Lurker wrote:Ok, I’ve flipped through & read some – not all but some, I only have soooo much time.
I’ll start by saying I love the idea of it. So I beg, take the rest as friendly debate not an attack …
Don't worry. I appreciate the criticism. During the very early playtesting, I asked the players to tell me what they like most, and most importantly, what they DISLIKED the most. The game is very different now because of the things they told me! I am of the opinion that we learn more from our failures than from our easy successes.
Lurker wrote:I’ll also say I am probably an oddity with this. Looking for good as faith in a ‘gothic’ setting. Because of that, I’ll self-admit too. I’m faithful but I do also have weaknesses faults and despite faith (or because of with faith) I read gothic & picture the good evil in the war of that setting. I wonder … where would I fit between libertine & true innocent and my asset and affliction, but I digress
Goodness and virtue absolutely have a place in the game. I chose make playing immoral characters a perfectly viable approach, to make a broader-based game. There are definite advantages to remaining virtuous, however, starting with the ability to ward off creatures of evil with your Faith.
Lurker wrote:What of/can be good … You make reference to innocents, power of virtue. But, I’d argue they don’t get the help they need nor is their power strong. If there is demonic, then the flip coin is angelic. What of them, what help can they offer to those that seek that path & it’s strengths ? Also, what of redemption and it’s process? (I’ll admit, I may have missed it in your rules as I haven’t read them all) Yes, a libertine may be drawn to innocent to corrupt them, but also isn’t an innocent also pulling the libertine toward good?
The player who runs the True Innocent in my home game was in fact initially concerned that the Class seemed very weak. In play, however, the Class is quite strong. The pairing of the Demon Hunter and True Innocent has proved to be extremely effective in fighting the forces of darkness. More than once the True Innocent's Faith and Grace of Heaven have meant the difference between life and death for other characters. The True Innocent is a tremendous force magnifier for whatever group she's in – provided the others keep their Perversity low. The ability to Redeem others (reducing their Perversity) is also an important Special Ability of the True Innocent. The love of a True Innocent can redeem a Libertine, turning them back to the path of goodness. In fact, as written, a True Innocent can Redeem anyone who wants it, including Vampyres and evil spirits.
The consequence of choices and the price of power are two important themes of the game. During character creation, a player can choose to either roll 3d6 for an Ability, or just take the average score of 9. Every Level the player faces a choice – become more powerful by increasing an Ability score, or step back from the brink of total corruption by reducing their Perversity. Associating with a True Innocent (and absolutely avoiding corrupting behaviors) allows a character to both gain in Ability and reduce their Perversity. Characters who become Vampyres find out that gaining more powers comes at the price of increasing their need for blood, and suffering more of the traditional vampiric weaknesses.
I was originally going to include Guardian Angels in the Creatures chapter, but they got cut for space. I wanted the final illustrated version to be no more than 300 pages. There is in fact, an entire second book's worth of material already outlined!
Lurker wrote:Now, I’ll admit this isn’t the normal path gothic take, but I’d argue it is a path that has a place. What is a better gothic story … the innocent in danger, or the innocent in danger for a reason and sacrificing for the reason. Isn’t a gothic stronger with the implied (even if it is veiled and in the background) hope for good and salvation .
My home group is in fact two groups with intertwined stories – one with characters that range from troubled to downright nasty, and the other with characters bravely opposing the forces of darkness. The game is intended to both support games where players want to be immoral, and ones where they want to be the good guys fighting evil. Both approaches are valid under the rules, as well as the idea of ordinary people just trying to survive in horrific situations. In any case, keeping your Perversity score from increasing to 20 (indicating total mental and moral corruption) is a major challenge of the game. What happens when Perversity reaches 20? The game lets the Player and Presenter work together to come up with some suitably dramatic consequence, ranging from the curse of lycanthropy to debilitating insanity.
Lurker wrote:Ok, for less weighty debates … I’m more drawn to enlightenment settings than the gothic / reign of terror times. How would you handle a generation or 2 earlier with the character classes? A soldier, a caviler,
Actually, the game was originally supposed to default to a 17th century setting. There's no reason it can't be put back there basically “as is”. In fact, there would be even more Highwaymen and Pirates in the period before the Ghastly Age. Some items available in the game's default time period won't be available, but little else changes. The values of the coins are basically the same. As for the Classes, the Everyman Class basically lets you create most character for which there isn't already a Class. A soldier is an Everyman with “soldier” as their Profession.
I plan on eventually releasing sourcebooks covering different regions and historical periods in depth – Britain, France, Carpathian Mountains, Venice, Southern Gothic, 1970s Giallo, etc. First, however, I need to concentrate on getting Ghastly Affair known and published in hard copy!
Lurker wrote:Now for the dark side, what of a witch (looking at the dark side on this) how would you handle that class ?
A witch is a Magician whose spells are mostly expressed as Pacts. A Black Witch has mostly Pacts with infernal beings, while a White Witch has Pacts with Angels, and a witch whose Pacts are with the Fairy Folk is a Fairy Doctor.
