I'm not an active member of your community, but this sounds like fun. FATE is also a great system, especially when you really don't want to deal with battle mats, like, say, when the main goal is to produce large amounts of entertaining text. It's actually quite tempting to ask to get in on this. (The Dresden Files really needs to move up my "to read" list.)
If I were to play, my sentiment is pretty much the same as Mardoc's: Magic is cool! (Also, I need to read up on the setting, but I should do that anyway because it'll be fun.)
Anyway, I wanted to throw out a blurb about Boston, since I grew up in the suburbs:
Even 250 years later, Boston is, to a surprising extent, in tension between the Puritan character of its founders (who were the biggest disapprovers who ever disapproved) and the ethos of self-determination which their colonization spawned. (The people to take to it first were mostly exiled to Rhode Island over religious doctrinal disputes.) From a slice-of-life example, the MBTA (which has pretty good coverage) doesn't run much past 1am, much to the chagrin of the bars that want to stay open later.
Most of the historical artifacts in the city date to the American Revolution, but the character of the city has been shaped significantly more by its position as the central harbor in New England than its role in fomenting the aforementioned rebellion. Most of the role in the American Revolution was as a symbol. The actual combat situation could be described as a pair of sieges, with the big exceptions being the running battle in Lexington and Concord, and the Battle of Bunker Hill.
These days, Boston exists as one of the largest sprawls of educational institutions in the US, which feeds into its having a massive number of genetics companies and a sizable presence for other technology and engineering disciplines.
Also, most of the city (which I tend to lump Cambridge into as "part of Boston") is built on landfill at this point. The Charles River is not enormously much a river: it's almost as much the space that was left for water to flow through after they filled in everything around it.
I don't have a great handle on the setting, but I feel like there's plenty of room for the magical types and the technological types to be in tension, given that the latter don't want the former anywhere near their labs and data centers.
Another angle could possibly be to work it from the R&D and/or academic end.
Hi, Commodore!
I still feel bad I didn't devote the time even my own teammates did to the PBEM I was in here. I'm sticking to lurking games forever after that.
(Posting on forums, though? Can do!)
Nothing says the R&D people have to be summoning or building monsters. They could just be having problems with their machines because of the people leasing the next suite over. (And TBH, I know more about Google Boston or IRobot than I do about Genentech.)
Is magic "out" enough that you could plausibly have departments of applied or theoretical magic? I bet that would give CS folks fits!
(July 18th, 2014, 19:26)Ranamar Wrote: I still feel bad I didn't devote the time even my own teammates did to the PBEM I was in here. I'm sticking to lurking games forever after that.
Don't feel bad, I bailed after the first half.
Boston is cool. I've done the trail thingy and a duckboat and just been around the city for a week.
What about Philadelphia? I've lived right nearby most of my life (E-A-G-L-E-S EAGLES) and its got great history, some interesting places, good public transport and very unique flavor.
“The wind went mute and the trees in the forest stood still. It was time for the last tale.”
I'll think I'll try and have the starting level right around the start of sorcery. So you can use the main magics and all, but have room to advance to full white council.
(July 18th, 2014, 19:26)Ranamar Wrote: Is magic "out" enough that you could plausibly have departments of applied or theoretical magic? I bet that would give CS folks fits!
Not...quite. Basic concept is that magic is real, so are vampires and werewolves and ghosts and Faeries and so on and so forth...but most of the time when they're seen, people explain it away. That wasn't a troll, that was a bum hopped up on PCP...vampires aren't real, but serial killers are...not a wizard, a nut who's good at sleight of hand and has access to explosives...that sort of thing. And on top, most of the supernatural beasties prefer to be unknown, so they go to a little effort to cover things up if it looks like people are starting to believe. And occasionally to punish people who let things slip.
There's a quote from Dead Beat that describes it pretty well. It's in a spot where Harry Dresden is explaining about magic to someone.
Minor spoilers in the quote.
"It wasn't a dog," I said, and shivered a little myself at the memory. "It was a loup-garou. Kind of a superwerewolf. I killed him with a spell and a silver amulet, right on the screen."
"Yeah. Everyone was talking about it for a couple of days, but I heard that they found out it was a fake or something."
"No. Someone disappeared the tape."
"Oh."
I stopped at a light and stared at Butters for a second. "When you saw that tape, did you believe it?"
"No."
"Why not?"
He took a breath. "Well, because the picture quality wasn't very good. I mean, it was really dark-"
"Where most scary supernatural stuff tends to happen," I said.
"And the picture was all jumpy-"
"The woman with the camera was terrified. Also pretty common."
Butters made a frustrated sound. "And there was an awful lot of static on the tape, which made it look like someone had messed with it."
"Sort of like someone messed with almost all of my X-rays?" I shook my head, smiling. "And there's one more reason you didn't believe it, man. It's okay, you can say it."
He sighed. "There's no such things as monsters."
"Bingo," I said, and got the car moving again. "Look, Butters. You are your own ideal example. You've seen things you can't explain away. You've suffered for trying to tell people that you have seen them. For God's sake, twenty minutes ago you got attacked by the walking dead. And you're still arguing with me about whether or not magic is real."
Seconds ticked by.
"Because I don't want to believe it," he said in a quiet, numb voice.
I exhaled slowly. "Yeah."
On the other hand, people who are clued in do communicate and do research and study and such. It's just more of a master/apprentice relationship, with perhaps some Royal Society mixed in. No research institutes, but maybe you'll do some experimenting and maybe you'll correspond with some friends about what you find.
And there's no reason a wizard can't have his laboratory next door to a tech startup, at least until the startup runs out of cash because they can't get anything to work right .
Well, I guess we'd probably keep our DM happy. Or at least inspired. So Boston?
Going to throw out an idea for a theme: New vs. Old
Since colonial times, Boston's been a city in tension. The Old has transitioned to the new several times; Indian to Colonist, British to American, Farmers to Traders to Industry. The latest iteration is the New Money represented by the knowledge economy, vs the various Old Money interests including manufacturing, trade, and simple landownership. People play rough when they've got money and want power.
The supernatural world moves slower, but here, too, we're looking at a change. The Vampire Courts have been firmly rooted in Boston, eating away at the city. Boston's grown, and the Courts have become decadent with their secure wealth. A host of other supernatural factions have sensed the vampires' weakness, and are looking to take the city.
As ever, the little people are caught in the middle. Whether a Red Court nightclub (and the surrounding apartments) is burned down to deprive them of a feeding ground, or the vampires wipe out a college to stymie a Fae incursion, mortals die. Our group is trying to salvage what we can, without getting ground between the rock and the hard place.
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Any thoughts on that? I'm just throwing it out as a starting point, but I like the idea of a supernatural war and I want to kill some vamps. But at the Sorcerer level (Up to Your Waist, Brick?), we're not going to be running the city, by any means . At the most we're an optimistic challenging faction.
(July 19th, 2014, 15:02)Mardoc Wrote: Well, I guess we'd probably keep our DM happy. Or at least inspired. So Boston?
Going to throw out an idea for a theme: New vs. Old
Fun stuff! (Who here has read American Gods?)
I hadn't been posting more since I didn't want to monopolize the thread and didn't expect my blurb to go over so well.
I have since acquired Storm Front (on Kindle; seems to be a good time so far) and have a DFRPG book in the mail.
After devouring some source material, I'll come back with some more ideas.
Awesome Mardoc, I like it! I'm fine with working with Boston as well. Here's an idea I had for a theme:
Boston Proud
If you go to most major cities, you will get a feeling that the focus of the people and the industry is towards how they interact with the rest of the world. Boston is more of the opposite, it's a city that's very focused inwardly, and proud of it. Most of that pride is focused in good ways, from remembering and reveling in their history, or to the unifying cry to stay Strong after the marathon bombings. Though some of it could be considered somewhat mad to an outsider, such as people talking about the recently caught killer Whitey Bulger and associates and how nice they were when they helped out their grandmother with the yard work one day long ago. Of course you don't understand, it's a Boston Thing.
I can write a better blurb up tomorrow, but I think that's a good start for another general feel/theme for the area.
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. At the most we're an optimistic challenging faction.