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Post by MainDirector on Apr 1, 2019 10:08:58 GMT 7
This thread serves as the Campaign Handbook. An external link is available at this homebrewery, however it is better to view using Chrome on Desktop PC. A PDF file is attached at the Discord Server for ease of use. The text version of the handbook can be found at subsequent posts of this thread. Should conflicts of version existed, please check the latest version. If similar version is conflicted, please notify Main Director, while assuming that Discord takes precedent over Forum, Forum and Homebrewery at relative equal standing, and PDF has the least precedence. |
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Post by MainDirector on Apr 1, 2019 10:12:50 GMT 7
Mystics & Masquerade: Stigmata
There have been some weird rumors at the barbershop recently, and also from the Hoffbollock tabloid. Some said another serial murderer is on the loose. Some said it is related to that 'voodoo' religion by the people living at the colored block south here. At first, I also thought that was just a baseless rumor. Until today when I returned late from my work at the canned food factory, I witnessed something; about a weird spider-like creature, with weird mark, and a group of those black people using something akin of black magic. There should be it, it looks like a ritual that is unclear. But maybe I was just drinking too much, or the petty gossips played tricks with my mind. I better forget about this, otherwise Molly would be mad. A telegram seems not enough, maybe I need to go to the Creekpot telephone office to make a call. What was her number again, Creekpot 433? Where did I put my note...
{Introduction - Click to reveal}
Introduction
Mystics & Masquarade: Stigmata, is a narrative collaborative storytelling campaign set in 1920s in fictional United States (US) Metropolis. The protagonists are minorities who posses extraordinary powers. Their lurking nemesis in the metropolis are ancient evils, evil overlord, lunatic cultists, gangsters with blood vendetta, or even other groups who posses extraordinary powers.
The multi-GM living campaign uses house-ruled Open Legend system, where each player can take turns in playing and running session in a collaborative environment. As a player, each plays as a certain group, with certain individual as the focus of some sort. As a GM, each has access to some level and parts of the Metropolis; with potential allies, common cityfolks, bystanders, and the evil lurking within their turfs.
This campaign is set with themes that can be described as follows.
Roaring Twenties. Set in 1920s, US offers a period of cultural and economic prosperity, and also numerous technological marvels such as industry, electricity, cars, and telephones. However, social stigma of minorities is strong. Color segregation is a real and common sight. Further, it also marks the age of prohibition: alcoholic drinks are treated as contrabands.
Greater Metropolis. The main stage is a huge metropolitan city in US named Metropolis. It is located somewhere at the west coast, has several tiny islands connected by bridges, and surrounded by several rural areas. A parallel world exists, connected by hidden portals.
Minority Groups. The protagonists of this campaign are people from the minorities, which are people of colors and europeans, who were recently moved into the Greater Metropolis. Due to the possible sensitive cultural misappropriations and racism issues as thematic tone, this campaign requires all players to be wise enough to be considerate to others, understand the line between game and real world, and quite open for other perspectives.
Mystics. The special casts of the campaign are Mystics: entities who possess extraordinary ability to alter the world, often ignoring the laws of physics. They are the wizards, magicians, warlocks, ancient evils, vampires, and other supernatural beings. They live side-by-side with normal people on a world shackled by laws of physics.
Masquerade. The world and almost all of its inhabitants are bound by laws of physics. Thus, they will do whatever they can to obliterate anomalies, such as when they found out that there are entities outside the shackles. Mystics then got accustomed with an act of Masquerade: they hide their abilities. They eliminate witnesses if necessary, or win allies who will keep their mouth shut about the existence of supernatural beings and of the Spirit World (or some would say the magical world or the parallel world, connected by hidden portals).
Stigmata. Nevertheless, recently there have been spreading news of peculiar Mystics with tremendously vast extraordinary abilities. They are dangerous beasts aiming for destruction of the world, disregarding Mystics and normal creatures. Whenever they appear destruction follows. They also impose delirium effect to normal people: the normal people forget about them, and instead believe some other explanations on the destruction that had happened, such as gangster attack, natural disaster, accidents, or similar event. These monstrosities have a certain distinguishing unique stigmata or mark located at their limb or body part. Thus their name: the Stigmata.
The Main Casts. The Player Characters of the campaign: human Mystic from minority group who was just recently moved into Greater Metropolis, and recently possess the stigmata but without the delirium effect. This world (where not many are accepting Mystics) has never seen any 'peaceful' or 'kind' Stigmata, so far.
Supporting Casts. Mystics who accompany the Main Cast, and also for people from the background story of the Main Cast. Each player can make a certain Clan or group of Supporting Casts. Supporting Casts are Mystics or allies who do not mind about Mystics. Regarding whether they know about the stigmata of the Main Cast, is up to the player to decide.
Raison d'Etre. All Casts should have a purpose, and especially Main Cast (and their Clan, including the Supporting Casts) who were just recently arrived at Greater Metropolis. They should have, at the very least, a goal of some sort: to fight for something or to flight from something. Further, all must have inner motivations to defeat the Stigmata monster and to maintain the Masquerade.
Collaborative Campaign. As a multi-GM campaign, the possibilities of chaos or losing coherency are high. Therefore, some guidelines and initial agreements are needed. One important aspect is to keep an open mind for collaboration; the other important aspect is to understand that people's perspectives vary wildly. *Main Director* is the final arbiter for everything.
{Inspiration - Click to reveal}
Inspiration
There are numerous popular culture references that can be used for sources of inspirations, either from real history, movies, and novels. The list below is just several examples of them:
* Wonder Woman (Movie)
* Newt Scamander (the Fantastic Beast series)
* The Great Gatsby
* The Untouchables
* Sakura Wars
* Indiana Jones and Temple of Doom
* Kung Fu Hustle
* Post Modern Jukebox (youtube channel)
* Hercule Poirot (early)
* White Wolf Publishings (for the theme of mystery)
* Call of Cthulhu
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Post by MainDirector on Apr 1, 2019 10:31:45 GMT 7
Player's Guide
This section will cover about what Player should prepare for joining Mystics & Masquerade: Stigmata campaign. Please keep in mind that due to the tone and theme, this campaign might see some levels of stereotyping, racism, and cultural misappropriations. {General - Click to reveal}
Collaborative Campaign. Since this is a collaborative multi-GM campaign, please respect other players' properties. If you want to influence or use something from other players, please do so with their consent. And if you are disturbed with something done by other player, please either inform the player directly or endure it. Please keep in mind that there are various perspectives; other players might see things differently, and might have a different ways of thinking. All of your Casts must have inner motivations to work together with other Casts.
Clans. Each player joins as a certain Clan or group, consisting of a single Main Cast and several Supporting Casts. They must came from one minority group. A Clan must consists of same minority group (e.g. Chinese, Japanese, Black, Arabic, etc.) and is a small closed society, such as a family or club or company. They arrived to Greater Metropolis area just recently before the campaign starts. They must never possess good standing nor influences. They must have inner motivations to hunt Stigmata monsters down, and must have a certain Raison d'Etre. Approval from Main Director is needed.
Main Cast. Each player may only have one Main Cast: a Mystic with stigmata. They are built using normal Open Legend character creation rules, including to raise any number of Extraordinary Attributes.
Supporting Casts. Each player may have a number of Supporting Casts, or important 'NPC' to serve as the characters related to Main Cast, to background story, or even for your Story Arc should you decide to run sessions as Storyteller / GM. You can make them as Mystic, but Mystics can only have *one* Extraordinary Attribute.
Wealth Level. The Wealth Level (WL) of a Clan is shared by all its members. It represents the capability of Clan and its members to manage their assets, and starts from WL 2.
{Main Casts - Click to reveal} Main CastsAs a Mystic with stigmata, you can access any number of Extraordinary Attributes, but you do not have the delirium effect. Thus, you are still bound with the Masquerade. Setting. Please always keep in mind the setting of the campaign. Some levels of inaccuracies can be tolerated (e.g. 1930s without great depression), but outright abuse of settings will be adjusted accordingly by the Main Director. Character Creation. Begin with Concept. Then follow the official guide from Open Legend RPG homepage. As long as it fits the concept, and as long as you can justify the choice to fit the concept (e.g. on choosing attribute to swap from Attribute Substitution feat), then it should be alright. Some Feats are adjusted to fit the campaign and setting. Characters know English, their native language, and additional languages up to their Learning attribute. Character Age. Main Cast must be 15~30 years old. Multi-GM Campaign. Please keep in mind that this is a multi-GM setting, and different GM can have different rulings; including what can be done or cannot be done, granting advantages or disadvantages, all might vary wildly. However, imposing permanent changes such as adding new perks or flaws cannot be done without your consent. {Stigmata - Click to reveal}
Stigmata
Stigmata of the Stigmata monsters and Main Casts have mostly similar features. The main difference is that Stigmata Monsters can impose *delirium* to the witnesses, while Main Casts never impose delirium effect.
Aware. When beings with stigmata are nearby (around 60feet), they become supernaturally aware of one another. They can visualize the stigmata form of others, and can see through barriers towards the location of the stigmata; hiding your stigmata from other beings with stigmata is futile; disguise, invisibility, and stealth are also useless.
Visual. Stigmata takes the form of a unique and distinguishable unicolor lineart, with the size of around 5 inches in diameter. It is located on several possible locations: forehead, palm or back of hand or feet, side of arm or leg (or limbs), any position of back torso, or middle part of torso (including front and side).
Additional Senses. In addition to visually perceivable, stigmata can also be sensed by a combination of one sensory (i.e. Olfactory, Auditory, Gustatory, or Tactile) and one simple item or matter, such as "sound of wings flapping", "scent of rose", "touch of thorn", "taste of sugar", or similarly simple sensory effects.
{Campaign & Terminologies - Click to reveal}
Campaign & Terminologies
To join the Campaign you need to have your *Clan* and Main Cast (and possibly a couple of Supporting Casts) approved by the Main Director. If you go solo, you still need to make a Clan, consisting of just the Main Cast.
As a Multi-GM campaign, Mystics & Masquerade: Stigmata campaign will have four chapters. On each chapter there will be a cap or ceiling (i.e. maximum score) of Level and Wealth Level. The cap for Level is Chapter + 2, and the cap for Wealth Level is Chapter + 1.
Main Casts (or Clans) can grow, in technical metagame aspect, by gaining Experience Points (XP), Legend Points (LP), Fortune Points (FP), and Prestige Points (PP).
Experience Points. Only Main Cast can accumulate Experience Points, as Supporting Casts should stay at the background as NPC. After participating a session, the Storyteller/GM can award you with 1 XP. You gain level immediately after you reach the necessary XP. You cannot gain any XP if you reached the Level Cap.
Legend Points. Only Main Cast can earn LP. After participating a session, the Storyteller/GM can award you with 1 LP for good roleplaying of your Flaw.
Fortune Points. In this campaign, Wealth Level will only increase if your Clan accumulated 20 FP by the time a new Chapter starts. If it is raised, then you reset the FP to zero. After a session, a Storyteller can award each of the Main Casts participating with up to 1 FP, and each Player can award the Storyteller with up to 1 FP (this can make running session earns more FP). Reminder: a Clan cannot possess any item above their WL, and it is Player's responsibility to put an explanation of such occurrence. Also, Storyteller might deduce FP during a session (e.g. due to massive expenditures beyond their WL).
Prestige Points. In this campaign, this is the array that represents overall fame/infamy of your Clan. After participating a session, other Players can award you with a +1 or -1 on one aspect: Wits, Valor, or Honor. Similarly, you can award a +1 or -1 to any player participating, if they do something memorable or made an outstanding move: Wits (mind), Valor (body), or Honor (soul).
Extraordinary Items. Prior peer reviews and approvals are needed. Details will be given at Forum.
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Post by MainDirector on Apr 1, 2019 10:53:26 GMT 7
Storyteller's GuideThis section is dedicated for Storyteller or Game Master (GM) who want to collaborate in the campaign by running sessions and providing Story Arc for other players to enjoy. As a multi-GM campaign, certain guidelines and initial agreements become important to prevent chaos and incoherency, especially paradoxes and one-upping of events. Please keep the spirit of Collaboration. {Story Arc - Click to reveal}
Story Arc
Each Story teller is encouraged to have a kind of Story Arc, that will link the Main Casts into a story. Please keep in mind that most players expect more spotlights to them, so it is highly recommended to incorporating the Main Casts into your Story Arc, and not overly focused to your NPCs by sacrificing the Main Casts' limelight.
You can use your Clan as the home base for the Story Arc. Also some stories can focus on some important Supporting Casts especially in their efforts related to their Raison d'Etre.
Should you decide to not have a Story Arc, feel free to run some sessions focusing on the general theme of the campaign: Stigmata monsters, injustice against minorities, or similar events. Some players might also enjoy a visit to your Clan, especially if the bond between Main Casts are strong enough.
Below are several examples of Story Arcs:
* The local conservativist are fighting with industrialists led by a corrupted Mystics.
* Several districts are under the iron hand grip of local Gangsters, which are actually lurking vampires.
* There have been rumors of serial murderer, which actually Cultist group trying to awaken ancient evil.
* Several Mystics groups are playing a deadly power struggle to control several districts.
* A group of Mystics is attempting to capture and investigate Stigmata monsters.
{Stigmata Monsters - Click to reveal}
Stigmata Monsters
As one of the common enemy from the very beginning of the campaign, there is a high possibility of paradoxes or misinterpretation due to the lack of consistency regarding Stigmata monsters. Therefore, several guidelines covering the common agreement is needed. The intents are to make sure that Stigmata monsters are common enemy without doubt, and that nothing really knows about them.
Civilization Destroyer. These Stigmata monsters are always aiming to destroy civilization of mankind, or even the world itself. Some are blatant and direct, while others might lurk behind shadows or under disguises.
Unknown and Unexplainable. No one really knows nor can explains of the Stigmata monsters. Basically they vary wildly, with each GM can have their own kind of monster. However, no one can really explain on what they really are and especially where do they come from.
Never Human. Yes. No human nor human look-alike, No human who transformed into it. Those are big no. A shapeshifter, on the other hand, is still alright.
Intelligence. By default, no, except they are the super special snowflake unique one-of-a-kind major villain. Even then, these sentient beings never understand, never know, and never explain about their origin. Further, they must still follow the other features explained previously.
{Stage - Click to reveal}
Stage
As a storyteller you may have a number of small districts or blocks, spread across the Greater Metropolis, and certain spiritual world as a parallel magical world. You may determine the mundane NPCs and commoners to populate your area. You can also collaborate with other Storytellers with mutual consent for interlinking Arcs or Area.
{Rulings - Click to reveal} RulingsDue to multi-GM environment, it is quite often that different game has different rulings. Please respect yourself, the setting, and other players. Please provide some clarifications beforehand should you want to alter or interpret rulings differently, so players are aware of the situation. Please describe that the waxing and waning of Extraordinary ability might render some things not as expected by the player. Supporting Casts. To provide some recurring NPCs to your Story Arc, you can introduce several Supporting Casts. Mystics can access only one Extraordinary Attribute. Maximum character level for Supporting Casts is equal to the level cap. Please be careful from taking too much spotlight from the Player Characters. Monsters. Since the utter lack of bestiary, you need to prepare your own monsters. The openlegendrpg and heromuster NPC generator have some nice guides or random NPC generator, however please be careful in throwing too difficult or 'OP' build; please focus on ' concept, concept, concept', even for mundane monsters. DIP. One method that can be used is to have players to describe their action, state their intention, and propose the Attribute to use. This will help you in understanding what they want to achieve and how, while also give you option on what to roll. However, it is really up to you as GM to decide what Attribute is used, and on the advantage/disadvantages. Consent. Please avoid imposing any permanent condition to any character without prior notice. Please remind players beforehand, especially since sometimes players do not realize their blunders or interpret situations differently. {Invoking the Feel - Click to reveal}
Invoking the Feel
Please read and re-read the first page of the guide to have deep understandings about the setting in general.
Roaring Twenties. It is a period of cultural, economic, and technology boom, but segregation by race exists.
Mystics. The beings with Extraordinary abilities that defy the common laws of physics. Using Extraordinary Attribute is always perceivable; see Masquerade below.
Masquerade. The act of hiding those abilities, zealously used by any Mystics. No Mystics would intentionally breach Masquerade. However, please always give the characters some chance of hiding it or disguising or other act of subtlety; Masquerade is not GM tool for terrorizing characters, but to prevent abusing Extraordinary abilities outside combat or crisis.
Stigmata. The Stigmata monsters can be used to have full magical galore due to delirium effect.
{Rewards & Reporting - Click to reveal}
Rewards & Reporting
Please check the page for Player's Guide regarding possible rewards: XP (default 1 XP), LP (for good roleplaying of flaw without disrupting session), FP (if the Clan represented can gain some influence), PP (for outstanding performance of wits, valor, or honor).
After running a session, please make sure to make a report. The format and detailed instructions will be given at the Discord server and the Forum.
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Post by MainDirector on Apr 1, 2019 11:17:52 GMT 7
Campaign OutlineIn a Multi-GM campaign, several guidelines and outlines are needed in order to have a better synchronization and standardization. The aim is to prevent paradoxes, unnecessary retcons, providing buffers and suspensions of disbelief. {Sessions & Timeline - Click to reveal} Sessions & TimelineMystics & Masquerade: Stigmata campaign uses a shared timeline to prevent paradox. In addition to mutually exclusive stage for each Storyteller (the area the events took place), there will be a global timeline that is moved forward anytime an Uptime session is done. Calendar. For simplicity, the campaign calendar uses Week. There are 52 weeks per year, and 13 weeks per season. Week 1~13 is Spring, Week 14~26 is Summer, Week 27~39 is Autumn, and Week 40~52 is Winter. Moon Phase. Since calculating the phase of the moon requires further information, it tends to fall into paradox, therefore it is highly discouraged. Should you insist, please consider the Week 1 of campaign is a full moon, and every 4.5 weeks it returns to full moon again. Uptime. This is the normal real-time session with a Storyteller and several Main Casts (and/or Supporting Casts, at the consent of related Storytellers). As a buffer for paradox, please avoid detailing the date of the week, but focuses on the Week itself. - An Uptime session should last only 1 week, unless already received a written prior approval sealed by Main Director.
- An Uptime session should be concluded at one go, and should never 'to be continued', unless already planned.
- An Uptime session must lock the Characters and Clans involved; you cannot play at different sessions at once, nor playing and running at the same time.
- An Uptime session offers possible rewards of XP, LP, FP, and PP to the Main Casts, and possible rewards of FP (many) and PP (many) to the Clan of the Storyteller (if they appear).
- An Uptime session starts at set Week, and at the end of the session it sets a new Week for the next session; a parallel session can happen at the same Week.
Downtime. If you skipped several sessions, you can have a downtime activities on the missed timeline. As a general rule of thumb, all characters are considered busy with their real life, therefore when they are not around during a session, they are living their normal life. However, there are several times when a Storyteller might provide an option for Downtime activity. - Downtime of open roleplay, they must be done with the consent of related players.
- Downtime of improving your Clan's standings and influences, or to have personal quests for the Main Cast. The endeavour costs 4 weeks of downtime and earns either 1 FP or 1 XP. This reward is a hard limit.
- Be very careful of paradox due to inserting events on Downtime. It is safer to have to update your Downtime anytime before joining any Uptime.
{Possible Rewards - Click to reveal}
Possible Rewards
There are several possible rewards from playing or running sessions in this campaign (or to some extent, Downtime).
XP. Main Cast can gain 1 XP by playing in Uptime session. Alternatively, they can gain 1 XP by performing Downtime of 4 weeks.
LP. Main Cast can gain 1 LP during Uptime session by roleplaying their flaw well (and propel the story, not to disrupt or even halting the session).
FP. Clans can gain 1 FP on any Uptime session. Storyteller can grant 1 FP to any of the Clans represented by a character during the session, and each player can grant 1 FP to the Storyteller's Clan if they deem the narrative supports it. Please keep in mind that overspending might reduce your FP if the Storyteller deems so.
PP. Prestige Points is an array of three categories: Wits (Mind: intellectual, cunning), Valor (Body: bravery, boldness), and Honor (Soul: fairness, kindness). At the end of Uptime, any player can grant a +1 or -1 of PP (Wits/Valor/Honor) to any Clans represented by a character during the session. So a player (including Storyteller) can in example grant +1 Valor to playerA, -1 Wits to playerB, none to playerC, and +1 Honor to playerD. At Storyteller (or other characters) discretion, this can represent how the Clan is seen in general, especially in Mystics communities.
{Chapters & Maintenances - Click to reveal}
Chapters & Maintenances
The campaign is scheduled to run for 4 Chapters, with each Chapter takes 3 real-world weeks. At the first day on each Chapter a Maintenance period will be done, which main agenda is to update WL of available clans: reaching 20 FP will have their WL increased by +1, and then the FP will be reset to 0.
Wealth Level. WL in this campaign works differently: you can have and manage items of your WL or lower, and you can never obtain nor keep items of higher WL. So even if someone lend you an item beyond your current WL, by the end of the session you lost the item. Further, maximum items a character can have is reduced to 5; consumable is counted as 1. Ammunitions, clothes, and similar mundane items are considered trivial; it is assumed you can have them unless the current Storyteller says otherwise. In example, although as an engineer it is possible for you to have toolkit ready, but Storyteller might consider that you do not have a doctor kit ready at your car.
{Feats - Click to reveal}
Feats
There are several Feats that might need adjustments to fit into the campaign. The list below is not comprehensive, and you might need to consult Main Director for an updated version.
Wealthy. Only Main Cast can possess this Feat, and it affects the Clan's Wealth Level.
Crafting Feats. Please keep in mind that by default, the available items are extremely limited; there is a rigid system of checking for Extraordinary items.
{Extraordinary Items - Click to reveal}
Extraordinary Items
By default is NO. Prior consultation, proposal submission, and peer reviewing on the forum are necessary. Details will be given at the Forum. ALL Extraordinary items are considered 'magical' and extraordinary and their use can ruin Masquerade.
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Post by MainDirector on Apr 1, 2019 12:00:22 GMT 7
Atmosphere
As the main stage of this multi-GM campaign, several baselines or common grounds are needed to establish a level of coherency and consistency. This part is especially for players who prefer to have a deeper roleplaying aspect, and for Storyteller before they start running any session. {Short History - Click to reveal}
Short History
Basically, the history of the world is more or less similar to real-world parallel. The World War (war to end all war) ended quite recently, leaving US as one of the most powerful nation. Of course history varies according to the place and doctrine your characters were taught, but for simplicity you can refer some wikipedia articles. However, it is highly encouraged for not delving too much into history as facts, since Main Director has all the right to suddenly changes the historical fact at whim, even if that means sacrifices any number of characters' credibility.
{Around the World - Click here to reveal}
Around the World
As the Clans were just recently moving to the Greater Metropolis, they came from elsewhere. One of the easiest way is to have them coming from another state of the US, especially from a fictional town or city. However, as some might prefer to came from overseas, to prevent absurd paradoxes we need some level of standardization. It is encouraged to consult with other players who have characters sharing the same origin. Also it is highly discouraged to use real-world public figure as references; if it can be kept blur, please keep it blur. Please be careful too with US immigration control.
Europe. Please check post world war Europe (around 1918~1925) for references.
Indian Subcontinent. Please check about the era of Gandhi-Nehru-Jinnah for references.
Greater Asia. Please check on Taisho Roman and Chinese Warlord era (fall of Qing) for references.
Arab World. Please check on Arab Civil War era for references.
Turkey. Please check Fall of Ottoman Empire and establishment of Turkey Republic for references.
Russia. Please check Fall of Tsar and establishment of USSR for references.
South East Asia and Oceania. Please do not use them.
{Cultural Flourish - Click to reveal}
Cultural Flourish
This world sees a rapid growth of simple technologies, such as electricity, efficient railways, cars, and some degree of telephone. For entertainment, the theaters are very popular, silent movies and cinemas have many fans, and to some extent jazz and radio spread wide.
In the social and fashion world, women started to show that they are independent, cigarettes are social status and symbol of strength (no research show the bad aspects of smoking yet), while the world of the setting already sees the age of prohibition kicked in. Overcoat are common (to hide pistols or the infamous tommy gun) and hats are popular.
Newspapers and tabloids are relatively cheap and can be found everywhere, and everyone can have decent meal and drinks if they work at some degree.
However, segregation by color is still very real. There are places where people of color (or non US white) cannot enter, and punishable by death (at least by the mob). Certain fraternity klans exist to hunt certain colored people as well, and many oppression to the native Americans.
{Greater Metropolis - Click to reveal}
Greater Metropolis
Each Storyteller has some portion of the districts in the Greater Metropolis. Due to the shared world multi-GM campaign, everyone is expected to be cooperative in preventing unnecessary paradoxes. There are several ways to prevent paradoxes, namely to keep things blur and not detailed, to avoid any kind of superlative (and to some extent hyperlative), and to not fixing space and time. Further, Storyteller is not allowed to take the Stage outside their own area.
The intention of giving spread area instead of concentrated one is to provide another layer of suspension of disbelief. The Greater Metropolis is a very wide area, and each Storyteller has several districts, like several scattered mutually exclusive clusters. The majority of other part of the city are those unnamed and unimportant area, serving only for buffer just in case something bleeds out. This buffer is fully under Main Director jurisdiction.
Each Storyteller has full rights to have various NPCs or citizens or gangsters or anything on their own area, as long as it fits the setting. Further, they can have some intersection with their own pocket dimension known as Spirit World, if they want to.
{Spirit World - Click to reveal}
Spirit World
As a parallel world located at the Greater Metropolis, this is the magical world or fantastic realms. Some call it umbra or penumbra. Some others call it wizarding world. Others, simply Spirit World. A more traditional clans might call them feywild or shadowfell. Regardless how they are called, they can be considered as pocket dimension of some sort.
Each Storyteller can have one stage of this pocket dimension, which can be mutually exclusive from others. It is a world fully at the whim of each Storyteller, as laws of physics might not work here, and even the power of Main Director is limited inside the pocket dimension; the only limiter is time and space. Altering time or space of real world (or any character), as well as imposing permanent changes, cannot be done. Once the characters return to real world, things worked normally without time skip nor permanent changes (unless if the player gave consent).
Portal. As the Stage on Greater Metropolis is spread, each Storyteller can have several portals to enter the pocket dimension. This could make an effect of teleportation of some sort, as long as the connection exists through the spirit world. To access a portal, at the very least the entity must be a Mystic. Each Storyteller may also add other conditions or requirements, including the features of the portal; some portals can be a lake, others could be a tree, while others could be a toilet sink.
Parallel. The spirit world should resembles the world to some degree. A big oak tree at the world might exist in the spirit world, albeit twisted, darker, or brighter. The animals of the world might changed into weird denizens of the spirit world. However time flows equally at both worlds.
Powerful. As only Mystics are capable of entering this Spirit World, they can simply go wild with using their Extraordinary Attributes, including altering the reality as they see fit (if they have the power), without the fear of breaking Masquerade.
Prohibited. Due to the weird behavior of Spirit World, there are times where the Portals just do not work, or simply some Mystics cannot enter. This is more of metagame aspect of the system, so each Storyteller can maintain the exclusiveness of this tiny world of theirs.
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Post by MainDirector on Apr 1, 2019 12:09:21 GMT 7
Collaborative StageIn a single storyteller campaign, an authoritative central figure can fully manage everything of the campaign. In a Collaborative setting, it is expected that the role of management is distributed to all players, thus everyone can participate in the collaborative works to maintain and manage an enjoyable campaign. However, it is not a perfect world. Problems could still appear, therefore an entity to establish prior agreements and to remind or enforce the agreements is still needed. In this campaign, the entity is the Main Director. If possible, the Main Director solely focus on preparing guidelines and initial agreements, as well as the campaign setting and system. Afterwards, each player can contribute to run the campaign, and to remind each other while keeping an open mind in case of misunderstandings. Nevertheless, there are several points that usually need attention in a Collaborative, Multi-GM campaign. {Consent - Click to reveal}
Consent
The sweet power of being a GM always tempt people to abuse it. In a multi-GM campaign, there are several players who are taking turns in running as a GM and participating as player. This could lead to a chain of 'revenge' or 'returning favor', which if escalated too fast would not be good for the campaign.
Please keep in mind that granting a permanent change without consent might leads to disagreements between players. Please keep in mind that people might have different perspectives too.
Please respect yourself, respect others, respect the campaign, and respect the setting, for the enjoyment of everyone.
{Paradoxes - Click to reveal}
Paradoxes
Another problem that has been appearing in many (if not most, or maybe even all) multi-GM campaign is Paradox. From a simple timeline paradox that happened due to a GM inserted a session between other sessions (continuity paradox), to a claim of 'the most' or 'the only' as a fact (factual paradox), or inconsistency caused by different player who shared same lore and each stated historical facts that are different (lore paradox).
The easiest to occur in campaign are Paradoxes due to time or space. Therefore this campaign sets time to always propel forward. Regarding the space, each Player has their own area and can relatively micromanage them, and no other Player may use or visit the area without noticing the 'owner'.
To deal with factual paradox, a simple 'no one really knows facts' can be used. Everything should come in the form of gossips, rumors, and claims. When a person claims to be the strongest, it is more believable than when a Player stated that someone is the strongest. Please keep everything in the perspective of characters inside the setting, whenever possible. This would lead to some buffers to suppress lore paradox and factual paradox.
One other helpful approach is to 'keep everything simple, blur, not detailed.' when declaring or describing. Avoiding superlative or hyperlative is also a good way. Writing everything in the forms of a perspective of someone inside the game is better.
{Different Rulings - Click to reveal}
Different Rulings
One of the difficulty in Open Legend system is that it is highly GM dependent. In an ideal Multi-GM environment, everyone can discuss and make consensus on everything at everytime. However, this is not a perfect world, thus the campaign instead prepared another buffer for suspension of disbelief.
Using Extraordinary Attributes are, in this campaign, Magic. Sorcery. Unique. Should not be exposed. And most importantly, fickle.
There could be some interference from the Spirit World to block your ability. There might be some air of the land that hinders your magic. Or simply, there are times that you are 'out of the zone' and could not perform as expected.
In other words, please keep in mind that different GM might rule things differently. And it is not fully GM's responsibility to acknowledge it; we as players should collaborate and work together to find some explanation (if it is needed, otherwise just let it slide and accepts that using those Extraordinary Attributes are not reliable) and to keep the story forward.
{Various Storytellers - Click to reveal}
Various Storytellers
Since this campaign is a multi-GM campaign, there could be numerous GMs, each may has their own Story Arc. It is thus quite impossible to join every sessions.
One recommendation for player is to select your own games, and 'let go' of the others. You can still catch up with gossips and rumors from the news or even open roleplays with other Casts, or once in a while joining the Story Arc.
For Storytellers, this situation brought a brand new problem: inconsistent Casts. It is possible (highly) that we cannot get the Casts consistently; some players might suddenly busy or have other schedules. Adaptability on this matter is highly recommended, otherwise our Story Arc can got 'locked', thus beating the purpose of a multi-GM environment.
{Conflicts - Click to reveal}
Conflicts
Due to the high number of possible players and storytellers, there is also a high chance of conflicts, especially due to difference in perspective, misunderstandings, disagreements, or simply clashes of ego.
To add another layer of buffer, this campaign also requires each player to have Main Casts to be cooperative one another, or at the very least for finding ways to be respectful to one another.
However please also keep in mind that sometimes what we think as 'cooperative' can actually be considered as 'forcing ways' by others. Please keep in mind that different perspectives exist. Sometimes, unintentionally, we offend people; so please keep an open mind that other perspectives exist.
{Character Death - Click to reveal}
Character Death
In a terrible and sad event of Character Death, please consult Main Director on what to do next. Open Legend system itself should be 'friendly' enough that accidental death due to a single bad roll could never happen, but things can go south, or simply some bad (or great) decisions can lead to character death.
Also, as each Player may rebuild their Casts' stats once per chapter; however the Concept must remain the same.
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