Fallen: The Role Play Game
Jun. 28th, 2007 07:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
breakinglight11Ah, well. :-) Here goes nothing. Really hope it's not totally disinteresting to you.
The supernatural world is subtle, and beyond the mortal sphere, there are the powers of Heaven and Hell. There are people who are born with innate supernatural abilities called gifts or talents. These gifted individuals have enormous power that can be used for either the good of the world, or for its torment and destruction. Hundreds of years ago the Roman Catholic church formed a society to do all they could to uphold good, and gathered together these talents to use their power for this purpose. “Angels and ministers of grace preserve us!” Hamlet of
I give you FALLEN: THE ROLE PLAY GAME.
There are three collegiate academies that direct the work of the Ministers of Grace. St. Gabriel’s in the south of
Like its sister schools, St. Michael’s is to all appearances an elite private Catholic university, the student body made up of attendees from all over the world. By and large the students are typical college kids. But the society seeks out young people with talents and offers them scholarships to attend St. Michael’s and serve as Ministers of Grace to battle the forces of Hell, and all accompanying powers of evil in the world. Many talented students serve in the Ministers for only the duration of their time at the school; upon graduation these students resign from service and continue with their regular lives.
All kinds of people are members— talented and mundane, clergy and laymen, students and adults. They are united by their common goal of fighting the unseen wickedness of the darker aspects of the supernatural world, specifically the insidious and all-too-often silent, invisible forces of Hell. The society was founded and is operated by the Catholic Church, but not every member of the Society is Catholic. A significant number, certainly, even most, but not all. The faculty of the school is also varied. There are a substantial number of priests, monks, and nuns teaching there, but most are laymen. Not all of them are even society members. The professors of the mundane subjects in particular are in many cases uninvolved. But a good number are members of society and work to serve it in many capacities, primarily among them educating the Ministers’ operatives in the fields they need to know in order to best combat evil. You will work with many of these professors in your service to the society.
There are both graduate and undergraduate studies at St. Michael’s. While there are many fields of study that prepare for the mundane world, St. Michael’s offers and indeed specializes in courses and degrees regarding the supernatural. The seminary at St. Michael’s, a graduation school offering masters and doctorates of theology and divinity in the Roman Catholic faith, is one of the best in the world. Courses in the occult, magic, divinity, demonology, angelology, and all kinds of supernatural studies are also the specialties of the school.
This will be a small campaign consisting of a series of mods that follows a continuing storyline, and while there will be some mechanical portions (combat, for exampke), the emphasis will be on character interaction, mystery examination, and the telling of a definite story.
You have been given the chance to serve a calling of the very highest quality. Enter St. Michael’s
Your Identity:
The character you create will attend St. Michael’s as an active Minister of Grace, receiving a full scholarship in exchange for your service. You may choose to be an undergraduate, graduate, or doctoral student, depending on your desired age and circumstances. You character must be at least eighteen years of age. Your area of study is up to you, with few limitations. There are very few courses of undergraduate study unavailable at the academy. Just tell me what you plan on studying, and I’ll fit it into the story. You will have a knowledge allotment chosen by you that may serve you in the course of the game. You may choose three areas of knowledge to begin with. As you level up, the amount of knowledge you possess will increase, and you may gain additional areas of expertise which will prove useful on your missions.
Create as thorough a back story for your character as you please. Also, I encourage everyone to create a “subplot” of some kind for their character, something personal that they want or that they must go through. Please clear it with me first, but I encourage you to use your imagination. I will incorporate it into the storyline as well as I can.
The Universe:
In this game, the concepts held as truth by Roman Catholicism are the best reflection of the truth of the universe. Make note— in this world, Catholicism as written is NOT a hundred percent accurate, nor does this exclude all other religions from representing truth. It is, within the context of this game, the closest of all faiths to describing the workings of the universe.
Because of this, belief in Catholicism, and the corresponding prayers, rites, sacraments, artifacts, precepts, et cetera, has power that can affect both the natural and supernatural world to a greater extent than any other faith. The beliefs and rites, et cetera, of other faiths have power as well, but to a more limited extent, and will not much factor into this game.
Your Faith:
The character you design should be Catholic. You will have the greatest range of abilities and possibilities open to you if he/she is. I will, however, permit one, at most two, of you to choose a different faith if you absolutely must— and even then, I would prefer you limit it to a Christian faith, such as some kind of Protestantism or Orthodoxy. This is mostly because I have designed the workings in the game off of actual Catholicism. I don’t know other faiths as well, so it would be a much greater burden on me to determine what effects the practice of other faiths would have in the context of the game. Because of this, a non-Christian, even non-Catholic, character is going to be much more limited in terms of what he/she can do. So do me a favor, and make your character step up and shoulder the burden of
Your Ethnicity:
The society is a worldwide organization, and St. Michael’s is a consummately international school. Choose a nation of origin for your character. Use this to determine your character’s name and his/her background. Also use this to determine what languages your character speaks in addition to the common language of English. You may have no more than two languages as a basic aspect of your character; any more than two takes up a knowledge allotment.
Your Powers:
Most Ministers of Grace are individuals born with a supernatural talent. Once you choose what sort of power you would like, I will give you parameters for use in the game.
Some suggestions for possible abilities:
Air – creation/manipulation
Astral projection – project soul outside of the body
Electricity – creation/manipulation
Fire – creation/manipulation
Heat – creation/manipulation
History – reading the history of things
Illusions – cast illusions to fool the eye
Invisibility – ability to turn yourself and things invisible
Light – creation/manipulation
Sense quality – sense the alignment of people, acts, etc
Suggestion – convince and plant ideas in the heads of others
Water – creation/manipulation
These are just some suggestions. Feel free to come up with your own power, but please clear it with me first, so I can figure out its in-game parameters.
Exactly what you can do with your talents will be outlined to you once you have chosen what kind of power you want. You will be given guidelines of what you can do but you are also encouraged to experiment in addition to the predefined uses I suggest for you. Just tell me what you’re trying to do, and I will tell you if it’s possible, and what you need to roll in order to accomplish it. Your power will increase in scope and potency as you level up.
Most of you should choose a talent for your character, as this is the most typical condition for a Minister of Grace, but there are also a few alternatives to gifts. The other category of people with powers is those who have received divine abilities through their vows to the church. The one with the greatest range of these abilities is the priest. His capabilities are very vaguely analogous to the typical RP cleric. His abilities include but are not limited to the laying of hands, the delivery of the sacraments, sanctification, performing of exclusive rituals, and channeling holy powers, which have a variety of combat, character-beneficent, and game-progressing effects. It is a very powerful and useful character. Your character must be male, and at least twenty-five years of age to have received ordinations. Therefore, a priest character, having already passed through seminary school, must be a doctoral student. There are a number of restrictions placed on the priest in return for his power— specifically, he is bound to poverty, chastity, and obedience, so keep these in mind when creating a background for a priest character. A priest, being so powerful, levels up most slowly of all classes.
Monks and nuns have similar but more limited clerical powers. They are capable of performing certain rituals, channeling certain holy powers, and laying of hands, but they cannot sanctify or deliver sacraments. Their primary advantage over the priest is that they will be allowed to have four basic areas of knowledge at their disposal, as their lifestyles are geared toward study and have fewer public responsibilities, and they will level up much faster.
You can take on both religious abilities and a power if you clear it with me.
There is also a third option. St. Michael’s has a long history of providing sanctuary to those who could not find acceptance or safety anywhere else. Its doors are open to outcasts of many kinds, offering safe haven, an education, and often a place within the society. Those with supernatural curses have often found that the abilities conferred on them by these curses make them capable operatives in return for the safe haven offered by the academy. As Ministers of Grace, these afflicted individuals can make something of their curses by joining the fight against evil, seeing it as a path that redeems the monstrous part of them.
A werewolf’s transformation makes him very dangerous in combat, but he lives at the whim of the full moon and is constantly at risk of losing control of himself and giving into the monster inside him. A vampire, too, can be a very powerful fighter, but he is at the mercy of his restrictions to the sunlight and must maintain control in the presence of blood. A ghost has a number of supernatural abilities, but suffers from the unfulfilled emptiness of being stuck between this world and the next. I would prefer no more than one vampire, werewolf, or ghost in the game, so this kind of character will be first come, first serve.
Have a good time with this. J Make a character will abilities you’ll enjoy.
Background:
Lucifer was one of God’s closest and most virtuous angels, a soul among the most beautiful in all of Heaven. But when God created the Earth to give unto mankind, a base mortal creature created to be far less than the angels, Lucifer grew consumed with contempt and hatred for these new children. He found their inherent weaknesses and inclinations to sin to be loathsome, and he was filled with rage that God loved these beasts equally with the angels— rage that He did not love Lucifer more. Rallying what few other angels he could to his cause, he attempted to lead a rebellion against God and the faithful Host, to wrest away the throne of Heaven and take it for himself. But these apostate angels failed, and, transformed from their angelic state into something dark and vile by their rage and hatred, Heaven rejected their presence and cast them all out. Now demons, they fell into Hell, where they now hold domain and their souls are now bound.
Angels and demons are the two extremes of the same continuum. They are both pure spirits, as oppose to the human condition of being both animal and soul. The essence of all being is the soul, and angels and demons are souls not bound by the limitations and attachments of a living physical body. This is a universe of perfect free will, and every sentient being possesses it, so angels and demons are no exception.
An angel is a soul of pure joy, peace, and love. Unlike humans, who are riddled with weakness, they have no natural inclinations that make them susceptible to temptation to sin. A sin committed by an angel, such as Lucifer’s rebellion, is never a matter of giving in to weakness, but rather a deliberate choice. As stated above, they possess perfect free will. Their function is the protection of all that is good in God’s creation— virtue, joy, love, life, et cetera.
Demons, by contrast, are angels whose conscious choice to sin has destroyed their fundamental good natures and replaced them with evil ones. They are beings of anger, pain, and hatred, with no natural inclinations to virtue of any kind. Any act of goodness would have to be a deliberate choice, as they too possess perfect free will. They know no peace and are incapable of true joy; base pleasure is the closest experience they can come to it. They strive for human suffering because it both causes suffering to God and His angels, and because the suffering of others alleviates the constant press of their own. As they say, misery loves company. Their only capability is to destroy things for the specific cause of inflicting pain and debasing that which is good and holy.
Angels protect, demons destroy. Neither is capable of true creation. Creation is the
There is also the power of saints. A saint is technically any departed soul in Heaven, but the canonized saint given the title of such is a revered person whose exemplary life can grant power, protection, and comfort to the living souls of Earth. Certain saints can be invoked similarly to angels to lend the power of their blessings, but they are not as potent as the invocation of angels.
Your Stats:
You will have four stats that control your character’s abilities, Strength, Will, Health, and Peace. These stats increase with your level. You create your character at level 1, and with this you will be given 40 points to divide among the four stats.
Strength is the measure of your physical prowess. It will govern any physical feat you attempt, combat in particular. It is a static stat.
Will is the measure of your mental focus and discipline. The exertion of any non-physical power, including talents and divine- or curse-given abilities is dependent on Will. It is a static stat.
Your Health is your body’s physical wellbeing. It’s basically your hit points. It is a changeable stat. You lose points from this stat every time you take damage. When you reach 0, you are unconscious. Death occurs at -10. You begin with a base Health of 10 to which you get to add however many points you chose to allot to Health from your 40.
Your Peace is the state of calm and serenity in your soul. It is analogous to mana points. It is a changeable stat. You must be at peace with yourself in order to focus your energy to use your non-physical abilities. You expend Peace whenever you use a non-physical ability. When you reach 0, you must replenish the points before those abilities can be used again. You are given a base Peace of 5 to which you get to add however many points you choose to allot to Peace from your 40.
Statistics Formula:
Strength: 0 + (40 – w+h+p)
Will: 0 + (40 – s+h+p)
Health: 10 + (40 – s+w+p)
Peace: 5 + (40 – s+w+h)
s + w + h + p = 40
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no subject
Date: 2007-06-29 01:16 am (UTC)One question, what would you vaguely call the narrative purpose of your game? Are the players pure soldiers of good battling evil where it rears its ugly head or are sin and temptation themes you wish to explore within the game?
Regarding the statistics,
a) Do Health and Peace have an upper bound?
b) In your formula's above should the base 5 and 10 come out of your starting 40 points? The last formula implies that should be the case rather than saying s+w+(h-10)+(p-5) = 40.
no subject
Date: 2007-06-29 08:36 pm (UTC)Don't worry about upper bounds in the stats. Also, pardon my attempt to write formulas, they're probably not technically mathematically proper, but the base 10 and 5 do not come out of the 40 points. Whatever you take out of the 40 is added to the stat's respective base.
Hope that helps.
no subject
Date: 2007-06-29 08:41 pm (UTC)As for reference material, any of those would be useful. :-D
no subject
Date: 2007-06-30 02:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-29 03:08 pm (UTC)I have the same thematic question as Zack. And I'm very interested in playing, if you'll have a non-student who might be slightly more difficult to schedule.
Hmmm... I have some thoughts. Answer Zack's question, let me know when you've done so, and then I may email you, depending on the answer.
no subject
Date: 2007-06-29 08:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-29 11:13 pm (UTC)I TOLD YOU SO :-p
no subject
Date: 2007-06-30 02:31 am (UTC)