Using SFX Skills: Diabolism

[Roudi]

Before I begin, I'd like to say that I think SFX Skills: Diabolism is a great resource for any game featuring occult power. HeapThaumaturgist is a solid writer and a good guy; I'd recommend picking this up if you can (and you can get it here).

That said; for those of you who have SFX Skills: Diabolism, how are you using it in your games?

I'd like to share my own plans for it, if I may. I'm currently running a Blood & Relics campaign; occult mystery-suspense at its finest. Now, B&R already has a feat-based Ritual system, which I am also using for both sides of the conflict (the Higher/Heavenly Powers, and the Dark/Demonic Powers). Incorporating SFX Skills: Diabolism into such a game appears, at first, to provoke a problem. Agents of the Dark Powers (Demons, or Caeder as they are called in the setting) are fairly free-willed and don't leave room to be bound by mortals (rather, they tend to bind mortals to them, through possessions and spiritual afflictions). So a magic system hinging on asking demonic forces for power just doesn't seem to fit. However...

My game goes a bit farther than B&R details. I'm taking a sort of American Gods approach to things. Whereas the spiritual conflict in B&R is distinctly Judeo-Christian, I have added a level beyond that conflict with nearly every god or divine being worshipped in human history. There's a representation of Norse, Egyptian, Mithras, Greco-Roman, even some Cthulhu-esque elements. The PCs are vaguely aware of the conflict between the Higher Powers and Dark Powers, but they have almost no idea of the scope of divine conflict beyond that (heck, even the Higher and Dark Powers don't know about the collected "old gods").

So this is where SFX: Diabolism fits in. Once the PCs encounter and get a grasp of the kind of ritual power the Dark Powers can wield, a Diabolist will step up and blow away all their expectations. The PCs will then have to reconcile everything they've learned about the Dark Powers with this new form of power; and, possibly, they will begin to realize there is more going on in the world than they ever imagined. Again.

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

For myself, Diabolism saw playtest in a short mini-campaign that involved playtesting a few of the other SFX Skills products (yet to be released) along side.

Perhaps a little less in-depth, we used Diabolism primarily for antagonists in a series of investigative-occult games ... and one Diabolist dabbler contact that the PCs had access to. It became interesting when the other skills came into contact ... one player had a psychic, and another was playing a modern shamanist.

Ordinarily I might not mix quite as many traditions in a single SESSION ... perhaps utilizing Diabolism for a series of long-running antagonists, and Psychic for a PC, etc. Perhaps Vodoun would make a one-time appearance as an "episode" or a Shaman becomes a long-running NPC.

One of the things I wanted SFX Skills to do was scale up and down successfully ... Diabolism can be a prevalent part of a campaign, with many people having access to the skills whenever they want (simply remove one or both initial feats!) ... or introduce a single antagonist with magical powers in an otherwise FX-lite game. There are enough "settings" at various points that you can have multiple power and prevalence levels, even in the same campaign.

The next product on the drawing board is, actually, the arcane counterpoint to Diabolism, opening up a whole new campaign style that may pit mystics against Diabolists ... and it sounds like it might make for an interesting additional "gotcha!" to Roudi's campaign.

--fje

 

[Roudi]

... and it sounds like it might make for an interesting additional "gotcha!" to Roudi's campaign.

If the next SFX Skills is what I think it is... then damn it will be one hell of a gotcha.