Hasty Re-Cap Re: Campaign-

I've roughly 1.5 Hours before the game is slated to start.

Here's a FF>> of last week's game:

The crew of the shuttle landed after scouting around the worldlet they were closest to upon exiting the energy trough of the CVE. It is composed of a green mineral of a shade between emerald and jade. There are large bits of rock and debris (some of which looks like ship structure) suspended in the exosphere of the highly-irregularly-shaped planetoid, while the surface is not only pock-marked with impact craters, but due to the shape and shallowness of the atmosphere, many impacts have been simply flown in horizontally and smashed outcroppings of the green mineral-rock. The area of the worldlet above its ...um... equator is hard-packed soil and dust of a more terrestrial sort. The greenscape is rife with large and small mineral life forms, as well as creatures that appear to have been infused with the stuff in the form of armour plating or spines, etc.

It is on the brown-top that the shuttle observed structures (mostly ship hulls or cargo containers) half-buried in the brown dirt, but also jump-pack users and VTOL aircraft scrambling to intercept them. The transmissions were in some sort of Yirinn-Khem-Vrun hybrid, and included a game of something akin to Lacrosse.
--Once J.'s characters spoke up on the comm, the situation de-escalated quickly, and the shuttle was escorted to a landing pad quickly beset by reporters, observers, and the general population.

Meet and greet was held off until after the space-suited PCs were checked out using medical equipment and cleared for face to face interactions.
--Tyb, in 2D shadow-form, bypassed all of that and then popped up in the sterile environment to 'spook' the folks.

Lt. Plissken and Officer Rockatansky quickly distanced themselves from the group once Tyb began his initial 'I am a god' routine, which was simply met with coordinated 'Light e'm up, boys' military no-nonsense troop manoeuvring behind cover, and the prep of jump scouts and the re-fuelled jump-jets.
--Cooler heads prevailed and the group was handed e-readers with a message from Overseer Daen (their Kherstic League handler) congratulating them on surviving their posterity and so forth, and suggesting that as part of the KL, their participation in the Quest was still ... appreciated. The opportunities wherever they were (she gave no indication she knew when they would be found, let alone where) seemed to be a good re-boot for their enterprise, and they received a condensed version of future history from their perspective, including what happened to Doran and Kelzsyn's Bluff in the subsequent centuries. Daen acknowledge the high likelihood that she was long-dead by the time the PCs were viewing her courtesy comment.

We held it there.

[Milieu][RPG] Rarity of Magic/k Response to SHARK-

SHARK, my reply exceeded the charactr limit of the comments section, so I have posted it here.

Let me begin by thanking you for continuing this dialogue. :)

The first part of my response will deal with the game as a game: Have you seen how steep the 'XP' curve is for purchasing magic in my system?
--I have a player whose character is perhaps 7th-Magnitude/Level, and he is still only capable of casting 2nd-'Level' spells, and not for lack of trying. Granted, he has slightly diffused his energies by pursuing established spell-use and Shadow Magicks, but when I recently asked him for a ball-park estimate of points he's spent toward the Arts, his answer was roughly 2/3rds the total 'xp' he has earned.
---I designed the system expressly for the purpose of allowing a magicker to gain many low-power spells, but to severely retard their matriculation through the 'spell levels'. Given that, what would you expect a PC or NPC be able to accomplish that would out-live his own existence save create new spells and leave them hidden away in a spell book or a few scrolls? :)

Given that the above applies to NPCs equally, most 'breakthroughs' in magic come in the form of daisy-chaining 0th - 2nd or perhaps at best, 3rd-'level' spells into more costly (although, often more useful) spells than 4th or higher ones, as the casting-costs are cumulative (easier to calculate using a Spell Point system than the so-called Vancian method).

Now, from a setting perspective: Urutsken tend to be fairly bigoted and xenophobic folk, and that is taken to the next level when dealing with individuals pursuing lost arts and mysteries. There is little in the way of inter-cultural exchanges regarding such esoteric subject matter, especially in light of the general populace' fear of aberrations, which mages most certainly are perceived as in all but the most stable of metropolitan areas.
--That, coupled with high death rates due to environmental factors of a relatively unfriendly planet, predation by Humanoids and Monstrous Beings, and human-on-human warfare, most folk of that mental calibre are put to good use reasoning-out the functions of Ancient technology, rather than allowed to selfishly pursue dangerous, unstable, and Monster-attracting practices.
---What few number who do learn more than a few parlour tricks are fortunate if they are able to sequester themselves (almost invariably alone, or at most with manservants and support personnel) in a reasonably safe redoubt in the Humanoid and Monster-infested wilderness, and escape the attention of any of the three (other humans generally see them as complicit in aiding the non-human forces in the world and beyond), and with such little power at their disposal in comparison to mages in other game-systems, often fail to stay alive in the process of their studies.

Now, on an institutional level, there is at least one international group, a true cabal, known as the Kherstic League, who, when they find practitioners, give them one chance to join, or they are slain, and the research absconded with. The League is the only game in town, as it were, and their aims are fairly simple and straightforward: control knowledge of the Imperial Magick which still operates, albeit in a damaged and unstable manner, to this day, and slowly release its applications (perhaps the term 'technomantic' is best, here) as human society becomes more stable and less likely to destroy itself, or summon Lovecraftian-level non-friendlies to dominate or devour humanity's best bastion amid the Shattered Stars.
--The secret of the Kherstic Shards is at once amazingly simple, and on the other hand, such a vast paradigm-shift (Teslan v. Edisonian, with the former being centuries ahead of his time, and the latter being short-sighted and conniving), that its revelation would likely destroy the fabric of global society, undoing thousands of years of reconstruction and re-integration virtually overnight. In essence, the League is willing to sacrifice the lives of (wilfully-)ignorant practitioners to safeguard the hope for a better, stronger future position for all of humanity, and see it once-again take its place as the masters of the sidereal realm.
---Moreover, many folk who (in other games) would become M-U's, instead become involved in technology and restorationist projects, and take great pride in their accomplishments, regardless if they give a hoot about Humanity, or simply enjoy the privileges and notoriety that comes along with serving the temporal leaders who facilitate their research. Now, add the fact that most of these folks are also working with the League, wittingly or unwittingly, and the circle is more or less complete.

If I have not addressed your questions, please let me know, and I will attempt to do so.

Best, :)

[Playtest Campaign] Governors of Doran: The First Four Months-

The Isle of Slavers ended prematurely with the detonation of the Aelbaan system-ship in the fortress courtyard --after the PCs made it to cover behind a steep dune, and before the worst of the burning debris rained down.
--They hastily retreated to the NW shore and after a brief adventure with descendants of the Aelbaan Scout Service personnel who had originally touched down there over 2k years prior, then blasted a Humanoid pirate vessel, just because, stranding the Humanoids on the island.
---Not certain if I have the energy at present to write up the actual adventure, as my time is now re-directed to UWoM in full.

We have had one group session on the island of Doran as the WICE Governor cedes control of the island to the Kherstic League in some behind-the-scenes deal. Tybalt and Ashta are the original KL employees ('Assassins' -- ha!), with Delver their happen-stance compatriot through these crazy mis-adventures they have had, and the secondary characters of Darius, Mela, and 'Cici' having been 'brought into the fold' back in Qerzyk.
--In that first episode, the individual characters began to find activities that interested them, and they settled into their new position of authority.

Thursday I ran through Delver's plans, and his player set up a solid business shipping and passage company, utilising their monopoly on Doran's resources and workforce, and now is pulling in about 5k net, monthly. He also has launched an anti-Piracy campaign using almost entirely his own funds, and one of his Faux-Pirate Force crew was able to gain acceptance into the 'Kingdom of the Black Flag', and even entered a Pirate cove inside a hollowed out columnar island of sheer granite, crowned in a dense jungle. In this cove, large enough to have five ships in drydock and others still in the port-town, the crew met someone who identified himself as the King of the Pirates, and gave them his blessing (as they had to operate under deep cover and actually pirate to gain the good rep), and an item to scry upon them. Fortunately, Delver had given the captain his amulet versus scrying and detection. Lastly, Delver personally contacted an alien life form and has entered into negotiations with its species representative.

Last night, Tybalt and Ari (another WI Vrun lesser noble) set to work making money in more island-centric means, ranging from a kennel for the island's small population of two-headed dogs, to capturing a, for lack of a better name, Hawknoid chick, to incubating faerie pods (the islands are replete with all manner of Fae), and Tybalt's joining a débutante tea-circle of low-level magic-users with plans on starting their own magickal institution.

The LGS propietor was largely unable to play, but his Archer was able to gain a few horses, and more importantly, pick up the Mounted Archery proficiency. His plan is to amass horses and enough ships to make it back home, and start his own powerful clan.

Ashta/Mela's player was at work.

[Playtest Campaign] Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight-

We started around 5PM (as opposed to 3), and were down the one player for most of the game, excepting the one hour he was present. I reminded them of what had occurred two weeks ago, and I was reminded of a fact I had forgotten.

The PCs (both parties) banded together and attempted to evade a force moving parallel to them through the misty-rained filled, dirty and soot and cinder-covered streets of Qerzyk. A brief stop in a squatter's enclave provided them with a water-refresh opportunity, and a lead-lined box in which to place the communication device Tybalt has used a few times, and is the object for which the Hierophantic Church agents desire.
Contact was re-established with the Kherstic League (their patron organisation) who warned them of the danger of wandering into the Church's scouts, but informed them that two groups of the League were triangulating onto their coordinates.

In the subsequent battle with Church-hired mercenaries armed with Coilstocks (coil-spring operated quarrel launchers actuated by a side-mounted cocking tab), and led by a Church Wizard, the PCs held a defensive position and used it to great advantage (having a black-bear equivalent in the doorway paired up with Ashta the Western Isles Hjighlands lass ('barbarian') seemed to have done the trick). Delver ('Dell-Ver'), the Western Isles lesser noble, and his female battle companion, Ceaneq (?) the quasi-Buddhist-merchant Cleric (?!) deftly dispatched two foes in two Rounds while the Wizard fired MMs at Ashta and the bear, 'Kitty'.
Ashta charged from the doorway, failed to defeat the Shield spell he was protected by, and was wide-open for the rest of the Round. The subsequent Round, she eviscerated the lout, upon which he uttered, "...impossible...' and crumpled to the bloody cobbles, at which point something small exploded out of the crown of his skull and flew off into the dark skies.
With the mercenaries no longer employed, they ceased hostilities and were not cut down by the PCs.

A moment later the Kherstic League group prematurely dispatched one merc with a quarrel in the throat, but aided the wounded once the fog of battle had cleared. The League Overseer, Daen, Jedi'd the merc captain to simply walk away.
The PCs and Kitty, and Mela Mela's riding bird all were escorted into the posh side of town. The PCs were bathed and refreshed and shown to an upstairs study in a palacial mansion, the actual building's footprint being roughly 240 acres.
There, the PCs extracted a rat-being they had captured in the sewers and began to question it in the presence of Overseer Daen. The thing, rather insane for the experience of having been turned into a humanoid, cackled in his little ratty voice, gibbering on about the Elders sitting upon their thrones, deep-deep in the earth. Then another voice began speaking through the creature as a bright light began to shine forth from the increasingly hot little creature's skull.
Daen recognised their rapidly-approaching doom, and uttered a Void spell of high enough energy-level so as to inflict aging effects upon her in consequence, a white shock shot through her luxuriant raven hair and a tremble showing in her hands at the exertion.

The rest of the session consisted of them discussing how best to spend their hefty recompense for the safe return of the comm unit, as well as selling (some of) their Mummy Spice*.
No clear plan had been formed by the time we called it a night.

It seems my concerns regarding the player are perhaps unfounded.


* "In addition to black pepper, cinnamon, ginger,
and saron, such spices as galangal, zedoary, long
pepper, and \grains of paradise" (malagueta pepper
from West Africa) were commonly used in medieval
cookery, along with sugar, which only later became
the commodity that we know today. These, along
with many others, including even ground mummy,
were used as medicinal drugs, while expensive aro-
matic resins and animal products such as ambergris,
castoreum, musk, and civet were used as fragrances,
both for aesthetic and for medical reasons." -- Paul H. Freedman. Out of the East: Spices and the Medieval Imagination. New Haven: Yale University
Press, 2008. x + 275 pp. ISBN 978-0-300-11199-6; $30.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-300-11199-6.