On the current Monday Meeting notes, I've tried to post this comment three times and it won't actually show in the comments section, despite me not receiving an error message at all.
Is there an issue or am I just not seeing my post?
Extension on this - we need to make "make a monster" universal, like Aether's Magogs into the focus of a gameline, or Deviants when it's just more than mad science experiments. There is a *lot* of things from all over the world that could be called a vampire, and I can see a multicultural society of of them all agreeing and banding up. Could make things even more queer-coded goodness, as a universal journey for player monsters is "discovering exactly what it is I am, and what I can become."
Also, take all your classic cosmic horror, and burn it. Eldritch gods are all well and good, but they should be part of the environment, and let in due to cults, not the main villains. Keep the focus squarely on the more comprehensible bad guys - and if the main villains are eldritch monsters, they aren't very incomprehensible. Grim Dawn's Aetherials are a good example - they're body-stealing alien monsters, but they have an entirely understandable "your gods screwed us over and being bodiless sucks, so we're going to take yours to get touch back and to punish the dark god that stole our original flesh to begin with." There's even a couple examples of defectors who have seen what desperation and isolation has done to their people, and don't like it. The really depraved monsters in an "eldritch horror" faction are the cultists who are actively looking for ways to betray humanity for power - and not all cultists should be evil, some are misguided, or like Masks of the Mythos, actually hunters of the eldritch who realize that it's best to understand their foe and an amoral deity means "cool, we can use this against actually evil threats." Transhumanism, ho!
One last thing - magic shouldn't be linked to bloodlines or even one style. Part of it is leftover disillusionment with JK Rowling, but while some families are better at magic and don't have as many barriers, it's a talent at a potentially universal skill. Every mage has a paradigm that works - including scientists who seek to sufficiently analyze it to create a Grand Unified Theory, and also to cheat the lack of infrastructure or testing for their inventions (Deadlands' mad scientists are my go-to; they have demons on their shoulders that whisper more advanced technology than contemporary post Civil War tech and help them subconsciously draw upon magic to force Steam Age tech to work as the core of the infrastructure needed for things like healing potions or robots or ray guns. Also, ultimately it's the scientist who decides what they do with the invention - the demon might drive them loopy, but it has no say in the scientist's morality or what they want to make).
Is there an issue or am I just not seeing my post?
Extension on this - we need to make "make a monster" universal, like Aether's Magogs into the focus of a gameline, or Deviants when it's just more than mad science experiments. There is a *lot* of things from all over the world that could be called a vampire, and I can see a multicultural society of of them all agreeing and banding up. Could make things even more queer-coded goodness, as a universal journey for player monsters is "discovering exactly what it is I am, and what I can become."
Also, take all your classic cosmic horror, and burn it. Eldritch gods are all well and good, but they should be part of the environment, and let in due to cults, not the main villains. Keep the focus squarely on the more comprehensible bad guys - and if the main villains are eldritch monsters, they aren't very incomprehensible. Grim Dawn's Aetherials are a good example - they're body-stealing alien monsters, but they have an entirely understandable "your gods screwed us over and being bodiless sucks, so we're going to take yours to get touch back and to punish the dark god that stole our original flesh to begin with." There's even a couple examples of defectors who have seen what desperation and isolation has done to their people, and don't like it. The really depraved monsters in an "eldritch horror" faction are the cultists who are actively looking for ways to betray humanity for power - and not all cultists should be evil, some are misguided, or like Masks of the Mythos, actually hunters of the eldritch who realize that it's best to understand their foe and an amoral deity means "cool, we can use this against actually evil threats." Transhumanism, ho!
One last thing - magic shouldn't be linked to bloodlines or even one style. Part of it is leftover disillusionment with JK Rowling, but while some families are better at magic and don't have as many barriers, it's a talent at a potentially universal skill. Every mage has a paradigm that works - including scientists who seek to sufficiently analyze it to create a Grand Unified Theory, and also to cheat the lack of infrastructure or testing for their inventions (Deadlands' mad scientists are my go-to; they have demons on their shoulders that whisper more advanced technology than contemporary post Civil War tech and help them subconsciously draw upon magic to force Steam Age tech to work as the core of the infrastructure needed for things like healing potions or robots or ray guns. Also, ultimately it's the scientist who decides what they do with the invention - the demon might drive them loopy, but it has no say in the scientist's morality or what they want to make).
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