TillForPie
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NAZARETH AWAKENED
"You shall have joy or you shall have power, said God. You shall not have both."
Ralph Waldo Emerson
"You shall have joy or you shall have power, said God. You shall not have both."
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Table of Contents:
IC Thread
Chapter 01: God'll Cut You Down
Chapter 02: Wives of Solomon
We've currently got our starting lineup filled but feel free to let us know if you'd be interested in being contacted in the event that we need an alternate. Spectators are welcome to comment in this thread as well.
House Rules:
I'd prefer not to use too many house rules, but there are some things that niggle at me. What follows is a list of house rules being used in Nazareth Awakened. Relatively major changes are highlighted.
- The rate at which characters recover spent Willpower has been adjusted in Nazareth Awakened: When getting a full night's rest, if a character has spent Willpower since his or her last rest a single Willpower is recovered overnight. After that, Willpower is recovered at a rate of 1/week. This means that a character will always have at least one Willpower after getting a full night's rest, but refilling the rest of his or her reserves will take longer.
- In order to reduce the severity of a paradox with backlash damage a character must first pass a Willpower roll (a roll using the character's remaining Willpower as a pool). Backlash damage is lethal rather than bashing (the damage is resistant as normal). Mana may be used to mitigate the chances of paradox as normal.
- The exp cost to recover a dot of spent or lost Willpower or Wisdom has been reduced to 4 exp (rather than 8 exp for Willpower or [3 exp x new dots] for Wisdom). Arcane Experience can be spent on Willpower and Wisdom dot recovery.
- Order membership does not grant Rote Specialties.
- A mage can attempt an astral journey in a hallow of any strength (or in a demesne, as normal). The mana cost to cross the astral threshold has been increased to 6, minus 1 for each level of hallow used to make the attempt (a demesne counts as a 3rd level hallow if it is not of the journeying mage's path, or as a 5th level hallow if it is).
Original Recruitment Post:
Joy or Power?
Nazareth Awakened is a play-by-post RPG using White Wolf's Storytelling System. It makes use of the World of Darkness and Mage: The Awakening rulebooks and will be ran here at EN World. Like other games set in the World of Darkness, Nazareth Awakened is a game of dark mystery and personal horror. As a game of Mage: The Awakening it will also touch on concepts like hubris and the price of power. Mages in the World of Darkness possess the keys to reality itself, but their use comes at great cost. Always.
Dark Arizona
Arizona in the World of Darkness is much the same as it is in the real world. Its painted deserts are as beautiful and unforgiving in that world as they are in the one we know. Its young cities swell and throb with life there as they do here. Its land hides secrets from its inhabitants, as ours does from us.
If you drive sixteen miles southeast from Apache Junction in the World of Darkness you'll find yourself in Nazareth, Arizona. It's a place nobody outside the state's heard of, a town that lives in the shadow of nearby Phoenix. Not a lot happens here as far as its residents are concerned: A few weeks ago an alderman was arrested for possession. Around Christmas four people were shot at the old Adobe Palm motel. A year ago there was the flash of an asteroid they called the Maricopa Meteor over town, but a few days later there was a much bigger one in Russia, so nobody cares. That's all most people need to hear about Nazareth for them to decide they know enough. Most people are wrong.
With a population of about 22,000 people as of the 2010 census, Nazareth is the fifth largest community in Pinal County, Arizona. It was founded in 1881 during the state's mining boom but was refocused toward agriculture in the late 1890s. Today the town's largest employers are a private corrections firm, a national brand of potato chips, and a pharmaceutical.
If Nazareth is dull to mortals, it's absolutely dismal to the awakened. For years there's only been one established mage in Nazareth, a batty old mystagogue called Penrose, but now there are others. When the Maricopa Meteor made its brief appearance over Nazareth last year the awakened population of the town jumped from one to five in a matter of months. Something happened.
The Game
I've been GMing tabletop RPGs like Dungeons & Dragons, Traveller, and the World of Darkness for over a decade now but I've only in the last two or so years dipped my toes into the waters of play-by-post. Most of my play-by-post experience has been with out-of-state friends that I don't have many opportunities to play with in person. Two of them will be joining us in Nazareth Awakened and we have two more openings in our merry band. I've successfully run other games in the White Wolf line (such as Vampire: The Requiem and Exalted) but this is my first time running Mage, so we'll be sticking to the basic concepts of vanilla Mage: The Awakening during the early game.
If you're interested in joining the game just post to this thread or shoot me a private message. Eventually I'll need a concept for your character, a brief background, physical description, and of course the stats. Available spots are limited so I'll be picking potential players based on strength of concept, group cohesion, and the quality of any written submissions (such as the concept, background, social merit descriptions, etc). The two with reserved spots will be along in this thread and go through the same character creation process as everyone else. If things go smoothly with four players once the game has started, I might open a 5th slot further down the road (no promises!).
Nazareth Awakened is a game that rewards proactive players. The people you encounter in Nazareth (and beyond) will have agendas that they will be actively pursuing and you'll want to do likewise. Further, the struggles of a mage exist as much in the worlds of his or her mind and soul as they do in the world of the physical so players who enjoy providing thoughtful descriptions of what their characters are feeling and thinking are especially encouraged to express interest.
We'll be aiming for at least one post per day from everyone but I'm more than aware that life can get in the way of that sometimes. For the most part short delays are fine but I'd appreciate advance warning if you won't be able to post for a few days.
Character
The game begins in the months following a rash of awakenings in Nazareth and the players take on the roles of four recently awakened residents. You'll guide your character through the exploration of this new world while entering into an apprenticeship of sorts with an experienced mage called Penrose. At the start of our story Penrose and each other are all the player characters know of the awakened world.
For the most part character creation follows the rules outlined in the World of Darkness and Mage: The Awakening rulebooks.
- Characters begin with two dots in one of their ruling arcana and one dot in the other. The rest of the starting dots that are due to new characters will be gained over the course of the early game (at no exp cost). Once the characters have been awarded their final starting arcanum dot they'll be granted the High Speech merit (also at no cost).
- Characters don't begin the game with starting rotes that are due to new characters. Instead these starting rotes will be gained over the course of the early game (at no exp cost).
- Characters cannot exchange starting Wisdom for bonus exp.
- Characters cannot exchange starting merit dots for increased Gnosis.
- Characters don't begin as members of an order.
- The following merits from the Mage: The Awakening rulebook are not available at character creation, though most can be acquired later: Artifact, Enhanced Item, Hallow, High Speech, Imbued Item, Library, Sanctum, Sleepwalker Retainer, Status (as regarding awakened society; mortal status is fine), and Thrall. Characters effectively possess the Mentor merit at the start of the game (representing Penrose) but there's no need to mark this down.
- Given the relatively small number of player characters the group will probably want to avoid doubling up on paths. It's ultimately up to you and you can feel free to do just that if you really want.
- Virtue, Vice, and Wisdom will play a large role in the game. Keep that in mind when creating your character.
If things go well you'll be occupying the headspace of your character and exploring a wondrous and terrifying world for a while, so take care in his or her creation. Your selection of attributes, skills, specialties, and merits should make sense for who your character is. But a character is more than a sum of numbers on a sheet. Who was your character before awakening? What are some times your character lived up to his or her Virtue and Vice? What was your character's awakening like? How would you describe your character's nimbus (preferably using multiple senses)? What is your character's magical tool (it's probably mundane - something exotic like a sword or stave won't have been easy to get a hold of so soon after awakening)? I don't expect anyone to write a novel for me but I'm interested in learning all these things.
I'm looking forward to playing with you! If you have any questions or comments just let me know in the thread or send me a private message.
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