“The City We Became” in the WoD
I recently listened to “The City We Became” by N.K. Jemisin. It is an interesting story and at times a challenging one. Without getting too deep into spoiler territory, the city of New York is manifesting avatars. There is one for the entire city, and one for each of the boroughs. The avatars have to work together to deal with a threat to their existence and lives.
I am posting about it here because it struck me as one of those stories with a lot of game possibilities.
That cities in the WoD (or the CoD) may have avatars is already established. However, these are usual spirits and are limited to the umbra. In “The City We Became” the avatars manifest in the real world, and also possess various special powers. In terms of game mechanics it is probably simplest to say the avatars function as mages with a low chance of paradox, so long as they are operating inside their own cities.
So, say such individuals existed in a game – then what?
For one thing the avatars might manifest in the material world only when the city faces a serious threat to its existence – one it cannot deal with as a spirit in the umbra. Stopping that threat could be worth an entire campaign.
For another, an avatar would quickly get a lot of unwanted attention from the Technocracy, from all kinds of vampires, Pentex and so on – if they learn about the avatar. Staying secret, or on the run, or a bit of both, could be fun.
What do you think?
I recently listened to “The City We Became” by N.K. Jemisin. It is an interesting story and at times a challenging one. Without getting too deep into spoiler territory, the city of New York is manifesting avatars. There is one for the entire city, and one for each of the boroughs. The avatars have to work together to deal with a threat to their existence and lives.
I am posting about it here because it struck me as one of those stories with a lot of game possibilities.
That cities in the WoD (or the CoD) may have avatars is already established. However, these are usual spirits and are limited to the umbra. In “The City We Became” the avatars manifest in the real world, and also possess various special powers. In terms of game mechanics it is probably simplest to say the avatars function as mages with a low chance of paradox, so long as they are operating inside their own cities.
So, say such individuals existed in a game – then what?
For one thing the avatars might manifest in the material world only when the city faces a serious threat to its existence – one it cannot deal with as a spirit in the umbra. Stopping that threat could be worth an entire campaign.
For another, an avatar would quickly get a lot of unwanted attention from the Technocracy, from all kinds of vampires, Pentex and so on – if they learn about the avatar. Staying secret, or on the run, or a bit of both, could be fun.
What do you think?
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