energy field given of by living things, people, animals plants, and the planet, at certain times during the day or year there’s more, and if you do a ritual with a certain amount of people you can gather a lot more, people have essence pools, and some are essence chanelers.

In Con-X you have seepage, which is psychic static generated by most of the humans (they aren't psi users just static generators), it doesn’t diminish, except when used, but creates a field (ambient field?) That grows and surrounds the planet and extends outwards, as more seepage is created, so the more people the more seepage, only certain types don’t generate it, psi-voids, psi-burnouts, and psi-sinks. And only certain types are able to manipulate and use the seepage, so you can see there would be a lot of it.

The seepage can affect people like quantum abuse does to nova's, it corrupts them, effects there mental health and attitudes as per there archetypes and it can be used to alter you into other forms as per archetype, eg vampire, werewolf.

The game has psi users in it, and the psi users can also become corrupted by the seepage, as well as being seepage users.


That being said, I come to a energy form that I think could be the source of the third energy source in aberrant/trinity, lets call it seepage for now, seepage is the energy given of by the energy plain/dimension of quantum and sub-quantum, they are opposed energy types they both exist everywhere, so they must interact, and when two forces interact usually another energy type is created, like mixing colours put up to transparent coloured sheets say yellow and blue and cross them half way each you have green running down the middle, a new colour, and given that the quantum and sub-quantum fields are everywhere, there would be a lot of seepage to use and channel for your powers and abilities, depending on how much energy you can channel at time. Even if the interactions of the fields only created a tiny amount its abient field would be tremendous. Does my thoughts come close to the ideas behind Teluric Energy?

Chew that over and tell me what you think, am thinking of trying to create rules for seepage be it the one I thought up, or con-X’s seepage, or maybe wait for the adventure book to come out, and mentally chew the rules and ideas for telluric energy over(going to buy it when it finally comes out J). Would be good and fun to spring something like that on some characters, get them sort of used to psi users, then pow got something like themselves to face but not, and there psi users too boot also, a type of being or creature that can use and manipulate 2 types of energy, not unlike the Chitra Bhanu’s Quantakinetic powers, except seepage and psi, muhahahaha.

Even tho I’m not playing either trinity or aberrant at the moment, but have all the books. no groups up here playing it. And as for game mastering it, am slowly coming to the idea of reading the rules 3-4 times, and maybe try to create a group.

I got the impression (possibly the mistaken impression) that Telluric energy was origionally a naturally occurring ambient thing. I think the experiment/explosion somehow catalised the whole thing - unleashing it worldwide somehow.

Did you know that a lot of the theoretical physics bandied about so frequently by so many sci-fi authors was developed in the early twentieth century?

Had my memory jogged today.

Doctor Zorbo's plan was to use a pair of gigantic fine-meshed nets supported by several zepplins as a kind of polarizing array. He was going to block out the sun and cast New York into darkness as an extortion scheme.

One of the Characters was Prince of the last survivng Aztec city.

[Did you know that a lot of the theoretical physics bandied about so frequently by so many sci-fi authors was developed in the early twentieth century?]

Yep was aware, have read some about their theorys not indepth tho, remeber reading something about "orgone energy", sounded weird exspecially the theory behind it and how it effected people, something about negative orgone energy actully being resposible for sickness and bad health in people.

Another memory was tellurgy, was used as a measure of unit for psychic energy usuage if i remember right.

Actually, it sounds like Adventure was developed by a fanatic Mage developer with a Son of Ether bent whilst on crack.

I love it...good ideas for the 1920s Mage game I want to run.

I just want to see cities of spider-men and lovecraftian critters running about with glee.(did I actually use the word "glee"??)

Give plenty of moleman invasions and world beating mad scientists and I'll be happy. That and 196,000 some odd dimensions.

WHOOOHOOO!

My wife flirted with Bruce Baugh and he gave her a Character sheet for Adventure! Tales of the Aeon Society. (Take note, ladies, flirting pays!)

At the top, in addition to Nature and Allegience, it has "Vice," and "Virtue," and "Inspiration." Also name and other stuff.

Archery is listed under Strength, and Animal Handling under Manipulation.

The backgrounds include things like "Gadget, Menagarie, Nemisis," and "Sanctum." Interesting that one might pay background points for a Nemisis...

There are a good many blank lines under the heading "Knacks." I suspect that "Knacks" might be Adventure!'s version of the Disciplines/Gifts/Powers/Rites/Whatever.

Dots and Boxes for "Inspiration" as we knew there would be. Also dots for each of three "Facets" thereof: "Intuitive Facet," "Reflective Facet," and "Destructive Facet."

Will August never get here?

sigh. I'm falling more and more in love with Adventure every time I hear something new about it. I just need one more "Cool Tidbit" to instantly start saving every cent I earn in order to buy the damn book and play it. Thingmaker, got any more? (If WW asks, just tell them your working on a potential sale )

Make that 3 potential sales from my end

Here's a dandy little second hand tidbit from the Origins convention via a fellow known to me only as jboerg. Sorry about the drool stains all over it...


Subject: Adventure!
jboerj - 07/05/2001 20:19:07
Whooohooo!

Okay,

The good: They have a pre-release laser print version of the Adventure
game that they are letting people take peaks at.

The bad: No one is running demos,...unless they didn't tell the staff
at the exhibit booth.

The ugly: The list of people that bruce sent in the previous thread
are not here. *sigh*

But it's all good!


Spoilers past this point--------------And If I get anything
wrong, tough, I only got to glance at the copy of the Adventure
book!----------------------------------------------------------

Hah! This game is going to rock...rock, I tell you!

Now, for those of you from the Aberrant side of the house, a lot is
going to seem very familiar to you. the character generation is
extremely similar to Nova generation. There are points that you use
post "character generation" to buy skills, background and abilities.

For those of you from the Trinity side of the house, you will like
the "lower" power level of the game, but I'm betting that still some
will dislike it because of the aforementioned character gen feel.

Now, what are Daredevils, Mesmerists and Stalwarts? Well, honestly,
I figure I ought to let the authors have their fun and let you see it
when the books come out but I'll give you a few hints. They aren't
really psychomorphs, nor are they novas, nor are they psions. What
are they? Hmmm, that will take someone explaining Z-waves to you to
figure out.

They each have a type of superhuman skill, called "Knacks" that
belongs just to their own "class". i.e.- You are not liable to see Mesmerists using Daredevil Knacks. Don't ask me what Knacks are or
how they work, I won't tell you even if you ask and even if I knew.

There's cool stuff that adds on to Backgrounds, Abilities, Knacks,
... and there's gadgets. Lots of gadgets.

Other than that, I'm not going to say much more because I figure the
authors will kill me for giving away all their secrets and then we'll
never get a preview like this again.

So, where does this lay the Eximorph, Psychomorph, Paramorph
as Daredevils, Mesmerists and Stalwarts argument?

I think it leaves it at the door and proceeds on foot without it.
But that is just my take on it from flipping through the book for
5 minutes. Maybe I'll know more tomorrow if they still have the book out.

P.S. - I hope I haven't given away too many "spoilers" here. If the
WW folk think I have, post here and I'll read it before I post
tomorrow and keep my very wide mouth shut. ;-)

Subject: Adventure!
jboerj - 07/06/2001 19:14:10
Well, I guess it's time for part 2: No one seems to have nuked me
from orbit yet so I guess I'm staying in bounds.

I think I'll start with the "universal energy" comment.

Honestly, I'm not sure there is a third energy. You could in a way
just argue that this z-wave concept sort of makes the three types
"erupt" even though the human norm has not advanced far enough yet
to have these powers normally.

Then again, you could argue that it is a completely separate, unknown
force outside of Quantum and Sub-Quantum. That might make all of the
"specials" in the game, Paramorphs.

The plot device by which z-waves irradiate the earth is pure pulp era
fiction, and would not make a lot of sense in a super-science setting.

I'm still trying to figure out how Dr. Hammersmith unlocks z-waves.
My guess is that he uncovered an artifact from an ancient civilization,
(this is pulp after all) and got lucky....or almost. That would be
cool.

Of course, if the Daredevils, Mesmerists and Stalwarts are Paramorphs,
Psychomorphs and Exomorphs then I think that someone is going to have
to explain how z-waves cause quantum and psionic eruption.

I'll move onto other subjects.

Inspiration: This appears to be how one "powers" all of these abilities.
But I didn't read far enough to understand the whole destructive,
creative and ? Inspiration types.

And villains explicitly get "abilities" based on their destructive
Inspirations. Talk about black and white... ;-)

Favorite Quote so far: paraphrased "Oh, you must have been quite
mistaken ma'am. He's not dead, the fall from the window merely knocked
the wind out of him" -- Quote referring to a Mesmerist healing Knack.

It so captures the flavor of the age. I love it.

Knacks: Each set of Knacks comes in three Levels, similar to Nova
powers (the original) and the powers in fact are similar to but
distinctly different from Trinity and Aberrant.

Gadgets: I think that Gadgets in Adventure will be way cooler than
Gadgets in Aberrant or Trinity, just because they are I think more
balanced. Still, I want a zeppelin (sp?) city for my own. ;-)
(No, this is not a standard Gadget, it's actually in their promo
piece ... looks like a newspaper ... that talks about Zorba and
his fleet of Death Balloons.)

Abilities: This is a cool bit, they've added a lot of Flavor text
up front of the abilities, much like the flavor text at the start of
backgrounds in the APG. Now it's not nearly as long, but it's fun to
read.

They don't have Warren Ellis' short story at the front of the copy
here, unfortunately. I'd love to read that but it ain't happening.

I think that's all for today. Anyone want me to look for something in
particular, I'll try and find an answer that doesn't spoil things
too much.

Subject: Adventure!
jboerj - 07/07/2001 21:14:53
All, sorry for "gloating". I'm just very psyched. I'll tone it down.


And to answer your questions about Mercer...

Bard had it almost perfectly correct. I suggest you go and find
his post on the paramorphs theory. Bard, you really nailed it
on the head...or close. I think you could replace one word in your
post and have it almost exactly right.

And yes, I found the section on Mercer (Thanks, Conrad!) and in
keeping to the usual let's-tease-the-heck-out-of-the-players, is
very brief. However, I was told by Conrad that the reason there
isn't more in there is because Trinity will be explaining more of
the Mercer background soon. Terra Verde anyone? I thought so.

<< Information deleted due to violation of Aeon Trinity archive
security measures. Please contact the Aeon Council for permission
to view the Babel Dossier. >>

heh.

To wit, Mercer *is* the only paramorph. like we hadn't guessed that
already. But that means Daredevils are definitely not paramorphs and
of course leaves us asking all sorts of questions about what the
three classes in the book are.

Let me repeat. Mercer is unique, irreproducible at this point and
according to White Wolf, they have a squad of "Ph. D.s trying to
figure out" how his powers work. Until they do, you should just fudge
his abilities.

And, I'm still trying to figure out if Mal is who I think he is. And
no, there is no character named Divis Mal in the book. There is,
however, a "Daemon" and his "unrequited love" will cause many problems
for the Aeon Society. And he is "as much above stalwarts" as stalwarts
are above normal men. Which of course has me totally wondering.

Well, there's much more, obviously, but I didn't get to it all.

Oh, and according to the people at the booth (Thanks again, Justin,
Conrad, and everyone!) Adventure comes out in time for GenCon, which
means August 4th-ish!

Can't wait!

Subject: Adventure!
jboerj - 07/09/2001 11:31:24
Last post.

Backstory: One of the things WW was handing out were little two
page foldouts, printed on newspaper pulp, and carrying several
"articles".

One of these is an invitation from Dr. Sir Calvin Hammersmith to view
a demonstration of a new, free, clean form of energy. The description
mentions Einstein's Theory of Relativity and is almost similar to
the whole "vacuum is filled with virtual particles" theories of modern
Quantum Mechanics.

The next is a news article from the London times describing the
fire at Dr. H's manor, that destroyed the lab and his home.

Both of these are set in 1922.

The next is a Chicago Times announcement of the new Aeon Society
for Gentlemen in 1923.

The next is a journal entry by Whitley Styles, recognize him?,
wondering about the adventures they have all been through, and noone
seriously hurt yet.

But the main page, which looks like a page out of the "Daily Herald",
describes the attacks by Zorbo, talks about the links between Dr.
H's telluric engine and the strange phenomena that have cropped up.
This appears to be set in 1925.

---

Here's a couple more mechanic things, but that's about it until
August, as it's all I know (Except for the secret of Mercer's
paramorph-ness, and I don't think that one is fair game. Sorry).

About the three types of Inspiration.

I got the feeling that these mirrored the thread (here or in
the aberrant forums) about how novas erupted, and the types of
powers and the degree of taint was based largely on frame of mind
at the time of eruption. Likewise, your Inspiration, your abilities
and powers in Adventure, are dependent on what you as a person,
are like.

If you're destructive, like Zorbo, I imagine, then you have a
destructive Inspiration, and draw your strength from making others
fear you, or destroying civilization, etc.

Whether or not you recover Inspiration only when performing such
acts, I don't know. I have to believe not, but I flipped through
that section rather quickly.

Finally, may I say simply that Wealth Beyond Avarice is just a cool
Background! Yes, I do believe that ST's are going to have to be
careful with that one (and Gadgets too, but hey, that's their
job)

Well, that's it, I'm out. Enjoy the next month.

Now, to find Terra Verde!

<< Reminder, if I got anything wrong here, tough. If you have
an Eidetic Memory and can find a way to lend it to me, next time I'll
quote chapter, page and paragraph for you. Until then, I am only
human. As always, enjoy the game, enjoy life. >>

Awesome info TM. You da man.

You have an ear to the wind.

cool, ok now I need to start saving. I want this book.

Oh that is so it. I am buying that book the instant My local RPG store get it in, I don't care what the expense!

Oh the joys of working in a bookstore.

jboerj coughed up another one!

--

Subject: Adventure!

jboerj - 07/12/2001 12:12:32

Uhm, hmm.

Anyways, here's a tidbit I remembered. I think the woman's name (in
the Aeon Society Picture) is Annabel (Leigh?). Maybe I'm misremembering.

And the gentleman with the sunglasses is Michael Daemon Donihgal.
Or as some of us as were theorizing, Divis Mal.

I think you can guess who "Danger Ace" Stefokowski is. And
"Safari Jack". I don't know which one is Whitley Styles.

Actually Thingmaker, the Abbie player's guide tells us that Divis Mal's baseline name is indeed Michael Donighal. Check it out; page 143, top of the right hand colum, in the example for suplementary senses.

so the brooding proto-goth is Mal.

All who were suprised by this event raise your hand. the gene elimination squad will talk to you shortly.

sorry, I know it's good news but even the thought of Mal (ubermensch) is slightly distastfull to me.

still can't wait for the game, maybe I'll have Mal die horribly from some lovecraftian create. now there's a warm and loving thought.

Hey everybody, they have a sneek peek of Adventure! over on the White Wolf site. Look for the link on the main page. FINALLY!

YAY! it's up, it's on the home page, ...... It's a quater of the size of the other ad.

ok, I knew that they weren't going to hype it much but this is sad.

There are actually a lot of folks scampering around in the WW forums looking for this thing - nobody thinks of looking on the main page!


[This message has been edited by Thingmaker (edited 07-14-2001).]

[This message has been edited by Thingmaker (edited 07-14-2001).]

I think they're hyping Exalted to such an extent because it's release date is closer than that of Adventure. One assumes that when the release occurs Adventure will get the higher degree of promotion, and so on.

How can White Wolf not see the gem they have on their hands. The cover? Great? The Daily Herald promo? Drool city. Warren Ellis doing the opening fiction? Catastrophicly cool. While as a sword and sorcery nut I'm looking forward to Exalted, if White Wolf doesn't realize the massive potential of Adventure I think I'll lose my faith in them.

-Defender.

hey they increased the size of the adventure ad. it's still at the bottom but it's bigger and there is less stuff on the homepage.

I don't know how many of you got this, it's from jboerj.

"I got the book at GenCon and have been reading it.

Quite good.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
------
Okay, this is a bit long, but it will help you all I think.

The Book:
---------
The book itself, like the Trinity and Aberrant books is a paper back
cover, but the paper inside is not the glossy paper, it's almost
newspaper quality (a bit better I think, Fishwrap wouldn't keep too
well). The interior art and print, is all black and white, no color,
partly I think for reasons of genre and partly I figure for cost as
well.

The book is split into the standard two sections for an Aeonverse
book, introductory in-character material or stories and a second half
that is the rules, background and story information.

Finally, the paper, being flimsier than the glossy print paper in the
TPBs of Trinity and Aberrant, has an odd habit of warping, not
severely at all but the book will form subtle waves on your desktop
if left to itself. Much like Comic book print actually does, now that
I think about it.

The book, at $26 dollars is more expensive than the Trinity print, but
roughly the same as the Aberrant book. Personally, I'm happy to pay
that for this book, but I realize that some people may be displeased
by the price given that it is black and white.

The Background:
---------------
I, of course, skipped straight to the back of the book, read about
the Aeon Society, the main members, their main villains and all of the
rest as soon as I got the book. I'll warn Trinity and Aberrant players
that the book leaves you wondering much more about the future than it
answers questions about. Mercer's knack, as I stated after Origins,
is given all of three paragraphs in a side bar, and a fairly good
character description that includes more. However, what is going on
in either of the Aberrant or Trinity eras is left quite unresolved.

Having said that, the villains are fairly interesting, though I
expect that people will try their best to create bigger and better
villains. It's not that the Czar and Mister Saturday aren't powerful,
well thought out, with motivations and plots worthy of the Saturday
morning serial, but I know a lot of STs will try to one up these
villains as soon as they get the book.

The Machinatrix I think stands out as the one Villain/Nemesis that
I really liked. She is not the villain in the black cloak, running
around tying up maidens to railroad tracks. She's got so many shades
of black and grey, and gets a good deal of play in the introductory
section that she was the villain that most came alive for me.

That and the Sanguine Prometheus made my day. Even if I can't imagine
any way in heck of it existing in 1924.

Still, most of the real background will come from reading the first
hundred pages of the book, which are dense and you'll be picking out
plot points left and right.

On the subject of the Introduction, just because it is a pet peeve,
I really dislike the use of the cursive "written" fonts. while
legible, it slows the reading down quite a bit. I know it makes a
nice in-character touch, but honestly, the only thing worse I've seen
was the gothic font print in one of the WoD books. Makes my eyes hurt.

The Rules:
----------
The rules are more or less that Trinity/Aberrant revised Storyteller
rules. I think that anyone who has played either game, will find
themselves at home once more. You still roll d10s, your target number
is 7, you still have Attributes, Abilities and Backgrounds.

But there are a few additions.

Character Gen: Same as before. If you use the Aberrant starting rules,
before Nova points, you have the same thing. You build a character,
assign attribute, ability and background points. You spend you bonus
points to raise your skills and traits -- then comes Transformation
points. Like Aberrant Nova Points, these allow you to increase
Attributes (1/2), Abilities (1/5), Backgrounds (1/4) and Willpower
(1/2) very easily, but then gets expensive for things like Ability
Mastery (1), Background Enhancements (2), Inspiration (1) and Knacks
(1-3).

Virtues and Vices: Each of your natures comes with a virtue and a
vice. Virtures are codified situations under which you might regain
willpower while Vices are situations/scenarios that you will have to
spend willpower to not do something according to your nature.

Abilities: Each of the Abilities is more or less in the same place as
in Aberrant and Trinity, but many of them have been moved around. I
think if you have the Character sheet, you've seen this. Further, the
ability descriptions are now mostly "mini-stories" describing that
trait, and the +, O, OO, OOO, OOOO, OOOOO descriptions are gone. They
also have the ability to go to 6 dots (only with Transformation
points) and you can only have 3 "Mastery"s total in your character.
This is very expensive to accomplish.

The descriptions of the Abilities, by the way, is one of my personal
favorite touches in the book.

Backgrounds: You have the standard set of Backgrounds, but as with
Abilities, you may purchase a "6th dot" in a Background, what they
call an Enhancement. This specifies something extra-special for that
Background. For example, I mentioned way back in July, "Wealth Beyond
Avarice", which is the 6 dot Resources Background enhancement. At
this level, not only are you richer than everyone else, but are so
rich that even the Rich seem poor. As far as I can tell, you have
have as many Background Enhancements as you want. But again, you can
only buy them with Transformation points.

Inspiration: This is, despite its name, your "energy pool". It is
just that in the 1920s, with Utopian dreams on the brain, Mercer and
others didn't want to say that these people had been "Tellurized", so
they decided to say that they have been "Inspired". Inspired folk have
a source of literally telluric energy within them that they can
manipulate to do all sorts of fun things.

Inspiration is also broken into 3 facets, much like the the Virtues
of Hunter or Exalted, which determine how some of your Knacks work.
You have to choose a primary Inspiration facet, which will give you
essentially a "Basic Technique" that you can use.

Super-Science Inventions:

The section on Super-Science Inventions is about as long as the
section on Gadgets in the Aberrant book. So, while it is fairly
detailed, it isn't *that* thick, about 10 pages. However, it does pack
quite a bit into that 10.

SSI's are broken into two types (advancement and innovation) and
three categories (gadget, organism, and compound). An Advancement is
basically something that could exist in the next 10+ years, but you
bring it into existence earlier. For instance, jets won't exist for
another couple of decades but you might find a way to build one in
1924. Innovations are a little bit trickier, they require you to be
Inspired and are devices that can do things that might be considered
impossible otherwise. There's even a little schtick when it comes
to Innovations that ought to be amusing to everyone, I won't spoil
the surprise there.

In order to make either an Advancement or an Innovation, you need to
have Mastered the appropriate Skill, i.e. - taken the 6th dot in that
ability. In the case of Innovations, as mentioned before, you need to
actually be Inspired to build them.

Tables for R&D and Construction time are given, as are some examples
of how to use the system to build devices or gadgets. While they are
certainly helpful, they are not very deep, so anyone expecting
Rolemaster style detail can just forget about it.

Overall, it should satisfy any STs and Players out there, and allow
for considerable expansion by others.


More Cinematic Storytelling:
----------------------------
Now, I haven't gotten through all of it, but there appear to be rules
for cooperative storytelling, whereby the players can spend
Inspiration not only on Knacks, but to have something happen in
story. Like having the rotten wooden floor of the saw mill break
beneath Mercer and Doctor Evil as they fight, dropping them both into
the icy water and forcing Doctor Evil to drop the Dagger of Ethereal
Night, and allowing Mercer to stop Evil.

Again, it seems to make the ST final arbiter, but the players are
encouraged, nay, expected to add elements for their characters to the
story, thus making it more like the serials of yesteryear. The authors
really worked on how storytell in the Pulp era, and have offered lots
of hints and mechanics on how to make it seem more pulp-y."

Way back when, I ran some e-mails around looking for just that sorta thing. All it got me was a headache, and Conrad's emnity.

Meanwhile, for asking why we had to pull teeth and nearly riot to get any info outta White Wolf, I have been banned by a rather unprofessional Conrad Hubbard, who lied and made things up in his last post (Banning me first, of course, so I couldn't soeak any more rational truth).

It appears me IP was blocked, but just me username, because I can't re-register, even with a different name and e-mail.

And to think, most of the struggle Conrad's bitching about is something he coulda helped with by answering us, rather than ignoring us. If everyone at WW knew about this being one book only, as is readily evident, why the **** not tell us, instead of ignoring us...Connie's response seemed annoyed, condescending, like he had had to answer it a thousand times...

Oh well, enough bitching.

------------------
The Eleventh Wonder of the World.

Hype, Sacrelige, Uniforms...

So lemee get this straight Kane, you can't get back on the forums at all? I was a bit confused on that bit.

If it was like the rest of the banned poster you could just get a new account, but if you can't even get that then that's a new and interesting type of irrational behavior.