[OOC] [Mage: the Awakening 2E] The Supernal Suburbia

[rwknoll]

wtaylorjr2001 - I like the idea of an author and the skills/personality Michael Korn would have. I also certainly welcome new players, because I want people to be able to join and try out new games! In regards to your submission, if you're saying he willed a ship to appear, that is well within the purview of Fate magic. However, for something like that to happen in the middle of an ocean is at least a Weaving spell (3 dots), but seems more like a Patterning spell (4 dots). A more sensible interpretation or tweaking would be to say that he foretold that a ship was coming (a Knowing / 1st dot Time spell).

Big question! On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is Henry Wu and 10 is Takashi Natsume, how much does the Athenaeum care about the cryptids' wellbeing?

Uh...Can you provide different rating anchors, or clarify what you're looking for here? I haven't provided (or firmly created) a lot of details about the Mysterium in this world, but they will likely be pretty hands-on and practical. Downtown Chicago has a lot of Mysteries rich for the taking...for someone willing to risk the dangers of staying in the city for long. Some Mystagogues will be focused on caution and preserving what's already been found, especially given recent events in Awakened politics (more coming soon). Others will be very much intrigued by what they could find in Chicago. Mystagogues gathering and living in the outlying suburbs will probably be more responsible for protection and safekeeping of collected knowledge. Does that help at all?

Caladriu - Digging the updated character concept and info. I can tell that you have a lot of knowledge about the game, and your character would very likely have a fair bit more exposure to Awakened society than other characters. I'm fine with this, as long as you put an appropriate number of points into related Merits (e.g., Contacts, Status), which we can talk about down the road. I like the added details about Moonstone's personal history pre-Awakening, and I think I would enjoy the chance to RP as NPCs who interact with you post-Awakening ("Wait...Since when can you do that?").

[Caladriu]

I'm actually running a Mage game myself right now, so all those Important Capitalized Setting Nouns are fresh in my mind, haha. I was planning to mostly represent that knowledge with the Infamous Mentor merit, which is effectively a grab bag of other social merits with the asterisk that they aren't really "yours." I'll come back and add some info on the Awakening itself and the other questions later today!

[Retias]

I'm loving all the others applying here, hopefully gonna have a lot of fun wit you all. Would you want anything more on Sara, rwknoll?

[wtaylorjr2001]

I am sorry about the mix up, I changed the Awakening a bit. I will change it again if you don't like it. I tried a combination of time and fate. Read the outmost eddies on the current to get him to trade waters. When he floated on his back and stopped fighting the currents, just by luck the right one got him to the correct trade waters. Like choosing the correct lottery ticket. Compelling Fate. To keep him from giving up, he saw a vision of the ship that would save him like you suggested. If this doesn't sit well with you I can remove fate and just use time.

[rwknoll]

I am sorry about the mix up, I changed the Awakening a bit. I will change it again if you don't like it. I tried a combination of time and fate. Read the outmost eddies on the current to get him to trade waters. When he floated on his back and stopped fighting the currents, just by luck the right one got him to the correct trade waters. Like choosing the correct lottery ticket. Compelling Fate. To keep him from giving up, he saw a vision of the ship that would save him like you suggested. If this doesn't sit well with you I can remove fate and just use time.

Totally cool, and no worries! I only commented on it because I know you said you haven't played before, and I thought the story you presented (while cool) seemed unrealistic for a fledgling Mage. The Awakening can be a more artistic and narrative description; I only commented on yours because that detail seemed out of place. I really like, and appreciate, the changes.

[rwknoll]

Unfortunately one of our applicants is still having problems with account verification but he has asked me to post a current draft of his character concept, so everyone can have more details about what he's thinking.

Oscar “Lynx” Valewood
Concept: Animist and College student

History: Oscar was born in Norway, Europe. His father was a marine biologist, his mother a lawyer. His upbringing was simple enough. His parents were engrossed in their careers, so he was often left to his own devices; as a child, this involved after-school activities, television shows, books and video games; as an adolescent, it involved staunch rebellion. The lack of attention had him run away from home at the age of 17.

By ran away, of course, we mean he ran to the nearest forest of considerable size and got lost.

He wandered between trees and up hills, and eventually found himself atop the regional mountain range. At first, he thought nothing of it. Woods and lakes joined with foliage, moss lingered where the shade lay. It was when the mist settled that he felt it – the jolt of fear. The wild had its aural environment, of course, but in the mist, it grew more prominent. He started seeing shadows skulking about, felt eyes on him where there were none. Yet the fear was not unwanted – it was an exhilaration. As the tension rose, he saw the greatest shadow yet before him, its eyes set on him like predator hunting prey. In spite of the thrill, Oscar ran away then – his metaphorical tail between his legs.

He returned home the next morning. His parents chalked his absence to “just teenage things.”

The event had Oscar filled with longing, an ache he couldn't quite put his finger on. It felt like a second world existed, somewhere just out of sight. His parents and peers dismissed his thoughts and ideas whenever he brought this up, and with that, he found only solace in solitude.

Awakening – Thyrsus

His Mystery Play had begun in the forest, but it was slow and subtle. The Supernal had trickled into his life, little by little, strengthening his sense to the “second world”, but as the repeated dismissal of his experiences by those he deemed closest to him, the trickle slowed down to a halt. In the end, he felt empty.

It was merely the interlude to the events of his 22st year.

By the time Oscar was 21, his daily life was not particularly productive. Sure, he stayed in shape with frequent trips up the mountains in hopes of recapturing that feeling; he practised a little bit of art and drawing to try to remember what he had seen and felt.. He held a couple of part-time jobs, though he half-arsed his way through those without exceptional results. His academic ambitions weren't anything to brag about either. He tried to maintain some spiritualistic aspect in his life – but the emptiness had crawled into the entirety of his being. Nothing he did mattered.

One day, though, he woke up, having had a dream that he couldn't truly explain – a dream so familiar it stirred a sense of wanderlust. During one of the rare moments his family was all gathered for breakfast, he mentioned he'd like to study abroad. Though surprised, both parents were in favour, offering to pay his tuition and rent – on the condition that he later produce results. They stated the experience would serve him well. He applied to a variety of schools all around the states, landing a college close to La Grange.

The dam that kept the Supernal truth at bay burst when he landed on US soil. What would've been a simple bus trip from the airport to his apartment in La Grange became a dangerous trek through the Primal Wild. It was an encore of the fear and longing that had overwhelmed him four years ago, only this time he did not freeze when the mist washed over him, nor did he flee when he came face to face with the large and advancing shadow. When they stood face to face, he saw the shadow for what it was: the great Lynx. Without thinking Oscar embraced it as an old friend that he had known for his entire life. He embraced the Wild. He became the Lynx. The Lynx became him. At last, he was Truth.

Preferred game style:
Exploration of mysteries and finding answers; philosophical quandaries and tough situations. More or less the same as Retias above.

Other Notes:
His relationship to his parents is strained. They focused more on furthering their own careers, rather than family life. They weren't really there for him - sure, they had vacations and the occasional family outing, fancy dinner at restaurant, and he does love them, but there's a definite distance between them. In many ways, Oscar fears he was a mistake in their carefully planned life, and sometimes it seems like they would love nothing more than to tell him that. They do care, though, as they had no hesitation to let him study abroad while paying for his tuition and rent.

As a character, he is usually calm and prudent in any given situation, but he tends to defer to decisions and judgement calls through instinct and gut feeling. He is reserved, though knowledge of others who have seen “what lies beyond” makes him giddy – nobody's ever “gotten” him before, and that tie makes him ever so curious. He isn't confrontational, but he is quick to judge: he measures people by how they treat their tools, their pets, and the world around them. Order-wise, he'd be a Mystagogue – he thirsts for knowledge and wants answers.

[rwknoll]

For everyone: There may still be a few more people posting character concepts soon. I do not think I will be able to balance and sustain the game I have in mind with more than ~6 players, for the same reasons that most tabletop games don't have parties of 6+ players. I hope people can appreciate that and be understanding.

If we don't get any more submissions over the next few days, I will likely take everyone who has posted so far, so it will depend on how many people we end up getting characters for. Because of that, I would like people to think about ways they might be acquainted or related to other characters that have been submitted. I think this adds more cohesion to starting Chronicles of Darkness groups; even if they're only loosely related or acquainted, it will make it easier for me to help bring the characters together without feeling like I'm railroading.

For example, if you wanted to play a homeless character, maybe arrange to have another PC know you because they periodically check up on you and offer you a warm meal. If you're a professor, maybe another character has met you at a conference or taken one of your classes.

wtaylorjr2001 - In reviewing your character background, I still need some more information about how to fit Michael into the setting I've detailed at the start of this thread. Characters will be based out of the Chicago metro area, with a lot of the action taking place in either La Grange or Chicago. How do you want to make that work for Michael? Does he live in La Grange, or maybe is staying in the Chicago area for a while doing some research for a new book? And how might we connect him to some of the other character concepts posted here?

[Beans]

Possible connections for Vo are probably...

MEDICAL: Nerve damage sucks! She has to go in for a checkup on that nonsense once in a while. Perhaps she's met someone in these hospital visits?

ACADEMIC: Students of hers, students of her colleagues, or generally people involved with U of C.

NEIGHBORHOOD: Sometimes you just have neighbors... or you're the center of a line of neighborhood gossip because of your recent train-accident of a divorce. Maybe people who live nearby have talked to her, whether to show their support in this trying time or just to pry.

THERAPEUTIC: It kind of really sucks to be Vo right now, and it's not out of the question that she might be involved in therapy, whether she's meeting someone who goes to a counselor in the same facility or she's involved in group therapy.

[Retias]

Vo studies physics and Sara is a talented hacker. Maybe there are links there we can play on?

[Thorbes]

Bardo (Dr. Marvin Bates) Concept: Necromancer in training
Born the only son of a traditional bostonian couple that had suffered a couple of abortions, Marvin didn't seem long for this world. Sickly and weak since birth, the child managed to survive the first day of his life against all odds. Then he lived for a week. Then a month. Whether it was little Marvin's determination, the obsesive love of his parents, or something stranger still, the fact is that Marvin succeeded where his stillborn brothers couldn't and managed to grow up to became a child, then a teenager and finally a young adult that was the pride of his parents.

Although his health was always precarious at best, or maybe as sort of strange compesation of nature, Marvin demonstrated from an early age a vivacious ingenuity and a sharp intellect. Good natured, he decided to use his prodigious faculties to help those like him and so, with the blessing of his parents, he studied to became a doctor. His analitical mind and strong memory served him well and he graduated as the first of his promotion.

Now Marvin is growing old, his parents died not a couple of years ago and he visits their tomb and that of his stillborn brothers every week. Married to one of his younger colleages and co-workers at the hospital (working in the maternity wing) they still have no child of their own. On one hand the job consumes a lot of time from both of them, and Marvin secretely fears that he may be incapable of siring healthy children as happened to his parents. He doesn't want to visit more small tombs the weekends.

Awakening (Path Moros)
The Awakening of Dr. Marvin Bates was at once more and less traumatic than most. He was beside the bed where their parents were dying of old age in his own hospital when, maybe due to the emotional overload, things started to get strange. He could felt how with each breath his parents were less and less alive, while nearby in the maternity ward the life was flourishing. As a certain undefinable spark was obviously getting extinguished in his parents, a new light grew stronger by the second in the newborns. Marvin finally awoke when he left the room where his parents laid dead to look for his wife to give her the news, only to saw the unmistakable gaze of his parents coming from a couple of recently born twins.

Game Style
I want to explore the limits of magic and the life-death divide, including life extension and undeath.

Ties
I might be related to Vo trhrough the hospital. I migth be her doctor even.

[rwknoll]

Thorbes - What kind of doctor would you like him to be? Surgeon, pathologist, internal medicine? Is there any particular kind that you think would suit him? I can make suggestions, otherwise.

[crapcarp]

Bardo's gonna be in this? NUUUUUUUU!!! He's the 6th character! Dammit, why didn't I look in this section sooner? It would've been real fun to kick back up the adventures of Pops and Son. Oh well, that's how the cookie crumbles, I guess.

[Thorbes]

crapcarp Yep, It would have been real fun. I'm not yet in though, just applying.

rwknoll Suggest away. Originally he was a surgeon, but I'm open to change things up.

[rwknoll]

Bardo's gonna be in this? NUUUUUUUU!!! He's the 6th character! Dammit, why didn't I look in this section sooner? It would've been real fun to kick back up the adventures of Pops and Son. Oh well, that's how the cookie crumbles, I guess.

Hey there! I've posted across multiple forums because I know that there might be a fair number of people interested in playing. The only fair way I felt I could recruit for a game like this would be to leave recruitment open for several days and then select the ~4-6 players whom I think would fit best together and with the game world I'm creating. So, feel free to apply if you like, there's still time.

[rwknoll]

Thorbes - Surgeon sounds great. Another idea would be a forensic pathologist / medical examiner. That always made a lot of sense to me as a Moros mage, because you get tons of opportunities to practice your craft.