Archived from groups: alt.games.whitewolf,alt.magick,alt.pagan,rec.games.frp.dnd,rec.games.frp.gurps (More info?)
Hi.
I have a notion for a pen-and-paper roleplaying game that I need help
developing. If you've got some time to kill and you're feeling generous,
read on.
The basic idea is best described as "The X-Files meets Cardcaptor Sakura".
Essentially, in the world in which this game takes place, there really is a
First Tarot: an ideal, archetypal Tarot that perfectly captures the
symbolism of each and every card. What's more, this First Tarot physically
exists - there's an actual perfect deck out there. Or there was, rather;
some improbably large number of centuries ago, the deck was split up and
scattered. Today, individual cards have found their way into the possession
of museums, institutions, and private individuals, kept as cultural
artifacts, family heirlooms, or mere curiosities, none of their owners aware
of their true nature.
Of course, this state of affairs is a recipe for trouble. These cards are
powerful, and they're not going to lay quiescent forever - and now that the
stars are right/the planets are in alignment/the etheric currents are in
flux/[insert your favorite mystic technobabble here], they've "woken up",
and are forcing local reality to conform to the principles they embody;
these manifestations could be mental, physical, or spiritual in nature,
ranging from minor modifications to the behaviour of nearby individuals, to
actually creating people (or creatures) out of thin air, to wholesale
mutations of the landscape and/or laws of physics. In some cases, the
individual who possesses the card may themselves be empowered or altered in
some way, while in others, they are victimized by the manifestations, or
even totally unaware of them.
Enter the hapless player characters, low-level employees of a some
chronically underfunded (and officially nonexistent) government agency
who've suddenly found themselves charged with Saving the World(tm) by
tracking down the cards and containing or destroying them - and doing so
quickly and quietly enough to resolve the "situations" that arise before the
local news media catches on, of course. >=)
What I need help with is ideas for individual scenarios. So we've got
[insert card here]; what sort of shenanigans is it getting up to, and how
could it be dealt with? Rather than just pulling concepts out of my butt,
I'd like to connect them to real-world occultic traditions' ideas about the
Tarot, where possible - though not necessarily the same tradition(s) from
scenario to scenario, mind.
Unfortunately, the references to which I have access tend to be extremely
vague and euphemistic, and to adopt a very bright-light-sunshine-and-
rainbows approach to their descriptions and interpretations. What I'm
looking for are some reasonably concrete notions, preferably tending towards
the "darker" end of the spectrum - sweetness and light generally make for
boring adventures, though there are exceptions - to play on. Even a single
sentence will do (I just need enough to get the creative juices
percolating), though if you've a notion you wish to explain in detail, I
shan't object.
Whew. That took longer to explain than I anticipated. Anyone still feeling
helpful after all that? ^^;
Thanks,
- David Prokopetz.
(Oh, and if you have any strong personal beliefs about the Tarot that you
feel like sharing, please note: we're talking about a fictional Tarot that
takes part in a fictional story set in a fictional world - a world that
exists solely for the amusement of a bunch of geeks with nothing better to
do on a Sunday night. No sense getting worked up about it, eh? 😉 )
Hi.
I have a notion for a pen-and-paper roleplaying game that I need help
developing. If you've got some time to kill and you're feeling generous,
read on.
The basic idea is best described as "The X-Files meets Cardcaptor Sakura".
Essentially, in the world in which this game takes place, there really is a
First Tarot: an ideal, archetypal Tarot that perfectly captures the
symbolism of each and every card. What's more, this First Tarot physically
exists - there's an actual perfect deck out there. Or there was, rather;
some improbably large number of centuries ago, the deck was split up and
scattered. Today, individual cards have found their way into the possession
of museums, institutions, and private individuals, kept as cultural
artifacts, family heirlooms, or mere curiosities, none of their owners aware
of their true nature.
Of course, this state of affairs is a recipe for trouble. These cards are
powerful, and they're not going to lay quiescent forever - and now that the
stars are right/the planets are in alignment/the etheric currents are in
flux/[insert your favorite mystic technobabble here], they've "woken up",
and are forcing local reality to conform to the principles they embody;
these manifestations could be mental, physical, or spiritual in nature,
ranging from minor modifications to the behaviour of nearby individuals, to
actually creating people (or creatures) out of thin air, to wholesale
mutations of the landscape and/or laws of physics. In some cases, the
individual who possesses the card may themselves be empowered or altered in
some way, while in others, they are victimized by the manifestations, or
even totally unaware of them.
Enter the hapless player characters, low-level employees of a some
chronically underfunded (and officially nonexistent) government agency
who've suddenly found themselves charged with Saving the World(tm) by
tracking down the cards and containing or destroying them - and doing so
quickly and quietly enough to resolve the "situations" that arise before the
local news media catches on, of course. >=)
What I need help with is ideas for individual scenarios. So we've got
[insert card here]; what sort of shenanigans is it getting up to, and how
could it be dealt with? Rather than just pulling concepts out of my butt,
I'd like to connect them to real-world occultic traditions' ideas about the
Tarot, where possible - though not necessarily the same tradition(s) from
scenario to scenario, mind.
Unfortunately, the references to which I have access tend to be extremely
vague and euphemistic, and to adopt a very bright-light-sunshine-and-
rainbows approach to their descriptions and interpretations. What I'm
looking for are some reasonably concrete notions, preferably tending towards
the "darker" end of the spectrum - sweetness and light generally make for
boring adventures, though there are exceptions - to play on. Even a single
sentence will do (I just need enough to get the creative juices
percolating), though if you've a notion you wish to explain in detail, I
shan't object.
Whew. That took longer to explain than I anticipated. Anyone still feeling
helpful after all that? ^^;
Thanks,
- David Prokopetz.
(Oh, and if you have any strong personal beliefs about the Tarot that you
feel like sharing, please note: we're talking about a fictional Tarot that
takes part in a fictional story set in a fictional world - a world that
exists solely for the amusement of a bunch of geeks with nothing better to
do on a Sunday night. No sense getting worked up about it, eh? 😉 )
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