Savage Reflections

Nightmares walk among us. They're easy to spot. They look just like people.

But if you catch them from the corner of your eye, or a passing reflection in a puddle or storefront window, you might glimpse their true form.

They might catch you doing it.

Character Files/Meta Currencies

Players should track their Bennies in their IC headers.

Name	Player		$$$		Exhaustion	Madness		Rank	Adv
Orso	Eplov				Fighting	Healing		Novice	0
Dirk	Seandemonium				Shooting	Shapechange		Novice	0
Min-Ji	eijkdjeq				Stealth	Invisibility		Novice	0
GM	brahnamin	Hope 0 | Pain 0 | GM Bennies 3

Setting the Stage

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You are a denizen of the City Slumbering, but because of your insomnia, you have Awakened. You are able to see the Nightmares from the City Beneath, shambling among the masses, disguised as folk. You may even have stumbled into the City Beneath, either through one of the Ways, or when the City Beneath bleeds through into the City Slumbering.

Now that you are Awake, the Nightmares are aware of your existence and the threat you represent - because as an Awakened, you aren't just able to see them, you are able to resist them. You might even follow them home.

See Nightmares for what they are: Roll Notice +2 to see through the disguises of Nightmares in the City Slumbering. Notice checks won't work in the Ways if a Nightmare is disguised.

No check needed in the City Beneath.

Enter the Ways: The Ways connect the City Beneath with the City Slumbering. Awakened can always sense a nearby Way (no roll).

A Smarts or Spirit roll (whichever is lower) is required to enter the Ways. On a standard success the Way leads to a random location. On a raise, the player decides the destination (within 100 yards, give or take).

Tone

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The setting is dark and weird and somewhat oppressive by design, but the Awakened are a beacon of hope, struggling against forces mortals just weren't mean to struggle against. Choices are hard, but the rewards are worth striving for.

The City Slumbering will very much represent our world with all its flaws and frustrations. The Nightmares here look like people, but the Awakened can see them for what they are, pulling strings behind the scenes to manipulate the sleeping masses.

In the City Beneath, the Nightmares don't bother with disguises. Greater Nightmares rule their Districts through their Lieutenants and Soldiers.

Caught at the bottom are the Broken, lost Mortals who wandered or were led into the City Beneath at the moment of death and are now turning into lesser Nightmares themselves.

Character Orientation

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This game is likely to lend itself more to morally grey bastards desperately fighting to make things better, but Heroic should still kinda be the general leaning of the Awakened.

Lines and Veils

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Nightmares make bad things happen. There's no real way around that. Madness and Exhaustion will be key themes, and things will lean to the bizarre and macabre with fanatical occultists and crazy glyphs and wards etched on artifacts and hidden temples in arcane script.

Rape, abuse, (especially of children or animals), open racism, etc, won't be things, and subjects players deem need to stay offscreen will stay offscreen.

X-cards may be played at any time (game thread or via DM) and will result in a full stop of the thing being X-ed.

Duration

Horror games often don't have the staying power of other genres. Spoons can run out quick. So, at the outset, this is aimed at being a one-shot to run through October, (maybe November or December at the outside), with two or three in-game advances.

If folk are into it, it could go longer, but I'm not going to plan for that.

Chargen

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Setting Rules and Character Guidelines

Player Expectations

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Post Frequency

• I am asking for a daily posting commitment for this game as a general rule, with the understanding that posting might be less frequent on weekends and holidays. Meatworld being what it is, this generally averages to 3-4 GM updates per week.

Note: if 24-36 hours have gone by since my last GM update, I may post a new update, even if all players have not posted, to maintain momentum.

Post Absences

• If you will not be able to post, for whatever reason, please ping us in OOC if you can so we know what is going on or post to the Absences Thread (I pretty much check that thing every time it lights up).

Post Formatting

• Please use a header at the top of your IC posts that includes at least the following information:

Character Name | Parry X | Toughness X (Y) | Bennies X

Exhaustion (Skill) | Madness (Power)

• If you are addressing another PC in your post it is helpful to bold their character name as well so it stands out for them.

• OOC blocks are fine for showing dice rolls and brief OOC comments directly related to a particular post. Please sblock if you need to include large blocks of text related to your IC post. All other OOC content should go in the OOC thread itself.

• Do not place action statements (incl Hope/Benny spends) or dice rolls in the OOC Thread. I will never keep up with those. All action statements and dice rolls should go in the IC Thread [OOC Blocked].

• Please link all dice rolls back to your dice roller.

PVP

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While there is the potential for a fairly significant amount of player vs player conflict in a game like this one, I prefer not to run games that lean heavily to that assumption. Games like that simply do not need a GM, and I would much rather spend my time running games that do need a GM.

For reference, what I consider PVP basically amounts to this:

If an action would require dice to affect an NPC, then it counts as PVP if used against a PC

So disagreements, trash talking, indirect actions that might affect another character but aren't made directly against that character are all potentially on the table with the stipulation that if something just makes the game not fun for someone that we respect that and steer clear.

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If you want to do something that directly acts against another player's character, proceed based on the following criteria:

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Unilateral Permission: The other player agrees to your action. No rolls are needed. Just RP it out.

Limited Permission: The other player doesn't agree that it is an automatic thing, but does agree to let the math rocks decide. Roll it out.

Declined Permission: The other player does not agree to PVP. Move on with something else.

Development and Play Threads

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Development Thread

OOC Thread

IC Thread

Other Resources

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Orokos Online Dice Roller.

Absences Thread If you can't post for whatever reason let us know here or in OOC.